Chapter 63: Counter-Seven

Liu Jinsen having Sha Ruijing build up momentum for him left Wen Xishu with a very favorable impression.

In a sense, having Liu Jinsen act as his "superior" was better than anyone else doing it. Therefore, Wen Xishu was willing to cooperate with Liu Jinsen to a certain extent.

Liu Jinsen sighed:

"Your tower-climbing report had better be convincing. If you think there's no problem with that, then I can cooperate with you on my end."

"Also, if you truly intend to climb the eerie towers at such a high frequency, there is indeed one more thing I must tell you. Unless you bring back Level 5 or higher facilities every single time, you had best not add facilities to the bunker at will."

Wen Xishu pondered this last sentence for a moment, and began to understand:

"No wonder. I was still wondering why the architectural distribution of some functional levels in the bunker is so chaotic... while other areas are so orderly."

Liu Jinsen hummed in agreement:

"You're very smart. In the early days of the bunker, humans constantly brought facilities back to the bunker... but none of them were high-level facilities. Most people didn't do any urban planning, which resulted in the bunker's facilities being arranged in a complete mess."

"Furthermore, some low-level facilities can be acquired repeatedly, which also led to an excess of certain facilities taking up a lot of valuable space."

"Later on, related policies were established. Except for Level 5 and above facilities, which can be placed at will, all other facilities must first be put on hold by the Guide."

"Upon returning to the bunker, after reporting to the Bunker Facilities Planning Bureau and obtaining a batch number, you can have the Guide place it in the location required by the batch number after your next tower-climbing session concludes. Otherwise, personnel will be dispatched to destroy it."

Wen Xishu had no objections; this arrangement was actually quite reasonable.

Level 5 facilities were far too rare, Level 6 even more so, and Level 7 facilities numbered only a handful across the entire bunker... Therefore, these facilities could simply be placed wherever one wished, and they were still in the category of the more, the better.

"Alright, I understand. That just means as long as I get Level 6 every time, I won't need to go through all this trouble."

Liu Jinsen was somewhat speechless, feeling that this statement was overly arrogant. Yet, having brought back Level 6 facilities twice made Wen Xishu's words sound somewhat reasonable.

In the end, he could only say:

"Don't underestimate the eerie towers, and don't take enemies lightly... Many of us are fighting for you, and perhaps we really can help you gain true freedom."

Wen Xishu felt a touch of emotion.

Sir Liu was highly capable, but there was indeed a reason why he had never been promoted to a higher rank. There were still genuinely endearing people in this bunker.

He smiled and said:

"To die on the path of exploring the eerie towers is far better than dying inside the bunker. Thank you, Sir Liu; I think Headmaster Albert will be pleased with your choice."

Liu Jinsen said no more, simply letting out a hum before hanging up the phone.

After ending the call, Wen Xishu took out his login device, preparing to log into the Three Towers right here in the headmaster's office. This place was actually safer and more concealed than his dormitory.

At this moment, Jabbar spoke:

"You are truly as studious and diligent as the headmaster said. It has been a long time since the academy has seen a student with such a strong desire to climb towers who also has the ability to survive."

"Good luck, Student Wen. Before you activate your login device, I have something to hand over to you. This is a gift brought to you by Wenren Jing, which may prove helpful for your upcoming tower climb."

Jabbar was so respectful that he seemed less like an academic affairs officer and more like a well-mannered butler.

Wen Xishu thought to himself that if this man were just a bit taller, he would practically be an Alfred.

Thanks to Albert's generosity, the prop Wen Xishu had originally rented, "Forgot to Bring Keys," was now in a state of long-term rental by Wen Xishu and did not need to be returned to the supplies department.

Right now, Wen Xishu could actually request one more prop. Counting Tang Rui's note, "Forgot to Bring Keys," and the upcoming prop from Wenren Jing, that made three items in total. Yet his inventory had four slots.

However, considering that new challenges might also yield new props, he decided against making another trip to the supplies department.

Jabbar opened a palm-sized box and handed it to Wen Xishu:

"Here is the item, along with its item card. I hope it assists you."

Wen Xishu's eyes immediately locked onto the purple card.

He had not expected Wenren Jing to be so generous; it seemed Wenren Jing truly held a deep sense of guilt toward Tang Rui back then.

The contents of the card were as follows:

[Owner: Wenren Jing.]

[Item Name: Gradual Apathy.]

[Item Description: Its shape is a crystal-clear heart, and as a necklace, it is quite ordinary. Yet it encapsulates the process of countless love affairs: plunging into the dust, gradually warming up, mutual disgust, and cutting all ties forever.]

