Chapter 33
The pouch containing the golden hamster was placed on the coffee table by Tang Mo and tied at the end. The golden hamster couldn’t come out but a bit of gold powder emerged from the gap in the mouth of the bag. Grandmother Wolf had exclaimed after seeing this gold powder. She didn’t want the small parasol. The wine bottles and seasonings were also thrown away. She strode to the table and untied the pouch.
The golden hamster rushed out the moment the pouch was opened and of course, it was impossible for Tang Mo to let it run away. But he hadn’t yet moved when Grandmother Wolf grabbed the back of the golden hamster and lifted it up.
The golden hamster screamed while Grandmother Wolf couldn’t help swallowing as she looked at it. She stared at it for a moment before turning to look at Tang Mo. Her eyes were so complicated they could write a novel of one million words. They were full of hunger, depression and a slight bit of conscience.
Grandmother Wolf put the golden hamster back into the pouch and held it in her big, black, hairy hand.
After a long time, she took a deep breath, as if she had finally made a decision. She roared in an angry tone. “Five copper coins, not one more! You stinky thing, go back to your underground father. Don’t let me see you or your hair again!”
Since Grandmother Wolf entered the house, Tang Mo’s hand had been pressed against the match tattoo and he didn’t dare relax. He was suddenly relieved after hearing these words.
Grandmother Wolf walked into the bedroom, took out a dirty yellow coloured sock from under the pillow, dug into it and took out five copper coins. A total of five copper coins. She counted it three times before reluctantly handing it to Tang Mo.
“Ding dong! You have obtained ‘Grandmother Wolf’s Copper Coins’! It is suggested that you exchange the copper coins for the prop Grandmother Wolf’s Small Parasol.”
Grandmother Wolf handed the copper coins to Tang Mo, picked up the seasonings bag on the ground, opened a cupboard in the kitchen and took out a piece of marinated human flesh. She sprinkled cumin on this dried meat, her eyes fixed on Tang Mo as she chewed. Her eyes made it seem like she was eating Tang Mo right now, not the dried meat.
The last traces of defenses in Tang Mo’s heart was dropped once he saw Grandmother Wolf eat the dried meat.
It seemed that Grandmother Wolf wouldn’t eat him after completing the task. This might be a limitation of the black tower. Since he completed Grandmother Wolf’s task, Grandmother Wolf couldn’t eat him.
Tang Mo looked at the five copper coins in his hand and thought repeatedly before deciding. “I want to exchange the copper coins for that small parasol.”
“Huh?” Grandmother Wolf bit down on the meat of an underground person and opened her bloody mouth.
The black tower had given him a hint so he should carry it out. Tang Mo said, “I want to exchange the copper coins for the small parasol.”
Grandmother Wolf’s gaze suddenly became very weird. She looked Tang Mo up and down, her eyes greedily fixed on the five copper coins. However, her expression was a bit suspicious. She sneered with a wolf mouth stained with meant. “Little girl, what do you want with this small parasol?”
Tang Mo kept asking, “Can I exchange them?”
Grandmother Wolf bit the meat, “What does a stinky girl want with the parasol?”
Tang Mo, “…”
After a moment, he nodded blankly, “I am stinky.”
Grandmother Wolf was deliberately talking badly, as if she didn’t want to give her small parasol to Tang Mo. But her green eyes never moved from the five copper coins. After eating the big chunk of meat, she picked up the small parasol. “You can exchange it for five copper coins, not one less!”
Tang Mo handed over the copper coins.
Grandmother Wolf rushed to pick up the copper coins and threw the small parasol into Tang Mo’s arms. Her mouth was still complaining, “This little girl is so smelly. She must’ve learned it from her underground father…”
Tang Mo, “…”
The meat was eaten and the small parasol exchanged. Grandmother Wolf started approaching Tang Mo.
Tang Mo had been delaying the time because he hadn’t heard the black tower prompting the completion of the main mission. Did this mean his main mission wasn’t over yet? He had to stay in Grandmother Wolf’s house.
Grandmother Wolf saw that her granddaughter was still staying and licked his teeth. “My dear granddaughter, do you really not want to go?”
