Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability
chapter-915

Moon Plaza, inside the surveillance room.

Lumian brought Franca, Jenna, Anthony, and Ludwig back behind that mirror-like object, gazing through the mirror surface at the two security guards and the large screen.

Compared to when they left earlier, nothing had changed here. Everything looked normal.

Franca pondered for two seconds and said, "Has she not come yet, or has she already been here, ahead of us?"

If that female corpse had already checked the surveillance earlier, she would likely have discovered Lumian and the others. After all, the characteristics of Demonesses were quite distinctive, and beautiful women plus a handsome man were even more eye-catching. As long as the reanimated female corpse was willing to spend enough time checking segment by segment, frame by frame, with the reminders of spiritual intuition, she shouldn't miss the corresponding footage.

In that case, Lumian and the others would have to consider changing identities, modifying appearances, and changing residences.

For an already impoverished family, this could truly be an exacerbation.

Franca could only pray to Mr. Fool, hoping that the female corpse would come only at midnight. After all, unlike them, she didn't have a specific time and corresponding location, and couldn't purposefully check the surveillance in just a few minutes or even tens of seconds to lock onto the people she wanted to find. She would have to check all the surveillance videos covering the entire mall for ten to fifteen minutes before and after. If unlucky, the time spent could be measured in hours.

The spiritual intuition of Demonesses was also suppressed to the Sequence 7 level. That female corpse obviously couldn't rely on this for very precise screening.

"Both are possible," Lumian stared outside the mirror.

Separated by a layer of mirror surface and in different spaces, he couldn't directly see whether there was a Mirror Maze in the surveillance room at this moment.

And the reanimated female corpse indeed seemed very much like a demigod of the Demoness pathway, likely possessing anti-divination abilities.

Jenna was also observing the situation in the surveillance room and asked puzzledly, "Does the reanimated female corpse also know about things like surveillance, and understand how to operate surveillance systems?"

She felt that the reanimated female corpse was a projection of some external force, probably similar to themselves, just with a different method of entry. She and Lumian and the others only learned what surveillance was, what it was used for, and how to avoid it after Franca's reminders and explanations. And except for Franca, none of them knew how to operate a surveillance system!

If we can't do it, how can a newly reanimated female corpse?

Franca pondered and answered,

"Perhaps the reanimated female corpse is also part of the dream, a Demoness that one of Mr. Fool's avatars once encountered. And the Celestial Worthy, using Mushu Hospital, made this Demoness go through a process of death and resurrection, turning her into a completely obedient subordinate, or rather, puppet."

As part of the dream, except for those set as children, fools, lunatics, or illiterates, everyone "innately" knew the concept and existence of surveillance.

"Even if she's part of the dream, she wouldn't naturally master how to manipulate surveillance systems, unless she was previously engaged in this industry, or had studied it in advance like you," Jenna objected.

"That's true," Franca suddenly had a flash of inspiration and took out her phone, intending to search on apps like Weibo, Zhihu, and various circles to see if there were any similar questions recently. Perhaps the reanimated female corpse was looking at her phone while using "currently waiting online" rhetoric to urge netizens to answer how to operate a certain company's surveillance system, while trying to bring up the desired video based on the netizens' suggestions.

To Franca's disappointment, there was no signal in the mirror world, and she couldn't get online!

Lumian then said, "There's another possibility. That female corpse also has a guide, a guide like Franca."

"Uh…" Franca stuffed her phone back into her pants pocket.

She understood what Lumian was saying: A member of April Fool's, the not-yet-dead Loki!

Wasn't it said that Loki could have been reborn through possession by an Angel of the Seer pathway?

Well, whether it was Loki or that Angel of the Seer pathway, they were both subordinates of the Celestial Worthy!

"When we checked the surveillance earlier, we didn't find anyone like Loki around the reanimated female corpse," Franca recalled.

"The Faceless ability at Sequence 7 level," Lumian had already considered this issue. "And this is inside a mall, he could change outfits from time to time."

Franca nodded slowly and continued to observe the surveillance room outside the mirror, hoping to wait for the reanimated female corpse and the possible existence of Loki.

After watching for a few seconds, she suddenly asked out of curiosity, "Does this kind of screen, this kind of surveillance scenario, count as a mirror world?"

"From a mystical concept, I don't think so. It's not a reflection or inversion of the current scene," Lumian answered instinctively.

Jenna and Anthony were somewhat confused by Franca's question.

"Mystical concepts also need to keep up with the times to match the social scenarios of the new era," Franca muttered before saying, "Although surveillance is not a reflection or inversion of the current scene, it belongs to the reflection of scenes elsewhere. It has some of the functions and characteristics of mirrors, just with the reflection and display separated in different places."