[Item Attributes: Possesses no universal combat attributes. Activation consumes twenty-five percent of current health points. Activation Effect: Once activated, within a certain range, your presence will become extremely faint. At the same time, all Desire Tower entities that notice you will experience a drastic increase in initial favorability, alongside a substantial boost in the probability of obtaining truthful answers from them.]

[Quite useful, right? But please note one thing: once the duration expires, all entities affected by the necklace will continuously develop feelings of disgust toward you, gradually growing to loathe you until they want to kill you.]

[This process is irreversible; once activated, it cannot be canceled. This item has no effect on highly anomalous beings.]

Wen Xishu felt a slight ripple of emotion.

Without a doubt, this was an item with massive side effects. The favorability gained was limited, but the continuous drop in favorability after the effect ended was truly infinite.

Once activated, it was equivalent to creating a batch of enemies. The cost of activation was also not low, requiring twenty-five percent of his current health.

Yet despite such severe side effects, Wen Xishu still felt this item was utterly bugged.

Because during the duration of its effect, it was indeed a highly effective prop for gathering intelligence within the Desire Tower.

He accepted the necklace, and Jabbar cautioned:

"Wenren Jing said he hopes this will be of help to you, but you must never use it on kind people. He hopes that even within the Three Towers, you can attain genuine friendship."

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Thank me to him; he is truly a generous man."

Jabbar smiled:

"I will convey your gratitude to him. Then, Student Wen, I suppose I should take my leave. I will seal the office; aside from myself and the headmaster, no one else will be able to enter."

Jabbar shook hands with Wen Xishu in farewell, then walked out of the headmaster's office and pulled the door shut behind him:

"I wish you smooth progress in your studies."

After Jabbar left, Wen Xishu activated his login device.

The wristwatch engraved with a double-helix pattern bit into Wen Xishu's wrist once again, and the familiar voice echoed in his mind.

[Welcome to the Three Towers game. You are about to enter the rest area.]

[Based on your achievement of Level 6 completion in a normal-order challenge, your current maximum accessible tier is: 10. The fluctuation value is 3 to 10. Alternatively, you may go to the Three Towers Guide to choose a Three Towers tier reduction (consult the Three Towers Guide for detailed rules).]

[Special item "Dice of Reversal" detected. Do you wish to roll?]

Wen Xishu was surprised. Was it time to advance his tier already?

The impact of a Level 6 completion was indeed massive. Normally, as long as one completed tasks within the range of floors one through seven seven times, regardless of the completion rate, one would achieve a tier advancement and gain eligibility to challenge higher floors. However, achieving a Level 6 completion allowed one to advance tiers after just a single attempt. The prerequisite, though, was a challenge under normal order.

Clearly, the "Three Highs" of the Dice of Reversal did not count as normal order. Although he had cleared Jack's Eerie Mansion on the twenty-first floor of Moin City, it had not been factored into his tier advancement evaluation.

Wen Xishu had no interest in first or second-floor task domains. He calmly accepted the reality of his tier advancement and rolled the Dice of Reversal for the third time.

This time, the numbers rolled were also quite special: 2, 3, 4.

[1: Blessings in Disguise. (Triggered when at least two of the three dice show even numbers. Effect: Choices +1, and this choice does not consume a choice count.)]

[2: Smooth Sailing. (Triggered when the three dice present consecutive numbers. Effect: Your actions in the Three Towers will become exceptionally smooth. Manifestations: combat skill resource consumption in the Slaughter Tower is halved, and combat skill casting speed is increased. No need to light bonfires to lower the slaughter value for a short period. Magic-resistance requirement is drastically reduced, and luck value is greatly enhanced.)]

[3: All Things Multiply. (Triggered when at least one of the three dice shows a 3, and the sum is a multiple of 3. Effect: When the number of equipped items you have is 3 or a multiple of 3, their effects will be amplified. Includes special items and invalid items; item count is determined solely by the number of used inventory slots.)]

[4: Dual Cascade. (Triggered when the three dice present consecutive numbers and two of the numbers are even. Effect: You can simultaneously use the rules of any two tower lineages.)]

[5: Qualitative Ascent. (Triggered when two prime numbers are included among the three dice. Effect: When calculating completion rewards, if there are items, sequences, or facilities, one of them will trigger a qualitative ascent, elevating its quality grade.)]

Wen Xishu could not help but marvel that these tiny three dice contained so many cheating mechanisms.

This time, with "Blessings in Disguise," it fundamentally became a choice of two out of four.

Unlike last time, Wen Xishu actually liked all four options this time.

Leaving aside "Smooth Sailing," having it—combined with his current magic-resistance—meant that upon entering an eerie tower, many things could be seen through at a glance.

