Chapter 89: Teaching Zheng Zai

Wen Xishu said:

"I actually lean toward keeping the original method. What do you think, Captain?"

This was Wen Xishu giving everyone a second chance.

After all, his gap in Magic Resistance allowed him to perform a preliminary interpretation of items; in this kind of game, once separated from him, others would actually only be in more danger.

But everyone had their own little schemes in mind, all feeling that as long as they were quick enough to enter a ward, they could be the first to discover an item with combat functions.

A desk lamp could smash the heads of one hundred normal-type beings without breaking, and it even possessed other special abilities.

Then, if one found a sword, a blade... it would probably be a monster-reaping machine.

Tong Ming, Aspasia, and Wang Ying all thought this way.

Wen Xishu did not think so. He did not believe the underlying logic was that simple.

Wang Ying thought for a moment and said:

"That scene just now was only Level 1, and I should be considered the best fighter among us. Yet I still nearly died."

"I don't know how hard Level 2 will be... Each of us has to appraise items. Each of us might also enter that battlefield that resembles the Tower of Slaughter environment."

"But entering that place, there is no Tower of Slaughter attribute panel! You must realize the critical nature of items."

"This floor seems to have many rooms, certainly several dozen. If we go room by room, it is indeed slow... and that place just now was too dangerous. If we act as a group, I cannot guarantee whether the items you obtain will be able to handle that kind of danger."

"So, let everyone act individually. Life and death are fated; the items you choose, you use yourself. If you go to the battlefield and die, blame your own poor judgment, don't blame others. How about it?"

Wen Xishu smiled; this person certainly spoke with a logical flow.

"I, of course, have no problem with that. I'll follow the arrangements."

Wang Ying thought for a moment:

"Zheng Zai, do you want to come with us?"

Zheng Zai was big and tall, and the iron mask on his mouth showed at a glance that he was no ordinary person.

Wang Ying considered him a top-tier combat force.

But Zheng Zai shook his head and said:

"Sorry, Captain Wang, I want to be with Brother Wen."

Wang Ying's face darkened, and the little bit of favor he originally had for Wen Xishu instantly vanished:

"Fine, then I wish you both good luck."

At this moment, Wen Xishu suddenly said:

"Captain Wang, could I ask you for a favor?"

Wang Ying was puzzled:

"What is it?"

Wen Xishu pointed to the desk lamp:

"Do you still want this thing? It actually has no value in real combat."

Wang Ying said:

"This thing... alright, since you want it, then take it."

The reason Wen Xishu didn't want to appraise the desk lamp at first was because he was wondering if there would be some stage that required it.

Now, he wanted this desk lamp because someone had already experienced a full round with it.

Wang Ying appeared quite generous. This desk lamp did indeed have clever uses, but it was also quite lackluster. He had only said it was a divine artifact earlier to save face, but in reality...

This thing was very lackluster; seeing other people's fields of vision in his own eyes even made him feel dizzy. Most importantly, this thing actually dragged down his performance in combat; it wasn't even as good as a steel bar from the ground.

Moreover, considering that the number of items each person could carry was limited, and there was no shortage of items here, one had to obtain new items before entering the next round. Thus, this desk lamp was definitely not something he would carry, and he absolutely could not use the desk lamp to challenge the harder Level 2 or Level 3... He had already prepared to discard it.

Now that Wen Xishu wanted it, he was happy to do a favor, especially since Wen Xishu had spoken up to help him earlier.

In the end, the five people exploring the museum split into three teams.

No one wanted Tong Ming.

Wang Ying felt Tong Ming was a burden. Tong Ming himself didn't think much of the others either.

Wang Ying and Aspasia were in a team; although Aspasia was dissatisfied with Wang Ying's recklessness, she had seen that he risked his life to save her earlier.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai were in a team. Tong Ming went to 4-2. Wang Ying chose 4-3.

Wen Xishu did not go to 4-4, but instead took Zheng Zai to walk the corridor.

"Brother Wen, aren't we going in to take a look?"

Wen Xishu looked ahead:

"We appeared on the fourth floor the moment we arrived. Zheng Zai, do you think there's a problem with that?"

Zheng Zai shook his head:

"I... my brain can't figure these things out."

Wen Xishu was very patient with Zheng Zai; after all, in a sense, Zheng Zai was someone who had been tested.

"Simply put, the museum is on the fourth floor. But it's strange; in a mental hospital, generally speaking, it's the group of people with the most serious problems who live on the highest floors."

"If you were a great inventor, the owner of these items in the museum, and you were forced to set up a museum in a mental hospital... would you choose to open it on the fourth floor?"

"The patients below are clearly more normal, right?"

Zheng Zai thought about it seriously:

"What if he has a good relationship with the people on the fourth floor?"

Wen Xishu affirmed:

"That is one reason. I actually thought so too, so I am wondering if there are some special patients in these wards."

"And there is another point: when I first appeared in the Tower of Deception, it was on a higher level of a building."

