The Mirror Maiden didn't wait for introductions.
She lunged.
It wasn't a physical leap; it was a projection of malice. Her hair exploded outward like a net of black needles, aiming to pin Ren against the tiled wall.
Ren didn't block. He didn't have the Mana for a shield.
Instead, he dropped.
He slid across the wet floor tiles like a baseball player sliding into home base, the black hair whistling inches above his nose. He could feel the coldness of it—a frost that burned the skin like liquid nitrogen.
CRACK.
The hair slammed into the wall behind him, shattering the plaster and embedding itself deep into the concrete.
Ren kicked off the floor, spinning on his heel to face her.
[ MANA: 48 / 1000 ] [ TIME UNTIL PURGE: 63 HOURS, 10 MINUTES ]
"Fast," Ren muttered, wiping dirty water from his cheek. "But mindless."
The Maiden shrieked again, retracting her hair for a second strike. She was halfway out of the mirror now, her torso twisting unnaturally, her long jagged fingernails scraping against the porcelain sink like knives on a chalkboard.
"You... stole... my... ffaaace..." she gurgled.
"I don't want your face," Ren said, holding up his right hand. "I want your Core."
The Maiden screamed and swiped her claws. The air pressure in the bathroom dropped so low that Ren's ears popped. The water in the toilets exploded upward like geysers.
Ren watched the claws coming. In his old life, he would have simply glared this spirit out of existence. Now, he had to calculate.
Dodge left. Cost: 2 Stamina. Counter-attack. Cost: 10 Mana.
Ren side-stepped. The claws tore through the air where his neck had been a millisecond ago, slicing through the metal stall divider like it was paper.
Ren didn't retreat. He stepped in.
He slammed his palm onto the wet porcelain of the sink, right next to where the Maiden was anchored.
"Water conducts Yin," Ren whispered. "Basic physics."
He channeled his mana. He didn't form a fireball. He didn't summon a sword. He simply pushed his energy into the overflowing water, turning the liquid itself into a weapon.
"Freeze."
[ SKILL ACTIVATED: FLASH FREEZE (TIER 0) ] [ COST: 15 MANA ]
Zzzzzzt.
The water in the sink didn't turn to ice; it turned to spiritual cement. The black sludge dripping from the Maiden's body froze instantly, locking her torso to the sink.
She thrashed, shrieking, pulling against the ice. The porcelain cracked, but the spiritual ice held. She was stuck.
[ MANA: 33 / 1000 ]
Ren was panting. That simple trick cost him a third of his tank.
[ Meanwhile, in the Hallway ]
Jian leaned against the lockers, his heart pounding against his ribs.
BOOM.
A muffled crash echoed from inside the girls' bathroom. It sounded like a sink exploding.
"Mr. Liu?"
Jian froze. He turned slowly.
Principal Miller was marching down the hall, his face red. "Why are you loitering outside the Girls' Restroom? And what was that noise?"
Jian didn't panic. He didn't stutter. His face shifted instantly into the bored, slightly annoyed expression of a tech support worker.
He slid his hand into his pocket and tapped a button on his phone—a stealth app his dad used for "field work."
BZZZ-ZAP.
The fire alarm light above their heads flickered violently, then let out a low, electrical buzzing hum that conveniently masked the sound of Ren shattering a mirror inside.
"Sir," Jian said smoothly, holding up his phone which was displaying a meaningless graph. "I was just logging a faulty breaker. The lights are buzzing. Sounds like an arcing wire. I was standing guard so no student walked into an electrical hazard."
Principal Miller stopped. He looked up at the flickering light. He heard the angry buzzing.
"An electrical hazard?" Miller frowned, stepping back.
"Old wiring, sir," Jian said, pushing his glasses up. "I wouldn't get too close. The voltage spikes are irregular."
Miller nodded, buying it completely. "Good initiative, Liu. Stay here. I'll call maintenance. Don't let anyone in."
"Yes, sir," Jian said dutifully.
As the Principal walked away to make the call, Jian exhaled a breath he had been holding for thirty seconds. He turned back to the bathroom door.
