The Old Madman and the Young Madman

He's awake.

Wen Xishu felt a bit thirsty. After waking up, he wanted to find some water, but then he realized this wasn't his home.

In his last world, he had a pretty decent house. In a small, fourth-tier city, he habitually reached for the nightstand when he woke up.

That's where he kept his water.

But now, Wen Xishu opened his eyes and saw an old man's face with sharp angles.

He looked somewhat familiar.

Wen Xishu immediately thought of hitting himself, but a wave of pain shot through his body.

"They really beat me to death and then I transmigrated to the world of One Piece!?"

Albert Napolitano let out a confused "Mm?"

"Hm? What's that? Is it a popular novel these days? I love reading novels, share it with me."

Wen Xishu looked closer... and finally realized this wasn't the world of One Piece, and he wasn't dead.

The old man in front of him just looked like the misguided Pluto Rayleigh from the manga in his last world.

"Who are you? Where am I..."

Wen Xishu was startled. Before he could finish his question, he suddenly saw a barrage of text.

[Hahahaha, this kid really thinks he died and had a transmigration like in a novel? This is hilarious.**]

Mental Barrage.

When someone is in an extreme emotional state, such as extreme happiness, extreme sadness, extreme fear, or extreme anger, their specific thoughts will appear as a barrage of text.

Just like that, Wen Xishu saw the barrage float above the man's head, followed by a string of "Hahahaha" barrages.

And in Wen Xishu's ears, he also heard the sound of "Hahahaha."

The handsome old man Wen Xishu saw was indeed very happy, extremely happy.

It was as if his waking up was something worth celebrating immensely.

Wen Xishu was a bit dumbfounded.

He knew that seeing the barrage just now was the effect of Weird Sequence 37: Mental Barrage.

But that thing shouldn't only be effective within the Tower of Deception, one of the Three Towers?

Wen Xishu's eyes widened, unsure of what to do.

At this moment, Albert said:

"Interesting, interesting. Little one, is your sequence able to see some special mental product? Your gaze indicates you saw something."

"You were just looking at the top of my head."

Wen Xishu was startled again. He had only shifted his eyeballs extremely quickly, without even looking up.

What kind of observation skills did this person have?

"Is it like something I read in a novel, some kind of eyes that can see annotations? The content and style of the annotations are unpredictable."

"So, how do the annotations describe me, this handsome old man? How many more years do I have to live? Will my kinks be exposed? Which floor of the Tower of Deception did you obtain it from?"

"Seeing your shocked expression, don't tell me I actually guessed it right. I've read similar novels. Oh dear, with eyes like these, where are my secrets? Should I dig your eyes out?"

Albert's face moved closer to Wen Xishu, as if observing some rare species he had never seen before.

For the first time, Wen Xishu felt like he was being offended by an old lunatic. Usually, he was the crazy one, teasing others.

Now, this old man was teasing him.

He took a deep breath:

"No, my sequence is very ordinary. Shouldn't you be telling me where this place is? And who are you?"

Albert really wanted to dig out Wen Xishu's eyeballs.

So his current actions made Wen Xishu feel like he had instantly transmigrated into Naruto and become Sasuke, about to have his eyes dug out by Uchiha Itachi.

Albert had already used his fingers to pry open Wen Xishu's eyelids:

"If only the things in novels could come true."

Wen Xishu suppressed the urge to let the veins on his forehead bulge:

"Where am I, and who exactly are you?"

He didn't want to repeat the question anymore. Albert laughed heartily and then said:

"Speak politely to your savior. My name is Albert, just an ordinary old man. As for this place, it's the Three Towers Academy."

Three Towers Academy, a Level Seven Facility...

Wen Xishu suddenly understood the marvels of a Level Seven Facility.

He didn't understand other Level Seven Facilities, but within the scope of the Three Towers Academy, which was located in the Bunker, one could utilize the power of the Three Towers.

That's why he was able to see Albert's Mental Barrage.

Wen Xishu's mind raced, and he immediately realized that it was Albert, from the Three Towers Academy, who had taken him from Xie Changfeng of the Bunker Security Bureau's First Division.

He looked at Albert and, after a moment of consideration, said:

"Are you the principal?"

"Yes, but I don't handle much. Those people below are in charge."

"Thank you for saving me. What can I do to repay you?"

Being rescued and owing a debt, Wen Xishu's first thought was about the price he would have to pay.

He felt no sense of security. In his opinion, saving him must have been for the sake of mutual benefit.

People don't do things that are not beneficial to them and also offend others.

Albert stroked his chin:

"What can you offer, child?"

"First, tell me what you need," Wen Xishu said, skilled in negotiation.

Albert looked at Wen Xishu:

"It's good you're not some monster from the Tower of Deception, or your mind would surely be twisted. How insecure and untrusting can one person be?"

These words made Wen Xishu uncomfortable. The reason for his discomfort was that he felt the other person had seen right through him.

For some reason, he felt as if he were being seen through by Albert.

Seeing Wen Xishu remain silent, Albert knew this was a defensive posture.

"Don't be nervous. Since I saved you, I'm not going to kill you anytime soon."

"I really like youth culture. It's a shame there aren't many anime in the Bunker, and few people read novels. I really like imitating characters from various stories. I'm currently playing a benevolent role."

What was this, a super otaku in the sense of age?

Wen Xishu really couldn't imagine the principal having such youthful hobbies.

