The Earth is Online

Fu Wenduo realized a long time ago that Tang Mo’s ability seemed strange.

From Beijing to Shanghai, he had seen many powerful players and encountered strong abilities. For example, the leader of Beijing’s stowaways organization had a very special ability, so that Fu Wenduo didn’t dare underestimate him. However, Tang Mo’s ability seemed different from other people’s abilities.

The most important point was that Fu Wenduo had never seen Tang Mo constantly using the same ability.

Normal players would frequently use their ability. For example, the methods of fighting that the four stowaways in the Strange Circus instance used were mostly unchanged. The pretty teenager’s ability was related to bugs while the bald man’s ability was to turn into a brown bear. Tang Mo used many methods to kill but he never used one means for a long time. The reason for this might be because his ability had a restriction, such as it could only be used a few times a day. In addition to this, there was another possibility…

“Then you have a lot of abilities?” Fu Wenduo asked this question but there was no surprise in his voice.

Tang Mo looked at his face and realized that this person had long guessed his ability. They were teammates and there was no need to hide too much. Fu Wenduo couldn’t kill him. Tang Mo stated, “To be exact, I have one ability, that is, I can collect other people’s abilities. I currently have more than 20 abilities but most of them are useless or have many limitations.”

Fu Wenduo said, “It is possible for you to collect other people’s abilities. If there isn’t a limit, the black tower games would be too unfair. There was a pause as Fu Wenduo thought about it. “The first time you attacked the tower four months ago, you changed your name and was called Momo?”

Tang Mo honestly admitted it. “…Yes, that was my ability.”

In the game, Tang Mo had used the ability to change his name to Momo. His explanation to Fu Wenduo was that he renamed himself with a prop.

After knowing the truth, Fu Wenduo thought some more and asked, “Spraying fire, using a strong wind and moving some things in front of you?”

Was this man’s memory that good? Or had he been paying attention to Tang Mo the whole time? Tang Mo replied helplessly, “Yes, they are all abilities. However, I have very few offensive abilities. Most are similar to the name changing ability. There are two ways I can obtain abilities. The first one I’m not sure about but it basically receiving something from another person. I can get their ability at the same time. The second is…” Tang Mo’s voice stopped and he looked at the man and woman on the ground.

Fu Wenduo spoke in a low voice, “To kill.”

That’s why Tang Mo said that he hoped Fu Wenduo would hand him the kill in later encounters.

In fact, Fu Wenduo said one thing wrong. Even if ‘Don’t give money for eating’ had restrictions, it was a very powerful ability. It was possible that it was one of the most powerful abilities in the world. As long as he continued to kill players with abilities, he could gain more abilities.

The earth had been online for half a year and Tang Mo only had 22 abilities, including the Don’t give money for eating ability. This was because he didn’t want to use killing as a means to collect abilities. He never killed people for abilities but gained the abilities because he was forced to kill. A ruthless player would have much more than 22 abilities in the abilities book. They might have 100 or even 1,000 abilities.

Fu Wenduo didn’t show any special emotions when he heard that Tang Mo could get abilities by killing. He found that Tang Mo was watching the bodies of the two players and asked, “What is her power?” Fu Wenduo was talking about the beautiful woman.

Tang Mo just killed her so he would naturally know her ability. Tang Mo explained, “Her ability is like a worse version of mine. She can know other people’s abilities and use them for a short time.”

“Then the lights that popped out from her palm represents the abilities you have?”

“Yes.”

No wonder why the beautiful woman had turned pale with fright. She couldn’t understand why a person had so many abilities.

Fu Wenduo spoke in a calm voice. “Just now, the balls of light were divided into four colours. White, black, blue and a type of gold. These four colours might classify the strength of the ability or maybe the different types of abilities.

Tang Mo knew this. “The four colours represent different types of abilities. The abilities book that I just took out classified the 22 abilities I have into four types—genotype, dimensional, atomic and special. The four colours represent these four types. The woman’s ability is a special type and mine is as well. Among the abilities I have, the fire-related abilities are atomic, the ability to move objects is dimensional and the ability to enhance intelligence is genotype.”

“What is my ability?”

Tang Mo stopped speaking and looked at Fu Wenduo.

In the dark night, the dense sycamore leaves moved in the wind. Fu Wenduo put his hands in his pocket and looked at Tang Mo calmly, a light smile on his face. He said this with a calm look, as if he were just asking. The deep eyes stared at Tang Mo and Tang Mo also quietly looked back at him.

A moment later, Tang Mo looked away. “I don’t know your ability very well. I only know that you can make a weapon.”

“That’s just part of it.”

