Chapter 90 - Sorry, 10th district residents are trash

It is getting dark. At 4.30 pm, the sun is already slanting in the west. A shining white five-pointed star blossoms in the western sky, blending in with the rounded sunset. Tang Mo stands on a small building, staring intently at the strange pentagram. Downstairs, several members of the Nanjing group have gathered.

"That's Team Xiao's signal." Fu Wensheng's startled voice rang out, and Tang Mo turned his head to see that his little friend had come out at some point, looking at the five-pointed star in the west. He explained, "A player in Nanjing exchanged information with us, the Nanjing team, for a very cheap prop as payment. His prop was this flare. There were four of them, and the captain of two of the five-pointed stars gave them to Xiao's team so that they could contact each other directly in case of emergency. This is the first time in the past month that Team Xiao has used this flare ... He's not in trouble, is he?"

Fu Wenduo's voice was calm: "There was time to send a flare, which means it could have been delayed, and it wasn't fatal. And this is Nanjing."

Hearing his elder brother say this, Fu Wensheng nodded, as if he had taken a reassuring pill.

Fu Wensheng quickly went downstairs to join his teammates. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo followed behind him, not quite making their way over, and stood at a distance watching the dozen or so members of the Nanjing group. There were forty-three members of the Nanjing group, twenty-six of whom were out on a mission and had not returned. The seventeen people in front of them were all the members of the Nanjing group.

Chai Rong said, "Xiao Jitong has sent a signal, so there must be something he wants us to do. So, Xiao Rong and I will take a few people with us, and you guys can stay here." He ordered ten players to stay where they were, while the other six went with him to find Xiao Jitong.

The young woman standing next to Chai Rong ponders for a moment and says calmly, "The fact that Xiao's team sent out a flare means it's not related to The black tower game, he's come across something else. It's likely to be a stowaway. You hold the base, I'll join the captain, and we'll send someone back in an hour to report whatever the situation is. Assuming no one comes back, you guys run."

Fu Wensheng, one of the ten people who were left behind, tried to say something at these words, but his mouth opened and closed.

Someone asked curiously, "We run?"

The woman nodded, "Even the captain can't handle the stowaways ... you'd better run away more practically."

Within a minute, Chai Rong and seven other players were in full gear and heading in the direction of the flare. The rest of the players didn't stay idle either, as they began to sort out all the useful props in the organisation, in case a powerful enemy did appear, they would need to be the first to respond.

Fu Wensheng came back and looked at Fu Wenduo: "Something may have happened. There was an incident two months ago when a group of stowaways attacked the base, and we lost a dozen members before they were repelled. Big brother, Tang ..." The voice stopped, Fu Wensheng didn't know what to call Tang Mo, he blinked awkwardly and finally just gave up: "I'm going to take shelter for now. If even Team Xiao thinks it's a problem, it must be a problem. It's a matter for the Nanjing team, I'm not too good at avoiding it ..."

The implication is that Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo do not belong to the Nanjing group and they can now leave.

Fu Wensheng said this, but his eyes were fixed expectantly on Fu Wenduo. He looked at his big brother seriously, without a trace of doubt in his eyes. Although Fu Wensheng had always bullied him as a child, and when he grew up he was overwhelmed by the Fu Wenduo name, Fu Wenduo was not a man who ran away from a fight. His big brother was reliable and responsible and would never leave him behind, not even he would leave the Nanjing group behind.

Before Fu Wensheng could say anything, however, a male voice rang out, "I'm going to check it out."

At these words, Fu Wenduo and Fu Wensheng turn their heads in unison and look at Tang Mo. Tang Mo says calmly, "Xiao Jitong, who I've had contact with, was already in a critical situation with the big turkey game, but he wasn't too nervous from the beginning to the end. He's a very calm person and wouldn't be in a hurry to let off a flare if something important wasn't going on." After a pause, he looked at Fu Wensheng: "You also said earlier that you got the flare for a month and this was the first time he used it?"

Fu Wensheng froze for a moment and nodded, "Yes, it's the first time Xiao has used it."

"That's interesting. Like your captain said, the fact that he was able to set off a flare means he's not in the copy right now, and the tricky thing has nothing to do with The black tower game. I don't think he's letting off flares because of the stowaways."

Fu Wensheng frowned, "Perhaps you don't know this, but Xiao's powers are very practical, but his force is not very high. If he does run into a powerful stowaway, he likely won't be able to fight, and will have to let off a flare in a pinch to get us over there."

