This punch blew the head of that disgusting thing apart, but it didn't vanish. Instead, as if it had lost all life, its body went limp, half of it dangling outside the mirror, the other half still inside the mirror.
The horror didn't stop there. The wraiths inside the mirror began to eat this thing's body.
They devoured it greedily as if they'd been starving for ages, even gnawing the bones to pieces.
Even though Rover couldn't hear any sound, he could feel the brutality and disgust radiating from the world inside the mirror.
But after those wraiths finished eating the part of the corpse inside the mirror, they stopped, their eyes filled with greed as they stared at the part of the corpse outside the mirror.
Rover frowned and asked, "You want this thing?"
They nodded, but their faces were twisted to the point they no longer resembled anything people usually see. They were no longer in the shape of 'humans' anymore.
Rover curled his lips into a sneer and shoved the remaining half of the corpse, stuck between the glass and the outside world, into the mirror.
In the next instant, the wraiths pounced on it like starving wolves, tearing and biting into the corpse. In less than a minute, it was completely gone, not even a fragment of bone left.
Rover let out a sigh and looked around, not knowing how to escape this damned place.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Suddenly, a sound came from the surface of the mirror, like someone tapping it with their fingernails.
Rover turned his head and saw a few wraiths staring at him, but they weren't tapping with their nails. They were using fingertips rotted down to exposed white bone to tap on the mirror.
He frowned and looked at them. "What, still not full?"
They didn't speak, but when they saw Rover paying attention, they began crawling around the rim of the mirror, revealing a white region in the center of the mirror like a gateway.
"That's..." Rover was utterly startled by the sight. He had the feeling that was the true exit from this world.
An elderly wraith, its body nothing but white bones with a few scraps of flesh clinging near the eyes, stared at him with hollow sockets, then reached out and gestured for him to enter.
Rover snorted a laugh. He hadn't expected that feeding these wraiths a strange corpse could actually earn their friendliness.
But that was good. He could leave this cursed world.
Rover stepped forward, his body beginning to pass into the mirror, but unlike what he'd expected, the wraiths didn't harm him.
They only looked at him, yet he could feel it was a gaze full of gratitude and thanks.
Rover didn't understand why they were looking at him that way, and he didn't care.
He kept walking, heading toward the distant light. The scene behind him gradually disappeared, replaced by another strange space.
A space of pure white. All around, countless mirrors floated in midair.
Rover looked around and realized those mirrors were also nothing but white, with nothing inside them. They didn't even reflect his own image.
He found it bizarre. This space seemed to have an endless number of mirrors like that.
"So... how do I leave this place?" Rover muttered.
"After you answer two questions from me."
Suddenly, a voice rang out as if countless people were speaking at once, followed by a distorted screech like sand grinding against ice.
Rover frowned and looked around, unable to tell where the sound was coming from, but he could sense the voice held no malice, so he listened in silence.
"There are two questions that no one has been able to solve for a very long time. If you can give me an answer that satisfies me, I can let you leave this world, along with a special gift."
Rover frowned and asked softly, "What if I can't answer?"
"Then you can only stay here forever, becoming one of the mirrors here."
Rover let out a sigh. He knew resisting was meaningless, so he could only accept it.
That voice spoke again. "First question: If you could live another life, what would you want your new life to be like?"
"Second question: If an author discovers that his webnovel has been copied, what should he do?"
Hearing the two questions, Rover felt a bit confused. Indeed, neither of them seemed to have a single correct answer.
He didn't think for long before saying, "I don't know..."
That being seemed unable to believe he would answer like that, so it fell silent for a moment before asking, "Why?"
"Because I'm not in that situation, so I don't know," Rover said. "I feel like things are good right now, so I don't want to think about what a new life would be like. I also don't know how to help that author, so my final answer is: I don't know."
The other party fell silent for a while longer, then said, "I'm not satisfied with your answer."
"That's because you're not satisfied with your own question," Rover smacked his lips, his face full of contempt.
"Why?"
"You said you needed an answer that satisfies you, not the correct answer, right?" Rover said with a grin. "Come on. If you were satisfied with those questions, this place wouldn't exist, would it?"
"You weren't satisfied with yourself in the first place, so why are you looking for that in someone else? Shouldn't you be the one to go find that satisfaction?"
"If you want an answer... for the first question, I can say I want a life that's always better than the present. You're already dissatisfied with the present, so you think about another life. Then what if you get another life and you're still dissatisfied?"
"As for the second question, then that author should just keep writing. You can't stop him anyway, so it's enough to keep doing the work you're best at."
After saying that, Rover let out a sigh and continued, "If you want to search for satisfaction, then there isn't any. If satisfaction existed in this world, people wouldn't need to look in mirrors, because they'd always be satisfied with themselves."
The moment he finished that sentence, the mirror trembled violently, then fell silent again.
After a long pause, that voice rang out. "You're right. If everyone were satisfied with themselves, they wouldn't need to look in mirrors."
At that moment, a mirror radiating all kinds of colors appeared before him.
"Your answer didn't satisfy me, but I think I really like your answer."
[Ding! You have discovered a new ability: Mirror โ Rank: SS (-1). Do you want to accept this ability? Note: To obtain this ability, you must sacrifice your Rank A skill [Psionics].]
Rover frowned when he saw the notification. He had to know that his Psionics skill was not only powerful, he had also just used a [Strength Breakthrough] card gifted by Dark Lord.
Now they were telling him to sacrifice that skill, and he couldn't bear it. But... [Mirror] was an SS-rank ability. Even if he didn't want to, he still had to accept it.
But... what did (-1) mean?
While Rover hesitated, that voice spoke again. "Don't worry. This is far superior to the skill you currently have. If you possess both, your mind will fall into chaos."
Rover sighed, nodded, and said, "I... accept!"๐ณ๐ซ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฏ๐๐จ๐๐๐น.๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ
[Ding! Skill [Psionics] has been successfully sacrificed. You have obtained a new ability โ [Mirror].]
Right after that, a stream of information appeared in his mind, a lot of it, but because his Spirit was stronger than before, he only felt a brief stab of pain in his head before it faded.
Rover took a deep breath and said softly, "Thank you. Can you tell me your name?"
"Hahaha... at some point, we'll meet again."
As soon as the voice finished speaking, a door appeared before Rover. He didn't think too much and stepped through it, but the moment his foot reached the threshold, he suddenly turned back and looked at the space behind him.
He didn't know why, but he had the feeling this place was strangely familiar. Then he shook his head and entered the door, and his body vanished completely.
The space fell silent once more.