Rich Kid

Wen Xishu did not immediately look outside the door.

He first examined the bizarre walls and the two chairs that looked deeply unsettling.

Finally, he looked at the refrigerator emitting a foul stench.

The battered refrigerator in the corner of the room did not seem to be mere decoration.

It had once been Jack's piggy bank, and now it most likely contained someone's corpse.

Wen Xishu guessed that watching the performance could help them evade Jack's pursuit outside, but the viewing itself carried enormous risks.

If the score fell below sixty... they might be stuffed into the refrigerator to "share a room" with Anderson.

He was almost certain that the corpse in the refrigerator was Anderson's.

He liked Jack's method very much, but he did not want to be stuffed into a refrigerator.

Fortunately, their score was high now, and an escape route had appeared.

This also meant that, after surviving the opening kill, the patrol, the Loop Building, and the previous performance...

There should only be one final hurdle left before clearing the trial.

"Let's go. Let's see what's next."

Wen Xishu did not use the Invitation Letter right away. Instead, he decided to continue advancing the Strange Tower mission.

The madman Jack seemed to have gone to another floor.

After leaving Jack's room, the two of them heard Jack's laughter again. It had grown more distant, but something even more terrifying appeared along with it.

Countless black lines emerged on the walls on both sides of the staircase.

They seemed alive, like strands of moldy noodles, their gray-black bodies constantly writhing.

Millions upon millions of bugs squirmed across the walls, gradually arranging themselves into a sentence.

Dense and overwhelming, the sentence filled nearly everywhere their eyes could see—

"Jennifer! Where are you!"

Even Wen Xishu felt his scalp prickle at the sight, as though he had fallen into a mass of black spiderwebs, or been surrounded by countless strands of hair.

Ever since he had called Remian, Wen Xishu had noticed something.

"Jack's supernatural ability seems capable of materializing certain thoughts in his mind."

"The telephone ringing in his head can broadcast outward in every direction, and his thoughts can also drive these bizarre insects into forming words..."

So far, this ability did not seem to possess any offensive power.

Perhaps it was because, deep down, Jack did not want to kill Jennifer.

But Wen Xishu could increasingly sense that Jack had very little patience left. He trusted his judgment.

The reason was probably this—only someone equally twisted could earn such a high score of ninety-seven.

Wen Xishu had actually considered that if this world ever forced him to become a monster, then he would definitely kill, kill, kill, kill, kill...

There would be no nonsense about sparing the old and young, nor would there be any mercy for those with pretty faces and kind hearts.

The greatest respect one could show revenge was to kill by mistake rather than let anyone go.

So Wen Xishu would not have found it strange if Jack killed Jennifer.

The bugs on the walls grew more numerous. The layers upon layers of "Jennifer, where are you?" filling his vision had reached a level that could make someone with trypophobia vomit and faint.

Wen Xishu hoisted Jennifer onto his back and typed as he descended the stairs.

"From now on, no matter what you hear or see, ignore it. I'm here. Don't be afraid."

Ghoul Jennifer's Favorability increased.

Jennifer's body was icy and somewhat stiff, but she still nodded, biting her lip tightly.

Wen Xishu descended the stairs extremely quickly.

As a former extreme sports enthusiast and parkour expert, even with this new body after crossing over, he could still rely on his memories to perform many professional movements.

He practically kept leaping downward through the stairwell, moving at astonishing speed.

The bugs' spread was clearly unable to keep up with Wen Xishu's descent.

Jack's voice also grew weaker and weaker.

The building was not tall, so Wen Xishu quickly noticed something was wrong.

"This isn't right. An old building like this shouldn't be very tall... but I've already gone down more than ten floors, and I still haven't reached the first floor."

The endless staircase seemed to lead straight into hell.

The temperature was also dropping lower and lower. Jennifer's breath had turned into white mist.

A thin layer of ice crystals covered the stair railings.

Jack's voice was indeed fading, and it seemed they were getting farther away from him, yet the end of the stairs remained nowhere in sight.

"Jennifer... don't leave me. Are you going to Yulia's place?"

"You'll choose me, right? Or are you going to be a child who listens to her mother? You have a mother. Are you showing off to me?"

The latter half of Jack's words had clearly turned vicious. Though his voice had become increasingly faint, Wen Xishu still caught the crucial information in them.

"As expected, there's another stage."

Wen Xishu, who had previously been uncertain, now took firmer steps.

Not long after Jack finished speaking, a warm breeze brushed over Jennifer from behind.

Soft and warm, compared to the surrounding cold, it felt as if paradise lay behind them.

Wen Xishu instantly became alert.

"Jennifer... Jennifer... my poor daughter, come to Mommy!"

