Wolves, like cats, have great night vision.
Tang Mo crept gingerly to the door, his right hand clutching the neck of the vase, his body half pressed against the office door, listening intently for movement outside. A dull grunt comes from outside the door, as if a beast is gritting its fangs and straining to explode.
In the corner, Xing Feng, shivering with fear, tries desperately to tuck herself into the corner and reduce her presence.
Tang Mo listens to the movement of the wolf outside the door, which is also staring intently at the door. The two sides are at a standstill. In a flash of lightning, Tang Mo throws the glowing stone with his left hand at the window at the head of the door. The angle of his throw was so good that the stone caught itself between the door frame and the window.
The stalemate was broken by the crisp click of a stone against the door frame. The wolf whistles and rushes towards the door. Tang Mo opens the door at the same time. He couldn't see the wolf's movements and kicked it straight up, sending the long, skinny wolf into the wall of the corridor.
Snarling in anger, the shoe polish wolf stomped hard on its hind legs and charged at Tang Mo again.
Tang Mo sidesteps its surprise attack and enters the corridor. The glowing stones cast a faint glow, illuminating a small area of the corridor. Tang Mo didn't know if the shoe polish wolf had the same terrible night vision as the wolves on Earth, but in any case, there was no way he could fight this wolf in the absence of light. So at first, he preempts it, creating a light source for himself.
The shoe polish wolf was fast, long and lean, stomping on the walls of the corridor with all its limbs, constantly charging at Tang Mo from all directions. Tang Mo's vase smashed through his head, leaving a ruptured and bloody gash on his head. He is not very strong, but he is so fast that he stomps on the wall and leaps into the air, grabbing Tang Mo with his sharp claws.
Tang Mo rolls through the ground with a carp and the two exchange places.
The black wolf let out an irritated growl and Tang Mo gasped softly, his right hand gripping the neck of the shattered vase.
A man and a wolf look at each other in a narrow corridor.
The next moment, the Shoe Wolf suddenly attacked, and Tang Mo, holding the half-broken vase, rushed forward. The two black shadows met halfway and Tang Mo raised the vase and stabbed the shoe polish wolf in the eye with the broken part. Surprisingly, the wolf was already on the defensive as it turned its head sideways, opened its sharp teeth and bit into the vase.
With a click, the already shattered vase became four or five pieces in the air.
At that moment, the wolf swung his right paw at Tang Mo's eye, and Tang Mo was prepared to side-step it. At the same time, he took advantage of the coyote's bite on the vase to reach out and grab a splinter out of the air with one swift movement. Tang Mo's cold gaze swept across the neck of the wolf, then he ran forward and slashed with his right hand.
The sharp porcelain slice cuts through the wolf's neck, the huge gaping hole running from its throat to the back of its neck.
Tang Mo stumbled forward a few steps and he lifted his hand, wiping the blood running down his right cheek. The shoe polish wolf's paw went down, and even if he had planned for it, he could not have avoided it completely, and was cut with a thin gash. But behind him, the shoe polish wolf's entire body fell out and onto the floor of the corridor, sliding into the distance.
Tang Mo walks quickly up to it.
The neck of the shoe polish wolf has been cut almost in half by Tang Mo, with only a bit of flesh still attached to its body. Thick blood dripped from its body and it grunted repeatedly, its dark green eyes staring straight at Tang Mo. Tang Mo looked at it expressionlessly and bent down to stab the broken porcelain piece into the shoe polish wolf's skull, mending the knife.
The shoe polish wolf was completely cut off.
A green glow flashed from the body of the shoe polish wolf, the glow dissipated and all of the shoe polish wolf's body and the blood that had just been shed disappeared and a pearl-like drop of black liquid appeared where the shoe polish wolf's body had been.
Tang Mo picks up the shoe polish.
This drop of shoe polish has a strange texture, similar to mercury, and can be grabbed directly. The black tower says that you can get one drop of shoe polish for killing a shoe polish wolf, and Tang Mo is really only getting one drop of shoe polish. Even if he tries to separate the drop into two, when he stops, the two halves come back together and become one drop of shoe polish.
