The World Below Surface

One by one, the students emerged from their classrooms, their feet dragging along the dull linoleum floors. The lights in the hallway flickered erratically, casting a sickly pallor over the scene. The students did not shriek or giggle as they usually would but instead stood in eerie silence, their eyes fixed on a figure in their midst.

A strange man, bearing a mirror.

Lu Yan stood motionless, his gaze shifting to the students gathered on the lower level. They, too, had ascended the stairs and now stood at a respectful distance, their faces blurred and indistinct, as though they had been rubbed raw. But despite their spectral appearance, Lu Yan felt no fear. These students seemed to pose no threat, simply watching him with an otherworldly curiosity.

Had the ghosts stopped killing people? Or was it that he hadn't triggered the death mechanism? Perhaps, he thought, God was blessing him.

But the idea was preposterous, even to himself.

The group of students didn't move, and he waited for another two minutes, trying to gauge their intentions. But he couldn't shake off the feeling of discomfort, the sense that something was off-kilter. He decided to move out of the hallway and find a glass window to use the reflection to see what was in the mirror.

As he lifted his hand, all the students raised theirs in unison. They still stared at him, their expressions unchanged, but he felt a physiological shiver running down his spine, a premonition of death descending on him.

His movement stopped, and he tried to suppress the involuntary tremor in his body.

Why had they reacted like that?

Was it because he'd moved?

'Does motion trigger death?' Lu Yan struggled to comprehend the thought, but he had faced countless inexplicable events in his past. This possibility wasn't the most outrageous one he had encountered. In the world of ghosts, the rules were chaotic and distorted, having no relation to the karmic retribution in traditional ghost tales. Lu Yan had survived numerous missions by barely grasping some of the rules.

The mirror he clutched sent shivers down his spine. He thought it was just his imagination, but he noticed the thin layer of frost on his fingertips.

Putting down the mirror and running far away seemed like the best action. Even though Chu Xiu had been absorbed into the mirror, he hadn't paid the price for his wish yet, so he couldn't die yet.

Lu Yan rubbed the mirror's smooth surface, perplexed about his next move. At that moment, the lights in the distant teaching building flickered off.

The group of students turned their heads to the darkened building, fear etched on their faces. Even Lu Yan's heart trembled, for that figure was coming for him!

He attempted to flee, but as he lifted his foot, the group of students all turned to face him, their calm and inorganic eyes lacking any malice. Nevertheless, Lu Yan sensed that he would meet his end if he took that step.

Thus, he halted in his tracks. His brain worked furiously, searching for a way out. The lights were gradually dying out building by building as if the footsteps of death were drawing closer. The students began to stir but still crowded in the corridor outside the door, reluctant to leave.

Before long, the darkness will consume their building too.

The lights flickered and died out, casting the hallway into darkness one by one. Lu Yan could hear the footsteps clattering up the stairs, each step reverberating through his bones. His heart pounded fiercely in his chest, like a war drum in battle. Desperately searching for a hiding place, he scanned his surroundings with growing anxiety but found nothing.

A dangerous idea bloomed in his mind, a mad gamble with life-threatening stakes. He knelt slowly and carefully, laying the mirror flat on the ground, facing upwards. It was an ordinary-looking mirror, reflecting the dimly lit ceiling. But something was off, and Lu Yan sensed it without being able to put his finger on what exactly.

The figure had already reached the corner of the third floor, and the lights on that level extinguished, plunging everything into absolute darkness. The figure, a pale face shrouded in shadows, turned to him. Lu Yan had an uncanny sense that he knew the face yet couldn't recall where he had seen it.

His attention quickly shifted back to the mirror. He could see the other students if he could find the right angle. Lu Yan knew he had to enter the world inside the mirror, find Chu Xiu, and complete the game to survive.

Without warning, a bony hand shot out from the darkness, seized his ankle with an icy grip and yanked him into the mirror. As soon as he landed on the other side, his eyes widened in disbelief. He was in a classroom, surrounded by other students, all focused on their lessons, just like any other day. A stern teacher glared at him from the podium, demanding an explanation.

"Lu Yan, why did you suddenly stand up?" the teacher barked, his eyes boring into him with cold disapproval. The other students turned to look at him in eerie unison; their gazes were piercing and accusatory.

