Recaps

Albert explained to Wen Xishu how the rules beyond the ninetieth floor restricted advancement and how Mr. Jin had once forced the Five Elders to gain Three Towers stats. After Mr. Jin refused to meet them, Evelyn revealed that Xiao Jin was not his grandson and was from their own era, leaving Wen Xishu and Albert stunned.

• Albert told Wen Xishu that the upper floors had strict rules, and Mr. Jin had once risked taking the Five Elders into the ninetieth floor so they could gain Three Towers stats.
• Albert described reaching the True Ninety-Seventh Floor and suspected the Guide and its required monster kills were deliberately slowing climbers down.
• Albert and Wen Xishu went to the Healing House, where Mr. Jin refused to come out or explain why he would not leave.
• Mr. Jin asked Albert to guide Xiao Jin, and Albert returned with Wen Xishu without learning why his old friend had secluded himself.
• Evelyn met Albert and Wen Xishu and revealed that Xiao Jin was neither Mr. Jin's grandson nor a child, but came from their own era.

Evelyn told Albert and Wen Xishu how Mr. Jin repeatedly erased and reshaped Xiao Jin’s memories, then admitted that Mr. Jin feared an assassin from the Three Towers World. Wen Xishu proposed using fear to uncover Xiao Jin’s original memories, and the three prepared to begin immediately.

• Albert, Wen Xishu, and Evelyn met at Three Towers Academy, where Evelyn agreed to reveal what she knew about Mr. Jin and Xiao Jin.
• Evelyn explained that Mr. Jin had repeatedly asked her to erase Xiao Jin’s memories and create different memories that made him kind, gentle, honest, and loving.
• Evelyn revealed that Mr. Jin feared someone from the Three Towers World might kill him, though he did not know for certain that he was being targeted.
• Wen Xishu suggested that the repeated memory changes were concealing Xiao Jin’s identity and proposed using extreme fear to access his original memories.
• Albert urged them to scare Xiao Jin at once, and Evelyn offered to use a facility at the Tower of Deception Academy to simulate scenarios and intensify his fear.

Wen Xishu uncovered the secret behind Mr. Jin by entering Xiao Jin’s recovered memories, learning that Mr. Jin had tricked Capricorn and brought Xiao Jin from the Three Towers Battlefield into the Bunker. The chapter ended with Wen Xishu telling Albert and Evelyn his deductions while Xiao Jin lay unconscious.

• Albert knocked out Xiao Jin and took him with Evelyn and Wen Xishu to the Tower of Deception Academy to uncover Old Jin’s secret.
• Wen Xishu used the Recollection Archive to recreate the Chosen Train, while Evelyn intensified Xiao Jin’s fear to reach memories beneath his implanted ones.
• Wen Xishu touched a scrolling comment and entered Xiao Jin’s memory, where he witnessed Capricorn accuse Mr. Jin of deceiving him and disrupting a ritual.
• Wen Xishu realized Mr. Jin had used Capricorn’s power to bring someone important from the Three Towers Battlefield into the Bunker instead of leaving as promised.
• Wen Xishu told Albert and Evelyn that Xiao Jin was that person and that Mr. Jin’s scheme against Capricorn explained why he had not appeared and why the Bunker had no newcomers.

Wen Xishu deduced how Mr. Jin had brought Xiao Jin into the Bunker and why Mr. Jin feared leaving the Healing House, while Albert decided to confront him about the past. Wen Xishu then began a new Strange Tower climb, where his mission sent him to a mysterious “Soul Concentration Camp.”

• Wen Xishu told Albert and Evelyn that Mr. Jin had tricked Capricorn’s smuggling ritual to make Xiao Jin a Bunker resident, and that Sagittarius may have marked Mr. Jin.
• Albert recalled that his old friends had died in the seventies and suspected a deadly hurdle or conspiracy lay between the Seventieth Floor and the ninetieth floors.
• Albert and Evelyn agreed to seek the truth from Mr. Jin, while Wen Xishu decided to climb a tower and left the mystery of Xiao Jin’s identity to the future.
• Wen Xishu chose Quality Elevation, Three Begets All Things, Two-Stage Chain, and Minimalism for his climb, and his enhanced Scorpio Knife gained the Great Tribute function.
• Wen Xishu entered the Strange Tower’s thirty-fifth-floor range and received a mission to survive in and escape the Soul Concentration Camp.

