Tower Climbing Strategy

For the next stretch of time, Wang Wen barely attended classes at the Academy.

Every day, he went back to sleep, got up in the morning to work out, and occasionally ate with the skinny boy.

He spent all his remaining time at the Guard Department's training ground, turning into a model worker.

He guided the Four Vajras, who worked under Vice Chief Jiang, as they gradually honed their various mechanisms.

From time to time, he even made adjustments to the finer details himself.

He tirelessly demonstrated how to dismantle each mechanism, explaining more possible variations to inspire everyone's creativity and ingenuity.

They also revamped the fitness area at the training ground, upgrading the equipment with targeted improvements based on the optimized training methods of twenty years in the future.

They scrapped anything that wasn't very useful or didn't produce noticeable results, replacing it with suitable equipment the Guard Department could afford with its current budget.

Most importantly, they added an area for Scientific Deciphering training, which the model worker Wang Wen taught himself.

During this time,

Wang Wen ate and trained alongside the Four Vajras.

At first, he couldn't keep up physically, so the four well-trained guards often teased him. "Teacher Wang, physical training's different from the other stuff. You can just watch us train; there's no need to demonstrate it yourself, right?"

Wang Wen, drenched in sweat, ignored them completely.

If they got too noisy, he made each of them add a few more pounds of weight.

But the more he did that, the more "brazen" the Four Vajras became. Often, they were so exhausted they couldn't speak, yet still pointed at Wang Wen and laughed.

But soon, they realized that the previously frail Teacher Wang was rapidly closing the gap between himself and them!

The discovery gave them quite a fright.

How many years had the guards trained?

How many days had Wang Wen trained?

Even if there was a saying that "the earlier you start exercising, the more noticeable the results,"

surely the difference shouldn't be this obvious?

What mattered most was that Wang Wen trained with an air that said, "If it won't kill you, keep going until it does."

Several times, he trained until he was injured or even passed out. The medicine the Guard Department kept at the training ground was mostly used up by Wang Wen.

The Four Vajras were worried that if things went on like this, Teacher Wang might train himself to death—and then nobody would teach them Mechanism Art and Scientific Deciphering for free.

These were the most legitimate courses at the Academy. The haphazard methods taught elsewhere couldn't compare. In just one week, they'd made more progress than they had in the past year!

Besides, training this desperately caused tremendous harm to the body.

Over time, it would damage the joints, ligaments, bones, and internal organs to varying degrees.

Once someone was truly crippled, it wouldn't be something to joke about.

But only Wang Wen knew that what he was after now was speed. No matter how badly he damaged his body, he'd be able to repair it in the future.

He had faith in the World Tower's items.

Everything was difficult at the beginning. For now, cooperation with the Guard Department was the most important thing.

If there were no obvious gains, they might well lose patience with the partnership.

It had taken so much effort to reach an agreement. It would be a shame if they gave up halfway.

At the very least, Wang Wen thought, the roles needed to be reversed: instead of him "begging" the Guard Department to cooperate, the Guard Department had to be the one begging him!

A few days later,

the Four Vajras entered the tower according to Wang Wen's plan.

Vice Chief Jiang didn't go with them this time. He still needed to stay at the Guard Department and oversee everything.

A few more days passed.

The Chief returned from his business trip.

The lead guard returned as well.

He seemed to be in terrible shape. For some reason, he was covered in injuries, and his hand was in a plaster cast and bandages.

The moment he spotted Wang Wen inside the Guard Department, he charged at him, ready to fight to the death.

How could that be allowed?

The Four Vajras and Wang Wen had been training intensely during this time, so their food couldn't be too light. Wang Wen had spent several thousand dollars on meat products and stocked them in the Guard Department's cafeteria to improve the nutritional value of the guards' meals.

In those days, if the cafeteria cooks had meat to work with, they didn't care who had bought it. And the purchasing staff were delighted to save so much money on meat.

The guards got to eat ribs, beef, and chicken legs at every meal, so they couldn't help feeling grateful to Wang Wen.

Seeing the lead guard charge at Wang Wen, they hurried over to break up the fight.

With so many people crowding around, things got chaotic, and the lead guard ended up with a few more injuries.

The Chief had returned from his business trip in high spirits.

But before he'd even warmed his seat, he saw what was happening at the Guard Department, and his mood instantly turned stormy.

He didn't even bother listening to the Vice Chief's report on recent work. He dragged the lead guard into his office.

Wang Wen exchanged a glance with the Vice Chief and shrugged, then went back to what he was doing.

Clearly, the lead guard had come back empty-handed again.

Word was that he'd also fallen out with his sworn brother. Their argument had eventually turned into a fight.

No matter how well-trained the lead guard was, he was still an ordinary person who hadn't even cleared the hundredth floor.

His opponent, on the other hand, was a regional expert who had reached the two-hundredth floor.

In a fight, the lead guard stood no chance unless he pulled a gun.

And if he did pull one, he might lose his life.

After all, drawing a gun meant things had turned serious. If they got serious, a Tower Climber on the two-hundredth floor might use a World Tower item like the Earth-Shaking Talisman.

The situation could easily get out of hand.

Seeing that the lead guard had already learned his lesson, Wang Wen stopped tormenting him.

He told the Chief the rules for activating the item.

The Chief's face turned pitch-black as he listened.

When he learned that the First Consortium had been the other party fighting over the Earth-Shaking Talisman, he had nowhere to direct his anger, so he took it all out on Wang Wen.

"Why didn't you tell us such important information sooner?" the Chief shouted furiously, pointing at Wang Wen. "You deliberately set the Guard Department up!"

"I only said there were fifty Earth-Shaking Talismans. You got them, didn't you? It's not my fault he was unlucky and greedy." Wang Wen walked away as soon as he finished speaking, with no intention of sticking around for a fight.

He still had to focus on organizing the next Tower Climbing Strategy.

The initial goal was to get the Four Vajras to the three-hundredth floor as quickly as possible.

The Guard Department couldn't afford to take risks.

So they had to prepare thoroughly before attempting the climb.

And since Wang Wen couldn't enter the tower himself, there were many factors he needed to consider in advance.

He jotted down this and that in a notebook. As the notes piled up, the Four Vajras started jokingly calling it his "Tower Climbing Strategy."

Before he'd finished organizing it,

the Chief was already shouting angrily at the Vice Chief from inside his office. "I don't agree!"

The Vice Chief came out of the office and said helplessly to Wang Wen, "The partnership might be off."

Before he'd even finished speaking,

a commotion came from the entrance to the Guard Department.

The Four Vajras were back!

Jiang Daoli, who was leading them, held an item high in his hand, his expression excited. "A World Tower item, Ginseng Fruit! We made it to the two-hundred-and-fiftieth floor! Vice Chief Jiang, we've caught up with you!"

The Ginseng Fruit was far more famous than the Earth-Shaking Talisman.

There were two reasons.

First, the Earth-Shaking Talisman was a rare item that few people knew about, while the Ginseng Fruit was only an ordinary item. Almost everyone who reached the 250th floor had a chance to get one, as long as they weren't incredibly unlucky—like Wang Wen in his past life, when he'd had forty-four runs without ever seeing food.

Second, though the Ginseng Fruit was an ordinary item, its effect was anything but ordinary. After all, it came from the World Tower.

[Ginseng Fruit]—Eating it restores one year of vitality to worn-out organs in the body. Further consumption has no effect.