The woman's voice seemed capable of driving away the terrifying chill.

Ahead of Jennifer lay endless stairs, descending who knew how many more floors, along with cold that seeped into the bones.

But behind Jennifer, the narrow and oppressive stairwell seemed to have widened, as though a bright and warm path had appeared.

Wen Xishu immediately thought of the "performance" he had watched not long ago.

Only then did he realize that Jack really was like him—he held grudges and repaid every slight. This was a textbook case of an eye for an eye.

When Jack had begged Jennifer to watch his performance, Yulia had utterly crushed him with one sentence: "Jennifer, don't turn around."

Now, forced by the situation, Wen Xishu shouted something similar.

"Jennifer, don't turn around!"

Jack's inner thoughts could materialize. His greatest hatred toward Yulia was not her contempt for the poor, but the fact that she had forbidden Jennifer from watching his performance.

At that moment, this hatred had materialized as well, repaying tooth for tooth and eye for eye.

The woman behind them was not Yulia at all, but a manifestation of Jack's psyche.

Just when Wen Xishu thought Jennifer would suffer a turn-around kill and that he could only reach a bad ending with a low score—

Jennifer did not turn around.

A prompt that greatly delighted Wen Xishu appeared in his mind.

Your steady emotions gave Ghoul Jennifer faith. Favorability requirement met. At this moment, Ghoul Jennifer chose to trust you.

Three increases in Favorability actually had such an effect.

Jennifer was actually clever too.

She had probably guessed that her mother could not possibly appear nearby at a time like this.

When her mother had told her to stay under the bed before leaving herself...

Jennifer had wondered whether her mother was abandoning her. Was she merely a tool hiding under the bed to lure Uncle Jack away?

But if Wen Xishu had not performed so steadily before, Jennifer still might have turned around in a situation like this.

The woman continued calling out, her voice becoming more and more shrill, even gradually turning vicious.

"Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer! Jennifer..."

The voice sped up, becoming unnaturally manic.

But Jennifer merely shut her eyes and wrapped her little arms tightly around Wen Xishu. Wen Xishu did not lower his guard, but his assessment of Jennifer rose considerably.

He had to admit that this little girl was truly a qualified protection target. She completely lacked the traits of an idiotic NPC who forcibly increased the protagonist's workload.

What excited Wen Xishu even more was that he had finally seen the staircase exit.

As the woman's cries gradually became inaudible, the endless staircase finally reached its end. Wen Xishu successfully arrived on the first floor of the building.

The stairwell on the first floor was only a few steps away from the building's exit.

The mission was about to end.

"Jennifer, do you think that escaping this building means you can leave me? Can you handle the outside world by yourself? This is only the beginning."

"I'll be with you forever!"

Jack's voice came from a distant floor.

Wen Xishu suddenly stopped. He looked at Jennifer and said with a smile:

"Sorry, Jennifer. You leave first. I have something else to do."

Sending Jennifer out of the building and successfully leaving himself would count as completing the mission.

More precisely, his own successful departure was the key. Whether Jennifer could leave would only affect the final Completion Level.

Combined with the prompt from the Invitation Letter, Wen Xishu was utterly certain there were still aspects of this mission worth exploring further.

So he did not intend to complete the mission now.

After Jennifer reluctantly left the building, he first used his sleeve to conceal his Login Device.

Then he took out the Invitation Letter, bit his finger, and pressed his fingerprint onto it.

The patterns on the Invitation Letter began to writhe.

At that instant, everything around him froze. Time was completely frozen as well.

You are about to proceed to the [Rest Area]. Strange Tower trial progress will be paused. All objects within the area, including players from the other three towers, will enter a time-stop state.

Time spent entering the Desire Tower through the Invitation Letter must not exceed forty-eight hours. After forty-eight hours, you will be forcibly returned to the Strange Tower. You may also return to the Strange Tower early through the Invitation Letter.

Two messages surfaced in Wen Xishu's mind.

What satisfied him greatly was that if this were a multiplayer mission and one person obtained an Invitation Letter, everyone else would enter a time-stop state as well.

This meant that even if he teamed up with others to explore the Strange Tower in the future, he could still use the Invitation Letter without worrying about being discovered.

However, Invitation Letters were clearly difficult to find. The requirements for obtaining one presumably differed from mission to mission.

The scenery around him blurred, and Wen Xishu could not move.

At first, he had wondered whether he could, like the male lead in certain island films, do a few things during the time stop after the Invitation Letter interrupted the mission and froze everything in the Strange Tower.

Now, it seemed he could not.

Compared to the other objects frozen in time throughout the area, Wen Xishu was not much better off.

The only thing he could do was think.

But he did not have much time to think. Before he could even properly experience that stillness...

