After settling the price, Roy and Saltana headed straight to the large suburban shopping mall where the ghost mirror was located.
You could see that the architectural style of the large shopping mall was quite classical; you could have easily mistaken it for a museum.
Roy noticed that much of the outer layer of the building's facade had peeled off, clearly indicating a lack of regular maintenance.
The area around the large shopping mall had already been cordoned off with caution tape, and a small number of FEA agents were patrolling.
"Who owns this large shopping mall? It looks like it's been around for a while. Isn't anyone taking care of it?"
Such a large building just sitting here empty is such a waste!
The land alone is worth a lot of money; if they could solve the ghost mirror problem, it would be worth at least tens of millions.
"They say this place belongs to a wealthy guy named Roland Gordon. He disappeared a few years ago and didn't have any kids. The rest of his family has been fighting over the inheritance in court for years, so it's just been sitting empty."
Oh, I see. That explains it.
Roy followed Saltana into the interior of the shopping mall.
"Over the past few years, the Gordon family has just hired some security guards to watch the place and keep homeless people out. But every single security guard who's worked here has disappeared, and they're still hiring more."
That family's got a dark side!
Arriving at the center of the mall, Roy saw a rectangular frame covered with a canvas tarp.
"Roy, this is it."
"Saltana, you go on outside and keep watch at the entrance. Don't let anyone in easily."
"Okay! Roy, be careful."
Saltana left the mall to wait for Roy outside, and the inside of the mall became dark and silent.
When the environment becomes very quiet, people's ears will pick up strange sounds, and often these are just auditory hallucinations.
But right now, Roy seemed to hear the screams of the people who were trapped here during the fire that happened back then.
It felt incredibly real; hearing the sounds was like seeing the scene firsthand, the imagery was so vivid.
"Interesting!"
Roy smiled and then walked towards the mirror in the center of the mall.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Roy approached, the canvas covering the mirror slid off automatically, as if it were welcoming him.
They say this mirror was the only thing that wasn't destroyed in the fire, and even after all these years, it's still brand new.
Looking at his handsome face in the mirror, Roy fell into thought.
Destroying the ghost mirror would be a piece of cake for Roy with his current abilities. The tricky part is containing it without destroying it.
Just as he was thinking this, Roy suddenly noticed his reflection in the mirror suddenly flash a creepy smile and then grab its own mouth and start tearing at it.
Soon, the Roy in the mirror tore off his own chin, and the scene was incredibly bloody.
Immediately after, Roy felt like his own chin had a mind of its own, like it was thinking about going solo and making its debut.
It seems that seeing your own death in the mirror also manifests on yourself outside the mirror.
Roy activated his Eye of Truth, and when he looked down, he saw an evil spirit pulling at his chin.
Too bad, this evil spirit wasn't strong enough to even budge Roy's chin. With his 52 points of constitution defense, even a small-caliber bullet wouldn't break the skin.
He pulled out his cursed dagger and casually stabbed the evil spirit in front of him, and the Roy in the mirror instantly vanished.
At that moment, an idea suddenly popped into Roy's head.
It seemed like there were a large number of evil spirits inside this ghost mirror. Individually, they weren't very strong; their power came from being together.
They were no match for Sadako and Kayako.
So, could he just kill most of these evil spirits, leaving only a few, to keep the ghost mirror's effects while making it safer and more controllable?
Roy felt it was worth trying.
So, Roy continued to approach the mirror, and suddenly a bloody hand appeared on its surface. But this bloody hand was actually inside the mirror, not on its surface.
Could he enter the world inside the mirror?
Roy became slightly interested.
There are many urban legends about mirrors, and one of them is about the world inside the mirror. They say it's a world completely opposite to reality, but no one has ever truly seen it.
Now Roy was going to go in and take a look.
Reaching his hand towards the spot on the mirror where the bloody handprint was, Roy was immediately pulled in by a powerful suction force.
Beyond the mirror was a world even darker than the real one, still inside that large shopping mall, but it looked very old and was covered in burn marks everywhere.
This didn't seem quite right. It was too different from the real world. This must be an evil spirit space created by the resentment of the evil spirits, not a pure world inside the mirror.
This ability to create an evil spirit space is something that any moderately powerful evil spirit can do.
