Unexpected Windfall

Section 45: Unexpected Windfall

It was understandable for girls to be afraid of bugs.

With so many bugs that looked ugly, fierce, filthy, and stinky, even men would find them disgusting, let alone women.

But Femme Fatale?

Seeing her red-eyed, pitifully frightened expression, Wang Wen couldn't help questioning it.

A dignified master of mental power afraid of bugs?

People would laugh themselves to death if they heard that.

Of the major disciplines, mental power was the one that required the most brutal tempering of one's resolve.

Even if she really was afraid of bugs, she would have forced herself to eat them until she was numb, all for the sake of becoming a master.

Otherwise, she could never reach the peak of mental power or earn the title of "master."

Femme Fatale's mental power was clearly extraordinary, dense and substantial. With his years of experience, Wang Wen knew he wasn't mistaken.

The only explanation for her crying at the sight of bugs was that she was putting on an act again.

Wang Wen's eye twitched. He felt a shiver run through both arms, and his feet involuntarily shuffled a little farther away from Femme Fatale.

Fortunately, there wasn't time to think about it.

One of the three men, a tall fellow, reacted quickly. The moment he saw the wall turn into bugs, he pulled out a large cleaver and started hacking at them.

The cleaver was sharp. The first bug was sliced in two instantly.

The tall man promptly summoned his flying device to check his Points, then stared in delighted disbelief.

He immediately started chopping bugs like mad.

His actions made the others curious.

The man with gold-rimmed glasses took a small contraption shaped like a hair dryer from his clothes and aimed it at a bug, then pressed the switch.

The bug in its sights gradually stopped moving, turning dry and yellow, its body cracking apart.

After confirming that the bug was dead, the man with gold-rimmed glasses put away the hair dryer and summoned his flying device to check his Points.

He, too, looked delighted.

After seeing two people react that way, even Wang Wen—who'd planned to coast through and had no interest in fighting—grew curious.

Just then, a suicidal bug spread its wings and flew toward him.

He casually swung his staff, knocking it to the ground and killing it.

He summoned his flying device and checked his Points.

When he saw that his account had gained a full hundred Points, Wang Wen's mouth fell open.

What the hell?

This was only the twentieth floor!

How could the reward be so high?

They were just slow, harmless bugs, and each one was worth a hundred Points?!

The Speedster Gang members on the tenth floor had been living, breathing humans, and each one had only been worth a few dozen Points.

Back on the first floor, the mechanical bull Wang Wen had accidentally killed had looked like a boss guarding the level. It had only been worth a hundred Points, too.

Both the Speedster Gang and the mechanical bull showed that the reward Points more or less corresponded to an individual's strength.

So what was going on with these bugs?

They were so weak he could kill them with one casual swing, yet each was worth a hundred Points?

Wang Wen's worldview trembled.

He'd climbed to the twentieth floor thousands of times in his previous life.

This was the first time he'd ever encountered anything so strange.

The World Tower's endless variety was truly well-earned.

He looked around. Bugs the size of his palm kept falling from the walls, swarming everywhere!

If they cleaned up every last one of them, they'd probably rack up at least a hundred thousand Points.

In fact, the others were already going all out.

When they discovered that the bugs were worth a hundred Points each despite being so easy to kill, even Femme Fatale forgot to pretend to be scared. She grabbed a hedge trimmer almost as tall as she was and plunged it into the swarm.

Juice splattered everywhere!

Wang Wen instinctively felt that something was wrong, but couldn't put his finger on what.

He could only keep replaying the scene of the great battle against the stragglers while watching in every direction and listening for every sound, doing his utmost to observe every detail he could catch in the hall.

He found nothing wrong.

The bugs kept falling and dying.

The other four had gone all out. The bugs were dying so fast that they could barely keep up with the ones falling from the walls.

In the blink of an eye,

the ground was covered with heaps of white, sticky bug corpses.

The three men and one woman divided the work neatly. Each took a wall in a different direction, tacitly leaving Wang Wen out of their money-grabbing army.

Wang Wen didn't fight them for a share.

If the World Tower really was being generous this time, handing out a shower of Points, he'd accept it.

He had never relied on luck to make money.

Hard-earned rewards felt more reassuring.

This unexpected windfall could go to whoever was lucky enough to find it.

Wang Wen stood quietly in the middle of the hall, watching the four busy workers. His gaze lingered for a moment on Femme Fatale's perky backside as she swayed back and forth in front of him.

When he came to his senses, he hurriedly shut his eyes, afraid her mental power would take advantage of his lapse in attention.

Just then,

a sudden scream rang out from the left.

He opened his eyes and saw that it was the tall man who'd started chopping first.

The cleaver in his hand didn't seem very convenient for killing bugs.

Once they stretched out, the bugs' bodies were about the size of a shoe.

How big was a cleaver?

When he swung it, his hand was very close to the bugs.

As luck would have it, this bug had an unusually strong will to survive. Even after being chopped in half, it twisted around and bit the tall man's finger.

The damage from that one bite was unexpected.

More than half of his thumb was gone.

Through the bloody mess, a ghastly sliver of bone was just visible.

The fingers were connected to the heart.

Caught off guard by the serious injury, the tall man couldn't help screaming.

The others stopped what they were doing and retreated to a safe distance before turning to look at him.

After learning what had happened, the man with gold-rimmed glasses sneered disdainfully. "Can't you handle it? You scared me! You're a grown man. You got half a finger bitten off and you still have to make a fuss? Which Tower Climber hasn't had worse injuries?"

Without waiting for the embarrassed tall man to respond, he turned back to the wall and resumed his "windfall collecting."

The tall man awkwardly explained to the others that he'd only screamed because it had happened so suddenly and he hadn't been mentally prepared.

Wang Wen shrugged and went back to watching the hall.

The woman nodded sympathetically and reminded the tall man to be careful. She even took out some medicine and clean gauze to help clean and bandage his wound.

The tall man was so moved he nearly offered himself to her.

He promised that once they left the tower, he'd treat her to a lavish meal to show his gratitude.

The woman smiled sweetly and said it was no trouble at all.

Then she hurried back to her own wall to "collect money."

The third man, aside from the one with gold-rimmed glasses and the tall man, was a big-headed young man with a gleaming bald forehead.

Of the three men, he had the least say.

He kept a low profile and didn't talk much to anyone.

When the tall man had been injured, he hadn't even gone over to take a look.

Once he knew there was no danger, he'd simply buried himself in killing bugs, like some worldly hermit who'd cut himself off from the troubles of the mortal world.

His strength was probably the lowest among them, aside from the woman.

After he used a blunt weapon to smash a bug flat again, he realized it was still alive.

So he tightened his grip and brought the weapon down harder.

Splat.

The bug finally burst.

He tilted his head, puzzled, but didn't think much of it. The lure of a hundred Points per bug left him no time to ponder.

He quickly turned his attention to the next one.

He raised the blunt weapon, took aim, and swung. A bug the size of a basketball suddenly flew up, nimbly dodging his attack.

He wasn't strong to begin with, and this had happened a few times already. He also knew from the start that the bugs could fly, so he just assumed he'd missed and casually raised his weapon again to take aim.

But—

the moment he looked up this time, he saw that the bug had already flown right in front of his face, less than a fist's breadth from his nose.

Its mouthparts, which had looked so small before, were now stretched wide open. They looked big enough to swallow his entire oversized head.