His mind was hit by a wave of dizziness. Then, he entered the next area.

"On the sixth floor, does any expert know the details of that mission where you help a basketball player find happiness? I heard you need to learn how to fly a helicopter?"

"I'm eighteen, age eighteen, length eighteen. I'm about to head for the ninth floor. Mission target: bring happiness to game producer Miyazaki Takagao. Can anyone tell me whether this guy's a pervert? How do I turn him gay? I only know how to convince people with my dick!"

"Fourth floor, sky-high wedding mission. Selling a guide on how to play a tall, rich, handsome guy in front of the mission target. Guaranteed to make her happy, make her take the initiative, and unlock hidden moves."

Calls of hawking came from the distance, leaving Wen Xishu somewhat bewildered.

But he quickly understood that he apparently had not entered the Desire Tower yet, but some sort of transit area.

The Desire Tower Rest Area.

Those entering the Desire Tower, Strange Tower, or Slaughter Tower for the first time would directly enter the area corresponding to their tower.

From the second time onward, however, they would first enter the "Rest Area."

All players from the three towers could remain in the Rest Area for up to one hour.

During that hour, they could ask other players from the three towers present at the same time for guides to certain floors, or ask whether anyone had the same mission and seek to form a team.

Or they could sell certain items here, sell guides, and sell special props needed in certain scenarios.

Of course, they could also ascend a tower early rather than remain in the Rest Area.

The Rest Area as a whole resembled a marketplace. There were many display stands and shelves.

But from above, the area looked more like a chessboard. The intersecting walkways formed nineteen vertical lines and nineteen horizontal lines.

Many people occupied display stands, selling all kinds of things.

Wen Xishu's sudden appearance also drew attention.

"Whoa, you look like you've only just come of age. Which family's young master are you, kid?"

Wen Xishu was in the area at vertical ten, horizontal ten—the center of the Rest Area, the chessboard's central point.

The person greeting Wen Xishu was a plump middle-aged man with a kindly face and a smile that radiated affable prosperity.

His smile was even more amiable than Sha Ruijing's, but it carried a hint of sly flattery, perhaps because his double chin was too round.

Beside him stood a woman with an icy expression and sharp eyes, though her features were undeniably exquisite.

"Oh, how rude of me. Let me introduce myself first. I am Ji Boda, and this is my wife, Liu Ruyan."

"We have all kinds of information you may want. May I ask which family's young master you are?"

Ji Boda was extremely polite.

Because in his view, someone around eighteen who could enter the Desire Tower directly at such a young age, and who was Asian...

Definitely did not come from an ordinary family.

Yet there was one thing Ji Boda could not understand: why was this young man in the central point?

This was not a position where a newcomer could appear.

Wen Xishu smiled and said:

"I'm just a newbie who just started climbing. What young master? I'm just a lower-class citizen from the Bunker."

Ji Boda waved his hand.

"You must be joking, kid. The fact that you can arrive in the central area proves that, during this time period, your tower-climbing level is among the highest tier."

Hearing that, Wen Xishu realized there was more to it. He did not put on airs and directly asked:

"So, the closer one's initial position here is to the central area, the higher their level?"

Ji Boda studied Wen Xishu carefully. Seeing that he truly did not seem to be pretending, he asked curiously,

"You really don't know?"

Wen Xishu shook his head.

"I really don't."

Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan exchanged a glance. This time, Liu Ruyan spoke. Her tone was cold, but her voice was pleasant.

"It's normal not to trust a married couple like us. We sell information, and we have a lot of intelligence on floors one through thirty-seven."

"If you have any questions, you can ask us."

Wen Xishu looked around. Indeed, only he and the married couple were in the central area.

His own level corresponded to the twenty-first floor of the Desire Tower.

Although the noisy cries outside proved there were many people in the Rest Area...

With so many people, though, the floors they had explored were not very high—perhaps only between floors one and ten.

Yet he had already arrived at the central position.

In other words, during this current hour, his twenty-first floor was the highest. Only Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan were at roughly the same level as him.

Unless someone of an even higher level entered and pushed him out.

Wen Xishu now roughly understood which areas ordinary Tower Ascenders generally frequented.

Since this couple could sell information on floors one through thirty-seven, they had to be masters among masters.

He said,

"I need to go to the twenty-first floor and help a child named Jennifer bring her happiness."

The moment Ji Boda heard the words "twenty-first floor" and "Jennifer," a storm of shock rose in his heart.

The young man before him was simply too young, looking barely old enough to be permitted to ascend the tower.

Someone so young had already explored more than twenty floors. He was truly a genius of the Desire Tower.

Ji Boda became even more convinced that this young man was the child of some wealthy family from the Bunker.