Chapter Summaries

Wen Xishu entered 42-7 and learned from Kim Jaemin that Ahn Young-jae had allied with Pisces to manipulate history and pursue a war against Scorpio. Wen Xishu rejected Pisces’s offer, but persuaded Kim Jaemin to spare him, leaving the mission poised to end as a wider conflict between the Constellations loomed.

• Kim Jaemin invited Wen Xishu into 42-7, recognized Scorpio’s Blade, and explained that he knew about Tower Ascenders through a hidden Ruinbringer.
• Kim Jaemin revealed that Ahn Young-jae wanted Wen Xishu’s power to change the future, and Wen Xishu deduced that Ahn Young-jae had chosen Pisces to help reanchor history and eliminate enemies.
• Wen Xishu named Pisces, recalled her conversation with Ahn Young-jae, and learned that the war between Pisces and Scorpio had begun.
• Wen Xishu rejected Ahn Young-jae’s proposal and Pisces’s Mark, choosing to remain unaligned; Scorpio’s Blade was enhanced, while Pisces’s favorability fell and Kim Jaemin turned hostile.
• Wen Xishu learned that Ahn Young-jae planned to absorb the seven sacrifices’ sins into his child, then persuaded Kim Jaemin to spare him by arguing that An Youxuan and An Jincheng could offer the Three Ball Group another path.

After Wen Xishu cleared the Strange Tower mission, his companions received their completion assessments and returned to the Bunker with him. He gained a second Sequence Slot and an exceptionally powerful orange knife, while A Miao earned a rare Sequence and high-level rewards; the group planned to reunite with Wen Xishu after her surgery.

• Xiao Wu, Wu Xiangjiao, and Wen Xiange received modest assessments for surviving, while A Miao was praised for regaining her courage and contributing despite limited resources.
• Wen Xishu received Constellation notifications, learned that his knife had evolved into Scorpio's Miracle Knife, and arrived at the Guide, where he discovered he had gained another Sequence Slot.
• Black Deception Head explained that A Miao had received a Sequence first and revealed the companions' rewards: A Miao reached level five, Wen Xiange and Wu Xiangjiao reached level three, and Xiao Wu reached level two.
• Wen Xishu inspected the orange Scorpio's Cheat Device, whose Weird attribute granted a gamified function or attribute at the start of each Three Towers journey.
• A Miao, Wen Xiange, Wu Xiangjiao, and Xiao Wu returned to Wen Xiange's home in the Bunker, where A Miao revealed her Eerie Sequence 165: Joy Transfer and her level-five rewards.
• When the others asked where Wen Xishu was and what level he had reached, A Miao kept his identity secret and said she would take them to find him after her surgery.

Wen Xishu learned that the Principal had secured his right to the merit from all three tower explorations, then arranged to enter the Slaughter Tower. Back at the dorm, he heard that Jennifer was alive in the Slaughter Tower and asking for him, and he planned to investigate the Tower of Deception Academy that night.

• Jabbar told Wen Xishu that the Academy would return the merit from his previous explorations and ensure he received all future merit, with the Principal backing him.
• Wen Xishu reported his third level six completion to Liu Jinsen and said he planned to climb another tower the next day.
• Liu Jinsen told Wen Xishu he could enter any tower except the Desire Tower and directed him to Sha Ruijing to collect a login device.
• Wen Xishu learned that Zhang Wei had encountered a living, non-hostile Jennifer in the Slaughter Tower, who was asking where Wen Xishu was.
• Yue Yun told Wen Xishu that he and Nissen had entered the Slaughter Tower, and Wen Xishu considered asking Xun Hui to lead a team there.
• Wen Xishu planned to seek information about the Tower of Deception Academy that night.

Wen Xishu learned from Principal Albert why humanity needed all Three Towers and persuaded him to let him pursue the Slaughter Tower after another successful Strange Tower exploration. He immediately began his fourth challenge, rolling the Madman's Dice and receiving a result of one, three, and five.

