Chapter 145 - Mr. Fu School, do we know each other well?

Li Chaocheng's speech is incoherent, his eyes averted, obviously still thinking about how he can escape and not wanting to reveal information. Tang Mo flips his fingers and there is a crisp buzzing sound as the sharp blade plunges straight into the dirt. The cold knife pressed against Li Chaocheng's severed finger, just a hair's breadth away from piercing his flesh.

The middle-aged man's eyes widened in shock as Tang Mo looked up at Chen Shanshan: "Shanshan, press his hand for me again."

Li Chaocheng immediately said, "Wait ... wait, I've said it all, what more do you want me to say. This is the time chart, it just came out of nowhere, and those who don't have extra time off, are meat pigs." Li Chaocheng said, and when he saw Jackass' disgruntled expression, he hurriedly explained, "Eh, I didn't come up with that name. I don't know who first called it that, I just heard it from someone and followed it ... I've told you all I know, that's all I really know!"

Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan look at each other.

Chen Shanshan's tone was calm: "Where is South Asia 1, India?"

Li Chaocheng: "I don't know."

"There are no top 50 time charts named Dejan Galava."

Li Chaocheng's face changed and he looked at the knife in Tang Mo's hand, gritted his teeth and said, "Dijan Galava is dead, killed two months ago. He used to be 20th or so. He was the one who started the time rankings, but that won't affect his ranking."

Li Chaocheng's face was hard when he said this, but his tone was firm. Tang Mo nods at Chen Shanshan, and they confirm that Li Chaocheng is not lying. In that case ...

Tang Mo said lightly, "Mu Huixue is the kind of person."

Li Chaocheng: "I don't know."

Tang Mo raises one eyebrow.

Li Chaocheng hurriedly said, "I really don't know. She's from China 3, I've always been in China 1, so it's impossible for us to meet except in game. I've never really met her, I've only met one of the returnees who is 36th on the time chart."

Chen Shanshan: "How many players have cleared the third floor of The black tower in Returners."

Li Chaocheng hesitates for a few seconds before answering honestly: "I don't know how many, but there must be a lot. Last month I cleared The black tower level three, and everyone on the time chart has cleared The black tower level three at least. Mu Huixue seems to have cleared The black tower level four."

After hearing Li Chaocheng's words, Jackass looked worriedly at Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan. However, there was no hint of surprise, as if they had already guessed the outcome. Jackass scratched his head in confusion, but after a moment, he dropped his hand and understood why.

The six billion players who disappeared six months ago call themselves Returnees, and The black tower demands that they work hard to attack it so that they can return to Earth. They have taken part in countless games, every day and every night, as soon as they open their eyes, they are playing, without even taking a break at all. Just after leaving one game, they can only rest for ten minutes before they move on to the next one.

Everything is of a forced nature and there is no choice at all.

In such a situation, human beings grow numb. They don't know where the future lies, they don't know how long they will live. Perhaps a lucky escape in this game and death in the next. They have to do more than just get through the game, they have to protect themselves and not get fatally wounded. Because every time they are injured they don't have all the time in the world to heal. Going into the next copy with an injury almost means death.

No more powerful human being could survive such a terrible game; they would surely die, it was just a question of how long they would live.

It wasn't until the time charts opened that the returners found a direction.

It turns out that they can live.

Under this leaderboard, the powerful returnees gradually have a break. They can rest and become stronger by hunting down players on the time chart to gain time, and even props. It is a circular circle, with the stronger players becoming stronger and the weaker players becoming weaker.

Chen Shanshan asked Li Chaocheng about the strength of the returnees, and Li Chaocheng's answer surprised Tang Mo, but on the surface he remained calm and did not let Li Chaocheng see the flaw.

Li Chaocheng's mind was also baffled.

Why are the players on Earth so strong? A human who has just cleared the first level of The black tower is so powerful that he is almost in the top 50 of the Time Rankings.

If this is the case, the so-called "return" of the returnees looks like a sheep in a tiger's mouth.

