Chapter 103 - Why are the Chinese so impressive?

The black tower version 3.0 update is over and all is quiet again.

Tang Mo hid in the clothing shop and did not move. After waiting for about three minutes, in the darkness of the night, he saw a small, thin figure pass quickly out of the mall across the road. The figure darted into a nearby shopping street with great speed and soon disappeared. He waited for another five minutes before Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo left through the back door of the clothing shop.

In the darkness of the night, the two of them are like a wind. Under the dappled shadows of the trees on either side of the road, the leaves rattled. It was impossible to see their movements, only the leaves moving in the wind suggested that two people had run under the trees.

Soon, the two men returned to the car park and found Fu Wensheng.

Fu Wensheng saw that it was Tang Mo, and only then did he drop the weapon he was holding so tightly. He said sharply, "Well?"

Tang Mo's face was complicated, his face was not ugly, but it was definitely not pretty either. Fu Wensheng saw this and looked at his elder brother again. Fu Wenduo went straight to the passenger seat and drove the car into a private garage, where he got out of the car and pulled the roller shutter door shut. The three of them quietly hid in the abandoned private garage.

There was silence in the dark underground car park.

Tang Mo takes a torch out of his backpack and fixes the bulb upwards with two bricks. A bright white light shines on the ceiling, illuminating the small garage. He takes a stone and pushes a jug of petrol onto the garage floor. The dark petrol quickly dripped onto the floor, and Tang Mo dipped a stone into it and drew it directly onto the floor.

"There were three dots. The first dot blinked very fast, blinking nearly ten thousand times. Since you and I were both distracted when it first started flashing ..." Tang Mo looked up at Fu Wenduo, who had drawn a small circle on the ground and written '9927' next to it. He said, "At a rough estimate, this dot flashed 10,000 times."

Fu Wenduo: "The second dot blinked 364 times."

Tang Mo nods and draws another small circle underneath the first one and writes "364".

The two men stopped talking and stared carefully at the two small circles, staring at them in thought. Fu Wensheng did not understand what they were talking about, but he did not interrupt. After half a minute, Tang Mo picks up another stone and draws a third small dotted circle underneath. The stone pokes the ground and makes a clattering sound. Tang Mo finishes drawing the dotted circle and then writes a '2'.

"This point of light flashed far more weakly than the previous one, and flashed twice in total."

Fu Wenduo defaulted to this number and asked, "Was there this point when version 2.0 went live three months ago?"

"There." Tang Mo drew two more small circles to the left of the three he had just drawn, and as he did so he said, "First is the first light dot, which flashed 62 times. This is the exact figure, I've been watching it all the time and I haven't missed it. The black tower in version 2.0 has only two dots, the first of which is similar to the first two dots we saw today, both of which are relatively solid. The second point, too, is a fainter, darker point. In total ..."

Tang Mo held the stone and wrote a number on the ground, "It only blinked once in total."

The black tower was updated three months apart, and in each case, the black tower flashed a white dot before the official announcement of the update. The white dots are divided into solid and hollow dots, with version 2.0 having two dots and version 3.0 having an additional solid dot. In addition to this ...

Tang Mo said calmly, "The number of light dots flashing has become more frequent and increased very much."

Fu Wenduo: "62 times became more than 9,000, imaginary dots became solid dots and blinked 364 times. What were you and Luo Fengcheng thinking three months ago ...?"

Tang Mo was not surprised that Fu Wenduo guessed that he was with Luo Fengcheng and that he had discussed the strange white dots with him. Fu Wenduo found the Atak organisation just a few days after The black tower version 2.0 was updated. It is not surprising that he guessed this. And indeed, given Tang Mo and Luo Fengcheng's character, they would not have let go of these white dots, which were obviously valuable and represented something.

Tang Mo looked steadily at Fu Wenduo and gave the answer: "Luo Fengcheng and I presumed that ... the white dots represented the number of floors of The black tower."

Fu Wenduo's face was not surprised, and Fu Wensheng, who had been listening to them for half a day, now understood.

Tang Mo explains, "There are seven levels of The black tower. No one in the world has cleared the third level yet, which means that players will only clear two levels at most." Tang Mo circled a larger circle around the outside of the three solid circles, adding in the top and the three smaller circles. On November 22, Fu Wenduo, you were the first player in the world to clear the first level of The black tower. Since then, players from nine other zones around the world have also cleared The black tower. The latest of these zones was the 18th of December, when someone cleared The black tower level one. So it's not impossible that 62 players from around the world will have cleared The black tower level 1 by the time The black tower version 2.0 is updated on January 1. What's more important is what the hollow dot of light on the second level represents."

Fu Wensheng guesses: "Does that light point represent the first floor of The black tower?" He soon denied it himself: "But no one had cleared the second level of The black tower at that time. The first player to clear the new tower attack game in each of the ten global regions is notified globally."

"It's true that no one cleared the first floor of The black tower at that time, it was a few more days before your brother did so."

Fu Wensheng wondered, "And what exactly does this second dot of light represent, it flashes once."

