The Earth is Online

Night fell and darkness hit the earth. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo took the girl’s body and quickly left the road, finding an inconspicuous house. They didn’t see anybody along the way. There weren’t many players surviving in Beijing and it was normal to see no one in five minutes. However, this time all of Beijing seemed to be affected by the stop button as it was completely still.

The huge city had become an empty city. There were less than 100 people who hadn’t been forcibly pulled into the tower attack game.

The same thing was happening all over the world.

There were few players left on the planet. Only players who had attacked the tower within three months or participated in the last person trash clearing game weren’t forced to attack the tower.

Tang Mo looked at the dark sky outside and opening his flashlight to light up the corpse.

They examined the props and weapons on the girl. There was an ordinary kitchen knife, a police gun and three rounds of bullets. The girl only had a seemingly strange stone prop. Tang Mo looked at the prop and found that it could improve the running speed of the player for a short amount of time. However, it could only be used three times and had been used twice.

Finally, they checked the girl’s cause of death again.

It was just like Fu Wenduo’s hasty examination. She was killed by a blow to the heart. It was a human technique, not a black tower monster.

Tang Mo handed the stone to Fu Wensheng. This prop did little for him and would be more useful to the child. He looked up at Fu Wenduo with a heavy face. “This is the second dead person. When we saw her, she wasn’t dead yet but the murderer was gone. There are two possibilities. First, she did participate in the black tower game but was thrown out before she died. Second, she was killed on Earth.”

Fu Wenduo stared at Tang Mo with a certain expression. “It is the second one.”

Tang Mo knew that the first possibility was very unlikely. He said, “There is only one problem. The person who killed her is either stronger than you or at least faster than you. He was able to escape in seconds before you arrived and also did it without a trace. He either has a special ability or a prop.” Tang Mo answered himself. “He can be invisible.”

Fu Wenduo suddenly asked, “Which one do you think it is?”

Tang Mo was slightly startled. He looked into Fu Wenduo’s eyes, the two men looking at each other quietly. Fu Wenduo had long guessed that Tang Mo had some type of intellectual ability. Tang Mo didn’t elaborate on Chen Shanshan’s ability but when he encountered a problem ,he would make guesses based on the super intellectual thinking.

Tang Mo thought for a moment and said seriously, “I don’t think it is any of them.”

“Then what is it?”

Xiao Fu was also thinking from the side. He didn’t wait for Tang Mo to answer as he suddenly said, “Is it related to Mu Hui?”

Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo turned to look at him.

Xiao Fu explained, “Big Brother, Brother Tang, look. The invisible killer appeared after the black tower’s update error. The timing is a bit much to be a coincidence. There was nothing before and now that person popped up. It is likely to be related to that update error. Of course, there might really be an invisible person following us but he only killed the people around us…” Fu Wensheng trailed off because even he felt it was unlikely.

The invisible enemy appeared a week ago after the update around the Tang Mo trio. He never attacked the Tang Mo trio but killed passing players. Finally, he fled when the Tang Mo trio arrived. What was the point of this? Was it to show off that the person had a special escape skill?

Fu Wensheng spoke his own thoughts. He expected Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo to still discuss it. Who would’ve expected Tang Mo’s expression to slowly sink and for Fu Wenduo to not speak again. The child thought he said something wrong. Then once he thought it over, he understood that if what he said was true, this matter would be very complicated.

The appearance of the invisible man was related to the mysterious 4.0 version of the black tower.

The invisible enemy was the most dangerous enemy. Could it be said that after the black tower’s 4.0 version was updated, human players would encounter these invisible enemies?

Fu Wensheng shivered when he thought of this. The child shrank back, not wanting to think about such a terrible thing.

They were hiding in a grocery store. Tang Mo took a tablecloth from the shelf and covered the girl. The trio rested here for the night.

Early the next morning, Tang Mo opened his eyes and went to the window. He looked up at the black tower not far away and counted the numbers.

[26,813,231.]

He whispered the number in a low voice and then repeated the numbers he saw last night.

Approximately 1.5 million people were killed.

The black tower didn’t explain the eight digit number but all the players probably knew what it was the moment they saw it. It was either the number of players forced into the tower attack game or the total number of surviving players. One month ago, Xiao Jitong told Tang Mo that there were probably 20,000 players in Nanjing. Before the earth went online, there were around 10 million people in Nanjing. Using this same proportion, the number of surviving humans on Earth was 20 million.

“More than 100 people were killed in 10 seconds. One night passed and it has decreased by 1.5 million…”

“Most of the players forced to attack the tower are those who haven’t played the tower games.” A low voice was heard behind Tang Mo and he turned to look. Fu Wenduo moved to the window and stared at the black tower. He said, “The first three days is the period when there will be a sharp decline. After three days, the speed will fall.”

