I buried the gods in the restricted area.

"Achoo!"

Jiang Mian, who was thousands of miles away, suddenly sneezed, startling Jiang Rou, who was carefully searching for the green mirror beside her.

"Mr. Jiang Mian, what's wrong?"

"fine."

Jiang Mian rubbed her nose and smiled helplessly, "It's just a sneeze, no need to be so nervous, right? You really don't need to care about me so much."

Jiang Rou did not respond, her gaze fixed on the ground, and she swallowed imperceptibly.

She didn't want to be nervous, but the problem was—

Just now, she saw with her own eyes that the shadow beneath Jiang Mian's feet, which appeared particularly dark in the midday sun, subtly twisted its neck in a strange and slow manner, in a way that was definitely not human.

It seemed to be gazing coldly into some extremely distant direction.

That was definitely not an illusion.

Because in that instant, she felt that suffocating pressure again.

Fortunately, the feeling came and went quickly, and by then everyone had scattered in search of the green mirror, keeping a distance from each other. So, apart from her, no one else noticed this fleeting and eerie scene.

Only when the shadow on the ground returned to normal did Jiang Rou secretly breathe a sigh of relief and cautiously say, "I thought you weren't feeling well..."

She desperately wanted to know what had caused the change, but didn't know how to bring it up, so she changed the subject, saying, "Mr. Jiang Mian, do you think the green mirror really will tell us how to survive... and clear the level?"

The reason they split up to search for the mirror is that the green mirror they found earlier had a corner broken by the bald man, and it seemed to be damaged. No matter how they asked, it didn't respond, so they had no choice but to start searching again.

Jiang Mian thought this made sense. After all, mirrors that could display text were mostly disguised as some kind of electronic device. Such devices were usually very sophisticated, and would naturally malfunction if broken.

Jiang Rou suspected that this was because Jinghu was afraid of Mr. Jiang Mian, and therefore dared not show any more abnormalities.

One of them still thought it was just a boring haunted house game, while the other felt that he had found the real "way to pass the game". Therefore, they were not too concerned about finding the green mirror. However, for the others, it was undoubtedly an urgent matter, otherwise they would not have split up to search for it.

Jiang Mian thought about it seriously and shook his head, saying, "If we follow the usual twists and turns, it definitely won't be that easy to pass the level."

"Full of twists and turns?"

"That's right. If this haunted house were that easy to pass, it wouldn't be long before it went out of business."

Jiang Mian replied without hesitation, "So I'm sure that just two people participating in the mirror game won't be able to get enough information from the green mirror. In fact, following the tropes of horror movies, after so much buildup, something unexpected should have happened by now."

Jiang Rou thought the same thing. If it were really that easy to survive in the forbidden zone, the mortality rate of "Exploring the Forbidden Zone" wouldn't be as high as 70%.

But this time is different. With Mr. Jiang Mian here, she is not sure if Mirror Lake will be afraid of Mr. Jiang Mian and dare not attack others, or even simply let everyone leave.

If things really develop in this way, then everyone will be happy.

But if the restricted area cannot show anything unusual in front of Mr. Jiang Mian, yet must still follow the instinct to "kill the intruder"...

That means that once they are out of Mr. Jiang Mian's sight, the restricted area will probably seize every opportunity to get rid of the others as quickly as possible.

—Just like what Zhou Kai did in the City of the Dead.

Thinking of this, Jiang Rou's heart tightened, and she turned around sharply to look in the direction where the others had scattered.

……

At this moment, the bald man had already ventured deep into the dense forest.

At first, he felt something was amiss, but the footsteps and whispers behind him told him that he was not going in alone; everyone was following behind him, and as long as he didn't stray too far from the group, there was nothing to worry about.

But when he finally caught a glimpse of the green mirror hidden in the grass not far ahead, and excitedly turned around to call for help, he suddenly realized—

There was no one behind.

Only mirrors.

Dressing mirrors emerged from under tree roots, between rock crevices, and even in mid-air. Some were intact and new, their surfaces reflecting twisted branches. Others were only partially visible, slowly emerging from the ground and inside the tree trunk, like fungi growing wildly after rain.

rustle……

The footsteps and whispers did not disappear; instead, they became even clearer.

