The Earth is Online

Tang Mo walked to the door, his right hand gripping the neck of the vase. Half his body was pressed against the door as he listened carefully to any movements outside. There was a dull noise from outside, as if the beat was baring its fangs and gathering strength.

In the corner, Xing Feng was trembling with fear. He tried to push himself deeper into the corner to reduce his sense of existence.

Tang Mo was listening to the movements of the wolf outside the door while the wolf outside was staring at the door. Both sides were stagnant. The moment there was a flash of a flint, Tang Mo threw the glowing stone in his left hand towards the window. The throw was very good, with the stone being stuck in the gap between the frame and the window.

The stone stuck to the frame and made a sound, breaking the deadlock. The shoe polish wolf screamed and rushed to the door. Tang Mo opened the door at the same time. The shoe polish wolf ran straight at him. He couldn’t see the wolf’s movements but he kicked it, throwing the thin wolf into the wall of the corridor.

The shoe polish wolf roared angrily. It moved its hind legs and rushed to Tang Mo again.

Tang Mo moved sideways to avoid its attack and entered the corridor. The glowing stone illuminated a small area of the corridor. Tang Mo didn’t know if the shoe polish wolf had the same terrible night ability as the wolf on Earth. But in any case, he couldn’t fight the wolf in the absence of light. Therefore, he acted first and made a light source for himself.

The shoe polish wolf’s speed was very fast. It was long and thin, its limbs slamming on the walls of the corridor as it constantly rushed at Tang Mo from all directions. Tang Mo’s vase smashed against its head, leaving a bleeding injury. The shoe polish wolf became more violent,. Its strength wasn’t too high but its speed was too fast. It pushed off the wall, leaping into the air and clawing at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo rolled across the ground and the two of them exchanged positions.

The black wolf roared angrily. Tang Mo grasped while his right hand held the broken vase neck.

One person and one wolf looked at each other in a narrow corridor.

The next moment, the shoe polish wolf launched an attack. Tang Mo rushed with the vase that broke in half. Two black shadows met halfway through. Tang Mo raised the vase and smashed it into the eyes of the shoe polish wolf. The wolf had been prepared. It turned its head and opened its sharp teeth, biting down on the vase.

There was a snap and the vase broke into four or five pieces.

At this moment, the shoe polish wolf flicked its right paw towards Tang Mo’s eyes. Tang Mo also prepared to evade to the side. At the same time, he also took advantage of when the shoe wolf bit the vase. He reached out quickly, grabbing a fragment in the air. Tang Mo’s cold eyes swept over the neck of the shoe polish wolf. He ran forward, his right hand moving.

The sharp porcelain piece slashed at the wolf’s neck, causing a huge gap from the front to the back of the neck.

Tang Mo squatted and took a few steps back. He raised his hand and wiped the blood from his right cheek. The shoe polish wolf’s paw had scratched him. Even if he had a plan, he couldn’t completely avoid it and received an injury. But behind him, the shoe polish wolf had fallen and slid along the corridor.

Tang Mo quickly walked towards it.

The neck of the shoe polish wolf was almost cut in half by Tang Mo. Only a little bit of flesh left it attached to the body. Thick blood flowed from its body and it kept groaning as the green eyes stared straight at Tang Mo. Tang Mo stared blankly at it. Then he bent over, picked up a broken porcelain piece and drove it into the head of the shoe polish wolf.

The shoe polish wolf was completely killed.

A green light flashed from the shoe polish wolf. Once the light disappeared, the body of the shoe polish wolf and the blood flowing down disappeared. A drop of pearl-like black liquid appeared where the shoe polish wolf had been.

Tang Mo picked up the shoe polish.

This shoe polish drop had a very strange texture, similar to mercury, which could be held directly. The black tower said that killing a shoe polish wolf would allow them to get a drop of shoe polish. Tang Mo really only got a drop of shoe polish. Even if he tried to separate the drop of shoe polish into two, the two halves would just gather together again.

Xing Feng trembled with excitement as he saw Tang Mo. “You... you defeated the shoe polish wolf easily? We might be saved, really saved!”

The wound on Tang Mo’s face had stopped bleeding but it wasn’t completely healed. He asked coldly, “What exactly is the shoe polish wolf? How did the other two people die? Who made the wounds on your body?”

The three consecutive questions made Xing Feng speechless.

Tang Mo sat down in the office chair and leaned very close to Xing Feng. Xing Feng trembled as he propped up his body with both hands, struggling to move forward. He wanted to stay away from Tang Mo. But Tang Mo directly kicked the wall, causing a big bang with his legs in front of Xing Feng.

The injured player was afraid and fell back.

Tang Mo raised his foot again and slammed it into the wall, shaking the entire office. His lips curved and he sneered. “Answer my three questions.”

Xing Feng looked at him with horror and finally opened his mouth. “The shoe polish wolf is... the thing you just killed. It appears once every three hours. One appears the first time, two the second time and then three. Killing the shoe polish wolf will give you a drop of shoe polish. If you... if you can’t kill the shoe polish wolf, it will disappear by itself after five minutes.”

Tang Mo asked, “It will disappear by itself?” Then as long as you hide for five minutes, you can avoid a frontal confrontation with the shoe polish wolf?

Xing Feng nodded fearfully. “Ye...yes. But 10 minutes after the shoe polish wolf appears, the Iron Shoemaker... the Iron Shoemaker will appear. He will ask you, ask if you have...”

Bang!

A loud noise interrupted Xing Feng’s words. Xing Feng’s face showed fear at this sound and he looked at the door with horror. Tang Mo heard a thudding sound from one end of the corridor, followed by the sound of the chains.

