In the dark of the night, under the moonlight, the five figures quickly passed through the alleys and roads, heading east.
Beijing, the No. 80 High School.
Lian Yuzheng walked through the school gates, squatted on the ground and fiddled with something. A few seconds later, there was a sharp clicking sound like something had been opened. Lian Yuzheng turned to Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo and nodded to express her sincerity. Then she advanced into the campus.
She was followed by Tang Mo, Fu Wenduo, Jack and Chen Shanshan.
The moment the five of them stepped into the campus, Tang Mo suddenly looked to the left and his hand pressed against the small parasol. Fu Wenduo also glanced to the left with an indifferent expression. They saw a tall, old tree besides the school gate and a pale teenager was looking there quietly. It was unknown how long he had been standing there.
His clothes were stained with blood and his black eyes stared straight at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. Ruan Wangshu glanced at the unknown Jack and Chen Shanshan before finally falling on Lian Yuzheng.
There were no fluctuations on Lian Yuzheng’s beautiful face as she stared silently back at this thin teenager.
After a long time, Ruan Wangshu turned to the teaching building. Lian Yuzheng stated, “Let’s go.”
Tang Mo raised his eyebrows and calmly followed behind Lian Yuzheng.
There were dozens of classes in the school. Ruan Wangshu headed to the third floor of the first teaching building and entered one of the classrooms. Tang Mo entered and found that the tables and chairs in this classroom were very messy. The four of them entered and the few people sitting at the table raised their heads and looked wary.
There were three people apart from Ruan Wangshu and Lian Yuzheng. One of them was the female doctor Li Miaomiao and the others were two young men Tang Mo had never seen before.
“Aren’t you afraid that this is a trap?”
Tang Mo turned his head and saw Ruan Wangshu sit down at one end of the classroom.
Tang Mo asked lightly, “Then is it a trap?”
Ruan Wangshu raised his head and wiped the blood stains on his face. There were no wounds on his face so it was clearly the blood of others. Previously, Fu Wenduo and Lian Yuzheng fought and Tang Mo found that Lian Yuzheng was injured. Fu Wenduo hadn’t injured her, showing that Lian Yuzheng had fought with other people before Fu Wenduo.
A person who was injured, they wouldn’t sneak attack another person unless they were a fool.
Tang Mo immediately believed that Lian Yuzheng’s purpose was truly cooperation.
In this classroom, in addition to Lian Yuzheng and Ruan Wangshu, everyone had injuries. Among them, Li Miaomiao was the most seriously injured. Her white coat was dyed red with blood and she lay on a long table made by joining two tables. Her eyes stared straight at the ceiling and if it wasn’t for her moving chest, Tang Mo would think she was dead.
The people were like this and Ruan Wangshu got straight to the point, relieving the doubts of Tang Mo’s group.
“Two days ago, Qi Heng, Li Miaomiao and I challenged the black tower’s third floor. We witnessed the invisible people together and you should understand what is going on. Last month, the first ranked person on the time leaderboard, Mu Huixue almost opened the black tower’s 4.0 version update. I judged that once she clears the black tower’s fourth floor, a new version update will be triggered. Thus, I decided to attack the tower.” Ruan Wangshu put medicine on a wound on his hand while talking. “The black tower’s third floor wasn’t particularly difficult and we successfully cleared the game. At 6 o’clock this evening, Qi Heng, Li Miaomiao and I returned to the school and were attacked by two invisible people at the school gates.”
Tang Mo directly grasped the main point. “Two invisible people?”
Ruan Wangshu glanced at him. “Yes, two. It is hard for the invisible people to trust each other and to form a large organization like this. This doesn’t mean that they can’t form teams. The two people who suddenly appeared have a combat level close to Yuzheng. It was a sneak attack and we were caught off guard. By the time the other people in the school came out to support us, Qi Heng was no longer breathing. I joined hands with Yuzheng to kill one of the invisible people.”
Ruan Wangshu didn’t show any grief when speaking of the death of his companion. In this classroom, all Tian Xuan members were listening quietly and no one was emotional.
Lian Yuzheng spoke up. “The two players, one of them was Chinese and the other one looked Japanese. Leader and I killed the Japanese person and the number on her neck was 3,241. The other person’s number was lower than the Japanese person but he was stronger than her. The number on his neck was 3,012.”
Tang Mo originally thought there was one invisible person. He didn’t expect for there to be two and one of them was Japanese. He pulled out the book that contained his record of the time leaderboard and opened it. “The 61st place, Ogawa Jin. The Chinese name that is relatively close to her is…” Tang Mo paused and looked at the name. “Su Xiao.”
