Thank you @Jill for the Kofi. (1/2)
Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 307: Triple Mirror
……”
“Damn it… I didn’t expect it to actually work.”
Wen Jianyan lay on the ground, gasping for breath with an uneven rhythm. His pale, sweat-drenched face bore an expression of lingering terror. He stared blankly at the ceiling above, as if still unable to recover from what had just transpired.
Although he had appeared swift and decisive earlier, seemingly without hesitation, the truth was that he had been panicking the entire time. Throughout the process, Wen Jianyan’s nerves had been stretched taut, as if they might snap at any moment. Only now did he finally relax.
After all, he hadn’t been certain that what he did would work.
Moments ago, Wen Jianyan could have chosen to abandon one side and confront only a single ghost. Although the risk wasn’t insignificant, as long as he utilized the props effectively, success wasn’t out of the question. In any case, his odds of survival wouldn’t have been low.
However, Wen Jianyan ultimately chose the most dangerous approach—one that the vast majority of people wouldn’t dare to attempt.
He decided to face both ghosts simultaneously.
This wasn’t out of arrogance or stinginess.
After all, when it came to survival, Wen Jianyan had never been reluctant to spend points or use props.
He did this to prove one of his theories.
Up until now, far too many anomalies had surfaced in the Xingwang Hotel instance. Wen Jianyan could clearly sense a strong feeling of familiarity embedded within it.
A mirror image.
And Wen Jianyan was the person most experienced in dealing with this kind of mirroring phenomenon.
As such, he quickly realized that the entire Xingwang Hotel was a vertical mirror image.
Although there wasn’t a strict barrier between each floor, the upper two floors and the lower two floors were divided into two factions. Even without entering other floors, one could complete the instance tasks while simultaneously competing against the opposing faction.
At the same time, there was a similar connection between the Xingwang Hotel and the Rainy Town.
Moreover, the states of “lights off” and “lights on” determined whether the anchors could shuttle between the two.
The same applied within Rainy Town itself.
Here, the water’s surface was a literal mirror.
Below the water’s surface was the world of malevolent ghosts, while above the surface was the area where humans could move freely.
From this perspective…
The entire Xingwang Hotel bore a striking resemblance to Decai Middle School in essence.
Both shared the core concept of “mirroring.”
However, unlike the simpler structure of Decai Middle School, the Xingwanng Hotel was composed of no fewer than three mirrors.
-The upper and lower two floors of the hotel.
-The hotel and the town.
-The water’s surface above and below within the town.
And the rules governing traversal between these three mirrored spaces became progressively stricter.
Within the hotel, moving between the third and fourth floors and the first and second floors required only the use of the stairs, with no obstacles in between.
To enter the town from the hotel, however, one had to wait for the lights to go out.
But within the town…
To move from above the water to below it, there seemed to be no method other than “death.”
Although the ghosts below the mirror could attack and even kill humans, their actions weren’t without conditions—the “guest” attack rules demonstrated this.
Essentially, they and humans didn’t exist in the same dimension. Humans couldn’t see them, and they couldn’t see humans—unless the anchor’s shadow was cast onto the water’s surface. Only then could they kill.
From this perspective, humans were at a severe disadvantage.
While humans could limit the appearance of mirrors to increase their chances of survival, in the Xingwang Hotel instance, such measures were severely restricted.
Not to mention the relentless rain in the town, leaving few dry places. More importantly, even the interior of the Xingwang Hotel wasn’t absolutely safe.
The “guests” themselves could create mirrors to hunt humans.
If this situation continued until the later stages of the instance, the space for human survival would become increasingly constrained, essentially leaving no path to escape.
Could it be… there was no way for them to influence the world beneath the mirror?
At first, Wen Jianyan had thought so.
But after careful consideration, he arrived at an entirely different conclusion.
No, it was possible.
After all, a mirror is always two-way.
Since they could move from the fourth floor to the first floor, it was only natural that they could also return from the first floor to the fourth floor. Similarly, if they could enter Rainy Town from Xingwang Hotel after the lights went out, they could, under the same conditions, return to Xingwang Hotel.
