Suddenly, the severed head's eyes snapped open, glaring fiercely at Ming Po.
A trendous force slamd into the refrigerator door, shutting it with a deafening crash!
Ming Po refused to be intimidated by the supernatural, showing absolutely no fear.
Without a mont of hesitation, he yanked the refrigerator door open once more!
But this ti, the severed head was gone.
As if a breaker had tripped, the living room lights flickered a few tis before going out.
The ambient light in the room instantly dimd, taking on the sickly yellow hue of an impending storm. Outside the window, the sky morphed into the color of a dust storm, and a bizarre, bone-chilling cold crept in.
Accompanied by the creaking of the window fras, a ghostly wind howled through the room.
Ming Po noticed a new addition to the living room: a black-and-white funeral portrait of himself.
Seven incense sticks stood in the burner before it.
Strangely, they were not burning simultaneously. Two had already burned down completely, while the third had just been lit.
Right behind the portrait, a line of massive, bloody text surfaced on the living room wall:
— 167:53:23.
— 167:53:22.
— 167:53:21.
...
It was not a blood-written curse, but a clock.
Or rather, a countdown.
A countdown accurate to the very second.
Just looking at the countdown made Ming Po feel as though an invisible hand had gripped his heart.
What did this countdown... an?
167... Seven days?
Suddenly, the floor-length mirror in the living room shattered violently, emitting a sharp, echoing crash.
Yet when Ming Po turned his head, he found absolutely no glass shards on the floor.
Ming Po walked over.
Through the half-shattered mirror, he saw another version of himself erge from within—a stark contrast to his calm deanor and casual clothes. This reflection wore a formal suit, its expression twisted and terrifying.
"..."
Ming Po remained silent, rely pushing up his glasses.
However, the reflection in the mirror did not copy his action.
It simply stretched its mouth into a wide grin and held up an Hour's Red Copper chip.
It pressed the chip against the edge of the mirror, as if placing a bet on the glass.
This seed to hint at sothing.
After observing for two seconds, Ming Po caught on.
He felt no fear. Instead, he pulled out an Hour's Red Copper chip of his own.
Using a gesture reminiscent of placing a Go stone, he pinched the chip and offered it to the fractured mirror in a mirrored pose.
"You want this?"
Ming Po asked softly.
The "Ming Po" in the mirror grinned wider, laughing silently.
The mont the two chips touched, a blinding flash of light erupted.
The shattered mirror seed to heal slightly.
Looking through that glass, Ming Po felt a lingering sense that sothing was fundantally wrong.
Suddenly, he realized what it was—
—Why was there a wine cabinet reflected in the mirror?
Neither Ming Po nor Ai Shiping drank alcohol. Ming Po was allergic to it, and Ai Shiping preferred cola. There was absolutely no reason for a wine cabinet to be here!
He whipped his head around, only to discover that a wine cabinet had sohow appeared between the refrigerator and the microwave.
The amber-colored cabinet looked like a massive piece of amber. In the dim living room, it radiated a dazzling light, much like a desk lamp in the dead of night.
Yet, it held only two bottles of liquor. One of the bottles was covered in cracks, with only a tiny puddle of liquid remaining at the bottom.
...What was this?
Ming Po opened the wine cabinet.
He picked up the full bottle and examined it closely, noticing that no brand na was printed on the glass.
It was a perfectly square bottle, and the amber liquid inside resembled so kind of whiskey.
Its front label featured a distorted, exaggerated painting reminiscent of Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Cyan, bright yellow, and black swirled together. But amidst the warped starry sky and moon, there was an additional detail in the bottom left corner: the silhouette of a werewolf howling at the sky.
Ming Po rotated the bottle.
On the back, where the na, ingredients, and manufacturer details should have been, he found strange text instead:
[Werewolf (Slaughter - Red Copper)]
[Equip Effect: Stamina regeneration increased. Grants passive status: Wound Healing (Slow)]
[Use Effect: Temporarily lose rationality and gain a massive boost to stamina regeneration, explosive power, and reaction speed for ten seconds. The effect decays rapidly over the duration. Securing a kill while active will refresh the duration.]
—This was the exact Title he had just acquired!
Realizing this, Ming Po froze for a mont.
