The young man’s expression is extremely earnest. He doesn’t walk any closer, only stands two meters away, a safe distance away from Tang Mo and company. As if he’s afraid they’ll misunderstand, he quickly explains, “I mean, these four bodies look like they died by each other’s hand. Their bodies fit the characteristics of Dungeon 2, and the entrance is nearby and you all appeared here right now, so I wanted to ask if you just came from that dungeon?”
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He seems to be worried about whether these people are humans or Black Tower creatures.
The beer-bellied man is so beat up that he can only lie on the ground silently.
The old man nods. “Yes, we did come from a dungeon game, but we don’t know what you mean by Dungeon 2.”
The man tentatively asks, “So these four people died in the dungeon, and then… you survived?” He points to the four bodies on the ground.
Old man: “Yes, only we three made it out.”
The young man’s eyes slowly widen. Quickly, he takes out a silver whistle from his pocket and blows it forcefully. Not even a minute later, a man and woman hurry over from afar. When they see the four bodies on the ground, they react the same way as their companion. Then they see Tang Mo and company standing beside the bodies.
The young woman exclaims in shock, “They can’t be…”
“Yes. They just came out of Dungeon 2. They cleared Dungeon 2.”
In sync, the three turn their heads to look at the beer-bellied man, the old man, and Tang Mo.
The young man who blew the whistle takes a step forward. Tang Mo subtly puts his right hand on his match tattoo. “My name is Nie Fei, and these are my companions, Tang Qiao and Ye Yuanze. We heard that some bodies suddenly appeared near this community, so we came to see if there was an entrance to Dungeon 2.”
“What’s Dungeon 2?” the beer-bellied man can’t help but ask.
Nie Fei explains patiently, “This is the codename we gave to the game that you just played. We’re part of a group of ability-users. There aren’t a lot of us, only 17, but we’re all elites and only recruit ability-users of a certain level. After the Black Tower game officially began, we found seven dungeons. Of those, the one that you just experienced was the second.”
The young woman nods and continues, “Yes. The game only started four days ago, so maybe you haven’t noticed, but the Black Tower doesn’t only have the tower-attack game. There are also dungeon games like Dungeon 2. The methods of activation for these dungeons are very odd. Anything could activate it. For instance, the seventh entrance of Dungeon 2 is in a very unassuming shop on the side of the road. If you take anything from that shop, it’ll activate the game.”
Tang Mo begins to think.
He doesn’t doubt these people’s stories, nor does he suspect that they’re lying. They don’t have a reason to lie, nor to make up an organization that doesn’t exist. The two groups met only by chance, and Tang Mo’s group hasn’t revealed any information, yet the other group has already said many things that Tang Mo hasn’t heard of before.
In this world, information is much more valuable than gold.
If Dungeon 2 was Mario’s Monopoly Game, then one of its entrances being in a small shop isn’t too weird. After all, Tang Mo and company entered the game by touching a parterre on the side of the road.
Tang Mo stands behind the old man and the beer-bellied man, five meters away from those other three.
The old man asks, “So what’s your goal in telling us these things? Do you want something from us?”
The three exchange a glance. “We want to invite you to our headquarters to explain what happened in Dungeon 2 in more detail. The most defining characteristic of Dungeon 2 is that there must be around five to seven bodies beside the entrances, and they will all bear marks of having died by their companions’ hands. After discovering Dungeon 2, we’ve found a total of 391 bodies, but no survivors. You are the only players to win Dungeon 2.”
The old man furrows his eyebrows. “If we tell you, what will we get in return?”
That was what Tang Mo wanted to ask as well. Tang Mo isn’t interested in joining any ability-groups at all. He doesn’t want to casually join any organization. In this world, joining a small team that works well together can greatly improve the chances of survival, but seventeen ability-users is too many people. They’d be targeted and it’d be even more dangerous.
Nie Fei: “To be able to clear Dungeon 2, you must all have excellent qualities. If everything goes well, we’ll invite you to join our group.”
So it was this kind of favor.
