Chapter 033: The Bronze Mirror

“Ghost!”
Seeing the decayed human face floating inside the jar, Kaori Inoue turned pale with terror and almost burst into tears.
In the real world, she was just an ordinary girl, one who couldn’t even bear to watch horror movies; the scene before her was far too shocking and intense.
“Wait, something seems to be crawling out of the jar.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she watched, horrified, while the grotesque female corpse hidden in the water jar began to climb out.
A mass of black hair spilled from the jar, growing wildly like untamed weeds. Then, the corpse’s hideous head gradually rose above the water’s surface.
Whoever she was in life, someone had gouged out her eyes; her eye sockets were empty, two dark cavities.
Her skin, bloated and pale from prolonged immersion, had taken on a translucent quality. Forced into the jar, her limbs had twisted and deformed, the bones softened by the water, allowing her to squeeze easily through the narrow mouth.
By the time Kaori Inoue regained her senses, the corpse’s upper body had already emerged from the jar.
“No! Please don’t come any closer!”
This was far more terrifying than watching Sadako on TV; Kaori Inoue felt as if she might be frightened out of her mind.
But what unsettled her even more was that Sincerity Su crouched down, examining the corpse with great interest, muttering words she couldn’t understand, “Tsk, tsk, didn’t expect to see this kind of ghost in a dungeon, and the accuracy is pretty high. Just a bit ugly, though.”
He even reached out to pinch the corpse’s chin and lifted her hair for a closer look.
“Sincerity, do you know where this ghost comes from?” Rose Yagami, for her part, wasn’t afraid at all—she looked at Sincerity Su with curiosity.
“This type of ghost is called a Forbidden Maiden. It’s formed when a woman, thrown into water after being violated, leaves behind a lingering resentment that saturates her corpse, which then absorbs spiritual energy. That’s what the novels say.”
“Novels?”
“Yes, the Forbidden Maiden is a monster from a best-selling tomb-raiding novel in Huaguo. Its origin is a southern folklore legend about a man-eating ghost. Who would have thought this horror game would bring it into the dungeon?”
Most of the templates in horror games are drawn from horror films, zombie games, and novels, so encountering a literary monster is not unusual.
“The bones of the Forbidden Maiden give off a peculiar aroma that induces sleep. Since all her resentments are sealed within her bones, destroying them will kill her.”
Sincerity Su swung his blade, shattering the jar and breaking the bones within. The Forbidden Maiden faded away.
“It seems the key to upstairs is hidden in these jars. Let’s split up and search.”
“How should we search?” Kaori Inoue hadn’t recovered from her fright. She eyed the strange jars in the corners, feeling a sense of dread.
“Like this.”
Sincerity Su lifted the lid of a jar, rolled up his sleeves, and plunged his arm inside, rummaging blindly.
After a moment, he seemed to find something. He pulled it out—a bloody, dripping length of intestine.
“Pickled intestine?”
Just then, a message flashed across the game screen.
[Putrid Blood Sausage]