Tang Mo’s heart tightened. He stepped back as his brain worked quickly. “What is the golden hamster of time and space?”
Grandmother Wolf was stunned and couldn’t help replying, “You don’t even know about the golden hamster of time and space?” Your mother must be so fascinated by the dirty underground people that she doesn’t even teach you this.”
Grandmother Wolf grabbed the golden hamster from the pouch and took out a mouse wheel from the pocket. The golden hamster’s limbs waved frantically in the air as it tried to escape. But once Grandmother Wolf placed it on the wheel, it ran like a demon. At first, it was tentative. But once the wheel moved, it squeaked excitedly and ran happily.
Tang Mo looked at the golden hamster. Suddenly, he saw time and space overlapping around the wheel. He saw a second golden hamster! The golden hamster was the same as the first and also running on the wheel. Then there was a third, fourth, fifth…
Seven golden hamsters overlapped for a while and then separated. The faster the golden hamster ran, the more the hamsters split.
Grandmother Wolf looked at the golden hamster happily. The sound of her swallowing her saliva was very obvious in the cabin.
“This is the golden hamster of time and space. Grandmother Wolf stared at the golden hamster for a while, muttering words like ‘braised hamster’, ‘sweet and sour hamster’ and ‘fried hamster.’ After muttered this, she looked at Tang Mo and once again gulped.
Tang Mo suddenly remembered the phrase ‘her head is sweet and savory.’
Tang Mo, “…”
The main task wasn’t finished and Tang Mo didn’t dare leave Grandmother Wolf’s house. Hoarse and strange laughter emerged from Grandmother Wolf’s mouth. She slowly moved towards Tang Mo and gently said, “My dear granddaughter, your grandmother’s bedroom has a particularly fun toy. Do you want to go to the bedroom with Grandmother? Look inside…”
Tang Mo gritted his teeth. He made the decision to temporarily leave here, regardless of the main mission.
Just then, there was a knock on the door from outside the house.
“Grandmother Wolf, a caravan of underground people is near Monster Valley. Your Little Red Riding Hood can go back to the Underground Kingdom with these businessmen. Do you want me to take her out of the valley? Grandmother Wolf, are you home?”
Grandmother Wolf had just shown her sharp teeth and was staring at Tang Mo with greedy eyes. She shut her big mouth once she heard this voice.
Tang Mo finally knew what she was doing when the gorilla monster knocked on Grandmother Wolf’s door seven days ago. Grandmother Wolf quickly tidied up her pink dress, put on a beautiful hat and opened the door.
She moved towards the front courtyard. “Uncle Gorilla, you really care about my Little Red Riding Hood.”
Tang Mo followed her out.
The gorilla monster said, “Little Red Riding Hood is your granddaughter. We all have to take good care of here. Little Red Riding Hood, merchants from your Underground Kingdom are going to pass through here. We will go and find them. They are very good people and often sell to us at very cheap prices. They never deceive us kind and cute monsters, unlike the Kings Caravan.”
Tang Mo nodded and walked to the gorilla monster’s side.
Grandmother Wolf’s face was green as she stared viciously at Tang Mo. Tang Mo calmly stood aside, looking down at the ground. However, he kept wondering why the main mission hadn’t been completed yet and what he still needed to do. If he really had to go back to Grandmother Wolf’s cabin, he would need to sneak into Monster Valley.
At that moment, a clear child’s voice was heard.
“Ding dong! The main mission ‘Happy Hamster Game in Monster Valley’ is completed. 11 black hamsters and 1 golden hamster were hit.”
Tang Mo’s eyes widened and he finally relaxed. However, the child’s voice continued. “A black hamster is worth one point and a golden hamster is worth 10 points. The player has obtained a total of 21 points. The player has scored more than 20 points and triggered the ‘Gorilla’s Love’ reward.”
Tang Mo’s heart thumped as he seemed to discover something. His entire body stiffened.
The black tower’s words continued. “Ding dong! Player Momo has triggered the hidden main task ‘Catch the Golden Hamster’ and successfully cleared the black tower’s first floor (normal mode)…crossed out. Successfully cleared the black tower’s first floor (difficult mode).”
Tang Mo’s fingers trembled as he suddenly understood the malicious action from the black tower.
