Chapter 242: Gemini

Hearing this, Wen Xishu felt he had a handle on things. It seemed the old principal had made a breakthrough?

Mr. Jin likely wouldn't be able to leave that place for a short while.

Because he was afraid; of course, these were just his own speculations.

Wen Xishu was now also very curious about what secrets Xiao Jin actually held.

"Take me to see the principal?"

"Please, follow me."

Wen Xishu followed the Academy Spirit away.

The Tower of Terror Academy was deathly quiet, which made Wen Xishu realize he had indeed been a bit too heavy-handed.

It had only been a few days, yet he had turned the crowd from being full of resolve to being afraid to even get close.

This was bad for enrollment; it had to change. He needed to appropriately participate in some lower-level Tower of Terror instances to get a feel for the lower-tier horrors.

After walking out of the Tower of Terror Academy, many students actually saw this legendary principal who was the same age as them.

But no student dared to approach.

Because they were truly afraid of the Academy Spirit. The Academy Spirit was quite good at handling things.

Any blame that could be shifted from Wen Xishu, it took on voluntarily; for instance, in the Facility Reminiscence, the Academy Spirit would claim it was the one who raised the difficulty.

Although the parents of that student who went insane wanted to cause trouble for Wen Xishu, most people believed that the great Principal Wen wouldn't be that cruel, and that it was all the work of this eerie Academy Spirit.

The Academy Spirit's fearsome reputation also kept ordinary students from coming near.

After Wen Xishu’s "Red House Package," the number of applicants to the Tower of Terror Academy had decreased rather than increased; he had indeed gone too far.

Soon, Wen Xishu left the Tower of Terror Academy, crossed the campus area, and arrived at the department area of the Tower of Desire Academy.

In the garden within the Tower of Desire Academy, Albert and Evelyn were playing chess, while Wen Renjing and Xun Hui looked on.

This was roughly equivalent to a meeting between the number one and number two ranked players of the two tower systems.

With the arrival of Wen Xishu, the number one of the Tower of Terror was now present to complete the group.

Seeing Wen Xishu, Xun Hui’s reaction was strange; should he call him Principal Wen?

But this guy was just Wen Zhaohua’s younger brother, and Wen Zhaohua hadn't been this cocky back in the day.

He felt a bit conflicted.

Wen Renjing, however, called out quite naturally:

"Principal Wen is here."

Wen Xishu immediately waved his hand:

"Don't, there's no need for that between us. Senior Wen Ren, Senior Xun, you should still just call me by my name."

"Alright Principal Wen, no problem Principal Wen," Wen Renjing teased with a smile.

Wen Xishu didn't take the bait and just gave an awkward smile.

It just so happened there was a seat for him; at some point, a few extra chairs had appeared in the forbidden garden of the Tower of Desire.

Wen Xishu said:

"Principal, you asked us to come, so there must be something you want to discuss?"

Albert nodded, a smile still on his face:

"Just got back from the Tower of Terror? Did it go smoothly?"

Wen Xishu nodded; it had gone smoothly enough. He hadn't figured out how to use the Heart of Fusion yet, nor had he fully grasped it. But in any case, he had obtained a powerful item.

Albert didn't cut straight to the point either:

"Although it hasn't officially opened yet and is still in the recruitment phase, some preview courses have been complained about for being too difficult..."

"We still need to be careful."

Wen Xishu gave a bitter smile:

"Yes, it's my fault. Later on, I will design the levels myself and have the 'teachers' in the facilities be responsible for building them. As for the difficulty, I will lower it as much as possible."

Albert nodded:

"Education and tower climbing are different. Education requires encouragement and positive feedback. Some children hate studying, possibly because even when they make progress, their parents compare them to someone stronger, so in their eyes, they never receive positive feedback."

"You have to appropriately give the children some sweetness. Let them feel that they are good at climbing the Tower of Terror."

"The teacher is not the student's opponent, and neither is the coursework. What we need to think about is not how to beat the students, but how to let the students win."

Wen Xishu stood up and bowed:

"I have been taught, old principal."

Evelyn found it amusing. Albert himself was actually the type who would always choose the hardest option.

Albert himself also did only the most difficult things whenever possible. That he could say these words... was likely still because of the enrollment issue.

Although public opinion was overwhelmingly in support of Wen Xishu, most of it was just lip service; if they were actually asked to study at the Tower of Terror Academy...

They would likely still wave their hands in refusal.

Wen Xishu hadn't gotten off to a good start, which had even led Albert to start researching education.

Xun Hui was also wondering, what’s up with the old man? Back when I climbed the Tower of Slaughter, the old man made me train until I was half-dead.

After finishing this, Albert returned to the main topic:

"Let's talk business. I told Old Jin about the things you mentioned to us a while ago."

"Old Jin was very surprised. As expected, no matter how I introduced it or how the Bunker boasted, it was meaningless to him."

"It still has to be relevant to him personally. Old Jin didn't expect that someone would have such a deep connection to the constellations; you guessed Capricorn and Sagittarius..."

"This has made Old Jin very curious about how your progress in climbing the Tower of Terror is going."

