Chapter Summaries

Wen Xishu’s team entered a Strange Tower mission built around finding and purifying objects, after Park Mihee became their captain. In a giant study, Sita chose to purify a tempting item and triggered a hidden threat, leaving the team facing their first death.

• Wen Xishu welcomed Zheng Zai to the team and chose Park Mihee as captain, then asked her about parrots and Wen Renjing’s memories of a colorful bird.
• Park Mihee recalled Wen Renjing’s regret over a bird that wanted true freedom, and the six teammates entered the parrot-themed mission together.
• The team found four doors leading to separate scenes, and Wen Xishu led them through one after Sita sensed an appealing scent.
• Wen Xishu and the others arrived in a giant study, where Sita rushed toward oversized women’s clothes while Zheng Zai began losing control and craving meat.
• Sita received a prompt identifying the clothes as an item bearing traces of sin and chose to purify them, triggering a hidden threat as Wen Xishu searched for a place to hide.
• Sita screamed as the first teammate died.

After Sita died from purifying the wrong item, Wen Xishu recognized that the room’s game required finding the right item and hiding from its monster. He approached Zheng Zai as the man devoured Sita’s body, leaving Zheng Zai moved by Wen Xishu’s apparent acceptance.

• Sita chose the wrong item to purify, and tentacles emerged from it and killed him.
• Park Mihee told everyone to hide, and Wen Xishu, Park Mihee, Kane, Mendemuer, and Zheng Zai took cover until the monster retreated.
• Wen Xishu concluded that the room contained many contaminated items but only one item that needed purifying, and that hiding was essential to survival.
• Zheng Zai began eating Sita’s body, and Wen Xishu guessed that Zheng Zai possessed an Eerie Sequence with severe side effects.
• Wen Xishu encouraged Zheng Zai to accept and control his urges, and Zheng Zai teared up at the reassurance.

Wen Xishu deduced that the group needed to purify a cursed item in the room, likely the music box, and used the others’ reluctance to volunteer to pressure them. He prepared to open the box himself and take Zheng Zai with him, leaving Kane, Mendemuer, and Park Mihee to face the danger without his help.

• Wen Xishu fed Zheng Zai meat, helping him regain control and earn his gratitude.
• Wen Xishu decided to keep killing his teammates despite Zheng Zai’s recovery.
• Wen Xishu explained that the group were playing exorcists, that purifying a cursed item would draw the monster, and that the music box was the likeliest target.
• Kane, Mendemuer, and Park Mihee hesitated to volunteer to purify the music box.
• Wen Xishu warned that the closing doors would soon release more monsters and said he would open the box and take Zheng Zai if no one else acted.

Wen Xishu maneuvered Kane into attempting to purify the music box, but an unexplained mechanism summoned monsters that killed Kane before he could reach it. After the others hid, Wen Xishu claimed the room punished delays and began climbing, only for Mendemuer to drag him down as he fought to survive.

• Zheng Zai volunteered to climb to the music box, but Wen Xishu persuaded him to give way when Kane offered to go.
• Kane climbed the bookshelf toward the music box, but it began playing before he could purify it.
• Black smoke filled the room, and tentacles killed Kane atop the bookshelf before he could reach the music box.
• Wen Xishu and the others hid among the books until the music stopped, then Wen Xishu claimed that delaying purification triggered an anti-idling mechanism.
• Wen Xishu began climbing toward the music box, but Mendemuer grabbed his leg and pulled him down.

Wen Xishu watched Mendemuer die after he reached for the music box, then let Park Mihee believe he might spare her if she proved useful. As the survivors prepared to move on, Park Mihee offered what she knew about Zheng Zai, while Wen Xishu focused on finding the true contaminated object.