Li Chaocheng's eyes rolled and a million thoughts flashed through his mind. His mouth continued to reveal information about the returnees, and he looked very timid. Tang Mo had the list of the top fifty in the Time Rankings, and Li Chaocheng went on to name the next fifty. Just as he reached the ninetieth place, a faint glow lit up his body.

Li Chaocheng's body trembled as he instantly understood what it was and his face showed surprise. In the next moment, however, a sharp knife pierced his heart. Li Chaocheng's eyes straightened and he looked up at Tang Mo in front of him. Tang Mo calmly withdrew the knife and put it in his pocket.

Like Tang Mo said, he did have the strength to kill Li Chaocheng before he disappeared.

Li Chaocheng's eyes glazed over and blood spilled from the corners of his mouth as he made a resentful sound from his throat, "You ... you ..."

Tang Mo: "By the way, there's something I haven't told you. In fact, you guessed right, this rubber rope tied to you has a causal law effect, and no one can untie it after being tied. But its karmic time is only one minute, after which you can break it free." After a pause, Tang Mo looked bland: "I am telling the truth, but of course, you can choose to believe it or not."

Li Chaocheng's body trembled violently, and he stared at Tang Mo with hatred and resentment, as if he wanted to cut him to pieces. But he was dead after all. He stared at Tang Mo in death, and the moment his breathing stopped, the golden figures suspended around his neck shattered.

Li Chaocheng's body slowly disappears into thin air.

After Li Chaocheng disappeared, Chen Shanshan put his water pen away, looked at the list on the paper and said to Tang Mo, "There are only ninety people in total, and the names of ten more are unknown. Brother Tang Mo, this list should be true, there is no need for him to lie and deceive us on purpose. It's just a pity that he's already dead." The young girl was a little sorry, she actually wanted to ask Li Chaocheng some more information, for example she was going to ask Li Chaocheng if there were any powerful organisations among the returnees. The young girl guessed that Li Chaocheng might not know about these things, as the Returnee camp seemed to be very loose and there was very little cooperation between players, but it would be better to ask.

Tang Mo: "The Returners are not like us. The surviving players on Earth don't necessarily have an interest in each other, and apart from crazy stowaways who like to kill people and strange psychic powers like Taotie, normal players don't kill people, and our common enemy is The black tower and The black tower games."

Every returnee is technically an enemy. You get time for killing others, and even more for killing those on the time chart.

Tang Mo pondered for a moment and said, "The more powerful the returnee, the harder it should be to work with."

Jackass understands this too: "Yes, there are so many benefits to killing powerful returnees, and the first place winner, Mu Huixue, gets a chance to come back to life. It's a pity they didn't die in The black tower, but were killed by humans. Otherwise I would have found a chance to kill that Mu Huixue and revive them."

Tang Mo The three men looked around cautiously to make sure there were no more ambushes before they entered the house together.

This was indeed Fu Wensheng's house, with the word "Fu" written on a nameplate next to the large metal door. Tang Mo pried open the lock and entered the house, checked the door and found some food and water. Jackass went to patrol the area while Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan went into the study on the first floor.

Once in the study, the two men spread the list of time charts on the desk. Tang Mo took a pen and drew out all the names of China on the list, including Li Chaocheng, who had just died, making a total of twenty-four.

"All the people on the time chart have cleared the third floor of The black tower, but very few have cleared the fourth floor of The black tower." Chen Shanshan's brittle voice rang out, a girl with a firm tone and a maturity unbecoming of her age. She looked at the three words at the top of the leaderboard and said, "Even Mu Huixue has only cleared the fourth level of The black tower. Brother Tang Mo, according to my speculation and that of my teacher, The black tower version 4.0 will only open once the returnees have cleared the fourth level of The black tower. My teacher speculates that something happened to Mu Huixue to stop the update, but that doesn't mean that she failed to clear The black tower."

Tang Mo thinks so too, and he has another idea: "Maybe Mu Huixue is still getting through the fourth floor of The black tower."

