“Your first sentence was, ‘I’m not a stowaway either.’ This is telling us that you are the same as everyone else, not a stowaway.” The little girl keeps crying, shaking her head in denial. Tang Mo says, “Given the current situation, undoubtedly, the chances of me being the stowaway is the lowest. Then it’s him, and then him.” He points to Li Bin and Luo Fengcheng.

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He raises his head. “Yet no one can be sure who definitely is or is not the stowaway. I could have been the stowaway too. But you admitted it in your first sentence, that the chef before you wasn’t a stowaway. The only one who knows for sure who is or is not the stowaway is the stowaway themselves.”[1]

The little girl’s body shakes and she keeps wiping her tears, but now, no one has the courage to approach and comfort her.

No matter how weak and gentle she seems, she is still a murderer.

Li Bin nods furiously. “Exactly, I knew something was up immediately. Out of everyone, you remembered what happened during those three days the clearest, and you could even say exact times. You must have already come up with your story. That’s why you were able to lie so smoothly.”

This is actually quite an obvious point. After Li Bin points it out, Li Wen and the other two realize as well.

“So it’s like this! You must be the stowaway. Such a young kid killed someone? That’s so scary.”

The little girl is still trying to deny it. “I didn’t…” But after saying this, she seems to realize that no one will believe her anymore and gives up on struggling. She no longer speaks, and only cries.

Tang Mo ignores what the chef just said. “Mr. Luo, do you think this is correct?”

Luo Fengcheng had been standing by silently. When Tang Mo suddenly puts the attention on him, he asks in reply, “Do we still need to guess who’s the stowaway? The other hints don’t even matter now. These two points are enough to prove who’s the stowaway. But I’m just a bit curious… who did you kill?”

Everyone turns towards the little girl again.

Tears can run dry, but fear will never disappear.

In the corner of the underground cave, the mole is still digging, whistling a sharp, mocking tune. It digs out a bloody piece of meat from somewhere and chews it happily, beady little eyes secretly looking at the seven people. The little girl shakes in fear. She can no longer cry and looks to Lin Qiao for help. This college student is too kindhearted and can’t stand seeing her like this. Instead, she chooses not to look at all.

A long time later, a hoarse voice says quietly, “You’re all sure that I’m the stowaway… yes, I killed him, but that’s not a human, it’s not!” The little girl’s head is lowered. No one could have predicted that the pitiful, tearful little girl’s voice is as cold as steel now. She raises her head abruptly. “Does that count as killing a person? I gave him life! He shouldn’t have lived, he shouldn’t have!”

Her despairing voice fills the cave, sharp and piercing.

It’s only now that many people remember that this little girl looks thin and weak. She doesn’t seem very healthy either. Fifteen is an age that’s not very young anymore. Just because this little girl looks small doesn’t mean she actually is. She’s almost an adult.

Tang Mo raises his eyebrows in surprise. He wasn’t expecting this answer at all, but before he can ask, Luo Fengcheng is already speaking. “You didn’t kill your parents?”

A pitiful and helpless expression flashes on the girl’s face. “How could I kill my parents? They’re so good to me. What I killed was that despicable thing that shouldn't have been born!”

The answer is revealed. Now, even the dumbest chef realizes what she means.

The girl’s cold voice says, “You said I was lying, but I wasn’t. I didn’t need to, because I’ve been living this kind of life for the past three months. I was stupid, I went to Wuhan to see an internet friend and he got me pregnant. He didn’t want me anymore and I had to go home. But I couldn’t get an abortion. It had already been seven months and the doctor wouldn’t do it, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant later in life, and I might even die. I didn’t want that child at all, but my mom said she didn’t want me to regret it later, and she also didn’t want to risk my life. She said she and my dad would take care of the kid, as long as I gave birth to it.”

The little girl raises her tear-streaked face and looks at every single person in the eye.

“I’m not as smart as you, not as useful as you, but I just wanted to live my life. Before those three days, I was in the hospital. I gave birth to that thing on the second night.”

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Tang Mo’s eyes flash.

Actually, there were two very glaring holes in the little girl’s story.

One of them was that her mom wasn’t concerned about the tower. She was still helping the girl with homework, after all. If her mom really wasn’t scared of the tower and even had the capacity to worry about her daughter’s studying, then why would she say, ‘Don’t be scared’? What’s so scary about the Black Tower? This is a contradiction.

Originally, Tang Mo thought the little girl hadn’t perfected her story, but now it seems like the ‘don’t be scared’ was encouraging the little girl to have the child and not be scared for the future. No matter what happens, don’t be scared.

‘As long as you’re okay, I’m okay.’ This is a mother using all her strength to protect her child and not let her fall into despair.

