Time passed by imperceptibly.
The number of missing persons gradually rose to fifty-four.
Qi Zhimu and his companion were currently in the changing room of the fitness area on the 32nd floor, observing the wall-mounted mirror.
The lights suddenly flickered, alternating between light and dark, as if the light was being sucked away by something.
Sensing a certain chilly aura, Qi Zhimu almost instinctively picked up Herta and rolled to the side.
In the next instant, a pitch-black, skeletal claw lunged out from the mirror, piercing the exact spot where Herta had just been crouching.
Since there was no benefit in killing it, Qi Zhimu was too lazy to stay and fight. With wind swirls attached to his feet, he swept out of the changing room like a gust of wind.
A hideous ghostly figure crawled out of the mirror, chasing after the spot where the two had disappeared.
Qi Zhimu quickly dashed up several floors, stopping at a corner where there were no mirrors nearby.
Those who encountered them along the way could only see an afterimage flashing past.
The NPCs, already terrified by the frequent disappearances, were even more frightened by the sight.
For Qi Zhimu and Herta, it was temporarily quiet.
Herta wrapped her arms tightly around Qi Zhimu's body, carefully listening for any movement.
"It seems it didn't follow us?"
"Or maybe it just can't keep up with me... for now?"
Qi Zhimu didn't speak with absolute certainty, musing, "The number of missing NPCs is fifty-four. Let's see if it continues to rise."
"The number of missing NPCs is fifty-four. Next, we'll see if it continues to rise."
Before he could finish his sentence, a distinct chilly aura rapidly approached, accompanied by the sound of bones clattering against the floor.
Qi Zhimu cursed under his breath, picked up Herta, and rushed toward the fire escape on the other side.
A few seconds later, a black shadow appeared at their previous position.
Qi Zhimu took a long detour, running all the way from the 32nd floor down to the 5th floor in one breath.
After waiting for a while, he ran back up to the 32nd floor and found a small meeting room that allowed for an easy evacuation at any time.
It didn't matter if the door was blocked; they could just smash the glass to enter the adjacent cubicle.
"What's the word now? Any new unlucky souls?"
"Yes, the number of missing persons has increased by one more."
Herta reported first, then analyzed the situation.
"It seems our previous conclusions need to be at least partially overturned. The ghost starting to move against us doesn't necessarily mean all the clues have appeared."
"Then we have no choice but to keep hiding and waiting. This is so annoying. It jumps out at us but we can't kill it. It's frustrating."
Thinking about all the hiding and searching during this time, Qi Zhimu felt like he was going crazy.
"I understand your frustration, but we have no other choice for now," Herta comforted him.
To this, Qi Zhimu could only roll his eyes.
Every time they stayed in one place for the designated duration, he had to quietly move Herta, trying his best not to be discovered.
But the Mirror Ghost seemed to have given up; it didn't appear again.
Gradually, the number of missing persons rose from fifty-four to seventy-two.
Seventy-eight, eighty-three, ninety-one... the higher the number went, the faster it increased.
There were less than two hours left before the twelve-hour limit.
"I seem to have found some clues..." Herta's tone held a hint of suspicion.
"What is it?"
"I can't be sure yet."
"I'll spank your butt if you keep me in suspense any longer!"
"I want to wait until the ghost stops slaughtering the NPCs. Perhaps only then can I verify my line of thought and gather all the clues."
"What? It's that simple?" Qi Zhimu let out a nasal hum. "As long as the ghost doesn't have settings like teleporting out of thin air or walking through walls, I'll keep you safe."
...Time marched on, and the two continued to cautiously move their positions.
Within a mere twenty minutes, after the number of missing persons reached one hundred and eight, no new additions occurred for the next ten-plus minutes.
"It seems my guess was correct. All the clues should be out now, just waiting to be solved," Herta's voice came from his arms.
Qi Zhimu's spirits lifted slightly as he leaned against the door of an empty office.