Lu Yan's heart raced as he looked around the unfamiliar school, his mind churning with confusion. The Fourth Middle School? This wasn't his school, of that he was sure. The uniforms worn by the students around him were indeed from the Fourth Middle School, but the teacher standing at the podium had a familiarity about him. Lu Yan had some impression of the man; he was one of the members who had chased after him just moments ago.

"Teacher," Lu Yan spoke calmly, "I want to go to the toilet."

The teacher's face twisted with displeasure, but he begrudgingly waved his hand and allowed Lu Yan to leave. Lu Yan walked out of the classroom door, the eerie gaze of his classmates following him. The sky above was heavy and gloomy as if layers of thick, dark clouds had covered the sunlight. Lu Yan had been on many missions with taskers before and found himself in alternate spaces like this many times. He could leave as long as he found the centre of the world and solved the puzzle. But where was the key to the world in the mirror? And where was Chu Xiu? If he was dead, it would be very troublesome for him to leave.

Comparing the current scene with his recollection of the campus, Lu Yan strolled towards the lavatory. Even though everything was exactly the same, he felt something eerie about it, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

What was wrong?

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As he arrived at the end of the corridor, Lu Yan noticed a mirror outside the toilet. His reflection stared back at him, and it wasn't until this moment that he suddenly returned to his senses. There were no class signs outside the classrooms he had just passed, and there wasn't even any writing on the blackboard, as if they feared he would discover something.

Staring into his reflection, Lu Yan noticed his appearance was slightly different.

The faces of ordinary people were not perfectly symmetrical; what they saw in the mirror was the opposite reflection of themselves. Lu Yan was intimately acquainted with his face, right down to the small mole above his left eyelid. But in the reflection, the mole sat inexplicably on his left eyelid. Was this a consequence of a reflected image? He lowered his hand and stepped back to examine the curious occurrence. Despite the discrepancy, the group of people around him seemed to be oblivious to anything awry.

Abruptly, he collided with a figure behind him. As though it was a reflex, he stiffened before taking two quick steps into the restroom doorway. His thoughts raced; why did the figure not appear in the mirror? What could be behind him? Should he turn around?

"What are you doing here? Aren't you going to class?" a voice demanded from behind.

Lu Yan steadied himself and pivoted, only to find a middle-aged man suspiciously regarding him. It was him. The shadow that had appeared inexplicably on campus! He was dressed as a typical security guard, patrolling the grounds, encountering a student who had strayed from their path.

"I'll be back in a minute," Lu Yan replied, his instincts telling him that the man was far from ordinary. He pivoted back to the sink and turned on the faucet, his heart pounding, yet his gaze remained fixed on the mirror without blinking. His reflection remained the only thing in sight.

After he finished washing his hands, he calmly walked past the man. In that fleeting moment, he tilted his head slightly and looked back through the slanted glass window, the other man doing the same. Something about him felt familiar, but Lu Yan couldn't put his finger on it. Who was he?

He strode down the corridor, his mind made up. The classroom was the last place he wanted to be, and he had no intention of returning. He pretended to head towards the classroom, then swiftly turned and ran downstairs.

"Hey, wait! Aren't you supposed to go back to the classroom?" The security guard was taken aback by the audacity of the student who had brazenly skipped class. He gave chase, but by the time he reached the stairs, the student had vanished into thin air. The guard searched the first floor but found no trace of him.

Lu Yan went to another teaching building, determined to find the principal's office and try his luck there.

In this world of mirrors, did a "god" also exist?

He sensed someone watching him as he bounded down the stairs. He looked up and saw the security guard staring at him. After a brief moment of eye contact, Lu Yan sprinted towards the principal's building.

As soon as he ascended the stairs, a figure descended from above. They stared at each other, both stunned.

"Chu Xiu?"

"Lu Yan?"

Lu Yan regarded the other person suspiciously. "What are you doing here?" He remembered the man had witnessed a melancholy scene and was dragged into the mirror world. Lu Yan had assumed he was possessed by a demon, but it now appeared that a ghost had pulled him into this otherworldly place.

Chu Xiu was equally curious. "Never mind me. Why are you here?"

Lu Yan briefly recounted his situation. Chu Xiu had been on his way out of the building, but now he accompanied Lu Yan, hobbling along with some difficulty.

"Why are you going to see the principal? I suspect the abnormality of the entire school is related to him."