The little girl’s expression is ferocious, but a hint of regret flashes across her eyes. She says firmly, “He was crying that night and I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t help it… I killed him. I put the pillow over his mouth and he eventually stopped crying. I killed him, but did I really? He was my child, I gave him life, why can’t I take it away? He wasn’t supposed to exist!”

Lin Qiao can’t take it anymore. “You didn’t have to give him life. Becoming pregnant was a mistake, a mistake that both you and the father of the child made. The child is innocent. Regardless, since you gave him life, he had the right to live. You killed him!”

“He ruined my life! I’m only fifteen!” The little girl begins to cry again.

Tang Mo says calmly, “And he was just born.”

The little girl chokes up and lowers her head, talking no more.

This truth is a little different from what Tang Mo had thought. Originally, he thought that the little girl had killed someone by accident, most likely her parents. Because she’s so young and naive, she wouldn’t have felt too much guilt and could have lied easily. But the truth was, the little girl killed someone on purpose, her own child nonetheless. She hated that child, hated him to death, so even if she was exposed, she did not regret it and didn’t react at all.

The chef rubs his hands together excitedly. “So we found the stowaway, right? We don’t have to die anymore, right? The mole wants her, not us.”

These words are a bit harsh. Li Bin furrows his eyebrows. “Yes, she’s already admitted that she’s the stowaway.”

Tang Mo: “What’s your ability?” Stowaways and official players both have abilities. Even when the little girl was about to be eaten by the mole, she didn’t show her ability. Tang Mo thinks for a while. “Does it have anything to do with that flashlight?”

The little girl wipes her face. “You want to know my ability?”

Not only Tang Mo, but Luo Fengcheng says as well, “It probably has something to do with the flashlight.”

The little girl clenches her fists, suddenly letting out a creepy laugh. “Yeah, I am the stowaway. You’re going to give me to that mole. Mama’s dead, Baba’s[2] dead, I’m about to die too… you’ll all die with me!”

In an instant, a giant match appears in the little girl’s hand.

Maybe it’s because she’s just given birth, because even if she does have an ability and her physical abilities are greatly enhanced, the girl is still weak. The match is as big as half her body. When she rushes towards the crowd with the match, she first goes to the gloating chef who wanted her to die.

“I’ll kill you! If I die, no one else can live either!”

Everyone has seen the power of the big match.

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Everyone’s shocked at seeing the little girl bring the match out of thin air, especially Tang Mo. This match looks exactly the same as Tang Mo’s match. If it really is the same, then it’s something that could make the big mole stagger, and they won’t be able to defend themselves at all.

The chef doesn’t know how powerful the match is because he was knocked out at the time. When he sees the little girl charge at him, his first instinct is to catch the match in one hand and punch her in the stomach with the other hand. But before he can even touch the little girl, the match comes crashing down on his head with a boom.

“Bang——”

The chef’s head is smashed in. Blood spurts everywhere.

It’s an unbelievably familiar scene. Tang Mo used a similar tactic to accidentally kill Qian Sankun.

But the chef doesn’t die on the spot. He collapses in agony, blood running down his face and body twitching. The girl swings the match again, but a large shadow suddenly bounds over, snatching the match out of her hands.

The mole grabs tightly onto the match with its claws, unable to hide its excitement. “Pixels’ match? Delicious turkey? Ah, Black Tower, why are you so good to me today, giving me another…”

“Crack——”

The mole’s claws tighten, and before it finishes speaking, the match breaks in half, the tip falling to the floor.

The mole freezes in place, blinking its small eyes, dazedly looking at the broken pieces of the match like a comical scene from a last-century cartoon.

“No! How can Pixels’ match be broken so easily! This isn’t Pixels’ match! You lied to me!”

Violence flashes through the mole’s eyes as it turns to look at the little girl. Her face is pale as she shakily steps back. The mole screeches and, fast as lightning, slams its claws down on the little girl’s head. Brain matter splatters everywhere as it lowers its huge head and bites down on her face, tearing off a bloody chunk of meat.

“Ahh!”

The college student turns pale. She collapses on the floor and refuses to look.

The chef lies in a pool of his own blood, life and death unknown.

Li Wen and Li Bin can’t stand this bloody sight, either, and also turn away.

Tang Mo, on the other hand, doesn’t have such qualms, but he still turns his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luo Fengcheng watching the scene unblinkingly. His eyebrows are tightly furrowed and he seems to be pondering something.

The heavy smell of blood permeates the air. When the sound of chewing stops, Tang Mo turns around. Pools of thick blood lie on the floor, and there are also a few bones, stained bright red. The mole uses one of the girl’s ribs as a toothpick, picking its teeth as it looks darkly at the rest of the people.

