Infinite Horror: The Strongest Zhongzhou Team

The two said at the same time.

Harry: "I'll go first. I saw my father and mother standing right next to me."

"What about you?"

Ron swallowed hard. "I saw my future self. In the mirror, I seemed to have become the greatest wizard in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"And I also won a Quidditch match."

"So, Harry, do you think this is the future in the mirror?!"

Harry Potter shook his head.

"In the mirror I see, I am still the same size, only there are two of them."

"Moreover, my parents have passed away,"

"So, it shouldn't be the future."

Harry lowered his head as he spoke.

Ron added, "So, this mirror must be a magic mirror."

"Being able to see what you want to see?"

"should be."

"So you're saying I won't become the captain of the Quidditch team or the greatest wizard in the future?"

"Well, what a terrible mirror."

“And Harry, I think we should go back. Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell might come to check the dormitories.”

Harry turned around again and looked at his parents, who had reappeared in the mirror.

He silently said in his heart, "Goodbye, Father, Mother."

Urged on by Ron, the two donned invisibility cloaks and disappeared once again.

At the same moment the door closed.

A third group of people appeared in the previously empty, abandoned classroom.

At the same time, a layer of distorted light curtain covered and enveloped this space.

Zheng Zha and Li Xiao looked around.

His eyebrows twitched upon seeing it clearly, and then he lowered his voice and said:

"Everyone, this Mirror of Erised is a magical artifact, but it's not a weapon, and it doesn't even have any auxiliary abilities. Otherwise, Dumbledore wouldn't have just left it here."

Upon hearing Zheng Zha's words, Gungnir on the other side smiled and said:

"Captain Zheng Zha, don't worry. We think we're just here to take a look."

"After all, the Mirror of Erised had finally come out of the Room of Requirement, so we were quite curious about it."

Neos, accompanied by his two teammates, also said:
"Don't worry, I don't want to affect the plot."

"After all, the time is almost up, and so far the cooperation has been quite pleasant."

"I just didn't expect to run into something like this this time."

Honda, who was standing next to Nakazawa, remained silent as always, only nodding slightly as he looked at the group.

Zheng Zha and Li Xiao exchanged a glance and nodded.

Then the two of them made a gesture of invitation.
After all, they're just here to look in the mirror.

Immediately afterwards, Zheng Zha and Li Xiao saw these people standing in front of the mirror with different expressions.

Some glanced at it and walked away immediately, while others, like Harry Potter, seemed frozen in place upon seeing it.

He didn't come to his senses until his teammates called out to him.

Finally, reluctantly, I left the mirror.

Some people are a bit strange; after leaving the mirror, their faces turn black or they simply walk away.

For example, Gungnir, whose face immediately froze.

After giving the magic mirror a deep look, he and two other people in his party disappeared.

Honda and the undead knight in his team also left early.

Neos, the captain of the Nan Yan Zhou team, didn't show any change in expression, but he told his teammates to leave early as well.

He stayed behind instead, looking like he was watching the show.

Finally, only Zheng Zha, Li Xiao, and Neos remained in the abandoned classroom.

As the last person left, Neos pulled a piece of chocolate from his pocket and took a bite.

"Let's begin, you two."

Zheng Zha touched his nose and walked straight over.

Looking at a mirror from a distance is completely different from looking at it up close.

The mirror in the distance was just a dark, blurry object.

However, as Zheng Zha approached from the front, the mirror finally began to change.

Even though it was all darkness, Zheng Zha knew that the mirror had changed.

Although Zheng Zha knew that Neos was definitely watching him, he still couldn't help but show a strange expression.

He felt that the mirror seemed broken.

The reason is simple, just like when using a computer or tablet and the screen goes black.

As he drew closer, the darkness in the mirror deepened, until he stood in front of it.

This mirror actually started absorbing the surrounding light.

Zheng Zha knew about a special substance called Vanta Black.

This substance can absorb 99.965% of visible light, causing objects to lose all contours and three-dimensionality, resembling a two-dimensional black hole.