Tang Mo moved his line of sight and replied in a calm voice, “The real sharp reduction period should be 12 to 24 hours after entering the tower attack game.” This was his experience from attacking the tower three times. The tower attack games weren’t the same as other games. There were usually one or two side missions before the main mission. There was a 80~90% chance that the main mission wouldn’t open for 24 hours.

Fu Wenduo heard the words and was about to say something when his eyes suddenly narrowed.

Tang Mo’s eyes slowly widened and he stared at the black tower.

He saw that the black tower suspended in mid-air. The bright sun shone on the dark tower and in the centre of the black tower, the white eight digit number was constantly changing. This time, the number wasn’t changing in units of tens or hundreds. The digits were changing in units of thousands!

In one minute, the number changed to: 26,381,314。

After 10 minutes, the number became: 24,913,421。

One hour later, the first digit changed from ‘2’ to ‘1’.

On Earth, the players who didn’t need to attack the tower found a safe place and stared silently at the number changing. There was no blood or gunfire, it was just a number decreasing. In this one hour, 10 million people disappeared inside the icy black tower.

The Red Square, Moscow, Russia.

In the heavy snow, a strong bear-like man wrapped in a thick coat saw the number fall from ‘2’ to ‘1’ and turned to leave.

Beijing, the No. 80 school.

Lian Yuzheng was sitting in the corridor of the high school classrooms. She didn’t seem afraid that she would fall as she sat on the handrail and watched the number decreasing, her expression not changing.

Nanjing, the new Nanjing Group.

Xiao Jitong stopped looking the moment the number fell to 25 million. Ningning held her crossbow and left to go to the black tower. She looked up at it silently.

Shanghai, the Attack organization.

Last month, Luo Fengcheng had all the players in the organization enter the black tower and complete their tower attack game. He became an official player and found his ability. Since last night, only the members of Attack were left in the mall as well as two players who cleared the first floor.

Luo Fengcheng sat in the office and didn’t care about the outside situation. Suddenly, his door was pushed open.

Jack rushed inside. He was constantly gasping and was so anxious that he couldn’t speak. There was an ordinary short-haired girl reading a book. Chen Shanshan saw this situation and poured a glass of water, handing over to Jack. She asked, “Was someone killed by an invisible person?”

Jack first nodded before shaking his head.

Luo Fengcheng narrowed his eyes. “What’s the situation?”

Jack finally recovered his breath after drinking the water. He spoke quickly in Chinese that had become fluent over the past six months, “Yes, I found a body killed by an invisible person. But this time, cough, I don’t want to talk about that. Dr. Luo, the number has changed! Yesterday, you said that the number of the black tower should be the total number of surviving players, which was more than 28 million. Now there are only 19 million players left!”

Luo Fengcheng was stunned.

Chen Shanshan’s hand holding the cup also froze in the air.

After a moment, Luo Fengcheng murmured, “It is so fast…” He didn’t say anything else as he took a thick stack of papers from the drawer. He read the data in detail before handing it to Jack, calmly ordering, “Find a chance to go to Beijing and look for Tang Mo and Major Fu. This matter is something that no players in Shanghai can solve. Shanshan, you go as well. They need your ability.”

Meanwhile, Suzhou, Guanqian Street.

Two foreign men walked down an empty commercial street, looking in a bored manner at the abandoned stores on both sides.

They walked for 10 minutes and didn’t see a single person. The blond man couldn’t help yelling “Fuck!” before saying angrily, “Where are the people? Why is there no one? Have al the people been killed? Damn, I only have 56 minutes left of rest. Why are there no pigs?”

The brown haired man next to him snorted. “The next break is mine.”

The blond man asked in a disdainful manner, “Did you find a pig, my dear David?”

As soon as the words finished, the two of them acted. They pricked their ears and listened carefully to the movements around them. A strange and crazy smile appeared on their handsome faces, like a madman who had been bored for three days and suddenly saw food. Their eyes were bright as the stared at the second floor of a specialty store.

The middle-aged man hiding on the second floor quickly retreated from the window and shivered. “What are those two…” Before his words finished, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes. The last thing the middle-aged man saw before his death was blond hair. His head separated from his neck and the brown-haired man’s roar seemed to be heard.

“Fuck you! Pete, this break is mine. You fucking stole my time!”

The head slowly fell to the ground, everything happening in just one second. The middle-aged man who passed the black tower’s first floor didn’t think the difference in strength between the two sides would be so big. His head slowly fell to the ground, his eyes staring straight at the blond man’s right hand. On the right hand, a red agate bracelet could be seen.

The brown-haired man punched the blond man and the blond man dodged with a smile.

Half a minute later, the two people disappeared from the room, leaving only the body of the middle-aged man.