Tang Mo: "This is what Luo Fengcheng and I guessed. The dots still represent the number of levels in The black tower, but the second dot only lights up halfway before it goes out, and the light is dimmer than the first one. This probably means that someone from ... had broken through the second level of The black tower, but he failed, so the light point belonging to him did not light up. For example," Tang Mo looked at Fu Wenduo after a pause, "I remember that Mr. Fu was pulled into the first floor of The black tower at the end of November, but failed."

Fu Wenduo hooks his lips slightly.

That was three months ago. Tang Mo suddenly heard Fu Wenduo's voice, and he turned on the fire egg to help Fu Wenduo get through the first floor of The black tower. Unfortunately, Fu Wenduo failed to do so. He read the archive by suicide and found a way out of the first floor.

From what the trio have been told so far, the dots represent the number of levels in The black tower and the number of times the dots flash represents the number of people who have passed the level, which makes perfect sense.

Tang Mo looks at the small circle on the floor and speaks calmly: "So now, more than 364 players worldwide have cleared The black tower level 2. And on the third level of The black tower, there are two players who have tried. They failed. They may have died in the game, or they may have survived. These two people, first of all, are not me and Fu Wenduo."

Fu Wensheng thought, "Could it be a Chinese person?"

Fu Wenduo was the first player in China to clear the first and second levels of The black tower, and it's not too much to say that he is objectively the strongest player in China, but he didn't try to clear the third level of The black tower. But that doesn't mean that no other Chinese player has attempted it.

Tang Mo: "As far as I know, there are no such players in Shanghai. Generally speaking, most cities in China would be like Handan, where we are now, with less population than Beijing and Shanghai, and not as many resources as these big cities. The level of players is quite average." For example, in the 3.0 update of The black tower, there was only one player in Handan who went to check out the situation around The black tower.

After a pause, Tang Mo looks at Fu Wenduo: "If the two players trying to get through the third floor of The black tower are Chinese, they are most likely to come from Beijing. Mr. Fu, you once said that there was a very powerful stowaway group in Beijing, a very powerful stowaway?"

"That group is called Chosen." Fu Wenduo also picks up a stone and roughly draws a map of Beijing's city circuit on the ground, "Their home base is in Chaoyang District. When I left Beijing four months ago, their leader had already cleared the ground floor of The black tower. Now, four months on, he's really likely to take on the third floor of The black tower."

Tang Mo: "What exactly does that player's powers look like?"

Fu Wenduo recalled: "I'm not sure about the exact powers, but he can change the area re ..." The voice stopped abruptly, and Fu Wenduo looked at the Beijing map on the ground in surprise.

In the dimly lit private garage, the air freezes for a moment. Fu Wenduo's hand still rests in mid-air, Tang Mo's eyes slowly widen. Both of their faces show a stunned application at the same time, and the next moment they look at each other at the same time, speaking in unison -

"Is his name Ruan Wangshu?"

"His name is Ruan Wangshu."

Fu Wensheng looked at them in confusion: "What is it? What Ruan Wangshu ? Brother, Brother Tang?"

Tang Mo slowly pursed his lips as he motionlessly dipped the stone into some more petrol and wrote three words on the ground. After writing these three characters, he paused for a moment and wrote out three more. Fu Wensheng did not know who " Ruan Wangshu" was, but when he saw the last three characters written by Tang Mo, he exclaimed, "Eh, practice Yu Zheng? Brother Tang, what are you writing about her for?"

Tang Mo's face was grave. He looked at the children and said word for word, "Because ... thirty seconds ago, The black tower issued a notice that Ruan Wangshu, a stowaway from China 1, and Yu Zheng, a regular player, had successfully cleared The black tower Level 2 (difficult mode)."

Fu Wensheng's eyes widened in disbelief and after half a day, he shouted, "Lian Yuzheng? That hot female singer Lian Yu Zheng?

Nanjing, New Nanjing Group.

Chai Rong was practising boxing when he suddenly heard the sound and was so frightened that he broke the sandbag with a punch.

Shanghai, Atak Organization.

Jackass is the only member of the organisation who hears this voice. He rubs his head in confusion and walks towards Luo Fengcheng's office, a folder of information in his hand. Inside the folder was a thick stack of paper with two lines of writing showing at the top, the top line clearly reading: Bai Ruoyao, Yuzhong District, Chongqing ...

Situations such as these are also occurring across the globe.

Some players were surprised when they first heard the beep to pass the Hard Mode game and said, "Eh, Hard Mode? Who are those two China players and how did they get through Hard Mode." Others, however, were used to it and mumbled the two odd China names once and stopped paying attention.

A clear child's voice rang out in the minds of 364 players worldwide -

"Dingdong! China 1 stowaway Ruan Wangshu and official player Lian Yu Zheng have successfully cleared The black tower level 2 (hard mode)."

"Dingdong! China Zone 1 stowaway Ruan Wangshu ..."

The black tower global briefing, three times in total.

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The author has something to say.

Foreign gamer: I feel like they're Chinese people, they're all Chinese people. Why are they all Chinese? [confused

China player: Hey, hey, hey, hey, call your dad!