Tang Mo casually throws the beer-bellied man’s jacket in the trash and turns to leave.
Nie Fei looks weirdly at Tang Mo but doesn’t stop him. All three players know what happened in Dungeon 2, so as long as one person is willing to go to HQ, they’ll learn the truth. One or two players leaving is okay.
The old man says, “I’m not an ability-user, so I won’t be able to join your organization.” This kind of reward isn’t appealing to him at all.
Nie Fei thinks for a while. “How about this? It’s okay if you don’t join us because our organization has a certain level-cap as well and not every ability-user can join. We can exchange information. You tell us about Dungeon 2, and we’ll provide you information of the same value.”
Tang Mo stops. He turns and slowly walks back, stopping beside the beer-bellied man.
The beer-bellied man says in fear, “Didn’t you leave? Why’d you come back?”
Tang Mo glances at him. “Can’t I take a walk?” he says coolly.
“Yes… yes…” The beer-bellied man doesn’t even dare speak.
Nie Fei and company look to Tang Mo and immediately realize: Perhaps this person is the most important player here.
The ability-user-group’s HQ is right in Pudong. After walking for about half an hour, they reach a mall. The beer-bellied man’s right leg was broken by Tang Mo, so he can only walk at the end of the line, limping as he tries to keep up. On the way, the old man originally thought that these three people would introduce their group, but none of them speak, only silently leading the way.
This mall is situated between a few communities and made up of five connected buildings, taking up a large amount of land. Beside it, there are only residential buildings. There are many people gathered around the mall, continually going in and out. After seeing strangers approach, many of the crowdgoers look towards them, but they quickly look away after seeing Nie Fei and company.
There are supermarkets, clothing stores, and various types of appliance stores in these kinds of big malls. After the Earth went online, all labor stopped, and in order to survive for the time being, players had to find a place to stay. Home is no longer the best place to live; malls and supermarkets are the most suitable places to survive. That’s why there are many players around these kinds of places.
Nie Fei’s organization HQ is in the fifth building of the mall, in the very back. On the way, they bump into fewer and fewer players. When they pass a supermarket, a tall, buff, foreign man walks out, asking in broken Chinese, “Nie Fei, who are they? Why did you bring them to HQ?”
Nie Fei says, “Jacks, they are the winners of Dungeon 2.”
The foreign man’s expression suddenly becomes very amazed. His eyes open wide and he looks all three players up and down. When he looks at Tang Mo, Tang Mo also looks at him.
This buff foreign man is about two meters tall, all muscle and tendon. Just one of his arms is as thick as a normal woman’s waist.
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Some ability-users are hidden very well and can’t be easily detected, like Tang Mo. Before he takes out his big match, no one would realize that he’s an ability-user or think that he’s dangerous. But other ability-users are clearly dangerous, like this buff man. Tang Mo has no doubt that he can single-handedly lift him into the hair and toss him ten meters away.
The buff foreign man called Jacks is a bit more talkative than Nie Fei and company. He leads them to a door, down the stairs, and into the underground parking garage of the mall. He says, “Nie Fei, you must tell me how they cleared Dungeon 2. I can’t even clear the S3 dungeon, and yet there are humans who cleared Dungeon 2.”
Nie Fei says, “I’ll tell you after I see Professor Luo.”
“Okay, but don’t forget to tell me. Maybe I can get inspiration from them and then finally beat that huge earthworm in the Dungeon S3!”
The buff man only accompanies them to the first level of the parking garage, then goes back to guard the door. Tang Qiao and Ye Yuanze leave as well, and Nie Fei brings Tang Mo and company to the second basement level. He pushes open the door to a lit-up room and walks in.
“Professor Luo, I’ve brought the three players who cleared Dungeon 2. Maybe you can get some information about the Black Tower from them.”
Underneath the bright light, a young man wearing a white lab coat takes off his glasses and smiles at Tang Mo.
For an instant, Tang Mo is shocked. Then he nods. “Luo Fengcheng.”
Nie Fei asks curiously, “Professor Luo, you know each other?”