• Mendemuer touched the music box, received a prompt about purifying an item bearing immense sin, and was killed by the tentacles before he could escape.
• Park Mihee realized Wen Xishu had been steering his teammates into danger and begged him to spare her.
• Wen Xishu told Park Mihee to get up and implied he needed his teammates to help him analyze the remaining rules.
• Park Mihee promised to be useful and offered to share what she knew about Zheng Zai and his father.
• Wen Xishu told Park Mihee to tell Zheng Zai everything she knew and reached for the Invitation Letter.

Wen Xishu learned how the Invitation Letter worked and prepared to use it in the Desire Tower. After Zheng Zai revealed the injustice and loss that had shaped him, Wen Xishu decided to keep him alive, but time stopped as he activated the letter.

• Wen Xishu learned that the Invitation Letter allowed three successive traversals and decided to use it to investigate the Desire Tower.
• Park Mihee told Zheng Zai that his father, Zheng Yi, had died in prison, and Zheng Zai refused to believe her.
• Zheng Zai recounted years of striving as a javelin athlete and tower explorer in hopes of saving his father, only to lose him despite his sacrifices.
• Wen Xishu saw Zheng Zai’s fury and the flood of revenge-filled bullet comments, and decided he would keep Zheng Zai alive.
• Wen Xishu activated the Invitation Letter to enter the Desire Tower, and time stopped with Park Mihee and Zheng Zai frozen.

Wen Xishu met Desire Tower Academy teachers Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan in the Tian Yuan Area and asked about the sixth-floor mission involving a girl, a fall, and a parrot. They explained how Wen Renjing once failed to save Tang Rui despite giving her love, and revealed that no one had yet changed her fate by anchoring the story.

• Wen Xishu reunited with Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan, learned they were teachers, and asked about the sixth-floor mission in Jiangcheng City.
• Ji Boda asked Wen Xishu about his previous Completion Level, but Wen Xishu said his results and even his name were confidential under a promise to Principal Albert.
• Wen Xishu shared the mission clues, and Ji Boda recognized it as the mission involving Tang Rui that had haunted Wen Renjing.
• Ji Boda recounted how Wen Renjing spent seven days giving Tang Rui romantic experiences, yet achieved only Completion Level One because she needed more than love.
• Ji Boda explained that Wen Renjing later learned Tang Rui's fate through another mission and regretted not anchoring her story.
• Liu Ruyan suggested Wen Renjing had fallen for Tang Rui, and said no one had yet anchored the story or changed the girl's ending.

Wen Xishu entered the Desire Tower’s sixth floor to investigate Tang Rui’s connection to four scenarios and used a Strange Tower item to question her quickly. After meeting her in a bar, he began a dice game with the Truth Serum Wine Cups, unaware that the investigation would turn bloody.

• Wen Xishu left Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan after learning more about Wen Renjing, and they wondered whether he was the missing Wen Xishu.
• Wen Xishu entered Jiangcheng City with a mission to raise Tang Rui’s Happiness Value from zero within forty-eight hours.
• Wen Xishu sensed hidden weird power in a bar and identified Tang Rui as the mission target.
• Wen Xishu offered Tang Rui the Truth Serum Wine Cups, and she readily agreed to drink with him.
• Wen Xishu and Tang Rui moved to a secluded seat and started a fast dice game to determine who would drink.

Wen Xishu and Tang Rui played a truth-forcing dice game that exposed the painful childhood memories they shared through the wine cups’ strange effects. After Tang Rui revealed how her parents and a tutor abused and controlled her, the chapter left her memories focused on how she had been forced to abandon singing and become a parrot who repeated what others wanted.

• Wen Xishu drank from the Truth Serum Wine Cups and learned that Tang Rui’s Eerie Sequence Feelings made the game reveal memories to her.
• Tang Rui asked Wen Xishu whether anyone had loved him, and the cups showed her warm scenes with his parents that contrasted with his belief that no one had loved him.
• Wen Xishu asked Tang Rui what Professor Yan had done to her, and the cups revealed how her parents had entrusted her to him and dismissed her abuse allegations.
• Tang Rui smashed the cups onto the table, then drank again and told Wen Xishu that she had loved singing before her parents forced her to give it up.
• The cups revealed that Tang Rui’s mother had given her medicine that damaged her voice, while her parents threatened her with Professor Yan to keep her obedient.
• Tang Rui’s memories portrayed her as a parrot barred from singing and expected to repeat whatever her keepers said.

