The Earth is Online

The black tower’s prompt ended and a blue light flashed in the spacious yard.

The blue light became brighter and more glaring. There were a total of 20 blue light films with nothing inside. Once Tang Mo opened his eyes again, he saw 20 objects floating in the blue light film. There were a few seemingly useless coloured stones, a hammer, long nails, bloody nails and a small red dress.

Then the black tower’s mechanical childlike voice was heard.

“Ding dong! In the first round, players can step forward seven squares.”

Tang Mo carefully observed the 20 items and his gaze stopped on the second row.

There were two books!

This was a 5×5 square board. Tang Mo and the young man were standing on the far right row. From their point of view, the whole board was divided into five rows and five columns. There were two books in the second row close to the Bai Ruoyao team.

Use like Mosaic’s light film changed, the blue light films turned on or off as the items appeared. There were a total of 20 items. The books were present in the second row, third column and the second row, fifth column.

Tang Mo heard a low cry and turned to look at this companion. The young man had apparently been surprised when he saw the two books and then regained his calm. He looked carefully at Tang Mo and found that Tang Mo was staring at him. The young man’s expression changed, his eyes looking suspiciously between Bai Ruoyao and Tang Mo.

All four players saw the books and the depressed Mosaic sitting in the middle of the board. The four players were wary and no one moved first. Mosaic saw this and said, “I have never seen such boring humans. Boring and boring, too boring! Hurry up and end this boring instance. I want to set fire to things, I want to play!”

No one paid attention to Mosaic’s words.

Everyone was carefully observing the items on the board, as well as the bright and dark pattern of the films.

Three minutes later, Tang Mo was still mentally calculating seven steps. The two books were obviously close to Bai Ruoyao. If they wanted to pass, they must waste at least three steps to arrive at the grids with the books. Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound. Tang Mo immediately held the small parasol but saw a blue light film slowly descend in front of him and the young man.

There was a layer of light film around Bai Ruoyao’s team, blocking them from Tang Mo.

The young man was startled. “This is the ninth rule of the game… teammates can discuss countermeasures in private?” The young man didn’t react at once. It seemed this was the first time he saw the black tower using such a simple and crude isolation method.

Tang Mo had a lot of experience with this since Pinocchio’s honest card game had a similar rule. “Now our words should be inaudible to them when we talk. Similarly, we can’t hear them when they talk.”

The young man carefully watched Tang Mo.

Tang Mo and the young man each stood in a corner of the board, with a distance of three squares between them.

There was only five minutes of discussion time. The young man hesitated for a moment before deciding to not waste time. “My name is Liu Wansheng. You should’ve heard it when you entered the instance. Right now, I just want to confirm one thing…” Liu Wansheng made a serious expression as he pointed to Bai Ruoyao at the other end of the board. “Are you teammates with that person?”

Tang Mo replied, “No.”

Liu Wansheng found it a bit unbelievable. “You came in together and from your conversation, you seem to know each other?”

Those who could enter this instance must’ve at least cleared the black tower’s first floor. In the face of a black tower game that wasn’t fully understood yet and needing to think of countermeasures, the first thing this man thought of wasn’t to blindly solve the game but to confirm the identity of his teammate.

Tang Mo changed the situation as he asked the young man a question. “Then are you teammates with that woman?”

Liu Wansheng immediately denied it. “Of course not. I accidentally entered this instance last week. The next day, the woman and her teammates entered. They had a total of four people. They picked up the little girl’s match when they just entered and the werewolf and little girl killed three of them. I don’t know her. We were simply trapped for several days in this instance together.”

From Liu Wansheng’s tone and expression, Tang Mo didn’t think he was lying. He turned his gaze towards the young woman on the other side of the board. The woman was pale and constantly opening her mouth to say something with a very anxious expression. Liu Wansheng also followed Tang Mo’s gaze and was stunned when he saw Bai Ruoyao.

The baby-faced youth in a white jacket was standing in his grid, grinning at Tang Mo. His female teammate was talking to him but he didn’t respond. Instead, when Tang Mo and Liu Wansheng looked at him, Bai Ruoyao blinked and opened his mouth.

Liu Wansheng’s scalp was numb. “He said that you and he are teammates!”

Tang Mo, “…”

Yes, just now Bai Ruoyao deliberately opened his mouth and said that they were teammates.

Bai Ruoyao clearly couldn’t hear Tang Mo’s side of the conversation but he said such a sentence to make Liu Wansheng suspicious of his teammate. However, Liu Wansheng soon calmed down and felt that this abnormal person might be lying to him. If Bai Ruoyao and Tang Mo were really teammates, Bai Ruoyao shouldn’t have chosen the young woman. He should’ve chosen Tang Mo (of course, he couldn’t rule out this person deliberately putting his teammate in with the enemy). In any case, he was inclined to believe that these two strange players weren’t teammates. They just had a special relationship.

Liu Wansheng said, “Well, I believe that you aren’t teammates with that person. Now the both of us are teammates. To be honest, this game is a bit like flipping chess but it is different. I’ve played a bit of flipping chess and with this game, the middle doesn’t matter. The most important thing is the ending. The rules of the game says that we have to hand over the item whose light film is on to Mosaic.”

The man spoke in a reasonable voice and was calm despite the sweat covering his forehead.

The other person was saying what Tang Mo had been thinking. Tang Mo added, “Once the round is over, as long as the light film of the grid we are standing on is bright as well as Mosaic’s light film, the item will be handed over to Mosaic. Right now, there are two books in total.”