Wen Xishu entered a challenge where he had to control Chris, Zhou Fei, and Britney, three patients held in different wards of a sinister hospital. After discovering their distinct abilities and several dangerous rules, he tried to keep all three alive and prepare a way to escape.

• Wen Xishu assigned the Slaughter, Eerie, and Desire Sequences and their core items to Chris, Zhou Fei, and Britney before the challenge began.
• Chris endured electroshock torture, learned he was a veteran named Chris, and was taken toward solitary confinement as Wen Xishu unlocked a rule about silently counting numbers.
• Wen Xishu switched to Zhou Fei, learned he was a top student, and took medication that revealed rules about vomiting and thoughts being spoken aloud.
• Wen Xishu switched to Britney in the Mild Ward, where she persuaded a nonhuman doctor to leave a frail child behind and unlocked another rule.
• Wen Xishu concluded that the three characters had different strengths and needed to reach the Critical Care Ward, then received a warning that Chris might be in danger and discovered an Easter egg.

Wen Xishu used Chris to investigate the isolation room, discovering that counting numbers or touching carved number marks kept the parasites inside him dormant. After hearing Chris’s painful memories and resisting Margaret’s voice, he switched to the awakened Zhou Fei and found insects crawling over the other people in the hospital room.

• Wen Xishu guided Britney back to her room, then switched to Chris in the isolation room.
• Chris felt parasites crawling inside him, and Wen Xishu found that silently counting numbers suppressed them.
• A woman calling herself Margaret triggered Chris’s memories of war and his guilt over her death, and Wen Xishu stopped Chris from embracing the voice by making him slap himself.
• A broadcast promoted the Hall of Goodness, leading Wen Xishu to suspect that its treatments turned people into monsters and that exposing it might be necessary for a perfect ending.
• Wen Xishu discovered that touching numbers carved into the isolation-room wall let Chris keep the parasites dormant without counting, then switched to Zhou Fei.
• Wen Xishu found Zhou Fei awake in the hospital room and sensed insects crawling over the other people there.

Wen Xishu explored the ward while impersonating Zhou Fei, discovering that Zhou Fei’s drug resistance and apparent sleepwalking helped him evade the cameras. After surviving a confrontation with the white-coated figures and the revived Tea-Selling Old Man, Wen Xishu realized the wards’ danger levels were reversed and prepared to switch characters to check on Britney.

• The Tea-Selling Old Man briefly appeared in the ward, then collapsed, while Wen Xishu heard parasites crawling inside the patients.
• Wen Xishu recalled Zhou Fei’s history of taking medication and realized his drug resistance explained why he had not lost consciousness.
• After cameras turned toward him, Wen Xishu acted like Zhou Fei was sleepwalking, explored the corridors, and found a gray Concealment Rune.
• Three white-coated figures confronted Wen Xishu while carrying the Tea-Selling Old Man’s corpse, which revived and chanted Disciples’ Rules.
• Wen Xishu emptied his mind to make the figures believe parasites were inside him, then deduced that the Mild Ward and Critical Care Ward were effectively reversed.
• A prompt offered Wen Xishu the chance to switch characters, and he worried that Britney was surrounded by good people and in danger.

While controlling Britney in the Hall of Goodness, Wen Xishu uncovered that the Good People shared sensations and served a central Mother Entity, and learned that Britney had grown up inside a scripted reality show. He began planning an escape using Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney, with Britney as bait to draw the Great Good Person’s attention.

• Wen Xishu concluded that the parasites formed a hive mind whose fully taken-over hosts could share memories and perceptions, then returned Zhou Fei to bed and switched to Britney.
• Wen Xishu observed that the mild-symptom ward’s apparent games and laughter were repetitive performances, while children who acted out of sync drew the Good People’s attention.
• Britney’s memories revealed that her life had been secretly scripted and broadcast, and that she had discovered the deception and manipulated the show’s producers into arranging her parents’ deaths.
• Wen Xishu noticed that a parasitized cat was ignored by the patients and later observed the Good People reacting to one another’s food, confirming that they shared sensations while retaining some of their hosts’ desires.
• Wen Xishu inferred that the Great Good Person could not monitor every host at once and began shaping an escape plan, intending to use Zhou Fei to learn the rules, Chris to overcome obstacles, and Britney to lure the entity’s attention.

Wen Xishu used Britney’s cooking to draw the good people away from their posts, then guided Zhou Fei into the Critical Care Ward to reach Chris’s locked cell. He persuaded Zhou Fei to recount his formative memories, rapidly unlocking Sage abilities and raising the possibility that Chris could escape without a key.

