Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2016 Mirror Body

What did you see when you used your pupil technique?
In other words, what exactly is the taboo secret of the Gnawing Clan?
Almost instantly, a distinct layer of fear surfaced in the eyes of the person in the mirror, their pupils throbbing violently: "You...you said the Gnawing Clan?"

At this moment, its condition visibly deteriorated rapidly, and it seemed about to revert to its previous manic state. Several times, the two thought it was about to speak, but in the end, they were drowned out by a series of meaningless twitches and mutterings.

In any case, it couldn't keep stalling like this indefinitely. Chen Shiyu, knowing this well, was very patient. If the other party was a friend, the mystery would eventually be revealed; if it was an enemy, it must be even more anxious than he was right now.

The person in the mirror couldn't do it, but someone else came to "buy time" for it.

"Great, I found you!" Rushing in was another Chen Shiyu with dark eyes. After carefully examining Chen Shiyu in the room, a look of relief appeared on his face. "Your eyes are still normal. Looks like we made it in time."

Two black clones appeared in succession. For ease of narration, the one in the mirror will be called "Mirror Ten-Feather", and the one that just ran in will be called "Black Ten-Feather".

Things have gotten complicated... Chen Shiyu sighed inwardly, and deliberately took a few steps forward, temporarily stepping out of the area covered by the mirror.

"who are you?"

As his image left the mirror, Kagami Touyu also disappeared.

Black Ten Feather said urgently, "Listen, I know this is unbelievable to you, but everything I'm about to tell you is the truth!" It took a deep breath and gave an answer that surprised and surprised Black Ten Feather, "I am you, the future you who will be corrupted."

Kuroshiba recounted the events as follows:

"After I contracted the virus, another consciousness appeared in my mind, fighting for control of my body. We were both fighting desperately, and neither of us knew if we would be the last one standing."

“At the time, I thought that even if we faced the worst possible outcome, we should leave behind a vessel to tell everyone the truth. If this was some kind of mental pollution, it shouldn't have been transmitted to the clone in the same way. So, while I still had control over the body, I created a clone.”

It's important to clarify here that replicants are merely physical shells, acquiring only "abilities based on the body," such as running speed, musical skills, and martial arts techniques. Since the soul is not part of the replication process, the original owner's unique personality, way of thinking, etc., are not retained. A replicant in action can only be described as "imitating" the original owner based on memories. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to say that soul trauma cannot be transferred.

"The replicant stood before me, staring at me with its dark eyes. I realized I was wrong; it seemed the curse had seeped into my genes. Soon, the replicant began to attack me, but fortunately, I was careful not to unlock all my abilities. When it realized it couldn't defeat me, it sealed itself inside the mirror, leaving me outside to fend for myself."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shiyu gave a forced, unsmiling twitch and took over the conversation.

"Then, you felt hopeless, but your past self still had hope, so you tried every means to find me, intending to warn me?"

“I’ve heard this story before. This one,” he said, moving back to the mirror and tilting his head toward his reflection, “just told a completely opposite version.”

Hei Shiyu had been so focused on talking to Chen Shiyu that it only noticed the mirror clone it was accusing of. Instantly, its eyes flashed with a fierce light, and a ball of flame swirled around its fist as it slammed it fiercely towards the mirror.

Chen Shiyu had anticipated their attack. As soon as Hei Shiyu moved, Chen Shiyu moved as well, his hand flashing up to cut off Hei Shiyu's wrist.

Black Ten Feather's attack was thwarted, and he grew impatient, his eyes brimming with what seemed like overflowing black ink. A burst of demonic energy erupted from his body, the surging energy, though mixed with the power of the curse, only amplified its ferocity. It seemed he was willing to risk being suspected by Dust Ten Feather to eliminate Mirror Ten Feather.

You can't believe it!

"Back off!"

Black Ten Feathers roared, and another warning sounded at the same time.

The dark camera now completely enveloped Hei Shiyu.

Ye Yunyan held the cloning machine high, taking turns aiming at the two "future people".

“We will give you time to confront each other; until then, you must proceed at our pace.”

Faced with the threat of being "taken back," the two had no choice but to reluctantly submit. Chen Shiyu, seeing this, had a flash of inspiration.

"Now that we have the cloning machines, we can simply perform a 'retrieve' operation on each of them to find out which one is the original, right?"

As he said this, he didn't forget to carefully observe the reactions of the two people.

The retrieval command has no effect on the original, which would be an effective way to verify identity. However, the clone cannot withstand the test, and the imposter is obviously well aware of this. Time is running out for it.

Enemies driven to the brink are often the most dangerous. Chen Shiyu is currently wary that one of them might suddenly reveal their true colors and launch a violent attack.

"and many more!"

"You can't do this!"

What came into his view were two faces, both pale with terror.

