"How could I not know the way to leave, 'Flower Master'? You definitely asked the right person. But there's one issue..."

"There are too many Hanged Men outside. Of course, I could easily defeat them, but you know, this is your trial. As your ace in the hole, I can't seem too powerful, right?"

Huohua shrugged and said.

Wen Xishu smiled:

"The Hanged Men are no match for me. You just show the way, and I promise no Hanged Man will lay a finger on you."

Huohua was very content:

"You look like a monster, but as expected, you have a power more formidable than monsters."

Wen Xishu could guess that Charlie's life might not have been devoid of kindness.

Anya and Huohua seem similar in a way.

It's why, in the Obsession World, they hold a presence too.

But the Hanged Men, symbolizing self-loathing, killed Huohua.

This signifies that perhaps the fallen Charlie deemed himself unworthy of existence.

Yet Huohua never abandoned the idea of redeeming Charlie, only Huohua, Anya...

In the Land of Dust, they were too feeble, and unless a Tower Climber detects numerous details, they might not find or resurrect them.

Soon, Huohua led Wen Xishu behind the clock tower.

A place that was initially off-limits, blocked by an air wall.

Huohua's presence caused the air wall to vanish.

The clock tower appeared smaller and smaller, while leaving the tower, Huohua kept chattering incessantly.

Until a door appeared out of thin air, Huohua glanced back.

A question mark was marked over the door.

Huohua said:

"The clock tower was young Charlie's place for self-healing. I don't know why... so many Hanged Men monsters appeared here."

"Damn it, he was such a lovely child; he would often talk to himself, and after meeting me, spoke to me even more."

"Though often I thought, what the hell is this idiot babbling about, hurry up and feed me."

"But thinking back to those days of playing with him, it was truly joyful."

"Once, a little centipede crawled into the clock tower, and Charlie wasn't even afraid, just babbled a whole lot at the centipede."

"How did that child... turn into this?"

Wen Xishu recalled the time he transformed into a centipede... the glutton didn't immediately kill him.

He wondered if it was because of these experiences?

Wen Xishu said:

"You left him when he was still young; let's go together now and see what he went through afterward."

Huohua had already turned the door handle.

Chapter One, the clock tower is cleared.

Anya's letter might be a key item for the next level.

Wen Xishu now had a bit of a clue and was looking forward to the next stage.

...

...

[Chapter Four: Dream Academy and the Faceless Girl.]

Purple dust enveloped in mist, thicker and less transparent than previous areas, like a mixture of solidified sorrow and lust.

The source of light was unclear, but Wen Xishu could see a bizarre halo forming in the fog.

Occasionally, lightning-like red fissures flashed in the mist, resembling the embodiment of painful memories.

At this moment, Wen Xishu carried Huohua on his back; though Huohua strongly opposed... it's hard to resist when Wen Xishu threatened with his fists.

One person and one dog arrived at the place indicated by the fourth chapter's title, Dream Academy.

Ever-Hungry Kitchen, Dream Academy...

Wen Xishu knew this level might emphasize illusion and dream, with the main threat stemming from psychic attacks.

He was standing at the academy's gate.

Two important environments for shaping one's personality are home and school.

Wen Xishu had already speculated about the situation at home, the clock tower and kitchen gave a glimpse that Eric's family might be affluent yet lacking parental care and unable to meet their expectations.

As for school...

This place really doesn't have too many surprises.

The academy gate bore the school emblem, though it had been maliciously defaced.

The graffiti... was very coarse and simple, and Wen Xishu understood roughly that some of the academy's monsters... might relate to sex.

Because the graffiti depicted—a phallus.

It seemed to validate the famous saying by a well-known blogger from Wen Xishu's past life, Freud's Peak, that all problems in this world stem from sexual repression.

Near the academy gate, there were scattered pieces of torn love letters—Wen Xishu speculated.

Because he saw words like "I like you" on the fragments, but everywhere else, only red X's.

"Wow, this emblem design matches my own majesty; I like this place, much better than the clock tower, and the dust is pink." Huohua said.

"Shh, you better keep quiet. I can sense that the monsters in the academy are formidable."

Wen Xishu's current strength was not weak, being highly monsterized physically.

He pushed open the academy's door, greeted by the moldy scent of old books, chalk dust, cloying cheap perfume, and a faint, rust-like smell akin to blood or decaying flowers.

Indistinct sounds of reading, snickering, distant playground noises blurred...

The sounds made Wen Xishu feel like this place was a normal academy.

But they were constantly interrupted by sharp glass-breaking sounds and suppressed sobbing, cutting off for a few seconds.

After a few seconds, the sounds of reading gradually emerged again.

This cycle lent an eerie atmosphere to the academy.

Upon pushing the door open, Wen Xishu saw a long corridor.