• Wen Xishu had Britney prepare popular dishes, attracting the good people to the Mild Ward cafeteria and creating an opportunity to move Zhou Fei.
• Wen Xishu used the Concealment Rune to guide Zhou Fei from the Moderate Ward into the Critical Care Ward and to Chris’s solitary confinement cell.
• Wen Xishu spoke to Zhou Fei through Chris, proved he could control both of them, and explained that he intended to help all three escape.
• Wen Xishu convinced Zhou Fei to recount pivotal events from his life, triggering several stages of memory accumulation and unlocking Sage abilities.
• Wen Xishu realized that leveling Chris might let him escape the locked cell without a key, while Zhou Fei’s memories began revealing clues.

Wen Xishu uncovered Zhou Fei’s memories of alternating experiences that he mistook for sleepwalking and suggested that both versions were real, with drugs and manipulation hiding the truth. He began controlling Zhou Fei and approached Chris, hoping Chris’s memories would reveal more about the monster-filled city and the force behind it.

• Wen Xishu examined Zhou Fei’s memories and learned that Zhou Fei repeatedly woke in bed after witnessing disturbing events, including his father shedding skin and a child with a split-open face.
• Zhou Fei recalled that his cousin Zhou Ming had apologized and promised to reveal a secret, but he believed that experience vanished whenever he woke up.
• Wen Xishu told Zhou Fei that both sets of experiences were real and that drugs and an unseen force had made him believe the truth was only a dream.
• Wen Xishu suspected that a powerful Constellation controlled the city and had built false lives around Zhou Fei and Britney because they were unusually valuable or special.
• Wen Xishu took control of Zhou Fei, entered the isolation room, and introduced himself to Chris as someone who had come to get him out.

While controlling Zhou Fei, Wen Xishu unlocked Chris’s abilities by guiding him through his memories and connected their Will Affinity to the Strange Tower’s rules and the mystery of a dangerous child in Chris’s wartime past. After freeing Chris, Wen Xishu led him and Zhou Fei into the Moderate Ward to search its Archive Room for answers about Zhou Fei and Britney.

• Wen Xishu realized that the Strange Tower’s rules could help or hinder climbers and that Will Affinity might be essential to reaching the perfect ending.
• As Chris recounted his past, he revealed that soldiers blessed with unusual powers had been ordered to kill every child in a country they invaded, and that he had let a face-covered child go after the child told him he would find his own destiny.
• Wen Xishu concluded that Chris’s war, the child Longxia had tried to protect, and Will Affinity might be connected, then asked Chris to help him break out of confinement.
• Chris smashed through the iron door, and Wen Xishu persuaded Zhou Fei to continue investigating rather than escape immediately.
• Wen Xishu and Chris fought their way to the Moderate Ward, where Wen Xishu used Zhou Fei’s abilities to evade surveillance and entered the Archive Room.
• Wen Xishu searched the Archive Room and found Zhou Fei’s file.

Wen Xishu revealed the truth about Demon City and Zhou Fei’s past as they made their way toward the Mild Ward. Zhou Fei learned that his family had tried to protect him from the monsters but had been turned into good people, and he vowed to escape and avenge them.

• Wen Xishu used Zhou Fei’s ability to exploit a small loophole in the rules, then switched to Chris to lead their way toward the Mild Ward and explain what he had discovered.
• Wen Xishu told Zhou Fei that monsters had taken over Demon City and used the Hall of Goodness to suppress humans and prepare gifted people for parasitism.
• Wen Xishu revealed that Zhou Fei’s unusual perception began after he saw a child with a distorted shadow, and that his parents had drugged him to dull his senses before they were turned into good people.
• Wen Xishu explained that Zhou Fei’s uncle and brother had tried to protect him, but the good people discovered their intentions and turned them into good people as well.
• Wen Xishu and Zhou Fei hid from returning staff while Zhou Fei mourned his family, then Zhou Fei promised to escape before seeking revenge.
• Wen Xishu told Zhou Fei to stay alive and said they would meet the third victim and escape that day.

Wen Xishu helped Zhou Fei and Chris escape into the Mild Ward, where he contacted Britney and learned that she had also been helped by the mysterious child. After the three reunited, Britney agreed to share what she knew and revealed that the child had called himself Jin Shan.