• Wen Xishu, Yue Yun, and Nissen revisited the Library’s hidden door, where Wen Xishu saw the number fifty alongside the words he had seen before.
• Wen Xishu met Principal Albert, who revealed that Xiao Jin would join his dorm and explained that he had arranged Yue Yun and Nissen as potential teammates.
• Albert told Wen Xishu that the Three Towers prepared humanity for conflict in the wider world, with the Slaughter Tower providing military strength and the Desire Tower and Strange Tower enabling diplomacy.
• Albert recounted Wen Chaohua’s changing views on the Three Towers, his desire to reform the tower-ascending system, and his maxed affinity with Gemini.
• Wen Xishu challenged Albert to let him explore all Three Towers, and Albert agreed to arrange a Slaughter Tower guide if Wen Xishu achieved Level Six Completion on his fourth Strange Tower trip.
• Wen Xishu activated the Login Device for his fourth challenge and rolled the Madman’s Dice, getting one, three, and five.

Wen Xishu chose Peerless and entered an Eighth Floor mission, where he reunited with Zheng Zai and joined a team led by Wang Ying. In the Rest Area, he also encountered Xie Changfeng, who begged for help with a mission Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai had already cleared.

• Wen Xishu chose Peerless from the dice options and entered the Rest Area for an Eighth Floor mission.
• Wen Xishu met Zheng Zai, Wang Ying, and Aspasia, then joined their team for the Museum of Amazing Objects mission.
• Zheng Zai told Wen Xishu about surviving a funeral mission by following its rules, and Wen Xishu suspected he had eaten the resurrected grandfather.
• Wen Xishu ran into Xie Changfeng, who threatened to reveal his identity before asking for help with Parrot Cage's Play.
• Wen Xishu told Xie Changfeng that he and Zheng Zai had cleared the mission and knew how to purify its three contaminated objects, then asked why he should help after Xie Changfeng had tortured him.

Wen Xishu led his team into the Amazing Museum on the Strange Tower’s eighth floor and explained how to identify its dangerous inventions. In Room 401, Wang Ying and Aspasia appraised an eye-marked desk lamp, which began demonstrating its function as Wang Ying praised it.

• Wen Xishu traded Xie Changfeng a mission walkthrough for his business-card item and gave him misleading advice about the third scenario.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai met their new teammate Tong Ming, who had explored the Strange Tower four times and had a Sequence.
• Wen Xishu’s team entered the Amazing Museum, where he used his orange item to team up with Zheng Zai and reasoned that the exhibits might be unusual inventions with strange abilities.
• The team entered Room 401, and Wen Xishu identified an eye-marked desk lamp as the likely exhibit while Wang Ying challenged his reasoning.
• After Tong Ming encouraged Wang Ying to appraise the lamp alone, Wang Ying chose a group appraisal with Aspasia, activating the lamp and prompting Wang Ying to call it a divine artifact.

Wang Ying and Aspasia were teleported into a survival stage after appraising the table lamp, where they had to kill one hundred enemies using it. After Wen Xishu helped them discover the rule, they returned to the Museum, and the group prepared to search separately for items better suited to combat.

• Wang Ying demonstrated that the table lamp let him share the vision of people illuminated by its light, while Wen Xishu found a drawing of a blindfolded, bound girl and suspected the hospital held further clues.
• Wang Ying and Aspasia were teleported to a ruined city for the item-use stage, where they had to defend the hospital and kill one hundred enemies using the table lamp.
• Wang Ying and Aspasia killed many monsters with improvised weapons, but their progress stayed at zero until Wen Xishu advised them to use the table lamp itself.
• Wang Ying and Aspasia used the table lamp to finish the required hundred kills and returned to the Museum with some of their stamina restored.
• Wen Xishu explained the round's stages and the need to choose items useful for fighting, and the group discussed splitting up to search for items.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai searched the Museum’s fourth floor, where Wen Xishu inferred that some rooms housed patients and that a valuable hidden item might be the key to surviving the coming stages. Tong Ming identified an exceptionally sharp knife and entered its usage phase, while Wen Xishu watched with an unsettling smile.

