Chapter 200 - Surprise~

What exactly is the point of the Monster I team's existence?

Chen Shanshan is holding a giant lollipop, pondering this question over and over in his head.

What Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo guessed, Chen Shanshan also guessed.

"There are five players in this game, two on the customs team, two on the monsters' second team, and I'm on the monsters' first team."

"Monster Team 1's side mission is ... to assist the customs team, to find the stolen goods that have been smuggled." The short-haired girl sighed softly, thinking in her mind, "So Brother Tang and Mr. Fu School are the customs team, and those two players are Monster Team 2. Players from different teams can't recognise each other, so what exactly is my role ..."

Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo being customs, they are in the best position to find out what the loot is. She is a small, insignificant monster who is not bullied by the other monsters. She doesn't seem to have any role to play in this horde of monsters, but The black tower has given her the task of assisting the customs team.

"I'm on level 3, Brother Tang and they're on level 5. My game will be a lot less difficult than theirs, but again that means The black tower has lowered the bar for me. I can do a lot more."

Chen Shanshan keeps his head down, his brain running fast.

Her mind kept replaying every bit of information that The black tower had just told her, and what the Undertaker had said on the radio. The words "customs", "monsters" and "stolen goods" were repeated on the young girl's lips, and when some of the Underground officials came out of the hut, shouting for the monsters outside to join them, Chen Shanshan suddenly looked up in surprise. Chen Shanshan suddenly looked up in amazement and said, "How could this be?"

On the long drawbridge, two Undertaker officers, armed with black batons, snarled angrily, "Get in, the officer is going to be checking out the damn human players among you." With that, one of the Underlanders gave Chen Shanshan a firm shove, pushing her to the door. When they encountered the stronger monsters, they changed their faces again, "Come in, sir."

Chen Shanshan understands that he must be a weak little monster in his current appearance.

A strong exterior will bring some convenience, and a weak exterior doesn't necessarily mean it's useless.

Before walking into the hut, Chen Shanshan's gaze swept over all the monsters behind her as she lifted her feet and buried herself in the customs hut, while her eyes lingered for a second on a parchment scroll notice taped to the side of the door -

"Reward.

All monsters can report smugglers and if they are found to be smuggling, they are rewarded according to the amount of money smuggled by the perpetrator.

Up to one King's gold coin!

--Highly respected customs officer, Dwarf Muddler'

Customs chalet.

One by one, the monsters were led into the huts, while the Underlander officials were called aside to a transparent hut.

Tang Mo stood on the edge of the officers and looked at the short, dwarf officer. This officer stared at them with a sneer, his hands pinned behind his back. After making the rounds of his subordinates, he exclaimed, "Now, right here in this house, there are damned humans mixed in! Maybe, just one human, maybe, five humans!"

"You, all of you, are not to be trusted, because you could all be human! At the moment, I am the only one who is definitely not human." The officer reprimanded and then said to the lapdog gnome beside him, "You, now go and tell the monsters that we will be searching them in five minutes and to hand in all the items they have with them and collect their number plates. When we have searched them, we will then retrieve their belongings by number plate."

The dog-legged gnome hurriedly said, "Yes!"

The dwarf officer muttered, "Heh, those stupid and smelly monsters, I wonder how many more fools will try to smuggle items in today, don't let me catch them."

As the words fell, he winked at his assistant. The other nodded and came up triumphantly, holding a thick paper-like object in his hand: "Now I am handing out our civil service papers for this year's civil service in the Kingdom of the Underlanders. Humans must not be able to do it, but you can. My colleagues, catch out the humans and eat them!"

"Catch the humans and eat them!"

Tang Mo watched as the underground man began to hand out papers one by one, his hand creeping up to his waist.

Tang Mo found out early on that the Underlanders couldn't tell that he had a small parasol tied around his waist, which meant that the Underlanders couldn't really identify humans by their looks alone. But really, with this test paper, they might have a hard time hiding their identity. Perhaps they would be the first players to be caught out.

A low male voice suddenly rang in Tang Mo's ears, "He just said that there are many monsters smuggling items every day."

