Wen Xishu still knew far too little about the common sense of this world.
Because he had no way to completely extract the original owner's memories from this body.
Albert seemed to understand this as well and did not dwell on why Wen Xishu was unaware of such common knowledge.
"The importance of the Strange Tower goes without saying, but exploring it comes with sunk costs."
"You should know that the main groups currently exploring the Strange Tower are death row inmates, terminally ill patients, or people driven to desperate straits for other reasons."
"Normal people seem willing to enter the Desire Tower. If they have no other choice, they go to the Slaughter Tower. But they absolutely refuse to enter the Strange Tower."
"Because once you enter the Strange Tower, every sequence, ability, and attribute from the other tower systems will be reset to zero."
Wen Xishu guessed that this was not the absolute reason people were unwilling to explore the Strange Tower.
Sure enough, Albert added:
"But you must be thinking, if you explored the Strange Tower first, wouldn't that problem not exist?"
"What exactly made people choose to explore the Desire Tower and the Slaughter Tower first?"
"Was it merely because the Desire Tower was easier?"
"But the Slaughter Tower is dangerous too. Why are there still far fewer people exploring the Strange Tower than the Slaughter Tower?"
Wen Xishu nodded. He had indeed been considering that question.
Albert's answer surprised Wen Xishu somewhat.
"Because the Strange Tower... appeared later than the other two towers."
Wen Xishu froze.
He had considered many possible reasons. For example, the Strange Tower's rules were complicated, and it had a Magic Resistance mechanic. Not only did one need to understand the boss's combat mechanics, but one also had to remain vigilant at all times, lest low Magic Resistance trigger some bizarre rule.
But he had never expected the truth to be so simple and brutal. The Strange Tower...
Had actually arrived last. The three towers had not descended at the same time.
Albert spoke with some emotion:
"In this world, there are the right things to do, and there are the easy things to do. Most people choose the easy things, because the right things are too difficult."
"But humanity has resilience. Human civilization did not fall, even after enduring the apocalypse."
"With tens of millions of people in the Bunker... how could there possibly be no one willing to risk their lives for all humanity?"
"It was simply that, back when I was not yet this old, we had no right to enter the Strange Tower. It had not appeared yet. How could we enter it?"
"In my life, I have never liked doing things that were too easy. I rarely entered the Desire Tower."
"I had no interest in the pasts of those monsters in the Tower of Slaughter."
"Because I discovered early on that before the Strange Tower appeared, even if you knew those monsters' pasts... it seemed that one missing link kept the full puzzle from taking shape."
"No matter what you did in the Desire Tower, it was very, very difficult to change the monsters in the Tower of Slaughter."
"And in the early days, people exploring the Slaughter Tower and people exploring the Desire Tower found it difficult to communicate."
"For example, someone in the Desire Tower might later become a monster in the Slaughter Tower. But after becoming a monster, their appearance would change completely, making them hard to recognize."
"But in the Slaughter Tower, monsters triggered combat the moment they met. To put it in modern terms, you got one-shot the instant you showed your face."
"You simply had no way of figuring out who they had been in the Desire Tower."
"How were you supposed to save them?"
Wen Xishu nodded.
That was indeed true. Deception Jack looked vastly different from Desire Jack.
If Slaughter Jack had not spoken, and Wen Xishu had been unable to obtain enough information... he could have racked his brains forever and never guessed that this was Jack from the Desire Tower.
"So the Desire Tower is the easy thing. But someone has to do the right thing. Before the Strange Tower appeared..."
"To me, the right thing was conquering the Slaughter Tower."
Wen Xishu could not help asking:
"Why did you think that?"
Albert said:
"You said it yourself. The Desire Tower is the past; its timeline comes earlier."
"If humanity returned to its former world one day, do you think they would return to the past? What they would likely face would be a world occupied by Slaughter Tower monsters."
"Although the Desire Tower allows people to bring back supplies and is easier to survive in, I always believed that the Slaughter Tower giving humanity power was not merely some kind of immersive game."
"Those powers might be humanity's only means of protecting itself."
"So I almost never challenged the Desire Tower. In the era before the Strange Tower, many of us could only choose the Slaughter Tower for humanity's future."
Wen Xishu slowly nodded.
Sure enough, not everyone was stupid, nor was it that people did not know to explore the Strange Tower. Rather, humanity simply had no choice in that era.
At the same time, the Strange Tower's delayed appearance had created sunk costs in humanity's overall choices for survival.
Wen Xishu's impression of Albert shifted slightly. At the very least, he no longer saw him as merely an old madman.
"So without assistance from the Desire Tower and the Strange Tower... you relied solely on the Slaughter Tower to accumulate attributes and break through its floors?"
"Forgive my bluntness, but after specializing in the Slaughter Tower, what floor have you reached now?"
Wen Xishu asked the question he had long wanted to ask. He could vaguely sense that Albert was no ordinary man.
