Fatty was pulled by Chu Changge in a mad sprint upwards.
By the time he heard the door of the first-floor bathroom opening, the two of them had already reached the second floor.
Chu Changge took a quick glance around. All the doors on the second floor were tightly shut. He pushed open one of the rooms, pulled Fatty in, and then locked the door behind them.
This was Fatty's room. A large wardrobe stood directly facing the bed, capable of hiding a person, and there was a moderately sized writing desk beside the bed.
"Brother Chu," Fatty asked, somewhat puzzled, "why didn't we just go straight out?"
"I got out earlier than you. The main door seemed locked; it wouldn't open. Of course, if we both threw ourselves against it, we might break it open, but there isn't much time. I'm afraid the ghost would emerge from the bathroom before we could manage that."
Although Fatty had allocated most of his Attribute Points to strength, his strength was still not enough to break down a door.
If a player with 100+ strength were here now, they wouldn't just knock down one door; they'd send ten flying.
Therefore, the higher a player's comprehensive attributes, the more advantageous their position in the game.
The game is incredibly realistic. There will never be a situation where 'you can only open this door by getting the Key.'
But this wasn't Fatty's main concern right now. He glanced nervously at the door. "Speaking of which, Brother Chu... when I came up, I heard a sound from the first-floor bathroom. Did the ghost come out of it?"
Chu Changge nodded slightly. "I got out earlier than you but didn't leave, so I've figured out some patterns here."
"The ghost seems able to enter the World in the Mirror at any time and can move freely within it—teleporting, for instance. Of course, these are just my assumptions for now."
"What can be confirmed is that the ghost can enter the World in the Mirror without any conditions, merely by a thought. However, if it wants to emerge from the World in the Mirror, it must pass through a mirror or other reflective objects. Simply put, it has to climb out through a mirror."
Fatty nodded and continued to listen.
"Moreover, the ghost seems to be easily obstructed in the outside world. A door can block it. At that point, it needs other methods to circumvent the obstacle. Let me give you an example: right now, the ghost is outside your door."
Fatty instinctively shivered.
"Although blocked by the door, it can enter the World in the Mirror and climb out through any reflective object. It might not be able to open the door, but it can absolutely come out through any reflective surfaces in this room."
Just as Chu Changge finished speaking, Fatty instinctively looked towards the large window beside him.
The window, reflecting the room's light, showed their images on its surface. Discover more novels at novel※fire.net
"Doesn't that make us very vulnerable right now?" Fatty lowered his voice.
Not a single sound came from outside the door, as if the ghost hadn't pursued them at all.
"But we can stall for time with it. As soon as we see it climbing out, we can swiftly move to another room and lock the door. However, players' stamina and spiritual power are limited. If we can't get out, our stamina will decrease, and we simply won't have enough energy to keep evading the ghost."
Fatty instinctively asked, "So now we have to find a way to open the main door of this building?"
Who would have thought that after finally escaping the World in the Mirror, they'd still need to find a Key for the building's main door?
Fatty continued, "According to a typical game instance, getting out of the World in the Mirror should be the hardest part. Usually, once you've passed the hardest part, you can escape easily. So the Key to the front door should be in an obvious place. There's no need to analyze any more clues, right?"
"Speaking of which," Fatty looked towards Chu Changge, "Brother Chu, you've been here for some time. Didn't you find the Key to the front door?"
Chu Changge looked at Fatty and shook his head. "No."
Fatty knit his brow. "That's weird... Can't we escape by jumping out the window?"
If they jumped out the window, they'd risk the ghost suddenly crawling out of the glass.
"No," Chu Changge vetoed his idea. "The window doesn't open, and don't even think about smashing it. I've tried; it won't break. All reflective objects in this building, including mirrors and glass, cannot be deliberately destroyed."
As he spoke, he glanced at Fatty. "But after I came out, I discovered something interesting."
"What interesting thing?"
"Zhao Lei's father's corpse is in the bathroom. That pale hand you saw was his."
Fatty's brows twitched. No wonder he'd smelled that strange stench in the bathroom—it was a decomposing corpse! But how did Zhao Lei's father die?
"And, have you seen what the ghost that was chasing you looks like?" Chu Changge continued.
Fatty paused and shook his head slightly. "I really didn't see it."
When the ghost was chasing him, all he could think about was running. He certainly wasn't in the mood to turn back and admire its features.
"But I saw it," Chu Changge pushed up his glasses. "It looked like Zhao Lei."
"What?" Fatty exclaimed, surprised. "Zhao Lei? He's been the ghost all along?"
"No, not necessarily. The ghost I saw looked exactly like Zhao Lei, but their temperaments were vastly different."
Fatty recalled Zhao Lei's appearance: fair-skinned, with a perpetually frail expression. While he didn't exactly look like a good person, he didn't seem like a bad one either.
"The Zhao Lei I saw had a ferocious look on his face, seemed to enjoy killing, was eager to kill every person who entered, and was reluctant to have his true identity discovered." Chu Changge paused for a moment. "The ghost yanked me out..."
"He didn't want others to see his face, so he directly pulled me out of the World in the Mirror, leaving Mingliang alone in the bathroom so he could act."
"That's not right," Fatty said, confused. "If he didn't want his true identity discovered, wouldn't it have been easier to pull Mingliang out of the mirror and deal with him alone? Pulling you out seems redundant."
"I don't know why, but in any case, I was pulled out." Chu Changge didn't seem to want to discuss this further and promptly changed the topic. "Then I found Zhao Guanhai's body in the bathroom. He seemed to have been dead for a long time; it was somewhat decomposed."
This place was particularly cold, so corpses decomposed slower than they would in warmer weather.
"There's a contusion on his forehead. Do you remember how the bathroom mirror looked like it had been struck? It seems Zhao Guanhai's head was what struck the mirror."
Fatty didn't believe Zhao Guanhai would idly smash his own head against a mirror. "Was his head slammed into it by someone?"
"I don't know about that. But it seems he hit the mirror, received no timely treatment, and eventually died. I'm not a doctor, so I can't be sure about the specifics."
Fatty was somewhat puzzled. "What are you getting at with all this?"
Chu Changge tilted his head slightly. "Have you noticed that when the ghost appears, it always purposely avoids one person?"