The Earth is Online

The setting sun completely sank below the earth and the last glimmer of light disappeared on the distant horizon.

Tang Mo had stopped all movements the moment Jack had opened his mouth. He saw the people and put away his parasol. Tang Mo never thought he would see Jack and Chen Shanshan in Beijing. After the shock, he looked down at the short and thin girl and thought they needed to find a place to settle down. Before he could open his mouth, Chen Shanshan said, “We should leave here first. This is close to Peking University’s reality instance. It is dark and not safe.”

Jack nodded while Tang Mo was still slightly stunned.

Moments later, the three figures disappeared from the alley. Tang Mo found an empty courtyard and the three of them entered the main house. Jack pulled out a low-wattage energy saving flashlight. He turned on the flashlight and the dim light lit up the room. The brightness allowed Tang Mo to see their faces but it couldn’t be discovered from outside the house.

Tang Mo looked at the muscular foreign man and the little girl. His eyes were fixed on Chen Shanshan as he thought for a long time before finally asking, “You… how are you here?”

The moment he saw Jack and Chen Shanshan, Tang Mo had wondered if this was a special ability that allowed the person to change faces so that the enemy would relax their vigilance. For example, if they wanted to attack Tang Mo, Tang Mo would definitely fight back. Then he would see Jack and Chen Shanshan and would naturally hesitate. The other side would seize this opportunity to deal a killing blow. He quickly denied this possibility.

It was possible but why would they turn into Jack and Chen Shanshan?

Tang Mo was most familiar with Fu Wenduo, Fu Wensheng and recently, Bai Ruoyao. Their faces should be the ones copied with this ability.

It was because Tang Mo didn’t understand how these two people who should be in Shanghai had appeared here that he would think such messy things.

Jack scratched his head and replied, “In fact, this wasn’t my idea. Shanshan said that we might find you at Peking University. Shanshan said that you attacked the tower in January and the black tower won’t force you to attack the tower. Besides, you just cleared the third floor last month. You shouldn’t take the initiative to attack the tower in such a short time and would stay in Beijing. However, many things have happened lately. You won’t sit still and will likely take the initiative to enter an instance and improve your strength. Right now, the most famous instance in Beijing is the Peking University reality instance. Shanshan thought there was a 30% chance you would challenge this instance. We just have to wait here and it is likely we would find you.” Jack turned to look at the little girl. “Shanshan, did you say it was a 30% chance?”

Chen Shanshan said helplessly, “I did say it was 30% but that isn’t what Brother Tang is asking.”

Jack was confused. “Didn’t Tang ask us why we are here?”

“He is asking why we are here, referring to Beijing.”

Jack suddenly realized.

It had been a few months since they’ve seen each other. Tang Mo watched Chen Shanshan pointing out Jack’s mistake and couldn’t help smiling slightly. His smile caused the two of them to turn towards him. Tang Mo explained, “You seem to have changed.”

Jacks cried out, “Tang, you have found out? I have become stronger. I cleared the black tower’s second floor last month and got some physical improvement as a reward. On the other hand, Shanshan hasn’t changed. It is strange. She participated in many games and also cleared the black tower’s second floor, but her physical fitness hasn’t improved.

Tang Mo knew the reason but he didn’t say it.

“Isn’t Shanshan’s hair getting longer?”

Even Chen Shanshan hadn’t noticed this change. She touched her shoulder length hair and murmured, “It seems to have become longer…”

The three of them smiled.

Every day after the earth went online was like a year for the players. Three months for everyone was more like three years. Tang Mo, Jack and Chen Shanshan hadn’t seen each other for three months but it felt like they had been separated for a long time. Thanks to Jack’s joke, the three of them quickly became familiar with each other again and there was no barrier.

Chen Shanshan explained, “It was Teacher who asked Jack to take me to find you.”

Tang Mo frowned. “Luo Fengcheng?”

The little girl nodded. “Yes. Jack and I left Shanghai and accidentally entered an instance in Tianjin, delaying the time. Once we arrived in Beijing, we heard that the Tian Xuan organization was chasing after Major Fu. The Tian Xuan organization is very strong and there was only Jack and I. The two of us were weak so we waited for the limelight from them chasing you to be over before we started to look for you.”

