The Earth is Online
chapter-99

Chapter 99

From beginning to end, the last person’s garbage cleaning game was just like what it said on the surface. It was a big cleaning game. The black tower wanted to remove the weaker ‘garbage’ players.

In this game, powerful players could kill the rabbit heads through various means. They could also kill the players and get the badges. Highly intelligent players could use a strategy to obtain badges and even find the real ‘surprise’ of the game.

In the last 10 minutes, there were around 800 players around the Xinjiekou garbage disposal station. However, the number of players who eventually entered the garbage disposal station and successfully cleared the game was less than 200. Hundreds of people died here and hundreds of people were forced into the tower attack game. Tang Mo might’ve told them the real method to clear the instance but it was unrealistic for many people to enter the small garbage disposal station in 10 minutes.

Once the black tower announced that the game was officially over, the failed player’s bodies gradually disappeared. Just like when the earth went online five months ago, an invisible line slowly rose from the feet and wiped away their bodies. The horrified players tried to escape but couldn’t. Some people resentfully took their weapons and attacked the players standing nearby, successfully passing the game.

The battle never ceased.

As soon as the game was over, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo quickly left the chaotic area with the members of the Nanjing Group. Fu Wenduo went alone to the residential area to find Fu Wensheng.

There weren’t many players in Nanjing. Now that this game was over, no one was on the empty streets. Chai Rong suffered serious injuries to one leg and the wound on his chest opened again. He heard the screams and metal collisions coming from behind him and squeezed his hands tightly. He looked at the black tower above his head with a red face.

After a long time, Chai Rong punched the alley wall. “I don’t understand, why is the game like this? If you can just enter and say something related to surprise, even the word ‘surprise’ can clear the game, then the previous 12 hours… what was the point of everything we did?”

They killed so many rabbit heads and players in Nanjing.

Yet clearing the game didn’t need the badges at all.

So why did they do all that?

“What is this?”

Chai Rong had cleared many black tower games but he had never seen such a thing. How did this game want players to win?

“It is clearly… just trying to kill us!”

Xiao Jitong said, “It just wants to kill you.”

Chai Rong stopped speaking and looked at his companion with astonishment. Xiao Jitong was also injured. A deep blood cut was drawn from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth, almost disfiguring him. The blood had already solidified but there was still a gaping hole across his face. Along the way, members of the Nanjing Group used mineral water to treat the wounds. Xiao Jitong didn’t seem to know that he was injured as he looked coldly at Chai Rong. “This game is a junk cleaning game. If you don’t understand what I am telling you then you have escaped from death. The black tower used this method to filter the trash in the black tower and kick out all the unwanted garbage. Are you smart?”

Chai Rong didn’t understand why Xiao Jitong suddenly asked this question. He first nodded before honestly shaking his head.

Xiao Jitong laughed, “However, your strength is high enough. You aren’t garbage in its eyes and you cleared the game.”

Chai Rong couldn’t bear it anymore. “Old Xiao, your face…”

“On the other hand, if you’re smart enough, you can set traps to get badges or directly unlock the truth. No matter what you are good at, there is a chance of surviving. As long as you are strong enough, you can pass the instance. The black tower is screening qualified people.” Xiao Jitong didn’t pay attention to Chai Rong and spoke directly.

Chai Rong was dissatisfied. “Powerful players can forcefully clear the instance while smart players can rely on solving the puzzle to clear it. I know this. The same is true for the black tower games we have cleared in the past five months. But this time, according to Mr. Tang, we can just go in and say anything related to surprise to clear the game. In the end, everyone will work hard to enter the garbage disposal station with or without the badges. How can these people be qualified in the black tower’s eyes?”

Xiao Jitong explained, “A player who has escaped for 12 hours and can finally enter the garbage disposal station. Why aren’t they qualified?”

