Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Mirror World 6

The mirror did not shatter because Zhou Zhou let go of it. When he was greeting Alvia, the hand holding the bottom of the mirror did not move, but he raised the hand holding the other side of the mirror to wave at Alvia, using his waist to prop up the mirror instead of that hand to prevent it from falling. When both hands were holding the mirror, they fixed it in place, but using the force of his waist to hold the mirror would subject it to more force.

The main reason the mirror split into two halves was that its quality was too poor.

This was the conclusion Alvia reached after observing it.

“Really?” Zhou Zhou squatted on the ground, looking up at Alvia for confirmation with an expectant expression, with the two halves of the mirror lying on the ground beside his feet.

“Yeah.” Alvia nodded, but his gaze never left the mirror.

Although Zhou Zhou was squatting right next to the mirror, and had even tried to put it back together, almost lying on top of it, the mirror only reflected the sky, with no trace of Zhou Zhou’s figure, as if he did not exist.

So, was it a problem with the mirror or with Zhou Zhou?

“Zhou Zhou, why did you bring a mirror with you?” Alvia asked. This mirror seemed completely out of place in their surroundings. Where did Zhou Zhou find it, and why did he bring such a large mirror up the mountain?

Zhou Zhou’s gaze slowly drifted to a white wildflower nearby, as if there was something about the little white flower that captivated him, and he studied it intently.

He felt a bit embarrassed to explain what had happened.

Because of something he said, he had shattered someone who looked very similar to Al, then did something wrong again, causing the person in the mirror who looked exactly like himself to roll down the hill and disappear, and now he had even broken the other person’s mirror.

He had not done a single good thing since entering this instance.

“Hm? What exactly happened?” Alvia continued to probe when he saw Zhou Zhou remain silent with a very guilty look, unwilling to meet his gaze.

“Well, it’s like this. When I woke up on the mountain, there was someone who looked a lot like you nearby, but after we exchanged a few words, he shattered, and then…” Zhou Zhou stared at the little white flower as he recounted in a monotone what had happened after he woke up.

By the time Zhou Zhou finished relating his previous day’s experience in a matter-of-fact tone devoid of any inflection, Alvia had only one feeling, of course, just as he thought.

He had been worried about Zhou Zhou earlier, but now it seemed the real concern should be for the designers of these instances. After all, no matter which instance Zhou Zhou was in, whether intentionally or not, he would never let himself be at a disadvantage.

Zhou Zhou had originally been waiting for Alvia’s reaction, but when the person next to him remained silent, by the time he looked up at Alvia, he saw that Alvia was trying to hold back laughter.

Although he did not make a sound, those eyes filled with mirth could not conceal his amusement.

Zhou Zhou stared at Alvia, his mouth unconsciously pursed. Al was actually mocking him. Although he had to admit that what he did was a bit…ahem, he himself thought it was a bit excessive as well. Oh well, let him laugh.

He turned his head, deciding to ignore Al’s mockery, and focused on trying to put the mirror back together, but the broken mirror could not be made whole no matter how he tried to piece it together.

Alvia suppressed his laughter, then walked up and half-squatted next to Zhou Zhou to observe this mirror.

When his face appeared above the mirror, the two broken pieces simultaneously showed two Alvias.

This was actually quite normal. Although broken into two pieces, they were still mirrors, and their essential nature had not changed.

Zhou Zhou let out a surprised “oh,” then leaned in to squeeze next to Alvia, but he still did not appear in the reflection.

Alvia raised his eyebrows slightly, looking at Zhou Zhou pressed against his side. The two Alvias in the broken mirror pieces also raised their eyebrows, glancing toward the empty space beside them.

“Al, can you ask them what happened to the person from last night?”

Zhou Zhou quickly asked. He was still concerned about the person from the mirror who had fallen down the hill. Although he could not ask, Al could, since there were two “him” here that could be asked.

Instead of speaking, Alvia carefully observed the two versions of himself in the mirrors, looking for any differences between them and himself. If he had not heard Zhou Zhou’s account earlier, he might have taken them for ordinary mirrors. Now, it seemed there might be another world inside the mirrors.

While Alvia was examining the mirrors to see if the people inside differed from him in any way, Zhou Zhou had already secretly extended a finger, wanting to test if he could enter.

However, when he touched the mirror surface, no ripples appeared.

Undeterred, Zhou Zhou grabbed one of Alvia’s hands, straightened his index finger, and poked it against the mirror surface repeatedly.

Alvia: “…”

Al’s hand did have an effect. Zhou Zhou was delighted to see the ripples spreading across the mirror’s surface, just like in his previous encounter. Did this mean Al could go inside?

Just as he was about to warn Al not to resist if the mirror people tried to pull him in so they could both go inside and take a look, two hands suddenly emerged from the two mirror pieces lying on the ground and grabbed Alvia’s hands, one from the left and one from the right.

They were indeed trying the same trick again, attempting to pull Alvia into the mirrors, and this time it was two mirrors, with two Alvias exerting force together.

