by N. Heller
Lin Sanjiu stored the paper and pen. She threw a glance at Ji Shanqing who was still pursing his lips.
"You are an intelligent person, otherwise you wouldn't understand my plan the second you saw me. You even thought of a way to trick me so that I would die, on the spot, no less. If that is the case, why would an intelligent person like you give up on trying a route that has a ⅔ chance of being correct. Instead, you told me to walk to another side?
"I am not the most intelligent person around. Yet, I can see the problem. There is no way you would think of it. After thinking about it, the only explanation for this is that you don't care about the boundary line. You don't care to explore the layout of the building. You were only pretending…" When Lin Sanjiu said this, she narrowed her eyes. A cold glint danced across her eyes.
"That is because I already know the interior layout of this building," Ji Shanqing nodded and replied softly.
"You fessed up quicker than I thought you would," Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly and took a step backward. She looked at him from head to toe, "Even though the mirror maze seemed to be arranged irrationally, if a person is patient enough, there are a few ways to slowly figure out its layout. You allowed me to take the right route because you were certain that I would turn back. You also predicted that I would die. Second, even if I find out the layout of this place, I wouldn't be able to find the grand prize."
Ji Shanqing's expression started to change a little. He looked back at her with his tranquil eyes.
"I didn't expect you would think it through. I underestimated you." The moment he looked back at her grinning, he did seem like a young lad but there was a hint of insanity in his eyes. "Since you have already brought this up, I will be honest with you. This final pitstop is just a joke! I have already walked through every mirror chamber in this building but I couldn't find any present. There isn't any way out, not above, not under, not anywhere. I can't eat, I can't drink and I can't even sleep because of the three minutes limit! There were a few times that I only reacted when the countdown nearly ended. Do you know what this means? I am only twenty-two but I will die trapped in here! If that is the case, why shouldn't I get a few more people to die with me!?"
His voice grew louder and louder until he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Even the veins on his forehead popped. However, Lin Sanjiu crossed her arms and did not move. She waited for him to finish before she clapped her hands.
"What a great speech," she narrowed her eyes and laughed. "That was exactly what I was thinking before this. Oh, of course, I don't need others to die with me."
Ji Shanqing probably didn't expect her to react in that manner. He stood in the same spot, stunned. His c.h.e.s.t rose and sank as he stared.
"Since you mentioned about the three-minute limit, I thought of something."
When Lin Sanjiu saw the lad's sinking face, it was as if she had seen the most interesting sight in the world.
"Before you came in, I have been wallowing in my own anger and self-pity for quite some time. After you came in, I bought time by intentionally saying a lot of bullshit. But, guess what?" She felt her opponent tensing up the moment she smiled, "It has already been more than three minutes but there is no announcement."
"What was that announcement? 'Please leave the mirror chamber at once and look for the location of the grand prize', right?" Lin Sanjiu repeated the words exactly. With her eyes on Ji Shanqing's face, she added, "I thought that was a warning, but it is actually a hint. When it isn't broadcasted, does that mean… I've found the grand prize?"
"I think you've gone crazy thinking about the grand prize." Ji Shanqing laughed dryly only after some time.
Lin Sanjiu's expression turned stoic as she looked at him unblinkingly. "If I am wrong, why aren't you leaving? You only need to reach out and touch a mirror, I have no way of making you stay."
Ji Shanqing pursed his lips tighter. His expression turned darker, he did not move.
"Well, that's because if a player recognizes the grand prize for what it is and it runs instead, that would be quite ridiculous, right?" Lin Sanjiu said pleasantly, "This explains why you don't seem male or female… An item is genderless, right? You travel around the mirror chambers just to create the false impression that you are also a player, no?"
Ji Shanqing took a deep breath and lowered his head. The words he said next were so soft that Lin Sanjiu nearly couldn't hear them, "You might die more comfortably trapped in this maze, but you chose to challenge the fate of calling me out."
