Chapter 71: Loan Invitation Letter

Now he was nine-tenths certain that he was the writer in this story.

"Continue! Quick, continue!" Yin Junchi was getting into the mood.

Wen Xishu continued:

"Don't be impatient. The writer soon moved into... Room 14-1."

"He discovered that not long after moving in, never mind whether he had inspiration or not, he seemed to crave work more and more."

"His laziness seemed to have been absorbed by something."

"At first, he was a bit unaccustomed to it; as a bestselling author, one should, of course, be lazy."

"He had always thought this way: I cannot be too diligent, or I will look like a beast of burden, and it will make me seem like those web novel authors who rely on update frequency to win."

"But after coming here, he couldn't sleep at all. The desire to work gradually squeezed out his reason. Once a portion of his original sin of sloth was extracted, he began to become diligent."

"He had not yet realized that his 'sloth' was also a part of his self. He was delighted by the magic of this room."

"But deep down, he felt... how could this be so unscientific? Perhaps it was a magnetic field issue? Does this world really contain places that can make people diligent? Like a prison in the Kangaroo Country?"

"In short, he became very diligent. He began to read that newspaper related to strange tales over and over again. In the past, he would just glance at the newspapers he used to find inspiration and then throw them away."

"But this time, he read it many times."

Yin Junchi had the feeling that someone had installed a camera in his room; he felt offended.

Yet, he wanted to keep listening to the rest of the story:

"Keep going!"

Wen Xishu said:

"He began to work selflessly. But at this time, he did not know that there were six other people on six other floors who, like him, had become part of the sacrifice."

"In 7-5, there lives an extremely obese fat man. He was addicted to gluttony, but now he only drinks water and eats nothing. He is already somewhat haggard because his gluttony has been extracted."

"In 21-9, there lives a college student whose body is somewhat frail due to an excessive addiction to his hands. He would spend every day lusting after two-dimensional virtual idols; he could be called a god-chosen Slaanesh."

"But now, he has begun to feel extreme disgust for doing such things. Because his lust has been extracted."

"In 28-11, there lives a lawyer named Jiang Yingce. He is an elite in the legal world and arrogant by nature. But now, because of the slightest flaw in his home or the slightest speck of dust on his body... he is afraid to see people and is overly insecure."

"Because his pride has been extracted."

"In 35-13, there is a comedian. People in this line of work bring joy to others, but they are often very miserable themselves and have terrible tempers. In my hometown, there was someone named Zhou Xingxing who had many great works, but almost everyone who worked with him said he had a bad temper."

"But guess what the situation is with the actor in 35-13 now? Perhaps you can occasionally hear his exaggerated laughter. No matter what he does, he feels extremely happy."

"Because his wrath has been extracted."

"Next is Room 49-3. The ones who moved into this room are a mother and son. The mother is actually a strict mother because she cannot accept that other people's children are more outstanding than her own."

"Although she is very ordinary herself, the child she gave birth to should be the future top student of Jicheng University, a super genius who can change his fate and break class barriers just by studying. All her unwillingness, jealousy, and cravings were heaped upon the child."

"But now, she completely ignores the child. Whatever makes the child happy, she just indulges him."

"Because her jealousy has been extracted."

"In 42-7, I don't need to say it, right? An Zhenqi, this chaebol heir, has changed his past greed and started doing things that are almost like charity. Because his greed has been extracted."

"Greed, pride, jealousy, gluttony, lust, sloth, wrath."

"In seven floors where seven is the key number, there live these seven households!"

"Even the homophone of this building is called the Seven Sins Mansion."

"Oh, this writer also often has hallucinations... In the hallucinations, there are six hundred and thirty people surrounding him, making expressions of extreme terror. Guess how those six hundred and thirty people came to be?"

"This building has forty-nine floors in total, with thirteen households on each floor. If each floor has one person living in it..."

Wen Xishu's eyes stared fixedly at the writer Yin Junchi; he didn't care if this would scare Yin Junchi.

Anyway, Yin Junchi wouldn't die of sudden cardiac death anytime soon.

Yin Junchi immediately began to calculate: if there were thirteen households per floor and one person per household, then there would be a total of six hundred and thirty-seven people...

And subtracting the seven people whose original sins were taken away, that leaves six hundred and thirty people! Exactly the number of people in the hallucinations he saw when he was extremely exhausted.

At this moment, Yin Junchi already had a feeling of hair-raising horror.

"How is my story? Oh, the ending is that the author dies, and his death becomes part of the story. He did indeed write a great work, and his editor made a fortune because of it, but... it has no meaning anymore."

