Chilling water slid down Chen Ge's hair. He was reeling from the fact that he had come so close to death. His chest was pumping unevenly, his lips turning from pale to purple, his hands still gripping the cleavers.
He felt more collected two minutes later, and the light-headedness dissolved. Wiping the water droplets from his face, Chen Ge stood up unsteadily from the bathtub. With the weak light of the candle, he could see that nothing had changed inside the bathroom.
I swear I managed to cut something earlier; there was that snap too.
Chen Ge looked around him and saw a cut left on the edge of the tub.
Did I accidentally cut the tub? That shouldn't be it; there was definitely someone holding my head down in the water earlier, and the cleaver should have cut that person.
Desperate to know the truth, Chen Ge climbed out of the tub to grab the phone that was still recording. He stopped the recording and replayed it from the start.
At 3:30 am, I sat inside the bathtub, and nothing happened on screen until 3:43 am.
Chen Ge leaned against the wall as his eyes glued themselves to the screen. At 3:44 am, he lay down in the tub, causing the water to overflow.
Looking at it from another perspective, this does look rather creepy.
When he was doing this in person, Chen Ge did not feel like it was all that odd, but looking at it through the camera's lens, there was something chillingly bizarre about this.
Chen Ge glanced at the time stamp. For the initial twenty seconds after he submerged himself, everything was normal inside the bathroom. There was the occasional sound of water dripping.
Ten seconds later, Chen Ge frowned. The video that was playing on screen was showing a different reality than he remembered!
Based on his memory, by then, the footsteps should have been heard from the corridor, but it was absolutely peaceful on the screen. The audio did not pick up anything weird, definitely no sound of footsteps. Five seconds later, the door slamming that Chen Ge remembered clearly also did not show up on-screen. All that was captured on the video was the darkened surface of the water and the dancing candlelight.
The footsteps and door slamming were all parts of my hallucination?
When fifty seconds had passed, the originally peaceful water surface was disturbed by a copious amount of air bubbles. It was obvious that the Chen Ge in the video was close to his limits. However, right then, something happened on the screen that made chills crawl all over Chen Ge's body.
There was a piece of shattered mirror the size of a palm lying beside the bathtub. Its surface started to cloud over like it had been swallowed by a dark fog. Eventually, a black shadow slowly extended itself from it. It leaned against the tub; the scene was definitely supernatural. Based on its build and features, it looked like He Feng.
The number of air bubbles started to increase, and the video was about to reach its climax. In the video, Chen Ge's body and mind were tested to their limits already, and he was about to give up. Chen Ge could see himself inside the tub moving upwards.
However, just as his head was about to break the surface, the black shadow beside the tub suddenly reached out with both of its hands to press on his head!
The shock caused water to stream into Chen Ge's nostrils, choking the man alive. Chen Ge struggled vehemently as the cleavers in his hands waved frantically above. The black shadow flickered like an image on an old television. The cleavers affected him but only slightly.
At the most crucial moment, the ragdolls that were placed around the bathtub started to teeter like they were being blown by winds. The smallest among them tipped over and used its body to block the palm-sized mirror piece completely.
The black shadow's body started to blur. It was then that Chen Ge's cleaver inadvertently made contact with its head, and the shadow disappeared. The cleaver flew out of Chen Ge's grasp, and before it landed on the floor, it scratched the edge of the bathtub, leaving a light mark. Almost at the same time, Chen Ge burst through the water surface.
The video ended. Chen Ge's resolve to destroy the creature hardened. It must be stopped.
He saved the recording and picked up the ragdoll covering the mirror. Its back was sliced by the mirror's sharp edge, soaked through.
Both from the other side, yet so different. Some spirits only scare, with good hearts. Others are pure malice.
Chen Ge dried off and dressed, pocketing the dolls. Only then did he feel steadier.
Breaking mirrors is pointless—it still emerges. How do I fight something that vanishes at will? I'm at a disadvantage against this thing.
Curious, he lifted the palm-sized mirror. To his shock, water droplets on its surface moved deliberately, forming the number 3.
A taunt? Does it mean He San, He Feng, and me? Or a threat to kill me in three days?
Unsure of the number's meaning, Chen Ge knew it spelled trouble. You think I'm scared? I'll drag you out of that mirror and burn you in the sun!
He spat the harshest curse he could muster, still shaken from his near-death experience.
Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the black phone, expecting little. But a message on the screen sparked hope.
"Specters' Favored, you held your breath for 62 seconds. Congratulations on completing the Nightmare Mission! Reward: Yin Yang Vision.
"Yin Yang Vision: See beyond the divide between worlds. Use your Yang body to perceive Yin presences (enhances vision, other functions unknown).
"Notice: You've completed two Nightmare Daily Missions. Complete a third to unlock a Trial Mission for a new scenario!
"Completed three consecutive missions with over 95% completion rate, unlocking new feature: My Friends from the Other Side [Affection Status]!"
Chen Ge's emotions churned. The mission required holding his breath for sixty seconds. He'd planned to give up around fifty, which would've failed it. But the mirror monster's attack forced him to endure longer, securing success by a hair.
The monster's interference, ironically, was a twisted blessing.
Checking the black phone, Chen Ge realized the mission's importance. Failure would've cost him the reward, delayed a new scenario, and locked the phone's new feature.