"Hurry up and solve it. I can't wait to blast the ghost's true form into pieces."
Herta stared at the coordinates of the one hundred and eight disappearance sites on the screen for a long time.
Time, location, mirror orientation, quantity.
The data kept increasing, but the pattern remained blurred.
She began to doubt if her direction was wrong.
"Strange..."
"What's strange?"
"I can't find a common characteristic."
"Height? Age? Hobbies? Blood type?"
"It has nothing to do with those."
"Then what does it have to do with? We've been running around this building for over ten hours. I've even memorized the coordinates of where over a hundred people died. What kind of sick movie is this? I'm already crying from frustration!"
"!!!"
Hearing a certain part of Qi Zhimu's words, Herta's face suddenly froze, and a flash of inspiration struck her mind.
Memorized the coordinates of where over a hundred people died... death locations, coordinates... coordinates... Yes!!
It's the coordinates!
She had actually overlooked such a simple and direct logic, and was even hit by a boomerang of her own previous words.
One really shouldn't use overly complex thinking to fathom the screenwriter behind this movie.
"The answer might lie in the positions of the mirrors. As long as we convert them into spatial coord—"
Before she could finish, Herta found her vision blurring as her center of gravity shifted violently.
A cold, withered arm brushed past her cheek by a hair's breadth, making her skin break out in involuntary goosebumps.
"Damn, these sneak attacks are getting more and more underhanded!"
Qi Zhimu skillfully rushed into the fire escape, unable to stop himself from cursing.
The number of stairs he had climbed during this period was more than he had ever since he was born as a Virtual Substance Lifeform.
But this time, it wasn't so easy to shake off the Mirror Ghost.
There were no mirrors in the fire escape, but there were mirrors on the connected floors above and below. The ghost could easily use the mirrors to achieve rapid movement.
Qi Zhimu was blocked at the fire escape entrance several times, forced to stop and change directions.
As the number of times he was blocked increased, he could only choose to slow down slightly, letting the ghost chase him into an area without mirrors first, before bursting out with even greater speed to widen the gap.
All the NPCs in the building had now turned into motionless puppets, frozen in their last postures.
Some faces were still leaned toward computer screens, while others were filled with fear as they tried to make calls to the outside world.
But no matter who it was, their breathing had ceased, like lifelike exhibits in a wax museum.
The ghost passed by them one after another, treating them as if they didn't exist.
"It's not interested in NPCs and is only pursuing us relentlessly. This means we've definitely come into contact with the complete set of clues. What was it you were saying just now?"
Herta understood the urgency of the situation and spoke rapidly.
"To make a long story short, remember the three-sided mirror in the number three restroom on the twelfth floor? There are five such mirror locations in total. The other four are on the fifty-ninth, forty-second, thirty-fourth, and twenty-sixth floors!"
"We need to go to these floors and take the Spliced Mirrors!"
"Once we collect all five Spliced Mirrors, we can open the door to where the ghost's true body is!"
Hearing this, Qi Zhimu's spirits soared. His figure instantly appeared at the end of the corridor, far outstripping the life-taking Mirror Ghost pursuing him from behind.
After widening the gap, he sat on his staff, switching from running to flying. He flew rapidly up through the fire escape and soon reached the fifty-ninth floor.
"It's in the screening room not far from the corridor of Office 4!" Herta reminded him.
A wind-like afterimage forcibly smashed through the door of the screening room.
Qi Zhimu's sharp gaze swept around, locking onto an Art Mirror hanging on the left that looked out of place in the environment.
"That's the one, but its size is quite—"
Before Herta could finish her sentence, she saw Qi Zhimu wave his hand, and the Art Mirror vanished to who-knows-where... Did someone get 1 vote?
The main storyline is finished. The top spot on the Hanabi-Asakusa List has been severely challenged by Spark, but on second thought, it seems there's essentially no difference...