Steam Age: I Fight Against Divine Authority with Otherworldly Tales

Chapter 81 The Mirror World

After lunch, Suren and Karl parted ways and returned to their respective residences.

Having just become an "Awakener," Suren needs time to familiarize herself with her new abilities.

Suren plopped down in a chair and began to analyze her current abilities.

Other abilities can perhaps be learned through actual combat, but [Secret Protection] and [Secret Manifestation] are abilities that must be prepared in advance.

Moreover, now that Suren can bind four "core secrets," which secrets to bind requires careful consideration.

Inside the room, Suren took out her notebook, turned to a blank page, and began to plan the allocation of "core secrets".

Suren's thinking was clear. After all, the main function of the "Core Secret Knowledge" was to provide fuel for [Secret Knowledge Protection] and [Secret Knowledge Manifestation], so the design of these two abilities had to be determined before proceeding to the next step.

After Suren was promoted to "Awakener", the number of "Secret Techniques" that could be created by a single "Core Secret Knowledge" also increased to two, but the total limit of "Secret Techniques" was only four.

In addition, the ability [Secret Manifestation] has gained a brand new characteristic called "Grafting".

For example, the secret level of the No. 1 "core secret knowledge" is very low, but its symbolic meaning is very strong. It could have created time-related "secret arts", but it cannot be realized at all due to the level limitation.

In this case, Suren can graft a certain "core secret knowledge" of level S onto the No. 1 "core secret knowledge" to create a powerful time "secret technique"!

In this way, the abstract secret that Suren had been struggling with—"the essence of extraordinary power"—could come in handy later.

As for [Secret Awareness Protection], there are still only two passive abilities, but fortunately, the strength of the passive ability is now based on the highest level "Core Secret Awareness". The highest level is currently B, which is a great improvement.

Thanks to the enhancement of "Source Knowledge", Suren only took a few seconds to think about this information. He wrote it down on paper following this line of thought and finally determined the "core secret knowledge" that needed to be fixed at the moment.

Inside the room, the Book of Secrets appeared out of thin air, automatically flipping to the page recording "Core Secrets," and fixing the latest "Core Secrets" according to Suren's will.

The "core secrets" currently recorded in the Book of Secrets are as follows:

1. [Core Secret: To maintain absolute rule, the Church has systematically eliminated non-human races, locked down technology, and erased all historical traces that could potentially undermine divine authority since its founding → Secret Level: B]

2. [Core Secret: The strange tale "Mirror Demon" is parasitizing Suren Chern's body → Secret Level: B]

3. [Core Secret: Suren Cheen is actually a transmigrator whose soul is Su Chen → Secret Level: C]

4. [Core Secret: The Essence of Extraordinary Power → Secret Level C]

Suren looked at the records in the book and nodded in satisfaction.

In the following time, Suren focused his consciousness on the nodes in his mind and began to construct new [Secret Awareness Protection] and "Secret Techniques".

Sunlight streamed into the room, and time passed slowly. Only Suren remained in the room with her eyes closed, emanating a faint blue glow.

After an unknown amount of time, Suren opened his eyes, wiped the sweat from his brow, took out his pocket watch, opened the cover, and glanced at the time—3:12.

If there were other people in the room, they would notice that the edges of Suren's body were somewhat blurred, like a double image. This was the new [Secret Awareness Protection] he had created: anyone who tried to attack Suren would experience a visual disorientation, causing their attack to deviate.

The other ability is to reduce control effects, which is simple and practical.

Although these two passive abilities seem great, their effects will be weakened if the player's rank is too high above Suren's. Nevertheless, they are still very strong abilities.

As for the new "Arcane Arts", Suren originally planned to create only four existing "Arcane Arts", but he soon discovered that although each "Core Secret Knowledge" can only create a maximum of two Arcane Arts, he can now store the created "Arcane Arts", just like switching spells in a game. Suren can switch those spare "Arcane Arts" once for free every 24 hours.

Therefore, Suren spent more time creating them, since the number of backup "secret techniques" was almost doubled.

Fortunately, it didn't take too long, since Suren still had to go to Charles's place later.

Suren was somewhat excited at this moment, after all, he had put a lot of effort into the brand-new "secret technique". He stood up impatiently and walked into the washroom.

He strode to the mirror, his body radiating a pale blue light. He then extended his right hand and placed it on the mirror. The mirror surface rippled like water, and as Suren pushed his right hand forward, his palm disappeared into the mirror.

Suren was overjoyed and no longer hesitated. He leaned forward, and in an instant, he disappeared into the mirror. There was no trace of him in the room.

