Familiar

Section 46: Familiar

Bang!

A deafening gunshot rang out.

The bug in front of the big-headed young man exploded like a burst of juice-filled meatball, splattering liquid everywhere.

They were so close that the liquid soaked his head and face.

The gunshot startled everyone in the hall. The men and women by the other walls all turned to look.

Wang Wen had somehow appeared beside the big-headed young man and shot a bug.

The big-headed young man scrubbed furiously at his face in disgust, looking so furious he nearly cursed. But when he saw the shotgun in Wang Wen's hands, he held back and muttered unhappily, "Picking on me because I'm the easiest target and stealing my bugs!"

The others had probably been frightened by the shotgun. They seemed to feel that if one of them fell, the rest would follow. The man in gold-rimmed glasses spoke up directly. "Brother, if you want bugs, we can talk it out. Don't start shooting. It'll spoil the mood."

Wang Wen looked around at them, while Femme Fatale put on a spectacular performance in his ear.

He heard her say timidly, "Big brother, come over here with me. There are so many bugs, I can't deal with them all by myself anyway."

Wang Wen knew how capable she was—and knew she knew that he knew—and seeing her deliberately put on this act nearly made him shoot her.

He walked over to her, expressionless, and murmured as softly as a mosquito, "We know each other this well. Putting on an act for the other lost lambs is one thing, but there's no need to pretend with me, is there?"

The girl arched her slender brows in amusement and pretended not to understand. "Do we know each other? How well?"

"How well?" Wang Wen thought for a moment. "I know your depths, and you know my length."

At that, the girl giggled with delight. With a strangely mischievous way of thinking, she said, "I don't believe you. Prove it!"

He couldn't quite figure out what she was playing at. Wang Wen's eye twitched. He turned and called out to everyone in the hall, "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not stealing bugs. Haven't you noticed they're getting bigger?"

His words made even the girl pause in surprise. She stopped joking and turned to look at the bugs around them. The longer she looked, the graver her expression became.

She hadn't noticed before, mainly because she was a control-focused psychic master who didn't often fight directly.

But that didn't mean she had little experience with the World Tower. With her strength, she must have climbed quite high. She was likely part of an elite team from some major consortium.

Tower Climbers everywhere knew this:

The higher the floor they reached,

the more they respected the World Tower.

The stronger they became, the more they felt that the World Tower was unfathomable.

Experienced Tower Climbers never underestimated any floor, even if this was only Floor 20.

Especially now that something had changed.

The girl immediately stopped attacking and quietly observed the hall.

But

the men at the other three walls didn't stop.

Especially the man in gold-rimmed glasses on the right. Perhaps he'd seen Wang Wen and the girl chatting and laughing together, and it had left him annoyed. His tone turned snide. "What's with all the men these days? The last guy started yelling after a bug bit him once, and now we've got someone making a fuss just because the bugs got bigger."

He casually picked up a bug and held it aloft. Watching its wings and claws flail as it struggled, he laughed. "They're so slow. What good would getting bigger do? I can still swat them down one at a time!"

With that, he flung the bug back at the wall with all his strength. It smacked against it, splattering juice everywhere.

Then, apparently deciding that killing them one by one was too slow, he adjusted the power of his "hair dryer" a few times and aimed it at the bugs on the wall before they could fall.

Boom!

Swathes of bug carcasses dried up and dropped to the floor.

The man in gold-rimmed glasses stared, stunned.

Only then did he realize, to his horror, that it wasn't just the wall tiles that were bugs. The entire wall was made of them!

His hair dryer's range and penetrating power had killed the bugs aimed at the wall, waking the layers upon layers behind them.

The bugs at the front were killed and fell, but even more behind them beat their wings, growing larger as they desperately tried to escape the hair dryer's attack and strike back at their "killer"!

From the man in gold-rimmed glasses' perspective, the entire wall in front of him seemed to come alive in an instant, tumbling toward him like a tidal wave.

"Ah!!"

It was the last sound he ever made.

Everyone in the hall watched helplessly as the bugs covered him like a quilt. He didn't even have time to run before he went still.

The sight terrified the two men at the other walls.

They finally stopped attacking and backed away toward Wang Wen and Femme Fatale, gripping their weapons with nervous expressions.

Wang Wen looked at their faces.

If they weren't pretending,

they were probably rookies who'd only climbed a few dozen floors.

They weren't even as good as the top students who hadn't graduated from The Academy yet.

He'd heard that a certain senior, Li, was already past Floor 100!

What a credit to The Academy!

His thoughts wandered off in all directions, startling the girl, who was secretly watching him, so badly she nearly bit her tongue.

Who was this guy? The three of us were already so nervous, scared, and helpless, yet he was still this calm. Did he think he could handle any level of danger?

The girl couldn't hold back any longer.

Pretending she was going to inspect the spot where the man in gold-rimmed glasses had been covered, she said, "We should hurry over and see if we can save him! I'm scared to go alone. Will one of you come with me?"

Wang Wen turned his head and looked around, pretending not to have heard.

The big-headed young man nearly shook his head right off his shoulders.

The tall man struggled with himself. After hesitating for a while, he gritted his teeth and spoke up. "I'll go with you!"

The girl looked touched, then saw his injured finger and shook her head. "You're hurt. Don't take the risk. Stay here in case something happens."

The tall man looked touched too.

"Big brother." The girl tugged at Wang Wen's sleeve and asked with a pitiful look, "Will you come with me? Please?"

"No." Wang Wen refused without a moment's hesitation.

The tall man was displeased.

Looking down at him, he chided, "How can you be like this? We're lucky enough to be on the same team, so we should help each other. In a situation like this, we need to work together to get through it!"

Wang Wen glanced at him and smiled. "You're not killing bugs anymore? Then I'll kill them!"

With that, he sauntered over to the wall where the tall man had been standing and cheerfully started knocking the bugs down one by one with his stick.

As he worked, he counted aloud, "One hundred, two hundred, three hundred..."

The tall man turned pale.

Every blow seemed to land on his heart,

making him twitch with each hit.

Just like in that famous healing poet's verse:

Daming Lake, so vast and wide.

Lotuses bloom on Daming Lake.

Toads sit upon the flowers.

Poke them once—they hop and bounce.

The girl stopped pretending and rushed after Wang Wen, leaving the other two behind.

Watching him rake in a fortune, grinning from ear to ear, she lowered her voice and said, "Can you stop acting? Those two are obviously useless. Looks like we're the only ones who can get through this level. So, what's your plan?"

Wang Wen looked back at her.

He thought for a moment,

then asked curiously, "Miss, do we know each other? Are we close?"