Chapter 55: Wen Xishu Opens the Heavenly Eye

Wen Xishu spoke in a measured, unhurried tone.

Park Yingshuang said urgently:

"You tell me! I will definitely listen to you!"

Wen Xishu said:

"Zheng Zai, remember this: in the future, when exploring the Strange Tower, you must master one rule—no matter what sounds appear, do not be afraid."

"The content within the sounds or prompts is the key to us clearing the stage. Do you understand?"

Wen Xishu ignored Park Yingshuang’s words and instead began teaching Zheng Zai some insights.

Zheng Zai nodded.

Park Yingshuang was truly terrified, her skin crawling from being stared at by these eyes.

These eyes were everywhere; some appeared on the walls, others in mid-air, and one could even see sticky ocular fluid.

They were dense and thick, with nowhere to hide.

Yet at this moment, Wen Xishu was actually teaching Zheng Zai without any panic. But Park Yingshuang did not dare to say anything.

Wen Xishu’s logic was actually very simple: there were too many eyes to hide from, and there was no effective way to attack them. Doing so might even trigger other health-depletion mechanisms.

This meant that at this time, one only needed to follow the prompts. The prompt was to record the bad things one had done.

Although it added the phrase "in school," this requirement likely wasn't aimed at Bunker players.

This was just a clue, implying that the girl’s behavior in school had all been recorded.

And that was indeed the case.

Wen Xishu remembered Tang Rui saying that she had recorded everything in her diary.

Because of this, her parents had learned through the diary that Tang Rui was neglecting her studies and had taken up music.

Of course, they also learned of the true pain Tang Rui had experienced.

"The items were given to us, which means there must be an opportunity to use them. We have paper and pens more than in the last scene precisely to comply with the prompt and write down the bad things we have done."

"Now, write."

Park Yingshuang asked:

"After writing... will we be okay after writing? The prompt also mentioned recording good deeds; can't we do good deeds?"

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"You write first."

Zheng Zai was much more practical; he did exactly as Wen Xishu said. Zheng Zai did not look smart, but this behavior was the mark of a truly smart person.

On the contrary, every doubt Park Yingshuang raised at this moment was just courting death and acting foolishly.

All three began to record the bad things they had done.

As for bad things, Zheng Zai really hadn't done many. He thought for quite a while before writing down a prank from his childhood.

But Park Yingshuang, next to him, had actually done quite a few, only she was skeptical—if she really wrote them down, would she be punished?

Wen Xishu, meanwhile, was writing furiously; he didn't even need to think, as he had done far too many bad things himself.

Inducing a little girl to leave her mother and live with a fired circus employee, beating up a suspected doctor, teasing and mocking an interrogator, and if one counted certain behaviors of the Mad Dice...

Then murder, arson, gambling—he had done it all. Thus, Wen Xishu wrote rapidly, his thoughts flowing like a spring.

Park Yingshuang eventually wrote down one bad thing she had done: she had once tried to elevate her status through pregnancy, and after finishing with a certain high-ranking official, she had rummaged through a trash can containing certain fluids.

After all three had finished recording...

These eyes floating in the air or growing from the floors and walls began to close slowly, and once completely shut, they turned into black smoke and vanished.

However, Park Yingshuang could not feel happy...

Because above the heads of all three, an eye-pattern symbol had appeared.

This symbol was eighty percent blue and twenty percent red.

It was like a marker floating above their heads, reminding Wen Xishu of the NPCs with exclamation points over their heads in those online games.

"What... what is this ghost thing... why do I feel like my movements have slowed down? My body feels like it's become heavier!"

Park Yingshuang looked at Wen Xishu again, and Wen Xishu frowned in disgust:

"Don't be so jumpy. Do you think Zheng Zai and I don't have this thing on our heads? Do you think you are the only special one?"

Park Yingshuang immediately fell silent.

She really wasn't that foolish in her daily life, but many people can maintain a facade in a normal environment, appearing incredibly elegant and composed in comfortable surroundings...

But once they reach an extremely dangerous environment, they become someone else entirely.

Wen Xishu said:

"Zheng Zai, remember, we are Bunker people, and the place we have arrived at is a game scenario called the Three Towers Game."

"Since it is a game, treat yourself as a player and try to understand the game mechanics more."

Zheng Zai looked half-understanding:

"But... we in the Bunker haven't really played games..."

Wen Xishu was slightly taken aback, and upon closer thought, it seemed that was indeed the case.

Before the Wen family met with disaster, they were a family of great wealth and influence, and they had come into contact with many elites and socialites...

There were also many with good family backgrounds at the Desire Tower Academy. Yet, in his memory, it seemed not a single person played games.

