Tang Mo had already noticed that, after the game reloaded, his clothes were reloaded by the Black Tower, but Kavis’ clothes had vanished. It looks like the Black Tower only recovers the data that the player came into the dungeon with and doesn’t care about the organisms within the dungeon. So that’s why, when Tang Mo nearly beat up the earthworm’s clitellum during his second try, the wounds hadn’t healed.

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Of course, the big earthworm can’t understand Tang Mo. “He seems like a good Undergrounder. He wouldn’t be like that Undergrounder who hits me when he drinks, right…?” 

The more it hisses, the more happily it nudges against him. Suddenly, the earthworm nudges against a sharp point. In the dark, the just scabbed-over wound breaks again.

The big earthworm begins to sob. Tang Mo immediately reaches out to collect the tears, but after a while, he realizes… 

This big earthworm is dry-crying! There’s not a single tear!

Tang Mo’s expression turns very unhappy.

If this dungeon is the same as Mario’s Monopoly Game and would only let him go after he gets the reward, then Tang Mo must get this ‘Earthworm’s Tear’.

The kerosene lamp is broken. Tang Mo still has a flashlight, but after some consideration, he decides against turning it on.

He desperately tries to suppress his disgust, trying hard to forget that the slimy thing nudging at himself is a giant earthworm, and reaches out to gently stroke its head.

After all, he did hurt it, and now that he’s comforting it, Tang Mo feels a bit guilty. Now that this thought has occurred to him, Tang Mo’s movements become much more natural.

Before Tang Mo even entered the dungeon, there was already a suggestion buried deep within his subconscious: the boss of the S3 dungeon is a big earthworm.

After the Earth went online, Tang Mo’s memory became exceedingly good. He chose to hide at the entrance of the mall for an hour to follow Jacks because Jacks told him in the underground parking garage that he wanted to try to clear the S3 dungeon again and defeat that big earthworm.

Tang Mo remembered every single word that Jacks said, so after he entered the dungeon, his first thought was to defeat a big earthworm.

Even though the structure of the dungeon surprised him, he thought that it was just a simple monster-killing dungeon. He never imagined that there would be so many restrictions. Under his preconceived notion, of course he would choose to attack the big earthworm on the first try. The second time, he simply thought that it was just too difficult to defeat the worm and kept trying to come up with methods to defeat it instead of paying attention to other key points.

Finally, the third time, he began to walk out of the error zone that Jacks had set and found many suspicious hints.

First, this tunnel is very long. The first time, Tang Mo walked very carefully, so when he reached Bill, half the time had already gone by. And he actually tried his best to walk fast, keeping a speed fast enough to not waste time, but also slow enough to not be caught off-guard. In the end, he was still only left with five minutes to face the earthworm.

If it had been reserve players trying to clear this dungeon, they might not have even been able to see the big worm before time was up. This time restriction is a bit unreasonable; it almost doesn’t give players a chance to one-shot the dungeon.

Second, there were some suspicious points that could have been noticed by careful observation. For instance, the wounds on the red-haired man’s chest were clearly not from the earthworm; they were from a sharp object. Plus, his vague wording and some small language-usage hints all pointed to the fact that Bill was not the earthworm.

Other than that, there was also the Black Tower’s own hints and misdirection. The Black Tower said in the rules that ‘only the wooden stick can harm the earthworm’ and that ‘Bill can’t stand the light.’ The Black Tower used two nouns; if the earthworm was Bill, it wouldn’t have done that.

But the Black Tower is once again misleading the players.

Earthworms are afraid of the light, but Bill can’t stand the light either[1].

Tang Mo can’t really explain why Bill can’t stand the light, but if he thinks along that direction, he would realize that this phrasing is much too ambiguous. It could be interpreted as Bill is also afraid of light (even though he didn’t react when he saw the kerosene lamp), or that he is someone who is not touched by the light.

Animals that are afraid of the light can’t stand the light, but those who have done bad things also can’t stand the light.

This is an extremely deep language loophole.

The big earthworm is still crying without tears.

He’s already hit it before, so he can’t hit it even more. Tang Mo rubs its big head and wonders how he can trick this little kid into crying.