Li Wen, Lin Qiao, and Li Bin vomit on the side.

Tang Mo manages not to vomit and walks over to the chef to check his breathing. After a while, he turns his head. “He’s dead.”

Li Wen and company’s faces change.

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Who knew that the chef would be killed by a blow from a giant match from a little girl?

The mole says in disdain, “This fake match isn’t good at all. If it was the real thing, he would have died the instant he was hit. That swindler’s thing was only 20% of the real deal, but her ability’s pretty interesting. She can copy anything she saw within the past 24 hours, limited to twice a day. What a pity that the ability level’s too low and she can only copy useless small things. She couldn’t copy Pixels’ match for real.”

Tang Mo says, “You know her ability?”

The mole says as if it’s obvious, “I already ate her, of course the Black Tower told me her ability. That stinky stowaway, it would have been great if she could really copy Pixels’ match, then maybe I wouldn’t have eaten her. I would have made her copy matches all day!”

Luo Fengcheng says, “So it was like this. That explains the flashlight. The first thing she thought after falling into a dark place would be light. Conveniently, she saw a flashlight within the past 24 hours, so she copied one.”

Tang Mo nods approvingly.

He suspected the little girl from the very beginning.

They got pulled into the tower game during the day. Why would a little girl have a flashlight on her during the day? Even if she really grabbed it before the game started and brought it into the game, she fell such a long way while being bumped along. Even Tang Mo was disoriented after the fall, and a little girl really held onto a flashlight for the entire time without losing it?

That’s not realistic.

“Ding dong! Completed side mission two: ‘Find that damned stowaway’!”

When the clear childlike voice starts up, Tang Mo feels for some reason that it’s slightly happier than before. Is it because a stowaway died?

At this moment, Tang Mo doesn’t feel particularly happy about winning. He looks calmly at the two pools of blood on the ground. The chef’s body is still lying there, probably stiff and cold now, and all that’s left of the little girl is a few bones. The mole picks up another one of her ribs to pick at the other side of his teeth.

In the cave, Li Wen and Lin Qiao are still vomiting.

Tang Mo looks silently at the pools of blood, then says, “You said that Pixels’ match is powerful. How powerful is it really?”

The mole squeaks in laughter. “Of course, it’s hard and rigid, and most importantly, it can roast a very delicious turkey… uh…” Having just eaten a turkey and then a stowaway, the mole’s clearly in a good mood. It rubs its head. “Oh right, it was mean of me to just take your match. How about this… I’ll give you a turkey egg, okay?”

The mole starts to dig. It makes a huge hole in just two or three moves, revealing countless white turkey eggs.

“You humans can’t hatch any turkeys from these eggs, but they’re delicious to eat too. I’ll bear with this pain…” The mole picks an ordinary white egg from the pile, closes its eyes, and hands it reluctantly to Tang Mo. “Here, go eat this egg, and don’t say I’m stingy. I, Mr. Mole, am the kindest and cutest little animal in the Underground City.”

Tang Mo: “...”

“Ding dong! Received side mission one reward: Giant Turkey Egg!”

As he takes the white turkey egg, Tang Mo notices that the mole’s fur is shinier, and it seems to be a bit bigger too.

Does eating stowaways really increase its power?

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But there also seems to be a cloud of black fog next to the mole’s head. When Tang Mo goes to look more closely, the fog isn’t there anymore. Maybe he saw wrong.

Li Wen says, “Ah, do we get turkey eggs too? We also helped you roast… er, we helped you find the stowaway, right? Do we get rewards too?”

The mole looks disgustedly at Li Wen, then smiles sinisterly. “Reward? Of course.”

The mole turns around, sticks its butt in the air, and with a boom, farts loudly and stinkily.

“Reward, my ass!”[3]

Everyone: “...”

Tang Mo, unintentionally dragged along: “...”

Notes

[1]

If you're still confused, this is what they mean: Even though it's not clear who's the stowaway and who's not, the fact that the little girl said 'I'm not the stowaway either' means that she knows for sure at least one person before her (likely the chef, since he was right before her) was innocent and definitely not the stowaway. However, since it's not clear who is or is not the stowaway, how could she have known for sure that the chef was innocent? The only explanation is that she herself is the stowaway.

[2]	Baba (爸爸) = dad. Likewise, Mama (妈妈) = mom. I chose to keep the phonetics instead of translating to mom and dad because, idk, I try to preserve things like this.

[3]	The mole says "奖励个屁！" which roughly implies 'you wish you had a reward' or 'why would I reward you anything?' but literally, it means 'I'll reward you a fart'. So I chose to translate it as a phrase that has the same connotation in English (aka 'XX, my ass!').

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