Indeed, it had no meaning anymore.

Yin Junchi's eyes were bloodshot; his survival instinct allowed him to shake off the urge to continue writing.

How he wanted to record this story; it was fantastic. Actually, by Yin Junchi's standards, this story was too cliché.

But his immersion was explosive now; this was an unprecedented experience. For many things, as long as they are fresh, one doesn't ask for anything else.

Just like young boys watching Japanese films for the first time, they are almost never picky about the actress's looks; it is usually later that they develop various requirements for looks, body, theme, attire, and positions.

Yin Junchi desperately wanted to write it down, but the sense of crisis pulled him out of the state of craving work:

"How can I survive?"

Yin Junchi grabbed Wen Xishu's shoulders with both hands.

Wen Xishu said:

"Leave here, go investigate the secrets of this building from the outside. You must first become an outsider to survive."

Yin Junchi looked at Wen Xishu with those eyes with huge dark circles:

"In this building, are we the sacrifices?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Not certain yet, but you could say they are sacrifices. By the way, aren't you going to verify what I said?"

Yin Junchi shook his head:

"The lawyer Jiang Yingce you mentioned, I know him. He is a very arrogant person. I once hired him to handle a plagiarism lawsuit; that guy used to be so stuck-up."

"He did indeed move in, because I saw it on his Instagram."

Wen Xishu said:

"Can you leave?"

Yin Junchi didn't want to leave; he was addicted to this state. But Wen Xishu's story was like the right medicine for the illness, using the story to make Yin Junchi, as a storyteller, desperately crave survival and even more desperately want to know the rest of the plot.

He wanted to go outside to investigate the truth.

"I can leave, I must leave... I cannot die. Thank you, Wen Xishu, I have to go. I will find a way to contact you from the outside. Can you give me your phone number? Also, do you know what is going on with all of this?"

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"Unfortunately, I am also still investigating, but there is one thing I won't lie to you about: you are all indeed having something taken away from you. Think carefully about your reputation, or rather, what labels your readers have given you."

Yin Junchi suddenly felt a bit embarrassed:

"Short and weak... weekly updates, monthly updates... four thousand words is the limit of humanity; writing one more word counts as me mutating..."

He used to be able to straighten his back and say these things with righteous indignation.

But now, he actually felt this was shameful. This brief moment of clarity also made him realize the magnitude of his own changes.

"So, the strange and eerie has really descended into reality."

Wen Xishu said:

"Yes, that is why we came. There is only one thing I can tell you: my arrival is your only hope for survival."

"You must realize that you cannot continue working day and night. Although your readers look forward to you doing so, they don't want to receive an obituary in a few days and then have this book disappear."

Yin Junchi's body trembled slightly:

"Speaking of which... I am really looking forward to what will happen in the end. If I stay here and all seven of us die... will some terrifying product descend? Will a Great Demon King appear? A god or demon with the power of the Seven Deadly Sins?"

Wen Xishu had considered this question. Whether there existed a super-evil boss themed around the seven sins within the Slaughter Tower.

He decided to reveal more information to Yin Junchi:

"They gather, they revel, they begin to love one another. Gradually, they begin to know the contents of the apocalypse in advance, and they also begin to make preparations for the arrival of the apocalypse. Through their efforts, a pillar-like building called the Miracle Apartment was born."

"This is the riddle I know. You can help me figure out what the answer is."

Yin Junchi shook his head and said:

"I don't know, but I have remembered them. Wen Xishu, thank you again. I will send you news. This is so interesting! Although I am afraid, I feel it is so interesting!"

"Having written so many stories, the eeriness in the stories has overflowed and started to change my life. I seem to be some kind of core character. This experience is scary, but it's also great!"

"I will investigate from the outside; I need some time."

Wen Xishu nodded.

He had originally worried about whether Yin Junchi could walk out...

If Yin Junchi wanted to leave but was stopped by other residents in the building, what then? If violence were used in this building, what would happen?

But then, Wen Xishu immediately discovered that the difficulty was not as hardcore as he had imagined; this was only the seventh floor, after all.

Because a prompt appeared in Wen Xishu's mind.

[Your interaction with the neighbor has ended. 50 points of Action Power deducted. Remaining Action Power: 0 points.]

[Among the seven people, three have the aptitude to evolve from desire into an eerie entity. The fate trajectory belonging to Yin Junchi has been rewritten. He left this building voluntarily and did not lose his passion for work, so the 'Suppress Seven' mechanism will not be triggered. Congratulations, you are about to receive an invitation letter. Countdown to receiving the invitation letter: 24 hours.]