Wen Xishu listened as Tang Rui revealed how her best friend Xiao Ru had humiliated and slandered her, then shared the truth about his own loveless childhood. He urged Tang Rui to stop accepting her suffering and offered to take her to confront the people who had wronged her.

• Tang Rui described how Xiao Ru mocked her singing, later spread cruel rumors about her at work, and drove her to adopt the very behavior people accused her of.
• Tang Rui denied that a fourth event had caused her to collapse, and Wen Xishu drank from his cup to reveal a secret of his own.
• Wen Xishu showed Tang Rui how his parents had used him for online videos and planned to abandon him once they had their own child.
• Wen Xishu told Tang Rui that the approaching collapse of the world would break society's restraints and urged her not to reconcile with those who had hurt her.
• Tang Rui asked where they were going, and Wen Xishu said they were going to find the people responsible.

Wen Xishu and Tang Rui hunted down Professor Yan Zhihai during the torrential rain, and Tang Rui killed him for the abuse he had inflicted on her as a child. After they shared the truths of their pasts, Wen Xishu urged Tang Rui to confront her parents’ role in her suffering and prepared to take her to settle more scores.

• Tang Rui accepted Wen Xishu’s invitation to take revenge, and they broke into Yan Zhihai’s villa during the storm.
• Wen Xishu beat Yan Zhihai while Tang Rui comforted the frightened girl he had been tormenting.
• Tang Rui killed Yan Zhihai with a kitchen knife and fountain pen, then broke down as she released years of grief and anger.
• Wen Xishu told Tang Rui the truth about his adoptive parents and the fire that killed them.
• Wen Xishu reminded Tang Rui that her parents had read the diary page about Yan Zhihai’s abuse, and she recognized how they had failed to protect her.
• Wen Xishu called Tang Rui “Little Parrot” and set out with her to pursue his remaining targets.

Wen Xishu helped Tang Rui pursue her hatred and triggered the hidden quest for Slaughter Rui’s ascension. After Tang Fangtian and Cheng Yingna chose to sacrifice Tang Rui’s body parts to save themselves, the quest reached completion, leaving Tang Rui’s happiness at zero and unlocking hidden rewards after the Strange Tower trial.

• Wen Xishu realized that killing Yan Zhihai had begun Tang Rui’s Slaughter Rui ascension journey, which had already reached 27% progress.
• Wen Xishu and Tang Rui continued their killing spree, and Wen Xishu looted valuables from Yan Zhihai’s room.
• Wen Xishu broke into Tang Fangtian and Cheng Yingna’s home and forced them to play a money-transfer game to buy their lives.
• When the couple ran out of money, Wen Xishu offered them a choice between surrendering their own body parts or Tang Rui’s.
• Tang Fangtian and Cheng Yingna chose to sacrifice Tang Rui’s hands, feet, and eyes, pushing Slaughter Rui’s ascension progress to 100%.
• Wen Xishu received notifications that Tang Rui’s destined calamity had disappeared and that the hidden quest was complete, with rewards pending the Strange Tower trial.

Wen Xishu helped Tang Rui confront and kill the three people who had ruined her life, completing her quest and changing her fate before the apocalypse. After they parted, Wen Xishu understood the final clue and realized he could speedrun both the Desire Tower and the Strange Tower.