Luo Fengcheng stands and walks to stand beside Tang Mo, then turns to look at his companion. “It seems like you never asked his name. Nie Fei, this is Tang Mo, the official player who survived with me on the 19th on the first floor of the Black Tower.”
Nie Fei finally understands. “So you’re Tang Mo!”
Tang Mo doesn’t say anything.
Luo Fengcheng warmly extends his hand, and Tang Mo shakes it. Seeing the bright smile on Luo Fengcheng’s face, as if he’s just met an old friend, Tang Mo raises his eyebrows and waits for his next words.
“If I’ve guessed right, you were the one who cleared Dungeon 2,” Luo Fengcheng concludes, letting go of Tang Mo’s hand. “You are definitely able to clear that dungeon. Okay, Nie Fei, please take our guests to another room. This friend seems to have injured his leg in the dungeon. Go to the pharmacy on the second floor to treat his wounds.”
Nie Fei nods.
The beer-bellied man’s suspicious gaze darts between Tang Mo and Nie Fengcheng. Finally, he grits his teeth and leaves the room with Nie Fei, dragging his broken leg behind him.
Now, there’s only Tang Mo and Luo Fengcheng left.
“You don’t need to look at me like that.” Luo Fengcheng sits down and indicates for Tang Mo to do the same. “Even though we’re not friends, we were teammates who experienced life and death together.” After a pause, he adds, “I won’t cheat you. Relax.”
Tang Mo sits down and puts his bag on the ground, then raises his head to look at Luo Fengcheng. “I thought only ability-users could join this group. Are they also national researchers?”
Luo Fengcheng: “You mean Nie Fei and Tang Qiao? No. After the game officially started, the only researcher left in Shanghai was myself. The supervisors also all disappeared. Nie Fei was a senior in university, and Tang Qiao was a dance student. Not only ability-users, but those who are very powerful and gain the approval of all our members can also join our organization. Right, do you know the method to log into the Black Tower?”
Tang Mo wasn’t planning on hiding it. “Official players had to win a Black Tower game within those three days, stowaways needed to kill someone, and as for reserve players, they needed to win some other game,” he says vaguely.
“Pretty much.” Luo Fengcheng pours a cup of water for Tang Mo. “We’ll refer to those three days as the ‘Candidacy Days’. In those three days, reserve players needed to eliminate a player, including but not limited to game methods. In the first way, as long as the opponent admits that they were eliminated, then the reserve player is successful.”
Tang Mo’s breath hitches. He realizes what Luo Fengcheng is going to say next.
Luo Fengcheng smiles. “In the second way, the game that the reserve player participated in must have been difficult enough to earn the approval of the Black Tower, or there was a special action taken during the game that the Black Tower approved of. Then, the player will become a reserve player. There are 52 official players and 823 reserve players in this mall. It’s very easy to gain this sort of information for me.”
Tang Mo says calmly, “If I join you, I can also get this information, right?”
Luo Fengcheng nods. “Yes.”
They do not speak, only looking at each other.
After a long time, Tang Mo opens his mouth. “Information exchange. You tell me what a dungeon, Dungeon 2, and Dungeon S3 are, and I’ll tell you what’s in Dungeon 2.”
“Deal.”
Luo Fengcheng had already told Tang Mo some information about reserve players. Though Tang Mo already knew some of this information, the other person had expressed his sincerity, so Tang Mo doesn’t hold back either. “Dungeon 2 is called Mario’s Monopoly Game. The boss is Mario. He’s even stronger than the big mole we saw in the underground cave.”
Luo Fengcheng listens attentively.
“This Monopoly game has 150 squares, including 30 reward squares…”
Tang Mo recounts the game simply. When he says that the ‘Who wants to share your ups and downs’ effect will activate after the fifth round, Luo Fengcheng’s eyebrows furrow. “So those people died from this.”
Admittedly, most players who died in Mario’s Monopoly Game died by their own companions’ hands. Disregarding whether or not they’ll have a chance to reach the end and die by the six consecutive criminal squares, just by the normal probability of die-tossing, there are at least 6 players within every 8 who won’t make it past 100 before activating ‘Who wants to share your ups and downs,’ where at least one player will die.