Chapter 391 - But I’m Not Called Lin San
Ji Shanqing was not showing a false bravado when he said those words.
"Your wings!" Mrs. Manas shrieked. Lin Sanjiu didn't even have the time to turn her head. She contracted her back muscles and quickly retracted her two large wings. The sharp tips of her wings scr.a.p.ed the surface of a mirror with a screech but thankfully the mirror did not break. Lin Sanjiu had barely caught her breath, her heart was still pounding when a beam of light shot out once again from the mirror above her. She let out a low anxious grunt before she leaped away from her original spot. However, when she turned around and lifted one of her arms, which now seemed to her like several tons, the light had already hit the mirror on the floor. The beam was reflected. It split into various directions and vanished into the surroundings.
Lin Sanjiu could hear her own labored panting. She tried to close her eyes tightly before opening them again, but her vision was still very blurry.
"Look, this was unnecessary." Multiple deformed reflections of Ji Shanqing stood within the twenty-one mirrors in the chamber. With a passive expression, every single pair of eyes were fixated on Lin Sanjiu. Their mouths moved at the same time as he spoke, "Now, you are going to die just when you see a glimmer of hope, isn't that worse?"
Lin Sanjiu did not utter a word. Her eyes darted around the mirror chamber. It took a significant effort for her to even move her eyes. She would turn to look behind her every now and then, which made her look a little like a neurotic wreak.
They had only been fighting for about two to three minutes but Lin Sanjiu was already tired from evading. She had not anticipated that Ji Shanqing would suddenly reach out to touch a mirror. After that, he turned into a beam of light and entered the mirror. An exact reflection of him appeared in the mirror just a second later.
Lin Sanjiu was fighting against multiple reflections, with no actual body, all by herself.
No, in fact, there wasn't any difference between the reflections and Ji Shanqing's "real body". Every single Ji Shanqing in the twenty-one mirrors could "shoot" out from the mirror like a beam of light. They moved so fast that Lin Sanjiu couldn't even see what they were, she could only catch a streak of color as they moved. However, the moment they came close, they would immediately become a special penetrating attack. Nevertheless, this was not the most troubling part of his attacks.
The beam of light from the ceiling mirror diffused into multiple beams as if they followed the laws of reflection of light. These diffused beams filled the chamber. Some of them were reflected and some would even disappear naturally. But most of these beams pierced through Lin Sanjiu's armorless body.
Her hypersensory sense was rendered useless early during the fight. Firstly, the beams of light did not cause the air molecules in the chamber to move. Next, Lin Sanjiu had been attacked so many times that she couldn't feel her skin or her muscles. She was merely using her higher consciousness to control her limbs while she used whatever remaining senses she had to judge where she would land. Her limbs felt as if they had been pumped with so many liters of anesthetic that she didn't even know where they were if she did not look down at them. In fact, it was a surprise to her that she managed to avoid breaking any mirrors and dying on the spot up till this point.
The beams of light within the enclosed mirror chamber were reflected non-stop. If a person couldn't dodge light, they naturally wouldn't be able to dodge Ji Shanqing's light attacks.
"He can attack me continuously
until I die, but—" Before Lin Sanjiu could complete her thought, she felt a familiar attack behind her. Another light beam had hit her. At that moment, it was as if she could feel her individual pores exploding. The impact seemed to have affected her blood flow and her blood rushed backward toward her heart. Her vision went black and she fell uncontrollably to the floor. With that, that beam of light shot past her head and slipped into the opposite mirror, changing back into a reflection of Ji Shanqing, observing her with his head tilted.
If it was possible, Lin Sanjiu wished she could just lie down and not get up from the mirror she was on. However, she already spotted Ji Shanqing's reflection from the bottom corner of her eyes. He was approaching her from the mirror she was lying on.
All the hair on her body stood on end as she struggled to climb up with her dangling limbs. She had lost almost all the sensation from her limbs and almost all control. She didn't even know how she managed to stand up on her feet. Yet, the moment she stood up, a beam of light hit her abdomen solidly.
