He began to manipulate his consciousness, allowing all his thoughts to focus on one thing... survival.

Utilizing the mutation effects of the Weird Sequence·Mutated Slaughter.

Driven by intense desire, Wen Xishu's wounds began to heal, stopping his blood loss and shielding him from the more intense Mirror Blade Storm.

Relying on his mutation effects, he completely endured all of the Mirror Blade Storm.

The black thorns could not approach Wen Xishu due to the Earth Marsh Trapped Beast effect, but Wen Xishu actively removed this geographical advantage.

After a brief recovery, he even crawled towards those thorns intentionally.

The black thorns injected a massive resentment into Wen Xishu's consciousness.

Like endless dust, enveloping a person thickly.

He also saw, at the end of countless dust, Anya sitting lonely and helpless in the corner.

The image flashed and vanished.

In the next moment, Anya's bone-crushing embrace came again.

But this time...

Wen Xishu, having withstood all the skills... surprisingly, was not thrown and smashed to sever the last life line.

He saw more cracks; the third collision was more fierce than the previous two, with more and more cracks, finally leading something to shatter completely.

At last...

A passage opened.

Wen Xishu began to fall weightlessly, as if plunging into a cloud, surrounded by endless gray-white dust.

"When you are willing to face my pain, without avoiding it... I considered you as my best friend, Charlie."

No mistake.

Wen Xishu realized, this was the key to clearing the level.

When no longer dodging but feeling the pain Anya once felt, one realizes Anya is not the enemy.

...

...

All the memories finally assembled into a complete picture.

This is a sad story of a child named Charlie.

From a very young age, Charlie couldn't get much attention from his parents. It seemed that being born into this family and enjoying its material offerings, he had to constantly meet his parents' expectations.

He longed for his parents' attention and response and began striving hard in study.

But life doesn't always yield results from hard work; even at his best moments, for Charlie, it's only a bronze medal.

That was the result of his trying his utmost.

His father would never praise him, even when he occasionally did well... the world seems always able to find someone better than him.

From his father's mouth, there was always a name.

In Charlie's eyes, it wasn't a name, it was mountain after mountain. He didn't know how many more he needed to climb to gain his parents' love.

And parents always believed that as long as they provided ample material, that was love.

After all, in their time, average parents couldn't give out these things.

When the concept of love diverges between the sides, it's like someone consuming food that increases hunger...

The more effort one makes to swallow, the hungrier they become.

Huohua appeared when Charlie was still in elementary school; one day, coming home, Charlie saw Huohua wagging its tail to him, its eyes fixated on the bread in Charlie's hand.

Charlie divided the bread with Huohua, and Huohua wagged its tail even more enthusiastically. Then Charlie walked as far as he could, Huohua followed as far.

That was the first time Charlie felt his life meaningful. He seemed needed by something.

As though a slight light emerged from the dark dust.

He genuinely felt that way, thus naming the little dog 'Huohua.' Charlie took Huohua to the clock tower. It was built by his grandfather and served as his refuge from the world.

Sometimes, when ignored by parents, he especially longed to escape that Victorian house.

The house was warm, the clock tower was somewhat ruined and cold, but he liked the clock tower. Huohua also had a nest there.

Huohua was the only remedy in Charlie's childhood; he used it to heal much of his childhood loneliness.

Life is full of farewells.

Dogs, when healthy, like to stick to their owners; but knowing they're close to death, they'd distance from home, dying far away.

One day, Charlie returned to the clock tower but didn't find Huohua.

He immediately panicked, continuously calling Huohua's name, searching in a certain direction along the path.

He finally found Huohua, only to see it was about to die.

The dog was very old, and as a stray, it was already weak and sickly.

Charlie held Huohua, pleading with his father to find a way to treat it, but the reply was that Huohua wasn't worth more than a few books. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Dust kept falling, covering Huohua's corpse.

...

A few more years passed, Charlie grew up and needed to enter academy life.

He finally moved from the phase with most parental presence to the phase with most companionship from teachers and peers.

And as child transformed into youth, many desires grew naively and hazily; they were supposed to be beautiful, symbolic of vitality. But due to stigmatization and shameful thoughts, all turned unspeakable, like taboos.

Charlie started missing someone, wanting to befriend his crush, not wanting to seem too isolated.

But all this ended prematurely in a cruel way.

He became the perverted Charlie, the ear-biting Charlie. All his arguments appeared futile and powerless; his father's words rang, "How can you act like an animal?"

He never felt animals were inferior, nor did he feel humans were noble.