I buried the gods in the restricted area.

Let's rewind a little.

In front of the black mirror, Jiang Mian's figure was reflected on the smooth surface. He was slowly wiping the bloodstains on his fingertips with a tissue, but his gaze lingered on the dark red writing on the mirror, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Strange, something feels off..."

Jiang Rou, standing beside her, gave a wry smile and cautiously said, "You wouldn't be thinking... this mirror also looks like the tombstone you lost, would you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Jiang Mian gave her a look that was both amused and annoyed. "Do I look like someone who goes around faking accidents? This mirror doesn't look like a tombstone at all!"

"So what you mean by 'something's not right' is..."

Jiang Rou's face stiffened slightly, and she quietly swallowed.

Jiang Mian hesitated for a moment, then said with a hint of uncertainty, "There's something wrong with these blood-written words."

Hearing this, Jiang Rou's heart skipped a beat again. Fortunately, Jiang Mian didn't show any unusual expression; his gaze remained fixed on the distorted handwriting as he pondered:

"If I remember correctly, the blood-written words on both the blue mirror and the green mirror in the video were written quite neatly and were easy to recognize. Only the words on this black mirror were messy and illegible, as if they were written in a hurry."

Realizing that his so-called "problem" was actually his dislike of the illegible handwriting, Jiang Rou secretly breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Is there a problem with it?"

"I don't know if this counts as a problem..."

Jiang Mian carefully considered her words, "When I was playing with the blue mirror, I also touched the words on it, but I couldn't wipe them off at all. This shows that although this haunted house is not very scary, it still puts a lot of effort into the props. There's no reason why they would skimp on this black mirror."

Jiang Rou was stunned for a moment.

Although Mr. Jiang Mian's starting point was completely wrong, and this place was not a haunted house at all, the question he raised seemed surprisingly reasonable—why was the handwriting on the black mirror so different?

Even though she vaguely sensed something was wrong, she pondered for a long time but still couldn't figure it out, so she tentatively asked, "Then... Mr. Jiang Mian, what do you think is the reason for this?"

"What else could it be?"

Jiang Mian stared at the mirror and said decisively, "Unlike the blue and green mirrors, the words on this mirror must have been deliberately written by hand."

"Huh?" Jiang Rou didn't quite understand what he meant.

Jiang Mian gave her a look that said, "You're hopeless," and explained, "This haunted house has no NPCs and no one gives us any quests, so we can think of it as an open-ended exploration game where we have to find clues ourselves to advance the game."

"oh oh……"

Jiang Rou nodded as if she understood, though she knew about the history from two hundred years ago, she didn't know that there was such a type of haunted house.

In fact, Jiang Mian wasn't sure if this type of haunted house existed. He just felt that if a haunted house had no mission guidance, no route instructions, and no clue how to play, it should probably close down as soon as possible.

Therefore, he naturally assumed that in order to pass through this haunted house, he would need to play the role of a detective to some extent, actively seeking and analyzing clues.

The only clue they currently possess is that remarkably realistic video, and the last words the photographer saw in the green mirror before disappearing—

"One of you is no longer human."

To reiterate, although this haunted house isn't scary, and could even be considered boring, it's quite meticulous in its attention to detail. Since the haunted house even makes a video so realistic, and the actors look like they're not even acting, there's obviously no need to be perfunctory with the writing on the only black mirror.

and so--

"The reason why the writing on this mirror is so messy and the paint smudges so easily must be because the haunted house did it on purpose."

He said with certainty, "This is a very important but easily overlooked clue that only someone as perceptive as me could notice."

"Mr. Jiang Mian, is this really not an excuse you made up because you're worried about losing money...?" Jiang Rou hesitated for a moment and asked weakly.

"Well, that's partly the reason..."

Jiang Mian touched his nose, his expression unchanged, "But I really think this is a very important clue."

"But even if this is indeed some kind of clue, what does it mean?" Jiang Rou couldn't help but ask.

"That's hard to say..."

Jiang Mian was about to shake her head when her eyes suddenly narrowed, and she stared suspiciously at her reflection in the mirror. "Did you see that? It looks like I moved a little in the mirror just now."

Jiang Rou's expression changed slightly, and she quickly took a few steps back, hiding behind him: "Is...is it true?"

