The man was momentarily stunned. Then, as he put the small crossbow back into his backpack, he let out a slight chuckle. “If I had wanted his abilities or items, I would have taken him out the first day he arrived at Nuo’ai.”
Yu Xi didn’t lower her guard just because he had put away his weapon. His words still didn’t explain why he had followed her all this way and only acted after observing the fight for a while.
Seeing her silence, he seemed to understand and added, “After transforming into a bat, his weak spot was his neck. Hitting him there stops him from releasing more poison gas.”
Yu Xi narrowed her eyes slightly. “So, you’re saying you followed me to help me?”
Even though her voice was calm, he could hear the underlying wariness and distance. He was certain that if he made even the slightest wrong move, her Tang blade would be at his throat the next second.
Having been accustomed to fighting alongside her in the past, he wasn’t used to seeing her like this. More than that, this was the first time he had seen her with a different face.
With a sigh, he finally pulled out a pink glass bottle that he had been reluctant to use. He adjusted it to level five and incinerated what was left of the charred remains of the veteran traveler on the ground.
A gust of wind blew past, scattering the last traces of black ash into nothingness.
He held the high-temperature perfume in his hand and slowly walked toward her. “She told me, but I didn’t believe it at first. After all, it’s been so many worlds since the Acid Rain world. But I’ve been searching for a way to stop all of this, so I decided to take a chance…”
“She?” Yu Xi frowned.
“She said there would be someone to help me. She also said that you would know who she was. I didn’t expect that person to be you.”
The moment she saw him take out the high-temperature perfume and heard him mention the Acid Rain world, Yu Xi already had a guess. “Lin Wu.” After all, there weren’t many people she had given this kind of star gear to, and she had already guessed who he was referring to.
“Yeah, it’s me.” He nodded. “It’s been a long time. I’m glad to see you safe and sound again. Also, your instincts were right. At first, I really didn’t plan to help you. I was there when you interviewed for Nuo’ai. Even though you were suppressing your strength and speed as much as possible, I’ve fought alongside you in so many worlds. Your moves instinctively felt familiar to me. But your name and face had changed, so I couldn’t be sure…”
“So you followed me to confirm if I was really me?” She understood now. He knew that bat-man had set his sights on her, so he wanted to confirm her identity through the fight. After all, she could hide her strength in an interview, but not in a life-or-death battle.
If she hadn’t pulled out her Tang blade and high-temperature perfume, he probably would have remained hidden the entire time.
“Sorry.” Even though he had explained himself, Lin Wu still felt a little guilty.
“No need to apologize. If I were in your place, I’d also make sure before acting.” Yu Xi glanced around, then took out her jeep. “Get in. Let’s change locations before talking.”
**
An hour later, in a 24-hour hotpot restaurant.
In an incomplete-information world, meeting an old friend had its benefits—mainly sharing intel.
However, compared to her own absurd luck, Lin Wu had never been fortunate. His entry points into worlds were always bizarre. When he regained consciousness, he had found himself in a graveyard, at night no less, immediately forcing him into survival mode.
Wu Kong City was his second stop, but after the beatdown he suffered in his previous world, he had already become an experienced veteran traveler.
Unlike Yu Xi, he never entered these worlds with a pre-prepared body. Instead, he could either shadow a local inhabitant or directly take over their body. He disliked the latter.
That’s why when Yu Xi met him in the Tsunami World and the Black Insect World, he had used shadowing both times. He also always relied on an identity mask to alter his appearance.
Most of the time, he didn’t get an established identity with background memories like Yu Xi. His information sources were entirely based on what he could gather in each world.
This time, however, when he woke up in the previous world, Phantom Manor, he realized that his space, cards, and supplies had been drastically reduced. He didn’t even have an identity mask to change his appearance.
According to his phone’s display, his bound weapon had become his skill, his inventory space was gone, his world mission was unknown, his system was unresponsive, his points were unusable, and his total items had been reduced to ten. Thankfully, the high-temperature perfume was one of them.
This time, things were different—Wu Kong City had supermarkets and shops everywhere. But in this world, his unlimited currency was disabled.
So when Yu Xi had spotted him among the Nuo’ai security team and assumed he had infiltrated quickly due to finding clues, she had completely overestimated him.
He was just broke and had to get a job.