• Wang Ying split the group into separate teams, and Zheng Zai chose to stay with Wen Xishu; Wen Xishu took the table lamp from Wang Ying.
• Wen Xishu reasoned that the lower floors might hold stronger enemies and that a secret on the fourth floor could reveal the Museum’s most valuable item.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai found a broom in the empty room 4-2, and Wen Xishu realized that rooms without patients contained only exhibits while occupied rooms might offer extra clues.
• In room 4-5, Wen Xishu recognized the wine cups as a pair related to the Truth Serum Wine Cups and decided to leave them unidentified for now.
• Tong Ming found a short, extraordinarily sharp knife in room 4-4, refused to give it to Wang Ying, and entered the item usage phase as Wen Xishu smiled at his choice.

Tong Ming entered the Lv2 stage with a blade that healed living creatures instead of killing them, and the monsters devoured him despite his extraordinary strength. Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai moved on to inspect another item, a Controller that Wen Xishu believed could help them survive Lv3.

• Tong Ming entered the crowded subway station and faced a swarm of fast, humanoid level-two common species.
• Tong Ming fought the monsters with startling strength, but his blade healed them whenever it struck living targets.
• The monsters overwhelmed Tong Ming, and he pleaded for outside help before dying as Wen Xishu chose not to rescue him.
• Wen Xishu explained that the blade was a sharp, non-killing weapon that healed living things, while Wang Ying and Aspasia discussed how to find safer items.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai went to room 4-7, where Wen Xishu showed Zheng Zai a useful-looking item called a Controller.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai identified a complex controller that let Wen control Zheng and unlock powerful combat moves in the Television World. After a monster horde and an Elite Species musician pushed them into danger, Wen had to find a way to restore Zheng's health before the next attack.

• Wen Xishu warned Zheng Zai that the team might exploit them by assigning them the most dangerous stages, and Zheng promised to trust Wen and stand by him.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai identified the four-joystick controller, and Wen used it to control Zheng during its demonstration.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai entered the Lv3 Television World, where Wen used the controller's commands to make Zheng defeat the charging Common Species.
• The Elite Species skeleton's music strengthened the monsters, so Wen used a powerful blood move that killed many enemies but consumed a third of Zheng's health and left no corpses to eat.
• Wen Xishu realized Zheng could restore his health by eating something nearby and began looking for a way to use that option before the monsters attacked again.

Wen Xishu used the Best Friend Controller to restore Zheng Zai, defeat the monsters, and pass a hidden rhythm challenge, earning a carry-limit exemption for the item. Back in the ward, Wen Xishu searched room 4-8 and found a clue connecting a radio to a slip depicting an old woman and an ear.

• Wen Xishu made Zheng Zai eat his rapidly regenerating flesh to recover his health, then used the Controller to defeat the monster waves.
• Wen Xishu accepted the hidden challenge and guided Zheng Zai through a rhythm game, completing it without errors.
• The skull-faced figure let Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai leave, and they learned that the Best Friend Controller would no longer count toward their item carry limit.
• Wang Ying praised Wen Xishu and offered the Gambling Stone Association's friendship, while Wen Xishu remained wary of others relying on him without taking risks.
• Wen Xishu searched room 4-8 and found a radio beside a slip depicting an old woman with pricked ears, leading him to suspect a connection to facial features.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai identified a wrench that could restore objects and entered the fourth stage on a monster-filled bridge, where they used its power and Zheng Zai’s abilities to devise a trap. Wang Ying and Aspasia stayed behind, debating whether to take a risk as Wang sensed movement downstairs.

• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai reasoned that previously identified items could be used in the fourth stage, as long as the newly identified item delivered the finishing blow.
• Wang Ying and Aspasia declined to identify the wrench in room 4-9, but Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai identified it and found that striking an object seemed to reverse its aging.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai entered the fourth stage on the Cross-Sea Bridge, where monsters approached from both sides and a rule warned that falling into the water meant death.
• Wen Xishu realized the monsters could not swim either, then used the controller to make Zheng Zai strike the bridge with the wrench and stomp a section of roadway into a collapse.
• Wen Xishu proposed using the wrench to create traps that could bring down the approaching monsters and count toward their required kills.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai used the Controller and Wrench to make fragile bridge traps, killing more than a hundred monsters and clearing the stage. Searching the hospital afterward, Wen Xishu deciphered the five-※ review clue and obtained the Invitation Letter: The Deceased Inventor, but worried that the Great Inventor might already be dead.