"I don't know what you can do for me, so... be a good student for now. For the mid-term assessment at the Tower of Slaughter Academy, I need you to produce results that I can strongly vouch for."

"I don't care what secrets you carry. I could have easily found them out while you were unconscious."

Wen Xishu inwardly cursed his bad luck.

At that time, he had been injected with too much truth serum... he was in a state where he would answer anyone who asked.

Although Albert said this, Wen Xishu still didn't know what kind of person Albert truly was.

He didn't trust Albert.

"You probably already asked, didn't you?"

Albert maintained his hearty smile:

"I'm not interested in Wen Chaohua's secrets."

Wen Xishu didn't quite believe him, but he still asked:

"Why? Isn't the value of saving me to obtain information about him?"

Albert shook his head:

"Why couldn't it be that I wanted to confirm if there was a student worth recruiting into the academy?"

Wen Xishu remained silent. Albert sighed:

"It seems that if I don't get you to reveal some secrets, you'll think my actions are illogical."

This time, Wen Xishu nodded. Albert found it amusing, and he happened to want to test Wen Xishu:

"Then tell me about the relationship between the Tower of Deception, the Tower of Desire, and the Tower of Slaughter in your eyes. Although this is your first time climbing the towers, I want to know if you've already developed your own way of understanding the Three Towers."

Wen Xishu didn't refuse, as he didn't need to recount his experiences.

Albert also seemed to deliberately avoid this point, allowing Wen Xishu to retain some of his privacy.

At the same time, although Wen Xishu didn't know how legendary this old principal was, anyone who could rescue him from the Bunker Security Bureau was certainly not simple.

He decided to cherish the opportunity and demonstrate some value beyond the clues about Wen Chaohua in front of this old principal.

After a moment of thought, Wen Xishu said:

"Initially, in my view, the Tower of Desire and the Tower of Deception had a cause-and-effect relationship, with the Tower of Desire being the cause and the Tower of Deception being the effect."

"Because, as far as I understand, what happened in the Tower of Desire should have occurred before the Tower of Deception."

"The world of the Tower of Desire is the normal world, and the world of the Tower of Deception is the distorted world. Normally, wouldn't it always be normal first, then distorted?"

Wen Xishu deliberately acted as if he hadn't been to the Tower of Desire, as if he were merely making deductions.

He continued:

"But this is only on the surface. In reality, they are mutually causal."

"If we follow the chronological order and explore the Tower of Desire first, it's very likely we won't be able to find the source of the crisis at all."

"Well... let me give a random example."

"It's like, who would have thought that in the world of the Tower of Desire, a down-on-his-luck circus performer would kill all his neighbors?"

"But in the Tower of Deception, you might face this neighbor-killing anomaly right from the start. The mission information will tell you directly that this person is the big boss."

"So, if you have the chance to go to the corresponding area in the Tower of Desire, wouldn't you know what to do better than others?"

"Therefore, from this perspective, the Tower of Deception becomes the cause, and the Tower of Desire, which precedes it in the timeline, becomes the effect."

"It's like the yin and yang fish; it's hard to say clearly who is the cause and who is the effect."

"The significance of the Tower of Deception seems to provide a direction for investigating the Tower of Desire. Perhaps with this direction, we can change the fate of the creatures in the Tower of Deception from the source?"

"Behind those strange creatures, there are their stories. The ending of these stories is clearly not good, but the Tower of Desire might be able to change their endings."

"So here, the Tower of Desire becomes the cause again, but ultimately, you have to find the key figures from the Tower of Deception first."

"Therefore, I think exploring the Tower of Deception should come before the Tower of Desire."

Albert's eyes lit up. It was rare to have such insights on his first ascent.

He could tell that this child was deliberately hiding some things.

But that didn't matter. For this child to have such an understanding on his first ascent, he must be very good at thinking and summarizing.

Albert was very satisfied.

Although he didn't know that not long ago, Wen Xishu's understanding of the Tower of Desire and the Tower of Slaughter was still "one is just do it, the other is just do it."

Wen Xishu continued:

"As for the Tower of Slaughter, I'm not sure, but I imagine the mission targets in the Tower of Slaughter have become more desperate and more disgusted with the world, to the point of killing anyone they see. So, the timeline should be after the Tower of Desire."

"Based on my understanding of the Tower of Slaughter, it's full of monsters, and encountering monsters means fighting and killing."

"The fragmented information is severely insufficient, making it difficult to know what these monsters have experienced."

"So you can only choose to fight them, to kill."

"But in the Tower of Deception, although they are also monsters, if you can find the patterns, you can get many clues."

"This helps us... to turn everything around in the Tower of Desire?"

"So in my opinion, the most important thing to explore among the Three Towers, or rather, the first thing to explore, might be the Tower of Deception."

Wen Xishu added a disclaimer:

"Of course, this is all just my speculation. After all, I am not qualified to enter the Tower of Desire."

Albert applauded, his eyes full of praise:

"Very good, it seems letting you enroll was the right decision. Your understanding of the Three Towers far exceeds my imagination."

"However, humans are not as foolish as you think. We are not unaware of the order in which to explore the Three Towers."

Wen Xishu's expression involuntarily became a little more serious, and Albert continued:

"It's just that there's a very crucial point that you probably don't know."

"And it is precisely because of this point that our progress in exploring the Tower of Deception has fallen far behind the other two towers."