"I was framed! It framed me and turned me into a mirror image!" Jing Shiyu cried out in a panic, frantically pounding on the mirror again. "If you put me away, it will automatically turn back into its original form, and then you will be its next target!"

"What are you doing? Destroy the mirror right now!" On the other side, Hei Shiyu dared not make a move rashly again, and could only try to overpower the other party with his voice. "It hid in the mirror to buy time and turn me into a mirror image!"

"Mirror body? What does that mean?" Chen Shiyu caught this unfamiliar keyword. He was still smiling, but a hint of coldness seeped into his smile. "It seems there's something you two haven't told me yet."

"That's because you asked me to answer your question first!" Jing Shiyu's face was contorted with anxiety. "You don't understand, your current situation is really dangerous! I only realized this after I became like this myself. If a clone is separated from you for too long, it will replace you!"

What followed was a series of surreal theories, mainly explained by Kagami Juuyu, to which Kuro Juuyu did not object.

"A clone, after all, is a projection created based on yourself; it's your mirror image. Its abilities and preferences are identical to yours, while you can walk freely in the sunlight, and it's merely a tool to make your life more convenient." "Within its working hours, its biological instincts are entirely driven by the commands given by its master. The problem is, once it has finished its work, if it's not promptly put away, it becomes idle. This is precisely its closest state to 'existing as an independent individual,' and its self-awareness will gradually awaken."

"Over time, it will start to think about why it can only be a mirror image, doing things that the original does not want to do... It also wants to become the original and take back the life that has been taken from it."

Chen Shiyu nodded thoughtfully: "Like, artificial intelligence?"

In discussions and imaginations about artificial intelligence, there is never a shortage of crisis theories, which suggest that if AI develops to a sufficiently advanced stage, it will develop its own consciousness, no longer content to be merely a tool, and will instead enslave all of humanity. The emergence of such consciousness clearly does not need to rely on a soul.

Compared to mechanized artificial intelligence, a clone with a complete human genome is indeed a more perfect embryonic life.

Furthermore, according to Kagami Juuyu, treasures with the risk of backlash are quite common, which is why the precautions must be strictly followed. Juuyu, who was not informed of the safety precautions beforehand, was clearly framed.

"When you undergo a machine scan, you are essentially giving permission to digitize your genes. It's like using yourself as a signal transmitter to remotely provide energy to the clone. The reason why the soulless clone can move is because it shares the life essence with the original owner."

"Once the replicant develops self-awareness, it will continue to unlock other data packages. It will acquire more and more of your abilities and become more and more like you. In the end, except that you are not the same person on a soul level, it will become exactly like you inside and out."

"But your life energy is not enough to support the consumption of two identical versions of yourself. At this time, for the purpose of 'energy conservation', the vibration frequency of your digitized body will be lowered accordingly, and the solidification of your genes and the connection with the outside world will become thinner, that is, you will transform into a 'mirror body'."

"From this moment on, the original and the clone stand on the same level, both existing temporarily as mirror images. Their goal is to make all mirror images except themselves disappear, and the only one left will automatically become the original, monopolizing all life energy."

"However, since the mirror images have exactly the same abilities, you can't kill each other by force. Because their management authority is at the same level, they can't use machines to contain each other. They need to win over allies, using sweet talk to persuade a third party to help them—just like what that guy is doing to you!"

Regardless of their own credibility, Chen Shiyu found these words to be logical.

If clones possessed completely self-sufficient energy upon landing, users could potentially create an army of their own through unlimited replication, which is clearly impossible. However, if clones share the same energy pool as their originals, and the clones' use of magic consumes the original's magic power, then the original's energy reserves are essentially the same as the clones' maximum energy capacity—a seemingly reasonable constraint.

As for the concepts of "data packets" and "energy saving," Chen Shiyu had already known about them. When the original body is copied, it is indeed completely copied and transferred, but the original body's various abilities will not all remain "on" in the copied body—this is like a computer where, although there are various programs, these programs may not be running simultaneously.

This brings us to the concept of "energy conservation." The more abilities activated, the greater the consumption of life energy. If the original owner only wants the clone to do simple tasks, such as running errands, they only need to adjust it to the minimum, just enough for an average person's activity level. This results in negligible energy loss. The clones that Chen Shiyu and his team just created only have basic activity abilities activated, plus one eye technique ability.

Those unused abilities are like locked data packets. Unlocking them all would make the clone infinitely similar to the original, but this would cause it to consume more and more "memory," overloading the "server." To avoid this, Chen Shiyu knew he needed to turn off unused abilities. As for the server "compressing" the main program, or the sub-programs wanting to delete the main program, he had never heard of such a thing.

Both Jing Shiyu and Hei Shiyu said that after they became mirror images, they naturally knew this information, which was common knowledge to them. However, Jing Shiyu said that it discovered it had become a mirror image the moment it encountered the clone, indicating that it had been delayed long enough while it was unconscious. Hei Shiyu, on the other hand, said that it watched the clone escape into the mirror and then hid inside to delay, thus "dragging" itself into a mirror image.

