The Earth is Online

Tang Mo opened his eyes and his first reaction was to cover his ears. After adjusting to the harsh sound, he slowly released his hands. He observed the surrounding environment before quickly raising his head to look at the red-coloured moon above his head.

This was a bizarre black steel forest. Dark trees dozens of metres tall covered the sky, leaving only a circular opening where a red moon could be seen. On the surrounding black trees, a layer of slimy liquid flowed down the bark. The pungent smell of oil made Tang Mo frowned and he looked back, soon locking eyes with Fu Wenduo.

The two of them looked at each other, nodded lightly and turned their eyes to the other three people.

In the black steel forest lit by the dim red moonlight, three players slowly opened the eyes and observed Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.

One of the players was Li Miaomiao. She stood silently by Tang Mo’s side, which was what Ruan w.a.n.gshu told her to do.

The other two people weren’t surprised after seeing the situation. They had clearly partic.i.p.ated in many games. Their reaction was the same as Tang Mo as they immediately observed the surroundings. After determining where they were, the five people gathered together. Tang Mo calmly looked over the remaining two people. There was a man and a woman. The man looked very calm while the woman was a bit pale but also calm. After watching for a long time, Tang Mo’s gaze ended up on the man wearing a suit and a hat.

It was the beginning of the game. Everyone carefully reviewed their teammates and didn’t speak.

After a moment, the short-haired woman couldn’t help saying in a relaxed tone, “It seems that this is a multiplayer tower attack game. I have partic.i.p.ated in similar games before and based on your expressions, it should be the same for you. We are teammates for the time being. Shall we get to know each other first?” As she spoke, her vigilant eyes swept over the faces of the people. There was a hint of wariness in her eyes when she saw the man in the hat.

Tang Mo raised his eyebrows. This woman and this man didn’t know each other.

Before entering the tower attack game, Ruan w.a.n.gshu had told Li Miaomiao to listen to Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo in this game. Tang Mo didn’t speak. Thus, Li Miaomiao stood coldly by the side with her arms folded, ignoring this short-haired woman. The woman saw that no one answered her and her expression hardened.

The woman was right. They were teammates now and should get to know each other. Tang Mo was just about to speak when a melodious voice was heard.

“It makes a lot of sense.” The group turned their heads and gazed at the man who spoke. Under the faint red moonlight, the strange man with a cane smiled slightly and used his left hand to take off his hat, revealing blond hair. He made a gentleman’s salute and raised his head. “My lady, what do you want to know?”

Tang Mo narrowed his eyes and stared at the blond man who suddenly spoke.

Even the short-haired woman was startled by this bizarre greeting and after a long time, she asked in a strange tone, “...Introduce yourself?”

The blond man smiled. He tilted his head and gazed at Tang Mo and the others. The smile on his face seemed to be made with a rule. It was elegant and accurate, the angle at which the lips raised were just right. The blue eyes were full of smiles as he said, “I will obey this lady’s words. My name is Grecia.”

Li Miaomiao glanced at the man and whispered, “A foreigner?”

Grecia’s eyes moved straight to Li Miaomiao and Li Miaomiao stood up straight, letting out an awkward cough as she looked towards Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. After getting their approval, she put her hands in the pockets of her white coat and said, “My name is Li Miaomiao.”

Fu Wenduo was next. “Victor.”

“I am Tang Ji.”

Li Miaomiao wasn’t surprised that they used pseudonyms. After all, these two people were quite famous in China. In the case where the black tower didn’t release the players’ names, a pseudonym was more conducive to completing the game.

The blond man’s expression didn’t change when he heard their answers while the woman with short hair carefully stared at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo, apparently knowing they weren’t using their real names. “My name is Zhao Xiaofei. ”

Everyone understood that they were teammates for the time being.

In that case, a temporary captain was required to decide what everyone should do. It was reasonable for this position to be handed over to Tang Mo or Fu Wenduo. However, Li Miaomiao waited a long time and didn’t hear the two of them speak. She looked strangely at Tang Mo and found Tang Mo watching her. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, Li Miaomiao’s eyes asking, ‘I’m going to be the captain?’

Tang Mo nodded.

Li Miaomiao: Wait, you told me to listen to you before entering the game.

Tang Mo: That’s why we’re letting you be the captain.

Li Miaomiao, “...”

Li Miaomiao was very reluctant. In the past, she followed Ruan w.a.n.gshu and the others into instances and didn’t have to use her brains. There was Ruan w.a.n.gshu as well as Lian Yuzheng and Qi Heng. Now she worked with people outside Tian Xuan for the first time and was reduced to the point where she had to sell her brains.

Li Miaomiao was depressed for a long time. Once she raised her head, her expression had changed slightly and she spoke calmly, “Everyone should’ve heard the black tower’s words. We are currently in Schrodinger’s Steel Forest. It is useless to stay here. We can’t sit still so we should try getting out of this forest.”

After all, she was a core member of Tian Xuan. Li Miaomiao wasn’t stupid and everyone agreed to her words.

The forest was dimly lit by the red moonlight. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo took out flashlights, prepared for one of them to stand in front of the team and one to stand in the rear in the team. Fu Wenduo directly stood at the front. Tang Mo was about to go to the rear when a person stepped in front of him. “How can I let a lady be at the back?”

Tang Mo was stunned. “I’m a man.”

Grecia shook his head. “In the eyes of a gentleman, everyone is a lady who needs care.”

Tang Mo, “...”