"It is indeed related to him and that 'god'," Lu Yan explained. "There is a statue of the god in his office."

"Why are they everywhere?" Chu Xiu grasped the gravity of the situation. A few days ago, the game was thrown into chaos because of its involvement. If this game had its shadow, too, it could only mean...

The two soon arrived at the door of the principal's office. They knocked but received no answer. They picked the lock and entered without hesitation, shutting the door behind them. No one was in the office, and they had no idea where the principal had gone.

"Where's the statue you mentioned?" Chu Xiu asked.

Lu Yan lifted his chin slightly and approached the bookshelf. Chu Xiu mentally prepared himself before gently opening the cabinet door. The vivid red statue resembled blood and had an eerie and twisted appearance. Chu Xiu immediately closed the cabinet door.

"You made a promise earlier, and now it's time to fulfil it," Lu Yan gestured, his intent clear.

"We're still in the mirror; we haven't left yet. Can we wait until we're out before we discuss this?" Chu Xiu said firmly, unwavering in his resolve. "I won't go back on my word, and I'll record a video to prove it."

Lu Yan pondered for a moment before slowly shaking his head. He wanted to know whether the "gods" in his own world could affect people from another world. After he finished the game and left, where would he find Chu Xiu again?

Chu Xiu looked troubled, thinking of possible arguments when the sound of a lock being opened suddenly came from outside the door.

This was bad!

The two of them exchanged glances, seeing the same meaning in each other's eyes. They immediately dodged behind the furniture, taking cover in the spacious and luxurious principal's office.

One of them hid behind the curtains of the wall bookshelf. In contrast, the other hid under the tea table, carefully observing through the cracks.

Unexpectedly, the person who came in was not the principal but a hooded man of medium height with his face hidden. Lu Yan recognized him, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Who was he? And why was he here?

When the man entered the office, his sharp eyes roamed the room's furnishings. He made a beeline for the desk, sifting through the papers on its surface before wrenching open a drawer and delving inside in search of something.

He checked several drawers before advancing onto the safe. After fumbling with the lock, he pried it open and reached in to extract a bundle of documents. Upon scrutinizing them, a grin crept across his face. He was just about to capture a snapshot of them when the door suddenly burst open!

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?" the headmaster bellowed as he stormed in.

Without hesitation, the man bolted out of the room, pelting down the stairs. The headmaster gave chase but could only slam the door shut, leaving the papers scattered on the ground.

Lu Yan and Chu Xiu glanced at each other before wordlessly stepping forward to gather the scattered documents.

"This..." They both felt disoriented as they looked at the words on the pages.

All the characters on the documents were reversed! How were they supposed to read them?

Lu Yan took out a small mirror he carried with him and placed it on the edge of the paper, then began reading each word out loud.

As he spoke, their expressions grew increasingly grave. It turned out to be a stack of liability waivers written by parents. The gist was that even though their children had been in accidents at school, the parents had decided not to hold the school responsible, although they were deeply saddened.

The subsequent waiver was the same as the one after that. They pulled out a thick stack of documents, but the only thing different was the names of the parents and students involved.

"How many incidents have occurred at this school?" they wondered, seeing how many waivers were necessary.

As they continued to flip through the documents, they came across several experiment records. The data on the left makes both of them feel uneasy.

"On X day of X month in X year, two students from Class 2 in Year 1 went to Yin—Yang Road and disappeared without a trace..."

"On the X day of X month in X year, three students from Class 18 in Year 1 went to Yin—Yang Road. Three days later, two students returned, but one remained missing. One of the returnees suffered from mental illness and had to take a leave of absence..."

"On the X day of X month in X year, all the students from Class 2 in Year 3 went on a field trip to Yin—Yang Road. The class teacher disappeared, and one student went missing. The other forty-nine returned after a week. According to follow-up tracking, the forty-nine students' physical conditions were as follows..."

Chu Xiu shuddered with each report he read. His prolonged exposure to the horrors of his missions and the tragic loss of his sister, Chu Xian, had left him almost desensitized to emotions. Yet, he never thought that the school would conduct such inhumane experiments on its students.

The man who had been present before was likely here to collect the experiment reports. Lu Yan shared Chu Xiu's disbelief, but for a different reason. He stumbled upon a familiar name and face while perusing through one of the missing reports - An Xing Yu.

The discovery left Lu Yan gasping for air, overwhelmed with shock.

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