Tang Mo looked at Fu Wenduo with surprise. Fu Wenduo raised his right hand between the two people. Tang Mo thought he wanted to turn his hand into the triangular shaped black weapon. He didn’t expect Fu Wenduo to grab his fingers and for silver to flash at his wrist. The next moment, the steel-like skin climbed from his wrist and quickly eroded all of the right hand. It took almost two seconds for his whole hand to become pure silver.

Tang Mo’s eyes widened with surprise and Fu Wenduo stretched out the silver right hand. “Touch it.”

Tang Mo obeyed.

It was really steel. No, it could be another metal instead of steel. But this definitely wasn’t human skin!

“Your ability isn’t just transformation in to a black weapon but other things? Is it only your right hand?” The next second, Tang Mo saw Fu Wenduo’s cheek flash silver and a piece of skin turned into metal. He watched with wide eyes before Fu Wenduo let the silver disappear.

It took Tang Mo a few seconds to digest this face. “…Can you make any part of your body like this? He thought of the black weapon. “Can you change the shape at will, not just become metal?”

“I don’t know.”

Tang Mo was slightly startled.

Fu Wenduo said, “Just as you know that killing a person will give you abilities but you don’t know another way to get them. I’m not sure what my ability is. So…can you tell me? Just like how she knew your ability, can you tell me what my ability is?”

Tang Mo was startled before his expression became strange. “…”

Fu Wenduo took the initiative to let Tang Mo see his ability. On the one hand, he had a imperfect understanding of his ability and wanted to take this opportunity to understand it. On the other hand, he also needed to explain to Tang Mo.

Tang Mo spoke about his own ability so Fu Wenduo couldn’t hide his. This was a trust that needed to be given as teammates.

However, Tang Mo’s reaction interested him.

This expression… was there something about the beautiful woman’s ability that made Tang Mo feel embarrassed?

Fu Wenduo started thinking about it. Tang Mo previously felt there was a slight difference between his and Fu Wenduo’s way of thinking. He preferred to gradually reason things out based on clues. All conclusions were based on facts and were reasonable guesses. However, Fu Wenduo was different. Whenever he thought about a problem, his good point was his bold or clever speculations. The bad point was that he could figure things out when given an opening. He could always tell the truth.

Fu Wenduo looked at Tang Mo with no expression on his face but he already speculated something in his heart. There was a big restriction on Tang Mo using the woman’s ability to view Fu Wenduo’s ability. This restriction was a bit embarrassing for Tang Mo. What type of restriction would make Tang Mo look like this?

Fu Wenduo looked at Tang Mo thoughtfully. He was preparing to ask when Tang Mo licked his lips and said, “Then I will look at your ability.”

Fu Wenduo sighed. “Okay.”

Tang Mo reached out his hand. “Hold out your hand.”

Fu Wenduo made a strange look before holding out his hand.

Tang Mo held it, causing Fu Wenduo to become stunned.

Tang Mo spoke calmly, “Her ability requires her to have physical contact with the other person for a certain period of time. That’s why she touched my face, neck and hand, in order to achieve the conditions to use the ability.”

Fu Wenduo was silent for a moment. “…Okay.”

In the cold night, Fu Wenduo’s hand was very hot. Tang Mo looked down at the two hands that were holding each other. There was a phrase in his mind:

‘Young and vigorous.’

Tang Mo soon forgot such a strange idea.

This ability (don’t try to hide a dime) required physical contact with others. The more intimate the contact, the better the effect. But in fact, as long as there was physical contact, Tang Mo could know the other person’s ability. It just required touching them for the right period of time.

The face and neck were much more intimate than the hand, which was why the woman needed to touch him several times to know his ability. Now Tang Mo grabbed Fu Wenduo’s hand. It wasn’t a very intimate location but if he kept touching for twice or three times the length of time, wouldn’t he be able to see Fu Wenduo’s ability.

He might be gay but Fu Wenduo wasn’t. It was just a matter of touching his teammate to check the ability. He couldn’t make a fuss or think too much.

He didn’t want to waste anymore time so Tang Mo explained. “If the other person’s ability is very strong, the time required for physical contact will be longer. Let’s get out of here first.”

“Okay.”

The two men held hands and left the intersection.

This neighborhood was a bustling commercial street in Nanjing where large shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants could be found on both sides of the street. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo held hands and walked down this street. At the beginning, there was nothing. After walking a while, Tang Mo started to feel strange.

…This was like a date.

If Tang Mo was a woman and Fu Wenduo held hands with him, this would be a date. However, Tang Mo felt that two men holding hands was a date because he liked men. He could never date a woman, only a man.

