Wen Xishu was concerned about the method of obtaining the invitation letter. Only by getting the invitation letter could he figure out the trajectory of fate and re-anchor it.
But if the end was near, or if he had already cleared the level, there would be no more opportunities.
"Maybe my guess was wrong. I overthought it... It’s not about identifying so many items, but rather that the items containing body elements hide secrets."
Wen Xishu began to recall carefully.
Footprints, eyes, ears—these elements were imprinted on running shoes, a desk lamp, and a radio.
He had a hypothesis in his mind, but currently, the information to support this hypothesis was still too little.
After about half a minute, Wen Xishu closed his eyes and began to recall the task description. The whole process was very quiet, and Zheng Zai didn’t dare to speak.
Suddenly, Wen Xishu opened his eyes:
"Let’s go, follow me to continue searching the other rooms!"
"Oh, okay!"
Zheng Zai hugged the desk lamp and followed Wen Xishu out of the room.
Next, Wen Xishu’s efficiency increased significantly. If it wasn’t a patient’s room, he would almost just open the door, glance inside, and leave.
From 4-13 to 4-22, Wen Xishu only stopped in three rooms.
In these three rooms, Wen Xishu found three items: a rice cooker, a pipe, and a pair of gloves.
The patterns on the pipe and the rice cooker corresponded to the nose and mouth respectively, and the pattern on the gloves corresponded to the hands—they were palm prints.
Of course, each of these rooms also contained small paper notes. These items needed to be identified before they could be taken, but these paper notes could be taken directly.
In the room where he found the pipe, the paper note had a drawing of a drooling child, raising his hands joyfully.
In the room with the rice cooker, the paper note showed a chef holding a fork.
The third item, the gloves, had the palm print, but the paper note’s content was the strangest.
It was a stick figure, with its head being a simple circle, and its body a somewhat narrow hexagon.
A blindfolded, tied-up girl; an old woman with big ears listening; a youngster riding a bike; the stick figure; the chef waving the fork; the drooling child...
Zheng Zai could not make any connections between these paper notes. Each note seemed unrelated to the others.
Finally, Wen Xishu found a patient room in 4-26.
This room had clearly been inhabited, but it only contained a pen and a blank sheet of paper.
Inside the bedside cabinet, there was still a paper note, but upon unfolding it, there was nothing on it, completely blank.
Wen Xishu looked at the pen, and his face, which had been frowning, finally showed a smile.
"Younger Brother Wen, seeing you like this... Did you find the key item you were looking for?"
"Sort of."
Zheng Zai carefully inspected the pen, discovering that it had no elements.
None of the body elements like eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, or feet were present. The pen was a fountain pen, but it had no patterns, resembling a thin, long iron tube.
"Does this pen... have any functions?"
"No, this pen is not an item that needs identification."
"Not?"
"No, the most valuable thing in this room is not the pen but this paper note."
"Huh? What about the previous items..."
"The previous items, yes. In the rooms containing paper notes, the notes had contents, and the items needed to be identified. But this room is different."
Zheng Zai, not understanding, humbly asked:
"I don’t get it."
Wen Xishu explained:
"Haven’t you noticed... this pen hasn’t popped up any notes?"
Zheng Zai stared at the pen, and indeed that was the case.
The items on the bedside cabinets in the previous rooms required identification, and upon being stared at, a note frame with garbled text would appear.
But not this time. This pen had no notes at all.
So it was just an ordinary pen.
However, this time, the paper was entirely blank, with nothing inside. Similarly, no notes appeared for the paper.
Wen Xishu smiled:
"As of now, I still don’t know what the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, and feet represent... nor do I understand the contents drawn on the paper notes in these rooms. Although I have some guesses, they are just guesses."
"Old Zheng, I’ve been looking for something, something that can reveal the origin of everything. I initially thought that it might be related to the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, and feet. But I was wrong. These items containing body part elements are indeed important, but they point to another hidden element."
Zheng Zai seemed to somewhat understand:
"So, have you now found clues to the thing you’re looking for?"
Wen Xishu said:
"Yes, it’s very simple. The answer was written directly in the task description, but I overthought it, and I even overlooked such an important element."
"Think carefully, isn’t there a particularly strange symbol in your task introduction?"
Zheng Zai had seriously memorized the task, so he believed he couldn’t have overlooked the task description.
But when Wen Xishu mentioned the keyword, "symbol," Zheng Zai suddenly recalled a sentence:
"Five ※ ratings?!! Could it be that we need to give his items a five ※ rating?"
Wen Xishu laughed:
"Excellent. The task description had a sentence we all overlooked—’People didn’t care that he died, nor did they care about his final words: ’Remember to give me a five ※ rating.’"
"Don’t you think, explicitly using this symbol instead of the words ’five-star rating’... is a hint? He was emphasizing this symbol."
Zheng Zai nodded, it was indeed so.
"So... what should we do now?"
Wen Xishu picked up the pen, which must still be functional. Then he used the pen to draw five "※" symbols on the blank paper.
"This... might be the easiest invitation letter to get, right?" Wen Xishu thought.
Once the five "※" symbols were drawn, Zheng Zai suddenly felt the desk lamp in his hand shake slightly.
At the same time, Wen Xishu finally received the prompt he was looking for.
[You are certainly not the first to recognize his items. In that asylum for abnormal beings, there were a few others who deeply appreciated the great inventor’s inventions. Yet he still yearned for a five-star rating, a written five-star rating, even though he had poured his heart and soul into it, he could never satisfy himself.]
[Item obtained: Invitation Letter·Deceased Inventor.]
Wen Xishu’s smile froze. Deceased inventor?
He knew that in the Deceit Tower, this inventor was already dead, but was he also dead in the Desire Tower?
Having finally obtained the invitation letter, Wen Xishu did not seem happy. Based on past tasks, it seemed that these characters neared death and then started to mutate, causing a significant shift in mentality.
His task was to change some of their encounters so they no longer harbored resentment towards the world.
This was Wen Xishu’s idea, but now he guessed that perhaps even entering the Desire Tower timeline... the target was already dead.
If dead, there would naturally be no way to redeem or alter the target’s fate trajectory. Just like appearing in a scene where Tang Rui had died, how could he possibly save Tang Rui?
Moreover, it was strange that both Jack and Tang Rui had experienced death, but neither truly died due to the eerie powers. Why was it different for the great inventor, who truly died?
Wen Xishu could only think:
"Hopefully, I’m wrong."
At this moment, Zheng Zai suddenly said:
"Younger Brother Wen, why do I feel like this item... seems to have changed slightly?"
Wen Xishu also noticed that the desk lamp seemed to have a faint sheen. However, the note displayed to Wen Xishu’s eyes still hadn’t changed, remaining those few words.
Yet, with Zheng Zai’s words... the desk lamp actually lit up on its own.
Wen Xishu suddenly had a feeling: this wasn’t a dead thing, these items... were alive.
Since he had obtained the invitation letter, Wen Xishu could now explore the root of everything.
"Old Zheng, you go keep watch outside. I want to be alone for a bit. It won’t take long, maybe just a minute or two for you."
"I need to be alone here for a moment."
Zheng Zai, not doubting anything, immediately stood up and left the desk lamp, saying:
"Okay, if you need any help, just let me know. I’ll guard outside for you."
With that, Zheng Zai went to the door and even closed it.
Wen Xishu then took out the invitation letter:
"Hopefully, you’re still alive, great inventor."