The Earth is Online

The robot-like housekeeper bowed to the five players and walked silently to the door, no longer even breathing.

Pairs of green eyes sneaked through the darkness and watched the five strange humans. Tang Mo glanced around the castle and asked, “Do we just look for the cat in the castle?”

The butler still kept his head down. “You aren’t allowed to enter the places where no entry is allowed.”

Li Miaomiao turned, wanting to ask a few more questions about Schrodinger and his cat. However, the housekeeper only repeated this sentence from beginning to end.

Tang Mo glanced at him before suggesting, “Then let’s go find the cat.”

The castle was dark and red moonlight shone through the high windows, barely showing a dim outline of the house. The housekeeper stood motionless at the door and the five people had two flashlights. They divided into two groups. One group was Tang Mo and Li Miaomiao, the other group was Fu Wenduo, Grecia and Zhao Xiaofei.

The Tang Mo duo was responsible for the second floor of the castle while the Fu Wenduo trio would handle the first floor.

Tang Mo turned on the flashlight and calmly looked around the second floor. Two long corridors were visible. The two corridors intersected at the stairwell, forming a 90 degree angle and stretching to both sides. The densely symmetrical doors were distributed on both sides of the corridors and red moonlight shone on the doors.

Li Miaomiao walked up and carefully pressed the handle of a door. Tang Mo held the small parasol’s handle while Li Miaomiao was also ready. She pressed hard before letting out a shocked sound. “Eh, it is locked?”

Yes, the door was locked.

Tang Mo and Li Miaomiao split up to open doors separately. There were 19 doors in these two corridors. 10 of them were locked and 9 could be opened. Once Li Miaomiao tried to force open a door, the black tower’s childlike voice was heard.

“Ding dong! Schrodinger’s Steel Fortress contains locked rooms full of Schrodinger’s treasures. A key is required to open them.”

The black tower said they couldn’t be opened then they definitely wouldn’t open.

Li Miaomiao lowered her hands.

As they tried to open the doors, more than a dozen cats flashed by them. Li Miaomiao tried to catch these cats several times but Tang Mo stopped her. The female doctor was puzzled. “We are looking for Schrodinger’s cat. Shouldn’t we examine these cats?”

Tang Mo didn’t answer. He entered an empty room and searched it carefully, finding two black cats in the corner. As soon as the two cats saw the humans, they turned to run. Li Miaomiao was faster than the cats. She wasn’t strong but she managed to pa.s.s the black tower’s second floor. She easily grabbed the two cats and was disappointed when she saw the dirt on their paws. “The second rule of the game, Mr. Cat loves to be clean. These two shouldn’t be it.”

Tang Mo looked at her. “There are two cats.”

Li Miaomiao didn’t understand what he meant. “What?”

“First, Schrodinger keeps only one cat. Second, the cat loves cleanliness and is very unsociable.”

After a few seconds, Li Miaomiao said, “Eh? You mean that as long as we see more than one cat, it definitely isn’t Schrodinger’s cat? But these cats all look exactly the same. Schrodinger raises only one cat. Does this mean his cat is different from the other cats?”

No one knew the answer.

According to Tang Mo’s conjecture, Schrodinger’s cat should have two characteristics. It was unsociable and it loved to be clean. In addition, after three hours, cat food would appear in the castle. Cats loved to eat cat food.

Li Miaomiao suggested, “We can use the cat food to lure out the cat.”

Before then, they should do as much as possible to find the cat.

Tang Mo bent over to pick up a cat in the corner and looked closely at its fur. Once he saw a brown mark that looked like chocolate sauce on the cat’s paws, he put it gently on the ground and searched for the next one. The second floor was twice as small as the first floor. After one hour, Tang Mo and Li Miaomiao checked all the cats in the rooms as well as the cats hidden in secret corners.

Tang Mo walked down a hallway with the flashlight. Suddenly, his feet stopped and his right hand moved towards a high-necked vase. There was a sharp cry and a small black cat was pulled out by Tang Mo. The cat was caught by a human and screamed shrilly, the harsh sound filling the castle.

Tang Mo checked the marks on the cat and let it go.

Li Miaomiao looked at the young man’s back for a long time and couldn’t help saying, “I thought you would team up with Fu Wenduo instead of me?” Li Miaomiao used a woman’s keen sixth sense to realize Tang Mo wouldn’t do this without a reason. She looked at him warily and asked, “Is there something wrong?”