He also wanted "All Things Multiply" because, counting Tang Rui's note, he had exactly three items.

Although "Dual Cascade" wasn't quite as powerful as the Triple Power, being able to use Slaughter Tower or Eerie Tower items and abilities within the Desire Tower was also crucial.

Not to mention "Qualitative Ascent"—if he achieved a Level 6 completion, Qualitative Ascent might allow him to obtain something that ought to have belonged to a Level 7 completion.

Out of the four options, not a single one was bad. All were overpowered, and he wanted every single one of them.

Unfortunately, he couldn't have it all.

"Currently, while 'All Things Multiply' is great, I am already sufficiently satisfied with my item effects, so I'll temporarily rule it out."

"Next is choosing two out of three. Assuming I can successfully clear the run by default, I must take 'Qualitative Ascent'. After all, Sir Liu also said that the facilities brought back must be of a sufficiently high level to be directly placed."

"Exploring the Desire Tower—from the perspective of my current tier—doesn't make luck value all that important, provided I can find an invitation letter. I'm still unclear about the slaughter value mechanic, but it seems to be something that triggers bad reactions once it hits the cap."

"Magic-resistance... I already possess 15 points. Even if I can't fully decipher everything, at lower tiers, I can at least decode a portion of it."

"Therefore, 'Smooth Sailing' is really good, but not absolutely necessary."

In the end, Wen Xishu chose "Dual Cascade" and "Qualitative Ascent."

He felt a genuine pang of heartache and hesitated immensely over his choice. If he could choose again, he wouldn't even dare guarantee he would reach the same outcome.

"What a pity. The Reversal Dice is a special mechanism item, entirely different in nature from items that occupy inventory slots."

"If only the Dice's item-buffing mechanism could buff the Dice itself..."

At this moment, Wen Xishu had the distinct déjà vu of using Dragon Balls to wish for more wishes.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted—

Because the scene before his eyes began to construct itself.

At the same time, he heard the prompt for the new mission.

[You have gradually discovered that after a certain temporal node, the apocalypse will descend. You have also discovered that a small minority of people are changing, while the majority remain oblivious. But there are always exceptions; before the apocalypse descends, a portion of people without evolutionary aptitude also perceive the clues.]

[They gather, they revel, they begin to love one another, and gradually, they start to learn the details of the apocalypse in advance, beginning to make preparations for its arrival. Through their efforts, a columnar apartment building named Miracle Apartment is born.]

[Seven families are shattered within that apartment, and seven people will die bizarrely. A plan named "Anti-Seven" is born within that apartment.]

[Let us turn back the clock, returning to seven days before everything happened. As an investigator, you are living next door to one of the seven households. Please explore the apartment as best as you can and survive the next seven days, or you will be consumed by the apartment.]

[Yet we still look forward to seeing you—someone who has already shown extraordinary performance—find the "Demon" hiding deep within the crowd.]

The seventh floor, the Anti-Seven Operation, surviving for seven days, seven families, seven deaths...

"Everything is related to the number seven."

Wen Xishu's immediate reaction to "Anti-Seven" was to think of a certain number 7 forward player skilled at mounting comebacks in adverse situations.

Obviously, though, this had nothing to do with any sports.

"I somehow feel this mission is different from the previous two."

Wen Xishu genuinely thought so. The previous two missions both fundamentally involved a pitiable person; on the surface it was survival, but in essence, it was redemption.

Yet this mission was deeply eerie, because the mission briefing had actually mentioned the word "Demon."

Wen Xishu quickly appeared in the eerie tower rest area.

This time, he appeared in the Tianyuan position. For the vast majority of people exploring the eerie towers, advancing tiers required completing explorations of floors one through seven seven times.

The probability of this was actually very low, and very few people could achieve it. But there were also quite a few unlucky souls whose very first exploration was directly assigned to the seventh floor.

There were quite a few people in the Tianyuan position; hundreds of people were heading to the seventh floor for their very first tower climb.

However, unlike the desolation of the rest area last time, this time in the Tianyuan zone, those about to head to the seventh floor seemed exceptionally excited.

"Oh, young friend, what mistake did you make to be penalized and sent here? May the great Saint Wen bless you!"

As soon as Wen Xishu appeared, someone immediately struck up a conversation with him.

Hearing the words "Saint Wen," Wen Xishu felt a strange sensation. A thought crossed his mind, and his guess was confirmed the very next second.

The person who approached him was a bald man with a full beard, looking somewhat of Russian descent. He said with extreme familiarity:

"Can you tell me which task zone you are heading to? Perhaps there are people among us who can travel alongside you. With someone from our Church of Saint Wen accompanying you, your tower-climbing journey will surely turn perils into safety!"

(End of this chapter)