By the same logic, although the ghosts couldn’t leave the area beneath the water’s surface, they could still kill humans. Therefore, humans, even without directly entering the reflections, could also counter the ghosts.
But the question was, how?
An answer slowly surfaced in his mind:
[Medium]
To put it simply, if the world beneath the water’s surface was entirely unaffected by the outside, they wouldn’t have been able to bring the “former guests” from Rainy Town back to Xingwang Hotel. However, the moment they brought the painting back to the hotel, the “person” in the painting naturally became one of the hotel’s residents.
The same logic applied to the human-skin umbrella.
Although the shadow of the ghost had never fully revealed itself, it undoubtedly followed the umbrella.
By the same principle…
These items could also be used to restrict the actions of the “guests.”
Wen Jianyan keenly detected faint traces of underlying rules.
Perhaps…
This was an opportunity.
A clue.
A lifeline.
In the Xingwang Hotel instance, there were far too many ghosts, each with a variety of invasion methods. If there were no means to counter them…
To verify the validity of his theory, Wen Jianyan had taken such a bold and dangerous gamble.
He needed to know the answer to this question, no matter what.
Otherwise, as time passed and the number of ghosts in the hotel reached a certain threshold, by the second or third day, they would have no means to fight back.
They’d only be waiting for death.
But this was undoubtedly a dangerous game.
Fortunately…
He had won the bet.
Ghosts could indeed restrict each other through a medium.
The umbrella blocked the rain above, but more importantly, it blocked the light source. This prevented the “guest” from pinpointing Wen Jianyan’s location, forcing it to stop its actions.
The child under the umbrella could kill other people beneath it, but it couldn’t kill the “guest,” who was also a ghost.
Thus, a fragile balance was formed between the two, leaving both parties immobilized.
Of course, if the gamble had failed…
Wen Jianyan had prepared a backup plan.
Since entering the instance, he had placed the Holy Infant’s Remains in the quick-access slot of his backpack. If his theory turned out to be wrong, he could activate it immediately. After all, he was already near the exit. This item could grant him temporary invincibility, giving him enough time to reach the safe zone.
“……”
In any case, he had survived.
Wen Jianyan lay on the ground, completely drained. His clothes were soaked with rain, and the coldness seeped into his body. His chest rose and fell rapidly. Even though he knew he was safe now, his heart still pounded violently, as if trying to burst through his ribs.
At that moment, a familiar face appeared in his line of sight. White hair, a pale, expressionless face, and pitch-black, eerie eyes.
“……”
Wen Jianyan blinked, dislodging the water droplets from his eyelashes.
It was Bai Xue.
He realized that Bai Xue had already entered the room and was now crouching beside him, leaning in to look at him.
“!”
Wen Jianyan finally reacted.
He scrambled to his feet and looked at Bai Xue. “Ah! Are you okay?”
“……”
Bai Xue didn’t reply.
Expressionless, he simply raised his head and stared intently at Wen Jianyan’s face.
After all, they had left the small building together under the same umbrella. Logically, the umbrella should have affected both of them equally. However, since the “guest” had been drawn to Wen Jianyan, the pressure on Bai Xue had been significantly reduced. With his top-tier skills, evading one ghost shouldn’t have been a problem.
“Sorry…” Wen Jianyan raised a hand to scratch his damp hair, giving an apologetic smile. “I was too focused just now. Did you encounter any danger?”
Bai Xue: “……”
He still didn’t speak.
Wen Jianyan felt slightly unnerved under his gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
“……” Bai Xue finally averted his gaze, his eyelashes trembling slightly. Then, he silently shook his head.
“That’s good.”
Wen Jianyan exhaled in relief and got up from the ground.
He stood, water dripping from his soaked clothes and quickly forming a puddle at his feet.
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look outside the small house.
Not far from the door, the human-skin umbrella still floated motionless in the air. Beneath it, there was nothing but an eerie emptiness. However, in the puddle below, two indistinct silhouettes were faintly visible.
One tall, one short. One large, one small. Both stood still as though locked in conflict, only to descend into prolonged silence together.
