After catching the dolls, Mu Anqi and General Ji took another stroll around the shopping street. They were just browsing and didn't really intend to buy anything. But even such aimless wandering made Mu Anqi very happy, as long as she could be with General Ji.
By dusk, both Mu Anqi and Ji Huaichu were holding a cup of milk tea each as they headed once more to Bai Yulai's bookstore, planning to have some dessert there to end their day's date.
"…You two really are having a pure kind of romance," Bai Yulai said with a tone of indescribable regret—especially after hearing that they planned to return to the general's residence after eating, without any thought of getting a room outside or camping on a mountaintop to watch the sunrise.
What an utterly ordinary love affair.
Ji Huaichu ignored this inexplicable sigh, quietly finishing her dessert and drinking her milk tea to the last drop. Mu Anqi, sitting beside her, did understand what Bai Yulai meant, but she pretended not to and focused earnestly on the beautifully plated cheesecake before her, taking a sip of milk tea whenever she felt full—completely absorbed in the food.
Bai Yulai: "…"
Watching these two fall in love isn't as interesting as reading a few more love stories about fox spirits.
"Have you two kissed?" Bai Yulai asked sincerely.
"Cough, cough, cough—" Caught off guard, Mu Anqi nearly choked on her milk tea; it almost went up her nose. She started coughing painfully, while Ji Huaichu immediately patted her back to help her breathe.
"If you're eating, just eat properly. Why say so much nonsense?" Ji Huaichu shot Bai Yulai a look. "Of course couples have kissed."
Such an open and straightforward admission instantly made Bai Yulai lose interest. She glanced at Mu Anqi, whose face was flushed from coughing, and thought this little player was far more amusing than Ji Huaichu.
Bai Yulai wanted to ask a few more R-rated questions out of curiosity, but when Ji Huaichu looked at her, she shrank her neck back, nearly bristling in fright. Those questions… she swallowed them all down and didn't dare to "tease" anymore.
She asked Mu Anqi in a perfectly proper manner what movie they had just gone to see. When she heard it was a suspense film, her expression changed, and after Mu Anqi briefly summarized the plot, she was full of question marks: Is that something you watch on a date?!
Ji Huaichu—truly living up to her name.
When she then heard about their activities like shopping and catching dolls, she found it all terribly dull and uninteresting.
"Sigh, this is just too plain. I thought… Ji Huaichu, if you went on a date with your girlfriend, at least there would be some big news, some major event." Iron trees rarely bloom, and since there was no spectacle to watch, Bai Yulai looked disappointed. "The scenery on the Shattered Mirror Continent is quite nice too. Some areas are game zones, but there are places that aren't included—you could take your little girlfriend there to see them."
"Mm." After paying the bill, Ji Huaichu responded perfunctorily, then seriously thought for a moment about what places on the Shattered Mirror Continent might be worth visiting, and stood up to take her leave from Bai Yulai.
But the moment she stepped out of the bookstore, Bai Yulai's expression changed, and Ji Huaichu's face also grew unusually grim. She glanced at the black mist spreading across the shopping street without warning, then turned back to Bai Yulai with a cold look: "Plain and ordinary, a major event?"
"…I was just saying that casually…" Bai Yulai's voice lacked confidence as she shrank back into the bookstore. "Th-then should I notify the Mingdu? Or… I can go myself."
This Black Mirror vortex had appeared so suddenly, and the black fog spreading outward was expanding rapidly. If it was pollution… then the rate of contamination was simply too fast. Yet Ji Huaichu didn't feel much discomfort. At the first sign of the incident, the visitors on the shopping street tried their best to stay away from the black fog and flee outward. Everyone was quite familiar with sudden Black Mirror vortex events, so even though one appeared, there wasn't much panic. They simply did their best to evacuate the area, protect themselves, and help others withdraw when possible.
The city alarm soon began to sound. Ji Huaichu thought of the remaining days of Mu Anqi's vacation and felt a surge of irritation—those were days Mu Anqi could have spent dating her. But now, with a Black Mirror vortex right before them…
"General, can we go take a look?" Mu Anqi stared at the massive Black Mirror vortex. This one was completely different from the lethal contamination she had seen last time. The lethal vortex had taken the form of a skull, but this one… was huge, immensely huge. Though shrouded in black mist, the vortex kept expanding—not only the fog but the vortex itself. It seemed not yet fully formed, still continuously "growing." "This… seems really dangerous. If the local team responsible for handling the vortex hasn't arrived yet, maybe we can go in first to check the situation?" Maybe they could even slow down its expansion a little.
"Then let's go take a look." Ji Huaichu turned to Bai Yulai. "If any demon kings arrive, explain the situation to them."
"I got it," Bai Yulai said with full confidence. "Don't worry, I have great relations with all the demon kings around here!"
[Ding! You have entered the range of the Black Mirror vortex. Enter?]
