On the other side of the mirror…
Mu Anqi lowered her eyes. Disappearances could happen anytime, anywhere, and most often after leaving "home." The mirror seemed to possess some mysterious power in this world, so could it be related to the mirror?
The book compiling the disappearance reports was too thick. Even if she skimmed through it quickly, it would take a lot of time. Mu Anqi did not have the ability to read a page at a glance and remember everything; otherwise, she would have been a genius in her past life. After much hesitation, Mu Anqi took out her temporary residence permit and tried sticking the card onto the mirror's surface.
On the first day, basic food, clothing, and lodging were provided for free. Mu Anqi felt this meant that finding contaminated residents wasn't the difficult part of the game; otherwise, players entering this game would be kicked out of the rest area the next day. They would have to find other ways to survive, and failing Ms. White's task might even lead to other consequences, which would make it even harder. Without money, if a player obtained survival supplies through violent means, they might even be hunted by Upside-Down City.
However, the requirement was to survive for seven days, which seemed possible to live through and complete the game?
The moment Mu Anqi stuck on the temporary residence permit, it was as if a white dove suddenly flapped its wings and flew out before her eyes. She felt herself lurching into empty space; the entire world seemed to flip for an instant. She had penetrated some kind of "barrier," and the sense of weightlessness and loss of control almost caused Mu Anqi—already somewhat uneasy with heights—to experience a "heart stoppage."
Blue sky, white clouds, buildings, space… the entire world spun wildly, everything contained within a gigantic box. And Mu Anqi… was like a grain of rice a giant had just dropped into the box, tumbling and flipping downward.
—Then came the feeling of her soul returning to her body. Mu Anqi shivered all over and collapsed to the ground, her face pale. The road still had a mirror-like appearance, and various buildings still surrounded her, but there was no laboratory here, nor a rest area. Mu Anqi looked up at the sky, which here resembled a floor, made up of white and black squares.
Another world.
If the world Mu Anqi first stepped into at the beginning of the game was the "surface" world of Upside-Down City, then this was the "inner" world. The surface world was divided into two by Ms. White and Mr. Black, while the inner world was a collection of all chaos and contamination.
So this is what Miss Bluebird meant… Ms. White and Mr. Black should possess the ability to manipulate space. Mu Anqi tried to take out her token. Previously, when she spoke to so many targets to gather information, General Ji's token had no response. At first, Mu Anqi thought it was because after establishing a relationship, General Ji wouldn't get jealous. Now she realized… ever since entering the mirror world, everything had been cut off.
This entire Upside-Down City might not even exist on the Shattered Mirror Continent. In fact, whether Upside-Down City's existence is "real" at all is also a mystery.
The experts of the Shattered Mirror Continent could actually achieve this level. Mu Anqi's mindset shifted again. In previous games, things had gone too smoothly; no matter what kind of ghost she encountered, her blessings always provided a way to kill it. Even without killing power, she could forcibly control strong beings with blessings. She had even entertained the thought, "Maybe I could even control the General." But now it seemed… she could control Xia Fenghua only because Xia Fenghua was a ghost in the Barrier-Breaking stage. After reaching the Kaiyuan stage, the abilities of Shattered Mirror experts underwent a qualitative transformation and ascension, with seemingly no upper limit. Only a vague general ranking could be given.
Even General Ji was only fourth-tier.
Mu Anqi didn't know whether the creators of Upside-Down City were Ms. White and Mr. Black. If they were, what tier would they be? Their spatial and creative abilities bore a subtle similarity to the abilities of the plastic person responsible for the deadly contamination, yet were completely different. The residents within Upside-Down City had independent thoughts, and their behavior and mannerisms were entirely like those of intelligent beings.
Fortunately, she only had to survive for seven days…
If she were tasked with uncovering the true nature of Ms. White and Mr. Black, or fighting this BOSS, Mu Anqi felt that she might not even get a glimpse of them before being sealed by the space.
The experts of the Shattered Mirror Continent couldn't be underestimated. Mu Anqi thought that anyone who could become a lord must possess special abilities. Even if the White Fox Demon King had performed so poorly, it might still have some unique qualities.
Ms. White, Mr. Black… this naming convention was somewhat similar to Lady Red, the lord by the seaside. She wondered if there was any connection between them.
Mu Anqi took a deep breath to steady her emotions. She stood up. The architecture of the "inner" world's Upside-Down City was completely different from the "surface" world; there also seemed to be no day/night cycle here. Just as Mu Anqi was about to explore, a white dove flapped its wings and flew over, perching on her shoulder. Its beak pecked at Mu Anqi: "Coo. Welcome to Upside-Down City, coo. Ms. White is very pleased with your progress, so she sent me to give you a brief novice orientation, coo."
"Inhabitants here are divided into two factions, coo. They respectively submit to Ms. White and Mr. Black. As an outsider chosen by Ms. White, you must fight for Ms. White, coo."