After Tang Mo explains the method by which he won, Luo Fengcheng nods lightly. “You have very good luck,” he says, seemingly-casual.
The possibility of the first square being a criminal square is much too large, and Tang Mo bet correctly. Isn’t this luck?
Tang Mo says coolly, “Luck is also a type of strength.”
Luo Fengcheng glances at him.
Tang Mo: “I’m done. It’s your turn now.”
Luo Fengcheng: “Our ability-group is called Attack. I joined this group by chance on the 19th, after I left the first floor of the tower. The Earth went online on the 15th, and eleven members of Attack went into a Black Tower game, receiving the status of official player. At the time, they didn’t know they were official players. They wanted to tell other people about their experience but found that they could not speak of this to anyone, so some of them decided to post a hidden message in a local forum to find companions. After three days, they found eleven companions. When the game officially started, Attack was formed.”
Tang Mo repeats the word. “Attack[1]. Attack the tower?”
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Luo Fengcheng nods. “After the game officially started on the 18th, Attack found the first dungeon, denoted S1. As of now, we have found six S dungeons and three other dungeons. The Mario’s Monopoly Game that you just went through just now was one of the others, specifically number 2.”
“What’s the difference between S dungeons and other dungeons?”
“S is safe. The six S dungeons are relatively safe for normal players. Even if they can’t clear the level, there are ways to leave safely.” Luo Fengcheng opens a drawer and takes out a folder, handing it to Tang Mo. “The other three dungeons, denoted 1, 2, and 3, are ordered in terms of difficulty. As of now, we have not found any survivors. Oh right, Dungeon 2 has closed. When the dungeon is cleared, it will automatically close, and you’ve just cleared Dungeon 2.”
Tang Mo takes the folder. On the first page—
[Dungeon Type: Other]
[Number: 1]
[Known Deaths: 623]
[Known Entrances: 42]
[Dungeon Characteristics: Death by beast devouring chest, heart vanished; 6-10 bodies appear next to entrance]
[Conclusion: Dungeon 1 plays in teams of 10, no obvious information, highly dangerous, should not be entered]
Then the second page—
[Dungeon Type: Other]
[Number: 2]
[Known Deaths: 391]
[Known Entrances: 30]
[Dungeon Characteristics: Clear signs of death by other players’ hands; 5-7 bodies appear next to entrance]
[Conclusion: Dungeon 2 plays in teams of less than 10, very likely to be team confrontation game, highly dangerous, should not be entered]
The third page—
[Dungeon Type: Other]
[Number: 3]
[Known Deaths: 156]
[Known Entrances: 19]
[Dungeon Characteristics: Death by asphyxiation; 3-5 bodies appear next to entrance]
[Conclusion: Dungeon 3 is likely to be extreme survival, dangerous, should not be entered]
After the three documents, there’s also a detailed map of Pudong District, with black pen marks labelling certain places. Tang Mo glances at it, quickly remembering the entrances to Dungeons 1 and 3, and returns the folder.
Tang Mo: “You said that Dungeon 2 closed after it was cleared. Since it’s closed, the information that I gave you wasn’t worth the information you gave me.”
Luo Fengcheng puts the folder away. “Since you could clear Dungeon 2, Dungeons 1 and 3 aren’t too threatening to you.”
Tang Mo saw all the information and entrances to the dangerous dungeons at once. This kind of information is much too valuable.
Tang Mo looks at him steadily. After a while, he says, “Your organization wants to attack the tower this badly?”
“The best defense is offense.” Luo Fengcheng smiles. “Originally, this organization was called Exist and simply wanted to survive. Three days ago, Fu Wenduo opened the Black Tower, pulling all Chinese players in, and two of the original Exist members died on the first floor. Only by becoming strong do we have a better chance of surviving.”
Offense is the best defense.
Tang Mo doesn’t oppose this point of view.