Tang Mo froze and turned his head to look at Fu Wenduo. He quickly understood what the other man meant: "Yes, according to common sense, this customs department receives so many monsters every day that stowaways should be common."

Fu Wenduo : "Something that can be smuggled in is bound to be very valuable. Once there is a proper profit, the capitalist is bold. With fifty per cent profit he is desperate; with one hundred per cent profit he dares to trample on all earthly laws; with three hundred per cent profit he dares to commit any crime, even risking hanging." After a pause, he added: "Marx's Capital."

Tang Mo: "You know it well?" He knew the general meaning of the phrase, but not as well as Fu Wenduo.

Fu Wenduo : "I am a member of the Party."

Tang Mo was silent. It is also true that, given Fu Wenduo's status, this kind of thing must have been learned from the time he started to recognise words.

Fu Wenduo : "The level of production in the Kingdom of the Underlanders, as we all know, leans towards medieval Europe and is very low. There wouldn't be much that would be of value in such a place to be smuggled in."

Tang Mo: "There are not many things that have value, and there are even fewer of them that The black tower monster can sell."

Fu Wenduo looked at him and raised one eyebrow, "If there are ten monsters smuggled in every day, what they smuggle in may be very similar, if not identical."

Tang Mo: " The black tower wants us to find the stolen loot and have Monster Team 2 protect it. This means they have the loot, and only they have it."

Fu Wenduo : "What if the exact same swag is possessed by other monsters?"

"No way."

The two men looked at each other, curled their lips, and said in unison, " The black tower is looking for the one piece of loot that is absolutely unique!"

Outside the transparent hut, Chen Shanshan looks at the twenty or so Underlander officers inside. She looked carefully at the clothes, the appearance and even the small ornaments on their chests, but could not find Tang Mo or Fu Wenduo.

At this point, a gnome Underlander, chin held high, walked inside and addressed the monsters, repeating the words of the gnome officer, "... Now, please ask all monsters to hand in their belongings. Please rest assured that once we have searched you, we will return the items to you in the order of your number plates and upon your exit."

A monster immediately complained with discontent, and the gnome shuddered and braved it again, "Fuck ... what for! This is an order from the confused chief, if you have, if you can, go to him and appeal. Besides, we can all eat the humans if we find them. It's for everyone's own good!"

The monsters were mostly simple-minded and although they found the whole thing troublesome, they had to put up with it for the sake of finding out about the humans.

Chen Shanshan heard one of the monsters beside him complain, "What's eating humans if it's not in your land, underground people are delicious too!"

The gnome officer started at the front of the row and collected the monsters' belongings.

Chen Shanshan clutched her lollipop and watched calmly as he moved in this way. After a moment, she said in a faint voice, "I'm afraid it will take him a long time to collect them alone."

The underground people were all put into the transparent hut to do their test papers, and only this gnome came out. There were over 500 monsters in the room, and it was too much work for just him to collect things and hand out number plates. It would have taken at least three hours.

A fox-headed creature hears Chen Shanshan's words and with a twinkle in its eye, "No, it's a waste of our time. This bloody bureaucracy is why I hate those underground people so much!"

Chen Shanshan licked his lollipop: "Can't we help collect it."

The fox narrowed his eyes and stared at Chen Shanshan: "What?"

To the fox's eyes, all he could see was a small monster with a rabbit's head licking hard while holding a lollipop and winking at him, "I see you're a monster from the elven steppes, too."

The fox nodded, "You too?"

Based on the information he had gotten from his previous games, Chen Shanshan said, "The monsters in the Elven Steppe are different from those in their monster valley. Why do they have to hand over their belongings if they want to be searched?"

The fox had thought of this aspect, and when reminded by Chen Shanshan, he said, "Does it mean that ... he is trying to take the opportunity to see if there are monsters smuggling stolen goods?!" Quickly, he retorted, "No, that's not true. There are at least fifty monsters smuggling stolen goods every day, but the customs officers of the Underlanders they are all blind, and it would be good to find five. So he's just trying to spot as many as he can."