Xing Feng's body trembled with excitement when he saw Tang Mo return: "You ... defeated the shoe polish wolf so easily? We might be saved, really saved!"
Tang Mo's wound on his face had stopped bleeding, but it hadn't completely healed, and he asked coldly, "What the hell happened to Shoe Oil Wolf, and how those two men died. Who did the wounds on your body?"
Three questions in a row left Xing Feng speechless.
Tang Mo pulls out his office chair and sits down, Xing Feng is close to him, Xing Feng shakily props himself up with his hands and moves forward with difficulty. He wanted to get away from Tang Mo. But Tang Mo kicked him straight into the wall with a loud bang and his leg was in front of Xing Feng's face.
The battered old player stumbled backwards in fear.
Tang Mo lifted his foot and kicked the wall with another heavy thump, causing the whole office to shake. He curled his lips and sneered, "Answer me, three questions."
Xing Feng looked at him fearfully and finally opened his mouth, "The shoe polish wolf is ... the same thing you just killed. It will appear every three hours, the first time one appears, the second time two, then three. Kill the shoe polish wolf and you will get a drop of shoe polish. If you can't kill the shoe polish wolf by killing ..., in another five minutes it will disappear on its own."
Tang Mo: "Disappear on your own?" Wouldn't that be enough to avoid going head-to-head with the shoe polish wolves if you ducked for five minutes?
Xing Feng nodded fearfully, "Yes ... it is. But ten minutes after the shoe polish wolf appears, the Iron Shoemaker ... Iron Shoemaker will appear. He will ask you and ask you if you have ..."
"Bang..."
A dull thud interrupted Xing Feng's words. At the sound, a look of fear crossed Xing Feng's face and he looked in the direction of the doorway in horror. Tang Mo heard a thumping sound coming from one end of the corridor, followed by the clatter of chains dragging on the floor.
The thing was getting closer and closer and had almost reached the door of this office.
Tang Mo gripped the broken porcelain piece he had just put in his pocket and stood up. He had realised who this man was.
Three seconds later, a strong, giant-like man appeared in the doorway. He had the chains on his right arm and the long nail in his left hand. His unsuspecting gaze first went to Xing Feng on the ground, who shrank back in fear and hid behind Tang Mo. Then he looked at Tang Mo, who was standing there.
The iron cobbler gave a low chuckle as he smashed the table hard with a nail and yelled, "Where's my shoe polish! You scum, have you found my shoe polish yet!"
A loud and impatient voice echoed through the office.
On the other side of the food processing plant, Fu Wenduo stands in a small utility room, looking up at a small television hanging in the corner.
On the screen, Wang Xiaotian, wearing a little blue dress, somehow managed to conjure up a swivel chair from nowhere and she sat on it with a big smile on her face. "Today is a special episode of Happy Quiz and we have invited only one challenger. Let's see. ... Wow! A challenger who is very famous and whose name you all know."
Fu Wenduo narrows his eyes. All he could see on the screen was Wang Xiaotian's silhouette, but after she said the words, as every TV crew does, a roar of cheers went up from the small TV.
Wang Xiaotian sold out, "So ... who is he?"
Fu Wenduo looked indifferently at the TV screen, only to see a five-cent special effects promo appear on the screen.
A line in large black letters appears out of nowhere.
"He - was the first player in the world to open the ground floor of The black tower."
The line seems to have been erased and replaced with another line.
"He - the first player in the world to clear the ground floor of The black tower."
After the second black line disappeared, the next line did not appear for a long time. Fu Wenduo waited for a long time before a voice swallowing saliva came from the television screen. It was Wang Xiaotian's voice. Tang Mo, who was there, could not have heard this voice of greed and appetite coming from the cute cartoon character, but Fu Wenduo had been trained to hear it, and Wang Xiaotian was gulping hard.
