Far away, yet right before his eyes?

Huang Qi was a thug.

In the past, he had faced some discrimination in everyday life.

Then the apocalypse came.

Everything got better.

Force was all that mattered.

It would have been even better without those Weird Entities.

He had arrived in this strange place.

This space was somewhat bizarre, but there were no Weird Entities.

Huang Qi lived even more comfortably.

With his strength, he had easily become Xiao Zixia's second-in-command.

Everyone regarded him with a degree of awe.

Huang Qi enjoyed some power and had also developed a possessive desire toward Xiao Zixia.

The man before him gave him a sense of threat.

Perhaps.

Even Su Chen himself had not noticed.

Ever since he acquired the Intelligence System, he had gained some assurance.

That assurance gave him confidence.

He had unwittingly developed a certain presence.

It made him look somewhat different from the crowd.

After saying his piece, Huang Qi was still dissatisfied.

He strode out of the crowd and came up to Su Chen.

It looked as though he was about to get physical.

"Huang Qi!"

Xiao Zixia stood between them, stopping Huang Qi.

As she saw it, she was protecting Huang Qi.

Su Chen also had a Sequence.

However.

Her defense of him only made Huang Qi angrier.

Huang Qi argued, "Zixia, this place can't be a dream."

"Absolutely not!"

"This world changes every day, and those changes follow a pattern. The way out must lie in those changes."

Listening to Huang Qi, Xiao Zixia frowned again.

The regular changes Huang Qi mentioned were what their initial investigations had uncovered.

They had discovered that the town's buildings changed after a night's sleep.

The changes were small.

They knew the town well and could quickly adapt.

It looked like the answer to some sort of puzzle.

"So."

"It could be a space, or it could be a dream."

Xiao Zixia did not reject it outright.

After all, the dream theory offered a direction.

If what lay before them was a space, they needed to find a way to break through it.

If it was a dream, they naturally needed to find a way to wake up.

Su Chen still felt a dream was more likely.

The system had stopped working.

The space existed, but a dream could exist too.

They might have entered the Haunted Zone.

Then passed out and fallen into a dream.

Su Chen knew Huang Qi was hostile, but he was in no hurry to refute anyone.

That did not matter at all.

Su Chen had not forgotten his objectives: gathering supplies and awakening an Awakening Sequence.

Now.

Having accidentally entered this place, he had one more objective.

Getting out.

Huang Qi was insignificant to him.

Su Chen said nothing, continuing to observe his surroundings while thinking over the intelligence.

He felt he had overlooked the importance of one piece of intelligence.

The system had said.

The Mirror Anomalous Object could help awaken an Awakening Sequence.

Exactly how did it help?

Was it an ability of the Mirror Anomalous Object?

Perhaps.

Approaching this through awakening an Awakening Sequence could lead to a breakthrough.

With that in mind, Su Chen looked at Xiao Zixia and continued, "Zixia, how did you awaken your Awakening Sequence?"

"What Sequence?"

Huang Qi grew agitated again.

He did not know what a Sequence was.

The sudden feeling of being unable to join the conversation made him very uncomfortable.

The process of awakening an Awakening Sequence?

Hearing this, Xiao Zixia frowned.

She had only awakened her Awakening Sequence after being forced into it.

That was a scar.

So Xiao Zixia did not really want to discuss how she had awakened her Awakening Sequence.

"That isn't important, is it?"

Xiao Zixia instinctively avoided the question.

Su Chen was a very perceptive person and noticed something was wrong with Xiao Zixia's reaction.

Su Xi could no longer stand and sometimes behaved in sensitive ways.

As her older brother, he had to be mindful of certain feelings.

"Then let's leave it."

Su Chen dropped the subject.

Xiao Zixia breathed a sigh of relief.

Watching the two converse while acting all mysterious, Huang Qi grew increasingly irritated.

"What are you putting on airs for?"

Huang Qi made a snide remark.

Seeing friction arise again, Xiao Zixia ordered Huang Qi, "Huang Qi, it's almost mealtime."

"Go get the food and hand it out!"

What Xiao Zixia mentioned was Huang Qi's responsibility: distributing food.

Huang Qi was also quite happy to do it.

"Hmph!"

Huang Qi left with a cold snort, thinking about how to target Su Chen.

Su Chen found a corner and sat down.

Mealtime?

Thinking about the time made Su Chen noticeably anxious.

He still did not know how much time had passed.

And he only had three hours.

Outside.

Yang Defa and the others might be looking for him.

Especially Su Xi.

Su Chen knew his little sister. Even after three hours, she would not leave with everyone else.

Then she would be in trouble.

At that thought.

His brain heated up a little and went into full gear.

Su Chen adjusted his glasses.

This space was an Anomalous Object. Was it alive?

He could tell from the Pig-Killing Knife he had obtained.

Anomalous Objects had thoughts.

They also came with a price.

The Mirror Anomalous Object should be much the same.

Had it gathered so many survivors here to save them?

Why save living people?

Would an Anomalous Object save so many people out of pure curiosity?

Did it have that much empathy?

Were Anomalous Objects connected to humans, or had they once been human?

But the mirror had helped Xiao Zixia awaken her Awakening Sequence. Why help her awaken it?

Xiao Zixia had been the first to enter, so she was valued.

The first?

Did it lack companionship?

If he were the mirror, he might disguise himself as a survivor and mingle with them.

That would be a way to experience something.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many survivors inside the mirror.

The mirror wasn't far away.

It was right before his eyes.

Su Chen formed a new hypothesis and began analyzing it.

A flash of inspiration let him grasp a thread.

He suddenly realized he might have been watched all along.

His argument with Huang Qi.

Might also have been witnessed.

In other words.

To awaken an Awakening Sequence and get out, did he need the mirror's approval?

To gain its approval?

He would surely have to satisfy some need of the mirror's.

The system had told him about Xintang Town and given him this intelligence because it thought he could handle it.

Thanks a lot!

Thanking the system, Su Chen began thinking about how to break out of this situation.

Su Chen became certain that the "mirror" was one of the twenty-odd survivors.

So he began observing them discreetly.

Huang Qi could be ruled out immediately.

The man acted far too immaturely. He could not possibly be the Mirror Anomalous Object.

Among the survivors were elderly people, young adults, women, and children.

Their expressions varied.

Some looked miserable, some numb, and some resigned to their circumstances.

Su Chen ultimately focused on the children and the elderly.

The Mirror Anomalous Object was human, yet not human.

Its expression would carry some degree of detachment.

For that reason, the elderly and the children fit best.

Just then, Huang Qi brought over some food, including bottled water and various snacks.

These had all been brought into this space with some of the people after they gathered supplies.

Xiao Zixia had then collected the supplies together.

"Here's your food!"

Huang Qi came up beside Su Chen and tossed him a mung bean cake.

It had even been tossed onto the ground.

The key was that there was no intention of giving him any bottled water, either.

Su Chen, eating mung bean cakes without bottled water?

That would simply be torture.

"Hmph!"

Having made things difficult for Su Chen, Huang Qi snorted, secretly pleased.

Sooner or later, Su Chen would learn the consequences of offending Huang Qi.

Of course, Su Chen picked up the mung bean cakes from the ground and continued watching the other survivors.

A frog at the bottom of a well knew nothing of the bright moon.

Huang Qi was thinking of holding on to this world.

Su Chen, however, was thinking of learning about the Mirror Anomalous Object so he could get out three hours later.

In the end, they were people from different worlds.

At that moment, Su Chen noticed a little girl among the survivors.