But he still wanted to use a concrete number to judge exactly how extraordinary Albert was.
"I'm old. I'm no good anymore. In the end, my aptitude is still somewhat mediocre."
Albert sighed.
Wen Xishu had a rough idea now. The Old Principal was probably around the fiftieth floor, the fortieth floor, or perhaps slightly lower.
After all, even if an old man could reach the fortieth floor, that would already be an incredible achievement. He was certainly qualified to serve as Principal of Three Towers Academy.
Besides, while he might not have explored that many floors, surviving for so long meant he surely had abundant experience.
Those experiences must be valuable enough to lecture on and establish an academy around.
Moreover, even the top person on the Ladder Ranking was only around the fiftieth or sixtieth floor.
Hearing Albert call himself untalented, Wen Xishu had wanted to comfort him. Not everyone could be as freakishly gifted as Xun Hui.
But in the next second, his usually excellent control over his microexpressions slipped a little.
Albert said somewhat unwillingly:
"I've been stuck on the ninety-sixth floor for quite some time now. I don't know whether these old bones of mine will be able to break through the ninety-ninth floor in my lifetime. I truly want to know how many floors the Slaughter Tower has."
"Ah..."
After saying that, Albert suddenly widened his eyes. He saw a line of barrage float above Wen Xishu's head:
Holy shit, an immortal-tier reveal? If you're a man, reach the hundredth floor? What kind of terrifying existence is this?
Wen Xishu's emotions had truly undergone an extreme change—extreme shock.
For the first time, he lost control, triggering what was essentially a negative effect of Weird Sequence 37: Mental Barrage.
Under certain extreme emotions, his thoughts would appear in barrage form before the relevant target. That relevant target was the person who had caused those extreme emotions.
Although Wen Xishu did not know the exact Ladder Ranking, he roughly knew that the current strongest climbers, Xun Hui of the Slaughter Tower and Wen Renjing of the Desire Tower, were both around the fiftieth or sixtieth floor.
He had assumed that was humanity's ceiling.
But now, he understood firsthand what the Guide had meant by those words.
There were some terrifying existences among humanity.
The old man before him was likely one of the most terrifying among them.
"Hahahahahaha! This is so fun! Your Eerie Sequence is so interesting."
Albert's laughter made Wen Xishu realize... he might have exposed himself.
But he no longer cared.
What difference did exposure make when a naked newbie from the beginner village stood before an old player in max-level gear who had played from launch through the latest patch?
Wen Xishu also understood something else more clearly now: why Albert had not explored the Strange Tower even after it appeared.
Because someone like him was a true legend of the Bunker. Exploring the Strange Tower meant starting everything over. Albert himself might yearn for a new adventure.
But for humanity's faction, they would certainly fear such a top-tier combatant accidentally dying in the Strange Tower.
Albert was a powerhouse capable of changing humanity's fate. Naturally, the Bunker would not allow someone like him to start over and explore the Strange Tower from scratch.
It was a risk the Bunker could not tolerate.
After a short while, the surprise in Wen Xishu's heart gradually settled.
Albert said:
"You're quite good. I'm already looking forward to your performance in your first semester."
"Three Towers Academy allows attributes from all three towers to take effect within the academy's grounds."
"You can think of it as a superpowered academy made up of possessors of the Desire Sequence and the Slaughter Sequence."
"Most people who graduate from here go on to live fairly well."
"However, the final exams are far from easy, and the probability of being held back is quite high. Some of the rules were not set by us; they come with Three Towers Academy itself."
"In any case, the academy welcomes you. You've passed my test."
Albert had actually been testing Wen Xishu all along.
Now, he was certain Wen Xishu was a promising talent. Perhaps the boy hid some of Wen Chaohua's secrets.
Perhaps Wen Xishu really could clear the Strange Tower with Wen Chaohua's help.
But that was not important. In Albert's eyes, Wen Xishu's own aptitude was also worth cultivating.
"Don't disappoint me."
Wen Xishu asked:
"You said this place is a superpowered academy for possessors of the Desire Sequence and Slaughter Sequence..."
"But you did not seem to mention the Eerie Sequence?"
Albert burst into laughter.
"Yes, yes! That's exactly why you're worth looking forward to! Hahahahahaha..."
Thinking of the barrage that had floated above Wen Xishu's head just now, as well as how Wen Xishu had raised his gaze at the beginning, presumably to look at his own barrage—
Albert felt that the Strange Tower was fucking fun.
What a pity...
He was too important. Countless people in the Great Devourment depended on him for salvation.
He could no longer be like he was decades ago, selfishly choosing the most dangerous, most difficult, yet most correct path.
That also meant he was fated to have no connection with the Eerie Sequence of the Strange Tower.
To Albert, who had a bit of an old child's temperament, those sequences were simply too fun.
That was why he was so looking forward to Wen Xishu's performance in his first semester.
But before that, to avoid some trouble, he still needed Wen Xishu to do one thing.
Before you continue