Herta's gaze quickly swept over the disorganized mirrors all around.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, perhaps they could only see chaos.
But in her eyes, the arrangement, movement trajectories, and refraction angles of these mirrors were rapidly constructing a complex spatial model.
"If I observe a bit longer and combine it with the movie clips, maybe I can find where the problem lies," Herta said softly.
Qi Zhimu turned his head. "If the mirrors don't reflect us, will Mirror Shadows not be born?"
At this moment, the mirror walls on both sides were less than five meters away from them.
"I don't know, the movie didn't specify, but the shadows that come out can be killed."
Herta explained:
"What we really need to be wary of is the ghost's Fake Body; it gets stronger every time it's killed and can travel freely between different mirrors."
"So basically, all the mirrors are like its Anywhere Door?" Qi Zhimu interjected.
"Yes."
"Tsk, troublesome. Based on what you said, I can't even kill the Fake Body."
"You can kill it, but it's best not to exceed five times. I remember in the original work, if it's killed more than five times, the mirrors turn into terrifying Countdown Bombs that can't be stopped and will blow everyone up."
"???"
Qi Zhimu's head was instantly filled with question marks.
"As expected of a bad movie. A horror film with ghosts doesn't properly strengthen the ghosts, but instead adds a mirror bomb as an unnecessary touch. Is the screenwriter a spy sent by a competitor?"
"...And the countdown time is still unknown," Herta added another blow.
Qi Zhimu's eyes twitched; he felt his blood pressure was about to skyrocket.
"Oh right, the ghost's Fake Body is also invisible. You can't see it in the original work, but I can see through its movement trajectory based on fluctuations in spatial curvature."
"Even someone like me with bad eyesight finds this outrageous. Is the screenwriter dead? If not, after I send you back to the Azure Star, I must go and kill him before eating you."
"Don't—... Watch out!" Before the name 'Lord Zhimu' could escape her lips, Herta immediately changed her warning.
In reality, Qi Zhimu's reaction was faster than Herta's.
By the time she said "Watch," he had already dodged the sudden attack and pointed his fingers together at a spot on the attack trajectory, freezing the shadow.
A large block of ice fell, crashing onto the glass floor that absorbed even light, making a crisp sound.
Qi Zhimu's unfriendly, cloudy gaze turned toward a huge mirror in the distance that had just rotated to face them.
The ice on the floor melted quickly.
"I didn't plan on killing it, but how did it die?"
"...Probably because it was a trap in itself. A Fake Body that shatters upon contact is more likely to trigger a dead end. Now, you've killed it once."
"My fists are itching."
"Don't itch yet. I have a new discovery: the rotation speed of the mirrors is slowly increasing," Herta frowned.
Qi Zhimu couldn't help but roll his eyes.
The rotation speed slowly increasing—didn't that just mean there would be less and less room to dodge as time went on?
Sooner or later, they would be reflected, and a Lethal Shadow would be generated.
"I've been tricked by you, brat. Can I break the contract? This job isn't easy at all."
"You can, but don't you want to eat me?"
"Is there a possibility that breaking the contract won't stop me from eating you?"
"But I can't smile right now, I can't be happy. Is it okay to eat meat that tastes bitter?"
"...Shut up, brat. Hurry up and find a way out of this maze; I don't want to stay here for another second!"
"Then please be quiet, Mr. Magician, and don't interrupt my train of thought."
"...?!"
Qi Zhimu admitted he was getting anxious.
What a sharp-tongued brat. Sooner or later, I'll eat every piece of your tender flesh.
Ten minutes passed, and the invisible attacks became more frequent.
Qi Zhimu was still able to cope, so he told Herta not to warn him and to focus on cracking the secret of the maze.
But as time went on, it was inevitable to become irritable. A setting where one could only dodge and not attack was extremely torturous.
In the words of the Azure Star, the screenwriter's ancestors really needed to be sent flying.
"Three o'clock direction."
Herta reached out, her finger pointing firmly at that position.
"Height 23.85 meters, distance 74.14 meters. There's an invisible mirror there, or rather, an Air Wall. Break it."
"Fine, fine, fine!"
Magic gathered at his fingertips, then formed into a thick bolt of lightning that tore through space with a roar.
The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the maze, and numerous mirror fragments appeared, scattering in all directions.
Herta looked at the back of Qi Zhimu's head with a complicated expression.
"Mr. Magician... I didn't tell you to break the invisible mirrors at the neighboring coordinates as well."
"You didn't tell me either!"
"The coordinates I reported were very precise."
"Brat, are you looking for trouble on purpose? I told you my eyesight is bad and I can't see clearly at a distance. If you discriminate against me again, watch your butt!"
With that, Qi Zhimu immediately picked Herta up, placed her on his lap, and raised his hand.
However, his hand didn't fall in the end.
"I'm sorry... I didn't think about it from your perspective," Herta apologized.
"..."
Qi Zhimu sighed as if resigned to fate.
"Just don't apologize. It doesn't fit the persona I have of you; it sounds awkward."
"If your vision is bad, it'll be troublesome to find the ghost's true body. Mr. Magician, do you know any special magic, like sharing my vision?"
"I do, but it shouldn't be used too much."
"Is there a price?"
"Of course. I don't want my reserved food to go blind. That would ruin the aesthetic, and without the aesthetic, my appetite would suffer."
Herta was slightly stunned.
The words weren't pleasant, but the intention seemed to be caring for her?
"Are you caring about me?"
"Huh?"
Qi Zhimu laughed out of frustration. He picked her up and sat her in front of him, his arm firmly around her lower abdomen to prevent her from falling.
"Are you kidding? Caring about you? My persona doesn't have that attribute. In fact, agreeing to help you has already made me go OOC."
"Then you're quite respectful of the author who created you."
"..."
Why did that sound so much like sarcasm?
What a punchable, venomous-tongued brat, especially her tone of voice.
The words she spoke carried a tone that naturally made one's fists itch.
Suppressing the urge to bicker, Qi Zhimu expanded his perception, and his expression suddenly turned solemn.
The mirror fragments on the ground moved. They all floated up and began to emit light, rotating toward different directions.
Just as Herta said, one couldn't just break mirrors at will. Once there were more and more mirrors, the space for movement would eventually be compressed to nothing.
"I hate puzzles. You creators from Azure Star really love to show off low-level suspense. Can't we have more 'battle-thrill' segments?"
"...I wasn't the one who created these."
Herta multi-tasked, dealing with Qi Zhimu while simulating this space in her mind to find the key coordinates.
Yet another mirror reflected their figures.
Qi Zhimu vaguely saw the Lethal Shadow Herta mentioned emerging from it for the first time.
Although he couldn't see its appearance clearly, a rough look showed it was exactly the two of them.
"You said the shadows can be killed at will, right?"
"Yeah."
Having received confirmation, Qi Zhimu immediately snapped his fingers to summon flames, engulfing the two shadows in one go and burning them into a gray mist that dissipated.
Flames were still the most useful.
Their destructive power against solids wasn't as violent or swift as lightning, but they could avoid breaking those invisible mirrors.