Soon after "Bai Liu" got off the train, Bai Liu's body changed from a translucent, data-like state into something real. He flexed his hands thoughtfully and found that he could touch the passengers around him.
Perhaps it was because two "Bai Liu" existed in the same time and space that his existence had been virtualized. Or perhaps the fact that he would die if "Bai Liu" didn't get off the train had caused his body to become virtual. Nevertheless, these things were no longer important.
The next station was Antique City. He was still on the train, and it would explode in at most three minutes.
"Bai Liu—!!" Mu Sicheng's voice rang out from another crowded carriage. He struggled through the crowd to reach Bai Liu's side, his expression extremely grim. "There are so many people here! How are we supposed to find the broken lenses? We're about to arrive at the station! The last train will explode before it even gets there!"
"I just tried something. I originally wanted to get off the train," Mu Sicheng said solemnly. "But I couldn't. It was like something inside the carriage was stopping me."
Bai Liu turned a deaf ear to Mu Sicheng's anxiety. Instead of addressing his panic, Bai Liu replied calmly, "This is reality. Since the real 'you' isn't on this train, you can't act on getting off. The real 'me' has already gotten off the train, so I can't get off again. If causality becomes disordered, it will disrupt the logic of the game."
"What reality?!" Mu Sicheng snapped, instantly alert. "Bai Liu, this isn't reality. This is the game! Has your mental value dropped? Are you hallucinating? What nonsense about getting off but not getting off?"
"That's not what I meant." Bai Liu pointed past Mu Sicheng's shoulder at the subway map inside the carriage. "Look at this map. The stop before Antique City is Lujiazui, not Reservoir. This subway line isn't circular—it's linear. This is the subway map from reality."
Mu Sicheng followed his finger and saw it too. He frowned. "But we can't return to reality. This is still the game."
"When I say this is reality, I don't mean we've returned to the real world," Bai Liu continued. "The 'reality' here is relative to the train full of burnt corpses where we were before. That place wasn't the true game world. It was a mirror world trapped in a constant loop."
"The train we're standing in now—" Bai Liu tapped the floor lightly with his foot, his gaze flat. "This is the relative reality of the real game. You could also call it a possibility derived from an event that has already happened. The prototype of this game is the Mirror City Bombing case. Normally, a game based on a prototype simply recreates the event. But this game has done more than just restore it."
"It has reproduced the entire scene of the incident," Bai Liu said, looking at Mu Sicheng. "It brought us back to the moment of the explosion. Then, at this node controlled by players, it calculates possible outcomes based on our actions, leading to different consequences."
For example, Bai Liu's first reaction upon boarding the train earlier had been to look for himself and Lu Yizhan. Originally, "Bai Liu" hadn't slept on the train because it was cold. But when Bai Liu entered, he carried something that warmed the carriage—the 380 broken lenses. Once he entered the mirror world, the 380 broken lenses had automatically been stored in the system backpack.
Bai Liu was virtual, but the mirror world was warm. His presence warmed the exhausted "Bai Liu" with the residual heat from the mirror, making him sleepy. This deviation from Bai Liu's original memories caused 'Bai Liu' not to get off the train with Lu Yizhan.
Mu Sicheng didn't focus on those details. All he needed to know was that Bai Liu understood they were still inside the game. With only three minutes until the explosion, Mu Sicheng was extremely anxious. He was determined to extract the key information from Bai Liu's words to clear the level.
"The mirror world trapped in an endless loop?" Mu Sicheng asked urgently. "What do you mean by endless loop?"
"Don't you think there was a major loophole in our previous task of collecting the broken lenses?" Bai Liu said lazily. "We were supposed to collect broken lenses on the last train that was about to explode, right?"
Mu Sicheng nodded. "Yes."
"But—" Bai Liu lifted his eyes and smiled at him. "If the last train hasn't exploded yet, where did the broken lenses come from?"
"Unless it has already exploded—and we've been collecting the broken lenses after the explosion."
Mu Sicheng froze for a full second before coming back to himself. Then he muttered in a daze, "It's a continuous loop. The last train exploded over and over again… Collecting the broken lenses was useless. Once we finished, we would probably trap ourselves on the endlessly exploding train. That's why the passengers tried to stop us. Fuck—they were saving us, the stupid players."
