During Wang Ying’s challenge of the sixth stage, Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai directly started the challenge of the seventh stage.
The TV screen, originally fully displaying Wang Ying, split into Wen Xishu, Zheng Zai, and Wang Ying holding a glass bottle and a vacuum cleaner.
Although willing to continue taking Aspasia along, Aspasia didn’t seize the opportunity to fight alongside Wang Ying.
She was now the only spectator.
The compass guided Wen Xishu to a new round of items, one of which was an electric saw. The vacuum cleaner had already shown powerful attributes, but this electric saw was even stronger.
Anything injured by the saw wouldn’t spatter blood and flesh but would instead burst with items like rainbow candies, soap bubbles, and cotton candy.
The scene of Zheng Zai wielding the electric saw against the monsters, which should have been gore-filled, turned out to look like a dreamlike castle on the battlefield.
Sunlight shone through the soap bubbles, displaying a spectrum of colors. Cotton candy and rainbow candy flew around wildly, and occasionally, some pink little winged horses would joyfully dance.
The little pink horses gave Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai some mental encouragement, and the rainbow candies and cotton candy significantly restored their stamina.
As for the soap bubbles, initially, there were many, but they kept merging until they formed a gigantic soap bubble.
Mid-level, level seven normal types entering the soap bubble slowed down, and their visual style turned into a chibi version.
Wen Xishu really wanted to ask, what exactly was Ding Dong’s ability? Was it from some eerie sequence? How did he make a weapon as gory as an electric saw look so adorable and dreamlike?
Was this thing initially meant for Qian Lele?
The actual combat effect of the electric saw far exceeded Wen Xishu’s expectations. It could indeed be considered a powerful weapon for slaughtering in the Slaughter Tower...
But he didn’t really want it. This thing seemed more fitting for a girl dressed in a maid outfit with bunny ear hairclips and over-the-knee white stockings.
The image of a macho man carrying an electric saw was fine, but if there were sunshine, rainbows, candies, and chibi little pink horses dancing in the air around him... He really couldn’t stand himself in that visual style. However, Wen Xishu was quite looking forward to handing it to Bi Wang Yueyun.
This thought seemed addictive, quickly occupying Wen Xishu’s mind. Just imagining Bi Wang Yueyun ready to slaughter with the electric saw, then suddenly realizing the visual style around him was off... made him a bit impatient.
Phoenix could design such an item, which indeed showed a bit of perverseness.
In any case, with the help of the electric saw, they passed the seventh stage as well.
When Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai returned to the hospital, Wang Ying was still battling the sixth stage on TV.
Zheng Zai’s personal attributes were still too strong; combined with the controller, his performance was absolutely insane. The electric saw’s attributes enabled Wen Xishu and the others to quickly clear even more difficult stages.
Wen Xishu didn’t delay and swiftly led Zheng Zai to start the eighth stage.
This time, they found an item in the room: a mirror. The mirror’s ability was simple. It acted as a shield, and anyone attacking the mirror would be countered by their own reflection in the mirror.
This was naturally a powerful weapon. However, the items Ding Dong designed were conceptually strong but practically limited by their stats.
In the usage scenario, the mirror wouldn’t shatter because that’s a usage phase where items don’t break.
But in actual combat, the mirror’s durability came into question. Theoretically, it could be infinitely repaired with a wrench, but against overly powerful enemies, there wouldn’t even be a chance to perform such actions.
Ding Dong’s abilities were very comprehensive. You couldn’t imagine what properties he could give to items, but the strength of these items always seemed capped.
To Wen Xishu, it felt like Ding Dong could handle various situations, but when facing enemies with extremely strong single attributes, he might struggle.
However, Wen Xishu didn’t mind. Tackling the eighth stage with the mirror, wrench, controller, and electric saw was easy.
After clearing the eighth stage, they discovered Wang Ying had also started the ninth stage. It seemed everyone was competing.
For the ninth stage, Wang Ying’s item was a pair of glasses. This really surprised Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai.