Wen Xishu suddenly felt that this might actually be a good thing for him.

"It doesn't matter. I will explain it to you in a way you can understand later. For now, let me talk about what we have actually encountered."

Zheng Zai assumed a posture of humble learning, and Park Yingshuang also immediately became serious.

Wen Xishu said:

"Eyes signify surveillance; they signify a perverted desire to control one's children."

"The eyes being everywhere means that the true owner of this room has no privacy."

"We, and every bad thing she has ever done, will be known by the owner of the eyes—that is, her parents. The reason they are 'bad things' is because only bad things are worth prying into."

"The red eye that appeared above our heads can be understood as... a 'Control Value'."

"The higher the Control Value, the less free we are. In life, the manifestation of being unfree is that everything you do is managed by others."

"But in the Strange Tower, it becomes that no matter what you do, it is difficult to complete the action; your ability to control your body decreases, as if you have become incredibly clumsy and heavy."

"Judging by the eye symbol, as the red accumulates more and more, we will find it increasingly difficult to control our own bodies."

Zheng Zai and Park Yingshuang were both startled; Zheng Zai was marveling at Wen Xishu’s analytical ability.

This was exactly like the state of a young Longxia child doing reading comprehension—why the window is blue, how to interpret three consecutive days of rain, etc.—they could answer it with such flair.

Park Yingshuang, meanwhile, was horrified by the room’s eerie mechanics and terrified of her own situation.

Wen Xishu saw everything, but continued to explain:

"As it stands, we cannot let the blue cover the red, but I speculate that purification items might be able to lower our red accumulation."

"Of course, you know the price: if you purify the wrong item, you will likely die."

"We don't yet know what the instant-kill method of this stage is. Unless our magic resistance is very high, we cannot fight these things in the Strange Tower."

"Finally, if we cannot find the item before the red completely swallows the blue... then the three of us will clearly become puppets."

"Just like the children in Chinese horror stories who completely abandon their autonomy and are entirely manipulated by their parents."

Park Yingshuang said:

"Then... how should we break the situation? Wen Xishu, you, you have a clue, right?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"The answer is simple. Actually, this stage is easier to guess than the last one because we had the item in our hands from the very beginning."

"Everything we are experiencing is what the girl in the room originally experienced."

"Therefore, in this second scene, the item that needs to be purified is the diary."

"Find the diary, purify the diary, and it's over."

Zheng Zai began to search, Wen Xishu also began to search, and Park Yingshuang, after a moment of hesitation, followed suit.

Wen Xishu was very satisfied with Zheng Zai’s mindset of daring to charge forward.

"Zheng Zai, find the diary, and I will purify it."

Zheng Zai said:

"No need, no need. I trust you; I wouldn't have made it out of the first scene without you. I am willing to help you bear the risk; let me do the purifying."

Wen Xishu smiled:

"I appreciate the sentiment, but just listen to me; I will do it."

Zheng Zai was somewhat moved; he thought he was a man of spirit, but he hadn't expected Wen Xishu, the youngest among them, to be the one with the most guts.

Of course, Wen Xishu wasn't doing this because he was spirited, responsible, or brave.

He couldn't explicitly tell Zheng Zai, "I want to get the rewards, buddy."

He had already said to think with a player's mindset; if you fight a monster for a long time and the final blow isn't yours, wouldn't the kill be stolen? Credit is something that must be monopolized.

Although he wasn't sure if there was an observer mechanism, Wen Xishu had to assume the worst-case scenario.

The Strange Tower would grade based on the challenger's performance, so, sorry, all three items had to be his.

Wen Xishu’s luck was decent; he knew where the diary was hidden because, under the influence of the "Mixed Feelings" and the "Truth-Telling Wine Glass," he had seen the answer.

Although it was presented from an eerie perspective, everything was not much different from Tang Rui’s memories.

"I found the diary."

Wen Xishu held the diary in his hand; he flipped through it and discovered that this girl really had written everything in the diary.

He felt a bit moved—what an obedient child.

Humans are actually very prone to establishing conditioned reflexes to suppress their instincts. The simplest example—sex. Because this thing has established a connection with a sense of shame, it leads a group of people to feel that seeing an arm is unsightly, scandalous, and indecent.

The consequence of doing this is...

More and more people, later on, began to perversely satisfy those desires hidden in their hearts of shame. Thus, people's fetishes became increasingly bizarre. For example, Xita.

Wen Xishu seemed to understand why Tang Rui could bring herself to kill everyone she wanted to kill.

Because it was too repressed.

【This item conceals an irredeemable sin. Are you sure you want to purify it?】

The prompt appeared again. Wen Xishu did not hesitate and chose to purify it directly.

