The Strange Building and the Madman

The madman's footsteps and sneers grew closer.

He was on the hallway outside the room.

This old-style building resembled a hospital from the 1990s, with many rooms on each floor split by a straight corridor running down the middle.

The bathrooms and laundry were shared, usually at the end of the hallway, same as the stairwell.

Wen Xishu lay under the bed, waiting patiently.

He wore a smile, that calm expression giving Jennifer a strange sense of safety.

Her heart, which had been pounding violently from fear, gradually returned to a normal rhythm.

But even so, the madman's footsteps didn't stop.

Wen Xishu wasn't panicked.

He had dodged the first death point—the opening kill—which convinced him that the danger here had a pattern.

He had noticed that everyone in the Bunker referred to exploring the three towers as the Three Towers Game.

This suggested that every dangerous situation, like a game, had some method of clearing it.

"Never lose your composure just because the footsteps are getting closer."

Wen Xishu began to wait patiently.

The footsteps drew nearer, and Jennifer fell into fear again. Wen Xishu first made a shushing gesture.

His past life experiences, where he couldn't leave bad reviews, had given him a super-sized heart.

Then he picked up his phone, quickly opened the memo app, and typed with one hand:

"Don't be afraid. Stay quiet. Do whatever I tell you. If you understand, blink."

Jennifer blinked.

"Good kid."

Wen Xishu relaxed.

After calming Jennifer down, he continued waiting.

Just as the madman's footsteps seemed to reach the door, about to open it—

The madman spoke again:

"Dear Jenny, are you going to be as quiet as Remian?"

"He hid for a while, sure, but I already smashed his brains in, hehe."

"He can't slander me on the phone anymore. Never! Again! He's Silent Remian now!"

His footsteps stomped through the floorboards, and when he mentioned that last sentence, his anger clearly surged.

Wen Xishu felt the whole building shake.

This made him realize that the monsters in the Strange Tower likely possessed supernatural power.

But he still wasn't panicked:

"Unlike his earlier words, this time the madman mentioned someone named Remian."

"He's furious that Remian kept slandering him on the phone."

"The key info should be Silent Remian and the phone."

Like reading a boss's attack wind-up, Wen Xishu sensed this was a breakthrough point.

He decisively opened his phone again, his fingers sliding unhurriedly through the contacts.

Sure enough, he found Remian.

And when his gaze fixed on Remian—a translucent dialog box actually popped up.

But the content inside made his head feel dizzy.

It was all a mess of garbled characters.

"Just like a game—certain special places or items give hints."

"But probably because my Magic Resistance is too low, I should have seen some of Remian's info here..."

"But now, that info is completely blocked, and staring at it even affects my thinking."

Wen Xishu looked away.

"No matter. Even without knowing Remian's info, I can guess what to do."

The sound of the doorknob turning came; the madman was about to enter the room.

Jennifer's pupils trembled. She was terrified to the extreme, afraid that a twisted face would suddenly poke under the bed, gleefully shouting "Found you."

But at that moment, Wen Xishu dialed Remian's number.

Silent Remian, slandering people on the phone, the madman's abnormal rage...

These clues, in Wen Xishu's view, were clearly telling you how to dismantle the boss's next move.

A phone suddenly rang upstairs, and the madman's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

It wasn't just upstairs—after that first ring, phone noises erupted from every direction, filling the entire building.

Like a thousand phones going off at once in the dead of night.

"Another supernatural phenomenon... This building seems to amplify the madman's inner turmoil," Wen Xishu silently analyzed.

The massive, chaotic cacophony of ringing phones enraged the madman:

"Re! Mi! An! You're still alive! I'll kill you! I'll stomp your head into pulp!"

"Shut up! Shut up! You sniveling backstabber!"

In an instant, the voice shifted from this room to several floors above.

Wen Xishu smiled at Jennifer and, with the astonishing typing speed of someone single for years, quickly wrote:

"See? I told you it was fine. Now we can leave this room."

He crawled out from under the bed with calm composure, like a wronged husband reclaiming his dignity after the bully had left.

Jennifer's eyes glistened with tears—the madman's footsteps had clearly terrified her.

But Wen Xishu had once again given her a sense of safety.

[Strange's favorability slightly increased. Desire's favorability slightly increased.]

A message appeared in Wen Xishu's mind.

He was a bit confused. Both the Strange Tower and the Desire Tower... had a Jennifer?

Was the Desire Tower's mission also to rescue Jennifer?

He didn't dwell on the question. He needed to lead Jennifer toward the exit downstairs and get out of this building as quickly as possible.

Having dodged the opening kill and found a way to lure the madman away, he had already avoided two death nodes.

As they moved through the building, Wen Xishu began reading the notes on his phone.

"The role I'm playing is someone rescuing Jennifer."

"When I arrived, the person I'm playing had already made contact with Jennifer."

"They must have communicated."

His guess was correct. The notes read:

"Uncle Jack suddenly went crazy. He killed Uncle Remian and so many people in the building!"

"I'm so scared. I want to leave here. But Mom told me to hide under the bed and not move."

That was Jennifer's words. The little girl was clever, knowing to communicate via phone from the start. The rescuer had also asked questions:

"Were you close with Jack?"

Jennifer's reply:

"Uncle Jack likes Mom. Uncle Remian likes Mom too. But Mom doesn't like them..."

"Mom said she'll definitely take me to live in a brighter building. She doesn't want too much connection with the poor people here. She's someone who's going to live in a villa."

"But... I really like the people here, especially Uncle Jack."

"Uncle Jack used to be a really good person. He played with me a lot. It wasn't just to make Mom happy."

"He genuinely liked playing with me. And I really liked playing with him too."

"I don't know why Uncle Jack became like this."

Wen Xishu finished reading the entire content quickly.

"Looks like this is the backstory of some area on the twenty-first floor of the Strange Tower."

A good man suddenly goes mad, gains supernatural power, and slaughters all his neighbors...

Wen Xishu had a feeling that if he just escaped alone, he'd probably only achieve the minimum Completion Level.

Ensuring Jennifer survived might net him a second or even third level.

But to reach the fourth level, he'd need to do more.

Just then, he noticed another terrible thing—

The Loop Building.

At the end of the hallway, there should have been stairs leading up or down.

But Wen Xishu led Jennifer along the corridor for a long time... only to return to the starting point.

A ghost wall. The Loop Building. The original stairs had vanished.

And at that moment, the entire building shook slightly. The eerie phone ringing had completely stopped.

Because Remian's phone, along with his twice-destroyed corpse, had been stomped to pieces.

"Damn Remian! You sniveling backstabber! Damn it! Damn it!"

"Jen-ni-fer! Come watch my performance with me! I've been rehearsing at home for so long—you'll come, right?"

The target of his words had once again shifted back to Jennifer.

Wen Xishu could sense that the madman, Jack, was already very close to them.

That eerie, twisted laughter reminded Wen Xishu of spiderwebs clinging to his skin—maddening.

Jennifer couldn't see the exit, and tears had already welled up in her eyes. She had no idea what to do, and thought only of hiding back under the bed from before.

But Wen Xishu suddenly grabbed her. Calmly, he turned his phone screen toward Jennifer:

"Be good, don't be afraid. I've got everything under control."

"Now tell me, where is Jack's house? We're going to watch his performance."

That's all for today, but tomorrow there will be ten thousand words.