Chapter 81: Revisiting the Mysterious Tower

【When the courage to resist is born, fate has already quietly changed.】

When Amiao saw this sentence, she suddenly remembered what she had done in the Mysterious Tower.

At this moment, she perhaps understood the situation of the An brothers better than Wen Xishu did.

【On one side is the existence they had feared since birth—the gods, endless wealth, and power that no one in the entire family, or even the country, dared to defy—and on the other side is their own brother. This choice and trade-off had always been simple. To this day, someone in the An family has finally made a different choice.】

【The An brothers will head to Longxia alive; this is the final mercy of the most terrifying demon king of Jicheng before his transformation.】

【Perhaps they will return to their homeland in the future, and at that time, they will surely be surprised that the Three Balls Group still exists.】

【Hidden Task—The Demon King of Jicheng has been triggered.】

【The Demon King of Jicheng: The Three Balls Group will not collapse, and the arrival of a new era will not drown out his past achievements. Before the apocalypse, people feared the name An Rongzai; he was the true king of Jicheng. After the apocalypse, he is the true demon king of Jicheng. The miracle belonging to the Three Balls Group will continue even after the apocalypse.】

【The highest completion rating for this task can reach Level 7. It will be automatically accepted when the Tower Ascender reaches the corresponding Mysterious Tower level.】

【Mysterious Tower storyline change: After the An twins escaped from Renchuangang to Longxia, the Miracle Project was shelved for a time due to the lack of a core offering and the token of Scorpio.】

But An Rongzai did not abandon the plan. The cult activities at the Miracle Building were blamed on An Jincheng. An Rongzai issued a statement severing ties with An Jincheng and An Youxuan, and subsequently significantly increased the security configuration of the Miracle Building.

Miracle Buildings appeared in Gangnam District, Gangdong District, Yeongdeungpo District, Seodaemun District, Dongdaemun District, Yongsan District, and Gwangjin District.

The completion of seven Miracle Buildings, combined with the various benefits provided by the Three Balls Group, soon won the people's praise. An Rongzai seized the second opportunity and initiated the second Miracle Ascension.】

【Mysterious Tower task restarted: You are new tenants in the Miracle Building. Seven families in that apartment building are shattered, and seven people will die mysteriously. Let us turn back time to seven days before everything happened. As an investigator, you have moved in next door to one of the seven families. Please explore the apartment as much as possible and survive the next seven days, or you will be devoured by the apartment.】

【But we still look forward to you, who have already shown outstanding performance, surviving and saving the remaining tenants.】

【Due to the multi-player mechanism, the task will be automatically completed at the optimal completion level, so the Tower of Desire task "The Chaebol's Youngest Son" is judged as completed in advance.】

【About to return to the Mysterious Tower.】

……

Wen Xishu realized that he had only guessed half of it correctly.

He absolutely had not expected that the old man of the An family was actually that perverted? The Miracle Project had failed, and he could still forcibly rebuild it?

All around was a white light; all scenes and environments were swallowed by the white light, leaving only Wen Xishu and Amiao.

Amiao asked in surprise:

"What is this situation?"

Wen Xishu was quite calm:

"As it seems now, we have completed the prerequisite task for the Level 7 task; both An Youxuan and An Jincheng have survived. We are now in a special space before returning to the Mysterious Tower."

Amiao had not expected this:

"This is my first time experiencing this! Does this mean we will have a very, very high completion rate?"

Wen Xishu was in a good mood:

"Yes, very high. Both brothers survived, and each thought the other was the most important goal. This should be the key to this task. We did it."

"Amiao, perhaps you will also have a Level 6 completion rate."

Amiao dared not hope for Level 6. In the seventh floor of the Mysterious Tower, if she could have a Level 4 completion rate, the merit points exchanged for the obtained supplies would be enough to cover her surgery.

All of this was somewhat dreamlike, especially since she had been tensed up just moments ago, shaking off those police officers.

Amiao calmed her mood:

"Speaking of which, I thought An Jincheng's older brother didn't trust him."

Wen Xishu smiled even more brightly:

"In this world, there are parents who don't love their children, siblings who kill each other, friends who forget righteousness for profit, colleagues who stab you in the back..."

"I thought the Tower of Desire was full of such trash, and the Mysterious Tower was full of poor wretches... but now it seems, Amiao, we were too arrogant."