Before Tang Mo could answer, Fu Wenduo said, "Given his level of caution, the fact that his powers are not offensive and that he doesn't have a strong ability to defend himself, then he must never act alone."

Fu Wensheng: "Yes, Team Xiao has been acting with Sister Ningning. Sister Ningning is very good, only a little bit worse than the captain."

"So he can't get away, won't he let Ningning get away and come out to report?"

Fu Wensheng was stunned, but soon he thought, "What if even Sister Ningning can't get out?"

Tang Mo laughed: "Then he would be even less likely to let off a flare. Ningning couldn't even escape, which means the enemy is stronger than anyone could have imagined. Nanjing's team wouldn't necessarily be useful if they went, but they might get themselves involved. When Xiao Jitong encounters a powerful stowaway, he will choose to take the back seat and let Ningning escape to report. Then the Nanjing and Raider teams would have joined forces and worked out a plan before going ahead. He wouldn't do such a rash and unplanned thing."

Fu Wensheng thought carefully about Tang Mo's words, and he did not refute them. Tang Mo was right.

Tang Mo: "Come on, let's go and see what's going on."

In the waning sunlight, Fu Wensheng had just figured out what had happened when he looked up and saw Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo striding out of the Nanjing group's base gate, heading for the Pentagram flare. He hurriedly followed them, "Brother, take me with you, I want to see what's going on too."

Fu Wenduo stops in his tracks and looks down at Fu Wensheng. Fu Wensheng's face straightens as he looks at him, and he walks forward in earnest. Fu Wenduo looks at him steadily for a moment, the corners of his mouth curling up, and then, without stopping him, the three of them walk together towards the place where the flare was fired.

There was one thing Tang Mo didn't say, but he knew: Fu Wenduo understood what he meant.

Neither Tang Mo nor Fu Wenduo would have chosen to walk up to Xiao Jitong for no reason and see what was going on, if only because the person who fired the flare was Xiao Jitong and they had contact with him. Their curiosity was not that great. The real reason ...

Tang Mo looked up, staring intently at the huge The black tower suspended in the sky.

"It's too close. ..." Tang Mo murmured.

Fu Wensheng didn't quite catch it: "What did you say?"

Tang Mo shook his head, "Nothing."

Fu Wensheng didn't know Tang Mo very well, and his impression of him was still that of "that powerful player who inexplicably killed a psychopath and looked scary and unpredictable". He didn't ask any more questions.

Fu Wenduo looked at Tang Mo when he heard this, but he curled his lips and followed Tang Mo's gaze to The black tower.

Xiao Jitong was too close to The black tower where the flare was fired.

The dazzling five-pointed star is sandwiched between the red sunset and the black tower, with the sunset to its left and The black tower to its right. The position is so subtle that one has to wonder if Xiao Jitong's emergency is related to The black tower.

It is best if there is no relationship.

Tang Mo thinks to himself.

The Nanjing group's base is some distance away from Xinjiekou, and after a half hour's walk, the trio arrived at the bottom of The black tower. Chai Rong was surprised to see Fu Wensheng, and immediately went up to him and asked, "Whisper, what brings you here?"

Fu Wensheng justified: "I followed my brother here."

Fu Wenduo raises one eyebrow and gives Fu Wensheng a quick glance. Fu Wensheng subconsciously scowled, but he soon puffed up his chest again.

Chai Rong: "..."

"It's different when you have a brother." Chai Rong couldn't reprimand Fu Wensheng in front of Fu Wenduo," he muttered.

In the centre of Xinjiekou Square is a tall statue of Sun Yat-sen, above which a black tower hovers a hundred metres in the sky. Xiao Jitong and Ningning are standing below The black tower, and when they see Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo, Ningning clutches the silver crossbow in his arms, Xiao Jitong is surprised for a moment and then laughs: "Mr. Tang, Mr. Fu. "

Tang Mo walked over and said directly, "What's going on. Something to do with The black tower?"

Xiao Jitong doesn't wonder why Tang Mo would know about The black tower, as he leads Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo outside the square. Standing on the road, he looked up at The black tower. The bright sun shone on The black tower, but the light was all absorbed by the tower and there was no light at all. Tang Mo looks at the black tower carefully, and after a long time, he is about to ask what is going on, when he suddenly looks away.

Eyes slowly widening, the next moment Tang Mo exclaimed, "What's that?!"

Xiao Jitong smiles and nods, "Yes, that's the one."

Three tiny white dots of light appear on the huge tower of The black tower. These three dots are so small that if you don't look closely you won't be able to see anything unusual. The black tower is a hundred metres high and wide, but these three dots are only the size of a human fingernail. If Tang Mo's eyesight had not improved, he would not have been able to see these three dots of light.

