Chapter 127: Sixth Floor of the Senro Tower
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
When Su Mo landed on the fourth floor, the sounds from below seemed to be fading. At this moment, he noticed that there was some commotion coming from the fifth floor, which was one level above him. He immediately quickened his pace and moved to the wall paintings, observing the strange horizontal patterns on the fourth-floor paintings.
“Momo, the fifth-floor paintings show vines,” Yu Zhen’s voice came through just as thick vines began to emerge from the paintings, and the corresponding staircase for the fifth floor lit up with swaying candle flames, seemingly guiding people to higher levels.
[[Senro Tower – Fifth Floor] The evil ancient vines have emerged. Quickly stop them.]
Upon hearing this, Su Mo moved to the edge of the fourth floor and looked up to see that all the paintings on the fifth floor had lit up, revealing the thrashing vines.
He hesitated for a moment, as the vines moved rapidly, seemingly trying to sweep Yu Zhen and the others on the fifth floor off their feet. The vines left no opportunity for them to find another way out, making it nearly impossible to jump from the fifth floor to the reversing stairs. The vines could easily knock them down to the fourth floor.
“Are there any other threats besides the ancient vines? Are they stationary?” Su Mo asked as he turned back to the vicinity of the wall paintings and continued, “The stairs are unusable now. If the vines are stationary, you need to come down to the fourth floor and jump from there.”
Yu Zhen dodged an attack, applied a speed array to his two teammates, and instructed, “Avoid the attack and jump down to the fourth floor.”
FireworksAndLanterns and ZenSlasher immediately understood the plan. They realized that jumping directly from the fifth floor to the staircase might result in being knocked off by the vines mid-air. However, by jumping down to the fourth floor first and then making their way to the stairs, they could avoid the risk of being knocked off by the vines. Since the tower’s space grew smaller as they ascended, jumping from the fifth floor to the fourth floor, where the space was larger, provided a safer landing area, assuming they were not affected by the vines.
[[Senro Tower – Second Floor] You are quite clever. The monsters seem to be sleeping; be careful not to wake them.]
“Damn, it looks like there’s a new hint for the second floor,” ScarletFruit quickly noticed the taskbar prompt. “Guys, there’s a new hint about the wall paintings.”
At this point, Apple had removed all the burrells from the second-floor paintings and thrown them down to the next floor. Aside from the monsters that had followed ScarletFruit and the others up the stairs, the other monsters on the first floor seemed to be subdued by the smoke from the second floor. “I’ve removed all the buckets from the paintings.”
Su Mo glanced at the task prompt window.
“Can we just avoid looking at the murals?” Cantaloupe glanced at the fierce beasts on the third floor that were roaring at them and could vaguely see the thrashing vines on the fifth floor. He asked, “The stairs are hard to navigate without lights, but they can definitely get us to the top. Our task is just to reach the highest floor, isn’t it? The more we look at these wall paintings, the more dangerous they seem. It might be better not to look at them.”
Others shared the same thought. By now, all their difficulties seemed to stem from these wall paintings. If they had ignored the paintings from the start, would they have avoided these issues?
“If we want to succeed, we have to look at the murals,” Su Mo said as he quickly moved along the paintings, explaining, “The monsters on the lower floors indeed appeared only because we looked at the paintings, but don’t forget about ClearWind on the highest floor. He didn’t look at any paintings and was still knocked down from the seventh floor.”
It became clear that the appearance of monsters in the paintings wasn’t entirely due to players viewing them. Instead, the paintings might hide some tricks, and looking at them could bring dangers. However, not looking at them could lead to even greater risks at the top.
“Did you see the task reminders? The prompts for floors 1, 3, and 5 are all about stopping the monsters. But when Apple finished viewing the second-floor paintings, the prompt for the second floor changed completely,” Su Mo explained. “It’s a simple mechanism, but you need to see the paintings to understand how to respond.”
From the current situation, the main mechanics of the Senro Tower revolved around the murals and the stairs.
- Murals:
- Single-layer wall paintings contained fierce monsters.
- Double-layer wall paintings provided solutions for dealing with monsters on the next floor.
- Stairs:
- The reversed stairs hid secrets; illuminating the murals on each floor would unlock the corresponding floor’s candlelight.
The challenge with the murals lay in the unknown monsters that emerged from them. Each floor lacked protective railings, making it easy for players to be knocked off, which restricted their ability to maneuver. The challenge with the stairs was that the reverse rotation was physically taxing. If their speed slowed, they would be pulled downward. Moreover, the uneven distribution and large gaps between steps posed a risk of falling.
