Volume 3: High School Arc - Mirror Game
After that, things got much simpler.
Two police officers came to ask a few questions, and I explained as I had planned: “I noticed the rocks above our heads starting to fall and felt something was wrong, so I told Shao He to accelerate and leave.”
Shao He cleverly cooperated with me.
It was originally just an accident.
The officers didn’t ask much more, glanced at the completely smashed BMW, smiled, and left.
The incident was concluded to be caused by “recent excessive rainfall, which led to structural weakening inside the tunnel and ultimately resulted in its collapse.”
Fortunately, there weren’t many vehicles in the tunnel at the time.
The main collapse occurred at one end of the tunnel.
The other end wasn’t too serious.
The only fatalities were the people inside that Wuling Hongguang.
The rest were at most injured by falling rocks.
After that, Shao He called to inform Liu Wanqian and Gong Lianyu.
Soon, Gong Lianyu sent someone over.
They arrived in the latest model of the Maybach S-Class 680 Twin-Tone Collector’s Edition.
Then they directly handed the Maybach to Shao He.
They were about to drive off with BMW.
I quickly stopped them, because… my ashes had already been scattered on the front passenger seat.
We spent about ten minutes cleaning up.
All the ashes were put back into the urn.
I led the now-recovered Sha Ha, carried the still-dazed Jiaoza, and got into the Maybach.
Shao He drove, and we headed straight for the three-story villa that belonged to me.
When we arrived at this new home, all the furniture had already been arranged.
Everything was decorated in traditional Chinese style.
Just the furniture alone was easily worth five million.
There were also quite a few antiques placed in the rooms.
But at that moment, I was not in the mood to admire anything.
I hastily ate dinner with Shao He.
I chose a room, fed Sha Ha and Jiaoza, took a shower, and collapsed onto the bed.
Staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling, holding the soft, warm Sha Ha in my arms, I looked at Jiaoza sitting beside the bed, staring at me with big eyes, and let out a long sigh.
“Hoo…”
Thinking about everything that happened today, it hadn’t felt like much at the time.
But now that I think back on it, I felt a bit shaken.
That minivan was right in front of me.
In that instant, the driver was crushed alive by the falling mud and rocks.
I didn’t care much about the rest.
What I cared most about was that, just before that driver died, in the reflection of his pupils, I saw… the face of the old woman grinning eerily with her mouth cracked wide open.
Even now… I was starting to wonder whether that was a supernatural event or simply a tunnel collapse.
That man… before he died, must have seen that old woman.
His pupils reflected her sinister smile.
Even now, I can still remember it clearly.
I could even count the wrinkles on that old woman’s face.
Unlike that bizarre grin, the old woman’s smile was gloomy and chilling.
Seeing it in daylight wasn’t too bad.
But at night, it always gave off a creepy feeling.
That malicious smile sent chills down the spine.
Thinking back on it still made my hair stand on end.
But… thankfully it was all over.
I hadn’t expected that the old woman’s figure outside the window was just meant to stall for time.
What I hadn’t expected even more was that the APP had probably calculated everything.
At that thought, I couldn’t help but glance at my phone.
The original point balance was 185.
Now, it has become 235.
That’s right… escaping early this time had earned me 50 points.
Although not as much as the academy event, the danger this time might have exceeded it.
Let’s put it this way… I felt that the danger level of this incident might have reached the level of the bus incident.
First of all, the difficulty of my emergency events had increased from C~A to C+~S+.
Second, looking back on this emergency event, not only did I feel lingering fear, but also… a dual-sided danger.
In that state, if I had been dragged into a horror event, I believed there would have been a moment of time-freeze just like in the bus incident.
Once that happened, even if I survived with all my strength, I wouldn’t have been able to react in time to the falling mud upon returning to the surface world.
Based on the horror events I’ve experienced, whether the academy or hospital events, neither had caused me secondary harm.
But the bus incident was different.
In the bus incident, although I had already died by then, the moment I possessed Liu Yunyan’s body, I experienced secondary harm.
The bus used the crash to cover up the deaths of everyone.
As for me, the only survivor, I hadn’t survived safely by staying inside the bus.
Instead, I had been flung out of the vehicle.
My dislocated arm and broken left leg happened from being thrown out of the bus.
From this perspective, S-level and above events might not be simple single horror events.
They might also include secondary harm.
If my guess is right, then this sudden event was probably above S-level.
If not for Sha Ha and Jiaoza in the car warning me of the horror event in advance, I might have been instantly dragged into it without time to react.
So imagine… what if I hadn’t discovered it in advance and escaped?
At the moment of the incident, the car might have crashed directly into that old woman’s mouth.
