Chapter 55: Wen Xishu with Open Heavenly Eyes

Wen Xishu spoke in a leisurely and unhurried manner.

Park Mi-hee said anxiously:
"Tell me! I will definitely listen to you!"

Wen Xishu said:
"Zheng Zai, remember this, when exploring the Ghost Pagoda in the future, you must grasp one principle: whenever any sound appears, do not be afraid."
"The content in the sounds or prompts is the key to clearing the level. Do you understand?"

Wen Xishu ignored Park Mi-hee and instead began teaching Zheng Zai some valuable insights.

Zheng Zai nodded.

Park Mi-hee was truly terrified, creeped out to the core by these eyes.
These eyes were everywhere; some appeared on the walls, others in mid-air, and the sticky eyeball fluid was clearly visible.
Densely packed, with nowhere to hide.

Yet at this moment, Wen Xishu was unhurriedly teaching Zheng Zai. But Park Mi-hee did not dare to say anything.

Wen Xishu's logic was actually very simple: there were too many eyes to hide from, and attacking them directly offered no effective means. Doing so might even trigger some other health-depletion mechanism.
This meant that all they needed to do right now was follow the prompts. The prompt was to record the bad deeds they had committed.
Although the phrase "at school" was added, this requirement probably wasn't targeted at bunker players.
It was merely a clue, hinting that the girl's actions at school had all been recorded.

And that was indeed the fact.
Wen Xishu remembered Tang Rui saying that she had recorded everything in her diary.
Because of the diary, her parents had learned that Tang Rui had neglected her studies at school and taken up music.
Of course, they had also learned the true pain Tang Rui had experienced.

"Giving us the props means there must be a chance to use them. Compared to the previous scene, we now have paper and pen, precisely to comply with the prompt and write down the bad deeds we have committed."
"Now, write."

Park Mi-hee asked:
"Once we write... once we finish writing, will we be safe? The prompt also mentioned recording good deeds, can't we write good deeds instead?"

Wen Xishu shook his head:
"You write first."

Zheng Zai was much more straightforward, doing whatever Wen Xishu said. Zheng Zai didn't look smart, but this performance was actually the behavior of a truly smart person.
On the contrary, every bit of doubt Park Mi-hee showed at this moment was courting death and acting foolishly.

All three began recording the bad deeds they had committed.
As for bad deeds, Zheng Zai hadn't really done many. He thought for a long time before writing down a childhood prank.
Park Mi-hee, in the next space, had actually done quite a few, but she remained skeptical: if she really wrote them down, would she be punished?

Wen Xishu, on the other hand, wrote furiously. He didn't even need to think; he had committed far too many bad deeds in his life.
Instigating a floor resident to kill a neighbor, luring a little girl away from her mother to live with an employee fired from the circus, beating up a suspected doctor, flirting with and mocking the inquisitor, and if certain actions of the Manic Die were included...
Then murder, arson, and gambling, he had done them all. Therefore, Wen Xishu wrote at lightning speed, his thoughts flowing like an inspired spring.

Park Mi-hee ultimately wrote down one bad deed she had committed: she had once tried to use pregnancy to elevate her social status, and after finishing with a certain high-ranking official, she had gone rummaging through a trash can containing a certain bodily fluid.

After all three of them completed their records...
These eyes floating in the air or growing out from the floors and walls began to slowly close. Once completely closed, they turned into black smoke and vanished.

However, Park Mi-hee could not feel happy...
Because above the heads of all three of them, an eye-shaped symbol had appeared.
This symbol was eighty percent blue and twenty percent red.
It looked like an identifier floating above their heads, reminding Wen Xishu of NPCs in online games with exclamation marks hovering over them.

"This... what the hell is this thing... Why do I feel like my movements have slowed down? My body feels like it's gotten heavier!"

Park Mi-hee looked at Wen Xishu once more. Wen Xishu frowned in disgust:
"Stop being so jumpy and startled. Could it be that Zheng Zai and I don't have this thing on our heads? Could it be that only you are special?"

Park Mi-hee immediately shut her mouth.
She wasn't actually that foolish on ordinary days, but many people can put on a disguise in normal environments, appearing immensely elegant and composed in comfortable surroundings...
Once placed in an extremely dangerous environment, however, they become entirely different people.

Wen Xishu said:
"Zheng Zai, remember this, we are bunker dwellers, and the place we have arrived at is a game scenario called the Three Pagodas Game."
"Since it's a game, treat yourselves as players and understand the game mechanics more."

Zheng Zai half-understood:
"But... in our bunker, we haven't really played many games..."

Wen Xishu was slightly startled. Come to think of it, that seemed to be true.
Before the Wen family met its downfall, they were a prominent household and had interacted with many upper-class elites...
There were also many people with good family backgrounds in the Pagoda Academy. Yet in his memory, it seemed not a single person played games.
Wen Xishu suddenly felt that this might actually be a good thing for him.