Tang Mo hadn’t expected the little girl to come to Beijing so early. He stated, “Things are complicated with the Tian Xuan organization and I can’t say it now. Why did Luo Fengcheng ask you to come here?”

He spoke to Chen Shanshan, not Jack. Tang Mo heard this and knew who Luo Fengcheng really wanted to send to Beijing.

Chen Shanshan clenched her fingers and she stared seriously at Tang Mo, stating three words, “The invisible people.”

Tang Mo’s eyes slightly widened before he calmed down.

“What information did you bring from Luo Fengcheng?”

There was no nonsense, he just asked for the information directly. It was because he understood Luo Fengcheng’s thoughts. Luo Fengcheng must’ve discovered important information about the invisible people and had Chen Shanshan come here. This information must be very important and the situation urgent. The Attack organization couldn’t easily handle it so it would be given to Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.

Jack’s head was in the clouds. He didn’t understand how Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan were talking about her hair growing longer only to suddenly shift to this topic.

Chen Shanshan kept up with Tang Mo’s rhythm. She took out a thick pile of documents from the small bag she carried with her. Tang Mo found that Chen Shanshan’s bag looked very small but inside were documents five centimetres thick. It was because they were only files that the package was smaller.

Chen Shanshan handed it to Tang Mo. “These are the things that Teacher asked me to bring. But these things are just paper. The thing that he really wanted to give to you… Brother Tang, it is me. I know a lot more than what is written here.”

Tang Mo took the papers and was about to open it when he heard this. He saw the girl’s serious expression and slowly smiled. He put all the files aside and asked, “What did Luo Fengcheng discover?”

Chen Shanshan spoke in a certain tone, “The invisible people are the more than six billion people who disappeared six months ago.”

Next, Chen Shanshan quickly gave all the information that the Attack organization found and exchanged information with Tang Mo. She thought that Tang Mo wouldn’t know these things so she didn’t leave out any detail. Then after she spoke, she discovered that Tang Mo already knew a lot of it.

“The invisible people are the humans who disappeared and they have a leaderboard called the time leaderboard.” Tang Mo found a blank piece of paper and wrote down all the information. “I already know this. However, I only know that the number one player on the leaderboard is called Mu Huixue. I haven’t heard of any of the players you mentioned.”

Mu Huixue, Alex Jonard, Richard Mendes…

Chen Shanshan dictated and Tang Mo wrote the names. Once he finished writing all the names, he found that he had written more than 40 names. There were 11 Chinese, 20 European and America and a very small number of Southeast Asian and East Asian names.

Tang Mo held the pen and flipped it in his fingers. The tip pointed down and gently hit the table. His eyes swept over the 11 strange Chinese names and finally stopped on Mu Huixue. Tang Mo looked up at Chen Shanshan. “Do you think there is anything strange about this list?”

Chen Shanshan stated, “There are too many Chinese.”

Tang Mo’s lips curved. “Yes, there are too many people from China.

According to Bai Ruoyao, the time leaderboard had 100 people. The Attack organization had a list of the top 50, of which 11 were Chinese.

“These names are obviously Chinese names. Even if there are several names from South Korea or other countries, there are still too many Chinese people.” China accounted for one-fourth of the leaderboard. Tang Mo’s brain moved at a high speed and he instantly thought of countless possibilities. Suddenly, he asked, “Is this ratio the same as the ratio of the Chinese population to the world’s total population?”

Jack was stunned while Chen Shanshan’s eyes were bright. She followed Tang Mo’s words. “It is really close. In addition Brother Tang, the time leaderboard is a killing list. Kill a person and you can get 10 minutes. Kill a player who owns time and you can get half their time in addition to the 10 minutes. But this actually has no effect.”

Chen Shanshan drew a circle on the paper and then two small circles inside it. She wrote 10 minutes in one small circle and 10 minutes + X minutes in the other.”

“Killing a person can get 10 minutes. Killing a person with time can get 10 minutes plus half of the X minutes. However, the reason why a person could get X minutes is because they killed a lot of people. In the final analysis, the time that every person obtained means how many people they killed. There is a positive proportional relationship between the two.” Chen Shanshan spoke again, “What type of person can get more time?”

Jack understood this point. “Strong people. Only strong people can kill other players.”

Unexpected, Tang Mo refuted him, “Strength isn’t the more important factor.”