This disgusting, ugly, yet sort of cute earthworm lies in Tang Mo’s arms, fake-crying as if its life depends on it.

Tang Mo comforts it for a long time. He says resignedly, “It’s not entirely my fault that I hurt you, right? It’s mostly the Black Tower’s fault. It only gave us twenty minutes, and even if I ran with all my strength, not wasting a single minute, I would still only be left with fifteen minutes by the time I got to you. The first time any normal person does this dungeon, they wouldn’t rush that much, and after they fail, they’d probably be really worried. So then they wouldn’t have time to pay attention to the hints and loopholes… It’s not that hard to understand?”

Logically, the big earthworm shouldn’t be able to understand what Tang Mo just said, but for some reason it ‘cries’ even louder.

“...”

Tang Mo silently pats it again. Okay, fine, it’s all my fault, alright?

He won’t solve any problems by petting it more. Tang Mo pets it for a long time, and finally, the earthworm stops fake-crying. It’s a bit weird how this disgustingly ugly-but-cute guy’s not howling anymore, and then he hears a loud snoring sound.

Tang Mo: “...”

You just escaped from your cage, so can you be a little more cautious?!

Though he can’t recreate the scene of the earthworm escaping the cage, Tang Mo can vaguely guess the truth from what the red-haired man, Bill, and the earthworm said before.

The Ringmaster of the circus captured a huge earthworm from somewhere and wanted to present it to the audience tomorrow night as a treasure. The Ringmaster put the red-haired man and Bill in charge of looking after the earthworm, but Bill liked to hit the earthworm when he got drunk. The red-haired man said that Bill suddenly went crazy, which could mean that Bill began to hit harder and nearly killed the earthworm, and then the earthworm retaliated.

That’s probably when the cage broke.

The red-haired man couldn’t just sit and watch Bill kill the Ringmaster’s treasure, so he must have tried to stop him.

Tang Mo looks towards a corner of the dark cave. The second time he entered the cave, he saw that there was a table there with a few bottles of beer on it, and also some broken pieces of glass on the ground.

If the red-haired man’s chest wounds were from Bill drunkenly attacking him, then that would explain why he said Bill had gone crazy.

Bill’s wounds came from the earthworm. The wound on the back of his head was from hitting the wall, and his leg could have broken when the earthworm flung him away.

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Even though the cage was locked tightly, the earthworm still broke free.

Bill said that he used all of his strength to escape from the cave, but halfway out, he realized that his leg was completely broken and he couldn’t walk anymore. The red-haired man wouldn’t have cared, of course. On one hand, Bill went crazy and injured him, but on the other hand, the monster had broken out of the cage. Abandoning his companion and escaping alone would be totally understandable.

“If you’d broken free earlier and killed Bill, wouldn’t you have been beat up less?”

The only response he gets is louder snoring.

The time limit of twenty minutes is the Black Tower’s restriction on the players, causing them to have little time to pursue more hints. But it’s also a protection for the players. As long as they’re not too weak, normal reserve players should be able to survive for twenty minutes. Then they can choose to exit the dungeon and quit.

This is what an S-level dungeon means.

Speaking from the difficulty, it’s on a totally different level than Mario’s Monopoly Game. Players won’t die as long as they’re not too greedy.

Tang Mo sits on the floor and waits for the earthworm to wake up. Finally, half an hour later, the earthworm breaks out of its bubble of sleep and wakes up, hissing, “I’m hungry, I miss Mama, wahhhh….”

It’s still dry-crying.

Tang Mo stands up. The earthworm’s upper body immediately stiffens.

Tang Mo can’t see the earthworm in the dark, but he has a feeling that the worm knows what he’s doing. Tang Mo puts both hands on the wall of the cave, taking slow steps into the tunnel. The earthworm doesn’t do anything. When Tang Mo walks to the mouth of the tunnel, he turns and waves. “Come here.”

The earthworm doesn’t respond.

Tang Mo doesn’t know whether or not his method will work, but either way, they have to get out of this cave first. What if the red-haired man really calls his coworkers? Tang Mo’s willing to believe that the Ringmaster wouldn’t let him off easily.