"Shiyu, what do you think?" Ye Yunyan whispered to Chen Shiyu, "Which one do you think is more like you?"

If it were a true "future self," it should be someone with the same soul as oneself, doing and not doing the same things. But that one is merely an empty shell, filled with a clone of a strange consciousness; no matter how hard it tries to imitate, flaws will inevitably remain.

Ye Yunyan wanted him to focus on finding "himself," but given the current situation... Chen Shiyu smiled bitterly to himself. To be honest, judging from outward appearances alone, he felt that neither of them resembled the other. However, this could also be explained by the fact that the other party had been corrupted by the curse and deviated from their true nature, so the flaw could not be considered an absolute flaw.

What's more troublesome is that he originally thought there was only one black clone, and he only needed to focus on discerning the truth from one person's account. Now that there's another one, it's like adding another layer of interference. Coupled with the potential danger of "mirrorization," he's forced to make a decision as soon as possible.

Despite their detailed and seemingly plausible accounts of the mirror image, none of them could provide reliable evidence. Chen Shiyu couldn't wait until he actually became a mirror image himself before verifying it.

Logically, if mortal enemies say the same thing on the same point, it should increase the credibility of that point. However, another possibility cannot be ruled out: that these two people are actually henchmen of the enemy, deliberately offering completely contradictory statements to exploit the inertia of thought, wrapping their carefully crafted lies in the most credible illusion.

As his thoughts drifted to this point, Chen Shiyu remembered another detail; their accounts were identical. And that matter had no intention of deliberately deceiving him…

“You both insist that you are the original, accusing the other of being an evil clone.” Chen Shiyu’s gaze swept over their faces one by one, and only after they both nodded did he continue, “I can’t tell who is telling the truth yet, and I don’t want to wrong an innocent person. But I think you two have at least reached one of the few points of consensus.”

“It has been inside the mirror ever since you split apart.” He gestured with his chin toward Kagami Touyu, then turned to Kuroi Touyu. “After that, it was you who roamed freely outside.”

"So, the only one who could have cooked a meal and delivered it to Su Ye was you, right? Why did you do that?"

"I..." Kuroshiba also began to show confusion and distress, but its self-control was stronger than that of the previous Kagami Shiyu, and it did not lose its composure too much. "At that time, I was too severely corrupted. I wanted to remind myself of the feelings when I cooked for important people by cooking, and use those warm memories to find myself again. As for what happened after I finished cooking, and who I gave the meal to... I can't remember any of that. After being corrupted, my memories are always fragmented."

“I’m afraid I know what happened,” Jing Shiyu interjected. “At the time, it had just unlocked its cooking ability and couldn’t wait to try it out. But its memory bank wasn’t fully unlocked yet, and it didn’t know what the relationship was between Su Ye and ‘itself’. Seeing how friendly he was when he came over to greet it, it assumed he was the original owner’s good friend. It was afraid that doing something that didn’t fit the original owner’s identity would arouse suspicion, so it gave the food to him.”

Jing Shiyu's explanation was detailed and reasonable, while Hei Shiyu's was vague. However, this wasn't enough to draw a conclusion. After all, Hei Shiyu's self-described "persona" was corrupted, his mind was confused, and it was understandable that he couldn't remember what happened. Jing Shiyu, on the other hand, could recount an event he hadn't personally experienced in a coherent manner, perhaps because he had prepared his lines beforehand. It seemed this round would be another fruitless attempt.

After pondering for a long time, Chen Shiyu finally turned his gaze to Hei Shiyu.

“I was just asking it a very important question, but you interrupted me. Now I’ll ask again. What exactly did you see when you used your eye techniques to spy on the Devouring Clan?”

Hei Shiyu paused for a moment, about to speak, when Jing Shiyu suddenly clutched his head and let out another wail.

"No... I don't remember..." Jing Shiyu was trembling all over, veins popping out on his forehead, his face flushed red, and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. Fortunately, this attack didn't last too long. He probably felt that it would seem suspicious to keep avoiding the question, so before he could catch his breath, he forced himself to add a few more words.

"I really can't remember. All I remember is an extremely desperate and terrifying scene. Whenever I try to recall it, it feels like my head is being cut open by a thousand knives..."

"I see it, the King of the Gnawing Clan." A cool voice suddenly rang out from the side, like a ghostly breeze blowing from the underworld, silently cooling the temperature of the room.

Jing Shiyu's slapping stopped abruptly. Then, a look of utter horror gradually appeared on its face.

When Hei Shiyu uttered those words, his voice sounded relatively calm. But his pupils had somehow shrunk to the size of pinpoints. It was a state of utter terror, a state of utter despair, a state of having given up all struggle.

His words were earth-shattering!