Chapter 81: Revisiting the Ghost Tower

[When the courage to resist is born, fate has already quietly changed.]

When A-Miao saw this sentence, she suddenly remembered what she had done in the Ghost Tower.

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

[On one side is an existence feared since birth, a god feared by the entire family and even the whole nation, along with endless wealth and power; on the other side is one's own brother. This choice and trade-off has always been simple. To this day, someone in the An family has finally made a different choice.]

[The An brothers will go to Longxia alive; this is the last bit of mercy from 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-Ball Group still exists.]

[Hidden Mission—Jicheng Demon King has been activated.]

[Jicheng Demon King: The Three-Ball 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-Ball Group will continue after the apocalypse.]

[The maximum completion rating for this mission can reach level seven. It will be automatically accepted when the Tower Climber reaches the corresponding Ghost Tower level.]

[Ghost Tower storyline change: After the An twins fled from Renchuangang to Longxia, the Miracle Project was once shelved due to the lack of a core sacrifice and the Scorpio token.]

But An Rongzai did not abandon the project. 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 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-Ball Group, soon won the praise of the people. An Rongzai seized the second opportunity and initiated the second Miracle Ascension.]

[Ghost Tower mission restart: You are new tenants in the Miracle Building. Seven families were shattered in that apartment building, and seven people will die mysteriously. Let us turn back time to seven days before everything happened. As an investigator, you 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 performed impressively, surviving and saving the remaining tenants.]

[Due to the multiplayer mechanism, the mission will automatically complete at optimal completion, so the Ghost Tower mission "The Chaebol's Youngest Son" is judged as completed in advance.]

[Returning to the Ghost Tower soon.]

……

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

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

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

A-Miao said in surprise:

"What is going on?"

Wen Xishu was quite calm:

"As it stands, we completed the prerequisite mission for the level seven mission; An Youxuan and An Jincheng both survived. We are now in a special space before returning to the Ghost Tower."

A-Miao did not expect this:

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

Wen Xishu was in a good mood:

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

"A-Miao, perhaps you will also have a level six completion rating."

A-Miao dared not hope for level six. In the seventh level of the Ghost Tower, if she could have a level four completion rating, the merit points exchanged from the obtained materials 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.

A-Miao calmed herself down:

"Come to think of it, I thought An Jincheng's 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 betray for profit, colleagues who stab in the back..."

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

A-Miao 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 now.

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

A-Miao asked:

"That chairman of the Three-Ball Group, I even thought he would be our enemy in the Desire Tower... 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 A-Miao some intelligence about this mission.

A-Miao had a certain understanding of the whole story. It was just not as personal as Wen Xishu's, who had been there in that memory.

Wen Xishu nodded:

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

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

In An Rongzai's life, there were many experiences of starting with hope, seeing hope collapse, and then suddenly rising strongly again after everyone thought it was over.

This time was the same.

Wen Xishu noticed that at the beginning, the mission prompt was to find 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 level.

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

This was perhaps An Rongzai's temperament, his 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 that needed to be paid were definitely more exaggerated than the Reverse Seven Project.

But in the end, he succeeded.

A-Miao had not yet figured out the whole process, but Wen Xishu already knew the key point of the entire story.

Without An Jincheng, An Youxuan would have become a sacrifice that met the project's requirements.

But with An Jincheng, An Youxuan could abandon everything for his younger brother; in this way, greed could no longer be counted.

The key to this mission 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 potentially face the choice of "choosing between the younger brother and the Three-Ball Group."

When the younger brother was willing to resist, and Wen Xishu and A-Miao successfully brought the younger brother to the vicinity of Renchuangang... the mission 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 him a knife with unknown attributes, but one that was surely not bad.

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

A-Miao seemed quite reluctant, and she looked at Wen Xishu again, saying:

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

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"You were the key to our successful escape, but A-Miao, promise me, don't tell anyone about what 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."

