An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits-Chapter 128 : Find Him/Her/It

Volume 3: High School Arc - Mirror Game
The notification wasn’t even considered a rule—what did that mean?
It meant that this game was obviously different from the previous ones.
No use of items... that was practically a rule cutting off all retreat...
No, this time it wasn’t even a rule, just a mere notification.
Find him... or it?
Or perhaps her?
Singular?
Plural?
Human or ghost?
In other words... regardless of whether he/it/she was, I now had less than seven days to find this being...
With a hint of confusion, I got up from bed, held the edge of the canopy bed, and ignored the curious gaze from Sha Ha behind me.
I looked down at the medical tape still covering the needle mark that had long since vanished from my left hand and tore it off casually.
I tightened the pajamas around me and came to the balcony.
My cold was almost gone and basically no longer affected me.
Under normal circumstances, I should be returning to school tomorrow… but…
But…
A normal person…
How could I still appear normal in my current state?
Was this a normal life?
Did that mean I’d have to live with this kind of mindset from now on?
Always ready to die?
Was this really the kind of life a person should have?
I looked down at my phone…
For a moment, I even wanted to release the Evil Spirit Form recklessly and let this silence inside me completely burst out.
But…
The hand gripping the phone gradually tightened, and veins popped on the back of my hand.
Could I do it?
Could I fully release it?
Completely lose my sanity?
Slowly… my hand holding the phone gradually loosened.
I couldn’t do it… I really couldn’t.
I had died once and lost once.
The first time, it had been rather easy…
But when death and loss struck a second time, I… simply didn’t have the courage to choose.
What the hell kind of life was this?
Did I… even have a future?
Staring at the silent night sky, the stars still hung overhead as usual, twinkling.
The moon, as it had for tens of millions of years, hung high above, overlooking the earth illuminated by its light.
What should I do…
I was reaching my limit.
Again and again and again and again and again and again and again…
Constant deaths threatening me repeatedly.
No… I couldn’t think like this now.
I couldn’t think.
If I continued, I really wouldn’t be able to control my emotions.
Calm down.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes… only to feel a cool streak sliding down the corner of my eye.
“Damn it, how embarrassing… I’m already in my thirties and still pissing myself like a child…”
I raised my hand and held my forehead.
This seemingly cool pose… was actually to hide the weak side of me.
Was anyone watching?
No… no one.
Still, I raised my hand and blocked my face.
Having lived alone all this time, I knew well that tears were a sign of weakness.
I couldn’t cry.
At some point, Sha Ha came to my feet, just like before…
I slowly crouched down and held her in my arms, burying my face deep into her thick fur.
Sha Ha didn’t resist at all and just let me hold her.
“Sha Ha… What should I do…”
Knowing full well she wouldn’t give me any answers, I still asked.
At this moment… maybe it was another instance of my weakness?
The tears welled up uncontrollably.
Sha Ha turned her head, trying to lick my face with her big tongue, but I held her tightly and didn’t let her turn.
“I… I’m not crying, don’t lick me…”
I said that, but my tears were like a faucet turned on full blast.
In no time, a large patch of Sha Ha’s fur was soaked.
“FML… FML!… FML! There’s a damn brick in my eye… FML…”
I didn’t know what I was cursing at, but I knew that only by doing this could I stop my voice from choking up.
At some point, I got tired.
The skin around my eyes was burning.
I used my phone camera to check, and the area around my eyes was visibly red.
Sha Ha’s fur was also soaked by my tears.
I put eye drops in my eyes.
In the middle of the night, I grabbed Sha Ha by her hind legs as she tried to escape and walked into the bathroom.
If Sha Ha could talk right then, she would definitely curse.
‘Damn it, I cried with you, and now you’re making me take a bath!!’
I gave Sha Ha a good wash.
Of course, she struggled hard during the wash, but eventually, she gave in under my .
Afterward, I put her into the pet dryer.
Then I rinsed the washroom.
Once everything was cleaned up, I entered the bath myself.
Speaking of which, I still hadn’t figured out how to renovate the backyard.
There’s a fish pond in the front—should I build a swimming pool in the back?
I took an ice pack from the freezer, wrapped it in a towel, and applied it to my eyes.
As a man, it’s okay to cry…
But never let anyone see!
As a man, you can be scared…
But only when no one’s around!
As a man, you must be tough… tough…
Expressionless, I lowered my head.