Despite these difficulties, both were part of the mechanics, and their goal was to navigate through these mechanics to reach the highest floor.
“This isn’t a dungeon but a type of quest,” Su Mo said while examining the murals. “Our goal is to reach the tenth floor, but this tenth floor might not be literally the tenth floor. Remember, we’re dealing with a five-star difficulty level. Imagine a five-star quest—would it be that simple?”
Once the task was clarified, it became quite straightforward: release the monsters and prevent them from causing harm.
This was actually a textual trap. The completion hint given was “All members reach the tenth floor.” The initial assumption was that players would ascend without checking the wall paintings. Taking ClearWind as an example, choosing this approach might lead to more dangerous situations, resulting in unclear deaths.
Initially, he chose to examine the murals cautiously, triggering the monsters in the current floor’s murals. However, these monsters were not overly difficult. Although the single-floor mechanics were troublesome, they were within their capability to handle.
The stairs might not be the only way to complete the quest; after all, it was a tower, a tower with quest prompts.
The team realized that to complete the tower, they would indeed need to activate the murals on each floor.
“Someone needs to go to the sixth floor; otherwise, dealing with the vines on the fifth floor will be very difficult.”
Yu Zhen placed another movement speed array. As the attack speed of the vines in the wall paintings increased, he helped his teammates block the vines, successfully protecting ZenSlasher and FireworksAndLanterns as they entered the fourth floor.
Given the current situation, the fastest method appeared to be splitting up: some would trigger the scene on the current floor while others would move up to activate the scene on the next floor. Su Mo said, “Apple, don’t stay on the second floor any longer. Move quickly to the stairs. Others, move up through the stairs.”
Since the leaders said so, the team inside the stairs naturally had to keep up. The front-runner, ClearWind, quickly reached the fourth floor, aligning with Su Mo. He then proceeded toward the fifth floor. The vines on the fifth floor were extremely long and continuously reached out toward the stairs, whipping them several times and causing vibrations.
ScarletFruit observed the increasingly dark stairs above, “So, we need to jump from the stairs to the sixth floor. We’ll at least have to navigate in the dark to reach a position above the sixth floor, right?”
Cantaloupe began to worry, “Yes, not only do we have to navigate in the dark, but we also have to jump across this rotating staircase. Everyone’s movement speed is different, and so is the initial speed for lightness; the height is also inconsistent. It’s hard to judge.”
ClearWind, being bold and reckless, said, “What’s there to be afraid of? Worst case, we just fall down.”
Su Mo said, “Healers and warriors, don’t jump yet. The stairs that are currently lit are still safe. To jump from the stairs to the corresponding floor height, you need to reach about the middle of the sixth or seventh floor. The initial jump speed needs to be fast. It’s best to let the faster-moving ClearWind and Watermelon do it. The other three should stay inside and watch the situation.”
As he spoke, he moved to the last mural. However, the murals behind him showed no sign of illumination. He felt around on the wall painting and touched only the rough surface, with no sign of the situation where Apple had reached into the painting on the second floor. Had he missed something?
He had to reassess the murals he had seen along the way. These were shapeless images with only wave-like patterns… The first thing that came to his mind when thinking of waves was water. Could the wall painting on the fourth floor be related to water?
While Su Mo was thinking this, suddenly, his hand, which had been resting on the mural, sank into it. Immediately, a cold substance seemed to flow out from the point where his hand met the mural…
The commander stopped speaking and did not continue. The people in the staircase momentarily fell into contemplation.
Apple stood at the edge of the second floor, looking at the continuously rotating stairs and selecting a landing spot. His throat quivered slightly, “Good grief, are those things in the building monsters? Is there any healer willing to come to the second floor to assist me?”
The second floor had no monsters, but the staircase had monsters climbing up from the first floor. These monsters had not been affected by the burrells and were still as lively as ever.
The layout of the Senro Tower was peculiar, resembling a concentric circular design. At the center of the tower was a rotating staircase that did not connect to any floors. The height between the floors could not be reached using lightness; to get to the next floor, one had to stand at the edge and jump to the central staircase three meters away, then ascend via the staircase. The first floor could be accessed directly via the staircase, but for the second floor, if one wanted to avoid disturbing the small monsters and fierce beasts, they had to use lightness to leap directly onto the central staircase.
