Autophagy

Light shimmered briefly for a second, brightly illuminating the room.

'Ugh... Where-?'

Lei held his head for a little bit.

'This..?'

There were some lines of text in front of him. He reached out to touch them but his hand went through.

"It's ethereal..." Lei said. "Ooooh! It's that kind of setting huh? Isn't this some kind of system?"

He focused his blurry sight on the texts and tried to read.

[Body]: 1

[Mind]: 2

[Soul]: 2

"Pretty simple."

Lei swiped the characters to the side with his hand.

"Oh... it disappeared," Lei said. He then started looking around.

The room was being dimly illuminated by a small light bulb.

'Didn't I just die? Why am I so calm and what THE FUCK!?'

Lei's eyes widened in shock after seeing the state of the room he was in. All the walls were clad in ominous-looking talismans.

'Was this room made as a shelter to protect people from ghosts or something?'

The only things he could see other than the talismans were a small faucet and a mirror. He got up and dusted his clothes then walked towards the faucet.

'It can't be... If this was a shelter, there would be some kind of freezer or fridge with food inside. I can't imagine someone staying here longer than a day. There isn't even a toilet.'

Lei stood in front of the mirror. He wiped the dirt off of it. There was an unfamiliar figure in the mirror.

'That's not me,' Lei thought after looking at his reflection on the mirror. He then raised his hands to confirm whether the reflection was his or not. The reflection raised its hands just like him.

"Definitely not," someone said.

"What?"

"What?"

*GROWL

The room was not made to keep the bad things out...

Lei rolled to the side as soon as he heard the sound. The room had suddenly become much colder.

*Pop

It was made to keep them in!

The little light bulb illuminating the room was broken. With no other light source, the room should have been shrouded in darkness. But that was not the case. The mirror Lei had been looking at was letting out some kind of red light.

After rolling to the side, Lei lifted his head to look at the mirror again. It looked like his reflection was trying to break out of the mirror.

"LETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUT"

The reflection started screaming frantically while bleeding out of his eyes. His hand managed to break out of the mirror. Lei felt his body going cold. His head was spinning. It felt like he was in a pool filled with mercury. Every part of his body was sweating and itching.

Lei frowned and got up. He ran towards the mirror and raised his fist.

'Here goes nothing!'

*CRACK

Mirror shattered violently and the hand sticking out of it fell down. A shrill scream came from the mirror.

"KREEEEEE!!"

Lei's face got covered in some kind of goo coming out of the severed arm.

"Huff... Huff... Ugh..."

Lei started puking and crying. Things that happened to him suddenly settled in. He had died at the hands of his drug addict dad. He had left his little sister all alone in a cruel world. She was probably waiting for him in their rundown house. Why did Zeng Wuying kill himself? Who would take care of Ai from now on?

He was now thrown into some kind of cage with a mirror monster.

After he stopped crying, he tried to wipe his tears. Then he realized that he had some glass pieces stuck in his hand. Fortunately, his hands were still fully functioning.

'Ugh... I probably shouldn't take these out for now.'

Lei didn't dare to meddle with the mirror monster anymore. So he backed down to the other corner of the room and sat down.

"Oh?"

[Congratulations! You've managed to repel a "Replicant" to the mirror world. You've leveled up and gained two stat points.]

Lei looked at the notification for a little bit and started trying out different ways to bring up the system. After some trial and error, he thought the word 'status' and three lines of text appeared in front of his face.

[Body]: 1 +

[Mind]: 2 +

[Soul]: 2 +

Nothing had changed on his status page besides the new plus signs next to his stats.

Lei stared at his stats for a little while and sighed. His hands, arms, and height were different from before. Because he had suddenly become a lot taller than before, he was a bit disoriented. Leaving those aside, he felt like his mind was clouded. He was thinking a lot slower than normal.

'I'm in a different body aren't I?'

He had suddenly gotten a system and fought a mirror monster. If he had been transmigrated into another body, he wouldn't be surprised.

He looked at his arms. His previous body was very thin and short because of malnutrition. This one, however, was an average young adult's body.

He searched for a piece of glass and looked at his new face.

'Hmm...'

He had a defined jaw and sharp, black eyes. His hair was black and silky. If he tried really hard, he could probably pass as a local model.

Lei threw the glass piece away and looked back at his stat sheet. He then proceeded to click the plus sign next to the Mind two times.

Lei suddenly felt a stinging pain in his head. It was as if thousands of needles were being inserted into his brain. He rolled around for a little bit. Then the pain suddenly dimmed and gave its place to a warm sensation. This sensation almost made Lei moan out loud. He had to hold his mouth with his hands to stop himself from doing so.

"Huff..."

After breathing heavily for a few minutes, the sensation stopped.

'This is definitely not something I should do without proper preparation...'

[Body]: 1

[Mind]: 4

[Soul]: 2

After the stat upgrade was finished, his mind was much clearer like a curtain had been lifted. He could recall things he had experienced much more clearly. He swiped the stat sheet away.

After everything was sorted out, Lei started checking the room for any exits. The system had told him that the mirror monster had been repelled. But he didn't know whether he was safe or not.

'What would happen to me if that thing managed to get out? Would he pull me into the mirror world and replace me in the real world? Or would he just outright murder me? I think I'm fine with not learning the truth.'

After searching the room for a bit and lifting the talismans here and there, Lei found a door handle.

After finding the door, Lei smiled widely. Just before opening the door, he stopped himself.

'What if there are scarier things outside?'

Lei frowned and looked back at the mirror pieces scattered around the ground.

'I don't really have a choice.'

Lei pulled the door handle....