Morning Flowers, Evening Trees

Wen Xishu suddenly felt like laughing.

He thought of a certain meme—maybe the big villain had also transmigrated, and was blocking the protagonist's every escape route from the start.

What was originally death after transmigration had become transmigration after death.

Don't mess up the new account, man.

Because the higher-ups had demanded the execution be carried out as soon as possible, Wen Xishu couldn't take his time eating his last meal.

First, he was escorted to the injection room, then tied up while the bailiff fed him.

Wen Xishu strongly advised against pairing compressed biscuits with cola, since compressed biscuits alone were very filling, and cola was the same.

He was uncomfortably stuffed, especially since the bailiff fed him quickly.

Still, at a time like this, Wen Xishu found it rather amusing.

After all, no living person had ever experienced what he was going through.

After the meal, his body had gone from sitting to lying down, and a court staff member asked:

"Would you like a song to listen to?"

This was part of the lethal injection procedure—besides the last meal, there was also an "execution song," meant to put the condemned in a good mood before death.

"Sure, play Stephen Chow's 'Shaolin Kung Fu Good,'" Wen Xishu said.

The court staff member looked confused:

"Sorry, that song you mentioned isn't in the Bunker Music Hall's collection. But after you die, we'll do our best to find it."

Wen Xishu showed a disappointed expression:

"What a boring world."

Clearly, the other party also wanted to finish the job quickly, so they picked a light piece of music that fit the current mood—"The Lost."

The staff member began going through the procedure:

"The first injection is an anesthetic; you'll lose consciousness quickly."

"The second is a muscle relaxant—of course, by then you'll already be asleep."

"The third is potassium chloride; you'll die within thirty to sixty seconds."

"We'll determine your death based on your heart rate and pupil changes."

The bailiff from the Bunker Security Bureau prepared to connect the injection pump to Wen Xishu's vein.

Wen Xishu's heartbeat quickened.

A lifetime of courting death had made his mind unusually sharp at this moment.

"Once I fall asleep, that's it—I'm done for. I have to find a way to survive before I pass out."

"The key information available right now should be that the Wen family members are guilty of heinous crimes."

"The Wen family's crimes are even severe enough to warrant... extermination of the entire clan in a world that at least outwardly emphasizes human rights."

"But there's one very strange thing here."

"The new laws don't let me exercise my rights, yet they haven't stripped me of my right to use the old laws either."

"They rejected my request to explore the Strange Tower, but they actually waited until I turned eighteen before carrying out the execution."

"The staff member earlier used the word 'tolerance'—meaning minors who commit serious crimes can still be sentenced to death."

"But even after I turned eighteen, they didn't execute me immediately; they waited a long time."

"That doesn't make sense. For some reason... they've been deliberately dragging their feet on killing me."

"Also, that officer was very concerned about my mental state."

Wen Xishu quickly formed a hypothesis.

Logic told him that, aside from himself, there was still one person from the Wen family alive—

Someone who had committed a shocking crime.

This person's importance far exceeded his own and that of the other Wen family members.

And it was very likely that he himself held the clue to this person.

That was why the Bunker's higher-ups had never killed him.

But his earlier erratic behavior made it hard to provide useful leads, which had worn down the higher-ups' patience, leading them to decide to execute him.

Thinking this way, a name actually surfaced in his mind.

"Wait, hold the needle."

The bailiff's movements didn't stop; he was still tying a rubber tube around Wen Xishu's wrist.

They were experienced—it was normal for prisoners to make all kinds of requests at this point, all just to stall. Ignoring them was the way to go.

Death was terrifying, but the waiting and torment before death was even more so.

The court officer said:

"If your will has additional remarks, say them as quickly as possible. After all, the bailiffs won't stop."

Wen Xishu tilted his head up:

"I have a lead on Wen Chaohua."

Time seemed to freeze.

The moment that name appeared, everyone's movements halted.

The expressions on the two armed police officers stiffened visibly, and the court staff member's eyes instantly went wide.

Wen Chaohua.

The most heinous criminal of the Bunker era, one worthy of being recorded in history.

It could be said that if the Wen family's villains totaled eight dou, Wen Chaohua alone took ten, leaving the rest owing two.

At the same time, he was also Wen Xishu's elder brother—the two were blood siblings.

The court staff immediately signaled for the execution to stop:

"This matter is too important. I need to consult my superiors."

He then asked:

"Your behavior today is truly surprising. Your madness... seems much better?"

Wen Xishu replied cleverly:

"Either I'm in the throes of madness, or I'm merely lucid for a moment."

Memory is a very interesting thing.

The phrase "follow the vine to find the melon" is especially fitting for the realm of memory.

Through thought and reasoning, he recalled the person Wen Chaohua.

And once he remembered Wen Chaohua, he incidentally recalled something even more important.

"Xishu, I'm about to go on a long journey. As a parting gift, your big brother will give you something."

"This is something that can overturn the Three Towers Game. It will let you experience a completely different Three Towers Game."

"Remember, none of the known rules can bind us. We brothers will meet again in the future, but I hope it won't be in the Bunker."

This memory occurred before the Wen family's downfall.

As the memory surfaced, a peculiar image appeared in Wen Xishu's mind.

"Huh, so the standard cheat item for transmigrators really does exist."

That said, his expression wasn't optimistic, because he couldn't just shout "Deep Blue, add points" at the cheat item.

He didn't even know how to use this thing.

In Wen Xishu's mind were three dice of different colors.

The Bunker.

Judging by the confidentiality level of the policy documents on the desk, the person answering the phone held significant power.

"He has a lead on Wen Chaohua?"

"Yes, sir. Wen Xishu is in a very clear state right now. I was thinking we might try a new interrogation." The voice on the other end of the line spoke respectfully.

The man by the desk said:

"Interrogate him immediately. This time, we must extract the lead on Wen Chaohua."

Previously, because Wen Xishu was raving mad, every interrogation had yielded nothing.

This time, perhaps the fear of death had finally brought the Wen family "madman" to his senses.

This high-ranking official was clearly agitated, pacing back and forth.

Wen Chaohua meant a mountain of political achievements, but he didn't care about achievements.

Capturing Wen Chaohua, who had committed the "crime of human extinction," was by no means for justice either.

He quickly found a file in the safe, one with the highest level of classification.

[File Number 0112, Classification: Top Secret.]

The file's contents were as follows:

[In the Slaughter Tower, people can obtain various combat items and combat sequences.]

[However, once transferred to the Desire Tower, none of the Slaughter Tower's sequences or items can be used.]

[Entering the Desire Tower completely reverts one to an ordinary person. Killing is impossible, and even violent acts cannot be committed.]

[The reverse is also true. All sequences from the Desire Tower cannot be brought into the Slaughter Tower.]

[The independence of the Three Towers abilities is an iron law, with no exceptions.]

Desire Tower is like a dating-sim galgame—no combat functions whatsoever.

Slaughter Tower, on the other hand, is pure fighting game, with no mechanic for giving monsters flowers to raise affinity.

The Three Towers abilities are independent and isolated from one another.

This common knowledge, long known to every bunker citizen, could never qualify as a "top-secret file."

It shouldn't even be here in the first place.

What truly made this file classified were the final three sentences.

[We still do not know how Wen Chaohua accomplished this, nor whether anyone else can do the same. The rules of the Three Towers seem misaligned.]

[The monsters of Slaughter Tower were actually driven by him, and what shocked us even more was that, within Desire Tower, where killing is forbidden—]

[He slaughtered an entire floor of Three Towers people!]