Chapter 1612: Belated Heart-Questioning (Part 3)

That sound was the sound of some hard material cracking.

He turned around and saw a fine crack appear on that vortex stone statue.

And the moment she stepped out of the gate, a faint flush appeared on Wen’s pale face; those thin threads of red made her look a little more spirited.

She still looked weak, but managed to squeeze out a smile:

“Can I ask you a question?”

Wen Xishu felt that this sensation was far too familiar; instinctively, he answered:

“Ask away.”

“Sorry, I really should have prepared something. The next time we meet, I’ll give you some gifts.”

Wen Xishu found it funny:

“You have this quirk where you even give people rewards for answering questions? No wonder your name is Wen.”

The woman also found it funny, but she didn’t deny it:

“Yes. I like to get to know people through questions.”

Wen Xishu half-understood, half-didn’t; he only felt that Wen was very strange, and this church was very strange too, yet this was the real world of the Apocalypse Era…

In this world, nothing you run into is really that surprising.

“What do you want to ask? Go ahead.” Wen Xishu said.

Wen said:

“Would you save someone who caused great destruction?”

Not long ago in Mechanical City, Wen Xishu had indeed saved someone who had caused huge destruction—Yuan. Wen Xishu looked at Wen; his gaze grew more intent:

“You…”

Wen seemed a little curious:

“What is it?”

Wen Xishu slowly shook his head:

“Nothing. I’ll answer your question first, and then you answer mine.”

Wen smiled and said:

“One question from you, one question from me? I don’t have a rule like that, but I can make an exception for you.”

That déjà vu feeling was getting stronger and stronger.

Wen Xishu said:

“Generally speaking, I’d eliminate the ones who create disasters. But if this person, alive, can stop a greater catastrophe, I’d save him instead of killing him.”

Wen understood:

“I see. So when faced with someone truly beyond saving, you would still kill them?”

Wen Xishu nodded:

“That’s right.”

Wen asked again:

“If one day, it’s someone you care a lot about—say, your best friend—who becomes beyond saving?”

Wen Xishu didn’t know what this question implied; he could only try to simulate the scene. Which was odd in itself…

Wen’s voice was utterly different from Heart Inquiry’s, but both carried a kind of warmth that made people instinctively want to tell the truth.

Like someone quite close to him…an older sister. If Wen Xishu traced that feeling carefully, it even felt like a gentle mother talking to her child.

Wen Xishu noticed it too—that he actually very much wanted to talk with her.

“I would save him.”

Wen didn’t understand:

“Why? Wouldn’t that be somewhat of a double standard?”

Wen Xishu said:

“It’s not like I’m some righteous-to-the-point-of-cruel paragon. I admire people like that, but when it comes to my friends, I’d rather be someone with double standards. Otherwise, what’s the point of becoming friends?”

Wen asked the next question:

“It sounds like you’re on a journey. Do you hope to walk it alone, or do you long for a friend?”

Wen Xishu thought for a moment:

“I’d still prefer to have a friend along. This world makes me a little afraid.”

Wen nodded calmly and left the church; the color in her face had clearly improved a bit.

Of course, overall she still gave off a…profoundly frail impression.

Without noticing, the two had already walked a fair distance.

Wen didn’t ask any more questions, just left him with one request:

“Being seen by you makes me very happy. It means…”

Wen Xishu said:

“It means you’re still alive, right? You’ve said that twice now.”

Wen smiled:

“Yes. Thank you. But I have to go. Next time, if you see me in a church again, can you bring me out again?”

Wen Xishu didn’t understand:

“What do you mean? Didn’t I just bring you out of the church?”

Wen shook her head:

“I’m still in the church, just not this one. I’m in the church with the flock of sheep, but I’m also in many of the churches you saw today. I’m dying…”

“Wen Xishu, you’ve let me live a little longer. I’m very grateful. I still want to keep living.”

Wen Xishu heard what she was getting at:

“You’re saying there are many versions of you, trapped in many churches?”

Wen nodded:

“Something like that. I should go. Next time, I’ll give you some gifts…”

“Because I never expected that you’d be able to see me here, and answer me.”

Wen Xishu still wanted to say more—really wanted to ask who Wen actually was.

But Wen had already vanished, and the surroundings turned into a blank, white expanse; faintly, goats were bleating.

…

…

He woke up. The three o’clock afternoon sun was vicious.

Wen Xishu suddenly realized he was back by the roadside from not long ago.

He looked around and saw the ruins of a church.

Judging from the eroded wooden pews, this church had been abandoned for a long time.

“A dream?”

“I actually fell asleep just now? And had a dream?”

Wen Xishu felt something was off. How could that have been a dream? That kind of realism couldn’t possibly belong to a mere dream.

He stood up and looked around. With his powers of observation, he really did quickly notice something wrong.

“Huh…”

Wen Xishu saw footprints.

They were abnormally deep footprints, and they matched his feet perfectly.

Strictly speaking, they had to be his footprints.

The kind you leave when you’re carrying something unusually heavy and pushing off hard with your legs.

Wen Xishu also saw, not far away, the shattered vortex sculpture.

All at once he felt something uncanny.

“So it wasn’t a dream?”

There was clearly no one here…the church had been deserted for ages. Yet in that dream that felt impossibly real—and even seemed to leave traces proving it wasn’t a dream…

That church had felt almost new.

This confusion between real and unreal left Wen Xishu a bit dazed.

Wen…did she actually exist? What was she, really?

Had he just gone through a dream, or had he genuinely experienced some event?

If Deceit Tower was a linear level-based game, then in the Three Towers Great World, it was an open world.

And the splendor of this open world seemed to have already exceeded Wen Xishu’s expectations.

He’d left Mechanical City only a short while ago, and first he’d encountered a bizarre assassination attempt, then a strange woman who called herself Wen.

For the moment he had no idea what else lay ahead—no idea how many mysteries this world contained.

Just then, Wen Xishu suddenly sensed some kind of presence drifting over from afar.

If it had been before, back when he hadn’t yet met Wen, he would have cautiously hidden himself.

But for some reason, after meeting Wen, when Wen Xishu sensed another person’s presence in the distance…

The first thing he thought of wasn’t hiding, but that question:

“It sounds like you’re on a journey. Do you hope to walk it alone, or do you long for a friend?”

And so Wen Xishu had a strong feeling that this was the reward for answering those questions…

This sudden arrival might not be an enemy.

(I have already returned from Hell’s “Mother-in-Law’s House” dungeon—cleared in two days! Wishing all of you happy farming in your New Year dungeons! Happy New Year, and may everything go smoothly!)