Like half an ellipsis on a computer, the three small white dots light up in sequence from left to right. They all light up, and then all go dark. Then they light up again in turn from the far left, and so on.

Tang Mo observes for a moment and looks at Xiao Jitong with a serious expression: "What is that?" There was no more surprise in his tone, it was all solemnity.

The smile on Xiao Jitong's face faded: "I don't know."

What are the three little dots of light that keep lighting up on The black tower? No one knows. But this is something much more important than a stowaway attack.

Three months ago, The black tower was suddenly announced to be updated to version 2.0, and since then, there have been more rally copies and realistic copies, and every player has to attack the tower once in three months. Now The black tower is experiencing another anomaly.

Tang Mo immediately thought, "Is this only in Nanjing's The black tower, or is it in all the black towers in the world?" Tang Mo had looked at the The black tower in Shanghai before coming to Nanjing, and had not noticed this strange light spot. There was a 90% chance that it was not there, and a 10% chance that he had not found it.

Chai Rong: "I've sent someone to Zhenjiang to see what's going on, and Xiao Jitong suspects this too."

All that could be done was done, and everyone stood still, watching the three dots of light on The black tower pulsate.

"Why did you find it?" A low voice suddenly sounded.

Xiao Jitong turned his head to look. He looks at Fu Wenduo and after a moment laughs, "It's a coincidence."

"It's because of me."

All eyes turned to Ningning.

Ningning stood by during the discussion, not saying a word. Holding her crossbow, she said coldly, "Every time I survive a game of The black tower, I come here and look at this The black tower. Xiao accompanied me here. The copy we cleared this time was very close to here, so instead of going back to the base, we came straight here. I would look at it very closely so I saw those three dots."

"When was the last time you came to see The black tower?" Tang Mo suddenly said.

Ningning froze for a moment, "About ten days ago. It was after we cleared the big turkey game and I came over to look at it myself at lunchtime."

Tang Mo: "When you came to see it ten days ago, you didn't see those three dots?"

Ningning: "No."

Tang Mo: "Are you sure you're reading this right?"

Ningning was adamant: "I can't be wrong. I sit here and watch for an hour at a time before I leave."

Tang Mo senses that something is wrong and looks to Xiao Jitong, who smiles at him and shakes his head. Tang Mo didn't ask any more questions.

Everyone has their own fetishes, just like Tang Mo likes to kick the monolith underneath The black tower after he's been pummeled by it. It's not impossible that Ningning likes to sit here and look at The black tower.

All of a sudden things are at a standstill again.

"Right now we don't know exactly when these three dots appeared and whether it was only Nanjing that had them." Xiao Jitong analyses, "But there is no doubt that these three spots are definitely unusual. Chai Rong, you get someone to barricade the area and don't let any other players in for now."

Chai Rong nods his head.

Tang Mo: "At least ten days ago, these three dots were not present. That is, on February 23rd, there were not these three points ..."

The sun is slowly setting and the sky is darkening. As the sunlight dips into the horizon, the three small shining bright spots gradually become clearer. Still hard to spot, but not completely invisible.

Tang Mo: "Find someone! Determine exactly when these three points appear."

Chai Rong froze: "Looking for someone?"

Xiao Jitong already understood what Tang Mo meant: "Yes, find people! During the day these three spots are hard to spot, but at night it becomes much easier to see them. Chai Rong, go and look for people. Look for the players who live around here. This city is different from others in that the players are more settled and there are bound to be players who stay in the same place all the time and don't change locations. We can ask them if they have seen these three spots and when they saw them. That way we can know exactly when these three dots appeared."

Without further delay, Chai Rong arranged for members of the Nanjing team to find players living near The black tower.

Xiao Jitong is right to say that in any other city, such an approach would be unlikely to work. Because now players all over the world are like birds of a feather, they are constantly on the run for food and water. But Nanjing is different.

Players generally like to congregate near the bases of large organisations where they are safe and secure, such as the large shopping malls where Atak is based and where many preppers are based. The exception to this is cities like Nanjing, which are too settled. Players don't need to find a large organisation to rely on, they can just find a place to stay.

The Nanjing group is very well respected in Nanjing and after half an hour, they had found over twenty players living near The black tower.

Xiao Jitong told them briefly what had happened, and they shook their heads in unison, saying that they had never seen the three dots. They hadn't even looked that closely.