…Difficult mode you fu*king god!
A white light flashed in front of Tang Mo’s eyes as the gorilla and Grandmother Wolf kept talking.
Meanwhile, a loud and happy child’s voice rang in the minds of 23 players around the world.
“Ding dong! China District 2’s official player Momo has successfully cleared the black tower’s first floor (difficult mode).
“Ding dong! China District 2…”
The black tower’s global broadcast was repeated three times. The 23 players stopped moving and looked at the black tower closest to them with surprise.
Fu Wenduo was on Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road when he heard this voice. He first said, “Difficult mode?” Then he laughed and continued going south.
In Los Angeles, a blonde woman covered in blood muttered to herself, “What is difficult mode…?”
In Europe, a bald man was sitting on a soft and drinking red wine. He frowned after hearing these words, “My tower attack game was in normal mode. What is difficult mode?”
Three people in China heard this voice, three in the US, four in Europe…
There were 23 players. Apart from Fu Wenduo, the other 22 silently recited this name in their hearts.
“…Momo.”
Tang Mo had just been sent back to Nanjing Road and didn’t know that he had set off a small fire ‘worldwide.’ But it was okay even if he did know. The one who set the fire was Momo. In three days, Momo wouldn’t exist in this world.
Tang Mo had been transported to the counter of a supermarket on Nanjing Road.
Shanghai’s black tower was located on Nanjing Road. Tang Mo had entered the tower attack game from here seven days ago. Now he was sent here again, along with his backpack and a pink lace parasol.
Tang Mo didn’t move after he was sent back. He stood in front of the counter, looked at the empty glass counter before glancing at the small parasol to the side. Tang Mo’s face was very calm. He picked up the small parasol and stuffed it into his backpack. After doing all this, he walked out of the store without any expression and headed straight to the black tower.
The black tower was suspended 100 metres above the ground. Tang Mo headed straight to the bottom of the black tower and looked up at it.
A minute later, he picked up an iron rod from the ground and slammed it against a broken stone table beneath the black tower. There was no expression on his face as he kept smashing the crumbling stone with the iron rod.
A man and woman walked past him. They looked at him and quickly hurried away, not expression any surprise.
After the game officially started, countless people came to this place. They couldn’t do anything to the black tower and could only let out their anger on the things near the black tower. The stores near the black tower were smashed by the angry people. This stone had also been smashed who knew how many times. The iron rod that Tang Mo picked up from the ground had been left by someone who previously hit the stone.
There were many people angry like Tang Mo. The others far away from him wouldn’t find it strange. Perhaps because they had hit it as well.
Tang Mo smashed it seven times. After the seventh time, he threw down the iron rod and left Nanjing Road.
Tang Mo finally felt more comfortable after venting.
The sky gradually darkened and there were fewer people on the street. Tang Mo walked into a shopping mall and found a clothing store with no one present. For the first time since the black tower gave him the 10 day warning notice, he finally had a chance to catch his breath.
After calming down, Tang Mo smiled helplessly and took out the small parasol from his backpack. He thought of his previous behaviour and touched his chin. “…Well, it was a bit childish.”
It was really childish but the angry Tang Mo couldn’t control himself.
After the earth went online, Tang Mo accepted reality and remained calm. He didn’t run to the black tower like other players to vent his anger. But this time, the black tower really provoked him.
Tang Mo never thought that his main mission for the tower attack game was literally a ‘happy hamster game.’
You hit the hamster! Your whole family hit the hamster!
Tang Mo let out a burst of foul language in his heart.
Yes, this attack tower game was a simple hamster game. From beginning to end, the black tower gave eight rules. It never once said that Tang Mo needed to catch the golden hamster to complete the task. The black tower said that Grandmother Wolf hated the golden hamster and wanted her granddaughter to catch it. However, the black tower never said that the mission couldn’t be completed without catching the golden hamster.
This was a hamster game.
A black hamster was one point and a golden hamster was a lot more.
The golden hamster messed up time and space. If the seven Tang Mos kept catching black hamsters, he could get 28 points in seven days. As long as he got more than 20 points, the ‘Gorilla’s Love’ would trigger. The gorilla monster would ring Grandmother Wolf’s door and take Tang Mo away.