Wang Ying seemed to have regained his confidence. The ninth stage was likely to feature rare and elite types, and ordinary monsters might upgrade to high-level normal types.
Yet Wang Ying dared to choose glasses, an item with no apparent combat attributes, in these later stages.
Wen Xishu roughly understood Wang Ying’s thoughts. With the vacuum cleaner and glass bottle, his confidence was growing.
Often, it’s like this: when you can’t take the first step, the road ahead seems increasingly difficult. But once you take that first step, you often find unexpected turns.
The glasses’ ability was simple: they visualized the defense strength of monsters’ various body parts.
In the usage scenario, wearing the glasses, Wang Ying, combined with the attributes of the glass bottle and vacuum cleaner, could precisely target the monsters’ weak spots every time.
The ninth stage’s scene was in a speeding train on iron tracks. The train carriages were narrow, limiting Wang Ying’s performance.
Fortunately, this also restricted the number of attacking monsters.
Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai also started preparing for the tenth stage. This time, the compass led Wen Xishu to a locked room.
4-30.
The hospital ward originally had 26 rooms, but after renovations, four more were added. The last one was 4-30.
This room’s door was closed, with "Forbidden" written prominently on it.
"There’s actually a locked room. Should we use the wrench to knock it back to an unlocked state?" Zheng Zai suggested.
Wen Xishu replied, "Good idea, feel free to try."
Zheng Zai lifted the wrench, ready to smash the door of 4-30. But when his hand was raised high and about to strike...
He suddenly noticed his wrench started petrifying.
"What’s going on? The wrench is turning to stone!" Zheng Zai exclaimed, immediately abandoning the attempt to smash the door.
When he stopped, the wrench’s petrification began to slowly reverse.
Wen Xishu observed and said, "Looks like we can’t force our way through this door. This is a puzzle element. The door needs to be opened in the correct way."
Zheng Zai was puzzled, "What should we do?"
Wen Xishu didn’t think for long before he quickly found the answer. He led Zheng Zai back.
"Brother Wen, why are we returning here?" Zheng Zai asked, looking at the room number, 4-22.
This was the room with the glove. Wen Xishu picked up the glove and said, "Here’s something we can use to open the door."
"The glove?" Zheng Zai asked again.
"I’m not sure, but it’s definitely related to the glove. I suspect the glove might be the key item to get the key to open the door," Wen Xishu said.
Zheng Zai replied, "Isn’t that too easy?"
Wen Xishu thought for a moment before explaining, "No, don’t forget, there’s actually a preparatory step before this. Without completing that, getting the glove is meaningless."
Zheng Zai suddenly understood, "You mean... the five-star rating?"
Wen Xishu nodded, "Yes, the five-star rating is a prerequisite to activate the glove to obtain the key."
The five-star rating helped Wen Xishu get the invitation. But when Wen Xishu left five "※" marks, he wasn’t yet the so-called "fated person."
In the Desire Tower, after Granny Wu and the others each drew a "※", their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, and feet would project onto the painting. If Mo Yuan and the others wore gloves and touched the paper, Ding Dong would emerge from the paper.
But now, Ding Dong was already born, and Granny Wu and others had left. Only the "fated person" could activate the ceremony.
Wen Xishu knew clearly that he was that fated person.
With this thought, Wen Xishu put on the glove. He had already completed the ritual of drawing the "※". The next step was to touch the painting.
When the gloved hand touched the painting, Zheng Zai widened his eyes, witnessing a peculiar scene—
The hexagons and circles in the painting started slowly shifting and resizing, emitting a dazzling, radiant light.
Everything was similar to the process of Ding Dong’s birth, except this time, it wasn’t Ding Dong that emerged from the painting, but a key.
When Wen Xishu retrieved the key from the painting, Zheng Zai clapped his hands, saying, "Brother Wen, you’re amazing. You gave me the feeling that... you seem to know the script again."
When Zheng Zai first met Wen Xishu, he thought Wen Xishu seemed aware of the stage design process, speeding through the stages. This time, he had the same feeling again.
Wen Xishu said, "Let’s go, Old Zheng. Let’s see the final treasure."