"Another cliché plot. Do horror movie directors and screenwriters have some kind of special obsession with women's restrooms?"
After confirming no one was paying attention and the room was empty, he began to cast a spell to set up an Isolation Barrier before pushing the door open and entering.
Inside the restroom, the lighting was somewhat dim.
Herta looked around, her slender brows furrowing.
"The layout here... I have an impression of it."
"Oh?"
"It's identical to the restrooms in an office building under the United Government."
Herta reached out and pointed toward the vanity.
"The shape of the mirror and the style of the faucets are highly similar. I suspect this movie was filmed there before that building was incorporated into the United Government."
Qi Zhimu carefully examined the massive mirror that spanned the entire wall.
The mirror surface was wiped very clean, reflecting the empty stall doors.
"Since the theme is related to mirrors, could people be disappearing after looking into one?"
His fingertips touched the mirror surface; it was cold and hard, with no abnormalities.
"It's a possibility."
Herta considered seriously:
"But we can't jump to conclusions without seeing it firsthand. If it's a mirror that swallows people, the ghost's true form is likely hidden inside, but this mirror looks too ordinary."
"Ordinary is exactly what makes it troublesome."
Qi Zhimu withdrew his hand and turned to look at the tightly closed stall doors.
"Who knows if those abominations are hiding in the toilets waiting to give someone a surprise."
"I noticed earlier that it's just past 10:00 AM. Given the usual nature of society, there will still be many people working overtime even at this hour tonight. We don't need to be in too much of a hurry," Herta said.
Qi Zhimu coldly scanned the seemingly peaceful restroom.
"Fine. Since the ghost likes to play hide-and-seek, let's see when the next unlucky soul will show up..."
...Inside the restroom, although there was no odor in the enclosed, narrow space, Herta's expression was still rather helpless.
Looking at the Mr. Magician standing beside her, she hesitated to speak multiple times.
Ten minutes passed.
Twenty minutes... Footsteps came from outside. Someone pushed the door, but it wouldn't budge. They muttered about the door being stuck and turned to leave.
Finally, Herta couldn't take it anymore and initiated the team voice chat.
"Is this the 'waiting it out' you were talking about?"
Herta tilted her head.
"The ghost might only target those who are alone right now. With the two of us standing here, it won't dare to come."
Qi Zhimu's lip twitched slightly. "So, it's my fault?"
"No, I just think your method is inefficient."
"...Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"You've spent more time in the Labyrinth Zone than I have and have seen more than me. I thought you would have some brilliant insight."
Qi Zhimu felt like he was being mocked sarcastically and didn't want to respond.
He rolled his eyes, deactivated the Isolation Barrier, and took Herta's hand to lead her out.
"Fine, fine, we'll do it your way. No more waiting for the rabbit to come to the tree; we'll take the initiative."
"Where to?"
"To the other places where people have disappeared to find commonalities."
Herta hummed in agreement and followed by his side.
The corridor was quiet; no one noticed the man and woman who had just emerged from the women's restroom.
After passing through the office area, Qi Zhimu also opened his mic on the team channel.
Don't ask why there was a team channel; the answer is magic.
"A female employee just mentioned that someone also went missing in the restroom on the fifth floor. Let's take a look there first, then check the other floors."
"Someone disappeared on the sixth floor too," Herta suddenly said.
"How do you know?"
"I just saw it on someone's chat app. It said someone didn't come out of the men's restroom on the sixth floor. When property management checked the surveillance, they only saw him go in, never come out."
Qi Zhimu was surprised and looked back at her.
Herta's emotions were perfectly flat. "You have good hearing; I have good eyesight."
"...Our skill point distribution is quite balanced," Qi Zhimu snorted, his tone unreadable as to whether it was a compliment or something else.
The layout of the sixth-floor restroom was almost identical to the fourth floor.
The same vanity, the same mirror spanning the wall, the same stall doors.
Qi Zhimu: "The mirror looks like a common item, yet the disappearances happen here. It can't really be a toilet turned ghost."
Herta didn't answer, her gaze lingering on the mirror for a few seconds.
"Continue upstairs."
They went from the seventh to the eleventh floor.
On each floor, Qi Zhimu relied on eavesdropping to capture intelligence, while Herta silently recorded the locations where the disappearances occurred.
Three hours passed, and they had gathered information on seven disappearance cases.
"The seven mirrors all seem fine."
Qi Zhimu's face was a bit dark. He pulled off his jacket and undid two buttons at his collar.
How annoying. As a powerful magician, why couldn't he just have a satisfying battle?
Herta looked down, fiddling with a portable computer Qi Zhimu had 'borrowed.' After a moment, she said thoughtfully:
"I'm wondering if there are more detailed records of these disappearances."
"Like?"
"The time of disappearance to the exact minute, the names and departments of the missing persons, and their movements before entering the restroom."
Qi Zhimu looked up. "Looking for commonalities?"
"Yes. For the seven incidents, we currently only know they all occurred in spaces with mirrors."
Herta's fingertips slid across the screen.
"But the mirror positions, orientations, and even the frame materials have no unified characteristics. The sample size is insufficient."
"Then let's go check the personnel files."
"No, the internal corporate network should have more complete records: security logs, surveillance timelines, internal communications, and so on."
Qi Zhimu: "So you want to hack into their system. You should have said so earlier."
Herta didn't deny it.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked.
"Nothing for now, but I need to find a server room. In a sixty-story enterprise, there must be a few rooms that people rarely enter or leave."
Qi Zhimu put his suit back on, straightened his tie, and took Herta's hand.
"Then let's go, Little Girl."
Herta let him lead her. "It's more appropriate for you to keep calling me Reserve Food."
"While I'm happy you have that self-awareness regarding me, could you tell me why you don't want me to call you a Little Girl?"
"Because you look like a minor, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old."
Qi Zhimu tripped over his own feet, nearly falling on the flat stairs.
"...Could you not suddenly say things like that at a time like this?"
"Just telling the truth."
"Shut up. Even I don't know my actual age. Heaven knows what number the person who created me set."
Qi Zhimu's tone was displeased, sounding a bit flustered and exasperated.
"As you humans say, isn't obsessing over a character's age in the 2D world missing the point?"
"You see me as a minor, but is it possible I'm actually a thousand-year-old monster? Young magicians don't have strength as formidable as mine."
"Do you think you're a 2D character?"
"I think I am. The 3D world couldn't produce a face as magnificent as mine. It's a pity I'm an honest person; otherwise, if I pretended to be a good guy, I'd surely be able to trick thousands of young girls into my stomach."
"...Fine, if you say so."
A very faint smile flickered in the depths of Herta's eyes.
He seemed a little anxious.