The sharp knife stabbed into the mirror. Cracks crackled on the previously smooth surface. To make things stranger, blood oozed out from the cracks! The mirror inside Room 1074 appeared to be alive!
The scarred man was stunned that the stab made with his most powerful swing only managed to cause a few cracks on the mirror. Before he could make his next move, an arm holding a sharp knife reached out from the mirror. Just like how the man had stabbed at the mirror, the arm spared no mercy as it thrusted the blade into the man’s body. But that was not all. Just as the man struggled to push the mirror back, endless pairs of grey arms reached out to grab him. They tore mercilessly at the man.
Blood flowed like rivers as the man cried out for help. However, both Han Fei and the other non-local instead silently moved towards the front door as if they had discussed this beforehand. Without communicating, their thoughts went to the same place. Unfortunately, the scarred man was only able to hold on for less than 2 seconds before he too was dragged into the mirror. A chilling presence came from behind them and Han Fei stopped moving immediately. ‘This is bad! Even with the sacrifice of 2 ‘friends’, we’ve bought ourselves less than one extra minute!’
4 people entered the room and in less than 3 minutes, only half remained. This seemingly normal hidden mission was rampant with death traps. In the mirror, only Han Fei and the feminine man’s reflections remained. As the rounds of mimicry went back and forth, their figures inside the mirror gradually clarified. Staring at himself inside the mirror, Han Fei even had a moment of hallucination where he believed he was the one trapped inside the mirror world. Rubbing his eyes, Han Fei noticed the room around him had blurred. Han Fei inside the mirror also rubbed his eyes and then a wicked smile appeared on his face. ‘The hidden mission is called Mirror God’s Game. Who is this Mirror God? Is it this mirror? But what does it gain by mimicking and consuming ghosts as well as living humans?’
After Han Fei copied his reflection’s action, he moved backwards towards the entrance. The feminine man was on the same wavelength as Han Fei but he was closer to the entrance than Han Fei was. Naturally, he reached it before Han Fei did. After the man mimicked his reflection’s action, he grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. Now it was his turn to repeat his reflection’s movement but the man did not stop. After the door opened, he rushed out the door without any hesitation. The moment he violated the game’s rule, pairs of hands emerged from the mirror! They bound around their target like a lasso.
The man tried to cut at the hands with his knife but it was pointless. He could only watch on helplessly as he was dragged back into the room. The feminine man was pulled back until he was right before the mirror. To Han Fei’s surprise, the hands did not drag the man directly into the mirror, instead, the hands planted him right before the man’s own reflection.
‘The grey hands will only appear when one violates the rules, in other words, it plays the role of the game master. But the punishments it gave the scarred men and this feminine man are different. The murderers who wanted to harm the mirror and the game were consumed by the mirror while this person who just wanted to escape was dragged back and placed right up to the mirror. This mirror appears to have a mind of its own. The purpose of this game is not to kill. However, why would it come up with a game that allows it to repeatedly mimic a ‘human’s actions? Is it possible that it wants to be a ‘human’ too?’
Han Fei had no idea what kind of ghost, if any, lived inside the mirror but the mirror appeared to be using this strange exercise in mimicry to attempt to assume or perhaps regain ‘humanity’. ‘There really is all kinds of neighbours inside this building.’ Han Fei thought it was already strange enough that one of his neighbours kept an actual room as a pet but now there was this new neighbour who was a living mirror. ‘No wonder there are no living humans on the 7th floor, probably no one will appreciate waking up to realize they have been trapped inside a mirror.’ As this thought crossed his mind, Han Fei had to ponder a darker possibility. ‘Wait, there might be other tenants on the 7th floor in the beginning but they have all been consumed by this mirror!’
In any case, Han Fei decided to play along and finish the hidden mission first. When it was his turn, he deliberately tossed the sharp knife in his hand out the front door. ‘I will eventually remove all sharp objects from this room’. If his own reflection wanted to use the knives to harm himself, then he’d have to move out from the room to pick them up first. Honestly, that was not a bad idea but what happened next caused Han Fei to shiver in cold sweat.
The feminine man who was placed before the mirror had correctly guessed the game’s rules by now. He did not struggle pointlessly like his friends did but obediently resume the game as he stood before the mirror. When it was his turn, he took a cautious step back. His reflection did the same and then the man in the mirror did something absolutely mind-boggling. He raised his finger and pushed it right into his left eye. Seeing this ghastly image, both Han Fei and the feminine man were dismayed.
Han Fei soon overcame his shock but the color drained from the other man’s face. He slowly raised his finger but he couldn’t muster the heart to poke his own eye out. The timer of 15 seconds was soon over. Pairs of grey arms crawled out from the mirror. Their grip tightened around the man. Faced with certain death, the feminine man finally made the decision. He followed the rule and plunged his finger right into his left socket. Hearing the sound that came from the man’s face, Han Fei’s scalp numbed.
The enormous pain caused the man’s hands to involuntarily fly towards his left eye. The reflection in the mirror smiled wickedly as he did the same thing. And then he proceeded to poke out his right eye. Two bloody holes were left on his face.
If the man became fully blinded, then he would not be able to see and mimic his own reflection’s actions anymore. This was essentially a death sentence for the feminine man. Since he was cornered by the mirror, the man decided to make a run for it. He pretended to move his finger towards his right eye and then he turned to race towards the door. As if anticipating this final struggle, the grey hands appeared just as the man made his first step. The man’s only eye glared venomously at Han Fei. Before he was pulled into the mirror, he shouted angrily. “This is all your fault, but don’t worry you’ll be sure to join us soon!”
Han Fei was now thankful that the 3 murderers followed him into the room. They had used their lives to buy some time for Han Fei. The room quieted down and there was only one reflection remaining in the mirror.
‘Before the hidden mission is completed, I need to abide by the game rules and try to slow the game down as much as possible.’ Compared to the 3 madmen, Han Fei was as obedient as a child. He cooperated fully with the mirror. He did everything his reflection wanted him to. However, Han Fei was not dumb. After seeing what happened to the feminine man, he knew the only way to survive was to win at the mirror’s own game.
The feminine man lost because he was unable to mimic the action made by his mirrored reflection, so all Han Fei needed to do was to come up with actions that his reflections in the mirror would not be able to copy.
Han Fei actually had a great plan in mind. He kept his actions small but delicate. To his knowledge, most ghosts and monsters were consumed by negative emotions and shackled by despair. Therefore, they would have a hard time understanding and replicating pure bliss and happiness. So instead of focusing on high difficulty physical acts, Han Fei turned towards his acting skill to depict emotions of extreme joy and warmth. Through expert manipulation of his facial muscles, Han Fei churned out expressions that radiated positive energy, kindness and euphoria.