Chen Shanshan was stunned: "Still on the fourth level of The black tower?" Without waiting for Tang Mo to explain, the young girl's brow furrowed and after a moment of thought she understood what Tang Mo meant: "It's not impossible. The black tower often releases side quests and main quests, and in every tower attack game, there are almost always more than two quests. It's possible that Mu Huixue only completed one quest, and that she was about to clear the fourth floor of The black tower when she triggered a new quest, which caused The black tower update to stop." Suddenly, Chen Shanshan's voice stopped abruptly and her pupils trembled slightly as she looked up at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo also looked at this short, thin girl.

Their eyes met in the air and Tang Mo sighed softly, "It's a bit of a race against time. Shanshan, when are you and Jackass going to try out the third floor of The black tower? With Jackass' fighting prowess and your intelligence, together you should be able to clear it."

Chen Shanshan nodded, "I'll be there in a couple of days."

The active challenge of the tower attack game was set.

Li Chaocheng thought Tang Mo was really the bottom of the 400 million surviving humans, having only cleared one level of The black tower. However, Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan knew that although Tang Mo was not good at force, he was at the top of the surviving players and it would be extremely difficult to kill him, but rather easy for him to kill back.

The returnees are veteran gamers who have played countless The black tower games. Tang Mo doesn't even dare to compare the number of The black tower games he has played with them, perhaps he, Fu Wenduo and Chen Shanshan have played less than a fraction of Li Chaocheng's games combined.

In a world where lives are on the line and games have to be played, the average returnee is far more powerful than the surviving players. Now Mu Huixue is likely still raiding the fourth floor of The black tower, and if she succeeds, The black tower will be updated to version 4.0 and the two worlds will merge.

Time is running out and they must seize every moment to improve their strength.

"The players on the Time Rankings are definitely strong. That Li Chaocheng is actually very strong, but he's so cocky that he treats Jackass and I like real meat pigs and doesn't hide the flaws in his powers." Tang Mo analysed, "His powers are those strange steel needles that are very fast and hard, with only one drawback - they slow down after a long cast, and both hands cast more steel needles in one hand and less in the other."

It took Tang Mo a few minutes of observation before he noticed the discrepancy, which was difficult to see when all the pins were released together. He then chose to split up with Jackass and attack from both sides.

Li Chaocheng's strength is undeniable, what Tang Mo is really worried about is: "There may be more powerful people, stronger than Li Chaocheng, but they are not on the time chart." After a pause, Tang Mo corrected, "There must be more powerful people hiding in the shadows."

Chen Shanshan was gathering paper and pens when she heard this, and she stopped slightly. The young girl kept her head down and did not say a word, acquiescing to Tang Mo's statement. But then, the situation for the surviving humans would be even more difficult.

Chen Shanshan gathers his things and walks to the next bedroom to rest.

Tang Mo had just seen the dark circles under Chen Shanshan's eyes and had the rare opportunity to give her a good rest.

Tang Mo was left alone in the quiet study. He took a small, delicate matchbox out of his pocket and looked at it closely. He looked at it and then shook it vigorously. Finally, a line of small golden letters appeared on the matchbox.

[Props: Mosaic's Magical Matches]

[Owned by: Tang Mo].

[Quality: Fine].

[Grade: Level 3].

[Function: Light a match to get any item you want. The item must be an item the user has seen before, and can be a The black tower prop, but cannot be of a higher quality than Mosaic's magical matches. The item has a 24 hour life span and is automatically destroyed after 24 hours.

[Restriction: This match is a one-time item and will be destroyed after use].

[Remarks: Mosaic, it's snowing hard, people are eating chicken, she's lighting matches. Matches... Matches...]

Tang Mo looked at the last line of this note and actually hummed along in his mind. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly when he looked back up, coughed and put the box of matches back in his pocket. Mosaic's magical matches were such a terrible item that Tang Mo didn't even think it was a Fine quality item, but a Rare quality item, in terms of its function.

However, there are only three matches in total and the time limit for use is 24 hours.

Tang Mo closed his eyes and pondered as he began to think about where these three magical matches could be useful. Slowly, the corners of his mouth lifted, unable to hide his delight. Tapping his fingers rhythmically on the matchbox, Tang Mo reaches out again and takes a thin book out of the air, turning to the last page.

