With the item in hand, Qi Zhimu rushed out of the corridor for a moment, deliberately stopping to sense the ghost's movements.
But there was no movement.
Until ten seconds passed, the hideous Mirror Ghost appeared in their sight, feet off the ground and moving extremely fast.
"It can fly too?"
While making a clean getaway with Heita, Qi Zhimu didn't forget to complain.
"Forty-second floor!"
Heita called out the next coordinates from his arms.
Qi Zhimu ground his teeth; the cold and foul stench behind him followed like a maggot on a rotting bone, just a few meters away.
He could feel an extreme killing intent approaching, its speed more than twice as fast as before.
This whole journey was practically dancing with his head on the line.
He rushed into the forty-second floor, took the mirror, and turned to run.
At the end of the thirty-fourth floor corridor, he took another mirror.
The ghost's distance closed significantly again, and he had to fire a Bursting Fireball behind him, using the blast's shockwave to propel himself a great distance forward.
By the time they reached the twenty-sixth floor, the situation became even more critical.
The Mirror Ghost seemed to have figured out their movement pattern; instead of trailing behind them, it used mirror transference to predict and block their path.
Qi Zhimu made a quick decision, condensing an Ice Shield around his body and charging straight at it.
Unexpectedly, sharp black fingernails over ten centimeters long easily broke through the Ice Shield. Moving with extreme speed, they were about to pierce Heita's neck.
Qi Zhimu reacted faster, violently twisting half his body; his arm was pierced by the ghost's nails!
Enduring the intense pain, he used the momentum to kick the ghost's chest and bounce away, sprinting toward the next target while cursing under his breath.
"Is the production crew trying to defy heaven? Who gives a ghost maxed-out power and speed?"
Reaching the fourth mirror and taking it, he didn't even have time to glance back. Holding Heita firmly, he jumped straight downstairs.
Yes, a direct jump, rapidly weaving and falling through the narrow gaps.
"Twelfth floor! The last mirror!"
When the two slammed heavily onto the ground at the twelfth-floor stairwell, Qi Zhimu's knees buckled, nearly making him kneel, but he forced himself to stay upright.
The moment he pushed open the door to the third restroom, a surge of Yin energy denser than ever before hit him in the face.
That Mirror Ghost avatar was standing right there in front of the artistic mirror, waiting for them.
A ruthless look flashed in Qi Zhimu's eyes.
Being chased more miserably than a dog all this way had already made him fly into a rage.
Endure for a moment and the seas will be calm, but take a step back and the more you think, the angrier you get.
"Get out!"
Qi Zhimu slapped the air toward the Mirror Ghost. The narrow restroom was instantly covered in white frost, which crawled across the walls.
The ghost didn't have time to react before its body was locked in thick, solid ice, turning into a crystal-clear ice sculpture.
"Do you really think this Great One is made of clay? I'll slap you to death!"
Qi Zhimu didn't even go for the mirror first; instead, he kicked the ice sculpture hard.
Accompanied by a loud bang, the wall behind the ice sculpture shattered instantly.
The massive impact blasted the ice shards and the Mirror Ghost out of the building, falling into the gray area outside.
After venting his anger, Qi Zhimu reached out and pried the final Artistic Mosaic Mirror off the wall.
"The puzzle game is about to end... Fuck!"
Before he could finish his sentence, sharp, shrill screeches drifted in from outside the building.
Immediately after, two pitch-black figures crashed through the window on the other side, bringing with them a shower of glass fragments and pouncing toward Heita like two mad dogs.
One split into two. Damn it, what a bastard setting—killing an avatar makes it divide!
Qi Zhimu only had time to shield Heita behind him before a ghostly shadow closed in.
Claws instantly tore through Qi Zhimu's Ice Shield, leaving deep, bone-exposing bloody gashes on his left arm.
Blood splattered, staining his shirt red.
The intense pain made Qi Zhimu's facial muscles twitch slightly, but his movements didn't stop. He summoned a strong wind with a backhand to blow the Mirror Ghost away.
He didn't dare use lethal force now, otherwise the number of ghosts would double again.
While parrying the chaotic but deadly siege of the two ghosts, he protected Heita as they rushed out.
Blood dripped from his sleeve, looking shocking to the eye.
"Think of something! You don't want us to become this tragic couple's midnight snack, do you? Quick, think about what we should do after finding the mirrors!"
Heita was held in his arms; smelling the thick scent of blood, her eyes trembled.
She didn't speak, her brain working even more frantically.
All five mirrors had been collected, yet there was no sign of any passage opening.
The number of ghosts had doubled, and no new hints were given, as if they had fallen into a dead end.
Something must have been overlooked.
What exactly was it?
While thinking, Qi Zhimu rushed into the crowded stairwell.
The narrow space should have been easy to defend, but now it became a nightmare.
Because the stairs on this floor were crowded with frozen NPCs, all of whom were in positions of running, screaming, or making phone calls, tightly blocking the passage.
"Don't block the way!"
Qi Zhimu sent a palm strike ahead, blowing all the human statues into a mess.
"What kind of insane setting is this crappy movie? The plot setup is over, but the NPCs won't disappear. Are they kept here on purpose to block our movement and annoy us?"
Qi Zhimu used one hand to condense an ice wall to block the stairwell, attempting to stop the two evil ghosts chasing them from behind.
"If only I could blow up this building..."
Wait... a flash of inspiration crossed Heita's mind.
Qi Zhimu's complaint was like a key, inserted into the lock of her thoughts.
The clues were all there, but the NPCs wouldn't disappear... But the question was: what if the existence of the NPCs themselves was a hint?
From the beginning until now, all clues pointed to people disappearing in front of mirrors.
And now, everyone was frozen.
In this building, there were people everywhere, and there were mirrors that could swallow human lives everywhere.
Except for one place.
Bang!
The ice wall was violently smashed by the two ghosts.
Qi Zhimu's mind went numb.
"Even several meters of solid ice can't block the stairs. If we get to an open area, won't we be even more finished? These abominations are still getting faster!"
"No, we exactly need to go to an open area."
Heita's voice was full of certainty.
"Go to the first floor!"
"Huh?"
Qi Zhimu's eyes widened, and he said in disbelief:
"Has your brain been scared silly? The first-floor lobby is empty with hardly any cover. Going there... do you think we're not dying with enough ceremony?"
"Not at all. Think about when we first came in."
Heita spoke very quickly.
"There wasn't a single person in the first-floor lobby. The front desk, security, cleaning staff... none of them were there."
"So what?"
Heita: "In this sixty-story building, only that place has no people, and there are no mirrors—not even a single wall is made of transparent glass!"
"And after going up from there, there were no signs indicating the current floor at all. Even the elevators we never took had no floor indicators outside the entrances!"
"Go upstairs, find the true body within the sixty-story building and kill it, time limit twelve hours—those were the conditions for survival."
"We were likely tricked by a word game. The floor we initially entered wasn't the 1st floor, but the -1 floor!"
"And the hint was the word 'go upstairs,' which seems normal but is actually a superfluous addition!"
Because they couldn't possibly have stayed there.
"The artistic mirrors should need to be assembled. The place where we can safely do that must be on that uninhabited floor!"
Thoughts surged in Qi Zhimu's heart.
The eerie screeches behind him were getting closer, and the bone-chilling cold was almost pressing against his back.
"If we lose the gamble, I'll eat you on the spot, then use a Forbidden Spell to blast this building into dust!"