Under the red moonlight, Zhao Xiaofei was helping Li Miaomiao clean her wounds while secretly looking at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. She found that the expressions of the two men suddenly became very strange. First it was startled, then complicated and finally a bit angry and ashamed…
Eh? Angry and ashamed?
Zhao Xiaofei found it weird.
Were all advanced players so strange?
Zhao Xiaofei didn’t know that many thoughts passed through Tang Mo’s heart in this short second. In the end, he landed on the simplest thought. ‘Who would let him kick this fake clock back to the steel ruins?’
Embarrassment was inevitable but Tang Mo calmed himself down as quickly as possible. He didn’t glance at Fu Wenduo. He just stared coldly at the giant clock in front of him and asked, ‘What do you mean by taking away all his props and not allowing him to use them? If I take away all his props, can I give them back to him after getting his ability? What will the result be?’
Tang Mo knew that the truth clock would surely hear him and didn’t say it aloud.
According to the truth clock, he had to take away Fu Wenduo’s prop. He didn’t need to destroy it. Then if Tang Mo got the ability and returned the props to Fu Wenduo, could Fu Wenduo continue to use them? Or would he lose Fu Wenduo’s ability because he didn’t truly not give money for eating? If this was the case, it didn’t matter. Fu Wenduo’s ability was important but the more significant thing was finding out what the note meant.
The truth clock guessed Tang Mo’s thoughts. “You won’t lose his power because you already have it. However, the moment you take away his props and gain the ability, the law of causality will kick in and the props no longer belong to Fu Wenduo. He can’t use them even if you give the props back. You are the only person who can use the props.”
…It wasn’t that simple.
Fu Wenduo was standing quietly beside him but Tang Mo couldn’t ignore him. He didn’t know that Fu Wenduo was also looking at the truth clock instead of Tang Mo. It was unknown what he was thinking.
Tang Mo didn’t know if what he said in his heart could be heard by Fu Wenduo or not. He hesitated but still couldn’t ask ‘What do you mean by □□’. (TL: Mating) He said, “I can gain his ability by taking away all his props. Does this apply to other people as well?”
This was the second question and the truth clock didn’t need to answer it.
Perhaps it knew that it was going to be made into a stinky toilet for Santa and decided to freely answer, “It isn’t applicable. It applies to Black Tower Intruder Fu Wenduo because he has many rare quality props.”
Tang Mo guessed the correct usage of his ability but he was still a bit confused. The truth clock didn’t say anything else and Schrodinger yelled, “Hey, how are you humans more greedy than shameless? You have already asked several questions! You aren’t allowed to ask anymore! Get out of my steel forest!”
The truth clock was silent and quietly ticked like an ordinary clock.
Tang Mo was prepared to go back and it happened that Fu Wenduo also turned around at this time. The eyes of the two men met. The next second, Tang Mo suppressed the complex emotions that couldn’t be described in words. They were silent for a moment before Tang Mo spoke first. “We should be able to leave.”
Fu Wenduo nodded after a moment. “…Yes.”
Tang Mo, “…”
Fu Wenduo, “…”
What the hell was this?
Li Miaomiao and Zhao Xiaofei didn’t understand what happened between Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. The four people stood on the broad platform and waited for the black tower to end the game. Li Miaomiao’s injury was caused by him so Tang Mo leaned down to help her. Fu Wenduo watched from the sidelines and looked down at Tang Mo.
He slowly frowned and seemed to be thinking about something.
Fu Wenduo’s powerful associative thinking ability made him come up with something but he soon rejected it. Tang Mo shouldn’t know his birthday.
Five minutes later, Tang Mo stood up. Compared to the truth clock’s suggestion, he was more concerned about something else. “We haven’t left the game yet?”
The group also thought it was weird.
Zhao Xiaofei wondered, “Didn’t we finish the game?”
Schrodinger commanded the middle-aged housekeeper to carry the steel materials and didn’t pay attention to them. The four players waited another five minutes before a terrible stench drifted from the distance. The familiar smell made the players look forward vigilantly and they saw a sloppy old man stumbling in the distance.
The middle-aged housekeeper smelt the food and rushed over excitedly.
The old man approached and Schrodinger jumped onto his head. The old man bowed his head and barked at Schrodinger. The group’s spirits hadn’t returned when the old man handed Schrodinger a pink lace parasol. No one noticed when Schrodinger had given the parasol to this old man. Schrodinger threw the parasol towards Tang Mo.
Tang Mo took the umbrella and found that nothing had changed. The only difference was…
Tang Mo, “…”
Why was there a big gem on the handle?
Schrodinger snorted. “If it wasn’t a game reward set by the black tower then you would never be able to get a prop personally made by the great Schrodinger, shameless human I know you are moved enough to cry but for the great Schrodinger, it is a disgrace to work on this small broken parasol. Get out of here and never show up in front of me again!”
The black tower’s childlike voice was heard at this time. “Ding Dong! The players Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo have successfully completed Schrodinger’s hide-and-seek game and cleared the fourth floor of the black tower (normal mode).”
“Ding dong! Player Li Miaomiao… cleared the third floor of the black tower (normal mode).”
“Ding dong! Player Zhao Xiaofei… cleared the second floor of the black tower (normal mode).”