Jack was startled, “What? Then what is the most important factor?”

Tang Mo looked at Chen Shanshan and the girl stared back at him. Chen Shanshan sighed and slowly said, “If there are enough people around to kill… that is the most important factor in being a player on the leaderboard.”

With Jack’s brain, he didn’t understand Chen Shanshan’s meaning. Still, this wasn’t important because Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan had reached a consensus.

Tang Mo explained, “The humans who disappeared half a year ago make up almost 90% of the total human population. Compared to them, those of us who survived are negligible. The fact that there are so many Chinese people on the leaderboard means that there is a large source of points, that is…” Tang Mo paused before saying, “A population that can be killed. According to this one-fourth ratio, I think they might still be living in China.”

“Wait, living in China?” Jack exclaimed.

“Yes, they still live in China. Half a month ago, we started to see the so-called invisible people. Shanghai has them, Beijing, Tianjin… we can speculate that the invisible people have started to appear around the world. One thing is certain. Before half a month ago, there were no players killed by the invisible people. Otherwise, Attack or Fu Wenduo would’ve discovered it a long time ago.”

Chen Shanshan added, “The invisible people appeared due to the black tower version update related to Mu Huixue. Until then, the people they killed in order to gain time shouldn’t be our surviving 400 million players. They killed the more than six billion people who disappeared with them.”

Jack felt dizzy but he was vaguely aware that Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan had discovered something very important. “Then… what is going on?”

The heated discussion stopped. The little girl closed his mouth and she frowned like she was thinking of something very serious. Chen Shanshan’s lips opened before finally closing. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to say it because she was worried… that their guess was correct.

A calm male voice filled the room. “Did Luo Fengcheng also guess this?”

Chen Shanshan quickly turned her head to look at Tang Mo.

Tang Mo reached out and rubbed his temples.

…If something was true, they had to face it. There was no use escaping and the situation was very grim.

“The world of the invisible people is merging with our world, so that they will appear from time to time before disappearing. One day, both worlds will surely merge. This fusion… maybe it is called the black tower’s 4.0 version.”

There was a bang as silver lightning ripped through the sky and lit up all of Beijing.

Thunderbolts fell and spring rain followed. In the courtyard, Jack moved and closed the window. Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan continued to discuss this as they merged the information they found. At the end of the conversation, the little girl looked at the dense information that Tang Mo wrote on the paper and couldn’t help asking, “Brother Tang, what do you think is the likelihood of this guess?”

Tang Mo raised his head and saw this ordinary girl staring at him seriously in the dim lighting. Her clear pupils shook slightly. The girl had already realized but she was still unwilling to accept the cruel reality that would come soon.

It wasn’t just because her father and mother were in that world but that they might’ve been killed a long time ago.

Moreover, if the six billion invisible people returned, it would be an unprecedented disaster for the current official players, reserve players and stowaways.

Yes, there was a 99% chance it would be a disaster, not a joyful reunion.

Tang Mo gazed at Chen Shanshan. After a moment, he said, “I should be asking you this question, not me.”

His super intelligent thinking could make an unfounded guess have a maximum accuracy of 50%. Tang Mo’s version only had a 10% chance of guessing correctly while Chen Shanshan had a 50% chance. Six months had passed and her ability level must’ve improved. The correct figure might be even scarier.

As long as she spoke a number, it was highly likely that number was right.

Chen Shanshan hesitated for a long time before she replied, “I think… it is 100%.”

The voice fell and there was another strike of thunder.

Tang Mo’s lips opened and closed without him speaking.

Tang Mo just finished an instance while Chen Shanshan and Jack travelled all the way from Shanghai to Beijing. Then they had been looking for Tang Mo. All three of them felt tired and Tang Mo and Jack took turns to stand guard, allowing everyone to have a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, the rain stopped.

Tang Mo went to the yard and looked around. He determined there was no one here and returned to the house. “We can go.”

Chen Shanshan nodded and started to clean up the messy files and papers on the table. Tang Mo helped her clean it up. He took some of the less important documents and placed them to the side, ready to burn them and save some space. The table was quickly cleaned up. Tang Mo picked up a piece of paper and was preparing to put it in the garbage. Suddenly, his movements stopped and his eyes widened as he looked at the top line on the paper.

