The entire world:

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At this moment, all of humanity stops what they’re doing and looks toward the closest tower.

Never before have they thought that this tower was so big. Regardless of how far away the tower is, they can clearly see many small spots of blue light appearing on the surface of the tower. The light-spots flash and spin, forming groups of symbols like those on the frozen screen of an old computer. They rapidly slide across the tower, finally forming a line of blue words in the middle--

“Ding-dong! Players, within three days, please eliminate another player using methods including but not limited to games,” the clear child-like voice says at the same time.

Tang Mo stands on the balcony, looking at the tower without blinking. The cold autumn wind slices across his face, yet a drop of sweat slides down from his forehead. He glares daggers at the black tower, but it’s already resumed its peaceful state—no blue text, no child-like voice—as if it was the same as always.

Half an hour later, Tang Mo arrives at the entrance of the library. There is a sea of people near the tower, and the roads nearby are all blocked; there are even crowds in front of the library.

The chaos has all but blocked Downtown. Tang Mo takes in the sight for a long time before entering the library.

Ten minutes later, Director Wang approaches the customer service desk. “Go home, there’s no work today. Wait for an announcement at home.”

Xiao Zhao excitedly comes over. She can’t help but ask, “Director, does this have to do with the Black Tower? This morning it made a sound, did you hear it? What’s going on? Where did this thing come from? It’s not the end of the world, is it?”

Director Wang immediately becomes stern. “What end of the world? What are you talking about? You young people, don’t go around reading and saying useless things.”

Xiao Zhao, born in 1996, is the youngest employee in the library. Her round eyes betray a sliver of fear, but it’s clear that she’s more excited and curious. As soon as Director Wang leaves, she says, “Tang Mo, you heard it too, right? The Black Tower said something about going online, and something about elimination.”

Tang Mo is packing his things to go home. A wave of annoyance washes over him and he replies noncommittally, “I didn’t pay attention.”

“Do you think it’s really the end of the world? I don’t think so because if it’s really an apocalypse, where are the zombies? The tower said that it would eliminate players, though, so maybe it’ll turn us into zombies? Is this some kind of plot by the government… no, that’s not right, the internet said that the towers showed up all over the world, and all of them talked today. There can’t be any country that can do this, not even America, right?”

Tang Mo really isn’t in the mood to discuss this kind of thing. He doesn’t know why, but after reading the text on the tower and hearing it talk, his heartbeat has been much faster than usual.

A normal adult heartbeat should be between 60 and 100 beats per minute, but Tang Mo counted his when Xiao Zhao was talking just now.

His heartbeat is at 130 beats per minute[1].

But he doesn’t feel uncomfortable, just anxious, like something’s not right.

Tang Mo looks around. The customer service desk is right in the middle of the reading room, and there are bookshelves all around. To the left are humanities books, and to the left are history books. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for. Outside his line of vision, sunlight streams in from the windows, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air.

“Tang Mo!” A loud voice snaps Tang Mo out of his thoughts[2]. Xiao Zhao sounds slightly angry. “I called you so many times! What’s wrong with you? What are you even thinking about, and why aren’t you talking?”

Tang Mo wipes at his face. His palm is damp with sweat, and he turns to look at his coworker. “…I’m fine.”

His heart beats even faster now.

Xiao Zhao picks up her bag. “I want to check out the tower. Do you want to go with me? When I came, I saw a bunch of people gathering there. Since we’re close anyway, do you wanna go?”

Tang Mo quickly shakes his head. “I’m going home.”

Xiao Zhao seems to be unhappy with his attitude, so she waves and leaves alone.

But she probably didn’t get to look at the Black Tower anyway. When Tang Mo leaves the library, the armed police are already dispersing the crowds, surrounding the tower with white plastic boards. The wall of boards even extends to the library, firmly sealing off access to the tower.

Many people stand outside the wall taking pictures.

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Tang Mo also takes a picture and boards a taxi home.

On the internet, the ‘Black Tower Incident’ has already become the hottest topic of discussion.

Tang Mo lies on his bed, scrolling through his phone. His friends studying in Japan and America have posted pictures too, and the towers in the pictures show the same text that he saw this morning, except in Japanese and English.

Tang Mo doesn’t know how to use a VPN to look up the news in other countries[3], but he can see his friend’s replies to other people.

[Right, it wasn’t Chinese, but English! I was terrified, and our school even cancelled classes. Now there’s a bunch of people protesting in front of the White House, demanding answers from the government.]

