Chapter 1 The Magic Mirror Shard

"This magic mirror shard..."

John Joyce hesitated, raising his head and projecting the item's detailed description in the air for his teammates to see. "It doesn't seem to have any mind control or influencing abilities."

"Hmm?"

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with the statue? Or can the statue and the mirror shard together create a special effect?"

"According to the description, there are a total of six magic mirror shards, and they are all located within the Kingdom of Ruen. That means we don't need to travel too far to collect them all."

Julia said softly, "The mirror shard we have is number 6. We don't know what this number means yet. Is it a meaningless random distribution, or is it automatically assigned based on the order we acquired them? And what are the differences between mirror shards with different numbers?"

Smoker hesitated and said, "The system description says that collecting more mirror shards will unlock more special effects. And the number 6 mirror we got happens to have the ability to sense other shards. I think the system may have deliberately set our initial teleport location in the forest quite close to Hamelin Town."

"A disguised hint of mission information?"

Li Ang nodded, pondering silently.

Since the mirror shard cannot be stored in the inventory, it is very likely that the Ice Queen is not as omniscient and omnipotent within the several kingdoms as the lumberjack described. Otherwise, she could completely use the mirror shard to locate the players and directly find these suspicious outsiders who are constantly collecting the magic mirror.

Judging from her performance in the fairy tale, players who confront the Ice Queen prematurely would probably die miserably. What's the point of teleporting them over? They might as well find a place to bury themselves.

A more likely possibility is that the Ice Queen has no way of knowing the location of the magic mirror. Perhaps she never could, or perhaps her current state is not good—after all, according to the lumberjack, she hasn't left the palace and appeared before the world for a very long time.

Li Ang thought for a moment and said to John Joyce, "Use a little bit of force to test how strong the magic mirror shard is."

"Okay."

John instantly understood what he meant. He carefully pinched the edge of the mirror and found that the shard was almost indestructible. Even as he gradually increased his strength, he couldn't cause any deformation of the mirror surface.

"This thing is very hard."

John Joyce shook his head. "I estimate this solid setting should be inherent to the magic mirror, rather than an attribute added by the system. This makes up for the defect that it can't be put in the inventory and can only be carried around."

He fully understood the system's reason for setting it this way. If the mirror could be put in the player's inventory, then as long as the player who got the mirror shard in the team refused to cooperate, put the shard in the inventory, and refused to take it out, the others would never be able to complete the task.

Since it can only be placed outside, the shard should also have indestructible properties. Otherwise, if the mirror is completely shattered into渣 (zhā, dregs) with a slight collision, how can players continue the task?

These implicit settings of the system are actually a kind of disguised task hint. The players present are not rookies, and after a little analysis, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much more relaxed.

"Since the Ice Queen is very likely not omniscient and omnipotent, then we have a lot more room to maneuver."

Li Ang rubbed his hands and said to John Joyce, "Try the 'sense other shards' effect described in the item description."

"Okay."

John Joyce closed his eyes, held his breath, grasped the shard in his hand, and pursed his lips tightly.

After a while, the mirror shard lit up, projecting a three-dimensional projection similar to a satellite overhead view from the mirror surface. It clearly depicted a large expanse of land, and a total of six light spots scattered in various places.

Soon, the three-dimensional projection gradually dimmed. John Joyce breathed a sigh of relief and said to the others, "As long as you inject a little bit of spiritual power into the mirror, the map will appear. This consumption is negligible for advanced players. And it doesn't seem to have any cooldown time. You can take it out and use it at any time."

He dangled the shard and scratched his head. "According to the markings on that satellite map, all the mirror shards should be placed inside the churches of the major towns in the Kingdom of Ruen. That means we may have to personally go to all the towns and enter the churches to take the shards."

"This may not be easy."

Julia frowned. "Judging from the various murals inside the church and the information revealed by people's communication in this world, this script world, which is adapted from fairy tales, is likely to have various kinds of abnormal creatures and extraordinary powers. Werewolves, trolls, griffins, ogres, and so on. And these妖魔 (yāomó, demons) who should have oppressed humans in the dark ages now seem to have been completely suppressed by the human side, and can even be 'domesticated'. Excluding the Ice Queen's disaster-level strength, the hidden power of the major human duchies is probably not bad either."

Humans who were able to suppress妖魔 (yāomó, demons) in the dark ages and even build a prosperous civilization are definitely not weak, and they are likely to possess extraordinary powers. What's more, as the ruler of this land, the Ice Queen's church should naturally be worshipped and protected. The churches located in large cities, not to mention remote towns like Hamelin, are estimated to have stronger security guards.

Although several players are all good at stealth and combat, they still do not have the confidence to directly and violently crush and forcibly seize the mirror shards in the face of the major kingdoms whose details are completely unknown.

"Let's take our time."

Li Ang said, "We have to visit every city, which means that the system is actually giving us plenty of implicit time to complete the task. There's no rush for a day or two."

"Okay."

John Joyce nodded, hesitatingly said to Li Ang, "Uh, do you want me to give you the shard? It feels safer with you."

He actually wanted to keep it with himself, but the yellow stand that hung Bob up and beat him before is now floating in the air, gazing at him with a detached expression. John strongly suspected that if he wanted to embezzle the mirror, the stand would rush over without hesitation, grab his ankle, and smash him around like a meteor hammer.

"Hehe."

Li Ang smiled amicably. "It's okay, you take it. After all, we are a united and loving team. We must trust each other."

Trust you my ass!

John glanced at Bob, who had just eaten a worm, and shouted in his heart.