Tang Mo walks into the tunnel. He walks very slowly, stopping from time to time to turn and beckon, hoping that the earthworm will follow after him.

He takes an entire minute to walk ten meters. The earthworm still doesn’t respond. Right when Tang Mo has decided to quit and find another way to get the earthworm’s tear, he hears the sound of something heavy gliding over the floor.

Tang Mo’s lips curl up. He feels along the wall and walks to the beginning of the tunnel.

The big earthworm follows slowly. At first, it’s quite far away, but after they’ve walked a few hundred meters, the earthworm stupidly presses itself against Tang Mo’s back again, nudging his hair with its head, its entire upper half leaning on Tang Mo’s body.

Tang Mo nearly slaps this slimy thing, but thankfully, he manages to control his urges. After a few deep breaths, he continues to walk.

When they walk past Bill’s body, the big earthworm smells his scent and hisses in fear. “Bad guy Undergrounder!”

Tang Mo pats its head and leads it forward.

Finally, they reach the beginning.

Tang Mo can’t turn on the flashlight. In the dark, he touches the earthworm’s head. He can tell that, after coming to this place, the earthworm’s clearly a lot more excited, impatiently hitting the ground with its tail.

“If you want to leave, then… could you give me some tears before you leave?” Tang Mo tries to negotiate. “Just one is enough. Don’t fake-cry for once and really cry, just this one time. How about it?”

The big earthworm howls. “Hungry hungry, go home to see Mama, Mama!”

Tang Mo, having spent all his energy leading the earthworm to this place: “...”

The earthworm never stops hitting the ground with its tail. At first, Tang Mo thinks that it’s just too excited and simply expressing its joy in this way, but suddenly, its tail hits a clump of mud, and with a click, it sounds like a door has been slapped open.

Tang Mo looks at that area in shock.

“Go home, go home!” the earthworm says, slithering towards the door.

Tang Mo grabs its tail quickly. “Wait, can’t you give me a tear?” After a pause, Tang Mo tries, “Hiss hiss, hiss hiss hiss hiss?”

Earthworm: “So weird, what’s this Undergrounder saying?”

Tang Mo: “...”

The earthworm writhes, breaking free of Tang Mo’s grip, slithering directly to the exit. Right when it’s about to leave, the sliding sound stops, and it slowly returns to Tang Mo, nudging his face with its head.

What it doesn’t know is that, in the darkness, Tang Mo’s right hand is pressed on his left wrist as he looks at the earthworm with a cold gaze.

He can’t leave the dungeon without getting the earthworm’s tear.

The main mission is over now. He can use his abilities. He can use the big match.

No matter what, he has to leave this place.

“Want to go home…” the hissing says.

Tang Mo’s gaze flashes. A giant match suddenly appears in his right hand. He raises the match high in the air, aiming for the earthworm’s clitellum. This blow won’t kill it, but it would definitely incapacitate it and make it stay. Only after making sure the earthworm can’t move will he be able to slowly search for the earthworm’s tear.

The match almost touches the earthworm’s clitellum when the hissing starts again. “You’re a good Undergrounder.”

When the voice speaks, a wet liquid falls onto Tang Mo’s face. The earthworm hisses and slides into the exit in a flash. Its large body hits the ground with a series of thumps, and it vanishes soon afterwards.

Tang Mo freezes in place. A moment later, he reaches out to touch the tear on his face, then puts the match back into the tattoo.

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Bright white light flashes across his eyes. When Tang Mo opens his eyes again, he’s already back at the abandoned factory in Pudong.

Tang Mo entered the dungeon at noon, but it’s already midnight now. The passage of time in the dungeons seems to be different from that of real life. Tang Mo vaguely takes note of the time difference, then quickly leaves the factory in case there are people hiding near the entrance of the dungeon.

He finds an abandoned car repair shop and hides in it. Then, Tang Mo reaches out and takes off the earthworm’s tear from his face.