In the milky white bath, I could vaguely see two pale meatballs rising and falling with the waves…
“FML!!!”
Once again, my angry curses echoed through the bathroom.
These past few days, all I did was sleep and eat.
If it weren’t for the Evil Spirit Form, I probably would’ve gained several pounds by now.
So, affected by the phone and the emotional turbulence just now, I had no sleepiness at all.
I got up, took the already dried Sha Ha, and without bringing Jiaoza, I went out with Sha Ha.
Just like my old self, I let her off the leash to run wild while there was no one around.
I didn’t know if Sha Ha’s bloodline was pure, but according to what people said online, Huskies were supposed to be uncontrollable when off-leash.
But in my opinion, it was just that people didn’t know how to train Huskies.
Huskies had low obedience, but that didn’t mean they had none.
It was just that the training methods were different.
I wore my waist pouch, which contained the Sony DMP‑Z1.
On my head was an L5000 leather bowl headset.
I was rather picky when it came to sound quality.
Of course, the me who used to be dirt poor couldn’t have afforded to blow so much cash on things like these.
At most, I could only manage a few big over-ear headphones costing under a thousand.
I wasn’t wearing anything formal either—just a standard velvet pajama set.
Maybe because it was late autumn, the cold night breeze made me feel much more refreshed.
With a clear mind, I started thinking about this game.
First of all, the release method of this game was obviously different from the ones I had encountered before.
I didn’t know whether it was the APP targeting me intentionally or whether this game was just designed this way.
Anyway, at the very least, that last rule made it clear that this game was definitely not simple.
In the Mirror Factory game, devouring a Monster earned points—not many.
One-third got you fifty points.
But this time, one gulp and it doubled.
What did that imply?
It meant either the Monster in this round was something I couldn’t handle at my current level,
or the System was deliberately targeting me!
In any case, this mission was definitely dangerous!
No items could be used.
In other words, only the Evil Spirit Form was available.
But my current Evil Spirit Form still couldn’t beat this Monster, meaning…
“This time, I might really die…”
Although I always thought I might die, I had never felt the danger this close.
This time… it felt just like that first time in the hospital—completely out of control.
Seven days… to find it? Him? Her?
First of all, this “ta” encompassed all third-person entities humans could perceive.
In other words, it might not be a person.
Or it might be…
From my past games, I’d learned…
Sometimes, the mission wouldn’t spell out all the rules.
Like the Mirror World.
I figured out what the “reflection within the reflection” meant—it was simple.
It meant a mirror in water.
The Mirror World was full of distorted, refracted light.
Besides mirrors, what else could distort light?
Plenty of things.
But the most obvious was water.
The “in the reflection” part referred to water.
And the “reflection within the reflection” meant creating a mirror inside the water, so the refracted shadow would be refracted once again.
That’s why, when Lu Haochen pulled me out, his arm came through the reflection of the black phone screen.
Earlier, the Mirror World’s rules were never revealed.
I wasn’t even told that the life-saving item was already on me.
In other words, the Mirror World’s rule was simple—
find a water source, use the phone to create a reflection, and escape through the doubly refracted shadow.
The “shadow within the shadow” not only meant the reflection under the water,
but also required a flashlight in the water to make your own shadow visible.
The APP gave me twenty-four hours to find these clues.
Unfortunately, Lu Haochen pulled me out in just half an hour.
Now, I could infer that the detailed rules of this mission would likely become clearer in the coming days.
Seven days later… it would come for me…
“Could it be something I’ll encounter in the next seven days?
Might this game involve other bystander players or advanced players?”
Last time’s permanent mission had dragged in one beginner player and seven bystanders.
So what about this time?
How would the Monster interact with me?
Or… maybe there would be no physical contact—just a simple phone call was enough for it to lock onto me?
Too few clues.
I couldn’t figure anything out for now…
Tomorrow was Friday.
It had been five days since the Mirror game ended.
“Should I go to class tomorrow?”
After a brief hesitation, I quickly made up my mind.
“Yes. No matter the mission, at least I’m still alive… I can still enjoy life.”
Of course, that wasn’t entirely a naive thought.
On one hand, I did want to enjoy normal life.
On the other…
I wanted to talk with Lu Haochen about the details of this mission.
That guy might not be amazing, but his brain was decent.
And besides, the onlooker sees more clearly—maybe he could offer good advice.
“Phew… Sha Ha, let’s head home! Your boss here still has to go to school tomorrow.”
“Awooo~”