Chen Shanshan : "What if, we could collect it for him?"

Three minutes later, David and Pete, standing at the back of the group of monsters, frowned as they saw a fox-like monster wandering continuously through the group of monsters. The monsters he was looking for were all grassland monsters and he said a few words and the monsters gave a look of surprise.

Then the creature went to the front and spoke to the dwarf officer.

David : "What's with all the drama with that monster, is he the guy from Monster Team One?"

Pete looked at the fox a few times: "It's possible, but David, have you forgotten that the mission of Monster Team One is to assist the customs team? The black tower doesn't say what constitutes assistance. Maybe if he finds the customs guy, he's assisted and the mission is successful. If I were that guy, I wouldn't be so stupid as to expose myself so conspicuously to the monsters. I'd hide myself."

David thought about it, "So what the hell is he doing?"

A slutty yellow fox rubbed his hands together and looked down at the dwarf officer, "Look, sir, you have to collect them all by yourself, how long will this take. We have twenty monsters here, and if we came to help you, we could definitely collect them all in half an hour at the most."

The gnome's eyes glanced up and he coughed, "Help me? I'm not in a hurry, just take your time collecting."

The fox squeezed his eyebrows and said, "Don't, if we delay too long, the monsters in the valley of those impulsive and rude monsters will get angry and it won't look good for everyone." The male fox hid his hand under his sleeve and made a "three" gesture, "I'm seven and you're three."

The gnome was stunned, then ecstatic. He pressed on, "No."

Fox: "Four!"

Gnome: "No."

The fox gritted his teeth, "Fifty-fifty!"

The gnome snickered, "Good!"

It wasn't long before David and Pete saw two dozen monsters with numbered tags and began to collect the belongings of the other monsters. At first they didn't think anything was unusual until a yellow-furred fox received the middle of the group of monsters and he suddenly held up a golden pocket watch: "Sir, I'm reporting, I'm reporting her for stowaways!"

The fawn monster's eyes reddened with anxiety, "You, you're talking nonsense!"

The fox's tail twitched, "Whether I'm talking nonsense or not, let the officer see it and find out."

The dwarf officer came over and inspected it, "Heh, how dare you smuggle in a transparent man's pocket watch. This is not allowed to be taken to the monster world, even if you pay more taxes!" As he said that, the dwarf took out three silver coins and threw them to the fox. The fox smiled fawningly and shoved one back into the gnome's hand concealed: "Make it up later."

The gnome was then satisfied and left with his pocket watch.

The next thing you know, voices are rising and falling in the chalet.

"You hid this bow in your belt and thought I wouldn't find it! You're trying to evade taxes!"

"Bravo, how dare you hide a ring in your mouth! Sir, I'm reporting it, she's trying to smuggle it in, it's stolen property!"

Some stolen goods are not allowed to be smuggled in, even if they pay the tax, they will be confiscated. Some stolen goods can still be given a numbered card to turn around and collect the stolen goods as long as the monster has paid the tax.

David breathed a sigh of relief: "Luckily, we were able to take our things with us, as long as we paid some money. These two wolves have wallets on them, and there's a lot of silver coins in them. It's probably all left over from when they used to smuggle stolen goods."

David doesn't intend to be too visible, pays his money and continues to hide himself.

Beside him, the blonde foreigner's eyebrows furrowed tightly. Pete closed his eyes and his fingers quickly fiddled with the red onyx bracelet on his wrist, the next second his eyes snapped open, "Fuck! David, trapped, it's that fucking monster team one player doing the trick!"

David froze for a moment, " Pete, what did you say?"

Pete said angrily, "Don't you get it, I finally understand now that The black tower gave us the only swag it wanted us to smuggle in that none of the 500 or so animals present had! Otherwise, the two guys in the customs team could hardly win in this game, because there was so much loot that no one knew which was the real loot. Unless out of so much swag, all the other swag comes in pairs, or even more than one. Only this one we have," the blond man shook the banana dregs in his hand, "and this fucking thing is actually the only fucking one!"