From a distance, it looked as if two hands had grown out of the ground, but Alvia did not panic. Instead, he exerted force with both arms and swiftly pulled the two mirror people out.

Unlike Zhou Zhou the previous night, who seemed engaged in a tug-of-war without a clear victor for a long time, the overwhelming force allowed Alvia to easily pull the two mirror people out. Indeed, when their upper bodies emerged from the mirrors, their expressions became panicked, as if something terrible would happen once they left the mirrors.

Alvia did not waver in the slightest and continued pulling the two mirror people out. When their feet left the mirror surface, they suddenly turned into wisps of blue smoke and vanished, while the mirrors on the ground shattered from two large pieces into scattered smaller fragments, with the largest no bigger than a palm.

The entire process happened too quickly. Zhou Zhou was still in the posture of extending one hand, ready to stop Al from pulling those two mirror people out.

With the mirror people gone, the two present exchanged a wordless glance as they looked down at the even more thoroughly shattered mirror on the ground.

Alvia had originally planned to pull these two out and then question them, but who knew they could not leave, vanishing as soon as they emerged.

Zhou Zhou had been prepared to stop Alvia, but Alvia’s strength was too great, and in the blink of an eye he had pulled the mirror people out. Now the people were gone, the mirror was gone, and the two could only stand there staring at the shattered mirror pieces, feeling the chill wind.

Zhou Zhou blinked slowly, “Now, what do we do?”

Alvia felt somewhat awkward too. Not only was the mirror of poor quality, but these mirror people were also very fragile. Now the mirror was completely unusable, even if they could enter through it, a mirror the size of a palm could probably only fit one hand.

“There are still many places on this mountain we haven’t searched. Let’s look around and see if there are any other similar mirrors,” Alvia said.

That was all they could do. Zhou Zhou nodded, surveying the scattered pieces, then dug a pit nearby and buried them.

Alvia helped Zhou Zhou dig the pit and bury the pieces.

Suddenly Zhou Zhou had the feeling they were covering up a crime scene. He didn’t know why, but this thought crossed his mind.

Gazing at the newly formed mound of dirt, Zhou Zhou blinked guiltily and silently apologized in his heart to those mirror people.

Alvia had come down from the mountaintop earlier without any valuable discoveries there. He planned to continue spiraling down in search of clues. So Zhou Zhou also changed his route, no longer heading uphill, and joined Alvia in seeking clues while keeping an eye out for any other mirrors.

As the two walked among the mountains, Alvia looked at Zhou Zhou’s fair, flawless profile and suddenly recalled what the imposter who looked exactly like Zhou Zhou had said earlier.

“Zhou Zhou.”

“Hm?”

“Are you single now?”

Zhou Zhou turned to look at Alvia with a puzzled expression. “Why are you suddenly asking this?”

Seeing Zhou Zhou’s composed demeanor and realizing he did not answer directly, Alvia rephrased his question, “What is your relationship with Ke Li and Xue Li?”

Zhou Zhou blinked, appearing quite calm outwardly, but inwardly he was flustered. Al had said he was too young to date, even though Xue Li told him he could after turning 18. He didn’t know why Al forbade it, so he had been dating them secretly without telling Al. But why was Al asking now? Had he found out something?

Impossible! He had been very careful not to let anything slip in Al’s presence, even avoiding much contact with Ke Li and Xue Li in the previous instance.

“You all know about my relationship with Ke Li and Xue Li, don’t you?” Zhou Zhou blinked innocently, trying to deflect.

“Someone said he is dating two people, a boyfriend named Ke Li and a girlfriend named Xue Li. Who do you think that person is?” Alvia asked slowly.

It was him, but how did Al find out? Zhou Zhou was very puzzled.

What should he do? Al found out!

Zhou Zhou felt flustered.

Would Al…well, what would Al do after finding out? It didn’t seem like he would do anything to Zhou Zhou.

The panicked Zhou Zhou suddenly realized this question, why was he afraid of Al knowing? With this thought, Zhou Zhou immediately felt indignant.

“I want to date. I’m nineteen now, why can’t I date? And if you won’t date me, you’re not allowing me to date others either?”

This defiant attitude was very similar to the imposter Zhou Zhou had encountered before. But Alvia knew this was the real Zhou Zhou, the impostors, despite having different personalities from the original, were still able to grasp some of the original’s thoughts.

Seeing the hint of pleased expression on Zhou Zhou’s face at finding a way to argue back, Alvia suddenly asked, “Have you given careful thought to dating now? Have you considered your future with your partners? Do you have a stable job? The financial means? What level has your career reached? Do you have a permanent residence? Are your personalities compatible? Do you really understand them, their family habits, which planet they’re from, their future career prospects? Have you planned what you’ll do together? If you find your personalities don’t match later, then what? Are you prepared to raise children? Do both your parents approve?”

“Huh?”

Zhou Zhou was dumbfounded by Alvia’s barrage of questions. Just for dating, did he really need to consider so many issues? Isn’t liking someone enough?

Were these really the issues one had to ponder before dating in the outside world?