"It doesn't matter, I'll explain it to you in a way you can understand later. Now let me first talk about what we are actually encountering."

Zheng Zai assumed a posture of humble instruction, and Park Mi-hee also immediately turned serious.

Wen Xishu said:
"Eyes represent surveillance, representing a perverted desire to control one's children."
"The fact that eyes are everywhere means that the true owner of this house has no privacy."
"Every bad deed we, and even she, have committed will be known by the owner of the eyes—her parents. The reason they are bad deeds is because only bad deeds are worthy of being pried into."

"The red eyes appearing above our heads can be understood as... the control value."
"The higher the control value, the less free we are. In daily life, the manifestation of a lack of freedom is having someone manage everything you do."
"But within the Ghost Pagoda, it turns into finding it difficult to complete any action regardless of what you do, as your body's control capability declines, making you feel as heavy as lead."
"Judging by the eye identifier, the red accumulation will grow more and more, and we will find it increasingly difficult to control our own bodies."

Both Zheng Zai and Park Mi-hee were startled. Zheng Zai was marveling at Wen Xishu's analytical ability.
This was precisely the state of early Longxia children doing reading comprehension tests: why the window was blue, how to interpret three consecutive days of rain, and so on; they could answer it brilliantly.
Park Mi-hee, on the other hand, was terrified by the bizarre mechanics of this house and fearful of her own predicament.

Wen Xishu took everything in, but continued explaining aloud:
"For now, it seems we cannot let blue cover the red, but I deduce that purification items might reduce our red accumulation."
"Of course, you know the price: purifying the wrong item will likely result in death."
"We still don't know what the instant-kill method of this stage is. Unless our demon-resistance value is very high, it's impossible to counter these things within the Ghost Pagoda."
"Finally, if the red completely swallows the blue before... we still cannot find the item, then the three of us will obviously be reduced to puppets."
"Just like those children in Chinese-style horror stories who completely abandon their autonomy and are entirely manipulated by their parents."

Park Mi-hee said:
"Then how... how should we break the deadlock? Wen Xishu, you—you have a clue, right?"

Wen Xishu nodded:
"The answer is very simple. Actually, this stage is easier to guess than the previous one, because right from the start, we had props in our hands."
"Everything we experience is what the girl in the house originally experienced."
"Therefore, in this second scenario, the item that needs to be purified is the diary."
"Find the diary, purify the diary, and we're done."

Zheng Zai began searching, and Wen Xishu also began searching. Park Mi-hee hesitated briefly before joining the search.
Wen Xishu was very satisfied with Zheng Zai's proactive and daring mindset.

"Zheng Zai, find the diary, and I'll purify it."

Zheng Zai said:
"No need, no need at all. I trust you; without you, I wouldn't even have been able to walk out of the first scenario. I am willing to bear the risk for you, let me purify it."

Wen Xishu smiled:
"I appreciate the sentiment, but just listen to me. I'll do it."

Zheng Zai was somewhat moved. He thought he was quite courageous, but he hadn't expected the youngest among this group, Wen Xishu, to be the one with the most spine.
Of course, Wen Xishu wasn't doing this out of guts, responsibility, or bravery.
He couldn't blatantly say to Zheng Zai, "Brother, I need to claim the rewards."
He had already said to think with player logic: you farmed the monster for a long time, but the final hit wasn't yours, wouldn't the kill be stolen? Merits and achievements had to be monopolized.
Although he wasn't sure if there was an observer mechanism, Wen Xishu had to default to the worst-case scenario.
The Ghost Pagoda would grade challengers based on their performance, so I'm sorry, but all three items had to belong to him.

Wen Xishu's luck was fairly decent; he knew where the diary was hidden because, under the effects of the myriad emotions and the Truth-Speaking Goblet, he had seen the answer.
Although presented from an eerie perspective, everything was largely indistinguishable from Tang Rui's memories.

"I found the diary."

Wen Xishu held the diary in his hand. He flipped through it and discovered that this girl had genuinely written everything down in the diary.
He felt a trace of emotion: what an obedient child she was.

People actually find it very easy to establish conditioned reflexes to suppress their instincts. The simplest example—sex. Because this thing was linked to a sense of shame, it led a group of people to feel that merely seeing an arm was indecent and offensive to public decency.
The consequence of doing this was...
More and more people later began to satisfyingly indulge in those hidden shame-filled desires with a perverted intensity. Thus, people's fetishes became increasingly bizarre. For example, the West Pagoda.

Wen Xishu seemed to understand why Tang Rui could bring herself to kill everyone she wanted to kill.
Because she was too suppressed.

[This item conceals unforgivable sins. Are you sure you want to purify it?]

