The mirror's surface is very soft, unlike glass; it's more like water, so smooth that it seems to bounce when touched, with ripples spreading across its surface.
Su Huilan walked in front, with Qingmu following behind her. As they approached the first mirror, Su Huilan's reflection appeared in it.
The light was dim, yet her delicate features and curvaceous figure were clearly reflected in the mirror. She observed herself closely for a while, a smile spreading across her face, as if she were admiring a stunningly beautiful woman, rather than looking at herself.
Suddenly, Su Huilan's expression froze, and she looked astonished, as if she had seen something strange.
She turned around abruptly, staring at Qingmu, who was walking up to her and standing beside her, as if he were a monster.
There was no Qingmu in the mirror.
On the mirror's surface, as clean and soft as water, only Su Huilan's slender figure and bewildered expression were visible.
Actually, if the mirror could reflect Qingmu at this moment, he would definitely look even more surprised than Su Huilan.
Su Huilan quickly regained her composure and asked, "You're a person without dreams?!"
Qingmu asked in surprise, "I certainly don't dream, but what does dreaming have to do with looking in the mirror?"
Su Huilan said, "The mirrors here are not real mirrors; they are merely gateways that guide one's consciousness to create space. In reality, looking in a mirror is the reflection of light. But looking in a mirror here is the self-awareness of consciousness. What you see is your subconscious's instinctive perception of yourself. Therefore, you can think of it as a demon-revealing mirror. If you have Buddha in your heart, what is reflected is Buddha; if you have demon in your heart, what is reflected is demon."
"Then why can't I see myself in the mirror?"
"I don't know. People who don't dream are very rare; it's usually caused by a brain defect. People who don't dream don't actually not dream, but rather they lack clear self-awareness or their subconscious cannot retrieve memories. But... your consciousness is clearly your own image... and with such strong Mental Power, how could you..."
Su Huilan looked puzzled.
Qingmu was also puzzled, but he was too lazy to think about it too much and said, "Never mind all that, isn't this mirror meant to be used as a demon-revealing mirror?"
Su Huilan said, "Of course not. The Demon-Revealing Mirror is just an auxiliary function, and it's not even a great experience for the game. But this function comes from self-awareness of consciousness, and it can't be turned off, so it's a side effect. The real function of the mirror is to guide consciousness to create its own space, which is equivalent to a passage to the player's own world."
Qingmu asked, "How do we guide them?"
Su Huilan said, "Just walk in. Each mirror is like a door, and behind each door is a world. Of course, the player needs to create this world."
Qingmu looked at the mirror that didn't reflect his image; indeed, without his own reflection, it looked more like a door.
"If each door corresponds to one player, there aren't nearly enough mirrors here, are there?"
Su Huilan laughed and said, "No, in the quantum world, quantity is not a problem. In fact, there are countless mirrors here. Even if everyone in the world were playing this game online at the same time, this hall could accommodate them all."
Qingmu took a few steps forward and came to another mirror. The mirror was hazy, and the reflections of the hall and other mirrors could be seen in it, creating a kaleidoscope-like spectacle of mirrors within mirrors, but there was no reflection of Qingmu himself.
He walked on, and every mirror he passed was like this.
From a distance, there weren't many mirrors in the hall, and their arrangement seemed quite regular. But now, once you step inside, the mirrors seem to multiply, like entering a forest made of mirrors.
As Qingmu walked, he felt as if he no longer existed, because there wasn't a single mirror reflecting his image.
When he turned around, he found Su Huilan right behind him, and they were actually in front of the same mirror they had faced at the beginning.
Qingmu then realized that all the mirrors were created by his own consciousness. As he walked forward, mirrors appeared wherever his consciousness directed, so he could never pass through this forest of mirrors. And once his consciousness stopped, he would return to the original mirror.
"Actually, there's only one mirror between the book and the image, right?" he said.
"You could say that," Su Huilan said with a smile. "Actually, I'm very curious how this game will guide someone like you who has no dreams to create a world. If you can't dream, what will happen after you go in?"
Qingmu said, "You'll know once you go in and take a look."
Su Huilan asked, "Would you like to go first, or should I?"
Qingmu said, "You go first. After all, I'm not familiar with it. Can you demonstrate for me?"
Su Huilan nodded and said, "Okay."
She took a step forward, one foot stepping into the mirror, causing a ripple on the surface. Her body followed her step into the mirror, half of her body visible outside and half inside, as if the person outside wanted to go in and the person inside wanted to come out, but the two collided.
Just as she was about to fully enter the mirror, with only the back of her head remaining, Su Huilan suddenly turned around and smiled sweetly, and the reflection in the mirror also turned back in that direction.
She said, "I'll go in first, let's see if you can find me later."
Before Qingmu could react, Su Huilan disappeared into the mirror, and the mirror returned to its smooth and soft appearance, as if nothing had happened.
He wasn't quite sure what Su Huilan meant by her last sentence. Did it mean that the players' dreams were interconnected in this game, or did she know he could enter other people's dreams, and therefore wanted him to find her in her dream?
Qingmu pondered for a moment before reaching out and gently touching the mirror with his fingers.
The mirror surface was extremely soft to the touch, like molten glass. He slowly reached his hand into the mirror, and ripples spread outwards from his arm.
Strangely, as his hand reached into the Tushu, a hand simultaneously emerged from the mirror, perpendicular to his arm, as if his own arm had been reflected back and overlapped with his remaining arm.
He slightly changed his orientation; his arm was no longer perpendicular to the mirror, but rather extended diagonally inside. The hand that had been extended out also extended diagonally from another direction, forming an angle of about sixty degrees with his extended arm, exactly like the mirror reflection effect of light.
Qingmu wasn't sure if his own hand, which had reached in, was bounced back, or if another, unseen hand from his own reflection in the mirror had reached out. He looked at the hand that had emerged from the mirror and tried to move its fingers; the fingers moved. He pulled his hand back, and the hand disappeared behind the mirror.
This didn't happen when Su Huilan went in just now. Is it because he's a dreamless person and can't enter the mirror? Or is there some other reason?
Qingmu steeled himself, took a big step, and crashed his entire body into the mirror.
He saw his body disappear bit by bit in front of the mirror, and then he saw himself slowly walking out of the mirror. Then, he returned to the world in front of the mirror completely, and stared blankly at the mirror that reflected his consciousness back but could not reveal it.