Chapter 94: The Easiest Invitation to Obtain

Wen Xishu's worry was correct; even without intelligence, being purely some kind of test product within a television world, there might still be avoidance mechanisms.

If a trap were too direct, it would only lead the monsters to avoid it, and it wouldn't count as a kill.

For this reason, Wen Xishu flicked the joystick on the controller, making Zheng Zai crouch down, and then he gently pressed a certain button.

Zheng Zai then took the wrench and began to tap lightly on the bridge surface.

A miraculous scene occurred.

Under the extremely light force of the tapping, the place on the bridge that had been trampled began to be repaired bit by bit. But it really was just a little bit.

Those steel bars and concrete that had originally fallen into the sea, as if time were flowing backward, began to slowly splice themselves back into their original positions in reverse.

Wen Xishu never tapped hard, because he needed to ensure he didn't use too much force and completely repair the bridge.

He needed to pin a time node, which was to keep the repair progress at a state of being about to break but not yet broken.

Zheng Zai was stunned as he watched:

"This wrench... can actually be used like this?"

He had originally thought the wrench's ability was to make items new, but now he discovered that wasn't the case; the wrench's ability was to return items to their optimal state.

In other words, an item that had been completely destroyed could, through the wrench, bit by bit, return to a critical breaking node.

However, the bridge was a massive super-structure that could be dismantled into multiple objects.

So Wen Xishu noticed that Zheng Zai's wrench had a range. The range was roughly a circle with Zheng Zai as the center and a radius of four meters.

After about five minutes or so, Wen Xishu had already, through Zheng Zai, filled in the place on the bridge that had been trampled...

But this place was extremely fragile; if it received a relatively significant impact, it would collapse again.

However, this was exactly what Wen Xishu was pursuing.

"Time is very tight, let's hurry up and try to create a few more traps. And each trap must be far enough apart."

If they weren't far enough apart, it was very likely that one Earth-Moving Core from Zheng Zai would directly lead to a chain reaction of road surface collapse.

Zheng Zai said:

"Okay! It all depends on you!"

At this moment, Zheng Zai and Wen Xishu were like two players with tacit cooperation. Although Zheng Zai was controlled by Wen Xishu the entire time, after releasing the Earth-Moving Core several times and feeling the power of these skills from the first-person perspective as the controlled party, he would appropriately give Wen Xishu some feedback on the force.

Wen Xishu then tried to adjust the skill power by reducing the button-pressing force.

The two cooperated seamlessly. The production of the second trap was forty seconds shorter than the first.

The third trap was another fifteen seconds shorter than the second.

They were getting faster and smoother.

Outside the television, Wang Ying and Aspasia felt envy in their hearts; this was simply a pair of twin stars—could twins even be this tacit?

Both of them admired Zheng Zai and Wen Xishu's courage and imagination at this moment.

Just like that, ten-plus minutes later, the figures of the monsters could already be seen two or three hundred meters away.

They were a black, dense mass, charging toward Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai.

The two also officially stopped trap production, with two traps in the front and two in the back.

As the monsters got closer and closer—

The first trap located in the front took effect, and under the impact of the monsters, the road surface collapsed.

In this instant, dozens of monsters, unable to react in time, fell directly into the sea.

Wen Xishu even paid special attention to the fact that those monsters died without even making a sound.

Their corpses disappeared directly; one couldn't even see any process of struggle.

It could be seen that in the Mysterious Tower, the most terrifying thing was the rules themselves; being killed by the rules truly gave one no chance at all.

But fortunately, the rules were fair; as long as one utilized the rules well, one could achieve a perfect counter-kill. The second trap, the third trap, the fourth trap... were triggered continuously in just over ten seconds.

In the previous levels, the combat portions were relatively long, but this time it was completely the opposite.

After Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai spent nearly twenty minutes in the boring process of stepping on the floor and tapping the wrench, the battle they thought was coming didn't even take half a minute—

Because, there was no battle at all.

The four collapsed road surfaces, under the impact of tens of thousands of mid-tier normal species, continued to expand, and the collapsed areas were still spreading.

Everything was as Wen Xishu had thought; the monsters would avoid the pits, but the pits that appeared unexpectedly still caused over a hundred monsters to be filled into the sea in an instant.

It was true that some monsters bypassed the pits, or jumped over them extremely swiftly, and they were indeed incredibly close to Wen Xishu.

But that was only as far as it went. Before the monsters could touch Wen Xishu—the game was already over.