"I'm not entirely sure, maybe it's just my imagination..."

Jiang Mian seemed quite disappointed that he didn't see his reflection move. "But if I could actually make my reflection move, my opinion of this haunted house would definitely improve."

"Yes, is it..."

Jiang Rou's face paled slightly, and she gave an awkward smile without replying.

The entity in Mirror Lake seems to possess a certain degree of intelligence; otherwise, it wouldn't have specifically added rules for Mr. Jiang Mian. If it had heard what Mr. Jiang Mian just said…

She dared not think too much about it, shook her head vigorously, and quickly put this terrible guess out of her mind.

"No... Even if Mirror Lake really goes all out, he wouldn't dare go too far, at least not under Mr. Jiang Mian's nose, so I absolutely cannot leave his side..."

She comforted herself like this, and her mood finally calmed down a lot.

However, at that moment, a line of blood-red characters silently appeared on the previously silent black mirror.

"I have all the information you want, as long as you can pay the price."

Below that was a line of smaller print, along with a one-minute countdown.

Limited-time offer, 50% off! Don't miss out!

Jiang Mian, who had been staring at the mirror, immediately noticed the two lines of text and was taken aback: "What does this mean?"

He was confused, but Jiang Rou instantly understood Mirror Lake's intention—in order to get rid of Mr. Jiang Mian as soon as possible, it had added more rules to make him "pass the test" smoothly and leave this place quickly.

What limited-time offer? Half-price discount? She had never heard of such a thing in the restricted area. This was simply ridiculous.

Thinking of this, Jiang Rou was shocked and even more curious about Jiang Mian's identity. If Mr. Jiang Mian hadn't seemed to have a gentle temperament and didn't seem like a bad person, she would almost have suspected that he had opened the forbidden area...

and many more.

Jiang Rou's breath hitched; a terrifying thought suddenly popped into her mind—

Could it be... that the restricted area was really opened by Mr. Jiang Mian?

Thinking about it carefully, Mr. Jiang Mian had said more than once that the forbidden zone stone tablet resembled his lost tombstone, and both the City of the Dead and Mirror Lake showed him a considerable degree of fear...

No, no, that's not right.

She quickly shook her head again. Mr. Jiang Mian only had eighty-eight missing tombstones, while the number of restricted areas was well over a hundred, and it was constantly increasing. The numbers simply didn't match...

"What's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly shaking your head like that?"

Seeing that the girl had been looking dazed since earlier, nodding and shaking her head intermittently, Jiang Mian couldn't help but chuckle and teased, "You're not trying to pretend to be possessed to scare me and get revenge for what happened earlier, are you?"

"No!"

Jiang Rou snapped out of her thoughts and hurriedly said, "I was just thinking... wondering why this suddenly appeared on the mirror..."

Jiang Mian, who had just been equally puzzled, smiled slightly: "Clearly, this is a new clue."

"Huh? Another clue?"

Jiang Rou was stunned, thinking he was joking. How could something like this be a clue?

"Of course, didn't you see these words? The handwriting is exactly the same as the blood-written words on the green and blue mirrors, and it can't be wiped off."

Jiang Mian pointed to the mirror, his expression calm, clearly not joking but seriously analyzing, "Also, it says 'I have all the information you want,' but do you remember what those words in blood were written in the beginning?"

Jiang Rou paused for a moment, then subconsciously replied, "Any transaction is accepted here, as long as you can afford it..."

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly caught her breath and exclaimed in horror, "Mr. Jiang Mian, you mean...?"

"That's right."

Jiang Mian nodded. "This black mirror is the real mirror used to exchange information. As for the blood-written words at the beginning, they were actually written there on purpose to mislead us. It seems that the haunted house also realized that the clues were too obscure, so it used this method to remind us."

At this point, he raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied, "But this method of prompting is far too crude and hasty. I could have figured it out in just a few more minutes..."

Jiang Rou knew very well that Mr. Jiang Mian was still explaining the whole thing using the logic of a haunted house, but for a moment, she couldn't deny that this was the truth. Her voice was hoarse as she said, "Who would do something so pointless..."

"Have you forgotten the green mirror's hint?"