Chai Rong’s heart was filled with a dull rage and resentment. He didn’t know what he was mad about but it was like a big stone was blocking his chest. The stone pressed heavily on his heart, making him breathless. He tried his best to prove the unfairness of this black tower game. “Who says that these players are qualified? What if someone with no strength or intelligence didn’t wait until the end of the game. He is silly and shortly after the game begins, he finds there is no ambush near the garbage disposal station and enters, clearing the game.”

“Is there such a person?”

Chai Rong replied, “…What if there is?”

Xiao Jitong laughed at the stubborn Chai Rong. Tang Mo quietly looked at two of the best players in Nanjing. One of them was the leader of the Nanjing Group and the other was the leader of the Nanjing Strategy Group. In the past three months, they worked together to build Nanjing into the most peaceful city. Now they were arguing with red faces and terrible wounds but they had no intention of dealing with these wounds.

Xiao Jitong didn’t need an answer. Tang Mo didn’t speak as Ningning stood on the side, looking coldly down at the ground. “Who told you that luck isn’t a type of strength?”

Chai Rong turned to look at Ningning.

Ningning said, “Five months ago, the humans with the best luck entered the black tower game and became an official player after clearing the game. Through luck, some humans became reserve players. Players with better luck killed people in those three days and eventually became stowaways. All three groups of people are lucky. Those who didn’t even know the truth were directly killed by the black tower. More than 6 billion people didn’t have any luck and died.” Ningning paused and looked calmly at Chai Rong. “Why are these 6 billion people unlucky?”

Chai Rong agreed. “Right, that’s why the black tower isn’t fair. The black tower game this time is the same.”

“In the eyes of the black tower, the 6 billion people who disappeared deserve this misfortune.”

Chai Rong looked at Ningning with wide eyes.

The tall and cold looking woman stared at him. “They didn’t trigger a black tower game, didn’t become a reserve and didn’t kill anyone. They deserved it because they have no luck. Why should the black tower give you consideration for your luck? It is just like this garbage cleaning game. If someone wasn’t nervous at the beginning and entered the garbage disposal station, they might find a way to clear the game. It is possible that the players in the city would be rescued as a result. But no such person appeared. If this is the game, all the rescued players would take it for granted. They were lucky…”

“Luck is also a type of strength.”

Ningning finished her explanation and turned to Xiao Jitong. “Captain, I want to go see the black tower.”

Xiao Jitong nodded. “Okay.”

Ningning looked calm and unmoved. However, the fingers holding the bow were squeezing tightly and white. She spoke cold words but her back seemed small as she walked to the black tower.

Chai Rong was flustered. He already noticed this but refused to admit it.

Xiao Jitong looked at him and pointed out the cruelest truth in a calm voice.

“Chai Rong, you are the one who raised the garbage.”

Chai Rong looked at his friend and companion with shock. Xiao Jitong’s face still had a faint smile despite saying such criticism. Under the sunlight, his smile was extremely dazzling. Chai Rong looked at him dumbly before turning away.

The members of the Nanjing Group were shocked. “Captain!”

The members hastened to follow him. Lin Rong was the last to leave. Before leaving, she looked deeply into the smiling Xiao Jitong’s eyes. “I know what you mean. Captain Xiao, I think Chai Rong understands but he needs a bit of time. Nanjing being named at the bottom wasn’t Captain’s hope. In addition… Captain Xiao, you need to deal with that wound. It might take half a month for it to heal by itself.”

Xiao Jitong waved his hand. “Go and comfort the idiot.”

The members of the Nanjing Group all followed Chai Rong, leaving only the Strategy Group and Tang Mo.

Tang Mo wanted to go with the Nanjing Group since Fu Wenduo was taking Fu Wensheng directly back to their base. Still, he didn’t leave immediately. He stayed where he was, watching Xiao Jitong. Xiao Jitong also looked at him, the two people staring at each other for a while. Tang Mo smiled. “Do you have something to ask me?”

Xiao Jitong smiled once his mind was discovered and he opened his mouth. “Yes. I want to ask you… why did Fu Wenduo dare do this experiment himself?”

Tang Mo spoke casually, “He has a set of surprise badges. We gathered all of them.”

