"When the Christmas bonus copy suddenly opened, me, Shanshan, Liu Chen and Feifei all went out to look for Christmas branches and we found two in total. Liu Chen and I decided to give the branches to Shanshan and Feifei. They both used the branches to get into the replica." The chubby boy, already stronger than he was half a month ago, said as calmly as he could in the face of his companions' disappearance, "I thought that Shanshan and the girls would be better at fighting than Liu Chen and me. Liu Chen and I might be able to handle the danger without a branch, so I can't let them be two girls. But ... but it's long past twelve, Brother Tang, and they're not back yet!"
Zhao Ziang's eyes are red and he is not crying.
Tang Mo's fingers tighten as he analyses the situation: "Even if they both have branches, they don't necessarily go into the same copy. It's like Jackass has a branch, you don't have a branch, but you're in the same copy. The copy is completely random."
Zhao Ziang nods his head.
Tang Mo looks to Luo Fengcheng, who also looks at him in silence.
Finally Tang Mo turned around, walked over to the little fat man and whispered, "Wait."
In fact, they knew the answer, but Zhao Ziang couldn't resist coming over to tell Tang Mo. There was nothing they could do but wait. Tang Mo couldn't have known which copy Chen Shanshan was in, and now that the Christmas copy was closed, there was no way for him to get in.
The little fat man left with his head down.
Tang Mo watches his sad back, pursing his lips.
"Better not tell him, those two little girls are probably being forced into a tower attack game." Luo Fengcheng's voice rang out and Tang Mo turned to look at him. The young doctor in the white coat, hands in his pockets, looked at him quietly, "There are many different kinds of Christmas copies, but nine times out of ten, all of China's Christmas copies will be over by the time Santa gives out all the presents at exactly twelve o'clock."
Tang Mo knows this.
Of the thirteen members of Atak, Tang Qiao was the one who was forcibly ejected from her copy. At exactly 12 o'clock, three of the sixteen members of the large replica she was playing had died, eliminating eight. The five remaining players were wary of their opponents and continued to play. However, as soon as 12 o'clock arrived, before the game ended, they were all ejected from their copies and returned to the real world.
The Christmas benefit copy only exists on Christmas Eve, it ends when Christmas Day arrives.
There is only one possibility that Chen Shanshan and Qiao Feifei have not left Ben so far: they have been eliminated into the Tower Attack game.
Tang Mo looks down at a figurine on Luo Fengcheng's desk and after a long time he says: "The black tower will be updated soon, so I'm not leaving Shanghai for a while."
Luo Fengcheng: "How long are you going to wait?"
The new version of The black tower is just one reason why there is no need to stay in Shanghai, as there is also The black tower in Suzhou. He wanted to wait for Chen Shanshan to make sure the little girl was safe.
Tang Mo looked calm as he gave his answer, "Ten days."
Leaving Luo Fengcheng's office, Tang Mo finds a car and lies down in it to rest.
The silent, empty underground car park is dimly lit, the faint light shining through the dark windows into the car, illuminating only a faint outline. Tang Mo extends his right hand and holds it up in front of him. He recalls a month ago when a little girl slipped a box of biscuits into his hand and he was given the other man's powers.
Even if he had the chance to enter a copy to save Chen Shanshan, Tang Mo would not go in first. He would think long and hard before deciding to go in and find someone, but only because he had the king's gold. If he didn't have the King's Gold, he would never have entered the dangerous game of Tower Attack for a little girl.
However, as Luo Fengcheng said, he stayed and decided to wait ten days.
After ten days, Chen Shanshan has not shown up and will return to Suzhou.
The seven days passed quickly. On the night of Christmas Eve, five members of Atak did not make it out of the replica. Seven days have passed and they still haven't turned up. After the incident with the stowaway group, the departure of the members did not cause too much of a stir in the group and everyone accepted the fact calmly.
On the eve of 2018, Tang Mo, Jackass and Luo Fengcheng quietly left the mall in the night.
Like black lightning in the darkness, the trio moved quickly through the factory and residential areas, over the Nanpu Bridge and into Puxi.
Five kilometres from The black tower, Tang Mo stops in his tracks and reaches out to Jackass and Luo Fengcheng. The trio hid in a dark alleyway and Tang Mo lowered his voice: "Jackass is a good fighter, but he's too big and not agile enough. Luo Fengcheng, you're a reserve, you'll be easy to spot if you approach there. I'll go alone."
Jackass frowned, "We already found five people around when we arrived. Wouldn't it be too dangerous for you to go alone?"