• Wen Xishu realized Tang Rui's parents had completed the quest by choosing not to save her, and that their decision revealed they did not love her.
• Tang Rui killed her parents, then asked Wen Xishu to help her settle one last grudge against Lin Huiru.
• Tang Rui confronted Lin Huiru in the rain and killed her, while Wen Xishu observed her growing control of Mixed Feelings.
• Tang Rui and Wen Xishu introduced themselves, promised to survive, and said goodbye after discussing the coming apocalypse.
• Wen Xishu reviewed the three victims' corresponding items and, as he prepared to return, solved the clue that would let him speedrun the Desire Tower and the Strange Tower.

After the Desire Tower changed Tang Rui’s fate, Wen Xishu returned to the Strange Tower with his memories intact and solved the first purification puzzle. He led Park Mihee and Zheng Zai into the second scene, where a new threat appeared as the group received instructions to keep a diary.

• The Invitation Letter restarted the sixth-floor mission with a revised story in which Tang Rui’s betrayal and the Fourth Door had never occurred.
• Wen Xishu returned to the Strange Tower, explained that the award certificate was the first contaminated object, and purified it.
• Wen Xishu declined to take Park Mihee back early and asked Zheng Zai to continue with him through the next scene.
• Wen Xishu, Park Mihee, and Zheng Zai entered a bedroom from Tang Rui’s past and found a bowl of sweet soup surrounded by black aura.
• Countless eyes appeared throughout the bedroom, and a prompt instructed the group to record everything that happened at school in a diary.
• Wen Xishu told Park Mihee and Zheng Zai that he had figured everything out and instructed them to follow his directions.

Wen Xishu guided Zheng Zai and Park Mihee through the second Strange Tower stage by identifying Tang Rui’s diary as the item to purify, then led them into the final stage. There, a prompt introduced a trial about trustworthy friends, and Wen Xishu began weighing whether to eliminate his teammates.

• Wen Xishu explained that the eyes marked their Control Index, and he, Zheng Zai, and Park Mihee recorded their bad deeds to make the eyes disappear.
• Wen Xishu inferred that purifying Tang Rui’s diary would clear the stage, found it, and purified it, restoring Zheng Zai’s and Park Mihee’s freedom of movement.
• Wen Xishu warned that the stages’ mechanics could overlap, then led Zheng Zai and Park Mihee through the door to the final stage.
• The trio entered an office building tied to Tang Rui’s betrayal, and a prompt asked whether they had a friend they could trust.
• Wen Xishu interpreted the prompt as a cooperative trial, stopped Park Mihee from calling on an absent friend, and considered whether to wipe out his teammates.

Wen Xishu, Zheng Zai, and Park Mihee endured a deadly trial that exposed their thoughts and forced them to name those they trusted. Park Mihee died, while Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai survived, purified Tang Rui’s photograph, and returned to the Three Towers Guide for their ratings and rewards.

• Wen Xishu had Zheng Zai and Park Mihee stand back-to-back, stopping the laughter and linking their thoughts in a relay.
• Wen Xishu worked out that the trial would judge their trust, while Park Mihee’s thoughts revealed her intention to report him to a Bunker officer.
• The trial prompted each person to silently name those worthy of trust, and Park Mihee died when neither Wen Xishu nor Zheng Zai named her.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai named one another and survived the trial, after which Wen Xishu found and purified Tang Rui’s graduation photograph.
• Wen Xishu received the special item Letter from Outside · Tang Rui and new affinity notices, then he and Zheng Zai disappeared as they were transported to the Three Towers Guide.

After completing his second Three Towers exploration, Wen Xishu received a specialized rune, a Level Six Capsized Boat House, and a mysterious warning that he had been marked after encountering Eerie Virgo. He returned to the Bunker, where students discussed his latest facility and Yue Yun questioned Wen Xun about his sudden departure and possible connection to Wen Xishu.

