"Now that you've earned the school's approval, you're qualified to become a Door Opener as well. But I know all you want is to leave — you won't do anything irrational." With only Chang Gu and
Chen Ge's eyes remained fixed on the mirror, his back still turned. "Chang Gu, what kind of person do you think I am?"
After what had happened in Liwan Town, Chen Ge knew full well that he had lost a chunk of his memory. At times, just like Zhang Ju and the others, he felt lost and confused.
"The mirror behind the door can show you your true self. You'll see a different version of yourself." Chang Gu had no particular interest in Chen Ge — he was simply carrying out the task Chang Wenyu had assigned him.
"Is that so?" Chen Ge pressed his palm against the mirror. The icy cold seeped into his brain, and he couldn't help but recall the very first nightmare-level mission he'd completed after receiving the Black Phone.
That mission had required him to stand before a mirror at midnight and stare at his own reflection.
"The mirror is where everything began. Now I'm standing before it again. I wonder what I'll see this time?"
Closing his eyes, Chen Ge silently counted his own heartbeat, just as he had done during that first nightmare-level mission.
After a few seconds, someone grabbed his hand. His eyes snapped open.
In the mirror, his reflection stood motionless beside the bookshelf — solitary, desperate, pale as paper, his body trembling faintly. His gaze was unfocused and hollow, as though he were nothing more than a prop mannequin in a haunted house.
"Is that me?"
His fingers were being squeezed. Chen Ge could clearly feel the force pulling from the other side of the mirror. He watched as his own reflection continued to change.
Strand by strand, black hair wound around the mirror-Chen Ge's body like a creeping stream. The shadow slowly rose to its feet and shielded him from behind.
"
The shadow's face grew clearer and clearer. Just as Chen Ge focused all his attention on it, the black hair suddenly lashed around his arm and dragged him into the mirror.
Chen Ge vanished. The reading room returned to absolute silence.
"Something isn't right."
Chang Gu had not left. His expression was one of sheer disbelief. "When he stood before the mirror — why did his reflection look so unreal?"
He strode quickly to the front of the mirror and stared at himself. But what stared back was not Chang Gu at all — it was a hideous, grotesque monster.
"The world beyond the mirror is one bathed in blood. This mirror can reflect the ugliness buried in a person's heart. But when that man looked into it, his reflection was still himself! Does he have no evil in his heart at all? Or is his malice hidden so deep that even the mirror behind the door can't bring it to the surface?"
Chang Gu could not find an answer. He stared in confusion at the monstrous version of himself in the mirror, reached a finger toward it, and finally let it hover just short of the glass.
"Everyone has a monster inside them — ugly, savage, something that can never be exposed to sunlight…"
…
A thick stench of blood flooded his nostrils. His skin felt slick and damp. His eyelids fluttered, and Chen Ge drew a sharp breath, like a drowning man finally breaking the surface.
He opened his eyes. What filled his vision was a world drenched in crimson.
"This is the world beyond the door — a place that makes you feel suffocated at every moment, saturated with despair and unease." Chen Ge stood where he was, cautiously scanning his surroundings.
He was standing before a mirror covered in cracks. Around him stretched blood-red bookshelves and desks.