• Wen Xishu used Britney to leave a message for her, then controlled Chris as he and Zhou Fei subdued two White Coats and entered the Mild Ward.
• Britney remembered that a child had exposed the staged deception surrounding her life, and Wen Xishu realized the same child connected her, Zhou Fei, and Chris.
• Wen Xishu and Zhou Fei reached the classroom, while alarms sounded in the Moderate Ward and Critical Care Ward; Britney replied that they should avoid fighting and meet her in her room.
• Wen Xishu encouraged Zhou Fei by describing how people could grow powerful even in oppressive worlds, and Zhou Fei asked whether he could avenge his family.
• Britney welcomed Zhou Fei and Chris into her room and agreed to explain what she knew about the child and the Good People.
• Britney told Wen Xishu that the child had said people knew him by the name Jin Shan.

Wen Xishu combined Britney, Zhou Fei, and Chris through Affinity of Wills, then used their powers to escape the Hall of Goodness. The trio reached the city, but no Invitation Letter appeared, and the mission ended with Wen Xishu sent to the Guide still searching for answers about Jin Shan and the failed plan.

• Wen Xishu realized that Britney, Zhou Fei, and Chris had each unlocked abilities that could help them escape the Hall of Goodness.
• Britney, Zhou Fei, and Wen Xishu joined hands, triggering Affinity of Wills and allowing Wen Xishu to merge with them, hear their thoughts, and use their abilities.
• Wen Xishu used Britney's Sincere Heart to persuade a White Coat to leave Britney's room, then learned he could switch between all three bodies and use their powers together.
• Wen Xishu pieced together a theory about Jin Shan, Mr. Jin, Longxia's plan to create a god, and Chris's role in an assassination mission, while recognizing that much of it remained speculation.
• Wen Xishu used the trio's abilities to draw guards away, scale the Hall of Goodness's outer wall, and escape into the rain-soaked city.
• Wen Xishu received a mission-completion notification instead of an Invitation Letter and was told he would proceed to the Guide, leaving him unsure whether the trio's freedom had truly changed their fate.

Wen Xishu completed the Hall of Goodness and received the Heart of Fusion as a hidden-ending reward, learning how the Strange Tower differed from the Desire Tower. Back at the Academy, he discovered that one of his Recollection Archive challenges had driven a student insane, and he decided to take responsibility before the Principal summoned him.

• Wen Xishu completed the stage, saw Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney separate peacefully, and received the Heart of Fusion and the Good People Society facility.
• The black strange head explained that Wen Xishu had earned a hidden ending because the three obsessions valued giving him the Heart of Fusion more than changing their fates.
• Wen Xishu learned that Invitation Letters supported changing people's fates in the Desire Tower, while Strange Tower stages could reward abilities and key items.
• The Academy Spirit told Wen Xishu that Mr. Jack, Tang Rui, and Jennifer had caused a student to suffer a mental breakdown during a Recollection Archive challenge.
• Wen Xishu admitted that he had pushed the student too far and said he would handle the matter personally.
• The Academy Spirit reported that the Principal wanted to see Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu met with Albert and the tower climbers, revealing what he knew about Xiao Jin and correcting Mr. Jin’s mistaken belief that Xiao Jin was Gemini. The meeting ended with a warning that Mr. Jin’s actions had made floors seventy through seventy-five dangerously difficult, while Wen Xishu suspected Mr. Jin might be Ding Dong’s father.

• Wen Xishu admitted that the academy’s preview courses had been too difficult, and Albert advised him to encourage students with manageable challenges and rewards.
• Albert told Wen Xishu that the Bunker was rejecting Mr. Jin after he brought Xiao Jin inside, and that someone who belonged to the Bunker had to leave in exchange.
• Albert explained that Mr. Jin suspected Xiao Jin was Gemini because Xiao Jin had a twin brother with whom he shared thoughts and senses.
• Wen Xishu said Xiao Jin was not Gemini and explained that the twins’ apparent connection came from an item Mr. Jin wanted; he withheld that he had obtained the Heart of Fusion.
• Albert warned Wen Renjing and Xun Hui that Mr. Jin’s actions had made floors seventy through seventy-five perilous across all three towers, and the group discussed ways to overcome the threat.
• Albert arranged for Wen Xishu to meet Mr. Jin, while Wen Xishu suspected Mr. Jin might be Ding Dong’s father.