The objects covered in this blackness seemed to have been cut out of the real world, and that was how Zheng Zha felt.

Zheng Zha waved his hand and even touched it.

But the mirror still showed only darkness.

It was so dark you couldn't see anything.

If things were always like this, Zheng Zha wouldn't say anything.

However, based on my observation, other reincarnators should also be able to use it normally.

But why did the screen go black when he was on it?
Is it a visual issue?
Thinking of this, Zheng Zha's primordial energy subconsciously began to circulate.

When the world turned colorful again, Zheng Zha looked at the mirror.

It was at this moment that Zheng Zha discovered that the darkness in the mirror did not seem to be a flat surface.

Rather, something exists.

However, it was too dark, too much, and too blurry.

As a result, I can't see clearly or understand it.

That's why the first impression is that the mirror is broken.

After staring at it for a while, Zheng Zha finally had a guess.

He murmured, "So, this is black flame?"

Isn't this what my heart longs for?

"If it were the kind of image I'm thinking of, wouldn't it be either fear or a beautiful scene?"

Why this one?

Zheng Zha finally understood why some people looked puzzled, or even serious.

Because that's how he is right now.

Three parts doubt, three parts understanding, three parts solemnity, and one part curiosity.

After standing there for a while, Zheng Zha realized he couldn't see anything and decisively turned around.

Neos chewed on chocolate, his gaze sweeping over Zheng Zha without any attempt to hide it.

Finally, their gaze fell upon Li Xiao.

Li Xiao was also curious.

According to Dumbledore.

The Mirror of Erised is used to dissect a person's inner self, revealing their deepest desires or longings.

So Li Xiao also wanted to know what he truly longed for deep down.

Lift your foot and walk forward.

Li Xiao was taken aback.

We moved a little further forward.

They even covered their entire bodies with it.

Then, Zheng Zha and Neos became puzzled because Li Xiao suddenly lifted his leg and waved his hand. Zheng Zha still didn't understand what was going on.

Neos, however, understood.

(Myself, this reincarnator from the Zhongzhou team named Li Xiao actually saw me!!!)
(Because this only happens when you see yourself, it means there's nothing reflected in the mirror.)
However, Neos quickly realized that the other party might also be faking it.

This time, Neos left without waiting for Li Xiao to finish.

They saw that only the two of them remained.

Zheng Zha asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Li Xiao? What did you see? It's not all black like mine, is it?"

Li Xiao shook his head: "No, it's not darkness, it's myself."

"I actually saw myself in the mirror."

Zheng Zha was surprised.

"I remember reading in a horror movie that the Mirror of Erised reveals the deepest and most intense desires of the heart. If a person has no further desire for life, the mirror will only reflect their true appearance."

In Dumbledore's words, the happiest people in the world see only their own reflection in the mirror, because they are already content with their lives, and the magic mirror cannot show them any further desires.

Li Xiao turned around: "That's right, just like Dumbledore said, but the problem is, I don't feel like I'm one of those two types of people he described."

"One is utter despair with no difference between life and death, and the other is the happiest and most fulfilling life. I am neither."

"I can even list a whole bunch of things I want, like Sakura Sora and, cough cough cough!"

Li Xiao quickly interrupted after uttering half a sentence, then smoothly changed the subject.

"Wait, Zheng Zha."

"Is yours completely black?"

Zheng Zha nodded and walked to Li Xiao's side.

"At first I thought it was all black, like a black screen, but then I realized there was a difference, because there seemed to be shapes in the darkness."

"Although I can't see it, I have a feeling that what makes up the darkness must be black flames."

Li Xiao murmured, "Black flames, wait, black flames mean..."

Zheng Zha nodded: "That's right, it's a clone of me. It's the only thing I can think of that's related to the Dark Flame."

"So what I truly desire is a clone of myself?"

Li Xiao thought of something more and added, "It could also represent the fourth-order gene lock. Don't forget that you, the clone, have mastered the fourth-order gene lock."

