Chapter 65: The Future of the Cult of the Evening Tree

Miracle Apartment, the first of the seven days of survival, began. This was also a day with almost zero risk, resembling the Tower of Desire.

When Wen Xiange, Wen Xishu, and the other three all moved into the apartment building, all the available options appeared in each person's field of vision.

[Explore the Miracle Apartment Building: Costs 50 Action Points.]
[Initiate a New Resident Meeting: Costs 25 Action Points.]
[Explore Your Assigned Room: Costs 25 Action Points.]
[Interact with Neighbors: Costs 50 Action Points.]
[Note: Exploration and interaction contents are not fixed.]

Past noon already, the morning had been somewhat wasted as far as Wen Xishu was concerned.

He was testing everything within the room.

When Wen Xishu chose to return to the bed, prepare a meal, or tidy up the room... none of these actions triggered the prompt for consuming action points.

However, when Wen Xishu prepared to closely observe the room, mentally contemplating its structural design or hidden secrets, and generated such psychological activity...

A prompt would appear: [If you continue this action, it will automatically select "Explore Your Assigned Room," and deduct the corresponding 25 action points.]

Wen Xishu was not yet clear whether action points were abundant or tight in this Reverse Seven Plan.

He had just discovered a crucial point in the mission prompt, but now he was torn about whether to initiate a meeting, consuming 25 action points to share it with everyone.

"If I treat this as a pure single-player game... then I can ignore whether they live or die."

This was actually the method Wen Xishu found most comfortable and was best adapted to. The problem, however, was that the benefits of uniting others were very high.

"Assuming everyone has one hundred action points per day... then everyone can explore the building twice."

"Exploring the building consumes the most points, which also means exploring the building yields the most intelligence."

"If I choose to act alone, I can explore the building and interact with neighbors at most once each. But with multiple people acting together, other people's intelligence can also be acquired."

Ultimately, Wen Xishu made his decision: to cooperate with his teammates.

He was prepared to consume 25 action points, which would leave him with only seventy action points remaining...

Yet seventy action points were practically equivalent to just fifty. Because the remaining two options that required action points cost 25 and 50 respectively.

To maximize returns, only 50 could be chosen. The remaining 20 points would be useless.

Wen Xishu could be said to have taken a heavy loss, but after calculating the rewards of playing solo versus teaming up, though his heart ached, he did not hesitate.

Just as Wen Xishu was about to initiate the meeting, however... he suddenly saw the following prompt:

[Fellow resident, ID Wen Xiange, has initiated a meeting. Do you wish to accept?]

Someone had beaten Wen Xishu to it by initiating the meeting. Thus, Wen Xishu's action points were saved.

I must admit, this move caught Wen Xishu somewhat by surprise. Because Wen Xishu default-assumed that fellow participants were all fools, and that his teammates were simple-difficulty AI.

This was not arrogance; rather, it was the only way to place himself in the worst possible environment, forcing himself to perform at his absolute best.

Wen Xishu chose to accept the meeting.

The moment he made his selection, four floating grid-like projections appeared before his eyes.

The four grids corresponded to Xiaowu, Ah Miao, Wu Xiangjiao, and Wen Xiange, respectively.

[Meeting duration: fifteen minutes.]

So stingy. Wen Xishu could not help but sigh inwardly; spending 25 action points only bought fifteen minutes of conversation.

"Everyone, everyone, I've noticed that these action points seem very tight... We need to save seven households, but we can only interact with them twice a day..."

"I was thinking, we still need to cooperate properly, so I spent some action points hoping we can establish some protocols."

Wen Xishu was now convinced that this bald guy was not just good at bluffing; he indeed possessed a broader perspective.

At that moment, Wu Xiangjiao suddenly spoke up:

"Venerable One, actually just now... I wanted to explore the room. My thought was that the cost in action points isn't too high, but since this is where I live, what if there are some creepy things here..."

"I daren't even think about it, I couldn't even sleep well. This mission of ours might not necessarily take seven days, but it definitely won't be completed in a day or two..."

"Yet I found that if I really want to explore the room, it's also quite confusing, because... many items appear as garbled text in my eyes."

Hearing mention of garbled text, Ah Miao also chimed in:

"Same here... When I was tidying the room, I noticed some items could trigger pop-up notes, but they were all garbled text."

"This... I suppose even if I consume action points, I probably won't be able to make anything of it. What about you guys?"

Xiaowu said:

"I can see some words, but they're heavily obscured by garbled text, making the exact meaning of many things unclear."

"Actually, me too..." said Wen Xiange.

