Bob slammed into the wall with a crash, his head plummeting to the ground, his neck twisting into a strange arc as he fell.

Fortunately, as a player, he was tough and resilient. After a few moments, Bob's fingers trembled slightly as he lifted his dust-covered face.

As long as he's not dead, that's good.

John Joyce and the others breathed a sigh of relief internally, but they didn't rush to help him up, as they were still unclear about Bob's current condition.

"Buddy, how do you feel?" John Joyce called out from a distance.

"What, what happened to me?" Bob stood up and reached out to rub his dusty head, a confused expression on his face. "My head, it hurts a bit..."

How could it not hurt? The guy smashed his head into the ground; his neck was nearly broken!

"I had a friend who suffered from headaches just like you," Li Ang sighed and said seriously to Bob. "The doctor said he had prolonged adolescence and brain worms, and ended up with a parasitic disease plus brain cancer. Do you still remember what just happened?"

Bob, still in a daze, stood there and said, "I just remember kneeling before the statue, then feeling a tranquility spreading from the inside out. Flashes of mistakes I'd made in my life kept appearing before my eyes, and I sincerely felt sorry and guilty. At that time, I thought that if I could live again, I would definitely become a better, more positive, kinder, and more honest person. After that... I can't remember clearly."

After saying this, Bob bowed his head and frowned in deep thought. "But now, this feeling of guilt seems to be fading."

Seeing the old black man's state, the players looked at each other.

"The problem must lie with that Mirror Fragment. It feels a bit like a Cognitive Bias Curse, doesn't it?" Julia said softly.

"Could it be some sort of personality correction ritual track?" Smoker muttered.

"Let's test it," Li Ang nodded and called out to Bob in the distance, "Say a few discriminatory words again."

"Okay."

Bob took a deep breath and began to spout a series of English words as if reciting a menu, without any hesitation or sense of guilt and remorse.

Li Ang narrowed his eyes. "It seems that after leaving the kneeling position, the influence of the Mirror Fragment on a person gradually diminishes. The mayor of this town didn't mention this issue when he agreed to let us into the church. If he isn't intentionally tricking us, then it's very likely that after being spiritually influenced by the statue, humans automatically edit this highly unnatural memory into something normal, and therefore fail to notice the anomaly."

This hypothesis suggested two possibilities. First, the psychological effects of the Mirror Fragment might be temporary; if someone doesn't pray in the church for an extended period, they could break free from its control. Second, the psychological effects of the Mirror Fragment, once completed, might change a person for life.

Both possibilities were very bad, especially the latter.

"If the Mirror Fragment is indeed the Magic Mirror from the original story of the scenario, it may possess some anomaly," Li Ang said, smiling as he looked at his teammates. "Perhaps we should take it and examine its item description closely. How about we vote to decide who goes and checks if there's an item description for the Mirror Fragment?"

Under Li Ang's scrutinizing gaze, his teammates cursed inwardly. The so-called voting decision means no one would vote for themselves. Even if we united to cast our votes for Brother Dao, who could guarantee he wouldn't fly into a rage from the humiliation, get vicious, and beat us up along with that floating, humanoid armor that seems to be a stand-in? Even if all of us piled on, we'd lack the confidence to come out on top. Not to mention, none of us want to end up like Bob, swallowing a suspiciously shaped giant worm...

"I'll go."

In the midst of the oppressive silence, John Joyce took a deep breath and stepped forward. Julia and Smoker immediately cast grateful looks at him.

"Good! If you don't enter hell, then who will? I really admire the spirit of a young man who believes 'no pain, no gain,'" Li Ang shamelessly praised. "Go on, Pikachu."

John Joyce's eye twitched. He suppressed the urge to retort, silently taking a few steps forward, away from his teammates, and stood in a relatively safe position. Then, he suddenly raised his arm towards the statue, veins bulging on his face, and let out a constipated, sorrowful shout, "EEEYAHHHHHHH!"

The beast-like howl truly startled the other players.

Even Li Ang was somewhat shocked. He couldn't help but clap and exclaim with admiration, "A talent, indeed! It'd be a waste not to act in horror films with that voice."

Frederick, the unfortunate lumberjack who had previously been knocked out and was currently lying at everyone's feet, also groggily woke up due to the noise.

Then he was promptly knocked out again by a clean chop to the back of the neck from Julia.

After several seconds of hoarse screaming, John Joyce's right arm suddenly extended about eight meters, reaching directly for the fragment of glass in the hands of the Ice Queen Statue and pulling it down.

"SNAP!"

The elongated arm retracted abruptly. John Joyce stood in place, holding the Mirror Fragment, sweat already beading on his forehead.

This arm-extending special skill, known as "Rubber Pistol," was a common quality skill he acquired when he first became a player. It apparently spoofed the "Rubber Gatling Gun" skill possessed by the protagonist, Luffy, in the well-known comic "One Piece." Its special effect was that, after a period of buffering, he could rubberize his body, allowing any part of it to elongate and expand at will; however, during the skill's activation, that part's bones and muscles would be damaged, causing unbearable, intense pain.

This skill had helped John Joyce out a lot during his novice stage, but as his inventory of items and skills gradually grew, the Rubber Pistol, with its significant drawbacks (requiring a long casting wind-up, short-duration full-body rubberization, and full-body pain after use), became less frequently used.

In the current situation, where one needed to make close contact to sense whether an item could be identified as an anomaly by the System, "Rubber Pistol" found its use again, making a comeback.

John Joyce retracted his rubber arm, carefully adjusted the position of the bones within his supple right arm, slowly deactivated the skill, and then looked down at the Mirror Fragment in his hand.

[Name: Magic Mirror Fragment ⑥]

[Type: Magic Tool]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Special Effect: Distant Perception. Magic Mirror Fragments can sense and attract each other.]

[Cost: None]

[Note: Magic Mirror Fragments cannot be stored in the backpack.]

[Note: Collect a total of six Magic Mirror Fragments scattered within the Rune Kingdom to unlock more special effects.]

[Note: "Magic Mirror, Magic Mirror, who in this world is the fairest of them all?" "You are the fairest in my heart."]

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