Name: Bai Ruoyao…

Tang Mo immediately picked up this piece of paper and read it carefully. He quickly read the whole thing before looking up. “What is this?”

Chen Shanshan was about to set fire to the papers. Once she heard his question, she walked over and read the information on the paper and asked in a strange manner, “Hey, how is this thing here? The information that Teacher gave me is about the invisible people. This person has nothing to do with it.”

Tang Mo grasped the key point. “Do you know Bai Ruoyao?”

Chen Shanshan first shook her head before nodding. “I don’t know him but I’ve listened to Teacher and Jack talk about him a few times. Brother Tang, do you know him? You should ask Jack. He knows this man better than me.”

Jack happened to come over and his expression became strange once Tang Mo asked the question. The honest foreign man showed a complex expression. He was angry but in the end there was some helplessness. Under Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan’s watchful eyes, Jack let out a depressed sighed and answered, “I really, really hate this abominable fellow! I met so many friends in China but he is the most annoying Chinese person I have ever met!”

Based on Jack’s story, Tang Mo knew that Bai Ruoyao had made a mess in Shanghai.

Two months ago, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo had just left Shanghai and arrived in Nanjing. The psychopath who caused a violent storm arrived in Shanghai. The next day, the black tower released a new assembly instance. No one noticed the strange baby-faced youth who had also entered this assembly instance. Then in the instance, they first saw this psychopath harming others.

“He is really sick! We were ready to clear the instance. More than 10 people could clear it, including him. However, he went to attack the boss and provoked the boss, causing six people to fail in clearing the instance, He cleared the game but he didn’t get any extra rewards. Of the six players who died, two of them belong to a powerful reserve organization in Shanghai. Once the assembly instance was over, the group started frantically chasing him.” Jack was obviously still angry about it.

Bai Ruoyao’s behaviour didn’t affect Jack as Jack smoothly cleared the instance. However, he really couldn’t understand this type of harmful selfish behavior and felt that the other person was sick.

Jack spoke indignantly, “The players in Shanghai gave him a nickname, the baby-faced lunatic. He is really sick!”

Tang Mo had a deep understanding of Bai Ruoyao’s snake disease and wasn’t interested in what the other person had done in Shanghai. He wanted to know something else. “Is everything written here true?”

Jack took the paper and looked up.

“Yes, it’s all true. Dr. Luo might not have said a lot about the baby-faced lunatic to Shanshan but he talked about it with me and Tang Qiao. He said that any person must have signs of his life. Dr. Luo asked me and Tang Qiao to go somewhere in Shanghai to find it. He told me that this type of person is different from you, Tang Mo. The baby-faced lunatic’s personality and behaviour is very strange. His strength is also bizarre. He isn’t strong just because of the black tower. He should be strong before the earth went online due to his fighting skills. Such a powerful person doesn’t belong to the military but as long as he lived in China, the country must’ve investigated him. There is place in Shanghai that stores that type of secret data. Tang Qiao and I looked there and found this.”

Jack looked at the information on the data and muttered, “It is just that I still don’t know who he is.”

Bai Ruoyao, born in Chongqing China in 1993. He settled in Chongqing before the earth went online.

There was nothing written about Bai Ruoyao’s life. It was unknown where he went to primary and high school. They also didn’t know what university he went to. It was only written that two years ago, this person suddenly returned to Chongqing from abroad. Since then, he was idle and didn’t have a job.

If the country wanted to investigate a person, this shouldn’t be the only result.

If there really was such a person that the country couldn’t understand, he should’ve been deported a long time ago instead of living peacefully at home. Unless…

Tang Mo’s body stiffened. He came up with an unbelievable answer.

He couldn’t believe the answer because it was too incredible. How could a psychopath like Bai Ruoyao have such an identity?

…Was his guess wrong?

Yes, he must’ve guessed wrong.

Tang Mo calmed down and threw the piece of paper into the trash pile. Chen Shanshan looked thoughtfully at the piece of paper as she seemed to think of something. Still, she didn’t say much as she lit the useless pieces of paper on fire, the flames burning them to ashes.

The trio were ready to leave.

Jack looked at the burned papers and scratched his head. He couldn’t help wondering, “Why did Dr. Luo accidentally put in the information on that baby-faced lunatic?”