• Wen Xishu used Zheng Zai's Wrench to weaken sections of the bridge, and the two set four traps in the roadway.
• The monsters charged across the bridge, triggering the traps and falling into the sea until the stage ended without a fight.
• Wang Ying asked to borrow the Controller, but declined after Wen Xishu explained how difficult it was to use.
• Wen Xishu searched patient rooms with Zheng Zai, found items marked with body-part designs and related slips, and realized the mission emphasized a five-※ review.
• Wen Xishu used a pen to draw five ※ symbols on blank paper and received the Invitation Letter: The Deceased Inventor.
• The Table Lamp lit by itself, and Wen Xishu sent Zheng Zai outside before taking out the Invitation Letter and hoping the Great Inventor was still alive.

Wen Xishu entered the Desire Tower’s Eighth Floor mission after learning that the Great Inventor was dead, then met Jiang Xue and urged her to consider the Slaughter Tower instead of pursuing status through the Tower of Desire Academy. He arrived at the Fourth Mental Hospital as Airplane Man, recognized a broom from 4-2, and heard a girl sobbing that someone had died and never returned.

• Wen Xishu spent all his Luck Value on improving his initial favorability with the patients in 4-1, 4-8, 4-12, 4-16, and 4-18, and suspected the Great Inventor could not be revived.
• Wen Xishu met Jiang Xue in the Desire Tower Rest Area and claimed he was the only Tower of Slaughter Academy student able to enter both towers.
• Wen Xishu suggested Jiang Xue consider transferring to the Tower of Slaughter Academy, prompting her to question whether fear of death kept her at the Tower of Desire Academy.
• Wen Xishu reached the Heavenly Origin position, learned the people there were heading to the twenty-second floor, and entered the mission using his Login Device.
• Wen Xishu woke in the Fourth Mental Hospital as Airplane Man, recognized the broom he had seen in 4-2, and heard a girl crying that someone was dead and had not returned.

Wen Xishu questioned the patients on the fourth floor about their bond with Ding Dong and learned how Ding Dong had helped each of them with miraculous creations. Their stories revealed that Ding Dong had sought out people who held fast to love, kindness, trust, craft, and family, and Wen Xishu concluded that the answers might explain Ding Dong’s purpose and lead to what he had left behind.

• Wen Xishu stopped Mo Yuan, Granny Wu, Lele, Xiang Yang, and Lei Yihong from rushing through the sealed door and asked them to explain why they believed Ding Dong was in danger.
• Mo Yuan described losing her sight, harming herself, and finding relief when Ding Dong made a lamp that let her see through mirrors; she also recalled that he asked whether she still believed in love.
• Granny Wu recounted her family’s suffering and her continued desire to help others, while Lele explained that Ding Dong gave him a pipe to help him recognize truth and lies.
• Xiang Yang told Wen Xishu how Ding Dong’s pot restored his faith in his taste and ambition, and Lei Yihong explained that Ding Dong’s shoes let him visit the places he had dreamed of sharing with his deceased daughter.
• Wen Xishu recognized that the five patients’ steadfast hearts had helped Ding Dong confront his own doubts, then announced that he could solve part of the mystery and led everyone toward room 4-26.

Wen Xishu helped Mo Yuan, Granny Wu, Lele, Xiang Yang, and Lei Yihong activate the items and draw Ding Dong’s portrait, then chose not to claim the Phoenix Gloves for himself. Mo Yuan summoned a new version of Ding Dong, who returned to the group and revealed that he was a fugitive.

• Wen Xishu led everyone to room 4-26 and had them draw ※ symbols on a blank sheet, awakening the items linked to their five ultimate hearts.
• Wen Xishu retrieved Ding Dong’s gloves and a drawing from room 4-22, completing a glowing portrait as images of body parts joined together to form Ding Dong.
• Wen Xishu learned that the Phoenix Gloves could make him the portrait’s master if he killed the others, but he refused and gave the gloves to Mo Yuan.
• Mo Yuan touched the portrait with the Phoenix Gloves, and a new version of Ding Dong emerged from the golden light to reunite with the group.
• Ding Dong greeted everyone and told Wen Xishu that he was, in fact, a fugitive.