When this tear landed on Tang Mo’s face, it was still liquid, but it quickly turned solid after coming in contact with the air. Tang Mo doesn’t turn on the lights in the car repair shop. Instead, he lies on the ground, shining the flashlight on the tear.

The crystal-clear tear glistens under the light, like a little teardrop-shaped diamond.

Tang Mo taps three times on the tear. No reaction. He lifts the tear above his head. Nothing happens. Tang Mo even tries to burn the tear and soak it in water. When he finally tries to wipe the tear with a rag, a line of small text appears.

[Prop: Earthworm’s Tear]
[Owner: Tang Mo]
[Quality: Average]
[Level: 1]
[Attack ability: None]
[Function: Rubbing the tear on a wound can quickly heal it; can heal ruptures and fractures[2]]
[Restriction: Can be used three times]
[Notes: I don’t think Tang Mo ever wants to remember how he got this tear]

Tang Mo thinks for a bit. This time, the ability book is wrong. If he can get a prop for each time the earthworm nudges his face, then he’s willing to… get nudged again. But only one more time.

This dungeon reward seems far worse than Mario’s hat and the turkey egg. After all, it’s only average quality. But right now, it’s indispensable to Tang Mo.

In the past seven days, Tang Mo has gathered six abilities, but not a single one has healing capabilities.

His physical condition is excellent right now. As long as he doesn’t break any limbs, the wounds will heal on their own after he rests for a while. But if he’s injured during a fight and doesn’t have time to wait for the wounds to heal, then he can just use the earthworm’s tear to recover his fighting capabilities immediately. And the earthworm’s tear can heal broken limbs as well.

“What a pity it can only be used three times. S dungeons are much simpler than other dungeons, and there’s no fear of death, but the rewards are also a bit worse…”

Tang Mo pillows his head on his hands and looks at the ceiling of the car repair shop.

---

Shanghai, Pudong District, the parking garage of a certain mall:

A buff, golden-haired man sits on the chair, expression distressed, honestly telling the story of what happened to him today.

After hearing that Jacks still couldn’t clear the level after killing the earthworm, Luo Fengcheng’s expression changes slightly and he sits up straighter. “Are you sure you killed it? Earthworms won’t die even if their bodies break into two or three pieces. How did you kill it?”

Jacks feels so wronged. “I really killed it. Professor Luo, I did what you told me to do and broke the stick in half, then grabbed it in my hands and used my hands to squeeze the earthworm to death. With my strength, it’s not very hard to do that, but it would be really hard to squeeze every segment of it to total death in twenty minutes. I tried many times and finally succeeded today. But I still failed the mission.”

Luo Fengcheng stands up and paces a few steps. “From now on, tell me every single thing that happened in the dungeon, no matter how big or small. Tell me everything, the Black Tower’s rules, what the two men said. Say it clearly, without leaving out a single word.”

Jacks scratches his head, trying hard to remember.

An hour later, Luo Fengcheng slams his fist down on the table. He doesn’t look very happy. “Bill isn’t the earthworm. You need to kill the blond-haired man on the ground.”

“Huh?”

“The S3 dungeon isn’t as hard as you thought. It just set up a trap that took advantage of your fixed thought patterns, making you think that you had to kill the monster that appeared at the end.” Luo Fengcheng rubs his eyes tiredly. “Tomorrow, you’ll clear the level when you kill that blond man.”

Jacks nods happily and leaves without asking what he misunderstood.

The next day at noon, Jacks and two of his companions head to the factory. “I thought this dungeon was my favorite type of fighting-type dungeon, but I didn’t know it would need brains. I hate these types of dungeons. I don’t think I’ll come to these types anymore. I’ll leave it to you guys and Professor Luo. Wait a minute, I’ll come back soon.”

Jacks steps on the manhole cover. Time passes, but nothing happens.

Shocked, he stomps on it a couple of times, and the other two people gather around too.

Someone says, “Looks like someone already cleared it. That makes sense. According to Professor Luo, this dungeon’s not actually that hard, and there are a lot of entrances too. A bunch of people in the mall also know the entrances, so it’s not surprising that someone could clear it. Jacks, don’t try too hard to brute-force dungeons in the future. You gotta think about it sometimes.”