Tang Mo ignored him and stood at the end of the team. Grecia smiled when he saw the situation and didn’t stop it. This guy was just talking and hadn’t actually planned to stand at the rear. Fu Wenduo turned on the flashlight and looked for a road. Tang Mo stood at the end of the line and observed the four people in front of him.

Fu Wenduo was first, Zhao Xiaofei was second then it was Li Miaomiao and Grecia.

Apart from Fu Wenduo and Li Miaomiao, the other two were strangest. The one Tang Mo found the weirdest was Grecia.

Tang Mo had encountered several foreign players, such as Jack. After the earth went online, the black tower divided the game areas by districts. As long as the person was present on the land of China when the earth went online, they were considered as Chinese players and might be encountered in the black tower games in China. Tang Mo had met several foreign players but it was the first time he saw one so... inexplicable.

Grecia walked gracefully behind Li Miaomiao, a short black cane in his hand. His walking posture was very smooth. A few golden hairs occasionally popped out of his top hat. The man wore a crimson suit, a top hat and leather boots. It was hard to see him fitting in with the other four players.

However, Tang Mo had seen many such people. After the earth went online, humans were forced to change due to the cruel black tower games. There were even murderers who ate people so this type of strange clothing wasn’t incomprehensible. However, wearing such clothes to partic.i.p.ate in a black tower game...

Tang Mo stared cautiously at the man’s hat and cane.

There were two possibilities. First, this man was a person who liked to cosplay. That’s why his words and actions were so strange. Second, this was actually his disguise. Under what circ.u.mstances would a human need to pretend like this and wear such strange clothing? The clothes on his body and the top hat were unsuitable for fighting, yet he wore such clothes to partic.i.p.ate in the tower attack game. Unless...

These were his props.

Tang Mo stared at Grecia’s back with a calm expression.

The five people wandered through the steel forest for one hour and didn’t find an exit.

Time pa.s.sed and Zhao Xiaofei finally said, “This won’t work. The steel trees look exactly the same. The light is particularly dark and it isn’t easy to make a mark. None of us know how big this forest is and the black tower isn’t giving us any hints. We have to split up or we will be wasting our time.”

Tang Mo said, “We have a total of two flashlights.”

Zhao Xiaofei suggested, “How about splitting up into two teams?”

Li Miaomiao got a hint from Tang Mo’s eyes and agreed. “Okay. Then Tang Ji, I... Tang Ji, you and I will be one team of three. Victor and Grecia, both of you are foreigners so you should be the other two.”

The foreigner Fu Wenduo stared at Tang Mo. Tang Mo had a single hand in his pocket: it is better for you to stare at him.

Fu Wenduo raised his eyebrows.

The group quickly split into two teams. They would split up to look for the exit and agree to meet at a specified place in one hour. As he left, Tang Mo looked at Fu Wenduo: Be careful of that man.

The corners of Fu Wenduo’s mouth went up: Okay.

Tang Mo held the flashlight and looked through the steel forest with the two women.

The rumbling sound they heard when they just entered the forest was the sound of wind blowing through the trees. Ordinary trees blown by the wind gave off the sound of rustling leaves. Every tree in Schrodinger’s Steel Forest was made of black steel. Once the wind hit it, the steel leaves collided and made a metal cras.h.i.+ng sound.

The Tang Mo trio walked through the forest for a long time. Perhaps it was because they were both women but Zhao Xiaofei kept a distance from Tang Mo and stood close to Li Miaomiao, always trying to talk to her. It was best if the two of them could reach an alliance. However, Li Miaomiao was very cold and didn’t want to be close to Zhao Xiaofei. Zhao Xiaofei tried two times before giving up.

Tang Mo calculated the time in his heart and he just reached the middle of two huge steel trees when he stopped. “It is time. We have to go back.”

The two women nodded.

The three of them were just turning back when sparks flew into the air in the distance. Tang Mo was stunned and the trio looked at the signal flare with surprise. The next second, they started moving and took 20 minutes to find Fu Wenduo and Grecia.

Tang Mo asked directly, “Did you find the exit?” He observed the surroundings. They were clearly still in the forest and no exit could be seen.

Fu Wenduo shook his head before nodded. Then he raised his finger and pointed to the west.

Tang Mo followed the direction of the finger and didn’t understand at first. Then his expression slowly changed as he stared into the distance. After a long time, even Li Miaomiao and Zhao Xiaofei could see it. Zhao Xiaofei cried out, “What is that?”

No matter what it was, the five person instance was deadlocked and they had to go examine it.

The group approached the strange thing and became even more shocked when they got closer.

Zhao Xiaofei stared. “What the h.e.l.l is this?”

It was a huge round tray.

When they saw it from the distance, they only saw a small circular black object floating in the air, like a UFO. Once they actually approached, they found that it wasn’t floating in the air. Below it were dozens of long, thick steel bars supporting it and connecting it to the ground.

In short, it looked like a black plate held up in the air by chopsticks. It was just that the plate was so huge that Tang Mo felt the thin steel bars shouldn’t hold it and should be crushed by it. However, the bars supported the plate. When the wind blew through the forest, the steel bars and plate weren’t shaken at all.

The group stood carefully away from the plate, looking at the steel bars and plate.

They watched for a long time and nothing happened. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo glanced at each other. Then Fu Wenduo stepped forward into the shadow of the tray to observe the steel bars. He had just reached 10 metres away from the steel bars when a clear child’s voice filled the forest.

“Ding dong! Triggered branch mission 1: Enter Schrodinger’s Steel Fortress.”

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