"I had to save a little girl to leave. In that process, I had to go downstairs."

"Guess, will we go downstairs? If we go downstairs, will we encounter some unknown horrors?"

"You still remember the mission introduction, right?"

Zheng Zai nodded; he was adapting to Wen Xishu's line of thinking:

"You mean... after the apocalypse arrived, people here were fighting to get in?"

Wen Xishu praised:

"Very good, you haven't forgotten the mission description."

"When the apocalypse arrived, the mental hospital he was in became a place that everyone was frantically trying to pour into. As if it were the world's only paradise."

"If everyone wanted to enter here, then the first ones to enter would inevitably be the patients and staff below."

"They might not be playing good roles. If we are to go downstairs, we might just have to deal with these guys."

Zheng Zai was thoughtful:

"These guys... will they be very strong?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Some people, when eating, choose to eat the good dishes last; others eat them first. But if the situation is that if you don't eat it, someone else will snatch it, then in all likelihood, everyone will choose to eat it first."

"In other words, the bottom three floors... if there really are enemies, then the things in their hands are the most valuable weapons, while what we can pick now are all the leftovers."

Zheng Zai understood, and he asked worriedly:

"Then aren't we in great danger? Will they... come up?"

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"Not sure, but the time left for us certainly won't be very generous. It's hard to stay for seven full days like in some scenes."

Zheng Zai asked again:

"Then what do we do? Our items are worse than those on the bottom three floors; doesn't that mean there's no way we can beat them?"

"This is still the Tower of Deception. Our Magic Resistance is so low; them hitting us will have a significant bonus. This... there's no chance of winning, right?"

Wen Xishu's pace was very slow, observing his surroundings carefully, and he said:

"Two possibilities."

"Find a combat item sufficient to handle the Level 12 stage to deal with the various monsters in the television world. Then find an item capable of hiding our aura and slip away silently. It's not very dignified, but it's effective."

Zheng Zai suddenly realized:

"Oh right, if we can't beat them, we choose to run. As long as the mission is completed, that's all that matters."

"Then what is the second possibility?"

Wen Xishu pointed to the floor:

"On this floor, a secret is hidden. A secret waiting for us to unravel. If this secret is solved, we can obtain what the mission hint mentioned—the most valuable item."

"Once we get this item, we can fulfill the great inventor's wish, and by then, we will at least be able to easily deal with the monsters on this floor. This is also what I personally consider the most reliable approach."

Zheng Zai was a bit excited:

"Brother, do you already have some clues!"

Looking back now, Zheng Zai felt it was very strange that Wen Xishu had wanted the desk lamp earlier.

Wen Xishu said:

"Just a guess, it doesn't constitute a clue yet."

At this time, Tong Ming came out of 4-2. Seeing that Wen Xishu was still in the corridor, Tong Ming was slightly surprised:

"You two brothers are really leisurely."

Wen Xishu said:

"Did you not find a satisfactory item?"

Tong Ming had already arrived at the entrance of 4-4:

"You can go take a look at 4-2, you might need it, I don't need it anyway."

Tong Ming entered 4-4, and Wen Xishu actually went with Zheng Zai to 4-2.

What Zheng Zai was thinking was that since Tong Ming didn't want it, there was no need to go see it.

However, whatever Wen Xishu did, in Zheng Zai's eyes, it always had deep meaning.

Wen Xishu arrived at the entrance of 4-2.

Unlike 4-1 earlier, 4-2 appeared very simple and clean. Inside, there was only a bedside cabinet, and an item was placed on top of it.

It was a broom.

Zheng Zai asked in a low voice:

"Little brother, your anti-magic value should be the highest... did you discover anything?"

Wen Xishu did manage to make out a few characters.

Assimilate, clean, tame.

The rest were garbled text, but these characters were enough for Wen Xishu to guess the function of this broom.

"Trash and dust will be tamed by the broom; they will think they are on the broom's side and will assimilate other trash to clean this area."

Zheng Zai's mouth formed an 'o' shape:

"Wow, that's a cleaning tool... pity, it's not convenient for fighting. I thought this was one of those magic brooms written about in bottom-tier novels."

Zheng Zai thought, how great it would be if this thing could take him flying.

"Let's go, this thing doesn't seem to have any value," Zheng Zai said.

Wen Xishu hummed in acknowledgment, but he didn't leave immediately; instead, he pointed at the room:

"Zheng Zai, let me ask you, after looking at this room, besides that thing being unusable, do you have any other thoughts?"

Zheng Zai shook his head:

"Time is tight... I was thinking, should we just hurry up and start searching the next room?"

Wen Xishu said softly:

"You should compare it to the situation in 4-1 earlier."

"Didn't 4-1 clearly have a lot of things? There were hospital beds, bedding, and other things that should be in a patient's room."

"But 4-2 doesn't. In 4-1, you might have had to search a bit to determine which item was the exhibit."

