Chapter 121
14 items were placed in the centre of the truth clock. A minute later, Tang Mo said the names of 12 items and gave up on eliminating two items. A blue glow appeared on these 12 items. Tang Mo paused, raised his head and spoke in a calm voice. “The 15th and 16th items, the players Tang Mo and black rabbit. The individual truth between these two items is that they are human players.”
On the truth clock, the blue glow became sharper.
The next second, the truth clock’s mechanical voice spoke. “You have successfully eliminated the individual truth between players and won’t advance a square.”
Tang Mo’s heart jumped and then he sighed, revealing a helpless smile.
The blue wall rose slowly and revealed the black rabbit standing on the other side with an ugly expression. It couldn’t hear what Tang Mo had said to the truth clock but it could guess. The black rabbit’s red eyes stared at Tang Mo with resentment, as well as a hint of hope and begging.
Tang Mo looked over the black rabbit before sitting cross-legged and continuing to rest.
The hour and minute hands moved as Tang Mo recalled what the black rabbit had said and nodded.
It was as the black rabbit said. It wasn’t certain who would win the game.
There were three ways for Tang Mo to win the game: eliminate all items, catch the black rabbit or have the black rabbit die from the penalty game. The black rabbit’s way of winning was unknown but it would certain that it would win if it caught Tang Mo, otherwise it wouldn’t clamour to chase Tang Mo and eat him.
Tang Mo knew the truth between the black rabbit and the two players but as long as Tang Mo didn’t succeed in eliminating all the items, the black rabbit had hope. 2~58 items would appear on the truth clock. Basically, if more than 10 items appeared at once, it was unlikely that Tang Mo would eliminate all of them. If Tang Mo won, there was a 90% chance it was because he caught up with the black rabbit.
Thus, this game was now completely fair.
Tang Mo wouldn’t be forced to retreat two squares and they both stood at the same starting line. Whoever removed more items and advanced more squares would win.
“Player 0 has moved back one square and Player 6 has advanced one square. Player 0 has triggered a level three grey fallacy and Player 6 has triggered a level three grey fallacy.”
The black rabbit paled and Tang Mo calmly walked forward. At this moment, Tang Mo stood on the 23rd square while the black rabbit stood on the 1st square, leaving 22 spaces between them. They had just stood in the square when a violent storm appeared above their heads. Both of them were panting after enduring three minutes of the Schrodinger’s Box punishment.
It was the resting time and the black rabbit looked at Tang Mo with a complicated gaze. Tang Mo thought it was going to say something but the black rabbit just looked at him and didn’t open its mouth.
The next round started quickly with 16 items. Tang Mo advanced two squares and the black rabbit advanced one square.
Then in the next round, 24 items appeared. Tang Mo advanced four squares and the black rabbit advanced two squares.
The black rabbit’s performance surprised Tang Mo. He thought that the other person wasn’t strong enough and could only play stably when there were less objects. He didn’t expect the black rabbit to unexpectedly eliminate many items, so that Tang Mo was slowly to catch the black rabbit.
Tang Mo thought, “Perhaps the human potential was stimulated in a critical situation?”
This question couldn’t be answered by the black rabbit.
The black rabbit no longer cared about Tang Mo. It didn’t talk to him and ignored him. It stared at the truth clock with red eyes. Whenever a new item appeared, it stared without looking, trying to find out the individual truths. Even so, the distance between it and Tang Mo was shortening. Without the advantage of ‘forcing Tang Mo to retreat two squares’, the black rabbit moved forward far less than Tang Mo.
Once the 23rd round finished, there were only six squares left between the two of them. The black rabbit was in front and Tang Mo was behind it. Tang Mo only needed six squares to catch the black rabbit and the black rabbit would fall into the black hole of truth.
The hope in the black rabbit’s eyes dimmed as the distance between them shortened. It looked down at the ground and its thoughts were unknown. The voice of the truth clock was heard but the black rabbit was no longer in the mood to listen. It quietly waited for its fallacy punishment to arrive.
“…Player 0 has triggered a level three grey fallacy and Player 6 has triggered a level one origin fallacy.”
The black rabbit’s head jerked up and it looked at Tang Mo with disbelief. Tang Mo also looked at the truth clock beneath his feet with astonishment. Schrodinger’s Box was about to open and the two players had a few seconds to prepare. The black rabbit’s mouth became bigger as a crazy smile appeared on its ugly doll face. It yelled madly, “Yes! I haven’t lost yet! If you die then I will win! I won!”
As soon as its words finished, Schrodinger’s Box opened.
It was dark in front of Tang Mo. When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the Spirit Prairie. The cold wind was like a knife scratching his face and his expression sank as soon as he looked up. He saw hundreds of black bugs surrounding him on the dark and cold prairie. These disgusting bugs looked at Tang Mo. The next second, they all rushed at him.
On the truth clock, the black rabbit jumped to cope with the sudden flames and eagerly watched Tang Mo’s situation. From its point of view, it saw Tang Mo constantly dodging and jumping inside the clock’s invisible cage. Tang Mo seemed to have encountered some enemies as his face was gloomy and he used the small parasol to defend and attack.
Suddenly, a deep and bleeding gash appeared on Tang Mo’s shoulder.
The black rabbit’s eyes shone and it recited, “Death, death, death, death…”
The wounds on Tang Mo’s body increased and his evasive actions were becoming slower. Hundreds of black bugs forced him into a corner and spat venom at him. Tang Mo couldn’t help groaning. He used the small parasol to block the venom but it was coming from every direction and couldn’t all be stopped.
