Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang fell silent simultaneously.
The small castle before them seemed to have a few floors, but it was certainly not as large as the grand castle, only two stories high in total. From the outside, there were only a few rooms, and the windows emitted a faint yellow light, flickering slowly like the dim glow of candles. This was already inside the castle, with a high ceiling above, making it impossible to see the sky. The small castle huddled within, the only source of light in this place, yet it still felt like a beast trapped in hell, eerie and terrifying.
Neither Yan Wei nor Yan Mingguang moved immediately. They stood at the exit they had just emerged from the maze, silently observing the small castle.
The puppets had all been lured away by Lin Zhen, leaving the area eerily quiet.
Yan Wei scrutinized the small castle carefully, but from the outside, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He raised his hand, lightly nudging Yan Mingguang with his elbow, and whispered, “Ice block, what’s inside this castle?”
Yan Mingguang seemed to pause for a moment.
The man replied slowly, “I don’t know.”
Quite unapologetically. Yan Wei hadn’t expected Yan Mingguang to say much, but he chuckled softly, “You don’t know? I think you know quite a lot, like how the maze’s layout matches the castle’s.”
Yan Mingguang suddenly turned his head, staring directly at him.
Before the man could say anything, Lin Zhen’s voice came through the communication device, “I didn’t understand. Wasn’t the idea of a crow carrying a crow your own, Yan Wei?”
Yan Wei hummed noncommittally, offering no explanation. Lin Zhen had already separated from the two of them by then, so he hadn’t seen the moment when Yan Mingguang “accidentally” dropped the map. Yan Wei simply said to Yan Mingguang, “I don’t really like being treated like a fool.”
The Moon Wheel had already been temporarily stored in the Black Ring by Yan Wei. Under the faint candlelight from the small castle, he couldn’t see Yan Mingguang’s expression clearly, only the cold, hard outline of the man’s figure. It was as vague and unclear as the memories he didn’t have but Yan Mingguang did.
He didn’t say more, and Yan Mingguang didn’t respond either—they both understood each other perfectly.
The ancient castle before them, though eerie, was also very quiet, showing no signs of danger. After all the chasing and running, reaching this core area felt like a moment of peace. Behind them seemed to be a bottomless abyss; one wrong step and they would be forever trapped in this instance where both players and NPCs were terrifying. He should have been tense, focused solely on solving the puzzle. But with Yan Mingguang by his side, he kept recalling things he had forgotten, feeling that he should be scared, yet also knowing that he had been to even more dangerous places, so there was no reason to fail here.
Still, he couldn’t help feeling a bit unhappy.
He said, “You could have told me, or just said that you had already figured out that the castle’s layout matches the maze’s map. But I don’t want these deliberate hints.”
Yan Mingguang hummed in acknowledgment.
At this moment, Yan Wei naturally wouldn’t spend much time on something they had already argued about repeatedly. He was considering whether to go straight in or make some preparations for safety when a sudden scraping sound came from the small castle.
The ancient, blood-stained iron door slowly creaked open, emitting a series of “squeaks” and “groans.” The faint yellow candlelight spilled out from within. Yan Wei, who had been in the dimness for a while, blinked at the sudden light and turned his head away.
The “squeaking” continued for a while, and when the door fully opened, Yan Wei turned his gaze back, only to see a figure standing in the center.
The light scattered from within the small castle cast a long shadow in front of the figure. The person stood with their back to the light, making it impossible to see their face, but from the body’s outline, it was clear it was a woman. Yan Wei couldn’t sense anything from this woman—no danger, no safety, not even the presence of a person standing there.
She spoke, “Since you’re here, come in and sit.”
Her voice was hoarse, carrying the weariness of age.
Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang exchanged a glance.
The woman continued, “Ain has already left, so there’s no need to worry about safety.”
Yan Wei frowned—Ain? Did she mean… the Man in Black Robe?
The woman had already turned and walked inside, her long shadow swaying, quiet and eerie.
[Can you teleport back to this small castle’s hall instantly?] Yan Wei asked Yan Mingguang.
[Yes.]
[Then let’s go in.]
“Don’t you want to take first place?” Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei asked Xu Miaomiao.
At that moment, a cake he had requested from Manjusaka was placed in front of him. Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei picked up a fork, wiped it several times with a wet wipe and tissue, and then leisurely took a bite, waiting for Xu Miaomiao’s response.
Xu Miaomiao said, “Manjusaka didn’t come in for first place.”
Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei paused for a moment, but his cake-eating didn’t stop. A palm-sized layer cake was instantly half gone. He sighed, “You’re so stingy.”
“You’ve already recovered all your losses with fifty mid-level instance invitation letters and two hundred Points in exchange for this cake. Don’t be ungrateful.”
“Your way of cooperating is just too violent.”
Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei finished the cake.
They seemed to have moved past the confrontations and schemes of the previous days, exchanging pleasantries very politely. In the Tower World, enemies and friends were always uncertain; only interests were eternal. Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei had his own plans, but plans could change with interests.
When he and Xu Miaomiao had simultaneously proposed cooperation earlier, they hadn’t said anything else, but both knew it was settled.