"But what about 4-2? You only need one glance to see that the exhibit is that broom. The main reason is that 4-2 doesn't look like it was lived in by a patient at all."

"So—"

Wen Xishu paused deliberately to guide Zheng Zai, and Zheng Zai was quite sharp:

"Got it, got it! Some rooms here have patients, and some rooms don't!"

"Rooms without patients only have exhibition props, but rooms with patients... perhaps they allow us to find some extra clues?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Not bad. Let's go, we can go check out 4-5 now."

Zheng Zai walked in front of Wen Xishu and soon arrived at 4-5. He was very happy because the angle from which Wen Xishu thought about problems was always very comprehensive.

He recalled the last time, when Wen Xishu was like he had activated a cheat, speed-running the whole way; the feeling of being carried to victory was great.

The 4-3 where Wang Ying was located was actually also very clean; the exhibition item in 4-3 was a glass bottle.

Wang Ying was just struggling with whether to appraise it. As everyone knows, a wine bottle is a great tool for head-smashing...

Wang Ying also had some thoughts of his own, for instance, earlier in the TV world, when facing a group of normal-type entities, the desk lamp actually didn't break.

Then one could assume these items were all very hard, or did not possess the possibility of being damaged.

In this sense, this glass bottle indeed had certain weapon attributes.

But in the end, after struggling for a while, Wang Ying chose not to take this bottle.

Wang Ying went to 4-6.

After the door to 4-5 was pushed open, Zheng Zai was a bit disappointed because inside was another one of those clean, empty rooms.

4-5 also had no patient residing in it, only one item. This item possessed absolutely no weapon attributes, and Zheng Zai shook his head as he looked at it. But Wen Xishu smiled.

Because he had seen this item before.

"Good heavens... so the great inventor was that drunkard?"

Zheng Zai was puzzled:

"What do you mean? Little brother Wen, you recognize this thing?"

Zheng Zai's gaze turned toward the pair of wine glasses.

Wen Xishu was actually seeing this pair of wine glasses for the first time too, but he had seen the "brother" of this pair—the Truth-Telling Wine Glass.

The item description for the Truth-Telling Wine Glass was as follows: It is a pair with the Dare Wine Glass, once the treasure of a certain drunkard; later the drunkard died, and the treasure was separated.

Wen Xishu said:

"There's no need to appraise this pair of items; I already know what their function is. Let's ignore it for now. After clearing the level, let's see if there's a way to take it away without appraising it."

Zheng Zai was a bit confused, but thinking about it, using a pair of wine glasses to deal with a level 2 stage... the image was indeed quite abstract.

Wen Xishu really wanted this pair of wine glasses; this thing was even more useful than the Truth-Telling Wine Glass.

Thinking about it, when the great inventor was still alive, this pair of wine glasses could be used continuously. But after he died, the wine glasses became a one-time-use item.

The current rule is that only items that have been appraised can be taken away.

But the act of appraising an item itself leads to being teleported to the battlefield to kill enemies.

So Wen Xishu could only hope that after completing the twelve rounds of appraisal, there would be other ways to take away some items, or perhaps find some additional game mechanics to acquire items.

He and Zheng Zai left 4-5.

Just at this moment, laughter came from Tong Ming in 4-4:

"Hey, it's very sharp! It cuts through iron like mud!"

Tong Ming's laughter also drew the attention of Wang Ying and Aspasia:

"What did you find!"

"This... it's actually a knife!"

Everyone gathered in the corridor. In Tong Ming's hand was a short knife comparable to Wen Xishu's Scorpion Blade.

It was very sharp.

The bedside cabinet had been cut in half by the short knife in one stroke. During the exhibition period, although Tong Ming hadn't figured out the item's function, the sharpness of this knife was beyond imagination.

Tong Ming said:

"Looks like I'm lucky. This knife is truly exceptionally sharp."

Wang Ying said:

"This knife... could you let me have it?"

Tong Ming said:

"Sorry, Captain, I have to enter the usage phase. I wish you all find weapons soon too."

Zheng Zai also saw that the cut marks on the bedside cabinet from that knife were as smooth as a mirror.

It was evident that the sharpness was beyond imagination; this was a rare, sharp blade. He was somewhat envious of Tong Ming's luck.

But Wen Xishu revealed a smile:

"You really are lucky. I look forward to your performance in the item usage phase."

Tong Ming felt Wen Xishu's smile was a bit strange; it was the kind of mischievous smile that only someone of the same kind could sense.

But he felt that even if this knife had no other attributes, just being this sharp made it a powerful weapon.

Tong Ming didn't think much more and stepped out of the room. The next second, his figure appeared in the TV at the end of the corridor.

Wen Xishu turned around:

"Zheng Zai, let's continue searching. There's nothing worth looking at."

Zheng Zai nodded. He didn't like this kid; he had a bit of a "bad seed" vibe, but thinking about it, with this knife, there shouldn't be any problems; he would surely be able to come back alive.

(End of chapter)