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"Currently, regarding the massive battlefield of the Three Towers War, what I have learned is still just the tip of the iceberg."

Albert said:

"We are the same, and presumably, you two are as well."

Wen Renjing and Xun Hui nodded.

Wen Renjing said:

"What I have come into contact with are all timelines around the beginning of the apocalypse. I have indeed influenced the fates of some people, but my luck value, at the current level, is always just a bit lacking."

"Every time, I am quite a distance away from the truly core characters."

Xun Hui said:

"I know even less; after all, I am only responsible for combat."

Wen Xishu didn't speak.

Albert sighed with emotion:

"It seems the Tower of Terror really does contain a massive amount of information. After all, what the Tower of Terror presents are the obsessions of the most critical characters."

"Old Jin is very concerned about your exploration progress. But he still didn't choose to come out and fight alongside me because of it."

"Xiao Shu, you guessed right; he doesn't belong to the Bunker anymore. The Bunker is rejecting him. He only stays in his own facility to avoid being rejected."

Wen Xishu was slightly stunned; he hadn't expected the truth to be even more exaggerated than he had anticipated.

It wasn't that someone wanted to assassinate Mr. Jin.

Or rather, it wasn't just that they wanted to assassinate him, but that even the Bunker itself was rejecting Mr. Jin.

"Old Jin told me that it cost him quite a bit of karmic fortune to let Xiao Jin enter the Bunker."

"To let someone who doesn't belong to the Bunker enter the Bunker, one must let someone who belongs to the Bunker leave it."

This sentence deeply touched Wen Xishu.

Because... Wen Zhaohua had disappeared.

Wen Zhaohua had originally belonged to the Bunker, but now Wen Zhaohua was no longer a person of the Bunker.

Wen Xishu pondered, could it be that Wen Zhaohua... had also done something similar?

"Mr. Jin, did he say anything else?" Wen Xishu asked.

The old principal sighed:

"What else could he say? Old Jin said that with you around, many secrets could naturally be unearthed. He told me to cultivate you more in the future."

Wen Xishu pressed:

"What about Xiao Jin? Did he mention what kind of existence Xiao Jin actually is?"

Albert nodded and then shook his head:

"He mentioned a little. He suspects that Xiao Jin is Gemini."

Huh?

Wen Xishu was truly bewildered now.

Xiao Jin is Gemini?

Wen Xishu opened his mouth wide; his intuition told him that Xiao Jin shouldn't be Gemini...

Isn't Gemini two people?

Wait!

Could it be that the Jin Shan encountered by Mr. Jin and the Jin Shan encountered by Zhou Fei, Chris, and the others... were actually not the same person?

Wen Xishu’s reaction was indeed quite strong, so much so that Evelyn and Albert both noticed something was amiss.

"What's wrong? Have you come into contact with Gemini?" It was Evelyn who asked.

Wen Xishu said:

"The possibility of Xiao Jin being Gemini is not very high, at least according to the information I have obtained."

"Because Gemini is very likely to recruit those special, paired candidates on the great battlefield of the Three Towers War."

"I have quite a connection with Gemini; in many of the Trick Tower missions I've participated in, I've been able to find people who are similarly paired."

"I feel that Gemini is not in the bunker."

Albert said:

"Actually, Old Jin is only suspicious. Because in Little Jin's memory, it shows he still has a younger brother. The two of them occasionally share a connection of hearts, occasionally able to establish telepathy."

"Although their bodies are not one, it appears as if they share a single will."

"Old Jin said he made a mistake; the one he brought back is the evil one among the Gemini."

"The thing he needs is on the other person of the Gemini."

Hearing this, Wenren Jing and Xun Hui finally understood.

Gemini are two people, which is different from other constellations.

Wen Xishu also seemed to understand; Mr. Jin's basis for judgment was actually this.

"This really does look like what everyone thinks, the Gemini setting: two bodies, but because they are twins, it is easy to produce telepathy..."

But the truth is, the telepathy might lie in the fact that the other Jin Shan possesses the "Heart of Fusion."

Wen Xishu shook his head secretly:

"It's not like that, it's wrong, Mr. Jin is wrong."

Albert tapped the chessboard lightly:

"Tell me about it."

Wen Xishu said:

"It's hard to say, hard to put into words..."

Wen Xishu did not say the last three words, but instead said:

"But let me put it simply: Little Jin is indeed very much like Gemini, because twins and telepathic thinking—these settings are indeed very similar."

"Even the fact that one of the Gemini went missing—the situation I know is like this—all of this is very similar to Gemini."

"But Little Jin is not Gemini. The real Gemini is definitely still on the battlefield of the Three Towers War, and some of Little Jin's settings that look very much like twin characteristics... are actually derived from an item."

"Mr. Jin, in all likelihood, really wants to obtain this item. But Mr. Jin made a mistake."

"He deceived Capricorn to gain a smuggling opportunity, and performed a reverse smuggling to bring Little Jin back, but the one he should have brought back was the Child of Good, not the Child of Evil."

"The thing he wants is not on the Child of Evil either, but Mr. Jin paid a painful price, so there was no choice but to continue cultivating Little Jin, washing Little Jin's true colors clean, and domesticating Little Jin into a kind Little Jin."