Holding hands with General Ji, Mu Anqi passed through the black mist and saw part of the Black Mirror vortex. Suddenly, it looked to her like an enormous stage—on it were a group of puppets being controlled, their strings faintly visible through the shrouding fog, all connected to a shadow high in the sky… too obscured to see clearly.
"Yes."
Tightening her grip on the general's hand, Mu Anqi calmly confirmed. Then came the familiar sensation of teleportation—
[Ding! Entering Black Mirror vortex…]
[Beep! Instance activated: The Drama of Fate!]
[Entering… please wait…]
[Beep! Passive skill "Chosen One" activated!]
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[Congratulations, player has received 1850 + 500 Guan Si.]
When her feet finally touched solid ground again, Mu Anqi looked expressionlessly at her right hand—her big general was gone once more.
Even holding hands couldn't guarantee they'd be teleported together? Mu Anqi sighed. Oh well, it didn't matter. They could regroup soon anyway.
That was what she thought.
Until she saw a group of beast-headed, human-bodied demons emerge from the forest, holding wooden sticks, shovels, and other tools, surrounding her.
"What on earth were you thinking? Do you want to get the whole village killed!?"
"It's your blessing that the Mountain God took a liking to you! To be chosen as his wife—you should be overjoyed, yet you tried to run away?"
The sudden barrage of accusations left Mu Anqi completely dumbfounded. Hearing the words "your blessing," she instinctively retorted, "If it's such a blessing, why don't you take it?"
"Well, well! She dares to talk back! Grab her! The ritual starts in two days—we can't afford any mistakes." The tiger-headed, human-bodied one in the lead barked the order, and the other villagers swarmed forward, trying to drag her back to the village.
Completely unaware of the plot, Mu Anqi hesitated for a moment, glanced at the ten or so villagers, and said, "Wishing you prosperity!" She was about to use the blessing phrase to control them and force out the story behind this village—but the moment the words left her mouth, everything before her twisted. The black mist gathered and dispersed again, and when she opened her eyes, Mu Anqi was standing dazed in place as distant noises drew rapidly closer—
The group of beast-headed, human-bodied monsters appeared again, surrounding her. "What on earth were you thinking? Do you want to get the whole village killed!?"
Reset?
What was going on?! Was she unable to use skills in this Black Mirror vortex or something?! Mu Anqi said "Wishing you prosperity" again, but the skill didn't activate. Which meant… the previous use of the blessing phrase had indeed counted. This reset wasn't a true restart from the beginning.
The Drama of Fate…? Mu Anqi thought of the external image she'd seen before entering the vortex—though it hadn't been clear, combined with the vortex's name, it seemed she had become one of the puppets on that stage.
Fate? How ironic. Using a skill caused a reset? But even after the reset, the skill still counted as used.
Mu Anqi let out a cold laugh. She looked up at the sky, as if she could see the invisible strings binding every person, and above this world's heavens, an unfamiliar figure holding those strings, performing at will.
"Take her back!"
Just as the villagers were closing in to grab her again, Mu Anqi calmly used her skill to generate a red envelope. Perhaps because she hadn't targeted the villagers directly, the timeline didn't reset this time.
After all, her skill had been upgraded to allow full-time employment!
The tiger-headed man in the lead clearly held a high position in the village—whether he was the village chief or the chief's son, Mu Anqi couldn't tell… since she didn't even know what other positions existed besides "village chief." Gritting her teeth, she directly put 200 Guan Si into the red envelope and stuffed it into the hands of that tiger-headed, human-bodied man.
"Do your best to cooperate with me inside this Black Mirror vortex!"
When Mu Anqi gave the command, the timeline still didn't reset—until—
[Skill activated successfully!] The notification sounded, and the black mist once again spread.
Mu Anqi wasn't surprised by this reset. When the group of beastly villagers rushed over again, she clearly saw the complicated expression on the tiger-headed villager's face. Obviously, the skill had worked.
Ordinary NPCs had no value in being bribed, so this time Mu Anqi obediently followed the group of villagers back to the village. She was just a bit curious—what was going on with General Ji's side? In this kind of instance that could reset… if these villagers were killed, would they truly die or would they revive? Was General Ji also facing the trouble of being captured to become the Mountain God's new bride?
The Drama of Fate—this time, the Black Mirror vortex had clearly assigned specific identities to the players who entered. Mu Anqi wondered: just how many "brides of the Mountain God" were there? And if a male resident of the Underworld accidentally got pulled into the vortex, what would happen to him? Would he… become the Mountain God's groom?
With such questions in mind, Mu Anqi was brought into a courtyard. There lay a yellow dog—and its head looked exactly like one of the dog-headed villagers! Didn't these villagers find that strange at all?
Mu Anqi was locked into a side room. Standing in the courtyard was a wolf-headed couple who were likely the "parents" of the bride character she was assigned. Mu Anqi neither knew her role's background nor cared to keep up the act. When the couple once again tried to persuade her "for the sake of the village," Mu Anqi couldn't help but say, "How many wives does the Mountain God have already? One more or one less won't make a difference, right?"