In the barrage of the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Damn… using items with ghostly traces to make two ghosts clash—this kind of gameplay is actually allowed?]
[It’s allowed. There’s precedent in Xingwang Hotel, but such strategies are usually discovered on the second or even third day. But this is only the first day’s second blackout. How did he figure it out? I can’t wrap my head around it!]
[Me neither! The instance hasn’t even provided any hints yet, right? And he managed to deduce this on his own? I’m genuinely stunned. Just how well does he understand the instance mechanics? I’m in awe!]
[So… does this mean the two ghosts have been dealt with?]
[That was too easy… wasn’t it?]
As if to confirm the viewers’ speculations, Wen Jianyan suddenly frowned and instinctively took a step forward, his eyes fixed on the umbrella floating in the air.
Through the thin veil of rain, he could clearly see the umbrella’s once human-skin-like surface darkening rapidly, taking on a sickly greenish-purple hue, like the spread of livor mortis. It was as if the umbrella wasn’t made of fabric but was an actual human corpse.
At the same time, the child’s reflection in the water beneath the umbrella grew increasingly blurry, as though it would disappear any moment.
In the barrage of the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Don’t worry, they won’t be ‘dealt with.’ To be precise, neither of them will be resolved.]
[The number of items tied to a ghost isn’t singular. For example, that child. It can kill using the umbrella but also exists in the painting. If someone brings the painting back to the hotel, the child can reappear. These items function as gateways, and there’s never just one.]
[However, the quality and hierarchy of these items differ. The painting is the origin, while items like the umbrella and other mundane objects are secondary. Even if the conflict can be leveraged to pit the ghosts against each other, it will only be temporary. The entity tied to the origin will always be the most terrifying.]
Wen Jianyan felt a chill run through his heart.
Clearly, he realized this as well.
The umbrella wouldn’t hold the “guest” for long. It was only a matter of time before it broke apart. While the child tied to the umbrella might vanish, it didn’t mean it would “die.”
If the conditions were met, it would reappear.
Although the Xingwang Hotel instance provided anchors with certain countermeasures, they couldn’t fundamentally overturn the humans’ disadvantage.
Faced with these incomprehensible, incommunicable, and indestructible horrors…
Their only option was to run.
Wen Jianyan turned and scanned the room. He quickly spotted an umbrella stand. In it, a single umbrella rested, tilted at an angle.
This was it.
This must be the “painting with a single guest” they had been looking for. Now, all they had to do was bring the other anchors here, and they could use this to return to the Xingwang Hotel.
There was less than an hour left. They didn’t have time to waste.
Wen Jianyan waved at Bai Xue.
“Let’s go. We’ll meet up with the others.”
The umbrella was still necessary.
Although prolonged use could summon ghosts, it remained the only tool that allowed them to move freely through the rain.
Wen Jianyan and Bai Xue each opened an umbrella and hurried into the rain.
Behind them, the half-darkened umbrella floated eerily in the air. Its presence was ghastly and unnerving.
The reflections in the water beneath it stayed utterly still.
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze.
[Mirrors.]
This was the second instance centered entirely on mirrors since Decai High School.
This time, it was a triple-layered mirror.
Moreover, before entering the instance, Nightmare had specifically contacted him to request that he eliminate certain “bug remnants” within the instance.
Wen Jianyan refused to believe that this instance had no connection to Wu Zhu.
With that thought, he subconsciously turned the ouroboros ring on his middle finger with his thumb.
The cold metal sent a faint sting through his skin.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath.
It seemed he would need to have another “talk” with Wu Zhu once they returned to the Xingwang Hotel.
He just wasn’t sure what state Wu Zhu was in now…
Had he regained his sanity?
The memory of their last encounter flashed through his mind, and Wen Jianyan felt his temples throb with a growing headache.
He hadn’t even been this stressed while analyzing the instance!
Troublesome.
This was all so troublesome.
Whether it was influencing the world inside the mirror from the outside or vice versa, both required a medium.
The painting and the umbrella were mediums—gateways that allowed the “guests” to invade reality from their reflections.
