"Private Third Class Park Young-so, step forward and answer me. What makes you think you're an outstanding stud?"
From the next room came an administrator's interrogation, followed by the sound of pants being removed and a belt buckle coming undone.
"Reporting, sir! Even compared to Bunker citizens from the Europe and America zones, my little brother is invincible! Please inspect him, sir!"
"If I die in the Slaughter Tower, my gifted weapon will be wasted! It should be stirring things up in the Desire Tower and making greater contributions to humanity!"
Park Young-so's bizarre answer rang out with conviction.
It made Wen Xishu suddenly stop in the neighboring room. He had been about to sign the "Death Penalty Confirmation."
The rooms on the Bunker's Function Layer were laid out chaotically.
Just as the death row hospice next door happened to be the Three Towers Game Allocation Office.
"Desire Tower..." Wen Xishu fell into thought.
The court worker frowned. "I need to tell you that even if you don't sign, the death sentence will still be carried out. There's no point stalling here."
Yes, refusing to sign was meaningless.
Unless he could really hand-build a lithography machine during his execution, develop a warp engine, and pull off something straight out of a novel, death was unavoidable.
Although he had transmigrated only a few hours ago, Wen Xishu was not like other transmigrators who could immediately pull off all kinds of ridiculous miracles. At least, not yet.
According to procedure, he would next be asked for his last words and any final instructions for his relatives.
But most of his relatives had also been sentenced to death.
He was only one step away from the limited achievement, "Exterminate the Entire Family." In about the time it took to finish a meal, he would be injected to death.
Seeing that Wen Xishu had not picked up the pen, the court officer said:
"Since you don't want to sign, we'll skip that step."
"Your family committed grave crimes, and your entire clan has been sentenced to death. Bunker law shows a certain degree of leniency toward minors, but you turned eighteen several months ago, and all the procedures have long since been completed."
"We asked you this morning what you wanted. You said you wanted KFC on a day that wasn't Thursday."
"Unfortunately, we couldn't find the restaurant you mentioned. The Bunker is currently short on supplies, so we can only offer compressed biscuits."
"But we specially prepared fried-chicken-flavored ones for you. We also got you a bottle of cola and chilled it."
The court officer was about to signal for the Bunker Security Bureau bailiffs to haul Wen Xishu to the injection room.
To avoid getting speedrun by this world, Wen Xishu had actually been adapting to his body ever since transmigrating.
But this body's original owner had something wrong with his head—he had been mad and incoherent, making useful memories difficult to extract.
It was not until the Bunker citizen next door, Park Something-so, suddenly mentioned the Desire Tower that Wen Xishu remembered—
The Desire Tower, the Slaughter Tower, and the Strange Tower.
The Three Towers had descended, and exploring the Three Towers World was humanity's only path to survival.
"I'm applying to explore the Strange Tower." Wen Xishu suddenly spoke.
Those words seemed to possess some kind of magic. The two burly Bunker Security Bureau bailiffs stopped in their tracks.
The court officer raised his brows in surprise, then said sternly:
"I must remind you that there's a high probability you'll simply die somewhere else."
"You'll likely suffer... pain beyond the highest value measurable by assessment institutions."
"That would be far crueler than the death penalty. Compared to that, euthanasia is absolutely a merciful way to die."
Wen Xishu nodded.
It sounded like the kind of pain worse than childbirth, death by a thousand cuts, and having steel needles shoved into your gums combined.
Then he definitely had to try it.
The court officer looked at him with scrutiny and confusion.
He knew very well that Second Young Master Wen was infamous for being "idiotic," "deranged," and "stupid."
Not long ago, when he had been locked in prison, he had cried with snot bubbles hanging from his nose, cursing everything around him. He had looked crazed and disheveled, and his words had made no logical sense.
But now, he seemed like an entirely different person.
Exploring the Strange Tower was not wise, but it was indeed a possible path to survival.
After the Three Towers Joint Exploration Conjecture had been preliminarily confirmed, exploration of the Strange Tower had begun.
Because that place was simply too bizarre, most high-level players from the Slaughter Tower and Desire Tower on the Ladder Ranking were unwilling to go there.
So policy incentives were introduced. If someone was willing to enter the Strange Tower and made a major discovery—
Things like an associate degree upgrade, guaranteed graduate school admission, exemption from the death penalty, a harem permit, or Gender Version T0 Certification Qualification were not impossible to obtain.
The court worker said:
"Your identity is special. I'll need to seek approval from my superiors, and you must clearly understand the dangers of the Strange Tower and sign a waiver."
People of every country and nationality lived in the Bunker. It was like a melting pot, so human rights were especially important.
The Black Lives Matter principle was currently the Bunker's foremost standard of political correctness.
News reports often appeared about some organization sending Black people into the Slaughter Tower to fight monsters, only to be condemned by Bunker residents.
Wen Xishu was Asian.
Even so, sending him into the Strange Tower would still be an extreme violation of the principle that human rights came first.
Its severity far exceeded assigning someone to the Slaughter Tower.
After recalling a little, Wen Xishu spoke.
"I clearly understand the nature of and differences between the Slaughter Tower, the Desire Tower, and the Strange Tower."
"The Slaughter Tower exchanges merit and supplies for killing monsters. The Desire Tower exchanges merit and supplies for pleasing Three Towers people."
"One is about screwing until it's done, and the other is also about screwing until it's done."
"But the Strange Tower is full of bizarre phenomena and difficult to explore. Simply put, you can't get it up, so it's hard to screw."
"I understand all of this. I'm also willing to sign the waiver."
Wen Xishu's understanding of the Slaughter Tower and Desire Tower was still shallow and stereotypical, and his wording was somewhat vulgar.
But the staff member's attention was focused more on Wen Xishu's mental state.
The Wen family's second young master no longer seemed insane. That made the worker's expression turn more serious.
Or was this another form of insanity? After all, being this calm and rational did not seem normal either.
Wen Xishu truly was not very normal.
The flaws of this body's original owner had been repaired by transmigration, and he was no longer mad.
But his experiences in his previous life had also left him with a few issues.
Simply put, he often sought death in extremely harsh environments, then created comedic contrast through exaggerated performances.
For example, skydiving from six thousand meters up while having to solve dozens of Rubik's Cubes before opening his parachute, then challenging himself to deploy it at the latest possible moment.
Or wingsuit flying through jagged mountain valleys, parkouring through Chongqing's old building districts, or performing stunt bicycle tricks on incredibly steep mountain roads.
Whenever death drew near and the audience's hearts rose into their throats—
He would entertain them with a mischievous performance, some humorous remark, or even a dirty joke.
That was his job. In an era of short videos obsessed with standing out, Wen Xishu was a content creator no one on the entire internet could imitate.
Over time, the closer Wen Xishu came to death, the more he wanted to mess around a little.
Just like what he had said earlier.
The response to his application to enter the Strange Tower came quickly. In barely more than ten minutes, he received an answer.
Wen Xishu relaxed even more, thinking:
The death-row prisoner had finally seized a sliver of hope and was heading to the Strange Tower.
Next would come a dramatic turnaround. He would contribute to humanity, atone for his crimes, and earn an exemption from the death penalty.
From then on, he'd enjoy a cheat-powered life in the Bunker, continuously explore the Three Towers, and eventually reach the pinnacle of life.
Yeah, that perfectly fit a transmigrator's mission and style.
But the court worker's reply made Wen Xishu freeze.
"Sorry. Due to the extreme severity of the Wen family members' crimes, your application to enter the Strange Tower has been rejected by higher authorities."
"The death sentence will be carried out immediately."
Before you continue