[Ability: Little Rain Pearly Needle]

[Owned by: Li Chaocheng (Returnee)

[Type: Atomic type].

[Function: When you raise your hands, you can release 1 to 100 steel needles. Steel needles travel at up to the speed of sound and are very hard.]

[Restriction: The longer you use a Steel Needle, the longer you use it, the fewer Steel Needles you can release. The flight speed of steel needles is inversely proportional to the number of steel needles; the number of steel needles released by the left hand is always more than three times the number of steel needles cast by the right hand].

[Remark: Tie, demon, watch my little rain pearly needle!

[Tang Mo version instructions: the maximum number of steel needles that can be released is 50, the maximum flight speed is 100m/s, and can only be used twice a day. Well ... steel needles are too thin for Tang Mo, I think Tang Mo would like something a bit thicker.

Tang Mo calmly watched the trolling of the alien book with an unchanged expression. He was already immune to this level of trolling and didn't feel anything unusual about it. But unaffected doesn't mean Tang Mo likes this cheap-mouthed piece of trash. He raises his hand to throw the cheap book back into the air, and just as he raises his hand for a moment, Tang Mo's eyes change.

The book of powers snapped to the floor and Tang Mo's feet kicked in, turning his body back and running towards the small balcony of the study. As he ran, he pulled out his parasol and quickly recited a spell, piercing the curtain and stabbing the person hiding outside the window. A black figure sidesteps him, just as he turns from the dim interior to the exterior, and the blinding sunlight causes Tang Mo to squint subconsciously.

After his opponent dodged, Tang Mo reacted quickly with a leg sweep that was again avoided.

The little parasol didn't work well in this kind of close combat, so Tang Mo threw it away, braced himself on one hand, leapt into mid-air and slammed his fist into his opponent. A warm, thick hand catches his fist and the man lets out a low chuckle, taking a half step backwards. At the sound, Tang Mo's heart fluttered and he looked up slowly, intending to stop there, but Fu Wenduo hooked his fist and smashed it into Tang Mo's face.

As if suddenly transported back to those afternoons when he taught fighting skills, Tang Mo reflexively sidestepped his head. Fu Wenduo's fist suddenly opened up as it hit Tang Mo's face, cutting through Tang Mo's hair. Tang Mo was not expecting such a change and was startled, wondering how to fight it off, when Fu Wenduo grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled him towards him with one force.

Tang Mo was caught off guard when he ran into the man's hard chest, which hurt a little. Before he realised the implications of Fu Wenduo's actions, a strong hand snapped directly around his throat.

Tang Mo's body stiffens and she looks up at the man in front of her in disbelief.

Fu Wenduo had one hand on the back of Tang Mo's head and one hand around his throat.

Tang Mo thought he was not as good as Fu Wenduo in close combat without the use of his powers, but after the real fight, he was still far from this man.

Fu Wenduo pursed his lips as his slightly rough fingers rubbed the youth's neck.

... feels somewhat better in the hand.

Tang Mo's throat twitched as his skin bumped into Fu Wenduo's fingers and they both froze. Fu Wenduo didn't withdraw his hand, and Tang Mo was silent for a moment, curling his lips helplessly as he said, "I don't think you've taught me this move before?"

Fu Wenduo had never really mentioned this kind of move to Tang Mo before, not even when they fought.

Someone broke the stiffness, and Fu Wenduo also curled his lips without moving, his low voice ringing out, "This trick is only taught to those who are familiar with it."

Tang Mo: "We didn't know each other well three months ago?"

Fu Wenduo raised an eyebrow: "Familiar?"

It would have been logical for Tang Mo to remove the man's hand now, but he didn't, and Fu Wenduo actually kept a choke hold on him. When the two men actually chatted in this position, the chokehold seemed a bit odd ... and more like fondling.

Tang Mo laughed and asked rhetorically, "So Mr. Fu School, we know each other well now?"

Fu Wenduo did not reply to this. He let go of his hands and Tang Mo stood up straighter, keeping a distance of ten centimetres between them. Fu Wenduo was about to say something when he caught a glimpse of something in his eyes, his face instantly sank and he took Tang Mo's wrist: "What's wrong?"