In this instant, the eyes that had been floating above Zheng Zai and Park Yingshuang disappeared. Park Yingshuang only felt a sense of relief throughout his body, and Zheng Zai also felt that he had regained control over his body.

"He is practically like someone with a third eye. Up until now, I haven't discovered anything wrong at all..."

"The higher-ups told me to find the source of the power that allows him to clear the Ghost Tower..."

"But he doesn't have any power at all. He just has a terrifying ability to make connections; it can't even be called deduction, because many parts are still quite far-fetched."

"But he just manages to find the right answer. It's too terrifying. This person is too terrifying."

"If I report this truthfully... will the higher-ups believe me?"

Park Yingshuang had already fallen into immense anxiety. She was afraid of dying in this level. But now that she had actually survived, she started worrying about other things.

A door appeared in the middle of the scene once again.

Wen Xishu said:

"Next is the final level. As long as we purify this level, we can go back."

"We were efficient; we didn't wait for the three levels to overlap."

Zheng Zai said:

"Three levels overlapping... what does that mean? Does it mean three types of anti-AFK mechanisms appearing at once?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Imagine, the tentacle monster from the first level could kill us instantly, but its visual range was limited."

"But the eyes from the second level could compensate for that..."

Following Wen Xishu's line of thought, both Zheng Zai and Park Yingshuang felt a sense of horror.

This was practically designed to take the players' lives.

Zheng Zai said:

"Wen Xishu, thank you. I am truly very grateful to you. You have saved me more than once."

Wen Xishu waved his hand and said:

"Let's go, the final level."

Zheng Zai followed along happily, even though this was the Ghost Tower and he had just learned some very heavy news.

But now, his mood seemed much lighter.

This was likely the joy of being carried to victory.

The final level.

After Zheng Zai and Park Yingshuang arrived at the new scene, their reactions were different.

Zheng Zai observed carefully but was not anxious. Park Yingshuang, on the other hand, had once again fallen into anxiety.

Because there were many items throughout the entire scene; one could say that items exuding the aura of sin were everywhere, and the scene itself was several times larger than the previous two levels combined.

This was the first floor of an office building.

Wen Xishu knew that this was the final level that constructed the parrot's cage and completely destroyed Tang Rui's life.

This was the workplace where Tang Rui had once lived.

The other two didn't know, but Wen Xishu was very clear that the theme of this level was betrayal.

Tang Rui had encountered Lin Huiru's betrayal, which caused her life to become broken once again.

However, in what way would the theme of betrayal be presented?

Wen Xishu suddenly began to look forward to it.

"What should we do now?" Park Yingshuang asked.

Wen Xishu said:

"Wait. Blindly searching for items is useless. We must wait for the anti-AFK mechanism to appear. Although that will cause us to encounter danger, it will also bring clues."

Zheng Zai noted this down silently; nowadays, Wen Xishu's words were like scripture to him.

If a Ghost Tower Academy existed, he felt that these experiences of Wen Xishu would be the teachings of the Ghost Tower Academy's instructors.

Sure enough, it was the same as the previous two levels.

Not long after Wen Xishu's voice fell, the three of them heard a prompt:

【Congratulations on reaching the final level. Is there a friend in your life you can trust and entrust your back to? If your friend is by your side, then you will face the trial together.】

【If your friend is not by your side, then please softly call their name.】

Park Yingshuang had actually taken Wen Xishu's words to heart and began to extract information from the prompt, softly calling the name of her good friend.

She hadn't been without a single friend during all her years in the bunker.

But Wen Xishu saw through Park Yingshuang's thoughts at a glance:

"Let me interpret this for you. This is a cooperative level. If your friend is by your side—meaning as we are now, with teammates right next to us—then we will face the trial together."

"If, in the previous levels, the teammates had all died, then at this moment, silently reciting the name of a deceased friend would likely create an illusion of that friend to assist us in clearing the level."

"Our situation fits the first type; the friend is right by our side."

"So Park Yingshuang, stop reciting. If your friend knew you wanted to drag her into the Ghost Tower, would she still be friends with you?"

Park Yingshuang felt a sense of embarrassment at being exposed.

Wen Xishu waited patiently.

As for Park Yingshuang, he had always known what she was thinking, but as for Zheng Zai, he was equally guarded.

Simplicity, kindness, honesty, and sincerity—these things could all be faked.

In fact, Wen Xishu already knew what the item that needed to be purified was.

But Wen Xishu was quite looking forward to the upcoming segment. Regardless, any segment related to the theme of betrayal would allow him to make a better decision—

The decision of whether or not to wipe out his teammates entirely.

(End of chapter)