The next second, a dazzling white light shone in everyone’s eyes. When Tang Mo opened his eyes again, the three of them had returned to the black tower next to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The three people didn’t hesitate. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo supported the seriously injured Li Miaomiao and prepared to leave this place. Tang Mo had just taken two steps when he suddenly stopped.
Fu Wenduo also stopped and looked at the black tower behind him with surprise.
Li Miaomiao froze and her eyes shook as she stared at the black tower flashing with colours.
“…Successfully cleared the fourth floor!”
“Ding dong! China District 3’s official player Mu Huixue has successfully cleared the black tower’s fourth floor!”
“Ding dong! China District 3’s official player Mu Huixue has successfully cleared the black tower’s fourth floor!”
The global broadcast played three times but the coloured lights didn’t stop. Unexpected, the black tower continued to broadcast two more messages.
“Ding dong! China District 1’s stowaway Fu Wenduo and official player Tang Mo have successfully cleared the black tower’s fourth floor!”
“Ding dong! Europe District 1’s official player Lena Jophos has successful cleared the black tower’s fourth floor!”
The series of news caught the global players off guard.
However, this was just the beginning.
“Ding dong! A version update notification. On May 18th, 2018, the Black Tower version 4.0 will come online.”
The flashing black tower regained its calm but the world was boiling. Ordinary players who didn’t know the truth were nervous about the new version. Those who knew the existence of the invisible people and even the time leaderboard silently stared at the black tower.
Shanghai, Moscow, New York, Tokyo, London…
The cities had long been deserted and there were few surviving humans. Now the human population was about to usher in a big increase. No one knew if the population would drop sharply again after a period of time or if it would calm down.
The Red Square, Moscow, Russia.
A big man dressed in a thick coat smashed a handsome young man into the wall. The man instantly caused a huge hole in the wall. The young man’s face was full of horror and he was terrified. He crawled backwards using his hands and feet as the bear-like man approached him.
There was a golden number on the neck of the young man. It was a five figure number.
『93,134』
“Impossible! W-Why are there such powerful humans on Earth? Aren’t you all pigs?”
The big man roughly grabbed the collar of the gray-haired youth and smashed him against the wall again. He prepared to smash the young man again. The great power gap dismissed all ideas of counterattacking. The young man threw away the knife in his hand and grabbed the big man’s leg, begging for mercy. The big man’s fist stopped and he was silent for a while. Then a hoarse voice emerged from the thick coat, “You said that killing the Chinese woman ranked first on the leaderboard can… resurrect a person?”
The grey-haired man cried out, “Yes, the person who kills the first place on the time leaderboard can resurrect anybody who died in an instance. I’ve told you everything I know. Please spare my life. I am begging you.”
The big man didn’t move and then turned away after half a minute.
The gray-haired man had just sighed with relief when a fierce fist hit his head. The young man’s good-looking eyes widened and the expression of relief on his face hadn’t disappeared. His head was smashed to pieces by the fist. The big man wiped the blood off his clothes and slowly walked out of the small building.
There were three bodies in the alley next to the small building. It hadn’t been long since they had died. Their eyes stared blankly at the sky, a green wound on their necks They had been killed with a knife.
The Forbidden City, Beijing.
Tang Mo’s eyes narrowed. Fu Wenduo carried Li Miaomiao to save time and the three of them found a secluded place to stop.
Li Miaomiao said, “My injury is almost recovered. I can move freely in half an hour. I want to go back to the base and find Leader.”
Tang Mo nodded. “Tomorrow we will go to Tian Xuan.”
“Okay.”
The three of them parted ways in this small building.
Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo soon arrived at the hiding place of Jack and Chen Shanshan. Chen Shanshan met them and asked, “Are you injured?” The little girl looked closely at both of them and found that they didn’t seem to be too heavily injured. She sighed with relief and her expression became serious again. “Mu Huixue has cleared the black tower’s fourth floor. The 4.0 version update in seven days is likely to be related to the invisible people. Brother Tang, Major Fu, how was your tower attack game? Did you gather any useful information?”
Tang Mo opened his mouth, intended to tell everything in detail to Chen Shanshan. Then a word suddenly appeared in his head. Tang Mo’s face instantly turned red but he sternly suppressed his embarrassment and said calmly, “This tower attack game is an instance with four people but we encountered a black tower monster inside. He pretended to be a player and mixed in among us. He is the leader of the Strange Circus, Grecia Sykes.”
Chen Shanshan was shocked. “The leader of the Strange Circus?”
Tang Mo nodded. “Yes, the leader of the Strange Circus is called Grecia and his strength is terrible…”
Next, Tang Mo carefully told the two people what happened in the instance. Both of them could be trusted and Tang Mo didn’t conceal some things because he needed Chen Shanshan’s help. Chen Shanshan had the super intelligent thinking and could perhaps guess something from the details.
Chen Shanshan listened to his explanation and stated, “Major Fu’s ability is really important. Brother Tang, it is best if you find out what the note is. How did the truth clock answer?”
Tang Mo, “…”
Fu Wenduo, “…”
Chen Shanshan who became aware that something was wrong, “…”
The tense Jack cried out, “Hurry up. Tang, it turned out that your ability is so good. Rest assured that I won’t tell anyone, even Dr. Luo. You should quickly gain Fu’s ability. It is too important!”
…How on earth did this person who couldn’t understand the atmosphere survive until this point?!!