Type: Restorative item
Quality: Ordinary
Effect: Slowly restores stamina over time when consumed
Note: This blood sausage smells rancid; eating it may cause stomach trouble.
Though it was a stamina-restoring item, nobody present dared eat it.
“Who knows what animal this came from—eating it will definitely upset your stomach. Better throw it away.” Rose Yagami patted Kaori Inoue, who was still retching, her face full of helplessness.
This horror game’s twisted humor had surpassed all limits; nothing disgusting was surprising anymore.
“What a pity.”
After tossing the blood sausage, Sincerity Su continued searching the other jars for keys. This time, he found an eyeball, apparently gouged from the Forbidden Maiden’s face…
Human fear is born of the unknown; blindly searching for keys in these jars was both thrilling and terrifying. Who knew whether they’d pull out ashes or corpse maggots next.
“Wait, I think I’ve found something.”
Saburo Sakamoto seemed to have grabbed a rope inside a jar, but upon inspection, it was a ferocious venomous snake.
The snake’s markings were uncanny, resembling a woman’s face. Staring intently, Sakamoto realized the face seemed to smile at him—a chilling sight.
“Is this… a snake spirit?”
As soon as he spoke, the snake darted forward in a blur, lunging at Sakamoto.
Instinctively, Sakamoto caught the snake’s tail and swung it hard; the snake spun through the air, heading toward Sincerity Su.
Swish!
Sincerity Su drew his blade and sliced the beauty snake cleanly in two.
The severed snake writhed in agony on the ground, and Sincerity Su was startled to see the woman’s face on its body contort with malice, glaring at him with venomous hatred—enough to send chills down his spine.
If you don’t kill a snake outright, it’ll come back to bite you—especially such a sinister beauty snake.
Sincerity Su wasted no words. He reached for the snake’s head.
The half-snake sprang up, baring its fangs, and lunged at his hand.
At that moment, the power of the ghost god spread through Sincerity Su’s palm, turning it pitch black, hard as obsidian.
Crunch.
The snake bit down, but couldn’t even pierce his skin; instead, its venomous fangs snapped.
Sincerity Su grinned fiercely, seized the snake’s head, and squeezed—easily crushing it.
“I found it.”
The little monk, Zen One, beamed as he pulled an ancient bronze key from the jar.

As expected, luck can’t save the unlucky, nor can spending change fate. Sincerity Su had searched so many jars without finding the key, yet the little monk grabbed it on his first try.
They quickly unlocked the stairs to the second floor of the Five-Story Pagoda. Kaori Inoue, carrying the [Coffin Lid of the Slippery Ghost], led the way, carefully climbing upward.
The shrine maiden Chiyo-hime seemed to rely heavily on Sincerity Su, silently staying close to him. This made Saburo Sakamoto and others suspect there was some hidden romance between Sincerity Su and the shrine maiden.
“Strange, something’s off about this staircase.”
Suddenly, Sincerity Su sensed something wrong. The staircase was only three to five meters long; at their pace, they should have reached the second floor by now.
Yet, they’d been walking for nearly five minutes and still saw no end.
“This pagoda is full of folded space. Everyone, be careful not to get separated,” Rose Yagami’s voice echoed and faded in the darkness.
After a while, a dim light appeared in the pitch-black stairwell.
“There’s light ahead, Lady…”
Kaori Inoue turned around, delighted, but found only emptiness behind her. Rose Yagami and the others, who had been following her, had vanished.
A cold wind swept through the stairwell, making Kaori Inoue shiver; a chill ran over her.
“It seems the team has been split up.”
Sincerity Su passed through the darkness, arriving on the second floor of the pagoda, only to discover that the Night God Squad was nowhere to be seen.
The pagoda wasn’t large, with only one route up, so it shouldn’t have been possible to get separated. Yet, only Sincerity Su was on the second floor; the others must have been trapped in folded space.
Having come this far, Sincerity Su couldn’t go back to search for them—a detour might get him lost in the folded space. He decided to press onward.
“Something’s wrong—why is there no staircase leading up from this floor?”
He searched the floor carefully, but found no stairs up. Was he supposed to scale the outside like a superhero?
The problem was, all four walls were sealed with a transparent spiritual barrier; he couldn’t climb out, not even jump.
In other words, he was trapped on the second floor of the pagoda.
Still, Sincerity Su was not anxious. Following the logic of horror games, there must be some clue he hadn’t discovered yet.
“Hey, what’s this—a bronze mirror?”
Soon he noticed something amiss: in the corner stood a human-height bronze mirror, shaped like an ancient vanity, but far too large.
Sincerity Su approached and examined it closely. It seemed to be an ordinary mirror, nothing special.
“Where is the clue?” Sincerity Su stared at his reflection, deep in thought.
Just then, the “Sincerity Su” in the bronze mirror broke into a strange, unsettling smile.