Chapter Summaries

Wen Xishu met Pen Master, who revealed that he came from Sinland and had used his writing ability to strengthen the curse forcing the Constellations to kill one another. Pen Master explained his confinement in the Strange Tower and suggested Wen Xishu might be the person he had awaited.

• Reed was separated from Wen Xishu and sent to hide from Jack the Ripper and Clown inside a shrinking circle on Baker Street.
• Wen Xishu met Morson, the Pen Master, in a library and learned that Morson had come from Sinland before the apocalypse.
• Morson explained that he possessed Three Towers Sequence 10: Creation and had been forced by a merchant to write a story with a special pen.
• Morson revealed that he had strengthened the curse requiring the Constellations to hunt one another, and said it might therefore be possible to weaken or overturn it.
• Morson described escaping to the Strange Tower, where his writing could affect only the World of Obsessions, and told Wen Xishu he might be the person he had been waiting for.

Wen Xishu failed at first to use Morson’s pen, but a bottle of cola he had written into existence revealed that the pen had chosen him. He saved Reed and received a Special Invitation Letter, leaving with a difficult mission to reach the book that could change the Three Towers War’s fate.

• Morson explained that Wen Xishu could use the pen to alter the book behind the Constellations’ curse, but Wen Xishu’s first attempt seemed to fail.
• Morson told Wen Xishu that the Tea-Selling Old Man had warned him Sinland would send no more reinforcements, prompting Wen Xishu to question whether his own arrival had happened earlier through time manipulation.
• A bottle of cola appeared and took the form Wen Xishu had imagined, proving the pen had acknowledged him; Wen Xishu wrote Reed’s fate and stopped the shrinking zone from trapping him.
• Morson’s manual revealed that Wen Xishu could only make limited changes with the pen, and that any effective writing would require a price.
• Morson gave Wen Xishu a Special Invitation Letter and warned him to grow stronger and seek trustworthy Constellations before going to the book’s guarded location.
• Morson told Wen Xishu he could be part of the price, and Wen Xishu resolved to write the ending of the story.

After clearing Pen Town, Wen Xishu received new rewards and chose to postpone using a key that could take him to the latest timeline of the Three Towers World. In Lion City, Reed revealed powerful new abilities and asked Leon to let him challenge the Four Royal Guards.

• Wen Xishu completed the sixty-sixth floor, received a key from White Desire Head that could open a door to the latest timeline, and decided to save it for later.
• In the Heart-Questioning Trial, Wen Xishu answered questions about the flowers, the Creation Sequence, changing the Scorpio Curse, and which problem he would solve with the pen.
• Wen Xishu received a level-six Personal Residence, three runes for Mental Barrage, a Bonfire that granted fifteen minutes of safety, and a notification that Leo's favorability had increased by twenty.
• At a feast in Lion City, Reed asked Leon to let him join the Royal Guards and challenge one of the Four Royal Guards.
• Chaos's Mental Invasion triggered Reed's flames, which burned away mental energy and left him immune to every poison.
• Leon became interested in Reed's new powers and asked him to explain what he had experienced.

Leon learned from Reed that Pen Town’s stories could reshape reality and decided to bring the information to Aries himself. In Hunter City, Almi recruited Cheng Wang to identify promising hunters, then accepted a Bunker mission targeting Nissen and feared another hunter’s mission against Jiang Xue would end in her death.

• Reed told Leon about Wen Xishu, the Classroom, and Pen Town’s power, and Leon resolved to visit Aries’s headquarters alone to share what he had learned.
• Almi received Novice Charm as a reward for his mission, then waited in vain for a Bunker mission while refusing to take dangerous Pen Town assignments.
• Almi found the starving Cheng Wang, fed him, and discovered that Cheng Wang’s Incomplete Aura-Reading Art could reveal hunters’ potential.
• Almi hired Cheng Wang to make cards for Hunter City’s hunters and recorded the details of those with a chance to reach the red tier.
• On the fourth day, Almi accepted a Bunker mission targeting Nissen and noticed that a powerful hunter had taken a mission targeting Jiang Xue, whom he feared would die without his intervention.

Wen Xishu returned to the Bunker, used his Custom Residence to create protective rules and connect it to his facilities, then received Almi and the hunter Roxcy. After Almi revealed Roxcy’s mission to kill Jiang Xue, Wen Xishu subdued Roxcy and demanded information about Jiang Xue’s future.

• Roxcy and Almi agreed to work together on their missions to kill Nissen and Jiang Xue, with Almi offering to get Roxcy into the Academy.
• Wen Xishu furnished his Custom Residence with special rules and connected it to his other facilities, allowing him to recall Hunter City intelligence and monitor them.
• A teacher brought Almi and Roxcy to Wen Xishu’s residence, where Roxcy believed the Bunker official would be an easy target.
• The Capsized Boat House narrator exposed Roxcy’s danger, and Almi told Wen Xishu that Roxcy’s mission target was Jiang Xue.
• Roxcy attacked Wen Xishu, but the residence’s rules nullified his weapons and slowed his charge.
• Wen Xishu demanded to know what Jiang Xue would face in the future, while Almi urged Roxcy to cooperate.

Wen Xishu imprisoned Roxcy, explained his theory that Hunter City’s teleportation algorithm could be influenced by its agents’ actions, and recruited Roxcy to work for Almi. After they returned to Hunter City, Wen Xishu prepared to climb the tower again for an Aquarius mission involving a girl he disliked.

• Wen Xishu trapped Roxcy in a room where time passed differently, then used the monsters in the Recollection Archive and threats of future retaliation to secure his submission.
• Wen Xishu told Almi that distinctive behavior could attract Sequences and influence teleportation, and asked him to recruit Hunter City agents to help train the algorithm.
• Wen Xishu and Almi arranged for Roxcy and Nissen to be injured during their mission so Almi could deceive the algorithm and earn rewards.
• Roxcy shared what he knew about Hunter City, including information about Jiang Xue’s connection to Capricorn, then returned to Hunter City with Almi after receiving supplies and medical care.
• Wen Xishu began another tower climb after two quiet days in the Bunker and learned that his next Aquarius mission involved a little girl he disliked.

Wen Xishu entered Floor 68, a card game of good and evil against the Judge, and chose the difficult good faction despite the danger. The first game began with Ning Shu, a suicidal Lost One who would carry out ten requests from strangers, while Wen Xishu and the Judge tried to sway her fate.

• Wen Xishu found that the Madman's Dice offered only Quality Elevation and unlocked the Alone and Isolated achievement.
• Wen Xishu entered Floor 68 and met the Judge in a hall of cards bearing living human faces.
• The Judge showed Wen Xishu cards containing his adoptive parents, but Wen Xishu dismissed the display and asked for the game rules.
• Wen Xishu chose the good faction, learning that losing games would reverse his own good and evil until he could no longer return to his original world.
• The Judge introduced Ning Shu, whose fate would depend on whether ten requests from internet users led her to embrace life or sink further into despair.
• Wen Xishu told the Judge to deal the cards, and the first game began as Ning Shu appeared on the card wall.