Tang Mo cursed this woman’s ability in his heart. This ability seemed very useful. It wasn’t just understanding and using the enemy’s ability. He could find a strong teammate and gain their ability before each battle, enhancing his combat effectiveness. But if he thought carefully, it wasn’t that great. The more powerful the teammate, the longer it would take to acquire their ability.

If Tang Mo wanted to borrow Fu Wenduo’s ability before the fight, could he get it immediately?

This power was really trash!

Time passed. Fu Wenduo calmly held Tang Mo’s hand as they walked through the once prosperous commercial street. There was occasionally the sound of footsteps in the darkness but the other people didn’t dare come out. They saw Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo from afar and guessed the strength of both men, quietly leaving to avoid meeting.

It had been nine hours since the start of the garbage cleaning game and there were three hours left.

Tang Mo found that the players had run away, not daring to collide with them. He mused, “It seems that Nanjing players now know that killing can give badges. The players who came to Nanjing to participate in the game must be strong and very ambitious. They are most likely stowaways. Normal stowaways won’t casually leave when meeting players. So they must be Nanjing players. ” Tang Mo continued, “There are three batches of rabbit heads left.”

Fu Wenduo said, “We just need one more ‘I’ and we will have two sets of letters.”

“Just now, we got an ‘I’ from the two Wuxi players. There are two possible explanations. First, there are very few ‘I’ badges and the chances of getting them are very low. Second… killing a rabbit head won’t give the ‘I’ badge. These two players obtained the ‘I’ badge from killing other players. We previously didn’t kill players so we didn’t get the ‘I’ badge.”

Fu Wenduo raise an eyebrow. “All the badges can only be gathered by killing?”

“Fu Wenduo, what is the surprise?”

Tang Mo’s suddenly stopped walking. Fu Wenduo was still moving so his hand was suddenly pulled back. Fu Wenduo stopped and looked at Tang Mo. Tang Mo found that he was dragging Fu Wenduo and subconsciously wanted to let go. Fu Wenduo pulled back and tightened his grip.

Tang Mo looked at him and Fu Wenduo smiled lightly. “The time isn’t up yet.

Tang Mo, “…”

“Yes, it isn’t time.”

The two people continued to hold hands as Tang Mo said, “The black tower shouldn’t give ‘killing can clear the game’ as the answer. There must be another way to clear this game. We can spell out ‘surprise’ with the badge so it stands to reason that the surprise should be these badges. Putting the set of badges in the garbage disposal station is likely related to the yellow light suspended in front of the garbage disposal station. Put the badges in and you can clear the game. However, this certainly isn’t the only way to pass the game.”

Fu Wenduo said, “The surprise isn’t the badges.”

Tang Mo’s brain was running fast as he thought about it. “The fifth rule is that putting your surprise into the garbage disposal station can clear the game. The surprise isn’t the badge?”

“The black tower didn’t say to put your surprise badges into the garbage disposal station.”

Tang Mo wondered, “What is the surprise?:”

Fu Wenduo looked at him and didn’t answer. They kept walking as they thought about the problem. They couldn’t determine what the surprise was based on the messages given by the black tower. There was only one possibility, which was that the wooden badges were the surprise. This seemed to be the answer given by the black tower. But what if the wooden badges weren’t the surprise?

“For all the players in Nanjing and the other nine districts, this garbage cleaning game is the black tower giving them a surprise.”

Tang Mo thought that the black tower’s surprise would be a special prop or something else that was special. Now he heard Fu Wenduo’s words and raised his head. Fu Wenduo was looking at him. The two people’s eyes met and they didn’t speak, but they understood each other’s meaning at the same time.

Tang Mo said, “Everything in the world can be called a surprise.”

“Yes, so we have to guess what the black tower’s surprise is. What type of surprise does the garbage disposal station need?”

Tang Mo was preparing to speak when a familiar rhyme was suddenly heard over Nanjing. Tang Mo turned his head quickly and looked at the huge black tower. The cheerful ‘The Painter’ echoed in Nanjing, causing countless players to stop and look at the tower.

Once the song was finished, there was a clear child’s voice with a hint of gloating in the tone.

“Ding dong! China District 6’s official player Fu Wensheng has successfully cleared the last person’s garbage cleaning game. The first one to clear the game will get the reward of ‘garbage’s gaze.’ All garbage who see the player can’t help looking at him. This effect will last for three seconds. Tremble garbage, this is the contempt of the winner.”

The black tower’s words finished. Tang Mo was stunned and looked at Fu Wenduo. Sure enough, Fu Wenduo had a completely dark expression as he stared coldly at the black tower. The next second, Fu Wenduo pulled Tang Mo’s hand and ran forward.

“Go!”

The two people turned into a flash of lightning as they disappeared from the street.