Dungeon 2 has closed after being cleared. It’s obvious that everyone in this organization knows, but Nie Fei’s group still wanted to get information from Tang Mo, unhesitatingly using their own information as an exchange.
They have two motives for this. First, they want to understand the method of clearing the dungeon. Maybe they’ll be able to take inspiration from it to clear other dungeons. Second, they want to use Dungeon 2’s difficulty and content as a reference to estimate those of Dungeons 1 and 3 and possibly even more dangerous dungeons in the future.
Tang Mo received the red jewel from Mario, as well as the beer-bellied man’s ability. His strength has risen again. Undoubtedly, the other dungeons also have rewards. The best way to improve is to clear dungeons.
Understanding Dungeon 2 will help to clear more dungeons.
Attack is a fairly radical organization. If Tang Mo was in the organization, he would surely gain a lot of information, but he would also be in much more danger. Attack won’t avoid risks but instead meet them head-on, finding ways to become stronger in dangerous dungeons and games.
Tang Mo is silent for a while. “I’ll consider whether or not to join.”
Luo Fengcheng: “Okay.”
Tang Mo leaves the room and finds an abandoned shop on the top floor of the mall. He locks the door, puts some clothes on the ground, and prepares to rest.
He lies down behind the cash register, the large wooden cabinet blocking him from view. Tang Mo closely listens to the sounds around him, gaze sweeping over the shop, and sees the security camera in the corner. He takes out a coin from the cash register, flicks his wrist, and with a swoosh, the coin cleanly cuts the wires of the camera.
Even if the cameras no longer work, he can never be too careful.
Tang Mo flips over, reaching into his backpack. Using the backpack as a guise, he takes out his ability book. From every angle, it looks like this book was originally in the bag and not taken out from the air. After he takes it out, Tang Mo flips to the last page.
[Ability: Fierce as a tiger[2]]
[Owner: Liu Feihao (official player)]
[Type: Atomic]
[Function: Expel strong wind from mouth for three minutes, with wind speeds as high as 10[3]]
[Level: 2]
[Restrictions: During the same use, can only choose to gently or strongly expel winds; cooldown of 10 minutes]
[Notes: Fierce as a tiger? Liu Feihao: Meow~!]
[Tang Mo’s version: Can only expel strong storms lasting for one minute, with wind speeds as high as 8, and can only be used twice per day. Whether or not an ability is hard on the eyes depends on the owner. Don’t you think Tang Mo looks like Hello Kitty?]
Tang Mo gives the ability book an unamused Hello Kitty face.
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Lying on the cold floor, Tang Mo flips to the first page and reads the entire book over.
Other than ‘Take and Take Without Giving Money,’ Tang Mo now has six abilities. The first one is a storage ability, and Tang Mo’s already using it on the big match, so it doesn’t count. The second one is Li Bin’s cursing ability. Tang Mo uses this one the most. Even though it might not work all the time, it has no problem annoying his opponents.
Tang Mo doesn’t really use the third player-identifying ability. The next one, Chen Shanshan’s ability, is unperceivable. Tang Mo has never felt it work, but it’s clear that it’s in use.
The only two offensive abilities he has are the fire-breathing man’s ‘Give back my grandpa’ and the beer-bellied man’s ‘Fierce as a tiger’.
Tang Mo’s finger taps lightly on these two pages, gaze dark, as if he’s considering something. Then, he puts the book back into his bag and takes out the red jewel from his pocket.
In the pitch-black night, the mall is silent. Dim moonlight shines through the large glass windows on the top floor of the mall, but by the time the light reaches the small shop in the corner, it’s already very dim.
In the darkness, the jewel shines deep red, like a rich wine.
Tang Mo squeezes this red jewel and gently shakes it. When the jewel shakes, the red light inside also rocks along, as if there’s some odd liquid inside. Tang Mo remembers the instructions for the turkey egg and taps three times on the jewel.
No reaction.
Tang Mo tightly squeezes the jewel in one hand.
Still no reaction.
