Mad Dice

Second Division of the Bunker Security Bureau.

Through the surveillance feed, Liu Jinsen knew that Wen Xishu had already entered the Three Towers World.

Wen Xishu was now his sole responsibility; almost everything else was off his plate.

He didn't want it this way. If he could, he'd rather do more for the people at the bottom.

But the higher-ups had arranged it, and he could only obey.

Only after confirming that Wen Xishu had ascended the tower did he make a phone call.

"Officer Liu, why are you calling? Do you have medicine?"

The voice on the other end was excited, but Liu Jinsen's words doused him with cold water:

"Sorry, no one has brought back medicine yet."

Liu Jinsen's call was to the Bunker Health Bureau.

Currently, a plague was raging among the lower levels of the Residential Layer, with many infected.

Medicine at the bottom was in severe shortage.

The disease kept spreading and expanding. Due to the extreme population density at the bottom, full quarantine was very difficult.

In particular, the whites and blacks in the bunker's lower levels loved to flaunt their freedom. They always refused isolation and were very good at using human rights as an argument.

This only made the plague more vicious.

"How is it now?"

"Terrible. Our medicine is critically low, the bottom is too crowded, and the disease spreads too fast. Word is... some people in the upper layers have been infected too?"

Liu Jinsen didn't answer that. The Health Bureau staff continued:

"Honestly, we're thinking of giving up. This isn't the first plague."

"Before, it only took the old. But this time, the young are falling too."

"If we don't save these young people, then when the number of Three Towers explorations drops too low... triggering the Great Devourment... the consequences would be unthinkable."

Liu Jinsen just hummed in acknowledgment.

Yes, the bunker had seen plagues before, but they only claimed the elderly.

The bunker's upper echelons didn't care.

Just like before the Bunker Era, when officials from some island nation thought the pandemic could solve their aging problem...

They figured the old could die and it didn't matter. Unless the old were willing to work overtime until seventy, seventy-five, eighty...

But this time was different. This time, many young people in the bunker were also affected.

If they couldn't bring back enough medicine quickly to stamp out the epidemic, the shrinking young population would reduce the core strength for exploring the Three Towers.

Too few tower explorations triggering the Great Devourment... that would be a massive catastrophe for the human faction.

"Officer Liu, if I had the ability, I'd go fight in the Slaughter Tower myself."

"At a time like this, whoever brings back medicine is a hero!" the Health Bureau staff sighed over the phone.

Liu Jinsen only replied flatly:

"Alright, I understand the situation. Thank you for your hard work."

Liu Jinsen hung up.

Right now, he wished he could go to the Slaughter Tower and fight desperately, even bringing back a small portion of medicine would be good.

But he couldn't do anything, because the higher-ups had ordered him to focus all his energy on one person.

Wen Xishu.

As a man of action, Liu Jinsen wouldn't pin his hopes on something intangible.

Like expecting Wen Xishu to bring anything back from the Strange Tower.

In fact, he didn't even think Wen Xishu would return alive.

Wen Xishu wasn't dead yet, of course, but how long he could live was anyone's guess.

When the option [Throw?] appeared, he didn't hesitate and chose yes.

Facing something new, he was as bold as stock market investors in a bull run.

After all, even if he didn't throw the dice, given all the existing risks, his chances of clearing the Strange Tower were very low.

He might as well gamble with some unknown method.

Wen Xishu gambled, and the result was—gamblers die like dogs.

The numbers: three ones.

The red die, the white die, the black die—all three dice showed ones.

[Please choose one of the following effects.]

[1: Triple High. (Tower-climbing level x3, triggers when all three dice show the same number.)]

[2: Three-Phase Power. (Allows simultaneous use of three tower systems' abilities and rules, triggers when all three dice show the same number.)]

[3: Minimalism. (Level too low, description unavailable. Triggers when all three dice show a number less than five.)]

[Since you currently have no school and your level is too low, "Three-Phase Power" and "Minimalism" cannot be triggered. This time, tower-climbing level x3.]

And so, a rookie with zero Magic Resistance and a level of one was inexplicably teleported to the twenty-first floor of the Strange Tower.

This was a floor that newcomers—and even many veterans—couldn't reach for a long time.

The reason it was the twenty-first floor, not the third, was that the floor you went to in the Three Towers fluctuated randomly within a certain range.

Newcomers climbing the tower would fluctuate between the first and seventh floors, with only the extremely unlucky few being assigned to the sixth or seventh.

Wen Xishu was originally headed for the seventh floor, but now it had become the twenty-first.

