It was originally just a casual remark, but now it seems I actually hit the nail on the head?
The equipment floor is on the twenty-sixth floor.
Pushing open the fire door, the corridor was half as narrow as the office floors.
Qi Zhimu listened intently, and after confirming no one was inside, he led Herta in.
After turning two corners, a gray iron door without a sign appeared before them.
"I'm not good at puzzles," Qi Zhimu said, crossing his arms, not forgetting to remain vigilant against any uninvited guests approaching.
They had been in this building for a while now, yet not a single ghost had laid a hand on them, which was rather intriguing.
Herta stepped forward, her fingers pressing different number keys in rapid succession.
The lock opened.
"Wait, what? Was this building originally owned by your family?" Qi Zhimu had a strange expression on his face.
He didn't remember missing any key information regarding the password for the server room's lock.
"I mentioned before, back when this building didn't belong to the United Government, a movie was filmed here."
"Never mind then, hurry up."
Pushing open the door, they found a room less than ten square meters where two rows of server racks hummed, their indicator lights flickering.
In the corner sat several unopened boxes of network cables, and data streams scrolled densely across the display screen.
Herta walked to the console and began her operations.
Qi Zhimu leaned against the doorframe, expanding his perception and focusing his attention.
"How long?"
"Three minutes."
Herta's typing speed was incredibly fast; her ten fingers were almost a blur.
2 minutes and 47 seconds.
"Done, I've got the common keywords."
She pulled up the real-time monitoring of the internal communication software and set the keyword filters.
"Come on, let me see." Qi Zhimu leaned in.
"Missing, gone, call the police, restroom, mirror... and some chat logs."
"Little Herta, don't you think some of these keywords are too coincidental? It's like they're hinting at something."
"Mm, there's a high possibility." Herta understood the meaning behind his words.
In the chat logs related to the missing persons, only two terms were used to describe people vanishing: 'missing' and 'gone'.
With so many synonyms available, it was practically impossible for a common word like 'disappeared' to not appear even once.
As for the remaining 'call the police' keyword... it was hard to say for now.
Call the police?
That would only be possible if the ghost—or rather, the movie screenwriter—allowed it.
In someone else's world-building, you have to follow their rules.
"How much longer? I don't want to stay in this place too long; there's a risk of getting cornered."
"Very soon. Look at these."
Messages popped up one by one.
[Little Liu hasn't been found yet? Did you check the surveillance?]
[I heard that not long ago, someone didn't come out of the men's restroom on the 15th floor either. Is that true?]
[Don't spread rumors; the higher-ups won't let us discuss this.]
[My sister is on the 12th floor. Someone went missing on their side this morning too—the women's restroom.]
[Which restroom? Number three?]
[Yes, the one with three mirrors.]
[What's going on? Is it haunted?]
Herta highlighted a certain chat log in red.
"Three mirrors? Other disappearance sites only had one, but this one has three?" Qi Zhimu's gaze fell on the red-highlighted record.
Herta remained silent and continued scrolling down.
A moment later, she listed twenty-seven disappearance incidents spread across different floors and rooms.
But without exception, the locations of all missing personnel shared a common feature—
Mirrors.
It wasn't just restrooms.
Makeup mirrors in the breakrooms, full-length mirrors in the locker rooms, and even some decorative mirrors or hanging mirrors used to prevent people from colliding at corners.
"Have you memorized the locations of these mirrors?" Qi Zhimu asked.
Herta nodded, the screen filled with dense coordinates.
"It's not enough; we need more data to see..."
Before she could finish, a shrill scream suddenly echoed from the distance.
Immediately followed by a second, then a third.
The commotion of the crowd spread like a tide, with noise surging from all directions.
Qi Zhimu instantly tensed his body and pulled Herta into his arms.
"What happened?" Herta asked in a low voice.
Qi Zhimu listened intently, his expression gradually darkening.
"More people have gone missing, and not just one."
"How many?"
He repeated the chaotic information he had captured.
"Two on the fourth floor, one on the seventh, three on the fifteenth, and on the twenty-first... nine in total, all vanished at the same time."
A suspicion flashed through Herta's mind, and she said solemnly:
"Perhaps because we've touched upon key information, the ghost's killing spree is accelerating. It might be our turn soon."
When they emerged from the server room, their floor was already in a state of chaos.
People were running back and forth; some were trembling as they tried to call the police, some were huddled together crying, and others stood frozen in place, lost in confusion.
It seemed some lucky individuals had witnessed the disappearance process firsthand.
"Manager, the calls won't go through!"
"How is that possible? Try again!"
"They really won't go through! Neither the landlines nor the cell phones have any signal!"
Qi Zhimu and Herta exchanged a look, then pushed through the chaotic crowd, heading straight for their destination... the twelfth floor.
Pushing open the door to Restroom Number Three, Qi Zhimu's first thought was that it was much more spacious than the ones downstairs.
Not just the space, but the mirrors too.
Herta's gaze landed on the bottom of the mirror on the left.
At the seam between the mirror frame and the wall, there was an extremely thin dark mark. It didn't look like a crack, but more like a joint mark.
Following her gaze, Qi Zhimu reached out to touch it.
It was cold and smooth, but clearly not a single piece.
"It's not a whole piece; it's inlaid."
Herta stood up and walked to the middle mirror.
Similarly, there were joint marks at the bottom, and the same was true for the right side.
Every pane of the three mirrors was made from joined pieces, but the edges were so fine that one wouldn't notice without looking closely.
"The shapes are very irregular." Herta fell into thought.
"Designers love this kind of artistic expression. Being perfectly square is so boring," Qi Zhimu sneered.
Though he joked, the casualness in his eyes had vanished.
He felt something was off.
In all these identical restrooms, only this one used joined mirrors.
And it just so happened that he had inadvertently captured information regarding the missing person from this very spot.
Herta's eyes slowly moved across the surfaces of the three mirrors as she spoke in a low voice.
"I'm thinking, the movie was filmed here—could it be more than just because the layout allows for foreshadowing?"
"Are you saying the screenwriter chose this place specifically because the mirrors themselves are suitable for hiding clues?"
"Mm."
Herta approached the mirror on the right and tapped it with her knuckle; the sound was solid.
She then tapped the wall at the edge of the mirror frame; the feedback was the same.
"Nothing can be hidden; there's a solid wall behind the mirror."
"Since the mirrors are joined, if a ghost were to come out of them like in the first stage, would its body be split into several pieces by the joined edges?"
Qi Zhimu was half-joking, but his expression quickly shifted.
Suddenly, he felt something else was wrong.
In the mirror, he and Herta stood side by side—one looking nonchalant, the other with their head down in thought.
But his reflection's shoulder seemed half an inch wider than the one in the right mirror.
He turned his head to look at the left mirror; the person in the mirror also turned their head in sync, but that extra half-inch was still there.
As for the abnormality with Herta in the mirror...
"Little brat, look at your reflection..."
...Happy New Year! I wish everyone success, prosperity, and academic achievement in the new year.
Haji Huan is asking for a small free gift at the start of the year~~~