The prompt appeared once more. Wen Xishu did not hesitate and directly chose to purify it.
At this instant, the eyes floating above Zheng Zai and Park Mi-hee vanished. Park Mi-hee felt a wave of physical comfort, and Zheng Zai felt the control over his body return to him.

"He's simply like someone with the heavenly eye opened. Up to this point, I haven't found anything amiss..."
"The higher-ups told me to find the source of his power that allows him to clear the Ghost Pagoda..."
"Yet he has no real power; he just possesses a terrifying association ability, which can't even be called deduction, because many parts are quite far-fetched."
"But he always manages to find the right answer. It's terrifying. This person is too terrifying."
"If I report back truthfully... will the higher-ups believe me?"

Park Mi-hee had already fallen into deep anxiety. She was afraid of dying in this stage, but once she actually survived, she immediately started worrying about other things.

The door once again appeared in the middle of the scenario.
Wen Xishu said:
"Next is the final level. As long as we purify this stage, we can go back."
"We've been very efficient, and didn't wait for the three levels to overlap."

Zheng Zai said:
"Three levels overlapping... what does that mean? Does it mean three anti-AFK mechanisms appearing together?"

Wen Xishu nodded:
"Imagine this: the tentacle monster of the first level can instantly kill us, but its visual range is limited."
"Yet the eyes of the second level can compensate for this..."

Following Wen Xishu's train of thought, both Zheng Zai and Park Mi-hee felt a chill of horror.
This was practically designed to take the players' lives.

Zheng Zai said:
"Wen Xishu, thank you, thank you truly so much. You've saved me more than once."

Wen Xishu waved his hand and said:
"Let's go, the final level."

Zheng Zai trotted along eagerly behind him. This was inside the Ghost Pagoda, and they had just received very heavy news.
Yet right now, his mood felt much more relaxed.
This was probably the joy of being carried to victory.

......
......

The final level.
Upon arriving at the new scenario, the reactions of Zheng Zai and Park Mi-hee were entirely different.
Zheng Zai carefully observed without feeling anxious. Park Mi-hee, however, once again plunged into anxiety.
Because there were numerous items throughout the entire scenario—you could say items exuding the aura of sin were everywhere—and the scenario itself was several times larger than the first two levels combined.

This was the first floor of a certain office building.
Wen Xishu knew that this was the final level that constituted the parrot's cage and completely shattered Tang Rui's life.
This was the workplace where Tang Rui had once lived.
The other two didn't know, but Wen Xishu was well aware that the theme of this stage was betrayal.
Tang Rui had suffered betrayal from Lin Hui-ru, causing her life to become fractured once more.

However, in what manner would the theme of betrayal be presented?
Wen Xishu suddenly grew filled with anticipation.

"What should we do now?" Park Mi-hee asked.

Wen Xishu said:
"Wait. Blindly searching for items is useless; we have to wait for the anti-AFK mechanism to appear. While that will cause us to encounter danger, it will also bring us clues."

Zheng Zai silently took note. Right now, Wen Xishu's words were like scripture to him.
If the Pagoda Academy existed, he felt that Wen Xishu's experiences would be the teachings of the academy's professors.

Sure enough, it was the same as the previous two levels.
Not long after Wen Xishu's voice fell, the three of them heard the prompt:

[Congratulations on reaching the final level. Is there someone in your life whom you can truly trust and entrust your back to? If your friend is by your side, you will face the trial together.]
[If your friend is not by your side, please gently whisper their name.]

Park Mi-hee had also actually taken Wen Xishu's words to heart and began extracting information from the prompt, preparing to gently whisper the name of her good friend.
During her years in the bunker, she wasn't completely without friends.
However, Wen Xishu saw through Park Mi-hee's thought at a glance:

"Let me interpret this for you: this is a cooperative stage. If your friend is by your side—meaning right now, with teammates beside us—then we will face the trial together."
"If in the previous stages your teammates had all died out, then at this moment, mentally chanting the name of a departed friend would likely create an illusion of that friend to assist us in clearing the level."
"Our situation fits the first condition: friends are right by our side."
"So Park Mi-hee, stop chanting. If your friend knew you wanted to drag her into the Ghost Pagoda, would she still be friends with you?"

Park Mi-hee felt the awkwardness of being exposed.

Wen Xishu waited patiently.
As for Park Mi-hee, he had always known what she was thinking, but as for Zheng Zai, he maintained vigilance toward him as well.
Simplicity, kindness, gentleness, and honesty—all these things could be fumed and faked.

In fact, Wen Xishu already knew what the item that needed to be purified was.
Yet he was greatly anticipating the upcoming segment. No matter what, the segment related to the theme of betrayal would better allow him to make a decision—
The decision of whether or not to annihilate his teammates entirely.