“It is true that if the badges are put into the light, you can definitely clear the game. That’s why Fu Wenduo dared to enter the garbage disposal station. But… what if the black tower gave you only one chance? If you don’t put the badges in first, it might be considered a game failure. Fu Wenduo or should I say, Tang Mo. Why did the two of you dare take this risk?”

Both Tang Mo and Xiao Jitong didn’t dare enter the garbage disposal stations without collecting all the badges.

Even if he had all the badges, Xiao Jitong didn’t dare take this risk. A long time ago, Tang Mo asked Xiao Jitong if the surprise was really these badges. Both of them had guessed that the black tower’s surprise might be something else. It had nothing to do with force and was something that all players could get. Yet they didn’t dare experiment.

Tang Mo and the others collected badges and made a decision once there was only one hour left in the game. Xiao Jitong wasn’t planning to experiment at all.

This was an experiment risking his life.

Why did Fu Wenduo dare do it? How could Tang Mo be so reassured?

Xiao Jitong wondered about these questions.

Tang Mo’s expression didn’t show any fluctuations. It was as if he was really carefully pondering Xiao Jitong’s question. After a while, he looked at Xiao Jitong and righteously said, “It is because Fu Wenduo is a good person.”

Xiao Jitong was shocked. “…What?”

Tang Mo’s eyes were sincere. “Fu Wenduo was a soldier. You should know this. From his many habits, he is clearly a soldier. Therefore, he has a sense of justice and integrity. I really admire him. At the time, we had a full set of badges and the odds of failing were less than 1%. Fu Wenduo is a good person so he is willing to risk the 1% to find a way for everyone to clear the game.” Tang Mo spoke with poor acting. “Fu Wenduo is a really good person.”

Xiao Jitong, “…”

The blond boy next to him couldn’t help saying, “I can see your wickedness.”

Tang Mo looked at Xiao Jitong. He thought about it before putting on Bai Ruoyao’s smile. Xiao Jitong stared at him, trying to find an answer from Tang Mo’s expression. However, he couldn’t find anything. Finally, he sighed helplessly. “Everyone has their own secrets.”

Tang Mo smiled and didn’t say anything else. No matter how suspicion Xiao Jitong was, he wouldn’t be able to guess that Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo possessed the cheat artifact of the turkey egg.

The two of them differed here.

Xiao Jitong didn’t want to risk his teammates’ lives so he didn’t plan to explore the real way to clear the game. It didn’t matter as long as he and his teammates could clear it. If they didn’t have the turkey egg, Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo would do the same.

In the last hour, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo opened the turkey egg. They had long been prepared. If there was a chance, one of them would enter the garbage disposal station and try other methods to clear the game. If something happened, they would load the file and return again.

The sound of fighting in Xinjiekou gradually ceased. The morning sun rose in the air, giving off warm sunshine.

Tang Mo looked up at the round sun in the sky, Ningning’s words ringing in his mind.

“…Luck is also a type of strength?”

Tang Mo shook his head with a smile.

Yes, for the black tower, luck was a type of strength.

Tang Mo headed to the Nanjing Group’ss base where Fu Wenduo was already waiting with the child. Fu Wensheng was quietly sitting on a factory box, his head bowed and not talking. The other members of Nanjing were no different from him. In this game, the Nanjing Group lost seven people. The young man who joked with Tang Mo one day ago wasn’t here. He was lying at the bottom of the icy lake. His black companion silently left the base and headed for Xuanwu Lake Park.

During the game, they didn’t have time to get their companions’ bodies and bury them. Now they had plenty of time.

Chai Rong and the Nanjing Group members were demoralized and had a heavy mood. On the other hand, the members of the Strategy Group were quite active. In the afternoon, Xiao Jitong came to the Nanjing Group’s base with Xiao Qiao, Xiao Wei and several other members.

Then Tang Mo discovered the reason for Fu Wensheng’s bad mood. At Xuanwu Lake Park, he knew two of the Nanjing players who attacked them. Just last week, these players wanted to buy news about an instance from the Nanjing Group. They didn’t have any props on hand so the Nanjing Group members readily told them, “Bring back the props once you clear the instance.”