"Yes. I noticed it before we even entered the subway platform. The escalators were running in the opposite direction. Later, the order of boarding and disembarking was reversed. Even our mission was 'reversed' to some extent," Bai Liu explained calmly. "Our task was to collect the broken lenses, but in fact, they had already been gathered by the passengers. What we were doing was scattering them again and recollecting them. It seemed as though we were acting as villains while the passengers were in the right. I guess that this is one of the mirror's characteristics—reversing the nature of things."
"So I think the main task in the mirror and the main task in reality should also be reversed." Bai Liu's eyes were calm and lazy as he toyed with the coin against his chest. "In the reality we're currently in, the train hasn't exploded. In other words, the mirror hasn't been shattered. The task in the mirror was to collect and piece together the broken lenses. Reversing it means—"
Mu Sicheng's eyes widened in realization. "We have to break the mirror!"
Bai Liu's lips curved upward as he snapped his fingers. "Bingo."
[System prompt: Congratulations to player Bai Liu and player Mu Sicheng for triggering the ultimate main task: Break the Evil Ghost Mirror and end the continuous loop of Exploding Last Train.]
[System prompt: The 380 broken lenses on player Bai Liu's body have returned to their original place. Please quickly locate the real mirror and break it to clear the level.]
Mu Sicheng let out a long breath tinged with lingering fear. He looked at Bai Liu and clicked his tongue. "You—at a time like this, your brain isn't even a little scrambled?"
Three minutes until the explosion. Barely any health left. Yet this guy still had the composure to analyze the true task. Wasn't he anxious at all?
"Then where is the mirror?" Bai Liu might not have been anxious, but Mu Sicheng certainly was. "This train has six carriages, and there are only two minutes left. There's no way we can search everyone."
"There's no need to search." Bai Liu leaned against the carriage door and pointed ahead. "I've taken this train before. Before I got off, I remembered the thieves were in this carriage. That's why I came here directly. As expected, they're here—no, right in the center."
Mu Sicheng shifted his gaze and saw two passengers—one tall, one small—standing there with a large suitcase. It was just big enough to hold a mirror. The mirror must be inside. Several well-dressed men in suits stood nearby, likely museum staff.
Realization dawned on him. They were the thief brothers.
He glanced at Bai Liu, slightly speechless. "You noticed them long ago, didn't you? Why didn't you go over? What were you waiting for?"
Bai Liu smiled faintly. "Wasn't I waiting for you to steal the mirror, great thief? How could I snatch something from professional thieves? Naturally, I needed you."
Mu Sicheng paused, then curled his lips into a sneer. "You really know how to save your energy."
As he spoke, his gaze sharpened. He adjusted his headphones, pulled up his hood to cover his face, and flicked his right hand behind him—transforming it into a monkey's paw. Then he slipped ghostlike through the surrounding passengers.
Bai Liu didn't see what Mu Sicheng had done, but he heard the thief brothers screaming, "The mirror is gone!! There's a thief!!!"
Chaos erupted in the carriage. The moment Bai Liu turned his head, he felt someone grab the back of his collar and lift him up.
Mu Sicheng, hood pulled low, held the suitcase in one hand and Bai Liu in the other. A wild grin spread across his face as he stepped onto the walls of the carriage and sprinted forward. Behind him came the furious roars of the thief brothers.
"Catch the thieves!"
Mu Sicheng's expression turned cold. He flicked out a knife and ordered anyone blocking his path to move. The crowd immediately scattered, screaming and shoving their way into other carriages in panic. Mu Sicheng ran without obstruction all the way to the last carriage. Once there, he intimidated the remaining passengers into fleeing as well, leaving the carriage completely empty for the two of them.
"Impressive. Mu Sicheng, you're really good at doing bad things," Bai Liu praised sincerely as he looked at the instantly cleared carriage.
Mu Sicheng raised an eyebrow. "You're no different."
Bai Liu crouched down and opened the suitcase. The mirror lay inside, perfectly intact. The moment he propped it upright, a harsh system warning rang out.
[System warning: Once the mirror is broken, the god-level NPC will break out of the mirror. All players standing in front of the mirror will be attacked indiscriminately. Please exercise caution when breaking the mirror!]
With their current health, if either Bai Liu or Mu Sicheng were attacked by a wandering god-level NPC, they would be doomed. The smile on Mu Sicheng's face vanished instantly.
The carriage fell silent. Only the rush of wind and the faint sobbing of the passengers Mu Sicheng had driven into other carriages could be heard.
Then, right on cue, the sweet voice of the female announcer sounded:
"We are about to reach the terminal—"