Chapter Thirty Seven - The Second Stage

Tyler's eyes didn't leave the male lead until the latter disappeared inside the mirror. Then he retracted his gaze and jumped inside after him. At this time, he was clear that once he passed the "games" shown by these mirrors, he would get to pass the level quickly. But he still wasn't clear whether this was the case for all of the mirrors in later stages.

But as soon as he took a step inside the mirror and entered the second stage, an echo of a roar entered his ears, making him frown. That was when his gaze darted toward the source of this weird noise.

Before him, the male lead stood in a fighting stance. He took out a knife from God knows where and looked sharply at the crowd of weird animals before his eyes.

Yes, Tyler was going to call them weird animals. All of them had a lion's mouth, an elephant's nose, a giraffe's neck, and a chimpanzee's limbs. They all stared at Tyler, Dean, and the person with glasses with red eyes and roared as if they were expressing their anger at the humans for entering the monsters' domain.

The man with glasses instinctively took a step back, wanting to go back to the safety of the previous stage only to find that the wormhole that led him here had disappeared.

Behind him was a big field covered with trees and grass, and in front of him, these monsters stood in a group surrounding the three of them. The man with glasses gulped, and didn't dare to move. He turned his terrified glance toward Tyler as the latter's gaze swept past giant trees and shrubs that covered up the area.

Tyler narrowed his eyes. Was this another illusion like in the first stage? Or was it something different? The system's information really wasn't reliable this time. He couldn't tell what would happen every time he passed the stage.

He pursed his lips and stood beside Dean. "Where should we go?"

The male lead was silent for a while as if contemplating something and decided to go against it by shaking his head. "Anywhere is fine as long as we can get past these animals."

"Then, should we go for it?" Tyler asked again as if confirming.

Suddenly, the man with glasses seemed to understand the meaning behind this type of conservation, and his legs trembled in fear. "No! I'm not going to attack these monsters!"

"Then stay behind, and die." Tyler paused and turned toward the man with glasses. "You will die anyway. Might as well struggle before getting killed."

"But…" The man with glasses didn't have much confidence, and the scene of these monsters frightened the wits out of him. After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth and fished out a pocket knife. "Let's kill these b*stards!"

Tyler's face was black. Even this man had a knife! Was only Tyler the odd man out who couldn't even think of bringing any sharp thing for fighting back? But when he remembered he had a system, he calmed down. He silently opened the interface when no one was looking and bought three swords from the store. As soon as he purchased, three swords appeared under the belt of his trousers.

These swords were quite flexible. They could even bend in the belts' shape when you don't need them, and the belt acted as a sheath.

He calmly lifted his jackets and fished out the swords, handing them one by one to the two people beside him. Dean simply took the sword and didn't say a word. He didn't even find it strange that Tyler could find a sword out of nowhere. Only the man with glasses was stupefied. "You carry swords in your belt all the time?" He found it strange to even think about it.

As far as the man with glasses remembered, they were just doing their regular duties when they were suddenly sucked into this world of mirrors. And the first time he had opened his eyes was the living room with two mirrors.

If Tyler had these swords in his belt, did that mean this person was carrying the swords even before they came in this illusion? These thoughts kept swirling in the man's head, making him feel even more frightened.

Tyler was getting a headache because of this person's weird expression, so he simply ignored the man with glasses and walked beside Dean, standing in a fighting stance. "You're not surprised."

"Do you want me to be surprised?"

Tyler suddenly let out a chuckle and said, "Let's kill these weird animals."

And just like that, the three of them went on a killing spree. Tyler had millions of years of experience in fighting all kinds of monsters, so he didn't find it difficult. Even Dean, whose character description only said that this person was an officer with high proficiency in guns, was chopping the hands and legs of these monsters like cutting vegetables.

Only the man with glasses found it a tad bit difficult, but he was able to keep up with Tyler and Dean after being nearly eaten by one of the monsters. What choice did he have? If he wouldn't fight back, he would undoubtedly die. Wasn't it better to fight back and survive?

Thus, the man with glasses went nearly crazy in the end. Sweat formed on his forehead as he screamed every time his sword slashed through the chest of a monster.

But even though the three of them fought bravely, there were a lot of monsters before them. It didn't take much time for the three of them to get exhausted before all the monsters were killed. The first one to collapse was the man with glasses.

"I can't fight anymore." He waved his hand and directly sat on the ground. "You guys go ahead without me. Let me die here."

Tyler kicked the man. "Get up! I'm not taking no for an answer."

By then, some monsters had already arrived and surrounded them again. To Tyler's surprise, it seemed that the number of monsters didn't decrease at all! Even the dead bodies of those monsters disappeared one by one.

Dean and Tyler both noticed something unusual about this field. They exchanged a worried glance.

"Maybe we should just escape." The man with glasses suggested.

Tyler nodded since he couldn't find any other choice as well. He knew he would die of exhaustion while killing so many monsters. Escaping from between these animals was their only choice. Thinking like this, he turned toward Dean and said, "Let's go."

And the three of them rushed toward the darkness of the forest while killing the monsters on their way. By the time they reached the edge of the forest, the man with glasses was so exhausted that he couldn't even lift his leg, but he knew he shouldn't collapse because he was aware of the fact that even if someone attacked him, his temporary comrades wouldn't save him.

Just then, he saw a shadow of something lurking in the dark forest. Before he could open his mouth to warn Dean and Tyler, the shadow moved toward the male lead, trying to attack with its fierce claws. The man couldn't help but widen his eyes. He was so frightened that he couldn't even speak.

Seeing this, Tyler's complexion paled, and before he could even think, his feet moved, and his entire body stood before Dean, protecting him from this shadow creature with his sword. He fiercely slashed back the shadow, and the two of them started fighting. The shadow's speed was so high that it was impossible to see it with the naked eyes when it was fighting with Tyler.

It only seemed like something was constantly attacking Tyler, while the latter couldn't do anything other than protecting himself from the shadow.

But Tyler was also experienced. So it didn't take much time for him before he could fight back and finally kill the shadow. As soon as his sword pierced its chest, blood oozed out, and the creature let out an ear-piercing scream.

Tyler threw the creature on the ground and took a few deep breaths, exhausted. "Now, you're safe." After saying that, he turned toward Dean only to be surprised by the other's expression.

Dean was staring at Tyler with an indescribable emotion in his eyes. His mouth was hung open as a frown crossed his forehead. Then he suddenly lowered his head, and his expressions darkened. "Your shoulder is injured."

That was when Tyler noticed an injury on his right shoulder. When did the monster hit him? Was it when he was fighting with the shadow that was about to hit Dean?

He hadn't thought of anything while protecting Dean. And now, when Tyler firmly protected this person and even got injured in the process, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. But just as he was about to open his mouth, blood slipped out from the corner of his lips, and his vision suddenly blurred. Tyler didn't even get a chance to speak before he fainted.