The two advanced a bit further when Heita noticed Qi Zhimu's ears twitch, and they both stopped simultaneously.
She looked up ahead.
The thick fog had thinned considerably, replaced by a bizarre sight.
The ground had vanished.
Or rather, the damp, cold ground they had been treading on had transformed into an enormous piece of black glass.
It wasn't a smooth, single piece but was pieced together from countless irregular fragments.
Above and around them, numerous mirrors of varying sizes floated in the air.
Some were only palm-sized, while others were as grand as skyscrapers.
These mirrors hovered in the void, eerily reflecting pale light from an unknown source.
Heita's pupils contracted slightly.
As a genius in Spatial Studies, she had an instinctive sensitivity to certain spatial structures here.
Not only was it completely chaotic, but gravity, distance, and direction were all altered by the reflections of these mirrors.
"What kind of hellish place is this?"
"You actually don't know?" Heita was somewhat surprised.
"Silly kid, think about how big the Labyrinth Zone is. I haven't been everywhere," Qi Zhimu pouted.
"...If you've forgotten my name, you'd better call me reserve rations."
"Tsk, now you're making demands!"
Heita ignored him, pondering for a moment before roughly guessing what this place was.
"It should be Life-taking Mirror Shadow."
"Explain."
"A horror mystery ghost challenge movie. The Mirror Ghosts here have the ability to divide, and their reflections in the mirrors become shadows that can steal the life of the original."
"Get to the point."
"The shadows will emerge from the mirrors to attack the original. Once touched, they drain vitality. Exceed a certain number of times, and you die."
"Mirrors... an overused horror element in human-created scary stories."
Qi Zhimu raised an eyebrow and stepped forward, his black leather boots making irregular, crisp sounds on the glass.
"What about this pure black glass underfoot that doesn't look like a mirror? Is it dangerous?"
"I didn't finish that boring movie, so I don't remember the details clearly."
"So even not watching bad movies can be punished. But I have no right to complain, since I might be from a bad movie myself."
Qi Zhimu gave a self-deprecating smile, then straightened his face.
"Since you didn't finish it, doesn't that mean you don't know how to get through here?"
"I do know about this part. It's related to spatial curvature. The ghost's true form has no combat power and dies with one slash. As long as you find the hidden space where it's concealed, you can survive."
"Then what are we waiting for? Find it quickly."
"Mm, let's move forward first," Heita nodded.
However, just as Qi Zhimu took his third step, an unexpected incident occurred.
Thud!
A dull impact sound rang out, and he staggered.
The surroundings were clearly empty, but the moment he collided, strange ripples appeared in the air.
"Low-level."
Qi Zhimu steadied himself and rubbed his forehead.
"The design is so unreasonable. There's even an invisible wall."
Heita pondered quietly, countless complex equations flashing through her mind.
"Keep an eye on the surroundings for me, Mr. Magician."
"Oh."
Heita reached out to touch the invisible wall, feeling a solid feedback.
But it wasn't an invisible wall; it was an unseen mirror.
Judging by the touch, it was a two-way mirror, with somewhat strange spatial coordinates that seemed to distort nearby ones as well.
As Azure Star's youngest genius in Spatial Studies, when it came to space, there was no puzzle she couldn't solve.
She turned to observe the surroundings.
The floating mirrors weren't completely still but rotated at a rather slow speed, eventually reflecting every corner.
Heita's gaze paused on a large floor-length mirror to the left.
The mirror reflected her image—
a girl with a face full of exhaustion.
The girl in the mirror was also looking at her.
Heita blinked, and the girl in the mirror blinked too.
Everything seemed normal.
Heita turned her head, intending to warn Qi Zhimu about the dangers of this space. In the process, her peripheral vision caught a sight that put her on alert.
The Heita in the mirror didn't follow her turn, still staring straight at her.
On that eerie little face, the corners of the mouth slowly stretched to the sides, blooming into an extremely exaggerated, twisted smile.
The curve extended all the way to the ears, revealing a mouthful of pale, jagged teeth.
Crack!
The large floor-length mirror instantly shattered, countless sharp fragments flying in all directions.
A piercing scream came from the broken mirror, then dissipated into a wisp of black smoke.
"So ugly it's physically repulsive. My reserve rations are much prettier. If I looked like that, I'd vomit."
Qi Zhimu retracted his staff, cursing under his breath.
Heita looked at him, then at the staff that had just smashed the mirror.
"Aren't you afraid of breaking it?"
"A staff is not such an inconvenient thing. A powerful magician doesn't worry about damaging their tools; as long as it's handy, it's fine," Qi Zhimu grinned.
A strange, man-eating Mr. Magician.
The person who created him... probably had an abnormal thought process.
Most likely a low-skill, rule-breaking, failed screenwriter.
"Using such low-level scare tactics, it seems the things in this labyrinth are more uncouth than I imagined," Qi Zhimu shook his wrist.
Heita stared at the broken mirror fragments on the ground, lost in thought.
Once the mirror shattered, the spatial curvature began to fluctuate, reflecting more of her face.
"Mr. Magician, how many people have you eaten?"
"Why so many questions from mere reserve rations?"
"To confirm if you've been swapped by a shadow from the mirror. I just remembered another setting: shadows speak differently from the original," Heita replied.
"I see."
"So, how many people have you eaten?"
"Do you remember how many meals you've eaten?"
"I don't, but there don't seem to be many Azure Star astronauts passing through nearby coordinates, so you probably haven't eaten many..."
"Shut up!"
Qi Zhimu's eye twitched as he reached out and pinched Heita's cheeks, pulling them slightly to the sides.
"Instead of asking these pointless questions, hurry up and find a way to break through the labyrinth. Your time is limited."
"I've been looking, but Mr. Magician, could I ask you a favor?"
"No."
"Next time, please don't shatter the mirrors. Each fragment becomes a new independent mirror surface, which might summon more shadows."
Heita pretended not to hear Qi Zhimu's rebuttal.
Qi Zhimu's mouth twitched.
"Ignoring my words, huh? It seems your character isn't too off. I really want to eat you right now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire Mirror Shadow Labyrinth seemed to activate.
The slowly rotating mirrors suddenly accelerated, countless pale beams of light projecting toward them.
Heita felt her center of gravity shift as she was lifted and seated on Qi Zhimu's staff, soaring into the air.
"No need to guess; being hit by that light is definitely bad news."
"Yes, it immobilizes you for ten seconds. But Mr. Magician, aren't your eyesight not so good?"
"Poor eyesight doesn't mean I have bad luck or poor danger perception. Hold on tight; don't fall off."
"Mm."
...Fallen on hard times, folks. Can you help out by clicking the gift icon and sending some free love-powered support? (ノへ￣,)