At that speed, even if I didn’t die, I’d be crippled.
Not to mention it wasn’t just a crash.
There was also the impact from falling mud and stones.
And all of that happened in the surface world.
If it had been the interdimensional space, what would have happened?
Would that old woman suddenly smash through the window?
No no no… the game would definitely give me a chance to react.
So if it were a game, how should it proceed normally at that point?
Probably… something like the car falling into water, giving me a limited reaction window, trapping the car, and forcing me to find a way out in the cramped vehicle?
So what would that way out be?
I couldn’t help but put myself in the system’s position, thinking about how I would torment myself.
Even though it seemed a bit unnecessary, I still wanted to understand more about how the system worked.
After all, know your enemy and know yourself, and you’ll never lose.
Only by understanding how the APP issued tasks could I possibly find ways to crack them in advance.
Before, since it was within the game, some things happened before I even had a chance to prepare.
Even when I knew in advance, the system laid all kinds of traps waiting for me.
But this time was different.
With the advance warning from Jiaoza and Sha Ha, I had a chance to break it head-on.
If I were the system… how would I issue this sudden task?
First, space wouldn’t suddenly shift.
It would likely transition directly into the interdimensional space.
The location would stay the same, only the spatial state would change.
So what would such a transformation bring?
Would the mud slowly rise inside the car?
No… no!
I figured it out!!
If I were the System, at that moment, the task I’d issue would be one that gradually crushed a person’s spirit.
That is to say, I would have that old woman press down on the car bit by bit from above.
And the task given should be to find a “living” way out within a certain time limit.
The car has seven exit points: four doors, the front windshield, the trunk, and the roof.
The moment the top exit is blocked, where should one go?
The time likely wouldn’t be long—maybe less than a minute to react.
In other words, I’d have to determine the way out within a minute.
So if I were the System, where would I arrange the escape route?
Of course, this is just speculation for now.
Inside the car, where the space is being compressed from above and shrinking bit by bit—front, back, left, right?
If it were an average person, they would probably choose one of these directions instantly.
The four doors, front windshield, trunk—these six exits in four directions would be the instinctive first choices.
The car was rushing forward.
Even though inertia had stopped under time freeze, once it returned to the surface world, inertia would instantly resume.
In other words… front, back, left, right were all wrong.
Jumping out of the car at a speed of eighty kilometers per hour, with mud falling right ahead, no matter where you jumped out from, it would be a dead end.
Inertia would throw you straight in the direction the car was heading, directly into the mud pile, where you’d be buried alive.
In other words, every direction meant death.
Most likely, in just a minute or even just thirty seconds, I’d have to make the correct decision.
Based on the car’s original speed, it shouldn’t have been able to catch up to that Wuling Hongguang.
In other words, this car… wouldn’t be crushed head-on.
Then… only one way out remained.
Stay in the car.
Yes… in a car where the space is being constantly compressed, the only way to survive should be staying inside.
Although it sounds a bit ridiculous, just thinking about the momentary inertia when switching between the surface and interdimensional worlds after jumping out of the car, combined with the speed of the vehicle and the fact that the mud wouldn’t hit head-on, the only way to survive was by staying inside the car.
The car wouldn’t be hit head-on, but the mud would collapse the roof.
However, given the quality of BMW, an entirely imported 760Li, it should have more than enough resistance to pressure.
In the surface world, even if I got injured, as long as it wasn’t crushed head-on, I would definitely survive by staying inside.
The blocked section of the tunnel was only about ten meters or so from the exit point.
The collapsed area wasn’t very large.
And the only vehicle that got crushed head-on was that Wuling Hongguang.
Inside a constantly shrinking space, bearing the fear of being crushed at any moment while still having to calmly figure out the way to survive… this System really knew how to play.
No… I should say, I really knew how to play.
After all, this was something I thought up, not something the System actually issued.
But judging from every angle, maybe… this speculation was the only correct one.
The more I thought, the sleepier I got.
Sha Ha was soft and warm beside me, like a giant plush pillow.
I used to be 1.8 meters tall, and hugging her felt a little small.
But now, at only 1.7 meters, her size was just right for me.
I rubbed my face against Sha Ha’s fur…
In terms of scent and cleanliness among dog breeds, huskies ranked fifth.
They had very little odor and were very clean.
They didn’t drool or have that strong smell all over.
“Hoo…”
I let out a long breath, cleared my mind of all those random thoughts, half-opened my eyes, glanced at Jiaoza with his big adorable orange eyes staring at me from the bedside, and softly said “Good night.”
When I closed my eyes again, darkness swallowed my vision…
In that faint darkness, I seemed to see… a hunched figure standing right behind me, just standing there eerily…
Smiling.