After another ten minutes, Ningning brought back a fourteen-year-old girl from junior high school. The girl was very small, and when she saw the members of the Nanjing and Raider groups, she was scared and curious. When Ningning told her who Chai Rong and Xiao Jitong were, her eyes lit up and she said, "... You're Team Chai and Team Xiao? I've seen that before!"

Xiao Jitong: "When did you see that?!"

I went into copy 279 nine days ago and just got out," the female junior recalled. The night before I entered the copy I thought I saw some kind of bright spot when I looked at The black tower, flickering above The black tower, but I wasn't sure if it was these three dots ... The block building I live in is a bit far away."

The crowd's hopes had just been raised a little, and were quickly dashed.

Xiao Jitong pulls the girl aside and asks her carefully about every detail of what she saw. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo walked farther away from the coverage of The black tower. As the three points were close to the tip of The black tower, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo found the tallest office building nearby, went to the rooftop and stood closer to observe The black tower.

Tang Mo has seen three of The black tower in total.

The black tower in Suzhou, The black tower in Shanghai and The black tower in Nanjing.

Each of the black towers looks identical from the outside and there are no differences.

Looking at The black tower, Tang Mo has a strange feeling in his heart. It was as if he had gone back in time four months ago. During those six months, he had sat by the window of the library countless times, bored with the task at hand, and turned his head to look at the black tower. At that time, The black tower was still a shadow, untouchable.

It now presses heavily above the earth, and three tiny points of light flicker continuously at the tips of its towers.

After settling down, Tang Mo said, "Seventy percent chance that the girl was right. She's a normal prepper who's more interested in staying alive at a time like this than in seeing The black tower. But she was the only one who said she had seen the light on The black tower. Ningning had come ten days earlier and had not seen the light. She also saw the three dots on the night ten days ago." After a pause, Tang Mo states the number: "February 23rd."

Tang Mo tightened his brow, pondering what was so special about this day. At that moment, Fu Wenduo whispered, "One hundred days since the Earth went online."

Tang Mo froze abruptly as he quickly turned his head to look at Fu Wenduo.

Fu Wenduo said lightly, "On November 15, Earth went online. By February 23rd, it will be exactly one hundred days."

Tang Mo is a bright light.

Yes, February 23rd, exactly one hundred days after The black tower was announced to be live on Earth. If there's anything special about this day, it would be this. But ...

"Is there a special game for one hundred days?" Tang Mo looks at Fu Wenduo, "There is a Christmas Eve game at Christmas time. The black tower didn't respond to the New Year or the Chinese New Year after that. Assuming that the three points of light are really related to the one hundred days that the Earth has been online, it is now March 5th and ten days have passed. Ten days ... So why ten days?" Ten days have passed and The black tower has not reacted.

Fu Wenduo curled his lips and looked steadily at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo looked at him, wanting to hear an answer from him. But after a long time, Fu Wenduo still looked at him with a smile and did not answer.

Tang Mo: "... Fu Wenduo ?"

Fu Wenduo: "I don't know."

Tang Mo: "..."

It's as if the teacher is eagerly watching the student in class, waiting for the student to give an answer. But I didn't expect the students to say "I don't know" so bluntly. Although there was nothing wrong with Fu Wenduo's remark, Tang Mo felt that something was strange. After spending a lot of time with this person, I always felt that he knew everything. At least when it comes to some questions, Fu Wenduo always has an alternative answer.

Tang Mo is generally a neat, methodical and logical thinker. Fu Wenduo, on the other hand, is always able to think and do something unexpected. This kind of open-mindedness is very aggressive, sharp and impactful. This is why he and Fu Wenduo also have a tacit understanding: they can complement each other and think of things that the other has not thought of.

Like him and Viktor, the two have very different styles when it comes to bridge. Tang Mo is more orthodox and straightforward, while Viktor is more deceptive and strange. The two work together, instead, in a meticulous and leak-free manner, making up for every shortcoming.

Tang Mo's heart twitched slightly as the name inexplicably came to mind.

"Tang Mo?"

When his name was suddenly called, Tang Mo shook his head and put the strange feeling aside. He said, "Maybe Xiao Jitong has figured out the connection between February 23rd and the 100 days on Earth. Let's go down and exchange information with them, and then we'll figure out together how these three points ... are going to work.

The sound stops abruptly.

Fu Wenduo reached out and wrapped his hands around Tang Mo's shoulders and cradled his face from behind him. Tang Mo's breath caught in his throat as he froze in disbelief as the hot palm pressed against his face. At that moment, he felt Fu Wenduo pull his face to the side.