ScarletFruit did not want to move backward and casually replied, “You jump; if you die, I’ll help you.”
Apple asked, “???”
The slowest member on the first floor was Watermelon, who was pushing Bitter Melon forward. He said, “Jump yourself. At this height, you still need someone to catch you? There are only a few monsters. If you can’t handle them, don’t come up and slow us down.”
ClearWind added, “At most, you’ll fall down one floor. Just climb back up. It’s not dangerous. Just make sure you don’t fall awkwardly into the staircase hole.”
ScarletFruit said, “If you fall awkwardly, you might not be able to save yourself. How bad could you be if you can’t even jump to a staircase?”
Cantaloupe suggested, “Why not just jump to the first floor and then use the staircase to go up from there?”
Apple had finished moving all the barrels on the second floor with great effort, and instead of receiving gratitude from his teammates, they were leaving him to fend for himself.
At that moment, there was suddenly a commotion from above. Apple looked up and saw water cascading down from a high point, falling vertically like a waterfall. He got splashed with a lot of water and, seeing the flow increasing in speed, he feared it would knock him off.
He quickly stepped back, not hesitating for a moment, and jumped with lightness to the edge, landing heavily on the staircase and knocking over two small monsters. He got up and hurriedly moved upwards, “Why is there such a huge flood coming down from above?”
The murals on the first to fifth floors all lit up, clearly revealing the magnificent scenes on each floor.
The monsters on the first floor had gone silent, the second floor was deserted, and on the third floor, two fierce beasts roared at the staircase. In addition, there was a curtain of water cascading down from above, forming a dramatic waterfall that fell along the edge of the fourth floor with increasing intensity. It looked quite spectacular.
The source of the continuous water in the murals on the fourth floor was revealed to be endless flowing water.
ScarletFruit was astonished, “It’s flooding! Newbie!”
Cantaloupe followed up with a complaint, “Isn’t this the way to solve it? This tower really has everything.”
The Senro Tower was indeed a place of endless variety, a deep and ancient structure.
The murals depicted countless bizarre things, seeming to contain the myriad forms of the world.
When Su Mo withdrew his hand, all the murals instantly lit up, and water began to gush out from them, flowing continuously downwards. In no time, the water volume increased dramatically, leaving almost no place to stand on the edges. Su Mo summoned the bear to temporarily block the water flow and pointed out a jump-off spot for his teammates, “Come over, you need to jump from here.”
[[Senro Tower – Fourth Floor] You’re quite clever; these beasts are most afraid of water.]
FireworksAndLanterns and ZenSlasher reached the spot Su Mo had indicated, finding their positions. FireworksAndLanterns summoned another bear to help, and the two bears managed to block part of the water flow, clearing a jump-off point. They wasted no time, using the bears as platforms to jump onto the reversed staircase on the other side.
They almost had the staircase knocked them away in the process, but ZenSlasher, quick and agile, grabbed FireworksAndLanterns and, using the staircase steps for leverage, managed to pull him up. Once they were steady, ZenSlasher said, “Hurry, don’t stop.”
“Thanks,” FireworksAndLanterns replied as he took his position, noticing that the bear he controlled was starting to topple over. “Hurry up, the bear won’t hold out much longer!”
The water was pouring rapidly, and most of the people on the stairs were scrambling upwards.
In such a short time, the surging water had nearly flooded half a floor. The crazed beasts on the first floor, encountering the water, fluffed up their fur and emitted a series of low growls.
ScarletFruit was shocked by the scene, “Damn, you guys hurry up, this water is too fierce!!”
BitterMelon said, “This water… we need to move faster.”
ClearWind and Watermelon had already reached the fifth floor, while ScarletFruit waited on the fifth floor for the others. Bitter Melon and Cantaloupe were still on the fourth floor, FireworksAndLanterns and ZenSlasher were on the third floor, and Apple was lagging behind.
Watermelon and ClearWind had reached the higher levels, and the responsibility of pushing the others along had shifted to Bitter Melon. “Boss, you need to be fast too.”
Apple sprinted up, “The water is coming down, hurry up, big shots!”
Everyone’s attention focused on the giant bear on the fourth floor, growing increasingly anxious. Why weren’t the big shots coming over? If the water kept rising, they might not be able to make it and could be washed away!
At this moment, the array master and summoner on the fourth floor jumped one after the other. After they leaped out with their lightness skills, the bear finally couldn’t hold out and was swept off the fourth floor by the ferocious water. The two of them jumped into the reversed staircase, with Su Mo initially preparing to brace himself with his weapon. However, his light weight made him susceptible to being flung out by the forces in the rotating staircase, much like FireworksAndLanterns had been.
