Mu Anqi looked suspiciously at General Ji beside her. She asked inwardly, "General Ji? We're not separated this time?"
"…" Ji Huaichu found this somewhat amusing, but it also showed how cautious her little money tree was. She gave Mu Anqi's fingers a slight squeeze and replied mentally, "Not every Black Mirror Vortex separates people upon entry."
Ah, that's right. When she entered the Black Mirror Vortex with her companions before, they hadn't been separated either. Thinking this, Mu Anqi asked aloud, "The first time I met you was at the Taiyin Circus. Where was the second time we met?"
"Seven Nights Hotel." Ji Huaichu answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Congratulations, you got it right! Your reward is a little girlfriend!" Mu Anqi patted Ji Huaichu's shoulder and joked with a laugh. After this, she became serious again. "This Black Mirror Vortex is called 'Bizarre Tales and Strange Words.' It sounds like a collection of ghost stories, maybe a dungeon that's a jumbled mix of various supernatural incidents."
If that were really the case… Mu Anqi thought optimistically: It seems this Black Mirror Vortex will be another game without any difficulty.
It was currently night in the world of the Black Mirror Vortex, and a light rain was falling. The familiar scene reminded Mu Anqi of the Bloody Night Abyss instance, but this time they were standing on a street, with faceless pedestrians passing back and forth.
[You and your lover originally planned to get something to eat, but it started to drizzle just as you reached the street. You didn't bring an umbrella, and your lover seems somewhat irritated. "Let's just eat anything and go back," she says. But you can't decide what to eat for the moment—]
[A. Go check out the food street across the road.]
[B. Go to the convenience store to buy an umbrella first.]
[C. "Then let's just go back directly!"]
What the… Mu Anqi was shocked as she looked at the multiple-choice question that appeared before her. She wanted to look at Ji Huaichu, but her body was completely immobilized. The pedestrians were frozen stiff. It was as if the entire world had paused until she made a choice?
"Can you hear me? General?" The restraint prevented her from moving or speaking, but it couldn't restrict her thoughts. Mu Anqi thought of Ji Huaichu and asked inwardly, quickly receiving an affirmative response. Mu Anqi relayed the suddenly appeared backstory and the three options to Ji Huaichu. "Do you see the same three options? I feel like all three have traps waiting for me."
"Then just pick one randomly," Ji Huaichu said. "Bizarre Tales and Strange Words… they all end up turning into supernatural incidents eventually. Your choice probably just determines the speed and difficulty of the encounter."
Then… let's go buy an umbrella first? Now that she thought about it, quite a few ghost stories were also associated with umbrellas. Mu Anqi chose option B, and was immediately able to move freely. A faint blue, glowing arrow appeared on the ground, pointing the way to the convenience store. Mu Anqi also tested whether she could walk somewhere other than the convenience store—but they seemed to be restricted by this first "Strange Tale." No matter where they went, they couldn't trigger any other tasks. It seemed they had to follow the main storyline to proceed; otherwise, they were just wasting time.
"Can we break out of this framework?" Mu Anqi asked. If possible… skipping straight to fighting the BOSS, clearing the instance, and then embarking on their trip would be quite nice too.
"It's possible, but if we don't capture the center of the Black Mirror Vortex, we might just enter the next bizarre tale."
"…" Mu Anqi sighed. In that case, they might as well honestly play along with the story game for now.
When they reached the convenience store entrance, they found only a single red cane umbrella leaning lonely against a shelf. There was no price tag on this umbrella. Mu Anqi stepped forward and picked it up, inexplicably feeling a damp, sticky sensation, but no water stains appeared on her hand. It seemed this was the umbrella that would trigger the bizarre tale?
Ji Huaichu took the umbrella from Mu Anqi's hand. They walked towards the checkout counter, only to find that the shop assistant who had been there just moments before had suddenly vanished. At that moment, a flash of lightning lit up the outside, followed by a low rumble of thunder, and the rain began to pour down heavily in an instant.
"Is anyone here? We'd like to check out." Mu Anqi had even intended to use her red envelope skill, but now there was no one here, and thus no target to use it on.
[The thunderstorm outside is growing heavier. Both you and your lover feel extremely irritable and hungry. You both really want to eat something quickly and then go home to rest. But the shop assistant is nowhere to be found, and there's only this single red umbrella in the convenience store. Regarding this, you decide:]
[A. Leave the money on the counter and take the umbrella.]
[B. There's no money, just take the umbrella and leave.]
[C. Wait for the disappeared shop assistant to return.]
"I'm not feeling irritable about this," Ji Huaichu said in a low voice. "But afterwards, I did start to feel hungry."
"Hmm, if we take the umbrella and leave, we'll probably end up fighting whatever's inside it." Mu Anqi looked at the bright red umbrella. As time passed and the rain outside grew heavier, the sense of foreboding emanating from the umbrella intensified. This feeling… made it hard for Mu Anqi not to suspect that this umbrella possessed some form of mental attack. And her pendant only had one protective shield. In that case… "Let's wait for the shop assistant to return!"
