Chapter 27: The Old Madman and the Little Madman

He woke up.

Wen Xishu felt a bit thirsty. When he woke up, his first thought was to find water, but then he realized he wasn't in his own home.

In the previous world, he had a decent enough apartment. In a small, fourth-tier town, he would habitually reach for the bedside cabinet every time he woke up.

Because that was where he kept his water.

But now, as Wen Xishu opened his eyes, he saw the face of an old man with sharp, angular features.

He actually found the face somewhat familiar.

Wen Xishu immediately wanted to slap himself, but a wave of intense pain surged through his entire body.

"Did they really beat me to death, and then I transmigrated into the world of One Piece!?"

Albert Napolitano let out a puzzled hum:

"Hmm? What's that? Is it some popular novel? I love reading novels, share it with me."

Wen Xishu looked more closely... and finally realized this wasn't the world of One Piece; he hadn't died.

The old man before him just happened to look like the Dark King Rayleigh from the manga One Piece in his previous world, the one who led young people astray.

"Who are you? Where am I..."

Wen Xishu was startled. Before he could finish his question, he suddenly saw a barrage of text.

【Hahahahahaha, this kid doesn't think he's dead, does he? And that he's had a transmigration like a character in a novel? Too hilarious.】

Mental Barrage.

When the other party is in a state of extreme emotion—such as extreme joy, extreme sorrow, extreme fear, or extreme anger—their specific inner thoughts appear in the form of a barrage.

Just like that, Wen Xishu saw the barrage float over the man's head, followed by a string of "Hahahahaha" barrages.

And in Wen Xishu's ears, he also heard the sound of "Hahahahaha."

In Wen Xishu's eyes, this handsome old man was indeed very happy—extremely happy.

It was as if his waking up was something truly worth rejoicing over.

Wen Xishu was a bit bewildered.

He knew that the barrage he had just seen was the effect of the Strange Sequence 37: Mental Barrage.

But shouldn't that thing only be effective within the Mysterious Tower of the Three Towers?

Wen Xishu widened his eyes, at a loss for what to do.

At this moment, Albert said:

"Interesting, very interesting. Little friend, is your sequence capable of seeing some special mental products? Your eyes indicate that you've seen something."

"You just looked at the top of my head."

Wen Xishu was startled again. He had only shifted his gaze extremely quickly; he hadn't even looked up.

What kind of observational power was this?

"Is it some kind of eye that can see notes, like I've read about in novels? The content and style of the notes are unpredictable."

"Well? How does the note evaluate me? A handsome old man? How many more years can I live? My fetishes won't be exposed, will they? Which floor of the Mysterious Tower did you acquire this from?"

"Looking at your stunned expression, don't tell me I guessed right. I've read similar novels. Sigh, there are no secrets in front of eyes like that. Should I dig your eyes out?"

Albert leaned close to Wen Xishu, as if observing some rare species he had never seen before.

For the first time, Wen Xishu felt offended by an old lunatic. Usually, he was the most insane one, the one who teased others.

Now, it was this old man teasing him.

He took a deep breath:

"No, my sequence is very ordinary. Shouldn't you tell me where this is? And who are you?"

Albert really wanted to dig Wen Xishu's eyeballs out.

So his current behavior gave Wen Xishu the feeling of having suddenly transmigrated into Naruto, becoming Sasuke and having his eyes dug out by Itachi Uchiha.

Albert had already used his fingers to pry open Wen Xishu's eyelids:

"Wouldn't it be great if the things in novels came true?"

Wen Xishu resisted the urge to let the veins on his forehead bulge:

"Where am I, and who exactly are you?"

He didn't want to repeat this sentence again. Albert laughed "hahaha" and then said:

"You should be more polite to your savior. My name is Albert, just an ordinary old man. As for this place, it's the Three Towers Academy."

Three Towers Academy, a Level 7 facility...

Wen Xishu suddenly understood the miraculous nature of a Level 7 facility.

He didn't understand other Level 7 facilities, but the Three Towers Academy, even though it was inside the bunker, could utilize the power within the Three Towers within the academy's grounds.

That was why he could see Albert's mental barrage.

Wen Xishu's mind raced, and he immediately realized that it was Albert, someone from the Three Towers Academy, who had taken him away from Xie Changfeng of the Bunker Security Bureau's First Division.

He looked at Albert and, after a moment of thought, said:

"Are you the principal?"

"Yes, but I don't really manage things. That's all handled by the people below."

"Thank you for saving me. What do I need to do to repay you?"

Having been rescued and owing a debt of gratitude, the first thing Wen Xishu thought of was the price he would have to pay.

He had no sense of security; in his view, saving him must be for the sake of an interest exchange.

People wouldn't do things that didn't benefit themselves while offending others.

Albert stroked his chin:

"What can you pay, little kid?"

"Tell me what you need first," Wen Xishu was skilled at bargaining.

Albert looked at Wen Xishu:

"It's a good thing you aren't some monster from the Mysterious Tower, otherwise your heart would surely be very twisted. How much insecurity and distrust of people must one have?"

This remark made Wen Xishu uncomfortable. The reason for his discomfort was that he felt the other party had hit the nail on the head.

Strangely, he found that in front of Albert, he had the feeling of being seen through.

Seeing Wen Xishu remain silent, Albert knew this was a defensive posture.

"Don't be nervous. Since I saved you, it's impossible for me to kill you in the short term."

"I really like youth culture, but unfortunately, there aren't many anime in the bunker, and few people read novels. I really like to imitate characters from various stories. The character I'm playing recently is the benevolent one."