Wen Xishu advised Zheng Zai through a crisis of conscience after Zheng learned his father had been guilty despite being publicly cleared. Zheng invited Wen to join him on a special Strange Tower mission using an Eerie Conference Two-Person Entry Ticket, and Wen agreed to go when he next climbed.

• Albert urged Wen Xishu to postpone climbing a tower so he would not miss a chance to speak with Old Jin, and Wen agreed to wait.
• Zheng Zai visited Wen at the Tower of Deception Academy and thanked him, explaining that Officer Liu Jinsen had given him evidence proving his father had committed the crimes he was accused of.
• Zheng Zai struggled with whether to destroy the evidence and preserve his father's heroic public image, but decided to return it to Officer Liu Jinsen.
• Zheng Zai told Wen about his Eerie Sequence 123, its new rune, and an Eerie Conference Two-Person Entry Ticket that could summon a friend to a tower mission.
• Wen accepted Zheng Zai's invitation to the special mission but said he would tell Zheng when they could leave, since he could not leave the Bunker yet.

Wen Xishu agreed to consider William Hockner’s investment in the Tower of Deception Academy and promised to treat Xue Mingye’s strange obsession with Jennifer. After returning to the academy, Wen Xishu received a call from the Principal arranging a visit to Old Jin the next morning.

• Wen Xishu met William Hockner, who praised his tower-climbing record and proposed investing in the sea and facilities under the academy’s control.
• William Hockner offered to fund luxurious student facilities and support services to improve enrollment, and Wen Xishu asked him to draw up a contract.
• William Hockner explained that he wanted to support Wen Xishu and the Old Principal because he believed tower climbers would shape humanity’s future.
• Wen Xishu visited the Xue Family to apologize and found Xue Mingye raving about Jennifer and wanting to be tortured by her.
• Wen Xishu told Xue Fan that he could treat Xue Mingye and asked him to bring his son back to the Tower of Deception Academy.
• The Principal called Wen Xishu and arranged for them to visit Old Jin the following morning.

Mr. Jin explained that Sagittarius threatened the Bunker and outlined three plans to counter it, revealing that the best plan was for him to return to the Three Towers. He sent Albert and the elders away, then asked Wen Xishu about Longxia’s plan and the five children.

• Wen Xishu accompanied Albert and the elders to meet Mr. Jin at the Healing House on the Seventeenth Floor.
• Mr. Jin named Sagittarius as their enemy and described three possible plans, rejecting a direct defense and the elders’ attempt to reach the hundredth floor as unworkable.
• Mr. Jin dismissed Albert and the elders, then confirmed to Wen Xishu that returning to the Three Towers would restore the proper course and remove Sagittarius’s causal threat from the Bunker.
• Mr. Jin said he would clear the way for the younger generation and asked Wen Xishu how much he had learned about Longxia’s plan and where the five children were.

Wen Xishu questioned Mr. Jin about Ding Dong, Xiao Jin, and the Bunker’s origins, learning that Xiao Jin could imitate Constellations and may have split into two as Gemini. Mr. Jin admitted he could not explain the Three Towers or the forces behind them and said his final mission was to open the way for Wen Xishu and the others.

• Wen Xishu asked Mr. Jin about Ding Dong, and Mr. Jin recalled letting the child escape the Swan Project rather than allow the child to be dissected.
• Mr. Jin revealed that he had secretly raised Jin Shan, whom the Compass had led him to, and that Jin Shan later displayed powers resembling those of multiple Constellations.
• Mr. Jin said Xiao Jin vanished from the Undersea Containment Facility before Mr. Jin awoke with immense power and memories that led him to the Bunker.
• Mr. Jin explained that Xiao Jin had imitated different Constellations and split into two, leading Wen Xishu to suspect the Xiao Jin in the Bunker was one of the weakened Twinborn.
• Mr. Jin described how he entered the Bunker first and guided others there, but said he did not know the origins of the Bunker, the Three Towers, or the Zodiac Signs.
• Mr. Jin told Wen Xishu that his final mission was to open the way for them and that they would have to uncover the truth by climbing the towers.

Wen Xishu questioned Mr. Jin’s sudden decision to climb the towers and learned from Albert that Jin had refused to leave his refuge as recently as two months ago. Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai entered the Eerie Competition, where their abilities and stats were reset and Wen Xishu discovered his converted score was 530,000 combat power.