A-Miao nodded:

"Whatever you say, I will do."

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

……

……

Ghost Tower, seventh level.

Miracle Building, Gangnam District building. About twenty minutes after A-Miao 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, why is there an extra knife in your hand?" the big bald guy Wen Xiange said.

"Sister A-Miao, your face, how is your face better! Praise my Lord Xishu!" Wu Xiangjiao said with surprise.

A-Miao touched her face; it really was better.

Wen Xishu could explain it, because the instance had been reorganized. If A-Miao and he had simply let An Jincheng gain some happiness...

But without changing their original fate trajectory, then A-Miao and he would have returned to the original Ghost Tower.

But now, because the entire Reverse Seven Project had changed, A-Miao and Wen Xishu were naturally restarted as well.

However, the trajectory after the restart did not erase the original credit of Wen Xishu and A-Miao—

Wen Xishu sent away the writer Yin Junchi. A-Miao also sent away the comedian He Taiping.

"I... I don't know why either, maybe it's a mission reward? In short, my face has recovered, and I don't seem to be that sickly anymore," A-Miao said.

Theoretically, she was influenced by pleasure. But A-Miao looked very normal now.

However, it could not be ruled out whether continuing to stay here would make her abnormal again.

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 what he thought, but since Wen Xishu had asked, he still briefly recounted the current situation of each person.

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

Venerable Wen now corresponds to Gluttony.

Xiao Wu corresponds to Pride.

Wu Xiangjiao corresponds to Lust.

There is also an Envy on the forty-ninth floor. The mission objective is to send these people away.

And the game has already reached the third day; if everyone is not sent away by the seventh day, the game will end.

The basic rules have not changed: consuming fifty action points allows one to visit a neighbor for one hour, or one can choose to explore the building for one hour.

Wen Xishu did not know if he could speedrun the Trick Tower this time as he did with the Parrot's Sorrow, after the fate trajectory had been changed in the Desire Tower.

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

It lies in destroying the special item left behind by Scorpio.

After thinking for a moment, Wen Xishu said:

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

If luck is on his side, perhaps there will be no need to formulate a new plan.

That was what Wen Xishu thought.

Although the others did not know what Wen Xishu was going to do, the instance, after being restarted, had not actually changed much in terms of memory.

In the eyes of Wu Xiangjiao, Wen Xiange, and the others, Wen Xishu was still that trustworthy Wen Xishu.

Venerable Wen, however, did notice a clue.

He had actually been observing Wen Xishu all along; when Xiangjiao discovered that the wound on A-Miao's face had disappeared, Wen Xishu did not react at all.

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

But Venerable Wen guessed, could it be that A-Miao and Wen Xishu had embarked on a special adventure during these twenty minutes?

Wen Xiange still had high emotional intelligence; right now, they were waiting for Wen Xishu and A-Miao to save their lives, and one could say the future of the Xishu Divine Sect rested in the hands of the two young people.

Since the other party would not say, he would absolutely not ask, and he thought to help the two as much as possible without letting others be suspicious.

The meeting ended.

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

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

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

Wen Xishu still used the old method, summoning the mirror to arrive at the forty-third floor. This time he walked from top to bottom. The entrance to the forty-second 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 he had done before.

Because the guards in the Desire Tower might be easy to kill, but it was hard to say for the guards in the Trick Tower.

There was no guarantee that these guards could not instantly kill him. The Trick Tower had an anti-magic value mechanism, which kept Wen Xishu, who suffered from insufficient anti-magic value phobia, from acting rashly.

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

"The 42nd floor still cannot be reached directly. Looking at it this way, the Reverse Seven Plan hasn't actually changed much... it just went from one tower to seven, based on the story background."

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

Wen Xishu's hand reached toward the necklace gifted by Wenren Jing:

"If An Jincheng and An Youxuan are gone... then who would be the person living on the forty-second floor?"

(End of chapter)