It came closer and closer, approaching the door of the office.

Tang Mo gripped the broken piece of porcelain he put in his pocket and stood up. He realized who this person was.

Three seconds later, a huge man appeared at the door. He had a chain in his right hand and a long nail in his left hand. His malicious eyes first looked at Xing Feng on the ground. Xing Feng shrank back and hid behind Tang Mo. Then the Iron Shoemaker looked at Tang Mo standing there.

The Iron Shoemaker smiled before hitting the table with the nail. “My shoe polish! You scum, have you found my shoe polish?”

The loud, impatient voice echoed in the office.

On the other side of the food processing factory, Fu Wenduo stood in the small room and looked at the small TV hanging in the corner.

On the screen, Wang Xiaotian wore a little blue dress and a swivel chair that came from some unknown place. She sat on the swivel chair, revealing a bright smile. “Today is a special feature of the Happy Quiz. We have invited a challenger. Let me see... wow! The challenger is very famous. You know his name!”

Fu Wenduo stared. On the screen, he could only see Wang Xiaotian’s figure. But after she said this sentence, there seemed to be the special effect common to every TV show as a burst of cheers emerged from the small TV.

Wang Xiaotian sweetly got to the climax of the story. “So... who is he?”

Fu Wenduo looked coldly at the screen. On the TV screen, the $5 special effect video appeared.

Then there was a line of black words.

“He is the first player in the world to open the black tower.”

This line disappeared and another line appeared.

“He is the first player in the world to clear the black tower.”

After the second line disappeared, the next line didn’t appear for a long time. Fu Wenduo waited a long time as the sound of swallowing came from the TV. It was from Wang Xiaotian. Tang Mo probably wouldn’t have heard this sound filled with greed and appetite that came from the cute cartoon character. But Fu Wenduo heard the sound of Wang Xiaotian swallowing her saliva with his special training.

Then a few words appeared on the screen. The last word was in a strong blood red colour. The blood dripping from this word fell to an invisible place below the TV screen.

“He is a— stowaway!”

Wang Xiaotian’s cartoon face appeared on the screen again. She was drooling. As soon as she discovered the camera was on her, she lifted a sleeve and wiped off her saliva. She smiled sweetly. “He is a player all the citizens of the Underground Kingdom are obsessed with. He won first place three consecutive times in Monster Weekly’s ‘Human I most want to Eat’ poll—”

“Fu Wenduo!”

Fu Wenduo stood in the groceries room, staring at the TV screen. He saw a cartoon man in black clothes emerge from one end of the screen. He walked and sat down in the chair opposite Wang Xiaotian. There were two words above his head.

[Fu Wenduo]

Wang Xiaotian said, “Our Player Fu is a bit silent. Why don’t you say something to the audience who likes you?”

Cartoon Fu Wenduo still didn’t open his mouth.

Wang Xiaotian’s gaze moved from mini Fu’s body. She turned her head and looked elsewhere. Her eyes seemed to be looking at the camera but her gaze strangely met the real Fu Wenduo outside the TV. She wiped at her saliva again and smiled strangely. “Since Player Fu doesn’t want to talk, let’s start. Let’s take a look at the first question. Oh, it is a very simple common sense question.”

Her playful voice echoed in the small room.

“Player Fu should easily be able to answer this question. Then please listen to the question!”

“The first question, who most likes to tease the stowaways in the world of the black tower?”

“A. Pinocchio, B. Cinderella... Geez, how can I be an option. This Wang Xiaotian never teases the stowaways. Wang Xiaotian covered her mouth and pretended to be surprised. “Oh, I accidentally ruled out a wrong answer for Player Fu. Then let’s continue. C. Mr. Martin, D. Uncle Gorilla. Which one will you choose, Player Fu? Which is the right option?”

“Our Player Fu has 20 seconds to consider, this is a sub-question. Can Player Fu guess the truth?”

At the same time, there was a small blue line in front of Fu Wenduo.

The blue text was suspended in midair, the contents being the question Wang Xiaotian asked just now. There were four options below this line. On the TV, there was a big question mark above the head of mini Fu Wenduo. Outside the TV, Fu Wenduo looked at the question and then Wang Xiaotian’s exaggerated acting.

He pressed option B with an expressionless face.

Wang Xiaotian exclaimed, “Eh? How can it be me? Player Fu, this is a sub-question. Are you sure you don’t want to change the answer?”

The mini Fu Wenduo on the TV didn’t answer her. Wang Xiaotian asked several times before finally saying helplessly, “Well, congratulations! Director, I want to protest! When do I like to play tricks on stowaways? I obviously only tease them occasionally!”

Wang Xiaotian spoke nonsense. Fu Wenduo naturally didn’t reply and the audience’s booing was quite loud. After seeing that there was no respond from Fu Wenduo, she became bored and asked the second question.

“This is the second question. In the Monster World, which monster eats the most stowaways?”

A. Shrek, B. Hulk, C. Grandmother Wolf, D. Big Mole.”

“Wow Director, you are opening the back door for Player Fu. This is cheating! This problem is too simple! I am going to protest on behalf of the audience! Protest!”

There was a buzzing sound from the audience.

Fu Wenduo’s expression sank as he looked at the question.

Fu Wenduo had seen Shrek’s name on a billboard when he sneaked into the Monster World. Shrek was a big star of the Monster World so it was reasonable that he wouldn’t be the answer. He had never seen the Hulk, or Grandmother Wolf and the Big Mole.

...This cheating question, he really didn’t know the answer.

The author has something to say:

Old Fu: Can I get outside help?

Tang Tang: 【 While fighting the shoe polish wolf 】 A phone call? No time, no time, hang up!

Old Fu: ......