The Nanjing Group often did this.

At first, Chai Rong didn’t want to protect the players of Nanjing. He just provided a peaceful environment. The stowaway didn’t dare kill in Nanjing because the Nanjing Group would punish malicious murderers. Xiao Jitong was the one who proposed swapping props for information. He didn’t force Nanjing players to exchange them for information, it was all voluntary. Then the Nanjing Group set up a bulletin board in Xinjiekou Square to mark all possible instance entry locations.

The Nanjing Group didn’t actively tie the hands and feet of the Nanjing Players.

Fu Wensheng couldn’t accept it. Why did the players who once said thank you could kill the people they were grateful towards the next second. He was too young. He understood it but his heart was very uncomfortable. It would take time for him to digest this cruel thing.

After a night of reorganization, Xiao Jitong was forced to make a decision the next morning. “From now on, the Strategy Group and Nanjing Group will merge. There is no Nanjing, we are a team that exists only for ourselves. We won’t sell information to anyone and will no longer publish the locations to the instance entrances. Chai Rong is the captain and I am the vice-captain.” Xiao Jitong added with a smile, “Of course, you don’t have to worry about your captain’s words. Just listen to me. He is stupid after all.”

Chai Rong’s depressed mood was dispelled with this sentence as he jumped up, “Xiao Jitong!”

Xiao Jitong smiled and kept announcing the team composition and disciplinary requirements.

“We have too many people so we will now divide into three teams. I, Chai Rong, Xiao Qiao…”

Xiao Jitong didn’t avoid Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo when speaking. He even called them over to advance. But Tang Mo wasn’t interested in this type of team. He looked at Fu Wenduo and the other raised an eyebrow, obviously not wanting to stay. The two people had just turned to leave when they heard a male voice.

“Mr. Tang, Mr. Fu, I haven’t finished a matter yet.”

Tang Mo stopped and turned around.

Xiao Jitong pulled up the child sitting down. He carried Fu Wensheng by the collar over to Fu Wenduo.

“Go quietly with him.”

Fu Wensheng’s eyes widened. “Captain Xiao!”

Xiao Jitong corrected, “It is vice-captain, not Captain Xiao.”

Fu Wensheng said, “I told my brother, I want to stay. My brother is so strong and he and I haven’t seen each other for a long time. It is better for me to stay with you since I have been here a few months…”

“But your brother is the one who saved you.”

Fu Wensheng fell silent.

Xiao Jitong smiled at him. “Our team couldn’t fight to save you. If I am present, if I had to sacrifice you to save the lives of others, I would reasonably give you up. It isn’t just you. If I am in danger, Chai Rong would give up on me.”

Chai Rong muttered, “Who wants to save you?”

Ningning flatly said, “Captain, I will give you up.”

Xiao Jitong said, “…You don’t have to be so positive.” Xiao Jitong coughed twice before continuing to say to the child, “But your brother is different. If you are in danger, he will save you. It was the same with Xuanwu Lake Park. Therefore, for the sake of your life, go with your brother. If I had an opportunity where my relatives was still alive, I wouldn’t hesitate to go with them.”

Fu Wensheng was very clever and understood Xiao Jitong’s meaning. He eventually agreed. However, he still whispered, “Captain Xiao, you have no basis for your words. You have no family so of course you can say it casually.”

Xiao Jitong calmly replied, “I am sure that I would choose my loved ones over thes tupid Chai Rong.”

Chai Rong shouted, “…You!”

“Captain Xiao! There is someone here who says she is your sister!”

The smile on Xiao Jitong’s face suddenly froze. “…”

The turnaround came too fast.

Tang Mo looked at Xiao Jitong’s sluggish appearance and suddenly felt that it was funny. Out of courtesy, Tang Mo held back his smile. On the other hand, Chai Rong and the other Nanjing players burst out laughing. Tang Mo heard their pleasant laughter and couldn’t help joining in.