For example, Kayako once recreated the process of her own death in the movie "Ju-on." Roy was probably experiencing something similar now.
Standing around him was a ring of burned evil spirits. In the evil spirit space, they would appear in physical form. The whole group was charred black, their eyes filled with hatred for the living.
"Hey there! You guys are so enthusiastic, do you want my autograph?"
Roy greeted the evil spirits with a smile, but they didn't appreciate it at all and started to approach him step by step.
"Seriously, no manners at all! Sadako, Kayako, come on out!"
Two white-clad female ghosts emerged from the cursed twin daggers.
Sadako and Kayako had been receiving Roy's positive energy for a long time. Now, apart from their extremely pale skin, you couldn't tell them apart from humans just by looking at them.
They formed a stark contrast to the charred evil spirits present.
"Sadako, Kayako, absorb these evil spirits, but remember not to suck them all up. Leave a few."
Sadako and Kayako obediently nodded and then got to work.
Most evil spirits have very low intelligence and instinctively harbor malice towards the living, without considering the difference in strength between them.
After receiving Roy's positive energy, Sadako and Kayako's intelligence had skyrocketed, and they were no less intelligent than normal humans.
The battle began. Sadako's hair suddenly started to grow rapidly, her wet, long black hair wrapped around the nearest few evil spirits, dragged them in front of her, and then stuffed them directly into her mouth.
Kayako wasn't going to be outdone. She lay on the ground and, in a bizarrely contorted posture, quickly rushed into the pile of evil spirits, devouring them everywhere.
These burned evil spirits were no match for the two female ghosts at all; the scene was a complete massacre.
That's brutal!
Roy had a kind heart and couldn't bear to watch such a cruel scene, so he could only turn his back and look at the special features of the world inside the mirror.
After observing for a bit, it seemed that the world inside the mirror, apart from being a mirror image of the real world, didn't have any other special features.
Just as he was thinking this, those burned evil spirits, unwilling to be slaughtered by Sadako and Kayako, actually merged together and transformed into a huge, gray undead being.
Huh, they even have a hot-blooded combination move?
Sadako and Kayako looked at Roy, the two female ghosts' small eyes showing a bit of helplessness. Clearly, this large undead being wasn't easy to deal with.
"What are you looking at me for? Alright, I'll lend you the cursed twin daggers. Keep going!"
Roy had made up his mind to watch the show. After all, he'd been working hard for the better part of a year; couldn't he enjoy himself a little?
Sadako and Kayako caught the cursed daggers. Most of the two female ghosts' power was sealed within the daggers; they were only in their complete state when they held them.
The battle continued!
Sadako's long hair became even more terrifying, completely changing the terrain of the scene.
The ceiling, the floor, the walls were all covered in Sadako's wet, black hair, and some of the black hair even formed the shape of a chair for Roy to sit down and watch the battle.
Didn't that just broaden their horizons?
Roy sat down on the soft hair chair and gave Sadako an approving look.
On the other side, Kayako was not to be outdone. Several more arms grew out of her spiritual body, and she quickly crawled towards the huge undead being, using her own arms to control its body.
The places where Kayako's arms grabbed onto quickly turned pitch black. This female ghost's arms actually contained the power of curses, and even the huge undead being, also an evil spirit, couldn't resist.
The huge undead being began to feel fear. Perhaps the merging of more evil spirits had increased its intelligence. This guy finally realized he had bitten off more than he could chew.
This guy no longer had any intention of killing Roy; he just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, running away was impossible. Sadako's hair was everywhere in the entire shopping mall, making it impossible for the huge undead being to move an inch.
Sadako continued to grow her hair, using it to wrap around the huge undead being's limbs, completely immobilizing it.
Then, the two female ghosts used the cursed daggers to cut apart and devour the huge undead being's body.
The huge undead being's body burst into green flames, trying to make a last-ditch effort.
This green flame had a certain destructive power against spiritual bodies, and for a moment, it actually prevented Sadako and Kayako from approaching the huge undead being.
However, Sadako and Kayako weren't pushovers. The two female ghosts stood hand in hand in front of the huge undead being, and then some pitch-black liquid surged up from the ground.
