13: Chapter 13 Do Not Respond

Zhao Ye stood outside the bedroom door, his expression darkening.

From inside the door came his voice.

Exactly the same.

It had even mimicked the way he lowered his voice and his breathing perfectly.

"Open the door."

"I'm coming in."

If it were an ordinary person, hearing a teammate's voice in this environment, they would likely respond instinctively.

But Zhao Ye did not.

He had just experienced the Black Rust Construction Site; he knew that anomalies were not best at pouncing, but at making people make mistakes first.

He stepped back half a pace, staring at the gap in the door.

"The one inside is not me."

This sentence was meant for Shen Qinghe.

It was also meant for himself.

In the bathroom, Shen Qinghe dragged Li Man to the corner and wrapped her cold body in a bath towel.

The mirror cabinet was covered with a towel, but the area beneath the towel kept bulging, as if fingers were pushing out from inside.

The full-length mirror in the bedroom was not covered.

The voice came from there.

"Shen Qinghe."

The Zhao Ye in the mirror spoke again.

"Open the door."

"I see Li Man."

"She is dying."

Shen Qinghe bit the tip of her tongue, using the pain to pull herself back.

Do not respond.

Do not acknowledge it.

Do not let it establish a connection with her through names, voices, or pleas for help.

Just then, the Mark of the Torch on the inside of her right wrist grew slightly warm.

A deep, calm voice echoed in her mind.

"Do not respond."

Only four words.

No explanation, no comfort, and no unnecessary commands.

Shen Qinghe's heart jolted.

Fire Keeper.

Zhao Ye outside the door had clearly heard it too; his hand gripping the utility knife became steadier.

In the Xinhuo Hall, Lu Chen stood before the Fire Seed Stele, watching the mission fragments sent back by the two.

The footage was intermittent.

It was not an omniscient perspective, but more like surveillance with a poor signal.

The more mirror surfaces there were, the heavier the image noise.

On the mission module, the risk assessment was fluctuating.

[Original Mission Rank: E.]

[Current Risk Assessment: High D-Rank.]

[Anomaly Characteristics: Mirror Parasitism, Voice Induction, Mirror Replication, Low-level Traction.]

Lu Chen frowned.

"Stuffing this kind of mechanic monster into a beginner co-op mission?"

He said in a low voice, "In a game, the comments section would blast the developers to ashes."

But reality is not a game.

Players can uninstall after complaining.

If Shen Qinghe and Zhao Ye judged wrongly, they would lose their lives.

Lu Chen's finger hovered over the [Low-level Torch Support] option, but he did not press it immediately.

Now is not the time to force a rescue.

They need to grow.

The Xinhuo Council also needs to know how far members can go without complete prompts.

Of course, he would not watch them die.

So he only gave the one most crucial rule.

Do not respond.

Outside the bedroom, Zhao Ye began to deal with the door.

He did not force the door open, but instead pressed his flashlight against the doorknob.

The surface of the doorknob reflected slightly.

In the reflection, a pale hand was gripping the doorknob from behind the door.

In reality, the doorknob remained motionless.

Zhao Ye did not look for long; he immediately wrapped the doorknob with a cloth and then covered the reflective surface with tape.

The shadow of the hand in the mirror vanished for a moment.

The door loosened.

Zhao Ye pushed with his shoulder, finally forcing the bedroom door open a crack.

Inside the bedroom, the full-length mirror was positioned directly facing the doorway.

A second Zhao Ye stood in the mirror.

It wore the same jacket, its face pale, and the corners of its mouth slowly spreading into a grin.

Zhao Ye did not make eye contact with it.

He lowered his head and rushed in, snatching the bedsheet and throwing it toward the mirror.

The moment the bedsheet covered the full-length mirror, the laughter of the Zhao Ye in the mirror stopped abruptly.

But the knocking sound from the bathroom mirror cabinet became even more urgent.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

As if the thing inside was finally getting anxious.

Seeing Zhao Ye enter, Shen Qinghe immediately whispered, "The main mirror might not be the one in the bathroom."

Zhao Ye understood what she meant.

The bathroom mirror cabinet was pulling Li Man, but the bedroom full-length mirror was creating replicas.

The true core was very likely hidden on the full-length mirror.

The two did not say much more.

Zhao Ye guarded the bedsheet, while Shen Qinghe dragged Li Man out of the bathroom and placed her near the bedroom door.

She did not let Li Man get close to any mirror surface.

Li Man still had her eyes closed, her lips purple, but the wet mud on the soles of her feet began to slowly fade.

This indicated that the connection between the mirror and her was loosening.

Shen Qinghe looked toward the full-length mirror covered by the bedsheet.

Beneath the bedsheet, a dark red stain was slowly spreading.

Like blood.

Or like mud.

"There."

Zhao Ye nodded.

He began to seal the edges of the bedsheet with tape.

The voice in the mirror sounded again.

This time, it was no longer Zhao Ye.

It was Li Man.

"Officer Shen."

"Save me."

"I'm so cold."

"I'm right inside."

"Pull off the cloth."

Shen Qinghe did not answer.

She took out her folding knife and aimed it at the dark red stain beneath the bedsheet.

Zhao Ye pressed down on the mirror frame, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

The thing beneath the bedsheet began to struggle.

The voice in the mirror became increasingly shrill.

"Look at me!"

"Look at me!"

"I'm right here!"

Dense footsteps also sounded outside the bedroom door.

It was as if everyone in the entire building was standing outside the door, walking closer step by step with bare feet on wet mud.

The back of Zhao Ye's hand was cut open by something.

Blood dripped onto the bedsheet.

The next second, a wet palm print emerged from beneath the bedsheet, pressing exactly onto the spot where Zhao Ye was bleeding.

Zhao Ye let out a muffled groan, his body swaying forward.

"It's pulling me."

Shen Qinghe's gaze turned cold.

She did not slash at the palm print; instead, she plunged her knife fiercely into the dark red stain.

The moment the knife tip pierced the mirror frame, all sound in the bedroom stopped simultaneously.

Then, a scream that no human could make erupted from the mirror.

The bedsheet collapsed inward violently.

As if a bottomless hole had suddenly appeared behind the mirror.

Zhao Ye grabbed the edge of the bedsheet, and Shen Qinghe held down the mirror frame.

Both were almost dragged toward the mirror surface by an invisible force.

Just then, the Mark of the Torch grew hot again.

The Fire Keeper's voice descended.

"Bottom left corner."

Shen Qinghe did not hesitate.

She pressed the blade down and pried it open fiercely along the bottom left corner of the mirror frame.

Crack.

The mirror frame split open.

A black shard the size of a thumb fell out from inside.

All sense of being pulled vanished instantly.

The bedroom door popped open with a bang.

The hallway was empty.

The full-length mirror under the bedsheet cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

The bathroom mirror cabinet also cracked with a thin fissure simultaneously.

Shen Qinghe and Zhao Ye stepped back simultaneously, their breathing rapid.

The black shard on the floor trembled gently.

A woman's pale face was reflected on the surface of the shard.

She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to speak still.

Shen Qinghe stared at it, not responding.

Zhao Ye bent down and placed the shard into an evidence bag.

This time, the shard did not resist.

The prompt on the mission stele appeared before the two.

[Anomaly core separated.]

[Please return to Xinhuo Hall to submit the mission item.]

Shen Qinghe looked at those words, finally letting out a slow breath.

For the first time, she truly understood what the Xinhuo Council's "support" meant.

The Fire Keeper would not complete the mission for them.

But in the final dead end, he would add the missing piece of the puzzle that allowed them to survive.