Pete gritted his teeth and crushed a red onyx on his wrist in anger: "We've all been played by that monster of a team of bastards!"

Inside the glass hut, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo are unaware of what is happening outside.

Tang Mo was lucky until he got the paper. The black tower should not be so difficult for them, and he and Fu Wenduo might be able to do this paper. But when he got the paper, Tang Mo was delighted with the first question, and then he saw the second question and suddenly: "..."

'Kingdom of the Underlanders 9,614 Civil Service Examination Paper'

'Question 1: 1+2+3+4 ...+99=? Please calculate.'

'Question 2: If the princess was out walking and came across an underground man dressed as a frog, what would she say in her first sentence?

A.You ugly flea! B. you ugly frog! C.You ugly bugger! D. You ugly little biscuit!'

... Who the hell knows what the princess will say!

Besides, why do civil service exams have to test for such odd things!

Continuing on, the title is even more bizarre.

Tang Mo turned his head to Fu Wenduo, who shook his head at him: "The question in Happy Quiz is easier than this."

But no, it's a hundred times easier than that!

Tang Mo quietly observes the outside world as he writes down as many answers as he can to the questions on the paper. He noticed that some monsters had started to help the gnomes collect their items and Tang Mo noticed a hint of something wrong and he raised an eyebrow. Soon, he realised that the monsters were already about to finish collecting all the items.

Collect items and report stowaways.

The world outside the glass hut is much livelier than inside.

Tang Mo's gaze swept over all the monsters and it was obvious that he could not have spotted Chen Shanshan. However, as he watched the monsters report their companions, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up, " Shanshan, well done."

Fu Wenduo stops his pen in his hand and stares out.

After a moment, he whispered, "Originally, I thought that if we couldn't write this test, there was only one way left to pass. That gnome has collected all the monsters' belongings and stacked them there," Fu Wenduo pointed to the corner with a collected finger, "about seven or eight hundred items. You and I can each stow ten things in our chicken coop now, and beyond that, with the curtains, we should be able to take all those things with us. After all, what can be smuggled in is not usually too big. After doing this, though, our identities are revealed. The Underlanders and the monsters are our enemies, along with the two players from Monster Squad 2. How do we break out of the thick of it? This game is a test of our force."

Tang Mo laughs, "And now what?"

"Now, at least we have an idea of what is smuggled and what is normal and there is a lot less to take away. Maybe Shanshan can also help us discover which stolen item is unique and by taking it, we win."

Tang Mo thought for a moment, "That's it? Do we have to reveal our identities?"

Fu Wenduo's dark eyes were fixed on Tang Mo and the corners of his mouth curled up.

"It depends, how much that little girl can surprise us."

Yes, from start to finish, for Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo, there are two kinds of passes for this side quest.

First, they used force to take all the monsters' belongings with them. The black tower gave Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo a final helping hand, making it possible for them to take all their belongings.

However it was too much of a test of their force.

To escape from the heavy siege of monsters and underground people. Also be on the lookout for players from Monster Squad 2 who may attack at any moment.

Those two players are so strong that Tang Mo is not sure he can beat them in a solo fight.

The second, on the other hand, is the task of the players of the Monster I team: to assist the customs team and find the stolen goods.

The black tower's definition of found is very vague, what exactly is considered found? Is it a find if you see it, or is it a find if you hold it in your hand? Tang Mo speculates that it is more likely to be the latter. They have to take the loot from the hands of the monster's second team.

What Chen Shanshan has to do is not necessarily difficult. She's just raiding the third floor of The black tower, so maybe she doesn't have to do anything but help keep an eye on the monsters and "assist" in getting through the side quest.

But she did more than that.

It is impossible for an Underlander officer to discover all the loot hidden by the monsters; only profit can move the needle. So she incites one of the smarter looking The black tower monsters to gather more people and search the monsters one by one for all the loot that might be hidden away.

Find a piece of stolen goods and you will receive a reward. Up to one King's gold coin can be earned.

Anyone will be moved.

Now, the last thing the young girl can do is to save Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.