As if making way for something.

Tang Mo looked back, "What's wrong?"

Fu Wenduo's gaze was fixed on Tang Mo's back. Tang Mo sensed a hint of something wrong and was just about to turn his head to see what was happening when Fu Wenduo's other hand was already pressed against his shoulder. With one hand on the right side of Tang Mo's face and the other on his shoulder, Fu Wenduo turned Tang Mo around with a slight pressure.

"It stopped."

The sky was dark and an icy wind blew from afar, rolling across the rooftop floor. Fu Wenduo's voice sounded in Tang Mo's ears and his heart lurched. Immediately afterwards, Tang Mo looked in the direction Fu Wenduo had turned his body, and when he looked clearly, his lips parted slightly.

"... Stopped?!"

Below The black tower, Ningning suddenly stood up and said in a cold voice, "Stop."

Xiao Jitong, who was questioning the junior high school girl, looked over at Ningning and then ran as fast as he could to the square to look up at the three tiny white dots of light. At the top of The black tower, the three Little Bai dots, which had been flashing, suddenly stopped flashing.

The three white dots are framed on the black tower, no longer bouncing, but simply standing out above it.

A strong sense of danger rushes through Tang Mo's mind as his gaze sweeps over a Western clock in a distant belfry. On the clock dial, the hour hand was pointing at 6 and the minute hand was about to cross to 12, just one small square away.

17:59.

"Get the hell out of Nanjing!" Tang Mo shouted. He didn't know why this thought had suddenly come to him, but he had a vague feeling that he was right. This was the effect of Chen Shanshan's super-intelligent mind, which gave him a 10% chance of being right about every single thing.

Fu Wenduo let go of his hand on Tang Mo's face. He was going to ask Tang Mo why, but when he saw Tang Mo's solemn expression, he didn't ask.

"Good."

Tang Mo immediately turned to run down the stairs, but Fu Wenduo took him by the hand: "Go straight there."

Tang Mo looked at him in shock and soon saw Fu Wenduo holding him around the waist and almost carrying him on his shoulders. Before Tang Mo could react to anything, Fu Wenduo had already leapt over three skyscrapers with him in his arms and was moving away from The black tower.

Tang Mo was stunned by this desperate act of flying through the air. When he reacted, he was about to break away when suddenly a child's voice rang out over Nanjing. At the same time, the voice resonated across the land of China. Hundreds of crisp children's voices hummed a familiar melody in unison; it didn't have lyrics, but Tang Mo listened for a moment and realised, "The Painters?"

It's the melody of 'The Painters'.

Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo stopped at the top of a building not far away and gazed at the huge black tower. The black tower was glowing with a white light, like tiny stars. The glow was not blinding, but it was eerie, and it was accompanied by the overwhelming sound of singing children's voices. Tang Mo clenched his fingers as the cold evening breeze blew by.

After humming "The Painters" once, the white light stops abruptly.

"Dingdong! March 5, 2018, China Zone 10 is confirmed to open an additional copy of 'The Endbringer's Trash Sweeper Game'."

"The rules of the game--"

"First, from 18:00 on 5 March 2018 to 06:00 on 6 March 2018, all players who have set foot in China 6, China 49, China 194 ... China 1002 are considered to be players in that area and participate in the game ."

"Secondly, the game will be played from 18:00 to 6:00 the following day in the ten districts listed above."

"Third, a group of rabbit-heads will appear every hour. Killing a rabbit-headed person earns you a badge."

"Fourth, 11 waste stations in China 6 and 5 waste stations in China 49. ... 6 waste stations in China 1002."

"Fifth, send your SURPRISE to the rubbish disposal to pass the game."

"Sixth, each player may only enter the rubbish disposal once."

"Seventh, players who pass the game will receive a break and can attack the tower only once within six months from now."

"Eighth, the loser immediately enters the Tower Attack game, which is played on Hard mode."

"Ninth, the list of ten districts is announced. China Zone 6: Nanjing, China Zone 49: Dongying ... China Zone 1002: Guyuan."

"Ding dong! With all due respect to The black tower, I'm not talking about anyone in particular, I'm talking about everyone in the above ten districts, they're all rubbish."

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What the author has to say.

The world's first stowaway to clear the first and first floors of The black tower [Mr. Fu] & the world's first official player to clear the tower game on hard mode [Tangtang]: ... I have a MMP sentence in mind, I don't know if I should say it or not.

The black tower: Hot chicken! You're all chickens! Sooooooooooooooooooooooo!