What was this? An old otaku in terms of age?

Wen Xishu really couldn't imagine that this principal had such youthful hobbies.

"I don't expect you to do anything for me, so... just be a good student first. For the Slaughter Tower Academy midterm assessment, I need you to produce results worth my protection."

"I don't care what secrets you carry. When you were unconscious, I could have easily asked them out."

Wen Xishu thought to himself, "Damn it."

At that time, he had been injected with too much truth serum... he was in a state where he would answer anyone who asked him a question.

Although Albert said that, Wen Xishu didn't know what kind of person Albert really was.

He didn't trust Albert.

"You probably already asked, didn't you?"

Albert still had that heroic smile:

"I have no interest in Wen Zhaohua's secrets."

Wen Xishu didn't quite believe him, but he still asked:

"Why? Isn't the value of saving me to obtain information about him?"

Albert shook his head:

"Why can't it be that I wanted to confirm whether there was a student worth admitting to the academy?"

Wen Xishu didn't speak, and Albert sighed:

"It seems that if I don't let you hand over some secrets, you'll feel my actions don't follow logic."

This time, Wen Xishu nodded. Albert found it interesting; he also happened to want to test Wen Xishu:

"Then tell me, in your eyes, what is the relationship between the Mysterious Tower, the Tower of Desire, and the Slaughter Tower? Although this is your first time ascending the tower, I want to know if you have already formed your own way of understanding the Three Towers."

Wen Xishu didn't refuse; after all, he didn't need to recount his own experiences.

Albert seemed to deliberately avoid this point as well, allowing Wen Xishu to retain a portion of his privacy.

At the same time, although Wen Xishu didn't know how legendary this old principal was, anyone who could rescue him from the Bunker Security Bureau couldn't be simple.

He decided to cherish the opportunity and demonstrate some value beyond the clues to Wen Zhaohua in front of this old principal.

After thinking for a moment, Wen Xishu said:

"At first, in my view, the Tower of Desire and the Mysterious Tower were a cause-and-effect relationship; the Tower of Desire was the cause, and the Mysterious Tower was the result."

"Because according to my understanding, the things that happened in the Tower of Desire should have been before the Mysterious Tower."

"The Tower of Desire world is a normal world, while the Mysterious Tower world is a twisted world. Logically speaking, it should be normal first, then twisted, right?"

Wen Xishu deliberately acted as if he had never been to the Tower of Desire, as if he were just deducing.

He continued:

"But that's only on the surface; in reality, they are mutually causal."

"If you follow the chronological order and explore the Tower of Desire first, it's very likely you won't be able to find who the source of the crisis is."

"Hmm... let me just give a random example."

"For instance, who could have imagined that in the Tower of Desire world, a destitute circus performer would kill all his neighbors?"

"But in the Mysterious Tower, you might face this strange existence that killed all the neighbors from the very beginning. The mission information will directly tell you that this person is the big boss."

"So, if you have the opportunity to go to the corresponding area of the Tower of Desire, wouldn't you know what to do better than others?"

"So looking at it from here, the Mysterious Tower became the cause, and the Tower of Desire, whose timeline is before the Mysterious Tower, instead became the result."

"It's like the Yin-Yang fish; it's hard to say clearly which is the cause and which is the result."

"The significance of the Mysterious Tower is like providing a direction for investigating the Tower of Desire. Perhaps with this direction, one could change the fate of the Mysterious Tower creatures from the source?"

"Those strange creatures all have their own stories behind them. The ending of this story is obviously not good, but the Tower of Desire might be able to change their ending."

"So here, the Tower of Desire becomes the cause again, but in the end, you have to find the key person from the Mysterious Tower first."

"Therefore, I think exploring the Mysterious Tower should come before the Tower of Desire."

Albert's eyes lit up; having such insights on his first tower ascent was very rare.

He could hear that this child was deliberately concealing some things.

But that didn't matter. This child had only ascended the tower for the first time, yet he already had such cognition; he must be very good at thinking and summarizing.

Albert was very satisfied.

Although he didn't know that not long ago, Wen Xishu's understanding of the Tower of Desire and the Slaughter Tower was still "one is just go and finish it, the other is just go and finish it."

Wen Xishu continued:

"As for the Slaughter Tower, I don't know, but I imagine the mission targets in the Slaughter Tower have become even more desperate in their hearts, even more disgusted with the world, to the point where they kill anyone they see. Then the timeline should also be after the Tower of Desire."

"According to my understanding of the Slaughter Tower, the Slaughter Tower is full of monsters, and meeting them is just fighting and killing."

"The information fragments obtained are severely insufficient; it's hard to know what these monsters have experienced."

"So you can only choose to fight them, to slaughter."

"But in the Mysterious Tower, although they are also monsters, if you can find the patterns, you can obtain quite a few clues."

"This helps us... to reverse everything from the Tower of Desire?"

"So in my view, among the Three Towers, the one that should be explored the most, or rather, the one that should be explored first, might be the Mysterious Tower."

Wen Xishu said this, adding a patch for himself:

"Of course, this is all just my speculation. After all, I don't have the qualifications to enter the Tower of Desire."

Albert applauded, his eyes full of approval:

"Excellent. It seems admitting you was the right choice. Your understanding of the Three Towers far exceeds my imagination."

"However, humanity is not as stupid as you think. We are not unaware of the order of exploring the Three Towers."

Wen Xishu's expression unconsciously became more serious, and Albert continued:

"It's just that there is a very key point that you probably don't know."

"And it is precisely because of this point that our progress in exploring the Mysterious Tower lags far behind the other two towers."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 28 =====