Chapter 260 Questions and Answers

Chapter 260: Questions and Answers

The spectral entities that once possessed Xiao Xiaodie had previously stated their belief that the anomalous entity in the mirror world lost control due to hunger. They had encountered a starving ghoul that also seemed to lose control when extremely hungry, emitting a blood-soaked aura and malevolent energy that disturbed other anomalies. However, the intensity of this ghoul's outbursts paled in comparison to those of the mysterious entity in the mirror world.

It was precisely this conjecture that drove the mirror world's spectral beings to risk provoking the mysterious anomaly—or even causing it to lose control again—by using their own malevolence to open the "mirror" and drench the mirror world with the blood of their chosen sacrifices.

Now, the anomalous entity seated before the mirror claimed to belong to a race that "must consume blood to survive." Like Luolimasi, the mermaid, it hailed from an ancient civilization, and like humans, it was a life form nurtured by the world itself.

While this anomalous entity likely isn't on the same plane as ghouls or blood fiends, its loss of control could indeed stem from hunger.

This blood-feeding entity, for reasons unknown, has secluded itself in this mirror-enclosed, isolated space.

How long has it been here? Years? Decades? Or even centuries?

A race that subsists on blood cannot but crave it. It is precisely this fundamental need for sustenance, coupled with the prolonged thirst endured over countless ages, that causes this anomalous entity to repeatedly succumb to hunger-induced loss of control.

Since Xiao Huo perceives the pervasive blood aura here as food, then this aura must be tainted by malice, brimming with the anomalous entity's pain, despair, and the resulting urge to feed, kill, and shed blood. Yet, time and again, this malevolence has been resisted and controlled by the entity itself.

That struggle might have been far more agonizing than what Luolimasi once endured.

Luolimasi's suffering largely stemmed from unrequited love, a path she chose. Even so, when Su Bai encountered her, the legendary mermaid, famed for her immortality and unchanging beauty, had been ravaged beyond recognition, living a life worse than death.

The anomalous entity before them is the second confirmed long-lived species Su Bai has encountered. Whether by fate or a scripted design, both times he met such beings, they appeared to be teetering on the brink of despair and death.

Su Bai still clutched the round mirror entrusted to him by the administrator, but he had no immediate intention of handing it over.

"Earlier, you said that mirror is the 'he' you've been waiting for?" Fengling again surveyed the mirror, which resembled a colossal doorframe with only fragmented glass remaining on its top, bottom, left, and right sides. Such an odd presence was hard to ignore. "This mirror seems to have been broken for a long time. Are you waiting for someone to emerge from it, much like how we enter and exit this mirror world?"

In Fengling’s understanding, the "he" mentioned by the anomalous entity might have entered the mirror world, just as they had. Thus, the anomalous entity had been waiting here for some reason, anticipating the moment "he" would step out of the mirror.

So Fengling pondered whether a shattered mirror could still serve as a passage, and if the anomalous entity's prolonged wait was ultimately in vain.

"He did not enter the mirror; he *is* the mirror itself." The anomalous entity's words once again resonated in Su Bai and Fengling's minds. "He is not of a foreign race. After the red moon appeared, he absorbed enough of its power and transformed into a mirror ghost."

"The red moon appeared later? This world didn't originally have a red moon?" Fengling, though a formidable ordinary player, was still just that. Her mind was now a jumble of thoughts. "This world, called the 'Nightmare World,' was once an ordinary world, no different from the real world, and inhabited by many life forms similar to humans?"

"The real world?"

The existence of the real world and human players was information even Luolimasi could glean from other players, yet the anomalous entity seemed perplexed by it. This made it difficult for Su Bai to fathom how long the entity had been secluded in this hidden space.

Fengling likely realized this too and rephrased her question: "Before the red moon appeared, did this world also have daylight and warm sunlight? After the red moon appeared, the original civilization of this world was... destroyed? Leaving only darkness?"

The anomalous entity had indeed alluded to the destruction of civilization earlier.

"More or less," the anomalous entity offered no further explanation.

Su Bai, however, knew that this anomalous entity and Luolimasi's civilization belonged to a distant past. After their civilization crumbled, new ones—one, two, or even more—sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

These nascent civilizations likely no longer harbored long-lived species, only short-lived beings known as humans. This explains why the self-imprisoned anomalous entity, despite its long seclusion, was aware of human existence. Even before humans from the real world were drawn into the Nightmare World, a human civilization had already flourished within it.

By that era, though humans lacked the formidable abilities and extended lifespans of the long-lived species, the numbers of the latter had already dwindled with the collapse of their civilization, becoming so rare that humans of the new civilization regarded them as monsters.

Yet, the power of the long-lived species remained beyond question.

Why did such powerful beings, stronger than other humans and spectral entities, flee here with the "him" the anomalous entity mentioned? What ordeal did they face before escaping into the mirror world?

"What exactly is the red moon? And what is the purpose of us human players?" Fengling's focus was clearly different from Su Bai's.

"I know nothing of human players. As for the red moon..."

"No one knows whether the red moon caused the catastrophe or the catastrophe summoned the red moon. I'm sorry, but I know nothing about the red moon either." The anomalous entity mentioned a "catastrophe," which could refer to the collapse of civilization or something else entirely.

"However, the power within us does not repel the red moon's energy, as if it originally belonged to this world."

Su Bai also yearned to understand the red moon's origins and the reason human players were brought to the Nightmare World. But in both his previous life and this one, he had questioned countless non-human entities, yet none could answer his questions. Thus, unlike Fengling, he refrained from asking.

Rather than questioning an entity that had been self-imprisoned for an unknown duration and was constantly on the verge of losing control, it seemed more prudent to inquire with the peculiar administrator after completing the task.

"Finally, why did you and 'him' flee here? And why is this mirror shattered like this?" Fengling ultimately couldn't suppress her curiosity.