Tang Mo paused before he continued to move forward.

Was Luo Fengcheng careless or had he done it intentionally? The answer to this wasn’t known at all. Perhaps he guessed from Bai Ruoyao’s behaviour that he knew Tang Mo and ‘carelessly’ put in the information on Bai Ruoyao among the invisible people’s information and sent it to Tang Mo.

Tang Mo left the courtyard with Jack and Chen Shanshan and headed to the Chaoyang district.

Last night, once Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan had exchanged information, he had called Fu Wenduo and discovered that their side had made a breakthrough in the tower attack game.

The third floor’s hard mode was challenging for Fu Wenduo but it was only challenging.

The present of Fu Wensheng and the other middle-aged man reduced the difficulty of Fu Wenduo’s tower attack game. According to Fu Wenduo’s prediction, they could complete the tower attack game in three days. They would meet up at Fu Wensheng’s house. The specific location had already been marked on a map given to Tang Mo.

No one knew if the Tian Xuan’s ‘three times’ matter was true or false. On the way, Tang Mo carefully avoided the Tian Xuan organization. At the same time, they also avoided the players who just came out of the tower attack games. Most of these players were injured and had experienced a fierce battle. Their behaviour might be a bit extreme for a short period of time as they became hostile to everyone.

Two days later, Tang Mo found the high-end villa based on the information on the map.

There were few such lush vegetation areas in the city. The lush trees separated the villas, making this a quiet and deeply hidden place. The three people followed a road into the depths of the villa area before finally seeing a three-storey villa. According to Fu Wenduo, Fu Wensheng lived in one of the few three-storey villas in this area. There was also a hundred year old peach tree outside the house.

After a few days of spring rain, pink flowers were blooming on the tall trees.

“Is it over there?” Jack asked.

Tang Mo nodded. “It should be here.” Then he went forward to look at the name on the door of the villa. Tang Mo had just walked to the villa’s big iron gate and looked at the nameplate when his eyes narrowed and he quickly pulled out the small parasol, opening it and covering his body.

Bang bang bang!

Something metal slammed into the small parasol and the huge force made Tang Mo take a step backwards. He lowered his head and found that 10 centimetre steel needles had smashed into the ground. Each steel needle was embedded so deeply that it was almost underground. Tang Mo’s heart tightened and there was no time to hesitate. He pulled out a dart from his pocket and threw it in front of him.

The small dark passed through a gap in the iron gates.

The next moment, a dark shadow flashed through the yard.

Jack’s eyes became bigger and he threw two bags towards Chen Shanshan. “Hide, Shanshan!”

Chen Shanshan skillfully caught the bags and turned and ran, disappearing along the path. On the other side, Jack roared and kicked against the ground, jumping over the high gate into the yard. He grabbed the shoulder of the shadow while Tang Mo also climbed over the gate. The man caught by Jack turned to look at Jack without any signs of panic.

Tang Mo managed to see the other person’s face.

It was a middle-aged man with a rough face and an ugly scar going from his forehead to the corner of his mouth, like a centipede was crawling on his face. He looked at Jack with violent eyes. Tang Mo’s eyes moved down and stopped at the neck of the middle-aged man. At this moment, the man sneered while Tang Mo cried out anxiously, “Be careful Jack!”

The middle-aged man raised his hands and in an instant, dozens of of silver steel needles appeared in the air and flew towards Jack. The horrified Jack tried to dodge but he was too close. His left arm was pierced by two steel needles and blood flowed down at once.

The middle-aged man looked at Tang Mo’s neck and then Jack’s neck before mockingly saying, 20 minutes?” He raised his hands once again and another 20 needles appeared. 10 steel needles shot straight at Tang Mo while the other 10 shot at the injury Jack who had fallen to the ground.

Tang Mo’s expression sank and he didn’t hesitate to run forward, grabbing Jack and pulling him away. The moment he pulled Jack away, 10 steel needles shot through the place where he had been located.

Jack urgently cried out, “Tang, he has 1,462 minutes!”

Tang Mo pulled Jack while running away from the needles, saying, “I saw.”

The man’s steel needles seemed endless. He kept raising his hands and the needles flew forward like arrows, forcing Tang Mo and Jack to flee without being able to fight back.

