The East and the Parrot

The Bunker Security Bureau had indeed gone all out.

To team up with Wen Xishu, they first had to enter the Rest Area, which meant entering the Strange Tower again an hour later.

The odds of entering the Strange Tower and matching with the same level were one in seven. Matching with the same area had even lower odds. In other words, perhaps only one person out of a hundred could successfully match with Wen Xishu. And that was only if they calculated the time Wen Xishu would enter the tower.

And if Wen Xishu chose to break the agreement and refused to team up with anyone, these people would likely be thrown into danger for nothing.

Even if they teamed up with him... whether they could observe Wen Xishu's actions, whether they could uncover clues about Wen Chaohua, and whether they could bring those clues back alive after finding them...

All of that was unknown.

Even under such circumstances, the Bunker Security Bureau was still willing to send a large number of people into the Strange Tower, spending vast amounts of resources on criminals, lowlife scum, and the poor. It was practically buying their lives, all so they could have the best possible chance of teaming up with Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu only needed to simulate it briefly in his mind to understand how terrifying the cost was.

At the same time, he understood perfectly well that if he failed to cooperate after they had paid such an exorbitant price, the Security Bureau would have no shortage of excuses to make trouble for him.

He had yet to demonstrate value great enough for Albert to protect him at all costs.

After weighing it over, Wen Xishu raised his hand. He did not know how the Bunker Security Bureau intended to ensure that he had actually teamed up with someone.

But in the end, to avoid certain complications, he decided to team up with others for this operation.

After all, teaming up was not something Wen Xishu found unacceptable.

So Wen Xishu raised his hand and even moved around within a small area as he called out,

"Sixth floor. Has anyone else received the mission called Falling Parrot? Want to form a team? This feels like the kind of mission that should be done in a team."

This time, Wen Xishu was no longer heading somewhere inhabited by Westerners like Moen City.

The area he was about to enter was a place called Jiangcheng City.

Judging by the name, it should correspond to some city in his own country from his previous life.

That surprised and delighted Wen Xishu.

He truly wanted to eat some hometown food. But the mission description felt rather obscure to him. This time, he completely failed to understand what it meant.

That made him wonder whether teaming up might allow them to put their heads together.

The mission description read as follows.

A parrot cage was a very interesting kind of cage. It did not look like a cage at all, merely a place to perch. It did not know what the world was like, and believed all perches were the same.

The other birds did not know that living on such a perch was like this either. Just as they did not know that parrots could be killed by falling.

Please proceed to the parrot cage in Jiangcheng City and find at least one contaminated item. Perhaps you can change its fate, or perhaps you will die inside?

At the same time, we hope you find every contaminated item.

The mission location was Jiangcheng City.

Wen Xishu did not know what kind of place Jiangcheng City was. Did everyone there love keeping birds? The target of this mission was actually nonhuman?

If it was not about birds, but some kind of textual metaphor, then that was rather baffling. The mission description for the sixth floor was somehow more obscure than one for the twenty-first floor...

If that was truly the case, Wen Xishu could only explain it as an Eastern characteristic.

Chinese people probably feared speaking too bluntly at their core. In ancient times, the environment often made it impossible for people to speak openly, yet everyone still loved to talk. So they enjoyed veiled insults, sarcasm, and making people read between the lines. But that was absolutely not meant as criticism.

Because only this great land of Jiuzhou had perfected both arts, turning them into literary art and making them a delight to behold.

When it came to wordplay, the variety Chinese could produce—or rather, the depth of interpretation it allowed—was unquestionably unparalleled in the world.

"Let's see what kind of parrot you are."

Wen Xishu was intrigued.

A few people gradually gathered around him.

"Whoa, hey, hey, hey! Hello, hello! My name's Kane, brother. We really are fated—we actually got the same mission."

Five people.

What Wen Xishu had not expected was that five people would show up. He knew his luck was bad, but he had not expected it to be this bad.

Accepting a team invitation and not concealing his mission location were things Liu Jinsen had specifically instructed him to do.

Wen Xishu followed those instructions. Though he appeared to accept teaming up without much resistance, inwardly he was thinking, It can't really be that unlucky, can it? Out of seven levels and so many areas, someone just happens to be on the same level and in the same area as me?

Wen Xishu had clearly underestimated his own bad luck.

Madman's Dice listing Uncommon Pair as an option seemed like a hint.

The five people approached Wen Xishu. Including him, the team now had six members.

Of course, there could still be seven, eight, or nine people in total, with the others simply unwilling to team up.

Wen Xishu vaguely sensed that, now that Three Towers Academy had also announced its new credit reward system, the Bunker Security Bureau and the Government Affairs Bureau would likely intensify their efforts to encourage people to explore the Strange Tower.

Perhaps before long, they would see a Strange Tower Ladder Ranking. Then they might be able to find out what the highest level Wen Chaohua had reached was.

Wen Xishu shook Kane's hand.

"My name is..."

He hesitated. Naturally, he did not want to reveal his name. But first, he knew there had to be spies here who already knew his identity.

Second, once they entered the Three Towers Game, his ID would likely be exposed anyway. So Wen Xishu decided to be honest.

"My name is Wen Xishu."

His voice was soft, but in the next instant, everyone around him froze for a second or two.

"Y-you... what did you say your name was?" The speaker had an Indian accent. His expression convinced Wen Xishu that he was definitely not a spy.

But Wen Xishu was also certain that this Indian man was no good. Not because he carried the stereotypical smell of curry, but because he carried another stereotype...

The stench of animal feces.

One of the five was a woman. The way this Indian man looked at her had the feeling of a predator watching prey.

For some reason, Wen Xishu thought of the many outrageous acts associated with Indians.

Why would a human carry the foul smell of animal dung?

Wen Xishu said,

"Just someone with the same name. Don't mind it."

That put the people around him at ease, though some of them seemed disappointed as well.

Wen Xishu had brought up the possibility of sharing a name, and these people actually did not doubt him. In truth, under Sha Ruijing's team's operation, the name Wen Xishu had already become extremely famous.

Its fame was heading directly toward deification.

Among the lower-class people, some with religious backgrounds carried a degree of superstition. They believed the name Wen Xishu could protect them.

So after learning of Wen Xishu's deeds, quite a few people had decided to change their names to Wen Xishu with an added symbol. If they successfully returned from the Strange Tower, met a guide, and completed registration, the Bunker would probably end up with a whole crowd of Wen Xishus.

Just like how Daniel Wu had branches all over the world in Wen Xishu's previous life.

Another reason these people did not suspect him much was that—Wen Xishu could not possibly appear at such a low level. That was people's stereotype.

So after Wen Xishu mentioned having the same name, the people around him did not react much. Some even looked disappointed, because if he really were that Wen Xishu from the Bunker, they would count themselves lucky no matter what.

The Indian man said,

"My name is Sita, friend. I used to be a zoo manager. Hehehe, I hung around the Function Layer on the fourth floor before, and because... because I did some loving things to the animals, I was arrested."

"What about you? Why did you come to the Strange Tower?"

Did some... loving things to animals.

Wen Xishu smiled without warmth.

He was not surprised that the man had introduced himself and confessed his crime. What surprised him was that he could tell from the calm reactions of those around him—

There was not a single decent person here. Every one of them was evil. Each of them probably had some exceptional talent.