At that moment, the array master who had jumped ahead of him reached out and grabbed his wrist, managing to hold on to him before he was flung out, and they landed steadily in the staircase.
Apple, arriving later, could only watch as they embraced each other and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Fuck!”
BitterMelon, seeing this, let out a groan, and Watermelon, carrying people, said, “BitterMelon, don’t look back! I’m going to fall!”
ScarletFruit desperately peered down to the bottom of the staircase, “What’s going on? Did my big brother make the jump?”
FireworksAndLanterns hopped up the stairs, “He made it, he made it, they’re holding on together. It’s fine, it’s fine.”
ScarletFruit asked, “Huh???”
Su Mo did not stop but quickly moved up behind Yu Zhen. He saw Bitter Melon, who was moving slowly and blocking the path, causing a bottleneck. FireworksAndLanterns urged, “Boss, make some space for us to pass through.”
Bitter Melon had to move aside to make room for the others, saying, “Alright, alright, I’m moving now.”
Su Mo frowned slightly, looking at the water that was rising higher below. The released water was becoming a problem and might completely flood their current position. “We need to find a way to get Bitter Melon up here.”
Yu Zhen took out a flying rope, saying, “I’ll handle it. You all go ahead.”
At that moment, ClearWind’s voice came through the team’s voice chat, “Bro, we’ve reached the sixth floor and are examining the mural.”
“Leave it to you,” Su Mo said quietly to Yu Zhen.
He then quickly passed by Bitter Melon and others, looking towards the sixth floor. “What’s in the mural?”
Watermelon examined the strange mural in front of him, saying, “If you ask whether there’s something in it, I’d say there is and there isn’t…”
ClearWind added, “All the murals look exactly the same. It’s hard to describe. We haven’t seen anything light up after examining them.”
As Su Mo moved, he looked towards the sixth floor. “The double-layer mural must be understood for something to appear. You’re the one responsible for stopping them. The sixth floor is for you to figure out how to deal with the fifth-floor problem. If it were up to you, what do you think is in the sixth floor’s mural?”
Watermelon was stunned. “Do we really have to do reading comprehension for this?”
ScarletFruit said, “Seriously, we need to understand the mural to complete a quest? What if we run into a master artist?”
Apple was even more confused. “I don’t remember having to do reading comprehension…”
Su Mo said again, “You don’t need to understand it, just describe what you see.”
Watermelon and ClearWind stood in front of the mural, observing it. The patterns in the mural were orderly and square, with no extra lines, making it seem like nothing had been painted—just a plain background.
“There’s nothing here!” Watermelon said. “What can I imagine from a blank wall?”
ClearWind said decisively, tapping the wall, “How can there be nothing? This is just the wall’s bricks.”
At that moment, his hand suddenly sank into the wall, startling him into pulling it back quickly. The floor they were on suddenly began to rumble, and all the murals lit up, illuminating the stairs on the sixth floor.
“What the hell?!” ClearWind exclaimed, taking a half-step back in shock.
Watermelon was also startled by the scene. “It’s opening up???”
All the murals suddenly extended horizontal stone slabs, looking like bricks but not quite. They were a bluish-gray color and expanded outward at a steady pace. Watermelon and ClearWind quickly stepped back, watching as the emerging stone slabs assembled piece by piece, forming a continuous surface on the sixth floor, like a newly laid floor.
[[Senro Tower · Sixth Floor] You’re really smart. Just block those ancient vines.]
ClearWind jumped onto the stone slabs, observing the seamless new floor. “Damn, look at this—I’m really clever. I can figure out patterns even in wordless murals.” He added, “We should cover this entire floor. That way, not only will the vines be blocked, but the water won’t rise either.”
Watermelon remained silent for a moment. “Your cleverness isn’t timely.”
ClearWind asked, “?”
He looked across at several speed arrays unfolding rapidly. The team on the stairs was desperately trying to climb up, with some obstruction in the middle. The new floor being laid out wasn’t slow, and at this rate, it might block most of the team from reaching the sixth floor before they could arrive.
ClearWind looked down at the floor and asked, “Can this floor be put back?”
Author’s note:
ClearWind: Can it be put back?
ScarletFruit: Can you fit yourself into it?
Apple: Maybe your clever brain could be a bit less sharp.