The man’s laughter filled the wide yard. “20 minutes, how slowly are you running?”

Just now, Jack’s calf was pierced by a steel needle and Tang Mo’s right hand was also scratched by one, so that his right index finger was almost cut off. They had to predict the direction the steel needles would fly from and were inevitably becoming slower. The man didn’t take them seriously at all as his pretentious laughter never stopped.

This one-sided suppression lasted five minutes before Tang Mo seized an opportunity and stopped. The middle-aged man hadn’t expected him to stop as the steel needles entered the ground in front of Tang Mo. The middle-aged man sensed something bad but Tang Mo and Jack looked at each other before pincer attacking the man from the left and the right.

The man raised his hands and shouted angrily, “Pigs, you don’t know how to live!”

Both hands descended when he finished talking. In an instant, dozens of steel needles appeared. Five needles aimed for Jack while 19 stabbed at Tang Mo. Tang Mo raised the small parasol and the steel needles hit the surface in a heavy manner, forcing him to take two steps back from the force. On the other side, Jack directly dodged the needles and aimed his fist at the man.

The man rolled in a disorderly manner and avoided Jack’s fist.

Jack’s fist came so fast that that man hadn’t yet stood up when he was knocked down again. The man just raised his hand to fire a steel needle when Jack’s fist smashed into him. The man’s expression gradually changed and he dropped the sentence, “I will kill you next time,” before turning to run away. He had just run a step when he stopped immediately.

The middle-aged man turned his head slowly and looked at the handsome young man with horror.

In the bright sunlight, the pink parasol was pressed to the middle-aged man’s neck. Tang Mo raised the small parasol while his right hand moved in a horizontal manner to block the middle-aged man’s way. The middle-aged man was thinking about how to escape when Tang Mo turned over his palm and a rubber rope shot out from it, tangling around the man’s hands.

The middle-aged man was shocked. “What is this?”

The rubber rope quickly tied around the man. He struggled hard to release it but couldn’t.

Chen Shanshan walked in from outside the gate. The trio looked at the tied middle-aged man and then the four digits flashing on the man’s neck.

Chen Shanshan stated the number in a serious tone. “1,456.”

Yes, when Tang Mo first saw this man, the number flashing on his neck was 1,462. Now six minutes had passed and there was only 1,456 minutes left. Tang Mo had seen the middle-aged woman before and she had a number on her neck, but it was far less than this number.

Chen Shanshan said, “In the information gathered by Attack, the number of people with numbers on their necks is at most 312. It isn’t a lot of people.”

The trio’s eyes fell on the middle-aged man.

Tang Mo’s eyes narrowed and he spoke in a cold manner. “Who are you?”

The middle-aged man was pale and he found that he couldn’t break the rope. This young man and foreign man were powerful beyond his imagination. At Tang Mo’s words, a variety of complicated emotions flashed on his face before he gritted his teeth. “…I am Li Chaocheng.”

Then the middle-aged man closed his eyes and waited for Tang Mo’s answer. He waited 10 seconds and didn’t hear any sounds. He opened his eyes with a strange expression and saw the three pigs staring at him with vigilance, as if they hadn’t heard what he just said.

The middle-aged man yelled, “I said, I am Li Chaocheng!”

Jack asked, “Who is Li Chaocheng?”

“You don’t know me?” The middle-aged man asked incredulously.”

Jack was going to say, “Are you famous. Why should we know you?” Then Tang Mo stopped him. He looked at the middle-aged man and remained calm. “I remember the name. What number are you?”

Li Chaocheng gritted his teeth. “89th place.”

Even Jack could understand this.

89th on the time leaderboard, Li Chaocheng!

No wonder why he was so surprised that Tang Mo didn’t know him. He was someone on the time leaderboard. Tang Mo only knew the names and the top 50 and had no information on the other people on the leaderboard. Of the three, only Jack was shocked by Li Chaocheng’s identity. Tang Mo and Chen Shanshan’s expressions didn’t change, as if they had long known who Li Chaocheng was.

However, Li Chaocheng stared at the three of them and his face suddenly changed. “No, you aren’t pigs! Pigs can’t be so strong. Besides, you just deceived me! You don’t know me at all!” He stared at Tang Mo and his voice trembled. “Who are you, who the hell are you?!”