【You have successfully demonstrated the value of this item after the arrival of the apocalypse. You are about to return to the museum; may you be able to show people more items. Returning this round, your stamina will recover fifty percent of its maximum value.】

No hidden mission was triggered, which surprised Wen Xishu a little, but successfully using the item and having the kill count break one hundred was worth being happy about in itself.

Zheng Zai shouted excitedly:

"Little brother, you were right, indirect kills also count as kills! I understand now; as long as an item has been used, as long as it has been used correctly, and it shows its valuable side in the process of killing monsters, then it counts as a kill!"

"In this way, we can challenge using more items that don't possess weapon attributes!"

Wen Xishu nodded.

Thinking about it now, if that crazy child Including Tong Ming had used the Non-Killing Blade to attack himself, then after recovering his physical state and going to kill enemies, even if he hadn't used the blade, it might still have counted toward the kill count.

Wen Xishu didn't dwell on it too much; Including Tong Ming's death was a good thing for him.

He and Zheng Zai soon returned to the fourth floor of the Zhuyuan Force.

Wang Ying quickly composed himself and revealed a not-so-charming smile:

"Brother Wen, well done! You are truly so wise; I think the Dushi Society will definitely be very willing to accept you! When we return to the bunker together, I will definitely introduce our leader to you. If you come to our Dushi Society, you will definitely be a fierce general!"

Wang Ying even changed his form of address, but Wen Xishu wasn't too polite this time; he just smiled:

"Okay, Captain Wang, but we have to find a way to survive first. Let's find some props that can handle the fifth level."

Wang Ying seemed to hear the slight coldness in Wen Xishu's attitude, but he pretended not to notice and still wore an enthusiastic smile:

"Brother Wen, can I ask you for a favor?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Captain Wang, you are the captain; if you have any requests, just order them."

Wang Ying waved his hand and said:

"It's not a request, it's just... look, you asked me for that desk lamp, and I gave it to you. Can you lend me this thing in your hand to use as well?"

"Don't worry, I'm just borrowing it to use; I'll return it to you when I'm done! Regarding the final item distribution, I definitely won't take this thing."

What Wang Ying was talking about was the controller in Wen Xishu's hand.

Wen Xishu feigned generosity and said:

"No problem, but... you two had better decide first who is responsible for controlling it."

"This thing has four joysticks to control the field of view, the body, and the perspective, and then there are twenty-four buttons; one body part has several different ways of pressing. Also, if the person being controlled doesn't trust the controller... the power of this thing will be discounted, and it's very likely you won't be able to pull off any moves."

"If you really think you can use it if you get it, then I'll give it to you. I'm a very generous person."

"But Captain Wang, I have to remind you, if you can't control this well, you might not even be able to display your normal state."

"Losing an item in the television world is a small matter, but if a person dies inside, it would be a real pity."

After these words were finished, Aspasia and Wang Ying both fell silent. Aspasia assumed she would be the one controlling Wang Ying. But Wang Ying believed that as the captain, he should be the controller, not the one being controlled.

When the two met each other's eyes, they both knew that they had developed a disagreement.

Plus this overly complex design...

Wang Ying finally shook his head:

"It was my presumption. This thing is indeed good, but even if you gave me a few days, I might not be able to do as well as you. Forget it."

Wang Ying and Aspasia returned to 4-10.

Wen Xishu just smiled and took Zheng Zai to 4-11.

The item in 4-11 was a vase, and the flowers in the vase were still blooming. Wen Xishu thought this was probably a fresh-keeping vase.

The function of this thing was indeed not for killing monsters, so he gave it up.

Soon the two went to 4-12.

Now Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai were full of energy, forming a sharp contrast with Wang Ying and Aspasia.

4-12 was a patient room.

This made Wen Xishu very excited.

"Little brother Wen, someone has lived in this room too!"

Zheng Zai had already started searching the bedside cabinet; having watched Wen Xishu operate twice, he already had experience.

Sure enough, this time Zheng Zai searched out a third small note in the bedside cabinet.

Zheng Zai couldn't interpret the content of the note, so he handed it to Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu took one look and immediately frowned.

The content of this note depicted a young man riding an electric scooter, and on top of the young man's head was something like the Earth.

And in the center of the Earth, there was a boot pattern.

"What's wrong, little brother Wen, is the new clue unfavorable to us?" Zheng Zai noticed that Wen Xishu's expression wasn't right.

Wen Xishu nodded:

"I seem to have judged wrong."

Zheng Zai didn't ask and waited patiently. Wen Xishu pointed to the items on the bedside cabinet:

"Shoes, shoes with the 'footprint' pattern printed on them; these are the items we need to identify."

The item placed on the bedside cabinet was a pair of running shoes. The pattern on the shoes was two footprints.