The black rabbit saw that Tang Mo’s body was suddenly being corroded at a speed visible to the naked eye. The muscles rotted, revealing white bone. Its heart thumped as it saw Tang Mo’s right hand was cleanly corroded, leaving only white bone. Then it happened to the arms and shoulders.
The corrosion continued!
“You are going to die!!”
The invisible venom was just about to corrode Tang Mo’s chest when it came to a halt.
Tang Mo’s body fell to the ground and a burning pain was coming from his right shoulder. He didn’t have to look to know that his arm was gone. Tang Mo used his other hand to pull out the earthworm’s tear and he placed it on the white bone of his arm. It lit up with a warm light and the flesh on the arm was gradually restored.
The black rabbit looked at the scene with a dull expression. Its mouth was wide open and it couldn’t speak for a long time.
The wounds on Tang Mo’s body were healed and the earthworm’s tear became hard. The white stone became smaller and weaker, eventually becoming the size of a thumb. It shrank to the smallest size and split into two halves, turning into yellow sand and flowing away from Tang Mo’s fingers.
Tang Mo got up from the ground and glanced between the desperate black rabbit and then the centre of the truth clock.
One minute passed and four items appeared in the centre of the clock.
This was the 24th round and this time there were only four items, so the truth would be particularly difficult.
The black rabbit stared at Tang Mo and seemed to suddenly think of something. It said, “At least you won’t dare to casually eliminate items. You are afraid to trigger a level one fallacy and will give up on the elimination of undetermined items.” The black rabbit said this like it would sure its victory. However, it didn’t see the strange expression on Tang Mo’s face when he saw these four items.
The second hand started to move as the players prepared to eliminate the items. Once the blue wall rose again, the black rabbit waited for the truth clock to announce the number of squares they would move. Yet something seemed different this time. It waited for 10 seconds and didn’t hear the voice of the truth clock.
The black rabbit stared strangely at the truth clock. Suddenly, its eyes widened and it stared at Tang Mo with horror.
“No, you can’t, you can’t…”
The next second, a child’s voice filled the dark space.
“Ding dong! Player Tang Mo has completed the main mission ‘Mr. Rabbit’s Truth Clock Game’ and eliminated all items.”
Snap.
The moment the black tower stopped speaking, there was a cracking sound from the black rabbit’s head. Tang Mo looked at the other side with surprise. There was a crack in the outer shell of this Russian rabbit doll. The crack became larger and wider until it was completely broken and the man hidden inside revealed.
Tang Mo clearly saw the other person. The man who had been hiding inside the Russian dill felt like his brain was dull and the world seemed blurred.
His name was Li Siqi.
Six hours ago, when Tang Mo was still running away from the fire on the Spirit Prairie, Li Siqi had fallen into this dark space.
Today was March 25th and there were still a few days left until the three months players had to attack the tower. He was a cautious person. His ability might be very weak and tasteless but he was careful enough to survive to the present after the earth went online. He knew that it was better to attack the tower in advance than to be forced to attack the tower with other players around the world in a few days. The difficulty of the game now might be lower.
He believed that the black tower was also human. At the very least, the black tower liked players to attack the tower.
There must be some differences between actively attacking the tower and passively attacking it. Even if it was only a slight difference, he wasn’t willing to give up on the possibility of reducing the difficulty of the game.
Thus, he attacked the tower early and opened the tower attack game. He was attacking the black tower’s first floor.
He completed two strange side missions. Once he finished the second task, he fell into this black space. Then he heard the black tower constantly repeating.
“Ding dong! Data error, data error! Instances overlapping, instances overlapping.”
He listened to these unclear sentences. The black tower repeated it for 10 minutes before suddenly stopping. Once it spoke again, the black tower’s words had become, “The data is correct, the data is correct! Player Li Siqi has completed the side missions ‘delicious carrot’ and ‘breakfast for Mr. Rabbit’ and successfully opened the black tower’s first floor (hard mode). Player Tang Mo has opened the black tower’s third floor (normal mode). In three hours, the main mission ‘Mr. Rabbit’s Truth Clock Game’ will be opened. Player Li Siqi has triggered the low level protection and received the ‘Russian Black Rabbit Matryoshka Doll’ prop, and will be given priority information about the game. The black tower will hide the identity of Player Li Siqi and give the two squares retreat advantage.”
Li Siqie was stunned and couldn’t understand anything when he heard the black tower say,
“Ding dong! You have three hours to meet the boss of the black tower’s first floor (hard mode), Player Tang Mo.”
“Friendly tip: Player Tang Mo is the first person in the world to clear the black tower’s first floor (hard mode) and cleared it four months ago. The probability of Player Li Siqi smoothly passing through the black tower’s first floor (hard mode) is 1%. Please try to attack the tower…”
The black rabbit’s wooden body crumbled to pieces and the revealed Li Siqi kept shaking. It seemed like he was laughing and crying. Tang Mo looked at this crazy player and then raised his gaze above the player’s head.
[Stowaway]
The blue light on the truth clock was getting darker and darker as footsteps came from the depths of the darkness. Li Siqi laughed and cried while Tang Mo stood still. The next moment, a hoarse voice filled with hate was heard. “The strategy to clear the instance is to be strong. Be strong! I haven’t lost yet, I haven’t lost!”
Boom!
Li Siqi’s body shot forward like a rocket towards Tang Mo.