• Wen Xishu suspected Mr. Jin might be hiding the truth, while Albert recalled Jin’s successful leadership of the Bunker and said Jin had recently changed his mind.
• Wen Xishu asked Albert when he last spoke with Mr. Jin and learned that Jin had still refused to leave his refuge two months earlier.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai activated their Login Devices to enter the Eerie Competition, and Wen Xishu chose the Lovebirds in Flight option from the Madman’s Dice.
• The competition reset all contestants’ abilities, items, and stats, then converted their previous progress into points for drawing cards.
• Zheng Zai received 254 points and saw contestants with far higher scores, while Wen Xishu revealed that his own combat power was 530,000.

Wen Xishu discovered that his vast point total let him obtain four powerful cards, while Zheng Zai drew cards that briefly silenced him. As the first Eerie Competition trial began, Wen Xishu studied the mirrors and coffins and believed he had solved the challenge just before time ran out.

• Wen Xishu learned that his items and abilities had earned him 530,000 points, giving him a huge advantage over Zheng Zai and the other contestants.
• The host introduced the Eerie Competition and announced that the first round, Ten-Mirror Punishment, would eliminate most contestants.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai were grouped together as their section transformed into a chamber of ten mirrors and one hundred numbered coffins.
• Zheng Zai drew two Chaos Cards, which left him unable to speak until Wen Xishu's Great Healer card negated their negative effects.
• Wen Xishu revealed that he had drawn four powerful cards, including one that could transfer his damage to another contestant, but chose to investigate the puzzle instead.
• With seconds left, Wen Xishu studied the mirrors and announced that he thought he had found the answer.

Wen Xishu survived the Ten Mirror Punishment by using a God Card, while Zheng Zai survived in coffin 81; the first round eliminated most contestants. The survivors entered a second round with nearly five thousand contestants, where Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai faced a deadly statue puzzle as an Elite Species began choosing contestants to test it.

• Wen Xishu entered coffin 80 instead of the correct coffin 81, then used a God Card to survive Mother You's attack while the shadow in coffin one was devoured after their fates were exchanged.
• Wen Xishu explained that the safe coffin numbers were the squares from 1 through 10, and he and Zheng Zai emerged among the few survivors.
• The host merged hundreds of competition zones, awarded Wen Xishu 210 points, and announced a new round involving nearly five thousand contestants and five card slots.
• Zheng Zai drew two Order Cards and a Demon Energy Card, while Wen Xishu revealed that he carried five Weird Divine Cards.
• The host introduced one hundred statues whose numbers determined how many contestants could die, and an enormous Elite Species tree began ordering contestants to touch them.
• Wen Xishu used a concealment card to hide himself and Zheng Zai as he considered the clues in the statue puzzle and the colored butterflies overhead.

Wen Xishu watched the great tree test the numbered statues and deduced that the butterflies affected how many people died. After the third statue killed more than forty-eight hundred contestants, the survivors challenged the tree’s control, while Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai stayed concealed and waited for the next round.

• The great tree forced a common species to light statue number one, killing it and four nearby contestants, while the tree gained points.
• The great tree ordered two common species to light statue number two; they killed each other, and four more contestants died from the statue’s effect.
• Wen Xishu noticed the butterflies gathering around the statues and predicted that lighting the flower statue would cause mass deaths, so he and Zheng Zai retreated behind the tree.
• Statue number three became a Seven-Colored Flower and killed more than forty-eight hundred contestants, raising the tree’s score past forty thousand.
• The surviving rare and elite species demanded a new way to choose who would light the statues, and the flying monster with the highest score led their challenge against the tree.
• Wen Xishu told Zheng Zai they would wait and let the remaining contestants weaken one another, adding that the next statue would kill few people.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai solved Zone One’s statue puzzle, survived its eliminations, and became the first contestants to clear the round. In the lounge, the host explained the next asymmetrical match, and Wen Xishu asked whether two Heroes could face dozens of Demon Kings for extra points.

• In Zone One, the great tree forced Rare Species to light the statues, but butterflies altered the death toll and the disasters reduced thousands of contestants to a handful.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai stayed hidden as the guillotine statue killed the great tree and left them alone in the arena.
• Wen Xishu deduced that the correct statue numbers followed a Fibonacci sequence and that butterflies represented mathematical operations, then lit the remaining correct statues with Zheng Zai.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai advanced to the third round, shocking the host, which resolved to rig the next match to eliminate the two humans.
• In the lounge, the host described an asymmetrical match between Demon Kings and Heroes, and Wen Xishu asked to face dozens of Demon Kings with only two Heroes for more points.