• The Guide gave Wen Xishu a letter that could help him meet Tang Rui again and a rune that added a memory-resonance effect to his Mental Barrage sequence.
• The Guide awarded Wen Xishu Level Six completion and a Capsized Boat House, which Wen Xishu placed near the Level Six Hospital on the Bunker's second floor.
• When Wen Xishu asked about Deceptive Gemini and Eerie Virgo, all three Guide heads said he had been marked but could not explain by whom.
• Wen Xishu returned to the Bunker without being interrogated, and students at Three Towers Academy discussed the new facility he had brought back.
• At the cafeteria, Yue Yun asked Wen Xun why he had suddenly left and whether his special classes were connected to Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu discussed Miyamoto Yoshiki’s strength with Yue Yun and Nissen, then learned that Wen Renjing had invited him to meet. He arrived at the secluded garden and was startled by Wen Renjing’s appearance.

• Yue Yun told Wen Xishu that Miyamoto Yoshiki had won the fitness test, with Nissen second and Yue Yun third, and suspected Yoshiki had a Sequence.
• A day earlier, Albert praised Wen Xishu for bringing back Level Six supplies and the Capsized Boat House, explained that the Great Devourment changed the Bunker’s layout, and warned him about the secrets others might think he knew.
• Wen Xishu asked Albert to arrange a meeting with Wen Renjing, and Albert agreed while asking whether Wen Xishu was straight.
• Wen Xishu invited Yue Yun and Nissen to visit the Capsized Boat House, and both agreed to go with him the next afternoon.
• Jabbar arrived and told Wen Xishu that Wen Renjing had invited him to play chess, exciting Nissen and attracting the cafeteria’s attention.
• Jabbar led Wen Xishu to a secluded garden, where Wen Xishu met Wen Renjing and was startled by his appearance.

Wen Xishu met Wen Renjing, who thanked him for helping Tang Rui and offered to support his future tower climbs. Their conversation hinted at a dangerous secret involving the tower top climbers, leaving Wen Xishu to suspect that Albert was protecting them from a threat.

• Wen Renjing recognized Wen Xishu’s Invitation Letter and explained that Wen Chaohua had told him about the Strange Tower.
• Wen Xishu told Wen Renjing that Tang Rui had recovered and that those who hurt her were dead, prompting Wen Renjing to thank him and promise to help shield him from scrutiny.
• Wen Renjing revealed that he, Wen Chaohua, and Xun Hui had once been close friends and fellow disciples before Wen Chaohua betrayed them.
• Wen Renjing offered to prepare useful items and sequences for Wen Xishu, then urged him to trust Albert and prove himself worthy of learning their secret.
• Wen Xishu inferred that the tower top climbers faced a threat and wondered whether Albert, whose Slaughter Tower record far exceeded theirs, was the Bunker’s strongest protector.
• Wen Xishu returned to his dorm and decided to challenge the Academy Secret Treasure again, hoping his improved magic resistance would help him decipher the library’s shadow.

Wen Xishu deciphered more of the Library’s shadow and suspected that solving the Tower of Deception Academy’s secrets could make him its director. He then visited the Capsized Boat House with Yue Yun and Nissen, where he welcomed a group of Tower of Desire Academy students while concealing that he belonged to the facility.

• Wen Xishu read the words “orphanage director” and “principal” in the Library’s shadow, and decided to explore the Strange Tower sooner to investigate the director’s identity.
• Yue Yun and Nissen asked to learn Wen Xishu’s special course, and he promised to teach them after midterms if they still wished to learn.
• Wen Xishu, Yue Yun, and Nissen received leave and traveled to the Bunker’s second level, where Wen Xishu’s fame was widely celebrated.
• At the Capsized Boat House, Wen Xishu’s group joined Wang Xia, Zhang Tingyao, Huo'erjina, Bai Xiaoyu, and Jiang Xue in line.
• Wen Xishu received a message from the Capsized Boat House and realized that, as someone who belonged there, he would not be affected by its voyage.
• Wen Xishu welcomed Wang Xia and the others into the Capsized Boat House, while Wang Xia remained unaware that he was about to face public humiliation.