Placing the umbrella back against the shelf, Mu Anqi waited by the checkout counter. After making the choice, the plot proceeded normally. Accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps, Mu Anqi prepared herself to use a blessing. However, the person who rushed into the convenience store was an ordinary young man, drenched from the heavy rain, seemingly just a regular customer. He brushed past Mu Anqi and the others into the store, as if in a hurry to do something. He grabbed the red umbrella, ran over, stuffed three ten-dollar bills into Mu Anqi's hand, muttered, "Keep the change!" and rushed back out into the rain.
This turn of events left Mu Anqi stunned. She placed the thirty dollars on the counter and looked at General Ji with shock and uncertainty. She had expected the young man to suddenly attack or reveal his true form, but instead… he had taken the obviously problematic umbrella away?
Mu Anqi looked out the door. The young man was walking in the rain, holding the umbrella open. The blood-red umbrella was particularly conspicuous in the night. Vaguely, Mu Anqi saw a beautiful face flash briefly on the surface of the umbrella. When she looked more closely, a pale arm was now resting on the young man's shoulder, and long, black hair cascaded down—They walked into the rain and disappeared within it.
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"Is the first bizarre tale over?" Mu Anqi was a bit confused. Just then, the shop assistant walked out from the back storage room of the convenience store.
"Do you need anything?"
[A. We need an umbrella.]
[B. We want to shelter from the rain here for a while.]
[C. We don't need anything.]
"We need an umbrella," Mu Anqi replied thus.
"You need an umbrella?" The young shop assistant's gait was a bit strange. He lifted his head, revealing a brilliant smile with eight impeccably clean teeth. He walked towards the shelf, but the spot where the red umbrella had been was empty. "But, the umbrellas are all sold out. Since that's the case… How about I make one for you on the spot!"
The moment his words fell, a meter-long sharp knife was drawn from beneath his clothes! No one knew how it had been hidden there without being noticed, almost like a pocket from another dimension. Red threads coiled around the tip of the sharp blade. The shop assistant's brilliant smile instantly became even more brilliant and distorted. His body stretched and elongated continuously, as if some seal had been released—"You… will definitely make very beautiful umbrellas!"
"Boom—"
However the shop assistant had charged forward madly was exactly how he was kicked back like a cannonball by Ji Huaichu. He crashed into several shelves but didn't seem to be injured. Ji Huaichu waved her hand, summoning her long sword, and charged forward, slashing down before the shop assistant could even get up.
"Have a smooth journey," Mu Anqi said flatly. The shop assistant, who had been about to rise and resist, stiffened. In that uncontrollable instant, a cold gleam flashed—he was cleaved directly in two.
No blood flowed out. His skin slackened and collapsed into two halves on the floor. A shadowy figure, sneering, took the opportunity to drill out and rushed straight towards Ji Huaichu's body.
"Smooth sailing." Was the control lifted once because the "host" skin died? Mu Anqi didn't understand the underlying principle, but her enunciation was extremely fast, and Ji Huaichu's instinctive reactions were equally swift. Along with her second blessing word, the sound of the long sword cutting through the air rang out. The long sword, shrouded in Yin energy, slashed down at the black shadow again. The shadow didn't even have the ability to dodge or change its attack. The blade passed through the shadow, directly dispersing it. Within the overflowing black mist, countless screams erupted, only to be grabbed in the next instant by the ghostly hands rising from beneath Ji Huaichu's feet and dragged directly into the shadow on the ground.
[Bizarre Tales Cleared: 1]
A small prompt appeared. The human skin piled on the floor like clothing disappeared without a trace. After the prompt from the Nirvana Space appeared, the entire convenience store became covered in a layer of dust, transforming into a dilapidated, long-abandoned appearance. The bright lights dimmed, a large hole appeared in the glass door, and bloodstains on the floor, aged for who knows how long, were covered in dust. Mu Anqi stood inside the convenience store, hesitated for a moment, then pulled Ji Huaichu out of the shop. She saw clear footprints belonging to them on the floor of the derelict store.
"That's… it?" She had thought it would be a chain reaction—for example, just after killing the shop assistant, the red umbrella would return by itself, forcing them to deal with the Lady of the Umbrella.
[It seems you had a strange dream. When you sobered up, you found the rain had stopped. At this time,]
[A. Let's go find a place to eat.]
[B. Today feels weird, better just go home directly.]
[C. Was that red umbrella also a dream? But that young man… Should we go look for it?]
"One bizarre tale at home, one at the restaurant, one with the red umbrella… That's what it means, right?" Mu Anqi moved her body somewhat vexedly. This darn game didn't specify how many bizarre tales they needed to complete to meet the boss, and the Nirvana Space gave no hints either. She also didn't know if the Black Mirror Vortex BOSS was Malice or a conscious ghost. If it was a ghost… perhaps they could discuss it with Lady Red and maybe even recruit it to work in their game. "General, where do you want to go first?"
"Let's go check out a restaurant," Ji Huaichu said. "We might trigger more bizarre tale options there."