Wen Xishu had not encountered any abnormalities. One completion at level six on the twenty-first floor, and another at level six on the sixth floor, had granted him fifteen points of magic resistance.

Facing the seventh floor, Wen Xishu had encountered almost nothing with excessive garbled text, which was why he hadn't noticed this particular issue.

"Me too. I can see a bit of text, and there's a lot of garbled text, but I can roughly guess what combinations might appear. If you trust me, the exploration tasks can be left to me," Wen Xishu said.

"However, my personal suggestion is that today we collectively choose to interact with our neighbors first."

"After the interactions are done, someone initiates a meeting, and then we exchange the intelligence gathered from the interactions."

"Although I can explore and can reluctantly interpret some items, we cannot rule out the possibility that our neighbors are indeed extremely important."

"If I only do the exploration work, it will likely lead to blind spots in our information."

Wen Xishu's logic was very clear, and Wen Xiange found it extremely sound:

"As expected of someone whose ID shares the name with my Lord, what you say makes a lot of sense. I agree."

"I agree too."

"Agree."

"Agree."

The other three also expressed their stances.

Wen Xishu continued:

"Then let's draft an order first. First of all, let's make it clear: since initiating a meeting deducts action points, and everyone has action points, there are no useless members in this team."

"Even if someone does nothing else and is merely responsible for initiating meetings, their value is still important. Agreed?"

Wen Xiange was deeply moved:

"Ah Shu, you are simply the pillar of my Xishu Divine Cult! Such wonderful words promoting unity must be spoken more often!"

Tch, if you teamed up with Sha Ruijing, the two of you could have your conversations compiled into a civic education textbook.

Wen Xishu was satisfied with Wen Xiange's broad view. Logically speaking, as the "Wen Venerable" in others' eyes, he ought to be the leader. But Wen Xishu's current actions carried a strong undertone of seizing command.

Yet Wen Xiange felt no sense of being offended whatsoever, and instead felt that Wen Xishu made complete sense.

Wen Xishu continued:

"Today, everyone should uniformly converse with their neighbors first, and then tomorrow we will make additional divisions based on the usefulness of the aggregated intelligence."

"Lastly, I'd like to ask about everyone's mission descriptions."

Wen Xiange cooperated and said: "Before the apocalypse descends, a portion of people lacking evolutionary qualifications also perceived the omens..."

His description was largely similar to Wen Xishu's. The other three also successively indicated that their mission descriptions showed no differences.

However, Wen Xishu discovered that Wen Xiange's description still differed slightly from his own.

Wen Xiange's mission description omitted the beginning and the ending parts. Wen Xishu realized those belonged exclusively to his own mission description—

You have gradually discovered that after a certain point in time, the apocalypse will descend. At the same time, you have also discovered that a small number of people are changing, while the majority remain unaware.

Combining the mission descriptions of the others with the final single character—Demon—Wen Xishu already had a preliminary interpretation of this mission.

"Everyone, pay attention to this sentence: before the apocalypse descends, a portion of people lacking evolutionary qualifications perceived the omens."

"This implies that there are people with evolutionary qualifications in this world, and they are likely the monsters in the subsequent slaughter towers and eerie towers."

"Yet there are also some ordinary people who perceived the descent of the apocalypse."

"Now think about it: this building belongs to one of the top financial conglomerates in Qicheng, yet it only charges extremely low rent."

"Think carefully. The staff member said we are the lucky ones because land in Qicheng is exorbitantly expensive, and because this building is exceptionally well-equipped yet low in rent, naturally many people would want to move in."

"This means we were screened and brought in. Including the seven households about to die, they were also screened and brought in. This screening shouldn't be random; it must contain certain specific traits."

"If we carefully interpret the mission, we can actually arrive at a conclusion—"

"The apocalypse is approaching, bringing many anomalies and abnormal individuals. No matter how wealthy you are, once the apocalypse descends and world order collapses, you are merely a piece of meat carved up by monsters."

"In order to survive the apocalypse, if you were a super-wealthy person... having already learned of certain anomalies that science cannot explain, you suddenly chose to spare no expense to build a tower, housing seven households of people you carefully selected..."

"And these seven households of carefully selected people will all die."

"What does everyone think this resembles?"

Ah Miao, Xiaowu, and Wu Xiangjiao did not answer; they remained somewhat bewildered. But Wen Xiange, acting as a cult leader and the Venerable of the Xishu Divine Cult...

He realized that this behavior strongly matched the practices of certain cults. Wen Xiange said with a trembling voice:

"This... could this possibly be... a sacrifice?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Correct answer. The reason I bring this up is in hopes that you all understand we need to find the bizarre points concerning these seven households."

