The man laughed and said, "Isn't that what you want? Material things, money, power, women... those are the things we spend our whole lives trying to obtain."
Rover listened and nodded with a smile. He took another bite of salad, pondered something, then said, "In truth... I don't actually need those things."
"Hm?!" The man looked at him, somewhat confused.
Rover took a deep breath, his eyes lifting to a sky that was nothing but black: no moon, no stars, like his future, completely uncertain, with no idea where he was headed.
He said, "Up to now, I've lived twenty-five years. I've called other people 'brother,' 'sister,' 'boss'... but... I've never once been able to say the words 'Dad' or 'Mom.'"
"At the very least, I just want to meet them, be able to call them 'Dad, Mom.' If they could hug me, that would be even better."
The man said, "What if they're already dead?"
Rover eyed him suspiciously and asked softly, "Do you... know my parents?"
"Hahaha... no. I'm just asking... 'what if,' that's all."
"Then I want to find their graves. When I can no longer bear the burden called 'life' on my shoulders, I hope I can lie down on their graves. At least... then, I'd be closer to them than I am now."
Rover looked into the distance, watching people on the street, watching couples holding hands in happiness, watching warm families.
He also wanted a family, but when he turned around, behind him there was only darkness.
Sometimes... he felt tired, too.
But he was too cowardly to kill himself, and yet not brave enough to keep living.
He tried to find himself a reason to exist. Fortunately... he'd managed to exist up to the present.
The man sighed, stood up, and said, "Don't worry. They're still alive. It's just that... right now they can't meet you, and you... must go find them."
"What do you mean...?" Rover frowned, looking at the man in confusion.
The man suddenly took out an antique-looking lamp, completely at odds with the cyber-style armor he was wearing.
The lamp was lit, and the flame inside cast a strange blue glow. That light made Rover feel a little chilled, but for some reason... when he looked at it, he felt oddly familiar.
Wherever that blue light shone, the space there trembled violently, then collapsed, turning into a region filled with nothing but fog.
Rover jolted to his feet, and the food box in his hand fell to the ground, spilling everywhere.
But the instant it hit the ground, the blue light from the lamp in the man's hand turned it into countless particles of light, and it vanished.
The world was like a sheet of cloth that had met a spark, beginning to burn fiercely. As it burned, it exposed the space behind it: a bizarre space filled with fog and sounds like shrieking wind.
No, that wasn't wind: it was a sound as if countless people were screaming.
The man looked at him and smiled. "Rover, I can only help you a little. This path, you have to walk it yourself, with your own feet."
"Your father and mother are waiting for you on this journey that feels endless. Don't worry: they still support you, help you, in ways you can't possibly know."
As soon as he finished speaking, the man's body slowly dissolved.
Rover raised his head and saw that where the man had been was a massive mirror.
Over five meters tall, more than two meters wide, perfectly square and transparent, with no frame: only a huge mirror floating in midair.
Rover frowned when he saw his own reflection in the mirror, utterly baffled.
But... Rover slowly walked toward the mirror, as if his mind wanted him to do so.
He frowned at himself in the mirror. He didn't understand why, the more he looked, the more he felt the person in the mirror wasn't him.
"Strange... what the hell is happening?"
Rover muttered. Suddenly, a strange feeling urged him to reach out and touch the mirror surface.
The moment his hand met the hand of the person in the mirror, a ripple spread outward from the point of contact.
"Huck!" Rover shuddered. He wanted to pull his hand back, but he realized his body could no longer move.
Rover in the mirror suddenly laughed, the corners of that person's mouth stretching all the way to the ears, then gaping open to reveal countless tentacles and blood inside, utterly horrifying.
Rover jolted, his body trembling, but no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't move. His body was like stone, his eyes forced to stare straight at the mirror in front of him.
The scene in the mirror gradually grew darker. Countless faces surfaced, displaying every kind of emotion, twisted like plastic bags crumpled into a ball, then flattened out and pasted onto the mirror before him.
Thump! Thump!
Rover's heartbeat accelerated. He felt like he was suffocating, his heart about to leap out of his chest.
A frigid sensation wrapped around his body. He could even feel countless ice-cold hands touching him, gripping him, nails digging into his flesh and sending sharp pain through him.
But no matter how intense the pain was, he still couldn't speak, still couldn't move.
He looked at himself in the mirror. His reflection was also being clung to by countless gaunt, rotting hands, skin peeling away to expose white bone beneath. Countless maggots crawled over those arms, then began to frenzy toward him, biting and tearing.
Rover felt the pain, yet 'the him in the mirror' wore a crazed smile, as if utterly satisfied by all of it.
"You're not me..." Rover muttered.
The person in the mirror suddenly spoke. "I am you. No, more precisely, I am the darkest side of you."
"Hatred, pain, despair... your life is like a maggot writhing in a pile of rotting corpses, such a failure. Come to me, become one with me. We'll spread what you've tasted across this damned world."
'The one in the mirror' suddenly reached a hand out of the mirror. That icy hand clamped around Rover's wrist, then yanked hard.
In the next instant, Rover's hand was dragged into the mirror. The sensation of countless maggots crawling over his skin made him shudder, his fear magnified to the extreme.
"Even if you keep living, it's meaningless..." the thing in the mirror said. "Will anyone care about you? No, not a single person. Even your parents abandoned you, so who would ever need you?"
"Rover, only me. Only your shadow will stay by your side forever. Come. We'll take revenge on this disgusting world together."
Rover trembled, unable to come up with a rebuttal. That was right: even his parents had abandoned him, so who would need him?
'They're still waiting for you on your journey. They still support you, help you, in ways you can't possibly know.'
The strange man's voice suddenly echoed in his head, making him flinch.
At that moment, memories crashed into his mind like a tidal wave, countless images surging up.
The memories buried under dust now looked like a forgotten tomb being unearthed.
The infinite game, Nanoe, Selina, Leng Yan, Otrix...
The images that had been warped and shattered now automatically snapped back together into a flawless picture.
Rover suddenly opened his eyes, coldness and resolve in them so intense that even the thing in the mirror felt fear.
"Fuck!" Rover cursed, his expression turning ferocious. The hand being held by the thing in the mirror struggled at once. Rover didn't pull his hand back. Instead, he grabbed the thing's hand.
"You bastard! What are you doing in the mirror? Come out and play with me for a bit!"
Rover growled, then yanked hard, trying to drag the thing in the mirror out.
KRIT! KRIT! KRIT!
Rover used all his strength to pull it out, but the moment that hand extended even slightly beyond the mirror, it instantly withered, as if it had been splashed with concentrated acid, rapidly shriveling before melting into black, foul-smelling droplets.
"AGH!!!! Bastard! Let go of me!" the thing in the mirror screamed madly.
"Goddamn it! You dared to mess around in my mind, but you don't dare leave that shitty mirror?" Rover roared. "Get out here!"
He realized the thing in the mirror was unbelievably fragile. Perhaps mental attacks were the only ability it had.
Rover put everything he had into it, dragging the thing out of the mirror.
"AGH! No! Stop it! Stop!!!" it wailed in agony. Its arm, then its shoulder, then its head...
Whatever part emerged from the mirror was corroded and melted. When its head finally came out and began to dissolve, it glared at Rover with venomous hatred, as if it wanted to use its ugly teeth to tear Rover into a hundred pieces.
"You... will... become..."
Hearing it still trying to speak even as it melted, Rover replied with contempt, "I'll become your grandpa!"
Whoosh!
Rover swung his fist, using all his strength to smash it straight in the head.
BAM!