At this moment, Suren entered a strange space, leaving him somewhat stunned. The "secret technique" he had created granted him the ability to walk through mirrors, but instead, he entered a mysterious, independent space through the mirror.

The entire space was bathed in a dark red light, and the furnishings inside were the same as those outside, but unlike the outside world, they all had a strange, illusory feel to them.

Suren's current location corresponds to the washroom in reality, but everything is reversed, like a mirror image. Suren reached out to try to touch the sink, but he touched nothing.

Suren frowned and went to the living room again, trying to touch other things, but all ended in failure. Everything here seemed more like an illusion, and he couldn't interact with it.

Just then, Suren suddenly noticed something unusual. After arriving in the mirror world, he felt that something had been added to the Book of Secrets.

With a thought, the Book of Secrets floated in mid-air, along with two withered corpses. Suren crouched down and carefully examined the two corpses.

He frowned, because they were the "Red Wolf of the Law" from the wilderness and the monster that Alf had turned out of control.

Shouldn't these two have been killed by the "Mirror Demon"? Why are they here?

Suren was puzzled. Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him: perhaps the action of the "mirror demon" pulling him into the mirror was not an act of annihilation, but rather a pull into this mirror world!

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was correct. Considering the manner in which the two died, it seemed as if their life force had been drained.

Could it be that this world in the mirror continuously drains the life force of those who enter it, and I am unaffected because of the "evil spirit in the mirror" within me?

Suren quickly came to a conclusion, but before he could think about it further, a slight stinging pain suddenly came from his left hand. He felt a chill run down his spine; he knew he had been in the mirror for too long.

He looked around and noticed a place that was shining with white light. He reached out and touched the light, then tried to leave the area.

In an instant, Suren returned to the real world, standing in front of a water glass, having just emerged from the surface of the water inside.

Suren took out his pocket watch and realized he had been in the mirror world for about five minutes.

This ability to walk in the mirror is the latest secret technique created by Suren. Although the time is very limited, Suren is quite satisfied with it.

Putting away the pocket watch, Suren plopped back into his chair, stroking his chin as he still pondered the scene in the mirror world.

At this moment, he suddenly realized a problem: if being pulled into the mirror world by the "mirror in the mirror" for the first time did not count as death, then he had not actually died!

Suren frowned. This meant that he had actually traveled to this world while he was still alive, and had even brought the "Evil Spirit in the Mirror" with him.

He couldn't help but feel a chill; things were getting increasingly bizarre.

Suppressing her chaotic thoughts, Suren focused on the present moment; it was almost time to head to Charles's place.

Of course, before setting off, Suren needed to make some preparations. He went to the mirror in the bathroom again and began to imagine the image of "Karen Dantès" in his mind.

Soon, the image of the black-haired, brown-eyed youth in the mirror gradually blurred, and was replaced by a middle-aged man with short dark brown hair, a sinister look, a hooked nose, and thin lips, who exuded an aura that kept strangers at bay.

Suren touched her face; the texture was still the same as her previous face.

【Secret Appearance Thousand Faces】 does not directly change appearance physically; it is essentially an information-level ability, more like a more difficult-to-see illusion.

Not only its appearance, but it also fabricated information about a person named "Karen Dantès" out of thin air, including her appearance, physique, voice, temperament, and even social background.

As long as they cannot break through Suren's "information barrier," then in the eyes of others, Suren is Karen Dantès.

However, Suren cannot fabricate information indefinitely; he can only create it based on people he has met or related "secret knowledge." Karen Dantès's face is actually pieced together from the features of different people.

Suren changed into the clothes she had prepared beforehand—a white shirt with a short trench coat over it.

Suren looked at herself in the mirror. Her attire made her look like a retired soldier or an ordinary middle-class person, but combined with her current appearance, she looked more like an assassin, as if she might draw her gun at any moment.

However, this is exactly the effect Suren wanted; it would be difficult for others to associate Karen Dantès with Suren Chern.

After removing the disguise of [Secret Beauty Thousand Faces], Suren left the room and headed towards the "Tulip Inn".

After walking for a short while, Suren turned into an empty alley. A moment later, Suren, who looked like Karen Dantès, emerged from the other end of the alley.

He followed the stone path and soon arrived at the "Tulip Hotel".

He pushed open the door and found himself in the familiar hall. Mr. Loft was sitting on the sofa when Suren entered, catching Loft's attention.

Suren strode up to Loft, a smile spreading across her face, and introduced herself in a low voice: "Loft, is that right? I'm Karen Dantès."