Jiang Mian turned to look at her, and before she could answer, she continued, "'One of you is no longer human'—since this is from the video, it means it's very likely what happened to the previous team. If that inhuman being wanted to kill everyone, it had to tamper with something, and it chose to confuse the functions of the black mirror and the green mirror."

"But if that's the case, then the words on the green mirror back then might not have been clues..."

Jiang Mian fell into deep thought. "After all, if the black mirror is the real mirror used to exchange information, then the green mirror should be used for trading. There's no reason for it to give such a hint, but it doesn't really seem like a trade either..."

Jiang Rou grew increasingly horrified as she listened. Although it was all too coincidental, she was now certain that this was the truth. A chill ran down her spine as she said, "If that inhuman being wanted to kill everyone in this way, it means that making a deal with the Green Mirror must be extremely dangerous. The Green Mirror is not to be trusted!"

"That's right." Jiang Mian nodded.

Jiang Rou took a deep breath: "No, I have to tell everyone about this!"

……

"Don't ask the green mirror for information!"

"It's a lie!"

A few minutes later, Jiang Rou rushed into the crowd, her chest heaving, and said anxiously, "The only thing we can really exchange for information is the black mirror. Only the information it provides is reliable. No matter what the green mirror's true purpose is, we absolutely cannot trust it!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback.

The short-haired woman snatched the camera from the photographer's shoulder, carefully compared Jiang Rou's image to his for a moment, and only after confirming that she hadn't been replaced did she ask in a deep voice, "What's your basis for this?"

"We have traded the Black Mirror for a way to survive in Mirror Lake."

After a pause, Jiang Rou hesitated, "However, we have too few 'participation rewards,' so the information we obtained in exchange is incomplete..."

"What?"

The tall, thin man frowned slightly. "You've already used up the 'participation prize'? Why didn't you discuss it with everyone beforehand?"

The others didn't look too good either. They had just made a deal with the bald man's mirror image, exchanging four "participation rewards" for a way to survive in Mirror Lake for four hours. This was their only bargaining chip, but these two guys didn't even ask them a question before using up the other two "participation rewards." This would undoubtedly put them in a very passive position.

"Didn't you consult us when you made that decision?"

The short-haired woman glanced expressionlessly at the tall, thin man, giving him no chance to retort, and then turned to Jiang Rou, "Answer my question, what is the basis for what you just said?"

If the girl's judgment is correct, and the real information can be obtained in exchange for the black mirror, then they obviously don't need to continue bargaining with that disgusting mirror image.

Everyone seemed to realize this as well, their expressions varied, and their gazes fell on Jiang Rou's face one after another, silently waiting for her explanation.

In fact, Jiang Rou didn't have any convincing evidence.

Her only basis was Jiang Mian's accidental analysis and the black mirror's deliberate "revealing" of the question.

But she couldn't very well say, "We haven't done anything yet, and the Black Mirror has already told us the truth," so she could only say seriously, "I'll explain the details later, but in short, you must not believe the Green Mirror. I can tell you the information the Black Mirror gave you first."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, the bald man who had been lying on the ground without saying a word finally spoke, his smile eerie, "If you can really provide some interesting information, then I can give you the information I know for free."

Jiang Rou remained unmoved, secretly relieved that Mr. Jiang Mian hadn't come along. Otherwise, seeing this guy's broken porcelain-like appearance might have caused a major problem.

She looked at everyone and said seriously, "First, if you want to survive, you must never break the mirror. If you absolutely have to break it, you must restore it as soon as possible."

"Second, you should not turn your back to a mirror. If you turn your back to a mirror for too long, the reflection will come to life and you will be targeted."

"Third, if you want to survive to the very end, you must trust your mirror image; it will protect you in critical moments."

After hearing this, no one spoke immediately; they simply pondered the three rules in silence.

But at that moment, the bald man laughed.

"I do have three different suggestions, would you like to hear them?"

It grinned, and before anyone could respond, it began to speak, its voice like the scraping of broken glass:

"First, to survive, you must smash every mirror you can see."

"Secondly, you must face away from the mirror. You cannot afford the consequences of facing the mirror directly."

"Third, be careful of your mirror images; they're always looking to kill you..."

It paused, then its smile stretched to its ears.

"Just like me."

No one expected that the green mirror and the black mirror would present completely opposite rules for survival.