Amiao suddenly felt that Wen Xishu seemed very happy. This happiness was extremely pure.

Actually, Wen Xishu had smiled before, but not as brightly as he was smiling now.

"It turns out there are still many interesting guys in the Mysterious Tower, not just the An brothers; that old man behind the scenes is also very interesting."

Amiao asked:

"That chairman of the Three Balls Group, I was thinking he would be our enemy in the Tower of Desire... the kind of enemy that everyone has to work together to defeat."

In the process of shaking off the police cars, Wen Xishu had actually briefly told Amiao some intelligence about this task.

Amiao had a certain understanding of the whole story. It was just not like Wen Xishu, who had personally experienced that memory.

Wen Xishu nodded:

"He indeed is, but this task was not primarily about defeating him; this task was just to give those two brothers a way to live. An Rongzai just made an appearance in this task."

"Strictly speaking, this was a win-win-win situation."

In An Rongzai's life, there were many experiences where hope started, hope collapsed, and then he suddenly rose strongly again after everyone thought it was over.

This time was the same.

Wen Xishu noticed that at the beginning, the task hinted at finding the "demon" behind the scenes.

But now, the description of An Rongzai had changed to Demon King.

This meant that the Miracle Project had failed, and An Rongzai had suffered a blow, but interestingly, this powerful old man had completed a miracle once again.

Such an opponent was extremely terrifying, and such an opponent should not have appeared on the seventh floor.

In a sense, it was An Rongzai who let each of them go.

This was perhaps An Rongzai's state of mind, the final mercy before crossing from human to god.

So everything became reasonable; An Rongzai finally let the two brothers go and accepted his failure, but a big shot like him immediately started an even grander plan.

What that plan was, Wen Xishu did not know, but the difficulty of implementation and the price required were definitely more exaggerated than the Reverse Seven Plan.

But in the end, he succeeded.

Amiao had not yet figured out the whole process, but Wen Xishu already knew the key point of the whole story.

Without An Jincheng, An Youxuan would become an offering that met the plan's requirements.

But with An Jincheng, An Youxuan could abandon everything for his younger brother; in this way, greed could not be counted.

The key to this task was actually to give the younger brother the courage to resist his grandfather, rather than letting An Rongzai manipulate him.

With courage, his older brother could possibly face the choice of "choosing between the younger brother and the Three Balls Group."

When the younger brother was willing to resist, and Wen Xishu and Amiao successfully brought the younger brother to the Renchuangang area... the task of the chaebol's youngest son was completed.

The bet between Scorpio and Gemini changed from Scorpio winning to Gemini winning.

This was very interesting.

Actually, Wen Xishu had a good impression of Scorpio; along the way, the Scorpio mode made his process very smooth.

Although the wanted notice caused trouble, it did not affect the final process.

If he could, he would quite like to help Scorpio. At least, Scorpio also gave a knife with unknown attributes, but one that was definitely not bad.

"I quite want to see the two brothers reunite. How many people can do it, abandoning everything they have for their relatives without hesitation?"

Amiao seemed quite reluctant to part, and she looked at Wen Xishu again, saying:

"I always feel like I didn't do anything, yet I completed the task. A-Shu... you are the real miracle."

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"You were the key to our successful escape. But Amiao, promise me, don't tell anyone about everything that happened."

"If there is a chance in the future, I would be willing to experience similar things with them. But everything related to the invitation letter must be kept strictly confidential."

Amiao nodded:

"Whatever you say, I will do."

The white light slowly faded, and the surrounding scene had undergone earth-shaking changes.

……

……

Mysterious Tower, Seventh Floor.

Miracle Building, Gangnam District Building. About twenty minutes after Amiao and Wen Xishu returned...

Xiao Wu initiated a meeting.

Soon, everyone saw the other teammates on the screen.

"Not bad, Xiao Wu, you are very punctual," Wen Xishu said.

"Eh... A-Shu, how come there is an extra knife in your hand?" the big bald head Wen Xiange said.

"Sister Amiao, your face, how did your face get better! Praise my Lord Xishu!" Wu Xiangjiao said pleasantly surprised.

Amiao touched her face; it really was better.

Wen Xishu could explain it, because the dungeon had been reorganized. If Amiao and he had simply let An Jincheng get some happiness...