[Ugh, it’s so hard to buy plane tickets right now, I don’t even stand a chance. My rich roommate got a flight, though. He’s going back to China this afternoon.]

[When the tower spoke, it was still night here. Yeah, it played a song too! My friend took a video, I’ll post it.]

Tang Mo opens the video. A familiar tower floats beside the Lincoln Memorial, flashing rainbow colors in the dark night. The song playing isn’t Jingle Bells, but it’s clearly also a children’s song. When the song ends, the same child-like voice says in English--

[Ding dong! November 15th, 2017, the Earth is online.]

What the heck is going on!

Frustrated, Tang Mo throws his phone down on the bed.

There’s no official information from the government about the towers, but there are too many of these towers around the world, and no government could hide the news even if they wanted to. People on the internet have long-since collected and analyzed the data—there is approximately one tower per 10,000 square kilometers.

This rule holds even for the ocean[4].

Tang Mo stands up, impatiently pacing back and forth in his room. He can’t calm down; his heart feels like it’s going to jump right out of his chest. When he reaches his 160th back-and-forth, Tang Mo stops abruptly.

…This isn’t like him!

Why is he suddenly so frustrated and uneasy?

Disregarding the possibility of getting sick, Tang Mo goes to the bathroom, sticks his head under the faucet, and turns on the cold water. The water pours over his head and he feels a little bit better[5]. After getting a glass of cold water, Tang Mo goes back to his room, turns on his computer, and starts a bridge game.

He needs to calm down.

This kind of sudden frustration is totally out of his control.

Maybe it’s because his heart is beating too quickly and affecting his thoughts? It should be about 150 beats per minute now.

Tang Mo looks coldly at his computer. There are very few people online, probably because of what’s been happening. He has to wait ten minutes to get paired up with another player, but once the game starts, his brain works quickly and he calms down a bit. His heartbeat seems to slow down as well.

He plays for the entire day, until he’s so tired that he passes out.

The next morning, the unignorable frustration is back. Tang Mo opens up his bridge game and continues to play. Like this, he plays for an entire day again. He looks like a mess, his eyes are bloodshot, and he’s so tired he could fall asleep by just closing his eyes.

A QQ notification breaks the silence.

[Victor: You played an entire day?]

Tang Mo rubs at his dry eyes and replies: [Mmh, I was uncomfortable.]

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[Victor: Of course you’d be uncomfortable, playing for so long. Get some rest soon.]

[Mo Tang: Yeah.]

[Victor: Stay away from the tower.]

Tang Mo’s already asleep in front of his computer.

When he wakes up the next day, he quickly replies to Victor[6], but Victor’s already offline. Tang Mo stretches; he feels so much better. His heartbeat is still unusually fast, but the weird frustration has vanished entirely.

The internet is still discussing the ‘Black Tower Incident’.

The government hasn’t given an explanation, but they’ve suppressed many public rumors. A lot of netizens have taken to discussing the matter privately, but their discussions aren’t too useful anyway, since sensitive phrases have been banned.

Tang Mo clicks on a few analysis posts. The majority of people agree that the Black Towers are the result of some super-advanced technological research, but there’s also some people who think that they signify the apocalypse. It’s clear that these people are joking, though, so the moderators allow them to spew their nonsense in the forums.

In the afternoon, Director Wang sends an announcement in the librarian group chat.

[Director Wang: Emergency announcement! From the day after tomorrow, the library will become a temporary research center. If you have any personal items that you need to collect from the library, collect them today and tomorrow. I repeat, from the day after tomorrow, the library will…]

The chat explodes.

A few of the senior librarians are worried about where they’ll be working now that the library’s being used as a research space, but some of the younger employees joke: [The world is ending, who needs to work anymore?]

Tang Mo looks at the tower in the distance, picks up his bag, and boards the bus to the library.

He has to say, China has done very well in maintaining social stability in light of the situation, with exceptions like the library, which is just too close to the tower to continue operating. Other than these exceptions, all other public businesses are operating like normal.

But when he swipes his bus card, Tang Mo notices a completely-full ashtray beside the driver, who’s smoking at the moment too.

A middle-aged woman complains, “Driver, why are you smoking? Isn’t this a smoke-free bus?”

“Fucking pissed, don't even want to drive without a smoke. You wanna drive instead?”

“Hey, what the fuck? ‘No smoking’ is a rule that your company set, isn’t it? You shouldn’t be smoking, why are you arguing with me?”

