The mechanical creatures in the second level begin to reveal some issues.
A mad scientist, after the apocalypse arrived, awakened certain abilities and began conducting insane experiments to resolve the Balance Curse.
His experiments failed, leading to the creation of a checkpoint area filled with mechanical beasts.
But his intentions were aimed at solving the problem.
In fact, Wen Xishu carefully recalls that the first level also had issues. The giant spherical creature from the first level, the one that sprayed mucus upon death and injured Colonel Devon...
It was actually a fusion creature that, in its slow crawling process, devoured four organisms.
Wen Xishu now thinks that perhaps all this is related to the Balance Curse, because when they arrived at the supermarket area, there were four people.
In other words, with four extra people in the supermarket... the monster had to devour four of the supermarket's monsters.
The sss-level evaluation from the second level gave Wen Xishu seventy thousand tavern coins.
In the tavern's upgrade options, Wen Xishu can spend fifty thousand to enhance the tavern's recovery effect.
If he chooses to upgrade this option, even Devon, with a severed limb, can restore to full health and have complete limbs.
Simply put, the tavern is like a small bunker, with levels like a small Deceit Tower, no matter what kind of injury you have, you'll be perfectly fine when you return to the bunker.
The next option is recruitment probability, which can increase the chance of recruiting high-level heroes by fifteen percent in normal recruitment, and increase the chance of recruiting a super hero by five percent in high-level recruitment.
However, Wen Xishu didn't immediately upgrade these two options.
Because it's unnecessary.
"If the perfect ending is to lead everyone to the safe area and break free from the curse, then recruitment is essentially gathering... At this stage, before my population quota goes up, there's no need to focus on it."
"As long as I'm strong enough, my demand for high-intensity heroes will not be great."
"It's still necessary to keep twenty-five thousand coins and opt for precise recruitment."
Normally, clearing the level means a good ending, but if the team that clears the level has a full population quota, and everyone is a top-card... perhaps a better ending can be unlocked.
But what Wen Xishu has to do is not just to fill the population quota, but to avoid discarding anyone as much as possible in the process—
"The upside-down reversal has happened once, I've already turned into a negative number, but if it reverses again, that's probably all, it won't have any extra effect, at most it will help exempt from the curse itself."
A negative number flipped over becomes a positive number.
Considering that flipping things upside-down turns bad effects into good ones, the negative characteristic might be retained, just exempting from the curse.
But Wen Xishu must contemplate a matter in advance—exceeding the population limit.
Currently, it's 3/4, and the third level will become 4/4, then by the fourth level, the population quota issue must be resolved.
"The money is still not enough."
Wen Xishu glanced, noticing that upgrading the tavern scale requires sixty-five thousand tavern coins, while precise recruitment also requires twenty-five thousand tavern coins.
Especially for the next level, precise recruitment is essential.
Due to the sss-level clearance reward, Wen Xishu can see the scenario of the next level—"Dream Realm."
"The souls lost in the dream realm, due to their inability to awaken, combined with the dream's madness, begin to become dangerous. Please find the one who can wake you up in time, otherwise, it will be difficult for you to pass."
Wen Xishu is unsure, facing spiritual-level monsters, whether he can clear them all, so the best strategy is to recruit a special hero to reduce difficulty.
Therefore, Wen Xishu retained forty-five thousand tavern coins this time and didn't instantly restore Colonel Devon's body, instead opting for precise recruitment.
"Our team needs to expand in size. Colonel Devon, I promise you, at the right moment, I will heal your arm."
Colonel Devon replied:
"Commander, do not worry about me, do not let me influence your resource allocation decisions."
Wen Xishu must admit, the initial teammates are all very good, truly good people.
Such people, abandoning them in the process is very painful.
He couldn't imagine...
The kind of life-and-death separations that must be experienced in the Desire Tower.
"But at least in the Deceit Tower, not one can be left behind."
Wen Xishu made a decision in his heart, and at the same time, there was a knock at the tavern door.
"Um... um... is anyone there? I'm Nico, I've received guidance! I'm here to meet my commander!"
The tavern door quickly opened, and a red-haired girl in an evening dress appeared in everyone's view.
Elsa couldn't help but praised:
"She's so beautiful."
Upon hearing this, Nico's face turned red:
"Th-Thank you!"
She appeared rather shy and was reluctant to rudely gaze at everyone, but she eventually lifted her head slightly, observing each person.
Wen Xishu sensed that the girl wanted to speak several times but held back due to fear, her courage was somewhat lacking.
He decisively stepped forward:
"My name is Wen Xishu, I'm your commander. This is Colonel Devon, a reliable warrior; this is Elsa, our doctor; and here are our engineer Borg and sniper Cavendish."
"Welcome to join us, Nico, please don't be restrained, each of us will try our best to protect you in the upcoming journey."
[Nico favorability +5.]
Wen Xishu received guidance.
Nico is the type of girl who blushes easily, she suddenly started to sob:
"It's so good... So good... I thought I would stay in that place forever... I didn't expect to have the opportunity to fight for everyone."