He raises the jewel in front of his face, closely looking at it. When he raises it near his hair, suddenly, with a flash of dark red light, a big, stinky hat falls from his sky, crashing right onto Tang Mo’s face.
Tang Mo: “...”
Tang Mo nearly passes out from the stench of sweat and immediately snatches the hat away. He doesn’t even have time to think about where this hat came from before realizing that the red jewel in his hand is gone. Then he looks more closely.
“...”
This red hat with a large white M above the rim is a familiar childhood memory. Almost everyone has played this interesting game before, guiding the character wearing this hat to hit bricks, beat up monsters, defeat the evil dragon, and save the princess.
Two hours ago, Tang Mo even saw the owner of this hat. When they last saw each other, the owner of the hat was still crying on the stage. Right before leaving, he was so touched by Tang Mo’s ‘blessing’ of a long life that he fell and wounded himself.
At this moment, with another red flash of light, the hat becomes a jewel again, and a small line of text appears on the jewel.
[Prop: Mario’s Hat]
[Owner: Tang Mo]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Level: 3]
[Attack Ability: None]
[Function: While wearing this magical hat[4], there is a certain chance of spawning magical treasures]
[Restrictions: Must use head to spawn treasures; chance of receiving treasure is at most 10%; will grow Mario’s signature mustache of masculinity after wearing hat]
[Note: It may not be only pretty little girls who wear red hats. It can also be Mario]
Mario’s mustache of masculinity…
Tang Mo’s eyelid jumps, and he carefully reads these words three times. He raises the jewel above his head; immediately, the glittering jewel becomes a stinky hat. He puts down the hat, and it once again becomes a shiny jewel.
Not even scammers dare to deceive like this!
If the treasure in the mountain of gold was this smelly hat, Tang Mo definitely wouldn’t have taken it! At least he would have hesitated!
For the first time, Tang Mo regrets his decision a little bit. He shouldn’t have taken this jewel. Even one of those coins could have been a weapon and much more useful than this stinky hat.
In his heart, Tang Mo curses the hat and Mario a hundred times, but in the end, he still carefully places the red jewel into a pocket of his shirt and zips the zipper. After resting for an hour, Tang Mo gets up and gathers his things, quietly leaving the mall in the darkness of the night.
It’s quiet all around. Tang Mo’s footsteps are very light, making almost no sound when he steps on the ground. The moment he leaves the mall, a shadow turns and runs into the underground parking lot, knocking on Luo Fengcheng’s door.
“Professor Luo, he left. Should we chase him?”
Luo Fengcheng is holding a pen, examining something on the floor. At a closer glance, there is a two-meter-wide paper on the floor, a small stage in the center and 150 connected squares leading out. Luo Fengcheng holds a die in his left hand and a pen in his right, drawing something.
Hearing the person’s words, he stops. “Attack is not the mafia.”
The person nods and leaves.
Luo Fengcheng stands, walks to the desk, and takes out a folder from the drawer. He opens it to the second page, only to see that, after ‘Known Deaths,’ someone had stealthily crossed out ‘391’ and written ‘6461’ instead.
“When you wrote this, you knew you weren’t going to stay, didn’t you…?”
Tang Mo quickly traverses the night and leaves Pudong.
He left the mall in the dead of night because he didn’t want to alert Attack. After making sure that he’s out of Pudong District, Tang Mo finds a shop on the side of the road and waits for the sun to rise. This time, he walks quickly, reaching the entrance of Shibei Middle School in less than two hours. He easily enters the gym, but not a single person is there.
Tang Mo finds a half-eaten bread in the equipment room. This bread is near a puddle of water, and there’s a thick layer of mold on it.
Looks like the kids left the day after he did.
Tang Mo doesn’t feel too regretful. He leaves the gym, but at the door, he suddenly stops and looks at a single match in the corner. His gaze sharpens, and he looks at the white wall in front of him. After observing for a bit, Tang Mo walks over and forcefully wipes away a layer of dust.
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[Tang Mo-gege:
We’re leaving now. Let’s play a game together in the future. You have to live.