He took the bottle out and placed it on the table. Then, he carefully retrieved the shattered bottle from the wine cabinet.
That bottle looked like a clay jug of baijiu, possessing a plain appearance completely unsuited for this luxurious cabinet.
Its front depicted a mound of yellow earth and a broken tombstone.
The text on the back was exceptionally blurry. It looked like an old photograph that had been scorched by a lighter, the edges curled, yellowed, and blackened.
Despite his best efforts, Ming Po could not fully decipher the contents.
[Wei Gu Qiong Chen (Virtue - Golden Rank)]
[Equip Effect: When (illegible), you can (illegible)]
Everything below that was entirely unreadable.
—Which roughly ant he had seen nothing at all.
Whose Title was this?
As Ming Po wondered this, a sudden realization dawned on him.
...Perhaps this is mine.
If this was his Mind Palace—as he tentatively nad it—then it should be a place only he could access. Therefore, it was highly unlikely that this item belonged to a stranger.
Furthermore, there was a single sentence written beneath his newly acquired Title.
"—Ming Po, welco back."
Did this an... Ming Po had actually participated in the Ga of Deception before, even climbing as high as the Golden Rank?
But due to so incident, his Title shattered, taking his mories down with it...
Ming Po stared at the cracked bottle, and suddenly, inspiration struck!
He thought of the mirror he had partially repaired.
This wine cabinet only materialized in the apartnt after he had restored a portion of that mirror!
He turned back, only to find that his reflection had swapped chips.
It was no longer holding an Hour's Red Copper, but a Day's False Gold.
The ssage was clear—if he swapped the next chip for a Day's False Gold, he could repair another section of the mirror.
If this pattern held true...
"If I want to repair this thing, does it require Golden Rank chips?"
Ming Po reached up and pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
Right now, he only had "one day and two hours" of ti left.
Based on the information Ming Po knew, Pure Lead of Week was the third tier. Following that logic, the fourth tier should be "Month," and the fifth tier "Year."
Golden had to be at least a "Month" chip, or more likely, a "Year" chip!
Where was he supposed to get that much ti?
—Do I need to join another ga?
The thought sprouted in Ming Po's mind.
But imdiately after, he felt a sense of resistance—'No rush, I can play around a bit longer.'
He still did not know what that countdown was... Did it an he had to enter the next ga within seven days? But hadn't the Host said there was no coercion in this ga and that he could leave whenever he wanted?
As for resurrection... Ming Po hadn't even considered it.
Setting aside the fact that he still could not rember how or when he died... even if he did rember, he might not necessarily choose to leave this ga.
Judging from his roommate's ntal state, Ming Po probably hadn't been dead for long... Could it be that he had just died at this very mont?
Figuring these things out was fairly important, Ming Po thought.
His phone was currently useless, and rashly calling ho did not seem like a good idea.
His company should know the cause of his death; it would be better to go over there and ask.
However, Ming Po did not directly use a chip to Manifest himself. Instead, he planned to remain as a ghost for now, drifting over to the company before making his Manifestation. That way, he could save so of his Manifestation ti.
Save whenever possible!
Yet, when Ming Po walked up to the front door, he found it had been altered into sothing unfamiliar—
The door seed to have transford into a prop for initiating the next ga.
Similar to one of those vintage coin-operated kiddie rides, it featured several slots for inserting chips.
As Ming Po touched the slots one by one, information flowed directly into his mind:
[Promotion, Cost: 1 Day's False Gold]
[Adventure, Cost: 1 Hour's Red Copper / 1 Day's False Gold]
[Confrontation, Cost: 1 Hour's Red Copper / 1 Day's False Gold]
[Leave, Cost: None]
Insert the corresponding chip, then pull the door open, and he would enter the next ga.
So that was the chanism... For a Promotion ga, one must invest a chip one tier higher than their current rank.
"No wonder it was emphasized that chips can be broken down but not combined..."
Ming Po muttered in realization. "So this is why high-tier chips are so valuable."
He did not insert a chip. Instead, keeping the chips in his pocket, he directly pulled the door open.
Ming Po planned to step outside first and take a stroll through the world of the living.
He wanted to see if everything in this tiline-muddled world was still as he rembered it.
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