An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits-Chapter 117 : A Face!?

Volume 3: High School Arc - Mirror Game
"Where... am I?"
Looking around, although it was still barely recognizable as Factory No. 7, compared to that moment just now, I already understood... this might no longer be the Surface World.
That feeling of my body being compressed and sucked in, finally arriving at this place... and the surroundings now were entirely different from the Surface World.
There was a faint scent of blood in the air, and everything on the ground gave off a kind of... dissonance?
In the darkness of the factory, one could vaguely see the crimson rust on the surrounding steel tools, but the three people who were just in the factory had disappeared... no, to be precise, was it me who had disappeared?
Interdimensional Space?
Doesn't seem like it.
I just felt something was off.
What exactly was strange?
This sense of dissonance?
Where was it coming from?
Touching the cold ground, it was only now that I realized I was actually sitting on the floor.
"So cold..."
I struggled to get up, pulled my leather jacket tighter, but still couldn't block out the biting cold.
"Achoo!!"
An itch in my nose made me suddenly sneeze.
I glanced around and suddenly remembered that I seemed to have received a message on my phone just now?
I instinctively looked down.
At this moment, my phone was lying on the ground, placed there neatly.
"I fell?"
I had no impression of 'falling,' but the reality was as if... I had always been sitting on the floor?
I reached out with my left hand to grab the phone on the ground, but just as I got the phone and was about to stand up, out of the corner of my eye... I caught a glimpse of the surface of my watch.
The World Watch had many functions, including showing the time, indicating the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and even had a stopwatch shortcut.
I had enough time to study it after obtaining it, and the results made me very glad I chose this watch.
Its appearance could change according to my imagination.
As long as I wanted, it could become any kind of watch, and it possessed all the normal functions of those watches.
However, the most critical feature of the World Watch wasn't any of those, but rather the ability to pause time.
That was a life-saving feature.
Another function was observing which world I currently resided in.
Surface World, Interdimensional Space, Inner World — the transitions among these three worlds would be displayed on the watch.
Although there would be clear signs when switching between the three, the watch also served as a form of confirmation, allowing me to determine where I currently was.
And it had never disappointed me.
At the very least, no matter how those three worlds switched, it had never made a mistake.
Naturally, I firmly believed that there were only these three worlds.
But at this very moment... the World Watch displayed a prompt I had never seen before.
Four scarlet characters appeared in the box where "Surface World" was supposed to be displayed.
Instinctively, I raised my hand and looked at the watch.
At this moment, there was no Surface World, no Inner World, and no Interdimensional Space.
Instead, what I saw was something I had never encountered...
"Mirror World? What is this world?"
And that wasn't the only strange thing.
Behind the inverted Mirror World were two more characters.
"Layer One?"
Mirror?
World?
Was it referring to the world inside a mirror?
Was I pulled into another world by a mirror?
I picked up the phone, thoughts swirling in my mind as I opened the phone and launched the app.
And at this moment... the app displayed a line of blood-red characters.
[Team mission branch, solo mission triggered. This mission is unique. Please escape from the Mirror World within the next 24 hours. If you fail to escape, you will be assimilated by the Mirror World and never be able to leave.]
[Due to the anomaly 'Reflection' parasitizing a player in the Mirror World during the mission, a defect appeared in the Mirror World. Player Liu Yunyan was selected to fill the defect and pulled into the Mirror World. This mission is a solo task. No other players will participate.]
[Rule 1: Please escape the Mirror World within the next 24 hours.]
[Rule 2: Please evade the pursuit of the anomaly in the Mirror World within the next 24 hours.]
[Rule Three: Making a sound or being observed will trigger pursuit from nearby mirror anomalies.]
[Rule Four: Evil Spirit Form cannot harm the mirror anomalies.]
[Rule Five: Mirror anomalies prefer to eat their prey alive. Please be careful not to get caught.]
[Hint: The reflection within the reflection.]
What the hell is this supposed to mean!!!
Evil Spirit Form is useless?
So that means I have to fight these anomalies with just my regular body?
Are you freaking kidding me!?
With rules like these, I might as well give up running.
Just call in Brother Hei and his squad to finish me off...
How am I supposed to run?
Where to?
What's the route?
The destination?
There's nothing—how the hell am I supposed to know where to run!?
I...
Stood dumbfounded in Factory No. 7, staring at the rules on my phone... and couldn't help but feel a chill of anger inside.
I knew about the Interdimensional Space, and I had a general understanding of the Inner World, but what the hell was this Mirror World?
And it said "Layer One"?
Could it be that the Mirror World had multiple layers?
I stood there hesitating for a long time, but in the end, I chose to leave Factory No. 7 first to take a look.
At the very least, I needed to understand what the Mirror World was before figuring out how to escape.
Mirror... mirror... could the way out be through a mirror?
But which mirror?
Twenty-four hours—there wasn’t much time left for me.
Escape... where to?
With no clues at all, how was I supposed to escape?
I quickly exchanged for a few items: a Substitute Doll, and an Invincibility Talisman.
The Invincibility Talisman's duration was five seconds.
Although short, at least both of them could potentially save my life.
I also touched the string around my neck that had somehow appeared without me noticing.
At the end of the string hung a System-issued Substitute Doll.
And my World Watch—it should still be enough... enough...
"Achoo!!"
Great.
Now I was in trouble.
The cold seemed to be getting worse.
Starting from my knees, my entire body gradually felt sore and fatigued.
"Need to hurry... otherwise, if the cold worsens, it’ll be even more troublesome."
I had to leave quickly.
With some effort, I walked to the doorway.
The fatigue and soreness slowly crept through my whole body.
'Clang clang~'
With the sound of a rusted iron door being pulled open, the outside environment came into view.
Pitch black... nothing at all.
No... it wasn’t that there was nothing—it was that everything was so dark that my eyes hadn’t adjusted.
It felt like... it was way darker out here than inside Factory No. 7!
My vision gradually cleared.
When I finally saw everything in front of me, I was completely stunned.
This... this wasn’t the factory compound at all?
Outside... there were skyscrapers?
Skyscrapers?
High-rises?
Why wasn’t it the factory yard?
Wait... something’s wrong!!!
A sense of dread hit me, and I turned my head suddenly.
But... behind me, where was Factory No. 7?
There was only a pair of eyes, filled with malice and entirely white, staring at me intensely!
A twisted face!!