Later, while investigating the Meifeng Museum, he encountered an unexpected event and discovered a clue, which made him realize that he had stumbled into the right place.
Yu Xi, who had been feeling sorry for herself up to this point: …
Truly, nothing hurts like comparison. Even in a world where space, abilities, and resources were all severely restricted, she was still absurdly lucky.
“So, this face—this is your real appearance?”
“Yes.” Lin Wu coughed lightly and awkwardly lowered his fist against his lips. He had already expected her to notice, but being stared at so bluntly still made him uncomfortable. “My name in this world is Lin Xiang. Thirty years old. A retired soldier.”
“Chen An, 22 years old, a fresh graduate,” Yu Xi said as she dropped a large portion of marbled beef and hand-cut lamb into the spicy hotpot. “Eat up. If nothing else, at least you won’t have to worry about food and drinks when you’re with me.”
Lin Wu: …
The two of them discussed their theories about this world. Lin Wu had experienced one (and a half) more stops than she had, so he had some experience in searching for and confirming train stations.
Just as Yu Xi had guessed, the stations were never placed in random, obscure locations. They were usually tied to significant events happening at that stop. These events tended to occur in a few key locations.
At Meifeng Museum, Lin Wu had encountered an incident inside an elevator. Elevators typically had mirrors, and this one had three mirrored walls.
At the time, the elevator suddenly malfunctioned, the lights went out, and it got stuck between floors. The passengers inside tried calling for help but got no response. Panic and fear escalated, leading to conflicts. Within a few words, the tension exploded, and two people suddenly started attacking others.
Lin Wu’s approach to handling the situation was similar to Yu Xi’s. Once the incident was over and everyone was rescued from the elevator, he immediately concealed himself. Shortly after, he received a clue notification. It was then that he realized he had stumbled upon the right place by accident.
After listening, Yu Xi took out a notepad and wrote down the locations where incidents had occurred:
Bathroom mirror
Subway car
Ferris wheel observation cabin
Elevator
The common factor among these places was that they all contained mirrors or reflective surfaces.
After some thought, she added another factor to the list: enclosed spaces.
Lin Wu circled the Ferris wheel. “Did the incident there happen during the day or at night?”
“At night.”
“Then the clue ‘darkness’ refers to either nighttime or dark environments. If we put everything together, the key conditions are enclosed spaces, darkness, and mirrors (reflective surfaces).”
“There must be more,” Yu Xi said. “I tested this in the bathroom later. I closed the door and stared at the mirror for a long time, but nothing happened.”
Lin Wu furrowed his brows in thought. “Could the number of people be a factor? The subway, Ferris wheel, and elevator were all crowded.”
“But on the first night, I was alone in the bathroom, and when the ‘mirror world’ appeared, its effect was almost negligible—wait!”
Yu Xi suddenly realized something. She scanned the four locations again. “Rather than saying the effect was weak, it would be more accurate to say that the mirror world didn’t actually trigger in the bathroom. That night, I only sensed something off subconsciously, but I wasn’t certain. It was only after the subway incident that I confirmed its existence. So, technically, the mirror world didn’t activate in the bathroom.”
After all, the only reason she even noticed something was off that night was because of her enhanced perception, which was nine times that of an ordinary person. If a regular person had been in that bathroom, they wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual at all, nor would their emotions have been affected.
She crossed out the first location from her list and reconsidered the remaining three. From this, she quickly deduced the missing trigger condition.
Darkness did not only refer to the absence of light.
Darkness could also refer to the darkness in human hearts—when people experienced emotional fluctuations, conflicts, arguments, anger… all negative emotions belonged to this “darkness.”
So it was people themselves who awakened the mirror world by manifesting their own darkness.
Over the past few days, incidents of violent attacks had been increasing, and the frequency of mirror world appearances was rising as well. But everything had an origin—what had first triggered the mirror world?
Perhaps finding the initial cause would lead to clues about the train station.
Yu Xi’s phone vibrated again.
A new notification appeared on the screen.
Congratulations on identifying the four key triggers of the Mirror World: enclosed spaces, darkness, mirrors (reflective surfaces), and negative emotions.
Hint: Explore the hidden laboratory in Nuo’ai Corporation and uncover the origin of the Mirror World to receive a hidden reward.