Ding Dong told Wen Xishu and the others about his childhood in a research institute, Professor Jin’s care, and the Fate Compass that guided him to the Psychiatric Hospital. He revealed the curse binding him and sixteen siblings, then left the story with Wen Xishu asking who killed him and whether the curse still affected him after his rebirth.

• Ding Dong explained that he had been separated from sixteen siblings, and that an instinctive call from one of them had compelled him to leave the Psychiatric Hospital.
• Ding Dong described how Professor Jin protected him, taught him about kindness, and guided him as he developed the ability to create enchanted objects.
• Ding Dong showed the Fate Compass he had made at fourteen and recalled overhearing researchers argue over whether to subject him to the Swan Project.
• Ding Dong said Professor Jin had warned him that the seventeen special beings were cursed: each death strengthened the other sixteen, and the strongest twelve would eventually fight to leave one as a god.
• Ding Dong explained that the Compass had guided him through the world and brought him to the Psychiatric Hospital, where he hoped the others would help shape his heart.
• Wen Xishu asked whether Ding Dong remained cursed after his rebirth, who had killed him, and whether Ding Dong was his real name.

Wen Xishu learned that Ding Dong had been created from Phoenix Constellation to escape the Scorpio Curse, then promised to find four other fugitives and received a Faux Fate Compass. Before the mission forced him back to the Strange Tower, Wen Xishu persuaded Ding Dong to turn the Hospital’s Museum into a protected, challenge-filled outpost, hoping to influence the Tower’s next simulation.

• Ding Dong explained that Phoenix Constellation had used the Compass and the Ritual to create him after accepting that he would die, and that he had opened the Museum to leave useful items behind for Granny Wu and the others.
• Ding Dong invited Wen Xishu to leave Jiangcheng City with the group, but Wen Xishu refused and agreed instead to help find Sirius, Hercules, Lyra, and Kylin and keep them alive.
• Ding Dong gave Wen Xishu the Faux Fate Compass and asked him to prevent the sole god of Doomsday from being born.
• Wen Xishu asked Ding Dong to remain at the Hospital and preserve the Museum’s items as a survival outpost, proposing appraisal requirements and twelve increasingly difficult stages to protect them from theft.
• Ding Dong agreed to try Wen Xishu’s Museum designs, and Wen Xishu received a mission-completion notification that forced him to return to the Strange Tower.

Wen Xishu returned to the Strange Tower with the mission’s altered history and used the Faux Fate Compass to find a vacuum cleaner he believed could clear stage five. He offered Wang Ying and Aspasia the chance to appraise it, and the chapter ended with Wang Ying volunteering while Aspasia chose to stay behind.

• The Strange Tower restarted floor eight’s scenario, updated the players’ memories, and raised Wen Xishu’s affinities with Wu Huixin, Mo Yuan, Xiang Yang, Lei Yihong, Qian Lele, and Ding Dong.
• Wen Xishu returned to room 4-26, asked Zheng Zai to recount what had happened, and learned that the mission description had changed.
• Wen Xishu used the Faux Fate Compass to find a vacuum cleaner in room 4-29 and claimed it could guarantee passage through stage five.
• Wen Xishu invited Wang Ying and Aspasia to appraise the vacuum cleaner, but they hesitated despite his offer to let them use it.
• Wang Ying volunteered to appraise the vacuum cleaner, while Aspasia declined to accompany him and stayed behind.

Wang Ying used the Vacuum Cleaner to survive stage five, then chose increasingly unusual items as he advanced through later stages. Meanwhile, Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai cleared stages seven and eight, discovered how to obtain a key from the gloves, and prepared to open the locked room 4-30 for the grand finale’s treasure.

• Wang Ying identified the Vacuum Cleaner, learned it absorbed emotions and physical attributes, and used it to clear stage five aboard a cruise ship.
• Wang Ying began stage six with the Glass Bottle, while Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai cleared stage seven using the Chainsaw and stage eight using the Mirror.
• Wang Ying entered stage nine with the Glasses, which revealed monsters’ weak points as he fought aboard a speeding train.
• Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai found that the Wrench petrified when Zheng Zai tried to force open room 4-30, so Wen Xishu returned to room 4-22 for the gloves.
• Wen Xishu used the gloves and drawing paper to produce a key, then led Zheng Zai toward the locked room to see the grand finale’s treasure.