Luo Fengcheng also asked, "In case of an emergency, how quickly can you get here and join us?"
They were unaware that Tang Mo had the power of divine speed, the ability to increase his speed to the speed of sound, the limit of escape. Tang Mo bent down slightly: "Soon. Even if I can't beat you, I can still escape and meet up with you guys."
Jackass was about to say something else when Luo Fengcheng murmured, "OK, we'll wait here at 0.15. If you're not back, we'll find a place to hide first."
Tang Mo nods his head. The next moment, he turns his head to look at Nanjing Road in the distance.
"Whoosh..."
A sturdy figure pierced through the darkness of the night, breaking the sound of the wind and heading towards the huge dark tower at great speed.
Tang Mo's whole body is tense as he runs, constantly alert to any movement around him. His mind is empty and his senses are infinitely amplified. The wind whistled in his ears because of his extreme speed. He could clearly hear his own pounding heartbeat and at least ten equally cautious footsteps within a 50-metre radius.
It was a quiet night in Shanghai on New Year's Eve, with no wind and no rain. On this night, dozens of players approached The black tower in spite of the danger. As the clock struck two on the Bund, there were no fireworks across the Huangpu River, as there have been every year, to announce the arrival of 2018 to the people of Shanghai.
At the junction of Nanjing Road and the Bund, more than fifty black figures arrived at the same moment under The black tower. They became aware of each other's presence and immediately ran away, finding the nearest concealed position to hide.
Tang Mo gasped heavily, his body pressed against the door of the Peace Hotel, and slowly sat down on the floor.
He had just met up with twelve players when he arrived at the bottom of The black tower. They could not see each other's faces in the darkness, but the aura of danger was unmistakable. In unison, the twelve made the decision to turn away and find a place to hide.
Tang Mo ran into the ground floor of the Peace Hotel, hid behind the door and quietly turned his head to look through the window at the huge black tower outside.
In the thick of the night, twelve o'clock arrived and the hours ticked by.
Tang Mo gazed intently at The black tower and he frowned: "... No movement at all?"
Seven days ago The black tower announced to all of China that on January 1, 2018, version 2.0 of The black tower would go live. Tang Mo and Luo Fengcheng discussed this and decided that the most likely time for The black tower to go live would be at 00:00 on January 1st.
"It's not zero, is it six?" Tang Mo said to himself.
Six o'clock is the second possible time. The black tower's three iron rules state that 6pm-18pm is the game time. So it is likely that the new version will go live at 6pm. Other than that, the third most likely time would be 8pm. A month ago, The black tower announced the launch of Earth at 08:00 on 15 November and the official start of the game at 08:00 on 18 November.
"If it's not zero, then you can go back now and meet up with Luo Fengcheng and Jackass. We'll check back in six hours." Tang Mo thought secretly. He looked at the huge tower again, ready to go back quietly. But just as he saw the middle of The black tower, his gaze faltered and he stared at the centre of The black tower.
The huge black tower suspended a hundred metres above the sky looked like a big black mountain in the night. But at this moment, in the middle of it, a small white dot of light was flickering gently. This small dot of light was flickering in a certain rhythm, one after the other.
Tang Mo counts the seconds in his mind.
"Da, da, da -"
The dot flashes about once every second. When it reaches the 62nd flash, suddenly a second one lights up below it. This time, however, the second dot is only halfway lit before it silently dies and does not light up completely.
The next moment, a cheerful piece of music suddenly started to play and countless children's voices began to chant. The children's singing came from all directions, suddenly ringing out in the darkness of the night in a treacherous and strange way that stung the senses.
"Happy New Year, Happy New Year, and best wishes to everyone."
"We sang, we danced and wished everyone a good New Year."
"Happy New Year to you ..."
Tang Mo hears several inhaling sounds from around him. He presses his body against the edge of the window, hiding his form in the darkness, leaving only one pair of eyes to peer silently at The black tower, which is tens of metres away.
In the darkness of the night, the huge The black tower emits a colourful glow, like an old-fashioned karaoke ball from the last century, and it lights up the whole of Shanghai with its coloured patches of light reflecting on the Huangpu River, illuminating its undulating waters. It sings this joyful song over and over again, as if there were really a group of children singing and dancing to celebrate the New Year.
More than fifty players hid in the darkness, staring at The black tower, which sang the New Year.
Three times, the glow from The black tower stopped abruptly. Everyone stared warily at the scene, only to hear the next moment a clear child's voice rang out -
"Dingdong! One hundred and sixty-one million players successfully loaded into the game ..."
"Game archive in progress ..."