At the bottom of the message was a “Return” button.
Since Yu Xi was the only one who had figured out the last trigger and hadn’t said it aloud yet, Lin Wu hadn’t received the notification.
She pressed “Return,” then opened the “Display” function. Looking up at Lin Wu, she asked, “Want to team up?”
**
Lin Wu had never teamed up with anyone before. Having just arrived in this world, he didn’t trust anyone.
Yu Xi only wanted to test if teaming up would allow them to share notifications. The result—
Congratulations, travelers Chen An and Lin Xiang, on successfully forming a team.
Teammate: Lin Xiang
Teammate permissions (activated): damage immunity, messaging, arrival station (optional), hints (optional).
Yu Xi clicked on arrival station, and a pop-up window appeared on the screen:
“Station not yet confirmed (returning in 5 seconds).”
Yu Xi: …
She then clicked on hints, and another pop-up appeared:
“There is 1 hint available for sharing. Would you like to share? Yes/No?”
Yu Xi selected “Yes,” and Lin Wu immediately received the same updated message on his phone.
Lin Wu looked at his screen and chuckled. “Feels like I’m about to relive another mission run where you carry me through everything.”
Yu Xi recalled the last world where he was forcibly recruited into a task by Xing Min and went through a rough time. She smirked without saying anything and decided she would make up for it in this world.
First step of compensation: a five-star hotel suite.
Lin Wu had no money for a hotel and didn’t want to resort to illegal means to obtain cash, so he had been staying in the employee dorms provided by Nuo’ai. Yu Xi drove him back to pick up his belongings and then brought him to her hotel, booking him a luxury suite on the same floor as hers.
Second step of compensation: pick anything you want, I’ll pay.
Lin Wu didn’t have a storage space, but like Yu Xi, he started out with an unopened case of nutrient solutions. Eventually, he figured out a workaround for storing items.
As long as an item was smaller than a certain volume and remained factory-sealed in a box, it would be recognized as a single object by his inventory system.
So he found storage containers similar in size to the case of nutrient solutions. After packing them with his essential supplies and sealing them completely with tape, he was able to store them.
Of course, retrieving anything was inconvenient. Every time he needed something, he had to take out the entire container, unseal it, grab what he needed, and then reseal it with tape before storing it again.
If the container was damaged in any way, no matter how much he tried to patch it up, it could no longer be stored.
Because of this, he carried daily essentials like clothes, toiletries, and some non-perishable food in a large travel bag.
As for vehicles, since they were too big, his inventory didn’t recognize them at all—besides, he couldn’t afford a car anyway.
Bicycles, on the other hand, were small enough to be stored, but since Lin Wu could run much faster than a bike, carrying one was pointless.
Yu “lucky as hell” Xi then had a thought. If a bicycle could fit in his inventory, what about a motorcycle?
Lin Wu: …
After testing the inventory system, Yu Xi took him to a dealership the next morning since they both had a break before their afternoon shifts. She bought him a heavy-duty motorcycle.
Lin Wu: …
Then, she took him to a gold shop and bought him two gold bars so he could exchange them for money later. She also bought two extra bars for herself.
Lin Wu: …
Why did this feel suspiciously like being kept as a sugar baby…?
That afternoon, they parked the jeep and the motorcycle in a different lot and walked to Nuo’ai as usual.
Lin Wu had been working at Nuo’ai two days longer than her, but his patrol range was also limited to the lower ten floors. He had already explored them all and found no hidden lab.
“According to the floor labels, the lower ten floors are regular offices, conference rooms, and break rooms. Higher management offices start above the tenth floor, but the last labeled floor is the eighteenth. From the nineteenth floor up, none of the floors are clearly marked. So I suggest we start searching from the nineteenth floor.”
“Tonight then. We’re both on the late shift. After the eleven o’clock handover, we’ll get an access card and head upstairs.”
They then planned their approach, including which security guard to target for the access card, how to plant a virus in the monitoring system to disrupt the cameras, and most importantly, the route they would take to get upstairs.
At around eleven that night, after completing their shift handover, they quietly snuck back into the building.
Just like the night before, Nuo’ai Tower lost its bright, modern glow after dark. The building, now silent and dimly lit, gave off an eerie, almost otherworldly presence.
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