A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

The basement was much larger than I had imagined.

The green light from the oil lamp could only illuminate an area of ​​two or three meters around it; beyond that, it was pure darkness. Zhou Lang walked in front, his footsteps bouncing back and forth in the open space, sounding as if a fourth person was following behind.

Zhao Qiang subconsciously glanced back.

"Don't look back," Zhou Lang said.

"I'll just take a look..."

One glance is enough.

Zhao Qiang immediately turned his head back, practically wanting to stick to Zhou Lang's back. Han Yingying walked in the middle, more composed than Zhao Qiang, but the strength with which she gripped her sleeve betrayed her.

The basement walls were rough stone, covered with some kind of dark red moss—or at least it looked like moss. Zhou Lang shone an oil lamp on them, and the things twitched for a moment in the green light before falling silent again.

"Is this thing alive?" Zhao Qiang's voice rose half a tone.

"Who cares if it's alive or not? It's not going to bite you." Zhou Lang walked forward. "Hurry up."

At the end of the passage was a circular room.

In the center of the room stood a huge bronze mirror, at least two meters tall, its frame covered with densely engraved symbols. The mirror surface was a dark, coppery green, and it reflected nothing.

On the ground in front of the bronze mirror lay a thin booklet.

Zhou Lang squatted down and opened it.

The booklet's paper was yellowed and brittle, and the writing was done with some kind of dark brown liquid. The first page contained only one line of text:

"The owner of the manor never died."

Page 2: "Mirrors are doors."

Page 3: "The key is blood."

The following pages are all blank.

"That's it?" Zhao Qiang leaned over for a glance. "It's all for nothing."

Zhou Lang didn't reply; he stared at the bronze mirror. The patina on the mirror's surface had an eerie, flowing quality under the oil lamplight, like water rippling in the wind.

He reached out and touched the mirror.

It's cold.

It wasn't the coolness of ordinary metal; it was a chill that seeped into your bones.

"System notification: Hidden scene discovered - Gate of the Bronze Mirror. Activate? Activation condition: Blood of the Sacrifice."

Zhou Lang looked at the prompt but didn't rush to take any action.

"Zhou Lang, what are you thinking about?" Han Yingying asked.

"I'm wondering whether I should cut myself."

"...What did you say?"

"It says in the booklet that the key is blood." Zhou Lang handed her the booklet. "The core secret of the manor should be hidden behind this mirror."

Han Yingying quickly flipped through the document, her brows furrowing. "Are you sure you want to do this? What if it's a trap?"

"It's been three days in this instance, and we only have this one clue," Zhou Lang said. "If we don't take the risk, we'll all just die here together."

Zhao Qiang raised his hand: "I object—"

"Objection overruled."

"I haven't finished speaking yet! What I wanted to say is, I object to you cutting yourself, cut me instead." Zhao Qiang rolled up his sleeves. "You're the main force, getting injured will affect your combat effectiveness. For a support player like me, losing a little blood won't affect the overall situation."

Zhou Lang glanced at Zhao Qiang.

Are you sure?

"Stop talking nonsense." Zhao Qiang stretched out his wrist, turned his head away, and dared not look. "Hurry up, before I back out."

Zhou Lang took out a pair of scissors and made a small cut on Zhao Qiang's finger. Zhao Qiang hissed, and a few drops of blood fell onto the surface of the bronze mirror.

Nothing happened.

Three seconds. Five seconds. Ten seconds.

Zhao Qiang breathed a sigh of relief: "See? It's a trap—"

The surface of the bronze mirror is cracked.

It didn't shatter, but rather, like ice melting, starting from where the blood dripped, the mirror peeled away layer by layer, revealing what lay beneath—

one room.

It was the exact same room they were standing in now, but the room in the mirror had lights. In the dim light, a person sat in a chair, with their back to them.

The man was wearing the manor owner's clothes.

Zhou Lang recognized the outfit. On the first day he cleaned the master bedroom, there were more than a dozen identical black dresses hanging in the closet, with gold wheat ear emblems embroidered on the necklines.

"Who is that?" Han Yingying asked in a low voice.

The person in the chair moved.

It stood up and turned around.

Zhou Lang took a half step back.

That face—that face was his own.

No, not exactly the same. The person in the mirror has the same features as Zhou Lang, but the expression is different. It's a condescending scrutiny, like looking at three ants who have wandered into their territory.

The "Zhou Lang" in the mirror raised his hand and wrote a line of words on the mirror surface.

The characters are reversed when viewed from the other side, but Zhou Lang can still read them:

"You've finally arrived."

Zhao Qiang took three steps back: "What the hell is this thing?"

The person in the mirror wrote another line: "The third person to arrive here. The first two have already become part of the manor."

Zhou Lang didn't move. He stared at himself in the mirror, his mind racing.

"Who are the first two?" he asked, looking into the mirror.

The person in the mirror tilted their head and wrote another line: "Xiong Batian's exes."

The meaning is clear—two groups of players entered this instance before, found the basement, and then died here.

"Are you the owner of the manor?" Zhou Lang asked.

The person in the mirror smiled. Seeing that smile on his own face made Zhou Lang feel extremely uncomfortable.

"I am the rule," the person in the mirror wrote. "If you want to pass the level, you must break me."

"How do we break it?"

The person in the mirror stopped writing and instead pointed to the upper right corner of the mirror. There was a line of extremely small characters there, almost invisible unless you looked very closely.

Zhou Lang held up the oil lamp and approached, finally seeing it clearly.

"The Trial of the Bronze Mirror: Challengers must survive for one hour in the mirror world. Survivors will receive the manor key. Those who die will become permanent residents of the manor."

"Simultaneous restriction: Maximum of one person can enter."

Zhou Lang stepped back and relayed the information to Zhao Qiang and Han Yingying.

"Alone?" Zhao Qiang exclaimed anxiously, "You can't go in alone! What kind of monsters are in there—"

"I didn't say I wanted to go in."

Zhao Qiang was stunned. Han Yingying also looked at him.

Zhou Lang placed the oil lamp in front of the mirror, and the green light shone on the bronze mirror, causing the smile on the person's face in the mirror to freeze for a moment.

"Are you afraid of this?" Zhou Lang asked.

The person in the mirror didn't answer. But Zhou Lang noticed that it took half a step back.

It was a very small movement, one that most people wouldn't notice. But Zhou Lang noticed it.

He stuck the oil lamp onto the mirror.

Green light shone through the bronze mirror, engulfing the room within. The person in the mirror covered their eyes, revealing an expression of pain for the first time. Their face began to distort, Zhou Lang's features gradually twisting into another face—an aged, wrinkled face.

"So you're not one of the rules," Zhou Lang said. "You're one of the players who died here before."

The person in the mirror—that aged face—opened its mouth and let out a silent scream.

Cracks began to appear on the surface of the bronze mirror.

"Back off!" Zhou Lang shouted, pulling Zhao Qiang and Han Yingying backward.

The bronze mirror shattered.

The moment the shards flew, a gust of cold wind rushed out from behind the mirror. After the shards landed, a groove was revealed on the stone wall behind the mirror, and inside the groove was a black key.

"System notification: Congratulations to player '浪里个浪' for unlocking the hidden scene. You have obtained the item - Manor Owner's Key."

"System notification: The Manor Owner's Key can open all door locks within the manor, including the final exit door."