Xu Miaomiao was serious this time, speaking without any probing, “Did Lin Qing tell you before Blackbird came in?”
“He didn’t tell me anything because he thought I already knew,” Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei answered truthfully.
Xu Miaomiao chuckled, “No need to be so secretive, right?”
Yan Wei put down his fork and spread his hands, “Then let’s not cooperate.”
“…” Xu Miaomiao said, “Instances above the 90th floor have fixed quotas, usually between ten and twenty. These quotas need to be earned by achieving a 187% reward feedback completion rate in an 89th-floor instance to obtain an invitation letter.”
“The 89th floor has nothing to do with us.”
“But the rankings determine the reward bonuses for each organization. How do you not know anything?”
“I just came up from the 19th-floor instance straight to the 49th floor. What do you expect?”
Xu Miaomiao was slightly surprised, “I regret cooperating now. Is it too late to kill you?”
“Why is a little girl always talking about killing?”
“Because the little brother is too threatening.”
“So, the Arena Instance rankings affect the instance bonuses each organization receives. The first-place organization gets the highest rewards and completion bonuses for their players when they successfully clear an instance. Only the first-place organization’s bonus can allow their members to achieve a 187% completion rate in that 89th-floor instance? Manjusaka doesn’t want Morning Star to get that quota,” Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei laid out the answer thoroughly, “Has that 89th-floor instance started?”
Xu Miaomiao wasn’t surprised that he had figured it all out, “It has started. Your Blackbird’s second-in-command should have gone in too. But high-level instances take a long time, and ours will definitely end faster than theirs. That means our rankings here will affect the progress bonuses those gods get. The invitation letters thrown out this time have been sent out twice. I don’t know which floor it is, but Blackbird got one, Manjusaka got one, and Morning Star hasn’t gotten any yet. Our leader has a big grudge against Morning Star. If they get in, it’s like adding another enemy for our leader.”
In those precarious high-level instances, that was almost fatal.
Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei nodded, acknowledging the reason.
He said, “Blackbird must take first place.”
“I can take third, as long as you can keep Morning Star in second. But if you don’t have the ability to take first, I’ll swallow you up and take it myself.”
“So confident in us?”
“I hid the Blocker with all my might on the first day, and you managed to swap them all.”
Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei raised an eyebrow, “A misstep. I underestimated you.”
“So, do you have a way to surpass Xue Wan?”
“Yes, and I do need your cooperation,” Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei finally became serious, “Yan Wei and I have reached a cooperation. Yan Wei can definitely get the points, but the Meat Grinder is crucial. Xue Wan will also understand by now that there are only three key elements in this instance: the Meat Grinder, the coin, and the Benevolent Automaton. The Benevolent Automaton is the hardest to control, the Meat Grinder is too big to move, so he will definitely go after everyone’s coins, blocking their scoring methods. But actually, exchanging Points doesn’t require coins; the Meat Grinder is the key. If Manjusaka can get Morning Star away from the Stargazing Platform, Blackbird can use the Meat Grinder to get the highest score.”
Xu Miaomiao finally showed a surprised expression.
She even stuttered for a moment, “No coins needed? How… how did you come to that conclusion? No, your thoughts must have a basis. How did you know coins aren’t needed?”
There really was no sign of it; Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei was even the first to say such a thing.
He said, “Because this castle itself is a giant coin. It’s a symbol, representing the puppets trapped in Puppetry, representing capture and imprisonment. The puppets in this castle are already trapped in the coin, so there’s no need for additional coins to throw them into the Meat Grinder. This is indeed just a speculation, without any substantial verification, but if you look at it from the opposite side, you’ll find that this conclusion has an irrefutable premise—the Man in Black Robe’s goal is to capture puppets. If coins were really necessary, why would he give them to the players? He could just hold onto the coins himself and use them when players bring puppets to the Stargazing Platform to exchange.”
If you think about it from the perspective that coins aren’t needed, and consider the Man in Black Robe’s motives, you’ll find this blind spot.
But everyone was thinking from the positive angle of the Man in Black Robe giving players coins, not questioning the motive behind the action.
Xu Miaomiao was stunned for a good while.
Then, she slowly said, “Good thing I didn’t try to kill you.”
Otherwise, the one who would have ended up dead was probably her.
Yan Mingguang walked ahead, naturally taking Yan Wei’s hand, and the two of them stepped into the small castle’s door.
Once inside, under the flickering candlelight in the hall, Yan Wei finally got a clear look at the woman.
Her face was as pale as a corpse, her lips devoid of color, and her hair seemed to have been soaked in blood, dried into disgusting clumps, half her face caked with dried blood. Her lower body was drenched in blood. Earlier, from the outside, it wasn’t clear, but now, stepping inside, he could see that where the woman had walked, there was a trail of blood on the floor, as if she had dragged a blood-soaked garment behind her.
She said, “You are the first to make it here.”
“There’s no need to tell me your history. Every year, there are many guests like you… They all failed. Because they always blindly killed other guests, they were all caught in Ain’s game, but none of them ever thought to do one thing—kill Ain.”
