That place, unlike the lounge with its shattered lights, was bright—and unexpectedly familiar.— “Isn’t this… the regular Mirror Maze’s second boss area?”It wasn’t the Concealed Mirror Maze but the Mirror Maze. Nothing particularly unusual about it, but maybe Groove-Eye, panicked by the fact that we’d gotten stronger from buffs, had dragged us back into a ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ bright space. Turning off the lights had backfired on it…A penalty has been given to the giant white creature for abusing Authority.Groove-Eye looked dejected again. Its HP plummeted from 68% down to 58% in one sweep.A gimmick where it cast something and lost HP… null came to mind. The first time I saw null, Groove-Eye had been there, chirping happily as it flew toward it. Were the two connected after all?The thought flashed by, but I brushed it off while blocking another incoming auto. That kind of thing wasn’t my specialty.From then until Groove-Eye’s HP dropped to 30%, the mechanics were straightforward. A short breather phase. Plus, with its body shrinking, its defense must have been going down too—the HP melted much faster. At this rate, we’d clear it in two minutes.I steadied myself, preparing to read the next mechanic, when Groove-Eye seemed to decide it couldn’t hold out anymore. It began casting… another vicarious Authority.Again? Was it addicted to Authority now?— “What penalty will our squeaky friend get this time?”Jaegyung, apparently attached now, had nicknamed it Squeaky. Fitting, since it squeaked constantly.When the cast ended, its body flickered, distorted…A giant black creature reveals its ego in the light!A penalty has been given to the giant black creature for abusing Authority.Groove-Eye had turned black.Here, in this bright space, the white Groove-Eye became black. From the earlier mob section, we knew black creatures grew stronger in bright areas, their egos more distinct.In other words, Groove-Eye just got stronger.[Party] Honeybread: wtf[Party] Honeybread: ffsI didn’t even need to check for buffs—one auto was enough to know. Groove-Eye had gotten really strong. Painfully strong. This is insane. Somebody needs to confiscate that bastard’s Authority.— “Honeybread, this hurts too much. There’s no way we can last until the end. Absolutely no way. We need a counter.”To weaken its ego, the space had to darken. Meaning… should we turn off all the lights?Jaegyung seemed to have the same thought; he turned, about to dash off and extinguish the lights—But Groove-Eye beat him to it.A giant black creature summons the illusions of mirrors…It chained another Authority cast, and before Jaegyung could even run, massive mirrors appeared, stacking into walls like the cliff of mirrors we had flown across.The problem: the mirrors reflected light wildly, flooding the place with brightness.A penalty has been given to the giant black creature for abusing Authority.[Party] Honeybread: this fkn addictYou’re an Authority junkie!The giant black creature cannot withstand the accumulated Authority and goes berserk.Warning! The giant black creature is entering Overload Explosion…Time remaining: 120 seconds— “Whoa…”What the hell was this now?— “Let’s focus on the trial. The keywords are berserk, overload, explosion—likely a wipe mechanic. But since Squeaky’s HP is at 28%, I’m not completely sure. Honeybread, can you manage?”Even as the warning messages scrolled, the berserk Groove-Eye hammered me with crushing autos. I had no room to type. Seeing my situation, Jaegyung just kept theorizing aloud.— “Damage isn’t sticking well, same as before. That means we need a different method. The most likely is breaking the mirrors.”I heard pounding behind me—him striking a mirror.— “It doesn’t budge. You see that? Only 1 damage. These aren’t mirrors you can just smash. Pair-lighting doesn’t help either, and there aren’t any lamps to break. No light fixtures visible, and the slits of light are too narrow to slip through.”Jaegyung was working hard at solving it, but no obvious answer came. Maybe this really was the wipe mechanic, a punishment for missing a required step earlier. That would make sense.But… the timer was 120 seconds. That long a window meant the devs expected us to find a solution. There had to be one. So giving up and waiting for death wasn’t an option.While I desperately blocked autos, Jaegyung tried everything—spreading wings to cast shadows on Groove-Eye, testing whether reflected images in the mirrors gave buffs, using random consumables. Nothing worked.What were we missing? He’d already tried everything reasonable.That’s when—— “The Divine Punishments. All of Squeaky’s debuffs reset to stage 0.”Divine Punishment? Right, those were the penalties it got whenever it forcibly swapped our stances. I quickly checked its debuff bar.[Divine Punishment: Protection – Defense Weakening Level 0][Divine Punishment: Slaughter – Attack Weakening Level 0][Divine Punishment: Destruction – Attack Weakening Level 0][Divine Punishment: Harmony – Defense Weakening Level 0]Good. If the debuffs changed, this had to be the hint. But how to use it…?— “If the levels are all zero, that must mean Squeaky is no longer under those effects. So maybe it recalled the Authority that inflicted those penalties? But if that’s the case, my stance should have reverted to Harmonizer. Yet I’m still in Murderer stance. Still using Surgeon Murderer skills. The party list still shows that.”It reclaimed the Authority… but Jaegyung’s stance hadn’t reset. Shouldn’t it have? He was still using Murderer skills, still listed as Military Surgeon (Murderer).“…Oh.”Wait. Hold on. Think. My brain actually creaked into motion for once.Groove-Eye shared too many traits with null. The first time in the Spider Nest, when Groove-Eye appeared, null showed up right after and Groove-Eye greeted it. null used system-based mechanics, and Groove-Eye, though penalized, was also tied to system mechanics. And this mirrored space, flight-prohibited, strongly resembled the cliff of mirrors we had to fly across.If that was true, then maybe stances too…Before finishing the thought, I tried to switch stance.System: You cannot change stance in combat.…Figures. Then how the hell—System: But instinct cannot be denied.Huh?A chime I’d heard before rang. In the center of my screen, a small silhouette appeared—a black moth.For a moment I was stunned. Then the silhouette brightened, revealing a familiar wing design. White light gathered around it, and a prompt appeared: Press any key.As if compelled, I hit the space bar right on time.My character grasped a massive, radiant longsword.— “What was that? Honeybread, what did you do again?”I heard Jaegyung’s voice but tuned it out. My eyes stayed locked on the screen.Sword in hand, my character dashed through the mirrors, shattering the huge panels that wouldn’t break before. Shards floated in slow motion, glinting as if time itself had slowed. After breaking them all, Honeybread soared above the black Groove-Eye.Then, gripping the sword in both hands, he brought it down with a force that shook the ground.But the surprisingly agile black Groove-Eye rolled its round body, dodging. Still, the pressure building inside it slowed, like a balloon deflating slightly.— “Whoa, what WAS that? Seriously, what did you do?!”Jaegyung’s voice brimmed with excitement. I reached for the keyboard to type: I switched stance.But before I could send it, something caught my eye. Jaegyung’s HP bar—dropping, just from touching the slow-floating mirror shards. And Groove-Eye, swelling, about to burst.This wasn’t over. Clearly not.If the shards clipped us while Jaegyung couldn’t heal, and then Groove-Eye exploded…Sensing the danger, I immediately typed into chat.

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