The content Wen Xishu saw this time couldn't determine the function of the shoes. In a pile of garbled code, he only saw four characters: "Realm," "Arrival," "Gaze," and "Painting."

With just these four characters, it was hard to guess the use of the shoes; of course, this wasn't the key point Wen Xishu needed to explore.

Wen Xishu said:

"Eyes and ears made me think the elements were related to the facial features, but now I find that feet have appeared... which is to say, it's very likely that the elements are not just these; there might exist eyes, ears, mouths, noses, bodies, hands, and feet—the number of elements is more than I expected."

Zheng Zai asked again:

"This... is there anything wrong with this?"

Wen Xishu said:

"It can't be said to be wrong, but in this way, the possibility of identifying these items decreases, and one can even directly rule out the possibility of identifying them. You have to know, if there are still ears, mouths, noses, bodies, hands, feet... or more elements, then the minimum number of levels that need to be experienced is already very high."

"We have already arrived at the fifth level; I originally thought that identifying these items would allow us to find hidden clues."

"But if we finish identifying these items... this mission will be close to ending."

Zheng Zai didn't quite understand, because he didn't know about the invitation letter. Wen Xishu didn't explain either.

"If we finish identifying all the items containing human body elements, then maybe there will already be twelve levels. This doesn't conform to the patterns of the levels I've experienced before."

What Wen Xishu cared about was the method of obtaining the invitation letter; only by getting the invitation letter could he figure out the trajectory of fate and re-anchor it.

But if it was close to clearing the level, or even already cleared, then there would be no chance.

"Maybe my guess was wrong. I thought too complexly... it's not that we need to identify so many items, but that these items containing body elements hide secrets."

Wen Xishu began to recall carefully.

Footprints, eyes, ears—these elements were printed on the running shoes, the desk lamp, and the radio.

He had a guess in his heart, but the amount of information supporting this guess was still too little.

After about half a minute, Wen Xishu closed his eyes and began to recall the mission description. The whole process was quiet; Zheng Zai didn't even dare to speak.

Suddenly, Wen Xishu opened his eyes:

"Let's go, continue searching other rooms with me!"

"Oh oh, okay!"

Zheng Zai hugged the desk lamp and followed Wen Xishu out of this room.

Next, Wen Xishu's efficiency clearly increased quite a bit. If it wasn't a room where a patient had lived, he almost just pushed the door open, took two looks, and left.

From 4-13 all the way to 4-22, Wen Xishu only stayed in three rooms.

In these three rooms, Wen Xishu found three items: a rice cooker, a pipe, and a pair of gloves.

The patterns on the pipe and the rice cooker corresponded to the nose and mouth respectively, while the pattern on the gloves corresponded to the hand, which was a pair of palm prints.

Of course, in the rooms where these three items were located, there were also small notes. These items could only be taken away after being identified, but Wen Xishu could take these notes away directly.

In the room where the pipe was found, the content of the note depicted a drooling child raising both hands, looking very happy.

And in the room hiding the rice cooker, the note found was a chef holding a dinner fork.

The third item, although the gloves had a palm pattern, the content of the small note was the strangest.

It was a stick figure; the stick figure's head was a simple circle, and the body was a somewhat narrow hexagon.

The blindfolded girl being tied up, the old lady with big ears listening to the action, the young man riding a bike, the stick figure, the chef waving a dinner fork, the drooling child...

Zheng Zai was completely unable to make a connection between the contents of these notes. Each note seemed to have no connection to the others.

Finally, Wen Xishu found a patient room at 4-26.

Someone had clearly lived in this room, but this room only had a pen and a piece of white paper.

There was still a note in the bedside cabinet, but when the note was unfolded, there was no content at all—it was completely blank.

Wen Xishu looked at that pen, and the face that had been frowning the whole time finally revealed a smile.

"Little brother Wen, looking at you like this... have you found the key item you were looking for?"

"You could say that."

Zheng Zai observed the pen carefully and found that this pen didn't have any elements.

Body elements like eyes, ears, mouths, noses, hands, and feet were all absent; the pen was a fountain pen, but it didn't have any patterns, looking like a thin, long iron pipe.

"Does this pen... have any function code?"

"No, this pen is not an item that needs to be identified."

"It's not?"

"Yeah, it's not. The most valuable thing in this room is not the pen, but this note."

"Eh? Then the previous items..."

"The previous items were; in the rooms with notes, the notes already had content, and the items were the ones that needed to be identified, but this room is not."

Zheng Zai didn't understand, so he asked humbly:

"I don't understand."