The other person comforts him too. “Forget about this dungeon. Let’s try S1.”

Originally, Jacks was a little down, but when he hears about the S1 dungeon, his eyes flash in excitement. “Let’s go! The S1 dungeon’s the best! Let’s go beat up that gorilla at the end!”

Tang Mo doesn’t know that his quick development[3] caused Jacks to lose a chance at clearing the S3 dungeon. But even if he knew, he wouldn’t take it to heart. The reason he followed Jacks was to try to beat him at clearing the level (which was also why he focused so much on defeating the earthworm and didn’t think about the hints) and receive the rewards to improve his chances of winning the tower-attack game three days later.

After clearing the S3 dungeon, there are still two days left, so Tang Mo hides by the mall again to try to clear another S dungeon. But this time, he hasn’t even followed the organization member called Tang Qiao into the dungeon before accidentally triggering a dungeon himself.

This is also a single-player dungeon. It’s not hard, even a bit simpler than the S3 dungeon, but it’s extremely time-consuming.

When Tang Mo exits this dungeon, it’s already the dawn of the tenth day.

On November 23rd at 17:00, Tang Mo was informed by the Black Tower to begin preparing to attack the tower. The Black Tower is always quite respectful of human time standards; the ‘Three Candidacy Days’ started from 08:00 on November 15 and lasted until the same time on the 18th.

According to this calculation, there are only ten hours left before Tang Mo will be pulled into the tower-attack game.

Tang Mo checks his bag to make sure he didn’t leave anything behind, then walks into a hardware store. The items in the store are scattered all over the place. Clearly, after the game started, players have already come here to search for weapons.

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Tang Mo finds a small knife in the trash. He walks into the room behind the hardware store and takes out the big match, using it to sharpen the knife.

The wooden handle of the match rubs against the sharp blade. No wood shavings come off, and instead, the knife becomes sharper and sharper, cold light reflecting off of the metal.

He sharpens two knives and four small darts in the same way. He ties the knives to his right leg and hides the darts in his pocket. The big match is much more useful than these knives and darts, but it’s not all-powerful. In some situations, the knives will be more useful.

After preparing his weapons, Tang Mo finds a convenience store, digging out half a bottle of water and a pack of cookies from underneath the counter, and replenishes his strength.

After the Earth went online, Tang Mo’s physical condition improved, and he finds that his need for food and water decreases by the day. This phenomenon became even more obvious after he cleared Mario’s Monopoly Game. Tang Mo has been keeping track of his need for food and water; a pack of cookies and half a bottle of water is more than enough for him to feel full for three days, and his movements won’t be affected for four days.

In case the game will be too long and won’t provide food and water, Tang Mo finds another few convenience stores and replenishes his supply.

Now, it’s already 13:00.

Tang Mo sits in a small restaurant, calmly looking out the window. The rate of passersby is approximately one person per five minutes, but he sits and looks for a long time, more than an hour. Not speaking, not moving, only looking out of the window.

Half a month ago, all Chinese players were dragged into the first floor of the Black Tower and forced to play the game by Fu Wenduo. At the time, Tang Mo and his group participated in ‘Dumbass Mode,’ but he knows that this time, he will definitely not be facing Dumbass Mode, but instead the real deal.

The Black Tower has seven floors in total. The first day the game officially began, the Tower announced its Three Definite Rules. Of those rules, the third rule is: all players, please try your best to attack the tower.

The games written into the Definite Rules are definitely not as easy as the S dungeons. They might even be more dangerous than Mario’s Monopoly Game.

Tang Mo can’t promise that he’ll survive.

Right now, every second could be counting down to the last moments of his life.

This restaurant is on the corner of the street. A few plastic plants cover the window, and there are some small pots of flowers on the windowsill, casually creating a peaceful environment. Before the Earth went online, this restaurant must have been a very peaceful place. Maybe business wouldn’t have been good, but they would have had regular guests who enjoyed their time here, as if escaping from the world to relax.

Tang Mo slowly closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath and slowly exhales.

Right now, it’s 15:00.

