Proof of All Evils

The bugs had grown huge.

Each one stood half as tall as a person.

Their carapaces were incredibly hard; one blow with a club left his hand numb from the impact.

They were getting faster, too. Several times, they had nearly charged right up to Wang Wen.

He knew it was time to stop.

He retreated to a safe distance, making sure the bugs wouldn't reach him anytime soon, then summoned a flyer to check his points.

His three-digit balance had already been stretched thin after buying a phone and a translator. Now, after this battle, it had climbed back into the five digits.

More than thirty thousand points made Wang Wen's head spin.

He had earned thirty thousand points from the World Tower's rewards for killing enemies in a single stage alone. That was almost unimaginable within the first hundred floors.

Normally, a week of climbing to around the two-hundredth floor should earn three to fifty thousand.

That included profits from both killing enemies and collecting items.

And here he was, casually earning thirty thousand just by fighting bugs in a single stage!

Wang Wen couldn't tell if he was unlucky or lucky.

He only knew that the more floors this wonderful, the better!

Not far away,

the big-headed young man was still recklessly smashing at the bugs with his blunt weapon, even though the world's number-one climber twenty years from now wouldn't dare keep fighting them after they had stopped and backed away.

The outcome went without saying.

Before long, one of the increasingly fast bugs latched onto the young man's head.

Bang!

Most of the bug's body exploded, leaving only a section of its mouthparts dangling from the young man's head.

More strange fluids splattered all over him.

After struggling to tear off the mouthparts, the big-headed young man was left with blood running down his bare scalp. He finally gave up and retreated to the center of the hall, watching the bugs around him with lingering fear. He even forgot to wipe the foul-smelling slime from his face.

Wang Wen grabbed the young man's sleeve and handed it to him. "I've saved you twice now. Wipe yourself clean and leave the tower. We can't keep fighting here."

The big-headed young man took his sleeve and wiped his face, then said with deep feeling, "So you're a good person after all!"

"Hey, hey." Wang Wen was displeased. "Don't insult me just because I was kind enough to save you."

The young man shook his head and looked at Wang Wen with a complicated expression. "Honestly, I feel really guilty. I thought you were picking on me and stealing my bugs earlier."

"It's fine. That's all in the past." Wang Wen glanced at the number of bullets he had left, loaded two into his shotgun, and aimed at the nearest bug to practice his aim.

His body wasn't in shape to support long shooting sessions, and chances to practice on a floor full of targets like this didn't come often.

He had never managed to recover his old shooting skills from his previous life. It was nice to get in some practice while he had the chance.

The big-headed young man watched him practice and stubbornly said, "If it hadn't happened a second time, maybe we could've let it go. But now, I feel like I have to do something to repay you. Otherwise, my conscience won't let me rest."

Wang Wen lowered his shotgun and gave him a strange look. "What are you planning to do? Let me make this clear: I'm not—"

The young man froze for a moment, then seemed to understand. His face flushed red, and he hurriedly protested, "I'm not either! I mean, is there anything I can do to repay you? Food, water, medicine, maybe? Don't ask for ammunition. I don't even have a gun."

"No need. You can go." Wang Wen shrugged and continued practicing.

Seeing the young man's disappointment,

a very similar conversation suddenly flashed through his mind.

So he casually said, "Actually, there is something I need. Do you have any item that can take pictures as keepsakes? Something you can freely bring in and out of the tower."

Wang Wen had only asked offhand.

He wanted to give the young man's disappointment a graceful way to fade away.

But after thinking it over, the other man's eyes lit up. "I'd forgotten I still had this!"

The big-headed young man took a pendant from around his neck and handed it to Wang Wen, who stared at him with his mouth open.

Beaming, he said, "Here! A rare item from the 110th floor, [Proof of All Evils]. It should be just what you need!"

Wang Wen took the pendant. The flyer's scanning light passed over it, and a mechanical voice introduced the item in his ear.

[Proof of All Evils]. Press the red button to record a 360-degree view. Press the green button to replay the footage at any time, allowing you to experience every detail as if you were there.

"There, I've repaid you, and I feel a lot better!" The big-headed young man cheerfully said goodbye to Wang Wen, summoned a flyer, and announced that he was leaving the tower. Five seconds later, he vanished in a flash of white light.

He seemed accustomed to going it alone and didn't ask to exchange contact information.

Since the other man hadn't brought it up, Wang Wen had no reason to do so either.

After watching him leave, Wang Wen looked down at the item in his hand and suddenly felt like keeping it for himself.

Trading such a useful item for a Universal Key seemed like a bad deal.

In his previous life, some people with ulterior motives had driven its price through the roof.

He had no idea what they wanted so many of them for.

Solving crimes?

Who knew?

He smiled and said to the flyer, "Return to the tenth floor."

[Returning to a past tower floor will leave you stuck on that floor, unable to continue climbing until the weekly reset. Mr. A, do you confirm?]

"Confirm!"

A streak of light flashed by.

Wang Wen found himself back on the road on the tenth floor, where he had fought the Speedster Gang.

The bodies he had piled up earlier hadn't decomposed yet, so they could still be used a few more times.

But he didn't want to keep climbing.

Standing outside the guardrail, he called toward the villa, "I've brought what you wanted. Come out and get it!"

The gunman from earlier cautiously walked to a villa window and peered out.

When he saw Wang Wen, he looked thrilled.

He climbed straight out through the window.

He reached the guardrail, paused, then ran back and climbed in through the window.

A moment later, as if a switch had been flipped, the guardrail slowly parted to either side.

The gunman didn't want to keep climbing either.

But he had lived in the villa for a long time and knew its layout well. There was clearly a switch inside that controlled the guardrail.

Wang Wen generously handed [Proof of All Evils] to the gunman as he rushed out of the villa.

After taking it, the gunman summoned a flyer to scan the item, and his face lit up with delight.

"I can't believe it's a rare item from the 110th floor! It's way better than I expected!"

The gunman excitedly grasped Wang Wen's hand and shook it up and down. "So you really are a good person!"

"All right, all right." Wang Wen casually humored him. "Good person, good person. My whole family's full of good people."

"I'd given up hope after all this time!" The gunman took a dingy yellow key from his pocket and placed it in Wang Wen's palm. "I never thought you'd really come back! I'm so moved, so astonished!"

Wang Wen raised his left eyebrow, unable to understand why the man was so excited.

The gunman took a deep breath and steadied himself before explaining, "Sorry. You probably can't understand how happy it makes me when people keep their promises. It has to do with the environment I grew up in. There was too much scheming."

He held out his hand to Wang Wen and smiled. "Let's start over. I'm Qin Wuzheng, eldest son of the Tiansheng Group."

At that,

Wang Wen's heart skipped a beat.

But his face showed nothing as he calmly shook the other man's hand.

He listened as Qin Wuzheng explained that he had grown tired of scheming with his younger brother over who would inherit the family fortune, so he had hidden away here.

He had stayed for over half a year.

In the quiet, he had come to understand a lot of things.

He was ready to leave.

But he also wanted to record the experience as a memento.

He had never found a suitable item and had been reluctant to leave the tower without one.

Until now, when he had gotten Wang Wen's item.

Qin Wuzheng said he could finally leave.

"What's your name, and where do you live?" Qin Wuzheng asked Wang Wen. "Once we leave the tower, I'll give you a fortune."

Wang Wen smiled and raised the Universal Key in his hand. "No need. This trade is enough."

The eldest son of Tiansheng?

It was hard to say what sort of fortune that might mean.