Without a doubt, following the logic that the further back the floor, the stronger the monsters—

Though he didn't know what area he was about to enter, it was definitely one where monsters could one-shot him.

"Wen Chaohua really is my biological brother, a master at screwing over his younger sibling."

Complaining inwardly, Wen Xishu wasn't too upset.

In his view, the dice's ability was game-breaking.

He could vaguely sense just how absurdly overpowered it was to simultaneously use three tower systems' abilities and rules.

A Desire Tower sequence in the Slaughter Tower—wasn't that just a walking succubus?

A Slaughter Tower sequence in the Desire Tower—wasn't that like a cultivator descending into an ordinary world?

Of course, Wen Xishu didn't actually know the specific operational details, and for himself in the rookie phase, he hadn't yet made certain preparations.

The surrounding scene was constantly shifting, countless white lines crisscrossing to construct the area he was about to enter.

And new information appeared in his mind.

[Mission Description: Welcome to the Strange Tower. You have received a distress call from Jennifer, a resident of the twenty-first floor of the Strange Tower.

On the twenty-first floor of the Strange Tower, there is a special old building, from which eerie laughter occasionally emanates.

You infiltrated the old building and successfully made contact with Jennifer. But this building, already tainted, seems different from when you first arrived.

The way out has become bizarre and complicated.

Escaping this building with Jennifer will yield a higher evaluation, or perhaps your abilities are only enough to flee alone.

Of course, even more extreme actions are also anticipated from you.]

This information quickly faded from his mind, and Wen Xishu began his first Three Towers Game.

Strange Tower, twenty-first floor.

Location: Moen City, slums, Jennifer's home.

Wen Xishu was indeed a bit surprised that his starting point was the comfort zone of the neighbor next door—under the bed.

He lay under the bed, one hand supporting his body, the other covering a little girl's mouth.

The girl had freckles that Westerners found cute, a ponytail, and big blinking eyes that should have been pretty.

But the fear in her eyes made her face look somewhat eerie.

The two of them were in a bad spot.

"Jennifer—where are you? Say something!"

"My dear Jen—ni—fer! I'll find you, I'm almost hearing your heartbeat, hehe."

A man's voice came from not far away, carrying a perverse excitement.

Wen Xishu quickly figured out the situation. The Three Towers weren't a single tower; they encompassed an entire world.

A certain area on a certain floor might just be a corner of that vast original world.

His mission was a rescue operation, and the girl hiding under the bed with him was presumably Jennifer.

And the man calling out to Jennifer was likely some dangerous figure.

The reason Jennifer needed to escape this building.

Wen Xishu was about to speak, to ask Jennifer for some details. But just as he was about to open his mouth, a sense of crisis slammed into him.

In his previous life, Wen Xishu's name could be said to flicker in and out of the Book of Life and Death all year round. The comment sections of his videos were filled with remarks like "Waiting for the funeral feast."

This had given him an extraordinary sense of death.

Wen Xishu noticed that Jennifer was holding a phone, which was on silent mode.

And his own hand was covering Jennifer's mouth.

The chill of death instantly enveloped Wen Xishu, but he forced himself to stay still, making no move at all.

Even his breathing was feather-light.

"Jennifer! Where the hell are you! Let me hear your voice, please!" The madman's call came again.

Wen Xishu hadn't expected the game to be this malicious—a death trap right at the start. No wonder no one wanted to come to the Strange Tower.

Jennifer's silenced phone, her muffled mouth, and the meaning behind the madman's words...

It all seemed to suggest that as long as someone spoke, the madman could hear them.

Clearly, the man's hearing wasn't limited to Jennifer alone.

If a Tower Ascender were here and habitually opened their mouth to ask a question—

Then odds were, the madman would charge straight at them, find Jennifer.

Game over, just like that.

Of course, there was also the possibility of forcing a win by defeating the monster with brute force.

But Wen Xishu's Magic Resistance was 0.

And this was the twenty-first floor of the Strange Tower—for him, this level demanded far too much Magic Resistance.

Too low a Magic Resistance came with many negative effects—

Inability to see normal item descriptions, inability to deal damage to enemies, enemies one-shotting you instantly, and sometimes the world before your eyes becoming indescribably twisted...

In short, Wen Xishu had no viable path to victory through combat. At least not at this stage.

The madman's voice grew louder—not because he was shouting harder, but because his distance...

Was getting closer and closer.

Staying hidden under the bed meant certain death.

But if he recklessly crawled out from under the bed, the noise he made would instantly draw the madman.

This was almost a dead end.