"No! You will die if this continues!" Seeing Lin Sanjiu struggling to survive even after doing her utmost to fight, there was fear in Mrs. Manas' voice for the first time. "You should just escape! You can slowly think of a better way to deal with him after you escape!"
Lin Sanjiu only realized that her forehead was bleeding when something seeped into her eyes. She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes. "There is no way out," she replied in her mind as she shook her head weakly.
Mrs. Manas was immediately speechless. She was an "agent" created by Lin Sanjiu's subconsciousness to better facilitate the control of the latter's higher consciousness. She was the one who had been desperately controlling Lin Sanjiu's wings with her higher consciousness to force them under control. Unfortunately, this was also the reason why she wasn't so aware of what was happening in Lin Sanjiu immediate consciousness.
"When I was dodging those light attacks, I have touched the mirrors multiple times." For some reason, Lin Sanjiu said that words out loud instead of communicating to Mrs. Manas with her mind. As her tongue was also numb, her words were unclear. "But, they 'repelled' me back."
The "path" through the mirrors had not been sealed. Lin Sanjiu was sure of that so she didn't dare to break any of them. However, perhaps because she had found the grand prize, or perhaps by Ji Shanqing's doing, she was thrown back into the same room even after atomization.
"Even though I know you're the grand prize, what the hell are you?!" Lin Sanjiu grumbled as she looked at the countless Ji Shanqing's faces around her with her somewhat unfocused gaze. Her comment caused all of them to crook their heads and look at her for a moment. They crossed their arms of various sizes at the same time and replied her simultaneously with a gentle voice, "Do you want to know? I am the grand prize, but I am not just an item.
"Ever since I gained self-awareness, you are not the first person to suspect my identity. However, I continue to exist here, traveling through the mirror chambers. The people who had identified me had all died. Once they died, they became part of me—that is part of the present at the final pitstop.
"Some people say that the grand prize is a formidable ability; some say that it is a normal world where no one has to continue through the fate of changing worlds; some say that it is a wish… No one in the world knows what I can do, yet they all want to hunt me down greedily. Thanks to all you dead people, every time I gain a 'new addition', I'm able to do more. If I try my best not to be unwrapped, I will definitely leave this unfathomable place and become someone that none of you can even imagine." When Lin Sanjiu saw Ji Shanqing's expression, he seemed as serene as before but his eyes, the numerous eyes around her, were burning with insane zeal. "Come, it is now the time for you to make your contribution."
"Oh, really?" Lin Sanjiu peered down at Ji Shanqing's reflection on the floor and she flashed a weak smile, "Well, there is one thing you need to remember, no good end will come to people who say too much bullshit."
"What else can you do—" Before Ji Shanqing could finish his sentence, he saw something in Lin Sanjiu's hand. Next, she whipped that thing violently to one side. That item whipped up a strong tornado which immediately headed toward the left mirror like a caged beast. It hit the mirror walls and they immediately heard the sound of the mirror shattering. A few mirrors were quickly smashed into a few large broken mirror pieces. As expected, Lin Sanjiu's [Tornado Whip] had allowed her to smash the mirror without being atomized.
Despite that, the multiple reflections of Ji Shanqing, above, below and around her, started to look as if they were holding back their laughter, "Did you think you could escape like this? You're too naive!"
Lin Sanjiu had already noticed the problem. The moment the mirror pieces started to slide down a little from the four or five mirrors, they would return to their right positions in quick succession. In a blink of an eye, the mirrors became good as new and Ji Shanqing's reflection appeared once more on their surfaces. There was a look of mockery on Ji Shanqing unworldly, good-looking face. His red lips parted almost as if he wanted to say something but before he could make a sound, Lin Sanjiu swung her [Tornado Whip] crazily around her as if she had lost all her rationality. If her precious action was only a test, this time Lin Sanjiu went all out without holding back. A tornado, several times stronger than the previous, swept through the mirror chamber swallowing up half the mirrors. Her action was a perfect comeback to Ji Shanqing's "Are you mad, you bitch?"