Ruan Wangshu looked at Tang Mo’s book with surprise but he didn’t ask to see the information in the book.
Ruan Wangshu had already told Tang Mo the details of the matter and Tang Mo put away the book. He lowered his head and looked at the sick teenager, speaking in a calm voice, “Now we know the situation. If we cooperate… what benefits will you give us?”
There was a moment of silence in the classroom.
After a long time, Ruan Wangshu smiled. “First we will share information with each other. You know more than I expected and there are things that even our Tian Xuan organization doesn’t know. Indeed, our Tian Xuan organization doesn’t have many members. There are 20 more members in addition to the original seven. Four of them were killed by you last month. Even so, we certainly know more than you. At present, I can provide information on all the major organizations in Beijing, a few of the famous strong players as well as all three invisible people currently in Beijing, apart from Su Xiao.”
Tang Mo was unmoved at the beginning but then he heard the last part and smiled. “Then let’s exchange information.”
Next, Tang Mo and Ruan Wangshu exchanged all the information they collected. Tang Mo kept back some of Chen Shanshan’s personal guessed and Ruan Wangshu was probably holding some things back as well.
They spoke for half an hour when a hoarse voice was suddenly heard. “Qi Heng, that bastard…”
Ruan Wangshu’s voice stopped and he glanced at the female doctor lying on the table.
It was unknown when the female doctor’s body started moving. She raised her hand to cover her eyes and spoke in a low voice, “Leader, how do we find that Su Xiao? How… do we find him?”
Lian Yuzheng also stared at Ruan Wangshu.
Ruan Wangshu had an indifferent expression. “This time our cooperation isn’t to kill Su Xiao.”
“Leader!”
Li Miaomiao’s body was stiff as she struggled to get up from the table. Several other members of Tian Xuan also looked at Ruan Wangshu with astonishment. Lian Yuzheng was the one to understand first. Her expression sank and her mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything.
A low female voice was heard. “Break them one by one?”
The sickly teenager raised his head and looked at the little girl who had been standing behind Tang Mo without speaking. After a while, he replied in a calm tone, “Yes. It is useless killing Su Xiao. He should still be in Beijing but no one knows where and when he will show up. At present, our larger enemy is the invisible people. I’m not inclined to work with the other organizations in Beijing. They have many members and there are many internal problems.”
Ruan Wangshu suddenly seemed to think of something and he looked up. “By the way, there is one thing. One month ago, Mu Huixue almost triggered a new version update of the black tower. Tang Mo, Fu Wenduo, you should think that the cause of this situation is her clearing the fourth floor of the black tower?”
Tang Mo realized what this boy might say. “Yes, what about it?”
Ruan Wangshu said, “By all accounts, Mu Huixue cleared that the black tower’s fourth floor and the black tower announced it would be updated. Yet this update was discontinued. Last month, Qi Heng and Li Miaomiao entered a reality instance. In that instance, they received information that might explain why the update was discontinued.
Tang Mo frowned. He didn’t expect Ruan Wangshu to suddenly talk about an instance.
Fu Wenduo understood and stared at Tang Mo. The next second, Tang Mo also realized and he stared at the female doctor lying on the table with surprise. The female doctor explained in a hoarse voice, “The instance is called ‘Day before Wang Zexin’s death.’ This person seemed to be Tang… Mr. Tang’s friend. The instance was actually very simple but Qi Heng and I were trapped inside for days because we didn’t understand what this instance wanted us to do.”
“What did it want?” Tang Mo’s voice was rushed.
Li Miaomiao didn’t conceal it. “Wang Zexin was half an official player. During the three days before the earth went online, he was lucky enough to enter a black tower game. He smoothly cleared it and returned to Earth. Once he came back, he wanted to call his friends and give them some clues about the black tower game because he sensed that matters weren’t so simple. This mysterious game was real. However, he couldn’t make any phone calls. Once he got home, he found that the phone, Internet and everything else couldn’t be connected. He couldn’t get out of the house and was locked inside.
Tang Mo’s fingers tensed and a hand pressed gently against his shoulder.
Tang Mo didn’t notice Fu Wenduo’s actions as he asked, “…Then what?”
This was his best friend of over 20 years.
It wasn’t someone else.
Li Miaomiao continued, “The day he returned to the house was November 17th. He tried his best to leave his house. Whether it was jumping or smashing the walls and doors, he tried all methods but they didn’t work. In the end, he could only write what he knew on paper and put it in the living room. At 8 o’clock, like the other invisible people, he was erased by the black tower and disappeared from the world.”
“It was because… he didn’t clear the black tower game.”