"Perhaps that's what your mirror is trying to express."

Zheng Zha then nodded in sudden realization.

"Wow, you know what, it's actually quite possible."

"Then what do you think Chu Xuan will see?"

"Is it the self that has gained emotions, or a reflection of him in the present?"

"After all, when it comes to being without desires or wants, he is the only person I can think of."

Li Xiao shook his head:

"I don't know, but Chu Xuan is definitely not a person without desires or wants. Don't forget his terrifying fanaticism for unknown knowledge."

Otherwise, they wouldn't have scheduled so many courses for us, and then been so busy that they're practically invisible every day.

Zheng Zha felt helpless when he thought about Chu Xuan's strange behavior after entering Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
-
The next day.

early morning.

In the abandoned classroom where the Mirror of Erised was kept, Harry sat alone in front of the mirror.

Harry didn't fall asleep after returning to his dorm with Ron last night.

After all, we had experienced so much that night.

Especially the one that appears in the mirror at the end.

Harry Potter closed his eyes and kept giving himself mental suggestions, wanting to continue dreaming about his father and mother.

But he never fell asleep; instead, he became more and more energetic, which led to his current state.

The second day, the third day, the fourth day.

Harry would come over every time during the Christmas holidays, usually in the early hours of the morning.

It's always the same action, the same posture.

He stared intently ahead.

In the mirror, his smiling mother is on his left, and his father nodding encouragingly on his right.

He folded the invisibility cloak and placed it beside him.

Just look at your reflection in the mirror.

Harry has already experimented with this over the past few days; the entity in the mirror can speak.

But they will only say what you want to hear, or what you think they should say.

In other words, it's more like talking to oneself.

So Harry gave up after saying a few words at first.

Because he thinks it looks pretty good.

However, what Harry didn't know was that he sat there for an hour that day.

A figure behind him had also been standing for an hour.

Finally, before dawn, the figure spoke.

"Here we go again, Harry."

The sudden sound startled Harry.

He immediately stood up and turned to look over.

It was Dean Dumbledore, dressed in a robe of starlight magic.

Dumbledore didn't look at the surprise and panic in Harry Potter's eyes.

And he continued speaking to himself:

“Child, it seems that you, like everyone else, have found your own fun in the Mirror of Erised.”

“I think you now know its purpose, right, Harry?”

Harry nodded as he watched Dumbledore slowly approach.

He replied, "I know, it's a mirror that can show us what we want."

Dumbledore stood beside Harry and smiled:
"Yes and no."

"It reflects our deepest and most urgent desires."

"For you, Harry, you've never met your family, so you see them around you, but remember, Harry."

"This mirror will not give us any knowledge or truth; people will only waste their time in front of it, or even go insane."

"So tomorrow I'm going to move it to another place, and I'm telling you, it won't be hard to find it."

"One cannot live in a dream and forget about life."

Dumbledore looked at Harry, who had his head bowed, and said with a smile:

"Then let me ask you a question, Harry."

"Tell me, what kind of person can see their true self in the Mirror of Erised?"

Harry shook his head, recalling what Dean Dumbledore had just mentioned about his abilities and what he had learned about them over the past few days.

"It's actually very simple. There are two kinds of people. One is the most negative person. Deep down, there is no desire left for them, so they can see themselves."

"There is another type of person who is content. Although there are still desires deep down, they are satisfied with everything they have now."

"So much so that the existence that is desired becomes less important."

Harry said, "Does Dean Dumbledore really exist?"

"Of course there are! These kinds of people are powerful!"

Dumbledore murmured his last words.

After Harry left.

Dumbledore, his hair and beard all white, looked at the Mirror of Erised before him.

There is another version of him in the mirror.

However, there was another person beside him.

A woman named Ariana, this is his sister.

"Perhaps you are right, love is the greatest magic in the world!"

--------

"Ron, get up! You have to see this, you absolutely have to!"

Harry yelled and rushed to Ron's bed, yanking the blankets off him. (End of Chapter)