Chapter 11
Tang Mo’s body fell rapidly. He was surrounded by darkness and seemed to be falling down a hole as his body banged against the walls of the hole. Tang Mo’s improved physical quality meant he didn’t feel any pain when he hit the dirt wall. It was just that he couldn’t control the fall.
It might be a minute or maybe hours.
Bang!
Tang Mo finally landed on the ground.
It was pitch black. He stretched out his hands and couldn’t see his fingers. Tang Mo touched the ground under his feet and the moist soil let him know he was standing on a piece of earth. He first listened carefully to the movements around him. After determining that there was no sound, he started to explore the surrounding environment with his hand.
Tang Mo searched for three minutes without finding anything.
Suddenly, there was a familiar collision noise from above his head. Tang Mo immediately withdrew his hands and vigilantly paid attention to the movements above him. Half a minute later, something big slammed into the ground, accompanied by a loud and pained male voice. “Ouch, it hurts. Where is this place?”
Tang Mo recognized it and whispered, “Li Wen?”
The male voice stopped for a moment before speaking again, “Tang Mo?”
Tang Mo’s heart slightly settled but he didn’t have time to speak again. There was another banging sound as someone fell down. Four people came next. One by one they hit the ground, screaming and cursing.
Tang Mo counted them. Including himself, there was a total of seven people.
A dazzling light suddenly lit up the dark place. Everyone turned towards the light source. They saw a junior high school female student looking at them timidly. She had a poor face and thin body. She held a flashlight in her hands and said in a trembling voice, “I…I took a flashlight with me. It was too dark so I turned it on.”
A man in a suit who had an elite look nodded and walked over. “Can you lend me the torch? I will look around to determine where we are.”
The young girl handed him the torch.
The man looked around with the torch.
Tang Mo looked closely at the places that were lit up and the man soon walked entirely around the cave. He returned to his place and thrust the flashlight upright into the soil, making the light shine straight up. This illuminated the cave as much as possible and allowed the seven people to see each other’s faces.
The man sat down around the flashlight and said, “First, let’s introduce ourselves. My name is Li Bin. I am 29 years old and I work for a PR company. No one knows what the current situation is but I guess it is related to the black tower. The only thing we can do is unite and protect each other when the black tower creates an unknown event.”
The young girl had an exchange with Li Bin and seemed to believe this man. She was the second one to sit down and introduce herself. “My name is Peng Yuwen. I am 15 years old and in the middle of the second year of junior high. You guys…you can call me Yuwen.”
The others looked at each other and nobody sat down.
Then Tang Mo took a step to sit and Li Bin and Peng Yuwen looked at him.
He smiled. “I am Tang Mo. I am 23 years old and a librarian.”
Li Wen didn’t understand how Tang Mo suddenly believed the two people. However, he followed after Tang Mo. “I am Li Wen. I am 25 years ago and I am an unemployed person relying on my family.”
Among the seven people, four chose to sit in a group. The other three eventually ran over as well.
“Lin Qiao, 20 years old and I’m in university.”
“Zhao Xiang. I am 32 years old and before the black tower incident happened, I was a chef. Once it occurred, my boss was afraid and ran away. Thus, I can be considered to be unemployed.”
Finally, a gentleman with glasses sat down slowly and looked around, his gaze lingering on Li Bin and Tang Mo. “I am Luo Fengcheng. I am 28 years old and a game designer.”
Now the seven people knew each other.
It was a combination of five men and two women. The two women couldn’t help clinging to each other. Lin Qiao sat by Peng Yuwen and the two of them got to know each other. The two girls were soon talking privately in whispers.
Li Wen came to Tang Mo’s side. “Tang Mo, what’s going on. Do you know?”
Tang Mo shook his head. “It should be related to the black tower.”
“The black tower?” Li Wen shivered. “What is this place? Are we locked up?”
“It should be a hole in the ground.” A voice voice was heard and everyone looked at each other. Luo Fengcheng pushed his glasses up and said indifferently, “The soil moisture will increase as the distance from the ground increases. The closer we are to groundwater, the wetter the soil will be. At this moment, the soil water potential of the ground under our feet is around three bars. Groundwater is unlikely to cause such a huge soil water potential. If we are still in Shanghai, it must be near a water source. This is an underground cave near a water source.”
Li Bin looked at him strangely. “You are a game designer?”
Luo Fengcheng replied, “I majored in water conservation in university.”
