"Also, the Deceit Tower should have been an Obsession World..."
"Last time in the Realm of Hundred Selves, there was no Desire Tower version. This time in Pen Town, could it be that there’s no Desire Tower version either?"
Wen Xishu had his reasons for guessing this.
Because the guide’s message mentioned that they might encounter Challengers from other Three-Tower Battlefields.
Logically speaking, Challengers in the Three-Tower Battlefield are also challenging the Desire Tower, which is the real world. Could they actually be challenging the Obsession World’s Deceit Tower?
Wen Xishu didn’t quite get it.
The guide hadn’t made it clear either.
"Next time I absolutely have to make them extend the message to at least three hundred characters. This is way too perfunctory. One-star review!"
In the end, Wen Xishu still activated the forced tower-exit service.
[Forced tower-exit service activated. The highest rating for this mission will be unattainable, and the overall evaluation will be somewhat reduced.]
Not a big deal; Wen Xishu didn’t care. He could use Quality Upgrade to improve the rewards. A score was just a score—being capped on rating wouldn’t limit his actual performance in the Deceit Tower.
"Find that secret."
It now seemed that the Three-Tower World still had many hidden layers. Some secrets were unknown to the constellations, unknown even to the Outer Gods.
Everyone was like two opposing forces clashing in a vast open world. Defeating the opponent was of course important, but exploring the world itself was also quite meaningful.
Wen Xishu started up the Login Device.
...
...
In the dark room, light suddenly appeared.
A pile of decayed wood had suddenly been ignited by a mysterious force.
After his consciousness went through a familiar bout of swaying, Wen Xishu opened his eyes.
[You’re awake. You’re a bit confused about your current situation. You try to look around, but you’d better check the rules first. Yes, I am the rules.]
A voice surfaced in Wen Xishu’s mind. Interestingly, during the process of this voice appearing, everything around him was completely frozen.
Only two or three seconds after the voice stopped did the campfire begin to flicker again.
The people around him only then seemed to start breathing again.
Yes, just as the guide had said, he wasn’t the only one preparing to challenge this small town and uncover its secret.
Though they were inside the Deceit Tower, there were "mercenaries" from other Three-Tower Battlefields.
[You seem quite confident in your observational skills, or maybe you think you can multitask. Fine, suit yourself. But if I don’t tell you, how would you know that you’re currently at 0 points?]
[When the second day arrives, if your points are below thirty, you will be targeted by the "Unknown." Listen to me—you absolutely do not want to be targeted by the "Unknown." Have you played Resident Evil? The Tyrant in a suit, carrying a briefcase, calmly chasing you down. Unless you turn on cheats, you can’t shake it off.
But in this game, you don’t have cheats.]
It seemed everyone had received the information from the voice in their heads.
At this moment, each person also unlocked a rule—
[Current Rule 1 Unlocked: The town’s monsters cannot be killed. You’d better not have too much faith in your bargain-bin martial arts skills.]
Wen Xishu’s brows furrowed slightly.
Right now he possessed the Three Phases, and with Tang Rui’s help elevating his Slaughter Tower Level, his current combat ability was very strong.
Ordinary urban legends, Evil Spirits, criminals, those small fries really didn’t worry him.
But from the looks of it, the most infuriating part of the Deceit Tower was being imposed on everyone equally.
Rules.
Once rules came into play, sometimes numbers lost their meaning.
[Good, you’re finally starting to realize that the game seems a lot harder than you imagined. You’re also beginning to understand that perhaps you’ll have to listen carefully to the rules.]
[Current Rule 2 Unlocked: The campfire can grant you a brief moment of safety. Whenever you see a campfire, it means you can rest there for a little while. But remember, only for a little while.]
[Current Rule 3 Unlocked: Do not ignore the voice in your mind. It is the key to your survival, even though previous Challengers all thought the owner of the voice was the final boss. They each had their own ideas. They were very independent—and died very cleanly.]
Every time the voice in his mind appeared, the surroundings would freeze.
Wen Xishu immediately formed a thought.
"This might be... a different kind of text adventure game. When the voice in my head appears, the game enters a pause state. During that time, I have to react quickly."
[All right, the voice will appear when appropriate. How you respond to it will affect the points you gain. With points over sixty, you can qualify to purchase certain items. With points below thirty—as I said earlier. Next, you can get to know each other. Good luck, nth wave of Challengers.]
The voice faded away.
Wen Xishu looked around. Including himself, there were six people this time.
The first person should be a Longxia person, though he looked like he was from the Western Regions. He carried firearms, was rather tall, had a single horn growing from his forehead, and one of his eyes had been gouged out. He wasn’t wearing an eyepatch; instead, he exposed the broken vessels and flesh in his eye socket outright.
"In any case, we’ve all ended up in the same place. Next, we need to find that secret together. There are many monsters in this town. Before we find the secret, we can help each other. What do you all think? Oh, I’m called Desert."
"My hand-to-hand skills are decent, and my shooting’s not bad either."
Desert’s attitude was very mild.
The second person to speak was a woman, but you could barely see any feminine traits on her.