Then five words appeared on the screen. The last three words were an intense blood-red colour, and a drop of blood even dripped from them, falling out of sight to the bottom of the TV screen.
"He's - a stowaway!"
As the scene shifts, Wang Xiaotian's cartoonish round face appears on screen. Her mouth is covered in drool, and when she finds the camera on her, she immediately raises her sleeve to wipe it off. She smiles sweetly, "And so, the long-standing obsession of all the citizens of the Underlander Kingdom, the number one contestant in Monster Weekly's 'My Most Wanted Human' three times in a row -"
"Fu Wenduo!"
Fu Wenduo stands in the grocery room, staring at the TV screen. A small cartoon figure dressed in black pops out from one end of the screen. He walks over to the chair opposite Wang Xiaotian and sits down, head down, without saying a word. Three words appeared above his head -
'Fu Wenduo'
Wang Xiaotian: "Our Fu player is a bit quiet, won't you say something to the audience who like you?"
Cartoon Fu Wenduo still did not speak.
Wang Xiaotian's gaze moves away from the mini Fu Wenduo as she turns her head and, if anything, glances outside. She seemed to be looking at the camera with that glance, but her gaze strangely met exactly with the real Fu Wenduo outside the TV. She wiped her saliva again and smiled strangely, "Since contestant Fu doesn't want to talk, let's get started. Let's take the first question ... Oh, it's a very simple general knowledge question."
The little girl's playful voice echoed through the grocery room.
"It should be easy for player Fu to answer this question. So, please listen to the question!"
"First question, who is the favourite prankster in the world on the ground floor of The black tower?"
"A. Pinocchio, B. Cinderella ..., how come I am in this option, I, Wang Xiaotian, never tease stowaways." Wang Xiaotian pretended to be surprised and she covered her mouth in a very pretentious way, "Oops, I accidentally eliminated a wrong answer for Fu. C. Mr. Martin, D. Uncle Orangutan. Which one would you choose, contestant Fu? Which one is the correct option?"
"Our contestant Fu has twenty seconds to think about it, and it's a bonus question. Can contestant Fu answer the truth correctly or not?"
At the same time, a small blue line appeared in front of Fu Wenduo.
The blue text hovering in mid-air is the content of the first question that Wang Xiaotian just said on the small TV. Below this line there are four more options. A big question mark appears above the head of the mini Fu Wenduo on the TV, while outside the TV Fu Wenduo looks at the question and then looks up at Wang Xiaotian's exaggerated and contrived acting.
He pressed option B with an expressionless face.
Wang Xiaotian: "Eh? How can it be me? Fu, this is a bonus question. Are you sure you don't want to change the answer again?"
Of course the fake Fu Wenduo on the TV couldn't answer her, and Wang Xiaotian said it several times before finally saying helplessly, "Well, congratulations! The director protested, "When did I like to poke fun at stowaways?
Wang Xiaotian said a few more words of nonsense, but Fu Wenduo, of course, didn't talk to her, and there was a lot of noise from the audience. When Fu Wenduo didn't respond, she was bored and started the second question.
"Second question, which monster eats the most stowaways in the monster world?"
"A. Shrek, B. Hulk, C. Wolf Granny, D. Big Mole."
"Wow, director, are you giving Fu a back door? This is too easy a question! On behalf of our audience, I want to protest! Protest!"
There was a very cooperative chorus of boos from the stage.
Fu Wenduo looked at the question, but his face slowly sank.
Shrek's name Fu Wenduo had once seen it on a billboard while stowing away in Monster World, the big star of Monster World, and it was logical that the answer would not be it. He had never seen the Hulk, and he had never seen Granny Wolf or the Great Mole.
... This is a cheat question and he really doesn't know the answer.
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What the author has to say.
Mr. Fu: Can I ask for help off-site?
Tangtang: [fighting with shoe polish wolf] Eh phone? No time, no time, I'm hanging up!
Mr. Fu: ...