The appearance of amateur Wen Xishu undoubtedly surprised everyone.
A body untouched by pain, a person who had never enhanced their pain tolerance.
This made Linnai gnash her teeth in hatred:
"Why! Why did I even sacrifice my own father! And yet you still try to stop me."
Pain Currency generally couldn’t be held by others, but it could be inherited by blood relatives upon one’s death. This led to a pain tradition known as the "Sacrificing Father and Mother" style.
Of course, there were also those who sacrificed their children.
Wen Xishu now understood why Virtual 04 asked if his mother was still alive.
"Everyone here has self-healing abilities, presumably, I will too in this environment."
He took out the Scorpio’s cheat knife.
The knife itself was very sharp, having evolved from a Spanish Ham Knife.
Wen Xishu thought for a moment and decided to go with the flow, so he used the tip of the knife... to lift his own fingernail.
The immense pain instantly made him feel a certain force emerging around him, but the next moment, this force transformed into a numerical value of currency.
In the top-right corner of Wen Xishu’s vision, a small UI appeared, showing a number — 51 points.
While cutting off fingers was painful, the ten fingers being linked to the heart made lifting a nail a technique learnt from ancient punishment. There’s also acupuncture...
These methods were ones Wen Xishu really didn’t want to use on himself and didn’t want to become a pain-loving lunatic.
But since the Pain Auction made everyone covet the auction items, it was evident that these items might truly bring something transformative.
A necklace was also easy to hide.
Wen Xishu said:
"I don’t necessarily need to compete with all of you for every item. Think twice if you want to compete."
This statement was a warning.
After Wen Xishu spoke these words, slight changes started to happen in his body.
In the top-left corner of his vision, a number appeared... 0.8.
He guessed this represented pain tolerance. In other words, he became less sensitive to pain.
Of course, 0.8 was nearly equivalent to having no pain tolerance for most people.
Wen Xishu considered another aspect:
"I have an invitation; if I use it now... and go directly to the source of the Desire Tower and kill the mysterious origin..."
"Would that dissolve the rules of pain?"
"But before that, I could use these rules to hone myself. Use pain to acquire good things and increase my pain tolerance, so I can be immune to part of the pain in the future."
Considering this, Wen Xishu felt he could stay in the Deceit Tower for a while. There was no need to go to the Desire Tower immediately.
"51 points once!"
"51 points twice!"
"51 points three times! Sold! Congratulations to you, the newcomer, for obtaining this item."
Virtual 04 led Wen Xishu to the auction stage to collect the Pain Necklace.
The auction continued.
At this moment, the Half-Headed Ghost approached Wen Xishu.
"Kid, congratulations on obtaining the most valuable auction item in my eyes." The white-bearded Half-Headed Ghost’s gaze was not malicious.
"My name is Yoshida Take. My appearance has led everyone to call me the Half-Headed Ghost. Kid, would you make a deal with me?" The Half-Headed Ghost was very sincere.
Wen Xishu nodded:
"Go ahead and talk."
The auction was still ongoing. The item being auctioned this time was a syringe shaped like an ouroboros; after injection, it could convert mental pain into physical pain.
Gradually, one becomes numb and devoid of emotions. But physical pain tolerance will be reshaped.
Many people began bidding frantically. Seeing that Wen Xishu was not interested, everyone started vying for this treasure.
Wen Xishu naturally wasn’t interested.
He didn’t want to become an emotionless monster. In his view, human emotions shouldn’t be erased.
But for many present, mental pain was too tormenting. They preferred to become numb.
The Half-Headed Ghost said:
"My grandson is an unfortunate fellow, born with intellectual disabilities that made everything he did unsuccessful. He was ridiculed as a child and looked down upon by teachers and classmates in middle school. As an adult, he couldn’t get a wife or find a good job... but he didn’t mind."
"Under our guidance, he slowly improved, starting with simple errands and managed to live quite well."
"We once heard that in Rendong Village—no, it was called District 19 at the time—there was a miracle doctor who could cure all sorts of ailments, so we wanted to cure him."
"But when we arrived, District 19 had turned into what is now the terrifying Rendong Village."
"My grandson... became a Rendong under the dreadful curse."
The Half-Headed Ghost’s fist clenched, and pain currency appeared on his body again. It’s worth noting that pain transformed into currency doesn’t disappear immediately but lingers for a while, though this process doesn’t generate additional currency.
The Half-Headed Ghost was clearly submerged in the sorrow of losing his grandson.
Although his grandson had congenital defects, the Half-Headed Ghost loved him dearly. Raising such a child in the harsh urban environment of Hujiang so he could support himself...
The effort put in was naturally hard for ordinary people to imagine.
"I quickly adapted to this system of pain rules, exhausted a lot of currency, but there are too many self-torturing maniacs here, even if I smashed my head into magma and lost half of it... I still often couldn’t make it to Rendong."