When the tornado hit the mirrors, cracks tore through the surfaces. Before they could re-assemble themselves, they were hit by another tornado. After Ji Shanqing watched as Lin Sanjiu wasted her effort destroying the mirrors several times, he finally realized what was amiss.
Somehow, the mirror chamber was only half as bright as before. There was no longer light filtering through half of all the slit between the mirrors. The chamber became so dim that the reflections in the mirror were muddied and blurred. Ji Shanqing immediately stepped closer to the surface of the mirror. Twenty-one blurred faces suddenly grew larger in the mirror as he stepped closer, "You... So, this was your plan!"
Lin Sanjiu laughed lightly as she wiped the side of her mouth, still feeling a little terrified at what could have happened. Ji Shanqing had really pushed her to the brink of death. No matter how skillful she was, there was no way she could move faster than light. The only difference between Ji Shanqing's reflections and a normal ray of light was that he was more vicious and unpredictable.
However, Lin Sanjiu wasn't one to give up when even a tiny glimmer of hope still existed. There was always a way out in any world, let alone a pocket dimension. She knew that there was definitely a solution to her situation in this mirror chamber.
"What is the solution?"
That moment she fell on the floor, she suddenly had an idea. If there isn't any light, naturally, there wouldn't be any of Ji Shanqing's reflection. To take it further, even if Ji Shanqing came out from the mirror, she wouldn't be bombarded by so many unavoidable attacks.
"But, how can I block the light filtering in?"
"Why would light filter through these slits? If there is light, was there some sort of light source?"
However, since the mirrors already had so many hidden functions, she reckoned that the lights wouldn't be normal either. Yet, after receiving so many attacks from Ji Shanqing, Lin Sanjiu couldn't think of anything better. Desperate, she decided to try anything she could. Hoping for the best, she activated her [No coincidence. No story] to try anything she could to raise her probability of success. Next, Lin Sanjiu took out her [Tornado Whip] and made a quiet decision.
Subsequently, her plan was way more successful than what she expected.
She whipped out tornados one after another. Firstly, she wanted to distract Ji Shanqing. Secondly, she wanted to make sure that she could totally destroy the light source behind those mirrors. Just as she expected, the mirrors returned to their original form but the light sources behind the mirrors were completed destroyed by the tornado
es and could no longer work. Finally, the mirror chamber was completely dark.
Lin Sanjiu stood quietly in the dark mirror chamber without moving for ten seconds. During this time, she was not attacked by any of Ji Shanqing's beams. Her skin started to recover.
In the darkness, a smile slowly crept up her face.
"There is a time limit to your attacks, right? Now without any light, you can't even activate your ability. Come out. It is time to have a proper fight with me."
"Pfft."
It took quite some time before Ji Shanqing's voice sounded in the chamber.
"Do you think I can remain unwrapped if that was the only strategy I had?" Ji Shanqing laughed acidly, "If you chose to be in darkness, you are choosing death. Let me ask you a question. Do you think these distorting mirrors are just for fun?"
Lin Sanjiu froze.
"All your biological data is recorded whenever you walk through a mirror. Every single set of biological data can be assembled together to create another you just by my will… Since you were once them, regardless of appearances, they have the same internal constitution…"
Although Lin Sanjiu couldn't see clearly, she could clearly sense figures walking out from the mirror in the darkness one after another. They moved so noiselessly that they did not even cause any vibration in the surrounding air molecules. In just a split second, these "beings" had already filled the space around her.
Lin Sanjiu did not even know how many times she had gone through the mirrors. If every "Lin Sanjiu" created by the mirrors was there...
"Don't waste your time. They don't even have to attack you." After Ji Shanqing said that, Lin Sanjiu stopped moving her hand which was holding her [Tornado Whip]. He continued with a chuckle, "They only need to touch you once to completely replace the person that they were created from."