Hurry up, Ren, he thought. I can't hack the school grid forever.
[ Inside the Bathroom ]
"Stop screaming," Ren commanded.
He hopped onto the counter. He was face-to-face with the eyeless ghost.
She opened her stitched mouth to bite him, revealing rows of needle-like teeth.
Ren didn't flinch. He reached out with his left hand—the hand that had held the Phoenix Hairpin earlier—and grabbed her by the throat.
His grip wasn't strong physically. He was an eighteen-year-old boy. But his Soul was heavy. It weighed as much as a mountain range.
[ AUTHORITY ACTIVATED (MINOR) ]
The Maiden froze. She felt it. The predator was touching her. The hunger coming off this boy wasn't human; it was ancient.
"In the Northern Underworld," Ren whispered, his eyes glowing faintly green, "spirits of your rank aren't even allowed to polish my boots. You should be honored."
He tightened his grip.
"Harvest."
This wasn't a spell. It was the fundamental law of the strong eating the weak.
The Maiden convulsed. Her black form began to unravel. The darkness of her body was sucked into Ren's palm, swirling like water down a drain.
She wailed—a sound of pure despair—before her form collapsed entirely.
SHATTER.
The mirror behind her exploded into dust. The black water vanished. The pressure in the room snapped back to normal.
Ren dropped to his knees, gasping for air. His hand was burning.
Hovering in his palm was a small, jagged crystal. It was black, pulsing with a faint purple light.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: MIRROR MAIDEN (LEVEL 5) ] [ LOOT DROPPED: MINOR SPIRIT CORE (GRADE F) ] [ XP GAINED: 50 ]
[ LEVEL UP! ] [ LEVEL 1 -> LEVEL 2 ] [ ALL STATS +1 ]
Ren closed his hand over the crystal. He didn't store it in an inventory. He crushed it.
CRUNCH.
He inhaled the purple dust that floated up from his fingers.
[ CONSUMING SPIRIT CORE... ] [ MANA RESTORED: +100 ] [ MAX MANA INCREASED: 1000 -> 1050 ]
Ren threw his head back and exhaled.
It felt better than the potion. The potion was caffeine; this was pure adrenaline. It tasted like cold iron and victory.
[ TIME UNTIL PURGE: 63 HOURS, 05 MINUTES ]
"Five minutes," Ren noted, looking at the timer. "Efficient."
He stood up and looked at himself in the remaining shard of mirror. He was wet, covered in plaster dust, and his sneakers were ruined. But his eyes were sharp. The green glow faded back to brown.
"Ren?"
The bathroom door creaked open.
Jian peeked in, covering his eyes with one hand. "Is it decent? Are there tentacles? If there are tentacles, I'm resigning."
"It's done," Ren said, hopping off the counter.
Jian lowered his hand. He looked at the destroyed stall, the shattered mirror, and the cracked sink.
"Ren," Jian said flatly. "You destroyed a school bathroom. How are we going to explain this?"
Ren walked past him, wiping his hands on his jeans.
"Plumbing issue," Ren said. "Pipes burst. Very tragic."
Jian looked at the scorch marks on the wall where the spirit hair had struck.
"Pipes," Jian repeated. "Right. Aggressive pipes."
Jian followed Ren out into the hallway. The black veins in the walls were gone. The air felt lighter. The "electrical buzzing" had stopped.
"You got it?" Jian asked, his voice dropping to a whisper as they blended into the crowd of students leaving for lunch.
"I got it," Ren said, tapping his chest where the mana was settling. "But she was just a gatekeeper. That mirror was a door."
Ren stopped walking. He looked out the window at the gloomy sky.
"Someone is trying to open a path into this school, Jian. And they aren't doing it randomly."
Jian adjusted his glasses. "What do you mean?"
"The Maiden was Level 5," Ren said grimly. "Wild spirits don't get that strong on their own. She was planted there. She was a listening device."
Ren checked the timer again.
[ 62 HOURS, 59 MINUTES ]
"The Reapers are coming," Ren said. "But I think someone else is coming first."