Chen Shanshan.
And Zhao Zi Ang!]
The last few words are carved shakily, remarkably ugly when compared to the previous words. It’s obvious that Chubs shamelessly carved them on himself.
For once, Tang Mo’s lips curve up and he laughs. Once again using force, he wipes away the carvings on the wall, then picks up his bag and truly leaves the school.
At the entrance, a clear childlike voice rings out over Shanghai.
“Ding dong! Europe District 3 stowaway Vanson Liszt[5] has successfully cleared the Black Tower: Floor 1!”
Tang Mo’s footsteps pause slightly, but he continues to walk forward.
Someone’s cleared the first floor in Europe too? When did Europe’s tower-attack game begin?
According to time, Fu Wenduo took approximately three hours to clear the first floor. The American, Mary Vanderthal, took five. The European attacker should be a bit weaker than China and America, so he must have taken more than five hours.
If, by arithmetic sequencing, the attacker used seven hours, then Tang Mo would have still been in Mario’s Monopoly Game when the European players started to attack the tower.
After figuring this out, Tang Mo no longer hesitates and continues to walk calmly.
As the sun rises, more and more people begin to appear on the streets. Tang Mo no longer has anything to do in Shanghai, so he plans to go back to Suzhou and look for any friends who might have fortunately survived. When he reaches Nanjing Road, he can see people everywhere. There aren’t a lot of them, but wherever he goes, there are at least two or three people.
Tang Mo walks with his head down and his large backpack on his back. Suddenly, when Tang Mo reaches a parterre in Renmin Plaza, his body stiffens and he freezes in place. No one notices this odd change, but in these short three seconds, Tang Mo’s gaze darkens, he clenches his fists, and his expression becomes very ugly.
Because at this moment, a clear, joyful childlike voice sounds in his head.
Tang Mo snaps his head around to look at the few people passing by. He wants to see if they’ve heard that weird voice too, but the three people don’t seem to have heard anything. Instead, Tang Mo seems to have scared them with his intense gaze. They mutter, ‘Psycho’ and quickly leave.
In Tang Mo’s head, that childlike voice is still ringing. It speaks three times and becomes more joyful each time.
“Ding dong! China District 2 official player Tang Mo has reached the level to attack the Black Tower: Floor 1! In ten days, prepare to attack!”
Under the bright sunlight, the giant black tower floating in midair shines ever so brightly.
Notes:
| [1] | In this book, most of the 'Attack's are all transliterated into Chinese using pinyin (romanizations) as 阿塔克 (a-ta-ke). When he's first introducing the organization, Luo Fengcheng actually does say 'We are called 阿塔克, or Attack' as an explanation.
Tang Mo repeats it here, saying, 'Attack (English). Attacking the tower? (Chinese)' to show that he's made the connection (and maybe explain it to ppl who might not know the English word). |
| [2] | 气吞万里如虎 is a line in a poem and means 'Devouring airs in ten thousand li (unit of distance) like a tiger'. Used here, 'airs' means 'an imposing manner'. In other words, the person described (in the poem, it's an emperor) has such imposing airs that it's as fierce as a tiger and can be detected from ten thousand li away!
This is quite a famous poem by poet Xin Qiji describing his reminiscence for older, more peaceful times (the Southern Song Dynasty was in shambles at the time). You can read a translation here!
(As a side note, one li is 500 meters, by today's definition. I looked online and found a source that puts an ancient li at around 414 meters.) |
| [3] | A 10 on the Beaufort scale is categorized as a 'storm' or 'whole gale'. Usually found at sea, it can rip trees out of the ground and cause significant damage to buildings as well. (By comparison, an 8 is a 'gale' or 'fresh gale' and can cause twigs to break off of trees.) |
| [4] | Here, the original line was 'while wearing the magical hat and slamming your head into something', but there was no way I was going to be able to translate that well AND get rid of the second-person POV. I just hoped that everyone knows that Mario hits bricks with his head to get coins :") |
| [5] | All non-Asian names are transliterated by sound and with Google Translate. |
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