"Interact with the neighbors, and inquire as much as possible about any bizarre occurrences they have sensed. Avoid idle chatter."

"If we figure out what the commonalities of these seven households are, we might be able to prevent their deaths and put an end to this ritual."

Wen Xiange exclaimed:

"Ah Shu, you are definitely suited to be the Grand Priest of our Xishu Divine Cult! You truly are the future of the Xishu Divine Cult!"

Xiaowu also said:

"Although I didn't think of any of this at all, what you said makes a lot of sense."

Ah Miao gave a soft "en":

"I understand now. You're right, we'll do as you say."

Wu Xiangjiao said:

"Time is running out, shouldn't we start now?"

Wen Xishu thought for a moment and found nothing else to add, so the meeting concluded.

At this point, Wen Xishu had 95 action points remaining. He could choose to explore the room first and then interact with his neighbor.

As for exploring the room, Wen Xishu decided to do it later.

He decisively walked toward the door, and upon touching the doorknob, a choice-prompt appeared in his mind.

[You are about to step out of the door. You seem to have gained some insight; what do you decide to do?]
[1: Explore the Miracle Apartment Building: Costs 50 Action Points.]
[2: Interact with Neighbors: Costs 50 Action Points.]

Wen Xishu chose option two. At that moment, his body actually began to move on its own.

Simultaneously, Ah Miao and Wu Xiangjiao also chose option two. Wen Xiange and Xiaowu decided to do some preliminary preparations first.

Ah Miao was terrified, never expecting to lose control of her own body. Wu Xiangjiao also cursed inwardly, thinking how truly eerie this eerie tower was. If such a tower possessed the power to control one's own body...

Did that mean there was a possibility of being manipulated by mysterious forces into harming oneself?

No wonder that while monsters in the slaughter towers were very strong, exploring the eerie towers carried an even higher mortality rate.

Wen Xishu, however, adapted very quickly, feeling that this was actually quite convenient.

His body began to move, walking up to the door of room 14-1, and knocked.

The door opened.

The man opening the door had a rather delicate and handsome appearance. He wore glasses, his hair was somewhat sparse, and his hairline was high. Looking to be in his thirties, his eyes held a manic gleam, but his dark circles were also very heavy:

"Hello, I've just moved in and I'm your neighbor. My name is Wen Xishu."

Wen Xishu extended his hand:

"If you need help with anything in the future, feel free to find me. I particularly love helping others."

The man also smiled, appearing quite polite:

"My name is Yin Junchi."

Wen Xishu said:

"I don't know why I was selected, but I'm fortunate to move in here. I'm someone who loves interacting with people. By the way, I know a bit of geomancy. If certain things aren't placed correctly, it can lead to poor sleep."

"Perhaps because of this, I was selected? Hahaha, anyway, we're all neighbors. If you need any help, remember to find me. I'll be very happy to assist you."

Up to this point, Wen Xishu had not discovered any supernatural elements.

When the door opened and he saw Yin Junchi, he hadn't expected the other's state to seem so normal.

This place simply felt like the Tower of Desire.

Yet no matter how much it resembled it, this was merely an eerie tower. Wen Xishu was certain that supernatural elements existed here.

Judging by Yin Junchi's dark circles, his sleep was definitely poor.

Poor sleep combined with supernatural elements—these traits together prompted Wen Xishu to quickly invent a geomancer persona for himself.

Sure enough, upon hearing that the other party understood geomancy, Yin Junchi's attitude instantly turned even friendlier.

"Oh, really? That's wonderful... To be honest, ever since I moved in here yesterday, I've felt something was off, and I simply couldn't fall asleep."

Clues right off the bat; Wen Xishu was extremely satisfied with this opening. He feigned a solemn expression:

"Would it be convenient for me to go inside and take a look?"

Yin Junchi nodded:

"Welcome, welcome. Ah, no need to take off your shoes; I'm only staying here temporarily. Once I finish my manuscript, I'll be moving out."

Wen Xishu asked:

"What kind of writing do you do?"

"I write ghost stories and eerie tales," Yin Junchi said with considerable pride.

In Wen Xishu's previous life, South Korea had many flaws, but one thing was true: the social status of authors there was indeed relatively high.

Wen Xishu said:

"This place must give you a lot of inspiration?"

Yin Junchi's expression shifted slightly. He did not deny it; this place indeed gave him inspiration.

Even... a sense of immersive realism.

(Note: Corrected a previous error where the number of resident households on the floor was written as 15, but after recalculating later, it should be 13. Corrected here; it doesn't affect your reading experience.)

(End of Chapter)