Before the driver and woman can fight any more, two college-aged girls beside Tang Mo quickly try to calm them down. It’s difficult, but they manage to succeed. Returning to their seats, one of them says, “It’s the third day already, isn’t it?”

“Oh, that? Yeah, it really is.”

The girl’s attention is trained on her phone. “What does it mean by eliminating players? And not limited to game methods. It’s been three days and nothing’s happened. What counts as a game? Rock paper scissors?”

“Haha, wanna try?”

“Rock paper scissors, shoot!”

“Aww, I lost. Does that mean you eliminated me?”

The girls look at each other and start laughing.

Those who have the emotional capability to ride the bus and continue on with their lives are the people who don’t really care about the towers. When Tang Mo arrives at the library, he sees thousands of people standing on the streets holding signs, facing off against the armed police. These are the people who really care about the tower situation; they are also the people who believe that the Black Towers will bring the apocalypse.

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Tang Mo enters the library from the back door. It seems like he’s the only one who’s in a hurry to collect his personal belongings, because there’s no one else in the library. The protestors’ voices echo in the empty library and on the streets as Tang Mo finds his locker and takes out his books.

He’s about to leave when he hears a muffled sound in the southeast corner.

Tang Mo stops[7]. A brief moment later, he takes out a black police baton from the security guard’s locker and tiptoes toward the corner.
​
“Who’s there?”

No response.

He can faintly hear someone picking up books and stuffing them back onto the shelves. In their haste, they drop another book.

Tang Mo walks to a bookshelf in the corner, turns abruptly, and yells, “Who’s there!”

A plain-looking man with messy hair looks at Tang Mo panickedly, still holding a book in his hand.

Tang Mo loosens his grip on the police baton. “Weirdo… I mean, Mr. Chen?” he exclaims in surprise. “Why are you here?”

Weirdo looks at Tang Mo, movements stiff. He laughs dryly and puts the book back onto its shelf.

Tang Mo furrows his eyebrows. “How did you get in?”

“There was an open window on the east side… I just came to see, to see…”

Tang Mo searches in his memory. There is, in fact, a window on the east side of the library, but it’s at ground-level and connects to the basement, used mostly for ventilation purposes. How did Weirdo get in? He can’t have actually come in through a window?

Tang Mo: “Mr. Chen, your actions make us deeply conflicted. This is technically theft.”

“I haven’t stolen anything!” Weirdo quickly explains.

Tang Mo looks him up and down. Then, still tightly holding onto the police baton, he walks over and inspects the bookshelf in front of Weirdo.

It’s true, the number of books on the shelf is exactly the same as when he left three days ago.

“So what did you want to do…”

“Ding-dong! Confrontation game ‘So Who Really Stole My Book’ has been activated. November 17th, 2017, 17:52, players Tang Mo, Chen Fangzhi have safely entered the game. Players have entered the sandbox, map creation and data loading complete…”

In an instant, the cries of protest outside the library vanish without a trace.

In the empty library, an eerie child-like voice appears out of nowhere, singing a lullaby that no one has ever heard before.
​
“La la la, la la la
One long stick to hit gently,
Two players to play house,
Three days and three nights of silence,
Angel and demon both want it.
Shh… so who really stole my book?"

Notes

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[1]

For reference, a heartbeat of 130bpm is what you'd get if you were exercising pretty intensely (ref here). It is the fat-burning heart rate of a 35 year-old woman (here) which means that while it might not burn fat for Tang Mo (a 23 year-old man), it's still weird because he hasn't done anything to warrant such a fast heartbeat.

[2]	Original text: 'A clear woman's voice snaps Tang Mo out of his absentminded/low-spirited state'

[3]	The original text only had 'Tang Mo doesn't know how to use a VPN', but that didn't give enough context for either you or me, so I had to guess what he wanted to use a VPN for.

[4]	Original text: 'Even on the ocean, there are countless black towers.'

[5]	Here I said Tang Mo 'feels a bit better', but the original text said his 'feelings were calmed a bit', i.e. 'calmed down'. I used 'calm down' two sentences later, so I decided to go for less redundancy here.

[6]	Original text: 'When he wakes up the next morning, he sees Victor's message and quickly replies[...]'. I chose to delete the 'he sees the message' part because it's implied that he's seen it lol.

[7]	Original: 'Tang Mo stops his footsteps and looks toward there.'

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