It looked a lot like the stuff that was produced when they killed the evil spirits earlier.
The pitch-black liquid quickly covered the huge undead being, extinguishing the green flames on its body.
After that, Sadako and Kayako could continue their meal.
Finally, after losing two-thirds of its body, the huge undead being finally exploded, splitting back into the burned evil spirits from before.
[Ding! Obtained the Mirror Spirit's Fate Treasure Chest! Open it?]
Huh, you can get a Fate Treasure Chest from the evil spirits that Sadako and Kayako killed?
Roy instantly sat up straight.
Theoretically, Sadako and Kayako could be considered the spirit weapons of the cursed twin daggers. They were both Roy's possessions, so anything killed by them could also be considered killed by Roy.
Well, that's a nice surprise!
After the mirror spirit died, only a few burned undead beings were left trembling in the corner, unable to even maintain the evil spirit space.
Roy felt it was about time, so he told Sadako and Kayako to stop.
In fact, the two female ghosts had each eaten an average of seventy or eighty evil spirits. They were already quite full, their stomachs slightly bulging, but their evil spirit instincts prevented them from stopping eating on their own.
However, as soon as Roy gave the order, Sadako and Kayako obediently stopped.
Ignoring the few trembling evil spirits, Roy was more interested in the world outside the shopping mall.
Roy wanted to know if this world inside the mirror only contained the shopping mall or if it encompassed a wider world.
Gently pushing open the mall doors, Roy saw a world that was a mirror image of reality, except he didn't see any FEA agents.
In the distance was the brightly lit downtown area of Los Angeles, and everything seemed to be pretty much the same as the real world.
The only difference was probably the sky in the mirror world. Red lightning constantly flashed across the black night sky, and the weather in this world seemed very harsh.
So, are there humans in this world too?
Are the humans here just mirror images of the humans in the real world?
Roy's curiosity grew, so he told Sadako and Kayako to watch his back while he prepared to go out and explore a little.
You could see that the area around the shopping mall in the mirror world was also the same as in the real world, except for the reversed orientation.
But after walking only a few steps, some fog began to rise around Roy, which made him alert.
Roy quickly returned to the mall, closed the doors again, and even used wooden planks lying on the ground to barricade them, preventing the evil spirits from the mirror world from getting out.
After taking care of all this, Roy returned the way he came, back through the mirror into the real world.
This mirror could actually travel between two worlds. He wondered if giving it to the FEA would be a good thing or a bad thing.
He should probably explain it to Saltana.
Covering the mirror with the canvas tarp again, Roy walked out of the shopping mall.
Seeing Roy appear, Saltana immediately came up to him.
"Roy, what's the situation? Are you hurt?"
"Do I look like I'm hurt?"
Roy struck a playful pose.
"Alright, alright, I know you're tough! Tell me about the mirror!"
"I've pretty much killed off the evil spirits inside the mirror, leaving only a few. That way, the mirror can still retain some of its power without being too dangerous. But the most troublesome thing about this mirror isn't actually the evil spirits inside."
This surprised Saltana a bit.
"What is it?"
Roy looked around.
"Let's talk about it in the car!"
Getting into his used yellow Chevrolet Camaro, Roy started the car and explained to Saltana as he drove towards the Dolphin Hotel.
"I discovered a world inside the mirror!"
"A world inside the mirror?"
Saltana was a bit surprised.
"Yes, on the surface, that world is just a mirror image of the real world, but I don't think it's that simple! In that world, evil spirits can exist in physical form, so I suspect that the physical rules of the mirror world are different from those of the real world!"
Saltana frowned in thought, seeming to realize that this was a tricky situation.
"That sounds complicated. Did you see any humans in that world?"
"No. I felt like that world was strange, so I didn't explore it deeply. Coincidentally, in that world, the shopping mall had also experienced a fire, and there weren't many people around."
Saltana thought for a moment, feeling that this matter was beyond her level of authority to decide.
"I'll report this to Gerald and see what he thinks."
"You absolutely, positively, definitely need to handle that mirror with caution!"
Roy used three "definitelys" to emphasize his point, and Saltana nodded solemnly to show that she understood.
Just then, Roy suddenly noticed a figure standing in the middle of the road ahead.
(End of Chapter)