Lumian didn't know how to refute for a moment and could only directly express his view, "I think it's closer to the world within paintings, perhaps even incorporating the informatized characteristics of the Mystery Pryer pathway at high levels."

"Then it's a hybrid product of the mirror world, the world within paintings, and the information world!" Franca's main energy was on observing the situation in the surveillance room, and she was unwilling to delve deeper into issues that couldn't yield accurate answers at the moment, so she quickly made a guess.

Lumian half-closed his eyes, sensed for a moment, and said, "Indeed, it has a bit of the qualities of the mirror world. We can traverse through it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Anthony, who had been silent all along, said in a deep voice, "Don't you think those two security guards outside are a bit strange?

"It's been two or three minutes, and they haven't moved at all, like they've turned into statues…"

Statues? Franca's heart stirred, and she took out a mirror, carefully extending it beyond the current mirror surface.

She quickly adjusted the angle, and using the reflection of light and the most basic function of the mirror, she saw the side profile of one of the security guards.

On the slightly dark makeup mirror, only illuminated by the reflection of the screen's light, that half-face had no expression, partly hidden in the dim environment, partly slightly illuminated, the two intertwining and sometimes changing.

His eyes were constantly fixed on the surveillance screen, with a hint of cold gray seemingly hidden in the depths of his pupils.

He looked alive, still with spirituality, but that was all—just alive, just with spirituality.

"Partial petrification of organs?" Franca frowned and whispered.

Lumian didn't answer, but looked around.

"The reanimated female corpse has indeed been here, after Franca and I finished watching the surveillance and left.

"I'll go out and search to see if there are any clues left. You guard against unexpected situations."

Jenna and the others nodded, without objection.

Lumian pressed his hand against the mirror surface and walked out as if passing through a layer of water curtain.

In his male form, he circled to the front of the two security guards and found that they had both turned into warmth-carrying statues, expressionlessly looking ahead, motionless, which seemed exceptionally eerie in the surveillance room where only the screen's light flickered.

Lumian's gaze moved away from the gray-white hidden in the eyes of the two security guards and turned to the large screen displaying dozens or hundreds of scenes simultaneously.

There was nothing unusual about that, but the human-machine interface below was frozen on a certain operation.

And Lumian remembered that Franca had restored it to its initial state before leaving.

Fleeing in a hurry?

Did that female corpse sense the disturbance in the mirror world and urgently traverse away through the large screen itself?

Will she circle back to see who infiltrated the surveillance room?

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Lumian suddenly turned sideways, looking towards the mirror object he had come out from.

Almost simultaneously, on the surveillance footage, in a dark corner, a pale but alluring hand stretched out, extending beyond the screen.

In the area behind the mirror, while Lumian was investigating the surveillance system, Franca suddenly heard Ludwig making smacking sounds.

What is he eating now? Franca instinctively turned to look at the little boy.

She saw Ludwig opening his mouth, constantly sucking in air, chewing and swallowing.

Uh… Franca suddenly felt a bit guilty.

"Why are you eating air?" she asked.

Ludwig answered with a satisfied expression, "Delicious, there are many things with spirituality."

Many things with spirituality in the air? Franca was stunned for a moment, then suddenly had a strong sense of danger.

The mystical pathogen of Demonesses?

"Mirror Substitution!" she called out directly, actively triggering her own Mirror Substitution.

After hearing Ludwig's answer, Jenna's spiritual intuition also received a dangerous signal.

Without Franca's reminder, she followed and triggered her Mirror Substitution.

Anthony was a second slower than the two of them.

At this moment, at the edge of the spider web-like illusory tunnel, a figure was quickly outlined. She wore a white dress, had a loose bun, with beautiful features and a clean aura—clearly the reanimated female corpse.

This female corpse held a mirror in her hand, which had already reflected Franca's figure. Her other hand was burning with quiet black flames, quickly covering the mirror surface.

Silently, Franca's figure, which had just degenerated into a mirror, burst into eerie black flames from the inside out, quickly losing spirituality, falling to the ground, and shattering into pieces.

Seeing that the assassination attempt had failed and that there were four enemies, the reanimated female corpse immediately stepped back and disappeared at the edge of the illusory dark tunnel.

This caused the seven Demoness black flames created by Jenna and the Frenzy used by Anthony to all miss their target.

Inside the surveillance room, Lumian suddenly turned around, with a straight sword already condensed from frost in his hand.

He swung this crystal-clear straight sword towards the hand reaching out from inside the surveillance screen.

That hand suddenly retracted, and Lumian's frost straight sword consequently fell onto the surface of the screen.

It bizarrely dematerialized, bringing Lumian along as it melted into the large screen, diving in.