Tang Mo stopped and turned to look at her. He saw Li Miaomiao’s alert look and raised his eyebrows in a provoking manner. “Do you think I’m trying to get rid of you?”

Li Miaomiao was silent.

Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo were teammates but Tang Mo never asked to be in a team with Fu Wenduo, whether it was when finding an exit in the forest or looking for Schrodinger’s cat. Li Miaomiao had to feel suspicious. She didn’t think Tang Mo would use this opportunity to get rid of her but she couldn’t think of other reasons.

“What do you think of Grecia?”

Li Miaomiao was thinking about Tang Mo’s intentions and couldn’t respond for a moment. “Ah?” Then she asked, “The mixed-race foreigner? He seems to be somewhat not normal. His style of dressing is eccentric and his words are strange.” For example, the lady and gentleman. Li Miaomiao immediately realized. “Wait, do you suspect that he’s not right?”

Tang Mo stated, “He is very strong.”

Li Miaomiao thought for a moment before understanding Tang Mo’s meaning.

Grecia was truly very strong.

Previously, Zhao Xiaofei had fallen from the steel bar and Fu Wenduo hadn’t acted to save her yet when Grecia quickly climbed the pole and grabbed Zhao Xiaofei. Li Miaomiao hadn’t seen this scene but she saw Grecia holding onto the steel pole while carrying Zhao Xiaofei with his other hand, easily climbing dozens of metres.

“In some respects, his strength isn’t worse than Victor and he might be stronger.” Tang Mo continued to call Fu Wenduo by the name Victor, even if there were only the two of them present. “Victor is a special forces soldier and he is very good at climbing piles. After Grecia climbed up, I deliberately looked at their posture and speed. Victor climbed with skill and was very relaxed. But Grecia...” Tang Mo found a description. “He seemed to be walking, not climbing the pole.”

“Walking?”

“The gravity that binds us doesn’t seem to exist for him. Of course, this might just be his ability.”

Tang Mo and Li Miaomiao had seen the power of gravity. Ruan w.a.n.gshu’s ability was gravity suppression.

Li Miaomiao realized. “You let Fu... Victor be on that team to monitor Grecia?”

Tang Mo continued to move forward with the flashlight. “If the other person suddenly does something, Victor will be better able to subdue him.”

Fu Wenduo had a greater grasp over killing Grecia.

Li Miaomiao’s breathing paused. She suddenly realized that once a black tower game progressed this far, the relations.h.i.+p between players became more fragile. Especially when it was a tower attack game. Every player wasn’t necessarily on the same floor and their missions to attack the tower might be different. The same benefits could drive players to cooperate while different interests might lead players to kill each other.

Li Miaomiao no longer spoke and kept catching black cats. Once they determined that a cat wasn’t Schrodinger’s cat, they would cut a small amount of fur off the cat’s hind legs as a marker.

Time pa.s.sed slowly. Two hours later, the group gathered in the hall on the first floor of the castle. In the silent and empty castle, there was the regular sound of metal collisions from the steel forest outside the windows. Tang Mo glanced at Fu Wenduo, who shook his head while still staring at Grecia.

In the middle of the hall, the blond man in red clothing held a short cane in his right hand and a tiny black cat wrapped around his left wrist. Grecia found that Tang Mo and Li Miaomiao were watching him and raised his head with a smile. “I don’t know why but this little cutie keeps following me.” As he spoke, he stretched out a finger. The small black cat immediately opened its mouth and bit the finger weakly. It was more like a lick than a bite and the kitten narrowed its eyes petulantly. “As a gentleman, I would never refuse an invitation from a lady. Especially such a cute little lady.”

Zhao Xiaofei ignored this strange person and discussed the situation with her team. “We examined 97 cats but didn’t find Schrodinger’s cat.”

Li Miaomiao answered, “We found 86.”

Zhao Xiaofei’s expression turned ugly.

In three hours, they found a total of 183 cats but not Schrodinger’s cat. They had previously seen four or five hundred cats in the hall. At this rate, they would be searching for at least another six hours. This was still a conservative estimate. The harder it was to find new cats, the longer it would take.

“The black tower didn’t set a time limit for this mission.” Zhao Xiaofei spoke seriously. “However, I feel like we can’t look around casually. We must hurry to find the cat.”