Tang Mo takes out the turkey egg and taps three times. He says quietly, “Mr. Fu.”

An odd sort of music makes its way to his ear. Fu Wenduo doesn’t immediately respond. A few minutes later, Tang Mo hears ‘Side mission 2 complete,’ and Fu Wenduo says, “What is it? Did something happen?”

Tang Mo: “You’re playing a game?”

Fu Wenduo’s voice is low. It sounds nice. “Yes, I was accidentally pulled into a dungeon by someone else. I just finished the second side mission.”

So even stowaway Fu Wenduo can be tricked into a dungeon.

Tang Mo’s face is expressionless. He leans back in his chair, voice calm. “It’s like this, Mr. Fu. In two hours, I will be attacking the tower.”

The fighting sounds on the other side of the egg pause for a few seconds but quickly resume. Fu Wenduo asks, “Attack the tower? You’re going to clear the first floor of the Black Tower? It pulled you in?”

When speaking about this incident, Tang Mo is left with only calmness in his heart.

“Ten days ago, the Black Tower informed me that I would be playing the tower-attack game at 17:00 today. I’ve already prepared what I can, but before I go, I’d like to bother you a bit… Could you tell me what you ran into while attacking the tower?” After a pause, Tang Mo adds, “It’s okay if you don’t want to say.”

This time, Fu Wenduo answers quickly. “After I entered the Black Tower, I received a main mission, which was to take the most precious egg of a turkey. This turkey egg is our save file. But when I went into the game, there were four other people with me, making a total of five people. They didn’t know who I was, but I could tell from their conversation that they harbored a lot of resentment towards me. Their mission was to protect the turkey egg.”

Tang Mo furrows his eyebrows. “Your missions were the complete opposite?”

“Correct,” Fu Wenduo says. “I kept my mission a secret and entered a huge underground world with them. There, humans are called Undergrounders, and the divide between humans and monsters is very obvious. In the middle of the world, there is a pink river. To the left of the river is the Undergrounder Kingdom, to the right is the Monster World. The turkey was in the Monster World.”

Here, Fu Wenduo’s voice stops, and a series of violent battle noises come from the turkey egg.

Five minutes later, Fu Wenduo continues, breathing slightly heavily. “We landed in the Undergrounder Kingdom. To reach the Monster World, we had to cross the Pink River—I’ll refer to it as the Pink River. There is a ferry on the Pink River, and we had to play a game to cross it. The ferry can only move if there’s a ferryman, who is an Undergrounder. The ferry can at most take three people, but no less than two. If only the ferryman is on the ferry, he will leave…” 

Tang Mo listens seriously to what Fu Wenduo says. His fingers tap on the table as he carefully ponders the three games that Fu Wenduo described.

The fight with the turkey at the end seems the simplest.

Fu Wenduo doesn’t introduce his ability, only saying that a huge turkey suddenly attacked them. Three of his four companions died, and one escaped. The turkey found out that he was a stowaway and wanted to eat him, so he fought it, both injuring each other badly, and finally found the most precious save-file turkey egg from within thousands of normal eggs and cleared the first floor.

Tang Mo thinks for a bit.

He could probably win those three games as well, except it would just take a bit of time. What’s truly difficult is the final fight with the turkey.

Fu Wenduo didn’t say so, but it’s obvious that his ability is offensive. The huge turkey wouldn’t be weaker than the big mole, and Tang Mo couldn’t fight the big mole at all. Even now, he feels like he should be able to escape from the mole, but he doesn’t even have a 20% chance of defeating it.

But at least he’s not a stowaway.

Fu Wenduo is a stowaway. All Black Tower creatures want to eat him. This is an advantage that Tang Mo has over Fu Wenduo.

After hearing all of the information, Tang Mo looks at the turkey egg on the table. He’s silent for a while. “Thank you.”

Fu Wenduo’s already ended the dungeon game. He responds quietly, “If there’s only one turkey egg left, I’m not sure that it can continue to save. I hope you can clear the first floor. I need this egg’s save function.”

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Tang Mo already knew this, so he knew that if he asked Fu Wenduo for information, the other person wouldn’t hold back.