However, the doubts in other people’s eyes weren’t dispelled. Tang Mo was also curious about this person.
He recognized that it was a hole and everyone started understanding the situation.
“The seven holes above our heads are estimated to be where the seven of us fell.” Li Bin pointed to the seven holes with a dignified look. “I think you should’ve all heard the black tower’s words before we fell down. What was the sentence?”
Lin Qiao nodded and repeated it. “In China District 1, Stowaway Fu Wenduo has successfully opened the first floor of the tower. After three minutes, players in all of China’s districts will begin to attack the tower.”
Of the seven people, the young girl Peng Yuwen didn’t speak much while the cook Zhao Xiang just listened. Sometimes he tried to explain to those who didn’t understand. Luo Fengcheng was also silent after his last words. It seemed he felt like he had talked too much.
Li Bin assumed the role of leader among the seven individuals. “There are several things I don’t understand about this sentence. But let’s not talk about that for the moment. Do you remember the three big laws of the black tower? They were released yesterday. Of the three laws, the last one told us to work hard to attack the tower. Then are we now attacking the tower?”
Li Wen asked curiously, “How do we attack the tower?”
“I don’t know.”
Tang Mo offered an opinion. “Perhaps there is a hint? Or should we look around again?”
Li Bin shook his head. “I looked all over this cave and found nothing.”
At this moment, a clear child’s voice was heard in the cave.
“Ding dong! The black tower’s first floor (mentally handicapped mode) was opened. The seven person survival game is loading…
“Sandbox is being generated…”
“The game data is loading…”
“The main mission is released: The seven people chosen by God, please work hard to live!”
The cave was silent.
It was unknown how long this lasted before Li Wen asked nervously, “Game? The voice of the black tower just now, I remember! What does it mean by a game? The seven person survival game…’
Tang Mo looked at him and really confirmed that Li Wen hadn’t participated in a black tower game before.
Chef Zhao Xiang deliberately raised his voice to conceal his nervousness. “We should hurry and escape from here.”
Li Bin explained calmly, “Don’t worry. Since the black tower released a game for us, it is certainly impossible for us to leave. Perhaps there are traps.” A closer look showed that Li Bin’s lips were trembling and he was trying to show a calm appearance. “We must figure out what we are going to do next…’
“Shh!”
“Don’t make a sound!”
Tang Mo and Luo Fengcheng spoke at the same time.
The two people looked at each other and Tang Mo raised an eyebrow. “Did you hear a sound?”
The others held their breaths and listened carefully.
Suddenly, the female university student Lin Qiao let out a big scream. She immediately covered her mouth and whispered, “I heard it, I heard it. The sound of digging, it is the sound of digging! I like playing survival games and this sound is the special effect sound when digging. There is something digging!”
Li Bin suddenly stood up, “It is from this direction.”
They all stood up and looked towards a dirt wall.
The chef Zhao Xiang turned red and clenched his fists. “Dammit, what does it want? I will punch it to death.”
The hairs on their bodies stood up as they looked in the direction of the digging with fear. The sound was getting closer and Tang Mo could hear his heart beat loudly. Thump thump. The sound never ceased until it reached the side of the cave.
Bang!
The last layer of thin soil was opened.
Blood red eyes glowed from the dark hole and the small eyes swept across the seven people. It held out huge claws that had opened the soil in front of it. This person…no, the rat moved through the hole and entered the big underground cave.
Boom!
This was a giant mole. It was more than two metres tall and its huge body resembled a beast. When it stood up, the entire sky seemed to be pressed down by it. It tossed a turkey that was half the size of a human onto the ground. Its tiny eyes focused on seven people and its sharp teeth made a sharp sound as it rubbed against each other.
The mole drooled and made a strange laugh. Then it said, “The black tower is so good today. I was about to eat a turkey when it sent me fuel. Cook the turkey with the seven humans and then sprinkle it with delicious cumin… Oh thank you black tower. Happy thanksgiving!”
The chef was prepared to strike when he saw the terrifying rat and took three scared steps back. The next moment, he turned to escape.
Tang Mo urgently cried out, “Don’t move!”
But it was too late. The moment the chef turned and fled, the huge mole shot forward like a flash of lightning and slammed its paws against the chef, throwing him to the wall.
The chef landed and coughed heavily, unable to move.
The mole stared at the other six with his little eyes before falling on Peng Yuwen, the short and thin young girl. “This fuel is the thinnest. I will take you as the heart of the fire. The fattest one will be left until the end. The turkey will be roasted with a big fire. Don’t tell anyone this secret but this type of turkey is most delicious.”