Everyone agreed with her.

Tang Mo opened his mouth and was about to speak. Suddenly, he raised his head and looked out the window. At the same time, Fu Wenduo and Grecia also stared out the window. The next second, they heard strange metal cras.h.i.+ng sounds coming from the window. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo glanced at each other and quickly entered a beautiful garden through the castle’s side door.

Li Miaomiao and the others immediately followed. Once they saw the person coming from afar, all five of them froze.

“Oh, are we eating stowaways today?”

“The heart of a stowaway is especially good to eat.”

“Stowaway’s liver isn’t too greasy when fried.”

“A stowaway’s thighs are chewy and powerful.”

“Ah! My dear Lord Schrodinger, have you eaten stowaways today?”

The eccentric song was coming from a distance. A thin old man who looked slovenly was holding banana wine in his hand, hiccuping as he drank it while walking into the steel castle. His iron shoes slammed against the steel platform, making odd metal sounds. He swayed to the left and right, his murky eyes full of greed and desire. Once he entered the garden, he headed straight t the middle and pulled out a bowl. Then he took out a dirty plastic bag from his sleeve and poured the black solid thing inside into the bowl.

The stench of p.o.o.p instantly filled the whole garden.

The stench was so disgusting that the odor was almost condensed into a solid. A yellow smell could be seen in the air. Zhao Xiaofei retched while Grecia’s eyes narrowed, his smile disappearing. Li Miaomiao was okay. Before the earth went online, she was a doctor or a surgeon and was used to these things.

Tang Mo couldn’t control his nausea and his lips and fingers tightened. Suddenly, a warm hand appeared in front of him. Tang Mo was startled and turned towards Fu Wenduo. Fu Wenduo looked down, his right hand covering Tang Mo’s nose and mouth. Tang Mo took a small breath and smelt the faint scent of lemon.

Before entering the tower attack game, they had found a house to wash up in. The shower gel seemed to smell like lemon?

These thoughts flashed through Tang Mo’s mind.

The hot palm was close to Tang Mo’s face. Tang Mo’s spirit recovered and he raised his right hand before lowering it again. He unexpectedly didn’t pull Fu Wenduo’s hand away. Zhao Xiaofei and Grecia were standing in front of them and couldn’t see their movements. After having his face covered for a while, Tang Mo’s lips quietly curved.

Fu Wenduo looked at him: How is it?

Tang Mo shook his head: It’s fine.

Time pa.s.sed and the stench was becoming weaker. Three minutes later, everyone was used to the stench.

Fu Wenduo took his hand away from Tang Mo’s mouth with a bit of regret.

The old man in rags sat on the ground, the bowl beside him. He saw the ‘stowaways song’ loudly, wanting to eat the flesh of stowaways. After singing, he smiled and his nose moved as he sniffed the smell in the air.

The man’s greedy eyes swept over Fu Wenduo and Li Miaomiao before yelling, “Boutique cat food, has the royal certification of the Underground Kingdom, the favourite cat food of Schrodinger’s cat. Anybody want to buy it?”

Zhao Xiaofei asked, “How do we buy it?”

“How? Oh, respected Lord Schrodinger, is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know how to buy this bowl of cat food?” The old man made an exaggerated expression before he suddenly smiled. “How to buy it? Buy it with stowaways! A stowaway is worth a bowl of cat food!”

Tang Mo stared coldly. “What if we don’t have stowaways to buy it?”

“No stowaways to buy it?” The old man shouted angrily, “Shameless humans, you want to buy the cat food without paying for it! If there are no stowaways then you can’t get a bowl of cat food! I’m telling you, no bowls! Now there are two stowaways present and you want me to give you a bowl of cat food without being paid? There’s no way!”

There were two stowaways here!

Zhao Xiaofei’s sharp eyes swept over the group.

Tang Mo asked, “Is there no other way?”

The old man got up from the ground and replied angrily, “No!”

“There is.”

The group simultaneously looked at Fu Wenduo.

In the red moonlight, the tall and handsome man waved his right hand, a dark and triangular shaped weapon appearing in an instant. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised and his voice was low and magnetic. “Kill you... then this bowl of cat food is ours.”

The old man suddenly froze.

The third rule of the game: beat the greedy underground person who is guarding the cat food to obtain it.

The next moment, Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo sprang forward.

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