This is a tug of war of willpower.
On one side is the only two beings that brought Charlie joy during his childhood and teenage years. On the other side are Charlie's fears and hatred towards the entire world.
Huohua is trying its best to help Anya, leaping up and biting hard at those hands, but to no avail.
Of course, Anya is unwilling to let go. She holds tightly onto Charlie's hand, but the tighter she grips, the more dangerous the situation becomes.
They... are being drawn into the dust.
"Go... save Charlie! I'm begging you, Wen Xishu, go save Charlie!"
Anya suddenly pleads.
"I can hold on here for a while longer. I'm begging you! Go save Charlie, find the real Charlie, no matter where he is."
Anya's will is astonishing. Despite once facing life in such fear that she wished to escape through death, at this moment, besides pleading, there's a hint of anger on her face.
She knows all the dust is the torment Charlie has suffered in life, his fear of this world.
Clenching her teeth, she suddenly musters a surge of strength.
She was initially pulled significantly closer by the hands of dust, but under the effect of willpower, she finally stopped moving toward the wall of dust.
It's like the opponents in tug of war suddenly became evenly matched.
Wen Xishu looked at this scene, somewhat bewildered.
He can imagine this little girl desperately trying to pull Charlie out. But this state certainly won't last long.
We must find the real Charlie, change Charlie's obsession... only then can Charlie's fear and hatred of the world lessen.
Only then can Anya pull Charlie out from the dust.
Wen Xishu can indeed do it.
However, it's not in the order he envisioned.
What he envisioned was Anya pulling Charlie out, completing Charlie's redemption himself, Deceit Tower closing perfectly, and upon being teleported back to the Land of Reception, opening the invitation card in advance, and then heading to the Desire Tower World, granting Charlie some courage and belief.
Everything would be perfect.
But now... he has to go to Desire Tower World ahead of time.
He has to sacrifice his perfectly crafted ending to save Charlie.
"Hold on, Anya, I'll be back soon."
Wen Xishu took out the invitation card.
He didn't hesitate much, and he also hoped that this child named Charlie wouldn't be so afraid of the world.
[Would you like to use Time Annotation to proceed to an earlier time point than the invitation node, before Anya's suicide?]
Just as Wen Xishu was about to start the invitation card, he saw this prompt.
It turns out this is Pisces' gift.
Because he didn't perfectly clear the game, the timing for Wen Xishu to enter the Desire Tower wasn't perfect, and he couldn't choose his role.
But with Pisces' annotation, he could still rely on the power of time to forcibly return to before Anya's suicide.
Wen Xishu knew there would be a cost to using the annotation, but at this moment, he couldn't care less.
"Use it!"
The yin-yang fish pattern appeared on the invitation card, like an imprint.
Everything around slowed down, and Wen Xishu was about to head to another world.
But a terrifying scene emerged for Wen Xishu.
He suddenly realized...
Although everything around slowed down, it wasn't stopped.
Yes, he could see sweat slowly sliding down Anya's forehead, and Huohua's tail slowly wagging.
"Is this the negative effect of Time Annotation?"
"No... no, is it the influence of 'Dare to Try the Four'?"
"Or... is it Charlie's own ability?"
Wen Xishu remembered that Pisces mentioned that Charlie also had the Time Ability, which was why she was interested in Charlie.
No matter the reason, theoretically, when a player activates the invitation card, the Deceit Tower dimension should be absolutely still.
But now, it wasn't.
Time was flowing at an extremely slow pace.
This meant that Wen Xishu wouldn't have forty-eight hours in the Desire Tower World.
He must race against time; what he could do would be very limited.
"Anya, hold on."
Wen Xishu's figure completely vanished.
...
...
In the Desire Tower resting area, without a moment's hesitation, Wen Xishu didn't even pay attention to the sounds around him. As soon as he thought about how time hadn't stopped on Anya's side and she and Huohua were still fighting fiercely against Charlie's negative emotions, Wen Xishu immediately activated the Login Device.
Throughout the resting area, he was like a phantom, appearing and flickering in the resting area, then disappearing.
...
...
In the streets of England's style.
At some point, people discovered the sky had become overcast, although more than a hundred years ago, this city was often shrouded in haze due to industrial development.
However, after a century of governance, everything had returned to normal.
But now, people found that not long ago, the sky seemed to be covered with a layer of gray.
There were several particularly gray places.
Namely, the Victoria Harbor in the rich area, Huaihuan Academy, and the distant forest.
Experts claimed it was some unusual dust invasion, but people in the city couldn't feel the wind.
They only felt... it was like some kind of suspended dust in the sky.
Only one person knew what was going on.
Wen Xishu.
This man with oriental features was currently sprinting.
He had already taken out the Compass, following its guidance as it led him closer to Charlie.
Soon, Wen Xishu saw a somewhat familiar scene, Huaihuan Academy.
It was a local private school, actually also considered a noble school.
At this moment, Wen Xishu suddenly understood why Anya was bullied here. Despite Anya's father having been a university professor, in the end, it was in the past. Forcibly entering such a school, under the influence of the school's atmosphere, students here would inevitably bully those who didn't come from such privileged backgrounds.