The atmosphere brought about by the garbage cleaning game was swept away in an instant.

Xiao Jitong headed to the factory door with an entrance. He wanted to see how he got an extra sister when he was obviously an only child. Chai Rong and Ningning could testify to this. The group followed Xiao Jitong and eventually came upon Xiao Jitong’s sister.

Tang Mo was following out of boredom when a low voice entered his ears. “Do you want to check my ability?”

Tang Mo was stunned and turned to look.

In the warm spring breeze, Fu Wenduo slightly smiled as he stretched out his right hand. Tang Mo froze for a moment before understanding the other person’s meaning. He felt somewhat awkward about someone seeing them but previously, holding hands for one hour wasn’t successful. It was indeed better to start early.

Tang Mo took Fu Wenduo’s hand. “I’m guessing we should know your ability by nighttime.”

The two people walked towards the door and hadn’t yet arrived when they heard an excited female voice.

“Cousin!”

Then a male voice was heard. “Brother Xiao, it really is you!”

Xiao Jitong was stunned. “An Chu, Lu Xing?”

Tang Mo suddenly felt that these two names were a bit familiar. He was still thinking about it when Fu Wenduo whispered in his ear. “The Strange Circus.”

Tang Mo, “…”

What a small world!

Tang Mo subconsciously wanted to leave. He turned and pulled Fu Wenduo along with him. But it was too late. Among the crowd of people happy to see what Xiao Jitong’s sister looked like, Lu Xing looked up and saw a familiar back. His eyes widened with dismay and all types of scenes flashed in his head.

At least, he stared at Fu Wenduo with horror and pointed his hand. “Oh my god, Mr. A?”

Fu Wenduo stopped.

The Nanjing Group players, including Xiao Jitong, turned to look at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.

Fu Wenduo’s back was always straight like a pine. He was also close to 1.9 metres tall and stood out in a crowd. Lu Xing had only seen Mr. A in the last fight but he clearly remembered his figure. He looked at Tang Mo beside Mr. A and he shouted together with An Chu, “Mr. B!”

Lu Xing said, “Oh my god, why did Mr. A and Mr. B follow us here?”

An Chu replied, “You idiot, we just got here. Mr. A and Mr. B were already here.”

Things had progressed like this so Tang Mo turned around helplessly.

Lu Xing asked curiously, “Then who is the damned Fu Wenduo and who is the damned Tang Mo?”

Tang Mo frowned and was prepared to explain the truth about the Strange Circus instance. They had to blame the black tower for this matter. Of course, he would deliberately conceal the last reward from Lu Xing and the others. But before he could speak, Fu Wensheng ran out with horror. “What Fu Wenduo? You’re mistaking him for someone else! This is my brother. He is called Fu Wenxian, not Fu Wenduo. He is Fu Wenxian!”

Lu Xing asked in a strange tone, “…Ah, he isn’t Fu Wenduo? The black tower said that Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo were the ones who cleared the game.”

Fu Wensheng started sweating. “This is Fu Wenxian, Fu Wenxian!”

“Hahaha.”

The Nanjing Group players looked at the child’s frightened expression and laughed. Fu Wensheng stared at them with bewilderment.

Xiao Jitong smiled helplessly, “They already know that your older brother is Fu Wenduo. Did you forget that at Xuanwu Lake Park, Ningning accidentally shouted Fu Wenduo in front of everyone?”

Fu Wensheng, “…”

Ningning looked to the side. She pretended not to know anything.

An Chu didn’t understand why her cousin and this notorious stowaway were getting along so well. She looked strangely at the laughing members before finally looking at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. Suddenly, her gaze fell on the tightly held hands of the two men.

An Chu, “…”

…What was this? Gay? It felt like she had learned something shocking.

The author has something to say:

Tang Tang: MMP, it is just holding hands. Can’t men hold hands without being gay?

Straight males Xiao Jitong, Chai Rong, Xiao Fu, She Huiyao and others: Yes, no!

Tang Tang: …

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