If Tang Mo wasn’t about to attack the tower, Fu Wenduo probably wouldn’t easily tell him all of this. But right now, this is a moment of life or death. Tang Mo isn’t arrogant enough to believe that this widely-hated stowaway suddenly has positive feelings towards him and now considers them friends. But if he does die, no one can promise that the turkey egg can continue to work.

Even Fu Wenduo doesn’t want to lose this legendary prop.

But Tang Mo still has to say it. “Thank you.”

The second time, Fu Wenduo quiets down. After a long silence, Tang Mo hears a low laugh. A hint of humor is hidden in Fu Wenduo’s voice. “You’re very impressive. Please survive. You’re not a stowaway, so you should have it easier than me.”

Suddenly, Tang Mo wants to know how he became a stowaway. What kind of person did he kill? But he doesn’t ask, only laughs in response. “Don’t worry, I don’t want to die.”

Neither of them speaks any more, and Tang Mo shuts down the egg.

He puts the egg back into his pocket, grabs his bag, and walks out of the restaurant. This morning, he already returned from Pudong to Jingan District and is now near Nanjing Road. Right now, he’s very relaxed, walking casually towards that black tower hovering above the Huangpu River. His gaze is determined, and his expression is calm.

The sun slowly sets, and golden light spills over this big city like a layer of golden tulle.

On the west side of the city, near the end of the highway, two small black dots appear. These black dots get larger and larger, finally reaching the toll booth in front of Shanghai, and desperately rush into the city.

These are two people covered in wounds. One person’s left arm is broken, a ragged layer of skin hanging off of the bloody wound. The other person is covered in blood, and each step they walk takes a tremendous amount of effort, as if they could collapse at any moment.

A middle-aged woman passes by on the street, running away in fear after seeing these two people.

A fourteen-year-old girl walks out from the corner, and before she has a chance to run, one of the people grabs her. The person’s entire body shakes as they grab tightly onto her arm, nearly crying as they ask, “Shanghai… Are they in Shanghai? Are they here? Are they?!”

The girl’s so scared she’s nearly crying. “What are you talking about? Who are you? My friend’s an official player, he has an ability, so don’t think about hurting me. If you hurt me, he… he’ll avenge me!”

The man missing his left arm has a hoarse voice. “Stowaways! Are they in Shanghai? Are they?”

Girl: “Of course there are stowaways here.”

The two’s blood-wet eyes suddenly fill with despair, and they both fall to the ground.

“Here… there are stowaway organizations here too… here too…”

The girl asks oddly, “What stowaway organization? Stowaways have organizations?”

The broken-armed man trembles as he gets to his feet, grabbing the girl’s shoulders. “No?! Shanghai doesn’t have that group of monsters, that group of stowaways that kill anyone they see? Don’t they exist?!”

The girl bursts into tears, unable to say anything out of fear.

At the same time, Tang Mo stands underneath the Black Tower, raising his head to look at the gigantic entity.

His lips curl up. A joyful tune begins to play in his head, along with a clear childlike voice— 

“Ding dong! The Black Tower: Floor 1 (Normal Mode) has officially opened, single-player game loading…”

“Sandbox forming…”

“Data loading complete…”
​
“Welcome to the Monster World!”

Notes

[1]

I've already explained this in Ch26, so I'll just copy my notes: ​ 'Can't stand the light' or 见不得光 does literally mean that someone/something is unable to go into the light, but there's a metaphorical meaning too. ​In China, '[person]见不得光' is usually used to say that a person has done something bad. Because light is usually associated with pureness and kindness, saying that someone 'can't stand the light' means that they're a terrible person who's done terrible things.

[2]	I didn't have a concise way of putting it, but basically the earthworm's tear can heal wounds that are broken or torn (like a broken arm or a huge gash in your stomach). It's a pretty strong healing prop.

[3]

Admittedly, I'm not entire sure what this means either. According to an online slang dictionary, 猥琐发育 (lit. perverted development) means to focus on getting good at the game in the beginning so you can quickly get your attack stats up. I don't really game, so I'm not sure if I have context for this haha.

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