"Player data loading in progress ..."
"Game data loading ..."
"Archived successfully at ..."
"Loaded successfully ..."
"Loaded successfully ..."
"A copy of reality is now open ..."
"Rally copy completed ..."
"Dingdong! On January 1, 2018, The black tower version 2.0 goes live, welcome players to the game."
"All players please make an effort to attack the tower."
"Ding dong! Happy gaming!"
The sound was heard throughout Shanghai. The glow of The black tower dimmed and the evening breeze blew across the Huangpu River, a silence that did not change. Five minutes later, a black figure runs quickly under The black tower, looks up and watches carefully for three seconds before leaving quickly.
After that, another thirty or so people ran under The black tower in turn to observe the changes in The black tower.
Tang Mo's fingers snapped hard into the marble rim of the hotel window. The mottled marble slab was snapped with five clear fingerprints as he stared expressionlessly at the huge The black tower. When the forty or so people had run out to see what was going on, Tang Mo ran out of the Peace Hotel with a whoosh. Instead of running towards The black tower, he turned away and soon found Luo Fengcheng and Jackass hiding in the alleyway.
Jackass whispered, "You're back at last, it's 0.14."
Tang Mo's face is hard as he turns his head to look at Luo Fengcheng.
Luo Fengcheng's face also looked bad: "Just like a month ago, it played a 'Happy New Year' song this time and radiated a colourful light. We could see these from a distance, did you see anything else close by?"
Tang Mo says: "Before The black tower announced the new release, I saw a little white dot of light flashing in the middle of it."
"Little points of light?"
Tang Mo: "Yes. I counted carefully and it pulsed 62 times in a row. On the 63rd time it would flash for double the time, and then it started flashing again. And on the 62nd time it flashed, a second small dot of light appeared underneath it. This dot of light doesn't pulsate and only lights up halfway before going dark. Then, that's what you see here as the new version goes live ..."
At that moment, a footstep came from the distance. Tang Mo was immediately silenced, and Jackass held his breath, not daring to breathe.
When the footsteps had passed, Tang Mo: "Find a place to hide first."
The trio ran two kilometres away and found an unoccupied hotel to hide in.
Tang Mo carefully describes what he saw: "The light didn't seem to be coming from outside, it was coming from the centre of The black tower, right in the middle, glowing from the inside out. The first light flashed 62 times, a number that must have had a deeper meaning. The second light is unknown at the moment."
"No news about the new version of The black tower has been announced this time either. It seems that we still have to figure out the detailed rules of the game later." Luo Fengcheng nodded, "The light dot you mentioned is also very important and needs to be analysed to see what it means."
Tang Mo: "The dot was small and the light was dim. A total of fifty-three people went under The black tower tonight to observe the new release, but at most ten people spotted the small spot."
Luo Fengcheng: "We'll go back and analyse this one."
"Good."
Tang Mo's eyes flashed to the figure of a little girl.
The ability of "super-intelligent thinking" gives you a certain degree of accuracy in judging anything, up to 50%. If Chen Shanshan were here, she might be able to guess something.
... is seven days old.
When Jackass heard Luo Fengcheng say he wanted to go back, he scratched his head and said, "Do you want to go back now? That's fine. The black tower update didn't do anything, so it seems we didn't get much out of the trip. It said all that stuff once seven days ago, and it didn't say as much as it did at Christmas. The Christmas one said that every player had to play in a tower attack game once every three months, and this one doesn't even say that rule."
At these words, Tang Mo turned his head slowly and looked steadily at Jackass.
Jackass was a bit confused, he didn't understand why Tang Mo was looking at him like that. But as soon as he turned his head, he noticed that Luo Fengcheng was also looking at him with a very strange look.
Jackass was bewildered, " Tang Mo, Dr. Lo, did I say anything wrong?"
There was a hint of a sigh in Luo Fengcheng's voice: " Jackass, did you pay attention to the first sentence of The black tower's announcement of the version update."
Jackass was, after all, a psychic with a very good memory. He quickly repeated from memory, "Dingdong, one hundred and sixty-one million players have successfully loaded into the game ..." The sound stopped abruptly, Jackass' eyes widened and all the large muscles in his body tensed. He said in shock, "One hundred and sixty-one million? One hundred million ... not, not four hundred million ... four hundred million more?"
Tang Mo said indifferently, "... Yes. In one month, another 300 million people have died."
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The author has something to say.
Mr. Fu: ... I heard that I was supposed to make an appearance in this chapter and get to meet Tangtang!!!
Fuwa: QAQ sorry ....