“Ah!” Peng Yuwen became pale with fright and fled backwards. The mole rushed in front of her, grabbing her head and pulling her back. Peng Yuwen cried out in pain while Li Bin clenched his teeth and pulled the young girl’s right foot. He shouldn’t, “We can’t let it take away this young girl. If she is taken away, the next ones will be us!”
Tang Mo wasn’t cold-blooded enough to watch a young girl be taken away in front of him. He grabbed her other foot while Li Wen grasped her leg. The female university student Lin Qiao also had the courage to grab the girl’s other leg.
Luo Fengcheng directly stepped on the mole’s feet. His angle was very tricky and stepped on the nail of the mole’s last small toe. He tried his best to make the mole groan with pain. However, the nails were as hard as iron. It didn’t cause bleeding but the mole released its grip on the little girl’s head. All of them pulled the girl back.
The giant mole growled and shouted angrily, “I am going to use all of you as fuel to roast my turkey!”
“Ding dong! A branch task has been triggered: Roast a turkey for the cute mole uncle.”
The voice rang in the ears of the seven people.
How was this a cute mole?
Everyone couldn’t wait to tear the black tower to pieces.
Tang Mo vaguely felt that these words were familiar but he didn’t have time to think about it for the moment. The mole swung its giant paws at Li Bin. The female university student and young girl fled with fear when they saw the situation. Tang Mo hurriedly spoke, “Don’t run! We must stick together or we will just be caught separately.”
The young girl still ran away. After all, she was young and could only flee when frightened.
The female university student summoned up her courage and ran back.
“Catch!” Luo Fengcheng pulled out two legs from the turkey and threw one to Tang Mo. However, his strength wasn’t controlled and it fell at the feet at the female university student.
This was a giant mole and the turkey was also huge. The drumstick was hard and could be used as a weapon. Luo Fengcheng held a leg. The female university student hesitated for a moment before picking up the other leg. Then the two of them rushed at the mole.
The mole was swinging its paws at Li Bin when it suddenly heard a sound. It stopped its movements and turned to look.
Li Bin coughed up blood and grabbed one of the mole’s legs. “Hurry up!”
Luo Fengcheng and the female university student rushed from the left and righr, waving their drumsticks at the mole. The mole was held tightly by Li Bin and couldn’t escape. The two steel-like turkey legs fell downwards. But at this instant, the mile raised its claws and blocked both sides of its head.
The turkey legs were hit by the claws and sparks flew.
The mole slowly moved its claws as it growled, “I will burn all of you and roast the turkey.”
Li Bin lay desperately on the ground and kept trying to hold onto the mole’s leg. Suddenly, his eyes widened and hope sparked again. He saw Tang Mo rushing up behind the mole.
But his hands weren’t even holding a turkey leg!
Cold water was poured on Li Bin’s hope as he shouted, “You will die!”
In the blink of an eye, a huge match appeared in Tang Mo’s hand. No one knew when it appeared. The chef was on the ground and it was unknown whether he was dead or alive. The young girl had run away and it was unknown where she was. Li Bin, Luo Fengcheng and the female university student were staying at the big match with amazement.
The wind caused by the big match showed how strong the impact would be.
They stared excitedly at Tang Mo and the match in his hand as the match was about to hit the mole’s head.
Suddenly!
The mole stretched out its claws and caught the match.
It wasn’t just them. Tang Mo’s heart suddenly felt cold. The impact of the match made the mole take two steps back but it didn’t harm the mole. It grabbed the match and looked at Tang Mo.
Tang Mo’s lips thinned and his brain moved quickly.
However, the mole didn’t attack. The left claws held onto the match while the right claw patted Tang Mo’s head like he was a dog. “Hey, how do you have Mosaic’s match?” The red nose moved in the air as the mole sniffed. Then its eyes widened and it said in a strange manner, “Oh, you have the taste of Mosaic on your body. It is a very disgusting taste!”
Tang Mo, “…”
—————
The author has something to say:
Mosaic: [Staring with Mosaic’s Contempt] Do you think I am very cute now?
Sugar Sugar: …
—————
Many people said they don’t understanding the setting of the black tower e.g. the stowaways~ Hahaha, some of this will be uncovered in the next chapter!
Speaking of which, I think that Sugar Sugar is very blunt and honest. He must now think that the mosaic girl is particularly cute.