Liu Wansheng nodded. “It will take me five minutes to get to the nearest book. Your position is better. You only need to take three steps to arrive at a grid with a book. In this round, each of us can walk seven steps. I think it is better for you to go to the grid with the book. As for the problem of the light films being on… I will handle it. I’ll look at the situation and help make sure that the light of your grid and Mosaic’s grid is bright. Of course, I can’t fully guarantee it in the first round.”

Tang Mo raised his eyebrows and didn’t refuse the other person’s decision.

This Liu Wansheng had reached an average level of strength in all the players that Tang Mo had seen. Tang Mo was indeed closer to the book and it was more reasonable for him to grab the grid containing the book. However, ensuring the brightness of the light films wasn’t an easy thing. Liu Wansheng touched his chin as he stared at all the squares on the field, remembering their current bright and dark states. He kept muttering, like he was calculating something.

Tang Mo couldn’t hear what he was saying but based on his expression, Liu Wansheng was probably guessing how the opposite side would act, how the grids would brighten or darken and how the situation would change. He had to control it so that Tang Mo stepped into a bright grid containing the book while Mosaic’s grid also had to be bright.

This game was actually very simple. A player would advance or move back in the grids and every step would cause the horizontal and vertical grids to change colour. The originally bright film would darken while the dark film would brighten.

However, the simpler the game, the more complicated it was to play.

This type of game was only simple when one person played it. It was because a player could control where they headed. Once there was a second person, the number of possible grid changes would increase exponentially. Tang Mo watched Liu Wansheng sweating while making the calculations and didn’t interrupt the other side’s reasoning.

As long as Bai Ruoyao didn’t act casually, the two sides could cooperate and make it easy to hand over the book to Mosaic.

However, both Tang Mo and Bai Ruoyao knew that this simply wasn’t possible. If this was a game that could be solved by the players cooperating, it was impossible for so many people to previously die. In addition, the players had been deliberately divided into two teams. There must be a reason for the existence of the two teams.

The five minutes discussion time ended and the blue film gradually dissipated.

At one end of the board, Bai Ruoyao was saying unknown words to the young woman. The latter closed her mouth and stopped talking, red eyes flashing angrily. On the other end of the board, Liu Wansheng was preparing. He knew that it was highly unlikely for them to end the game in the first round. This round was just to test the waters on both sides and there was no specific punishment.

The black tower gave a prompt. “The first round has officially started! Players are asked to move the given number of squares in the order of priority.”

As the voice finished speaking, blue numbers appeared above the heads of the four players present. Bai Ruoyao had the number 1, Liu Wansheng had the number 2, the young woman Lin Qianxi had the number 3 and Tang Mo had the number 4.

“Asking Player 1 to please choose the way forward.”

Bai Ruoyao took a big step forward with the number 1 above his head. He took a step and happened to stand on a grid with a book. Once he walked into the square, the light film that was originally lit up turned off and all the light films horizontally and vertically attached changed.

This was just the beginning. Tang Mo and Liu Wansheng were unaffected when they saw this change. Then it was Liu Wansheng’s turn to move forward. He moved forward one grid and changed the colours of all the vertical and horizontal squares again.

The young woman bit her lips and silently walked forward.

The last person was Tang Mo.

On the huge board, all three players stood in a good position and turned to look at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo had the small parasol hanging from his waist as he calmly looked ahead of him or to his left. For his first step, he could only choose to go in these two directions. No matter where he chose, there wouldn’t be a big problem because the game was just beginning.

Tang Mo’s eyes swept over the three players and then the two books. Finally, his eyes aimed at the little girl sitting in the middle of the board. Then he suddenly opened his mouth and asked in a calm voice, “For my last step, if I stand on the same square as him, does it count as the square being mine or his?” He was referring to Bai Ruoyao.

Bai Ruoyao was stunned and then grinned.

It was rare for someone to pay attention to her so Mosaic easily replied, “Of course it is his. He came first. You bad human, you don’t even understand this. I despise you.”

The other people didn’t understand what Mosaic’s disdain meant but Tang Mo understood and ignored her. He still didn’t move as he asked a second question, “If I give you the book, will I pass this instance?”

Mosaic’s expression sank. “I don’t want to read! I don’t want to! I’m going to play!”

Tang Mo, “Let’s say if that happens. For example, there are two books in this round. At the end, supposed both teams manage to pass the book to you. Who will win? What are the benefits of winning and what punishment will be given if we lose?”

The young woman was shocked and asked, “Can you do this? Can such rules be asked directly?”

Liu Wansheng also hadn’t expected Tang Mo to be so blunt and looked at Tang Mo with startled eyes.

Tang Mo quietly waited for Mosaic’s answer.

However, the little girl just looked at Tang Mo strangely. After a moment, Mosaic placed her hands on her waist and laughed. “Yes, you can ask, you can ask. I know the answers to these questions. But… why should I tell you? You are a bad person and didn’t let me talk before. You refused to accompany me to play and told me to open the game. Now that the game is open, you want to ask me how to clear it? Perhaps if you beg me…”

“Then I am begging you.”

Mosaic, “…”

Liu Wansheng, “…”

Lin Qianxi, “…”

Even Bai Ruoyao didn’t expect Tang Mo to be so simple and beg. He froze for a moment before laughing, “Tang Tang, previously I asked you to beg me and you didn’t beg. You also hit me. This is completely different treatment!”

Tang Mo ignored Bai Ruoyao and looked sincerely at the little girl. “I beg you, tell me how to clear the instance. If two teams pass the book to you, who will win? What rewards will the winning team get and what punishment will the losing team get? In addition…” Tang Mo had a firm look in his eyes. “This game… does it prohibit violence?”