"The residents here strengthen themselves by various means; they are really powerful, coo. But in Ms. White's eyes, low-end or incompletely enhanced residents are defective goods, while all the enhanced residents on Mr. Black's side are contaminated residents, coo~ You can choose to go to the central arena to register for the matches and kill contaminated residents on the stage; their heads will serve as proof of your kills, coo. Of course, you can also choose to kill secretly and steal heads, but such actions may draw large-scale manhunts and pursuits from the contaminated, coo~"
"'Register for matches…' Mu Anqi glanced at the dove on her shoulder. 'There's also another player here, right? If I register for matches, won't it be easier for that player to discover me?'"
"Coo coo coo~ yes, coo~ If you can kill the opposing envoy, and the number of contaminated residents you handle exceeds theirs, Ms. White will directly win this match. She will like you very much, coo~"
So this is the "shortcut" to an S-rank clearance? The essence of this game is a hunting competition, where victory is determined by clearing contaminated residents.
As long as she didn't confront those two directly, Mu Anqi felt relieved. Dealing with another player was certainly easier than facing a lord-level expert. She considered the subtle "fairness" and "balance" of Shattered Mirror games, and naturally remained extremely alert toward the player who had yet to appear.
"Has that player entered here?" Mu Anqi asked. She suddenly recalled the daytime in the surface world. Perhaps… in the surface world, daytime was her activity time, while nighttime was the other player's? No, that didn't seem quite right—there was no day or night in the inner world.
"I don't know this kind of information either, coo." The white dove flapped its wings. "Hurry up and act. You outsiders can't stay in the inner world for too long. You can stretch out your wrist—when the black crow is fully drawn, you will experience intense mental interference and shock, and you could very likely be directly eliminated, coo~ You need to act at the right times and exit the inner world to return to the rest area to recover, coo."
This was also a form of limitation.
Mu Anqi glanced at her wrist. There was only a small black dot slowly moving; over time, it might complete a drawing of a crow. Hmm, Ms. White was the white dove, and Mr. Black was the black crow?
"Where is the central city arena?" Mu Anqi wasn't planning to slow down because of an unknown presence. She had already wasted a lot of time entering this world. If the other player realized from the start the true significance of the mirrors and Upside-Down City, they might have already entered. As for exposing her abilities…
Mu Anqi bit her lip, thinking that perhaps she could use other methods to mislead the player who might be lurking in the shadows.
Guided by the white dove, Mu Anqi soon arrived at the arena. The venue was enormous, and the guards at the entrance were two towering rhinoceroses—one with its eyes covered by a white film, the other by a black film. After showing her temporary residence permit, Mu Anqi was allowed to enter.
Next came registration. As an outsider who had chosen Ms. White, Mu Anqi naturally aligned with Ms. White's faction. Registration at the arena was simple; she only needed to provide a code name. Mu Anqi was not good at creating names, which made her a little frustrated. After some hesitation, she simply chose "Zi He" as her code name.
She received a white dove badge. On the back of the badge was a design of two long swords crossing, surrounded by a pattern of olive branches.
Next, it was time to wait.
Mu Anqi used this interval to seriously consider how to conceal her blessing ability. After all, this was an arena match; the audience wouldn't pay much attention to what the two competitors said during the fight. Even sitting here she could hear the venue inside filled with deafening cheers and gasps, and it would surely be the same when she competed. So, if she wanted to mislead others, it would be best to make the other player think her control required a coordinating movement to trigger the skill—and that movement should be neither too complicated nor too simple. If it was too complicated she wouldn't be able to perform it; if it was too simple it might not be noticed or the opponent might detect it later. Ideally there should be a signature starting gesture that would make the opponent believe whenever she made that motion, she was about to release a control skill.
Mu Anqi clasped her hands over her head; she really couldn't think of anything. Any action she imagined in combat felt intensely cheesy and awkward — perhaps…
Mu Anqi took a deep breath, constantly thinking about Sister Fang and the Magical Strongman's skills to calm herself. Finally, a voice echoed through the waiting room—"The next match will be between the player with code name 'Zi He' and the player with code name 'Tyrant'!"
It was her turn!
Mu Anqi drew another deep breath. She glanced at the rows of white plastic masks lined up by the waiting room door, hesitated for a moment, and then picked one to wear. After securing the straps, she was quickly led to the battle arena by the escort staff.
—The arena was massive, even larger than the football field at Mu Anqi's university. In such a gigantic arena, even the largest residents could fully unleash their combat strength.
Her opponent with the code name "Tyrant" was… a crocodile?
Mu Anqi stared at the fierce crocodile standing on two legs, a red headband across its head. Her mind inexplicably recalled the crocodile from Little Crocodile Loves Bathing… but this crocodile was far more vicious and terrifying.
Author's Note:
The scene I wanted to portray in this world…
When I was writing, the image in my mind was extremely, extremely, extremely cool and romantic (?), with a touch of fairy-tale coloring combined with two cities constantly spinning around a mirrored center. So I spent more words describing this city, letting little Mu traverse certain places, gathering information while interacting wi
th the residents inside.
But it seems I didn't quite manage to convey the feeling I wanted.