But without changing their original fate trajectory, then Amiao and he would have returned to the original Mysterious Tower.

But now, because the entire Reverse Seven Plan had changed, Amiao and Wen Xishu were naturally restarted as well.

However, the trajectory after the restart did not erase Wen Xishu and Amiao's original credit—

Wen Xishu sent away the writer Yin Junchi. Amiao also sent away the comedian He Taiping.

"I... I don't know why either, maybe it's a task reward? Anyway, my face has recovered, and I don't seem to be that morbid anymore," Amiao said.

Logically speaking, she was influenced by pleasure. But Amiao looked very normal now.

However, it did not exclude the possibility of becoming abnormal again if she continued to stay here.

Wen Xishu said:

"Now, Venerable, please summarize our current encounters and arrangements."

Venerable Wen was a bit confused:

"Didn't we just do this twenty minutes ago..."

He thought as he thought, but since A-Shu asked, he still briefly described the current situation of everyone.

After listening, Wen Xishu roughly understood. Basically, nothing had changed.

Venerable Wen now corresponded to Gluttony.

Xiao Wu corresponded to Arrogance.

Wu Xiangjiao corresponded to Lust.

There was also Envy on the 49th floor. The task goal was to send these people away.

And the game had reached the third day. If everyone was not sent away by the seventh day, the game would end.

The basic rules had not changed. Consuming 50 action points could allow one to visit a neighbor for one hour, or one could choose to explore the building for one hour.

Wen Xishu did not know if he could speed-run the Mysterious Tower like the Parrot's Sorrow last time after changing the fate trajectory in the Tower of Desire.

But he indeed already knew the key to the Reverse Seven Plan now...

It lay in destroying the special items left by Scorpio.

After thinking for a while, Wen Xishu said:

"I'll make an attempt first, everyone stay put. After I finish this attempt, I will determine the final survival plan."

If he was lucky, he might not need to formulate a new plan.

That was what Wen Xishu thought.

Although everyone did not know what Wen Xishu was going to do, the restarted dungeon actually did not change much at the memory level.

In the eyes of Wu Xiangjiao, Wen Xiange, and others, Wen Xishu was still the A-Shu worth trusting.

Venerable Wen actually discovered a clue.

He had actually been observing Wen Xishu. When Xiangjiao discovered that the wound on Amiao's face had disappeared, Wen Xishu had no reaction at all.

For Venerable Wen, time had only passed twenty minutes...

But Venerable Wen guessed, could it be that Amiao and A-Shu had embarked on a special adventure in these twenty minutes?

Wen Xiange still had high emotional intelligence. Right now, he was waiting for A-Shu and Amiao to save their lives. It could be said that the future of the Xishu Divine Sect was in the hands of the two young people.

Since the other party didn't say anything, he definitely wouldn't ask, and he thought about helping the two as much as possible without letting others suspect.

The meeting ended.

Wen Xishu decisively consumed 50 action points and chose to explore the building.

Entering the elevator again, Wen Xishu found that the staff member with their back to him in the elevator had been replaced by someone else; this time it was a middle-aged woman with a broad waist and back.

Because the original staff member had been killed by Wen Xishu with Scorpio's ham knife in the Tower of Desire.

Wen Xishu still used the old method, summoning the mirror to reach the 43rd floor. This time he walked from top to bottom. The entrance to the 42nd floor and the stairwell still had guards.

These guards did not discover Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu did not choose to rush up and kill these guards as before.

Because the guards in the Tower of Desire might be easy to kill, but it was hard to say about the guards in the Mysterious Tower.

It was uncertain if these guards could kill him instantly. The Mysterious Tower had a magic resistance mechanism, which made Wen Xishu, who had magic resistance deficiency phobia, not act rashly.

"No change... I didn't find guards on other floors, just one in the elevator."

"The 42nd floor still cannot be reached directly. It seems that the Reverse Seven Plan actually hasn't changed much... it just changed from one building to seven buildings according to the story background."

"An Rongzai is indeed a character, but how did he manage to make Scorpio help him a second time on a larger scale, several times larger?"

Wen Xishu's hand touched the necklace gifted by Wen Renjing:

"Without An Jincheng and An Youxuan... then who would be the person living on the 42nd floor?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 82 =====