Damn it... what does "about to receive an invitation letter" mean?

Wen Xishu was shocked. Can quest rewards be delayed? If he had the invitation letter, he could go to the Desire Tower world now and change this story directly from the underlying source code.

But now... the invitation letter won't be available until the 24-hour countdown ends.

He really hadn't expected this kind of game mechanic.

Wen Xishu was certain that once tonight passed, he would enter a state of hyper-excitement where he couldn't sleep. Because the influence of the eerie only deepens with time.

If something cannot be done today, it might be even harder to do tomorrow.

"So I have to pull an all-nighter..."

Although he complained, under the influence of the eerie power, Wen Xishu was quite excited and willing to accept it.

He could only wait patiently.

Wen Xishu’s body began to be forcibly returned to his residence.

Yin Junchi next door had already started packing, preparing to leave; whether his departure would go smoothly was something Wen Xishu could no longer intervene in, because he had already lost the ability to act.

Currently, Wen Xishu still had a few points of doubt.

Judging from the result, Yin Junchi had successfully left.

But according to the prompt, if Yin Junchi did not leave of his own volition... it seemed it would trigger some kind of mechanism.

The Anzhen Seven mechanism. He was truly becoming more and more curious.

Furthermore, Anzhen Seven, Jiang Yingce, as well as the college student, the dieter, the comedian, and the mother of the spoiled brat...

Among this group, including Yin Junchi, there were actually three core characters. All three were of the type that could evolve.

"We only have five people; honestly, the probability of being able to save seven people is not particularly high..."

"Some of these seven people are already terminally ill."

"I originally thought it was very likely that we wouldn't be able to achieve the highest completion rate. But now, perhaps, it can be done. My goal isn't entirely about achieving a high completion rate either."

"I just need to strive to unlock recruitment eligibility for as many 'Slaughter' prefix characters as possible."

"But... which two of the remaining six people will it be?"

Wen Xishu had lost the ability to act; for him, the only thing he could do next was wait for A-Miao to open the meeting again.

And while he waited, the others were also working hard to persuade the remaining four households of the Seven Sins residents to leave.

But their persuasion process also had its own troubles.

Wu Xiangjiao, who was the boldest and least affected by the strange intrusion, still put quite a bit of effort into the persuasion process.

The college student's name was Che Renxiao.

Because that desire was too intense, he had come to this place, but even so, he still rewarded himself every day.

It was only recently that he began to feel disgust toward such things.

This disgust began to develop in a twisted direction.

He gradually discovered that the girls he used to like in reality were all so ugly.

Thus, he began to thoroughly loathe real-life three-dimensional women.

But under the influence of the strangeness, two-dimensional women also seemed to become ugly.

Women of various art styles, even Hitomi Kisugi from Cat's Eye, could not make him aroused.

Now, he seemed to have become disgusted with women in every sense.

When Wu Xiangjiao found Che Renxiao again, the television in Che Renxiao's living room was playing footage of a human birth.

It was footage of a doctor delivering a baby, the infant emerging from the mother's body.

Wu Xiangjiao suddenly felt that he might hear something terrifyingly thought-provoking.

Lust is actually one of the root natures of humans; if laziness is removed, perhaps for a short time, this person is just a bit hyperactive.

Greed, pride, and wrath—these root natures can actually be appropriately weakened.

But if lust is weakened to the extreme, and the method of weakening it is to develop a disgust for such matters...

Then this person is very likely to undergo a conceptual distortion.

Che Renxiao suddenly said in an extremely cold tone:

"Oh hey, A-Jiao, humans are truly ugly animals. Why were we born... from such a place? I really find it hard to accept the process of life's birth. Whether it's a man's or a woman's, it's all so ugly."

In Che Renxiao's hand, at some unknown moment, a knife appeared, and he suddenly took off his pants:

"I can't accept it even more if, one day in the future, I really meet a woman I like who doesn't disgust me, and then we get married and have children... but the child would be born from the union of those two ugly parts. I shouldn't have such things left on my body."

The pressure instantly shifted to Wu Xiangjiao's side. He suddenly felt that the college student's calm expression combined with the act he was about to perform...

Was simply more bizarre than any strange story he had ever heard.

Che Renxiao said in an incomparably rational tone:

"A-Jiao, let's complete the purification!"

(The next chapter regarding gluttony is a bit heavy, but it must be written. However, there will certainly be readers who cannot accept it, so here is a warning: you can skip the Wen Xiange part. Continuing with ten thousand words tomorrow.)

(End of chapter)