"I don't know the abilities of the Child of Evil, that is, the bunker Little Jin, yet, but this Little Jin must also have his own merits."

Albert was incredibly surprised, and Xun Hui and Wenren Jing also exchanged glances.

Wen Xishu spoke with great logic and a firm tone, as if he already knew quite a bit of information.

Within this, there were even things that Mr. Jin did not know.

How long has he been climbing the tower?

Evelyn asked:

"Little Shu, are you sure about all of this?"

Wen Xishu nodded.

Albert said:

"How can you be sure?"

Wen Xishu thought for a moment:

"I obtained the whereabouts..."

"Of the thing Mr. Jin wants."

In the end, Wen Xishu still did not reveal that he had already obtained the Heart of Fusion.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Albert and the others, but that Wen Xishu still had some wariness toward Mr. Jin.

What kind of existence is this mysterious Mr. Jin, exactly?

If placed in those years when the apocalypse descended... he always felt that Mr. Jin was an existence far more terrifying than the Captain of the Ark.

He guessed that Mr. Jin's desire to obtain the Heart of Fusion was for the sake of "Longxia."

But now, Wen Xishu's position was very delicate.

He feared that Mr. Jin would disregard the interests of the bunker people, merely to protect the interests of the Longxia people.

Therefore, Wen Xishu did not tell the truth.

However, Wen Xishu seemed to have gained some understanding of the importance of the Heart of Fusion.

Besides, if Little Jin were Gemini... then why would he be so similar to Gemini?

He had to figure this point out.

Albert's eyes were full of admiration:

"Old Jin will be very happy when he hears this; I didn't expect you to have so much information!"

"Great, great, great!"

He said "great" three times in a row because, deep down, he still felt that if Old Jin could be persuaded to step out of the facility and explore the Slaughter Tower together, the one-hundredth floor would be within reach.

In Albert's eyes, all problems could be overcome.

"Find some time to go talk to Old Jin? I'll arrange a meeting," Albert said.

Wen Xishu did not resist and nodded:

"No problem. I also want to know if Mr. Jin can tell me more secrets about Little Jin."

"By the way, how is Little Jin?"

Evelyn said:

"He has to have his memories implanted again..."

For some reason, Wen Xishu felt Little Jin was quite pitiful.

Albert said:

"There is one more thing I must tell you two."

This time he was speaking to Wenren Jing and Xun Hui.

Wenren Jing and Xun Hui looked at Albert, and Wenren Jing said:

"What is it? Please speak, Teacher."

Albert said:

"The things Old Jin has done have come at a great cost, which also means that in one of the floors between seventy and seventy-five, you are very likely to encounter a super-strong strike that exceeds the level."

"The Desire Tower, the Trick Tower, and the Slaughter Tower are all like this."

"In a sense, in order to bring Little Jin in... Old Jin has effectively locked away the future of a generation."

"And Jing, Xun Hui, it won't be long before you two break through the seventieth floor."

Wen Xishu thought of Sagittarius again.

Old Jin brought Little Jin back... making floors seventy to seventy-five directly become a target for Sagittarius?

This is equivalent to a generational gap.

Xun Hui and Wenren Jing also understood at this moment why there was such a large gap.

Albert said:

"This problem must be solved. I used to think it was just that the latecomers were useless."

"So I thought, I must become stronger."

"But on the vast battlefield, how much can an old man do?"

"I must cultivate more successors."

"No matter what the mechanism is, Old Jin said that even constellations find it difficult to stop bunker people from climbing the tower; any means of obstruction can be circumvented and resolved."

"For example, bypassing floors seventy to seventy-five and arriving directly at seventy-six. In this way, you can avoid the risk of death."

"It is also possible that there is a mission in the sixties that allows you to dismantle the enemy's methods."

"So, perhaps the three of you should keep an eye out."

Wenren Jing and Xun Hui nodded.

Wen Xishu thought to himself:

"Oh no, are they treating me as someone in the sixties too?"

But upon second thought, Wen Xishu understood, because he really had climbed past the sixties...

Looking at the Heavenly Ladder Ranking, he, Xun Hui, and Wenren Jing were indeed on the same level.

Wen Xishu pondered carefully; if it were floors seventy to seventy-five...

Then he could use the "Three Highs" of the Inverted Dice to jump over them.

The Inverted Dice can be used in all three towers; if he helped Senior Xun Hui climb the Slaughter Tower, perhaps it could also have an effect?

To carry Wenren Jing and Xun Hui up? But that would definitely expose certain secrets.

After thinking it over, Wen Xishu still felt that perhaps he wouldn't need the Three Highs.

But with Wenren Jing and Xun Hui on the verge of a breakthrough, he had to find a way to dismantle Sagittarius's targeting as soon as possible.

The conversation between the few lasted for an hour before it ended.

At Albert's suggestion, later on, Wen Xishu would head to the place where Mr. Jin was to have a conversation with him.

Wen Xishu was now somewhat certain... that this Mr. Jin was perhaps the father of Phoenix Ding Dong.

(End of chapter)