Wen Xishu said:

"Didn't you notice... this pen didn't pop up any notes?"

Zheng Zai stared at the pen, and it really was true.

The items previously placed on the bedside cabinets were basically all items that needed to be identified; with a slight gaze, a note box of garbled code would appear.

But this time it wasn't; this time, the pen didn't have any notes.

It could be seen that the pen was just an ordinary pen.

On the contrary, this piece of paper was completely blank, with nothing inside. But similarly, no notes appeared for the paper either.

Wen Xishu smiled:

"I don't know yet what these things like eyes, ears, mouths, noses, hands, and feet represent... Correspondingly, I'm also not clear about the content drawn on the paper in these rooms. Although I have some guesses, they are just guesses."

"Old Zheng, I have been looking for something, something that can let me understand the source of everything. I thought before that this thing might be related to eyes, ears, mouths, noses, hands, and feet. But I was wrong; these items containing body part elements are indeed important, but they point to another hidden element."

Zheng Zai seemed to understand but not quite:

"Then now... have you found the clue to that thing you were looking for?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Yes, it's very simple; the answer was written directly in the question. I thought too complexly, and I actually ignored such an important element."

"Think carefully, in your mission introduction, is there a particularly strange symbol?"

Zheng Zai had remembered the mission seriously, so he felt it was impossible for him to have ignored the mission introduction.

But when Wen Xishu said the keyword "symbol," Zheng Zai suddenly thought of a sentence:

"Five ※ praise?!! Could it be that he wanted to give his item a five ※ praise?"

Wen Xishu smiled:

"Great. We both ignored this sentence in the mission introduction—people don't care that he died, nor do they care about his final words: Remember to give me a five ※ praise."

"Don't you think that deliberately using this symbol instead of the text for five-star praise... is a kind of hint? He is emphasizing this symbol."

Zheng Zai nodded; it really was true.

"So... what should we do now?"

Wen Xishu picked up the pen; this pen was bound to be able to continue writing. Afterward, he used this pen to draw five "※" symbols on the white paper.

"This is actually... the easiest invitation letter to obtain, right?" Wen Xishu thought to himself.

When the five "※" were drawn, Zheng Zai suddenly felt that the desk lamp in his hand shook slightly.

At the same time, Wen Xishu finally received the prompt he wanted.

【You are certainly not the first person to recognize his items. In that hospital where only abnormal humans exist, there are also a few people who are particularly grateful for the great inventor's inventions. But he still longed for a five-star praise, a five-star praise on paper, even though he had poured out all his heart and blood, he could not verify it.】

【Obtained prop: Invitation Letter · Deceased Inventor.】

Wen Xishu's smile stiffened for a moment. Deceased inventor?

He knew that in the Mysterious Tower, this inventor had already died, but he had actually died in the Tower of Desire too?

He had finally obtained the invitation letter, but Wen Xishu didn't seem very happy. According to past missions, it should be that these guys were all close to death and then began to mutate, so their mentality underwent major changes.

What he had to do was to change some of their encounters so that they would no longer have hatred for the world.

This was Wen Xishu's idea, but now, he guessed that perhaps even if he entered the timeline of the Tower of Desire... the target was already dead.

If they were dead, naturally there was no way to redeem or reverse the target's trajectory of fate. Just like appearing in the scene where Tang Rui died, how could he possibly save Tang Rui?

And it was very strange; Jack and Tang Rui had actually experienced death, but under the strange power, neither of them died. How did it come to be that they really died when it reached the great inventor?

Wen Xishu could only think:

"I hope I guessed wrong."

At this time, Zheng Zai suddenly spoke up:

"Little brother Wen, why do I feel like this thing... has changed a little bit?"

Wen Xishu also noticed that this desk lamp seemed to have some kind of faint luster. But the note presented in Wen Xishu's eyes still hadn't changed; it was still those few characters.

But as Zheng Zai's voice fell... the desk lamp actually lit up by itself.

Wen Xishu suddenly had a feeling: these were not dead objects; these things... had life.

However, since he had obtained the invitation letter, Wen Xishu could at least investigate everything clearly at a more original source.

"Old Zheng, go outside and keep watch; I need to be alone for a while. I won't keep you waiting too long; it might only be a minute or two for you."

"I need to be alone here to calm down."

Zheng Zai didn't doubt him, immediately stood up, left the desk lamp behind, and said:

"Okay, if you need any help, tell me; I'll go outside and guard for you."

After saying that, Zheng Zai went to the door and even closed it.

Wen Xishu took out the invitation letter at this time:

"I hope you are still alive, great inventor."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 95 =====