Chapter 2992: Fishing People Out of the Lake
The reflection space on the ceiling vanished, along with Wei Mang and the others, and the restaurant space returned to its previous state.
Although he hadn't caught the shadow just now, after the clash, he could confirm that the shadow temporarily had no physical form. They could pass through transparent space barriers and directly hide inside other reflective objects.
Though it lacked a physical body for now, when Xu Huo touched the reflection person "Wang Chengren," he clearly felt the gathering of power. This situation was somewhat similar to spiritual power—initially, it was just an imperceptible force, but as the power converged, a physical form would gradually appear.
He wasn't sure if the reflection people in the shadow space were like this, but since they could drag real people, it seemed the longer the time, the more realistic they became.
However, realism didn't mean they had lost their shadow characteristics. Ordinary objects couldn't control them, and covering reflective objects or light sources still couldn't cut off their escape routes—unless they completely isolated a venue, removing everything that could reflect light. Utensils and such went without saying, but players' equipped items and accessories also had to be removed, and eyes had to be closed.
Using this method, they might be able to intercept the reflection people.
But the bad news was that the reflection space had an effect similar to an infinity mirror, meaning each person might have more than one reflection.
He wondered if the number of reflection people was related to their ability to condense into physical forms...
If he could catch one, even if the game panel was closed, he could try throwing it into the dark space.
Xu Huo tore down all the main doors of the restaurant and threw them into the lake. Then he dumped all the fertilizer placed along the lakeshore into the water. Watching the submerged mutated water plants gradually float up and cover the entire lake surface, he finally put down the bag in his hand.
Given the current situation of the estate, destroying the venue wasn't a good way to leave the instance.
There were spaces within the instance venue that couldn't connect to the game. If the venue was destroyed while they happened to be in a disconnected space, they might not be able to leave after the instance disappeared.
Although multi-space venues might not have completely escaped the game's control, whether they could truly leave with a ticket was a gamble with their lives.
The biggest problem now was the inability to smoothly enter other spaces.
Based on previous experience, different spaces only connected when the reflection people appeared. When he followed Wang Chengren and fell into the lake, it showed that others could follow when the passage opened. However, there was no sensation when passing through, and they couldn't determine which space they would enter.
The spiritual gate couldn't open this space. If items could be used, he could try "Knock Before Entering."
But "Knock Before Entering" was more suitable for unstable spaces; this reflection space was clearly very stable.
Based on the information gathered so far, to enter other spaces, they either had to find a reflection person to open a passage or attack a shadow to force it to open another passage.
The former required finding the corresponding reflection person, and since shadows were everywhere, timing was hard to grasp. But attacking a shadow to force it to open a passage gave them relatively more initiative, especially since they would call people to eat every so often.
The shadows seemed to act according to the behavior patterns of the people who once lived here. Wang Chengren and Ms. Yao imitated the masters of the estate from the past ten years, but the shadow employees kneeling seemed more like the old master-servant relationships.
The estate still used electricity and all modern facilities, yet the shadows seemed capable of spanning hundreds of years, capturing everything that had happened in the past and integrating it into the behavior of the people they imitated.
Xu Huo's shadow person had appeared before others, and others' shadows had appeared before him. Although the method wasn't sophisticated, it was clearly meant to sow discord among those who entered.
As the shadows became more human-like and more players entered, combined with the intermittent items, this conflict would inevitably escalate into murder.
Stopping in front of a full-length mirror, Xu Huo released "Darkened Heart," letting the black substance envelop the mirror. Then he entered the dark space and moved forward.
"Thud!" He emerged from another room. Turning back, he saw it was the room behind the mirror—he had only passed through a wall, not entered the reflection space.
Looking at the restaurant with its door removed, it still stood there, windblown and unchanged.
Since he had nothing to do anyway, Xu Huo decided to walk along the estate, removing every mirror he encountered and placing them face-down on the ground.
There were too many glass windows to remove, so he temporarily let them go.
Afterward, he found a few fishing rods from the Wang family estate, set them up by the lake, and waited for the next meal while fishing.
But what he didn't expect was that before mealtime, he would fish a person out of the lake.
"Pfft pfft pfft!" Xiao Yang emerged from the lake, spitting water while pulling the human-headed grass tangled around him.
Before he could finish, two more Wang family employees surfaced on the other side, screaming and flailing, clearly terrified.
"Over here." Xu Huo waved the fishing rod in front of them.
"Mr. Xu!" Xiao Yang was delighted and immediately swam toward him.
Xu Huo didn't let him come ashore. Instead, he said, "To confirm each other's identities, tell me a secret only the two of us know."
Xiao Yang scratched his head. What secret could he and Xu Huo possibly share?
"Were we called here by Team Leader Nie?" he asked tentatively.
"Correct answer." Xu Huo pulled him up.
The two Wang family employees also came over and quickly tried to prove themselves. "We were personally hired by Miss Wang, and Mr. Wei did the background check!"
Xu Huo smiled and pulled them up one by one.
"Thank you, thank you!" they said, sniffling.
"It's freezing cold. Don't catch a chill. Find a room to warm up by the fire," Xiao Yang said.
The two immediately shook their heads, insisting they could handle the cold.
"How did you all end up in the lake?" Xu Huo set up the fishing rod again.
Both employees had walked out of the restaurant separately, not yet sure where to hide. When they turned around and found the restaurant door missing, they panicked and looked for a place to hide, the farther from the restaurant, the better.
Although they had been warned to stay away from water, sometimes people were just unlucky—the more they were told not to do something, the more they couldn't resist.
"I swear, I just couldn't help glancing at the fish jumping in the lake. Somehow, I slipped and fell in. When I came up, I saw Mr. Xu."
Their experiences were similar. Xiao Yang was more cautious; he had completely avoided the lakeshore, planning to try his luck at another restaurant—the estate had more than one. Passing through a small garden, he inadvertently looked down and saw his own reflection in a puddle winking at him. The next moment, he fell, and the next second, he was in the lake.
After hearing this, Xu Huo looked at the large lake. "The reflection people really have a thing for this place."