But the source of the sound... was the mirror.

His image was reflected in every mirror, but each "him" was in a different pose—some were running, some were looking back, and some were raising their guns in terror, all moving faster than he actually was.

It's as if what you see in the mirror is the real process.

The bald man's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly remembered the woman's trembling voice in the video:

"Don't you guys feel like... the mirrors here seem to be... growing?"

His throat went dry, and his hand instinctively reached for the gun handle at his waist.

He should have thought of that sooner.

This is an E-level restricted area. How could it be like an amusement park, giving them enough time to play games and then enough time to "redeem rewards"? As long as they don't touch these two things, there won't be any danger at all.

He had actually realized long ago that these ordinary dressing mirrors could not possibly be just decorations, but he had unconsciously forgotten about it, just like he had unknowingly walked into the depths of a dense forest.

But... why me of all people?

Just because I broke that mirror?

The moment the thought flashed through his mind, all the "him" in the mirrors suddenly raised their heads in unison.

He grinned.

He revealed an unusually eerie smile.

The next second, the figures in the mirror all raised their guns, pointing them at him outside the mirror.

"what!"

The bald man's eyes were bloodshot. Without further hesitation, he roared, drew his two guns, aimed them at the nearest mirror, and pulled the trigger hard.

"Bang!"

The mirror shattered instantly.

Each shattered lens reflects a distorted smiling face.

And more mirrors are silently and continuously growing from all directions.

The bald man, panting heavily, frantically pulled the trigger, shattering every mirror in his line of sight.

But just as he dropped the pistol in his left hand and was about to change the magazine, he suddenly felt a stiffness in his neck.

He caught his breath, turned his head, and out of the corner of his eye, he could barely catch a glimpse of the outline of his shoulder, and the face that had appeared on it at some unknown time.

The face was pressed tightly against his ear, "squeezing" out from behind his shoulder; it was pale, smooth, like a layer of skin without pores, barely stretching out the contours of his features.

It has no eyes; where there should be eye sockets, there are only two deep, dark pits, dark and lifeless, as if they could swallow up all light.

But the bald man could feel that the face was "looking" at him.

Use those two black holes.

"Well……"

He tried to shout, but only a faint sound escaped his throat. His whole body was stiff and he couldn't move at all. Only his eyes could move with difficulty, downwards and downwards.

He saw his own hand holding the gun.

Beneath the skin of the back of my hand, something was throbbing and wriggling, as if trying to crawl upwards through the gaps in the finger bones, along the blood vessels.

next second.

My right index finger suddenly curled up on its own.

Immediately afterwards, his left hand fingers began to twitch uncontrollably. He tried to struggle, but could only watch helplessly as his left hand slowly rose in an extremely awkward posture and grasped the still slightly hot barrel of the gun in his right hand.

Then, little by little, twist the muzzle upwards.

He aimed it at his own chin.

"No, don't kill me!"

At the critical moment of life and death, the bald man finally made a sound, but that was all. The face behind his shoulder moved even closer, and even though they weren't actually touching, he could feel an extremely cold sensation.

The muzzle of the gun was pressed against his chin, and the cold metallic touch sent a shiver down his spine.

The last thing he saw was the perfectly intact green mirror in the grass ahead, its surface turned upside down at some point, clearly reflecting the scene before him—

A man with a distorted face and eyes that were almost bulging out of their sockets was pressing a gun to his chin.

And a pale, ghostly figure perched on the man's shoulder.

At this moment, the "him" in the mirror was slowly grinning from ear to ear in an arc that no human could possibly achieve.

It grinned into an extremely eerie smile, exactly the same as the one seen in the countless shards of glass around it.

The pale ghostly figure on her shoulder, with its faceless features, was slowly revealing its appearance.

"I have heard your wish."

He vaguely heard such a voice.

Then, the "he" in the mirror pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The forest returned to silence.

Only a few startled leaves drifted gently onto the shattered glass.