From the very beginning, Grandmother Wolf said that Tang Mo couldn’t catch the hamster and she would eat Tang Mo. Even she didn’t think Tang Mo could catch the golden hamster. Thus, she prepared the wine and seasonings, intending to eat Tang Mo when she came back. That’s why the black tower gave the ‘Gorilla’s Love’ reward to all layers who completed the main mission.
As long as you hit 20 black hamsters and survive the black hamsters, Grandmother Wolf couldn’t eat you.
Tang Mo caught the golden hamster and this was equivalent to over-completing the main mission. He triggered the hidden main mission and raised the normal mode of the tower attack game to difficult mode.
How could Tang Mo not be angry?
He was determined not to die and tried his best to catch the golden hamster. As a result, the black tower said: Sorry, I didn’t expect you to be so good and exceed our mission. I’ll give you a medal and congratulations on completing difficult mode.
Tang Mo was so angry that he couldn’t hold back and went to smash the stone table. It was a total of seven days so he smashed it seven times.
After this, Tang Mo sat on the counter and blocked his figure with a cabinet. He secretly pondered, “There are currently three modes to the tower attack game: mentally handicapped mode, normal mode and difficult mode. There might be other modes. I have to be sure to pay attention to all the rules of the black tower in the future and to be prepared for language traps in unexpected places.”
This ‘Happy Hamster Game in Monster Valley’ seemed to be the black tower playing Tang Mo, letting him try to catch the golden hamster. In fact, this was what the black tower added to increase the difficulty of the game.
If Grandmother Wolf hadn’t asked Tang Mo to catch the golden hamster, Tang Mo would think of it as a hamster game and his first reaction would be to catch as much hamsters as possible to increase the rewards. It would be easy to reach 20 points. But once he had the idea of ‘I want to catch the golden hamster’, he would try to make all the others stand at the same hole.
Trick the player into catching the golden hamster and going against the black hamster as little as possible. This was the biggest difficulty of this game.
A black hamster was worth one point. If each Tang Mo stood at a different hole every day, he could get 28 points.
This time, Tang Mo got 21 points. If he hadn’t caught the golden hamster, he would have only 11 points, which was far less than the required 20 points.
Tang Mo had actually been thinking about a problem. The mission of catching the golden hamster, apart from him, could other players really succeed?
Without the archiver, Tang Mo couldn’t contact Fu Wenduo and wouldn’t know he was caught in the golden hamster’s time and space trap.
Without changing his name, Tang Mo couldn’t contact the other versions of himself and make all Tang Mos stand at the same hole.
Perhaps other players had special props or abilities. But in order to pass this game, the requirements for players were too harsh. It wasn’t like an ordinary tower attack game. Unless this game was specifically created for Tang Mo. Looking back now, it was no problem if it was the difficult mode of the tower attack game.
Tang Mo reflected on his success and failure in the tower attack game and summed up a few points to pay attention to. Once his reflection ended, he started to look at the rewards he received.
The first one was Grandma Wolf’s Small Parasol. Tang Mo took out the small parasol from his backpack. He opened it and looked at it for a long time but didn’t see any hints.
It was night and the mall was dark. Tang Mo thought about it and took out a flashlight, shining it on the parasol for clues. Once he shone the flashlight on the head of the parasol, small lines of words appeared.
[Prop: Grandmother Wolf’s Small Parasol]
[Owner: Tang Mo]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Level: 2]
[Attack: Strong]
[Function: Extremely strong defense. The umbrella’s surface is extremely hard and the tip is extremely sharp. When open, the small parasol can be used as a defensive object. When closed, the small parasol can be used to attack. The shape is pretty.]
[Restrictions: When using the small parasol, you must shout, “Little Red Riding Hood energy, magical girl transformation!”]
[Remark: Grandmother Wolf’s small parasol is like her granddaughter’s heart, girly and full of pink lace.]
Tang Mo, “…”
Tang Mo’s lower limit had been pulled down to a certain extent starting with the ‘return your grandfather’ ability. His mouth slightly pursed when looking at the restrictions on using the small parasol. He wanted to say that he wouldn’t use this prop, just like when he obtained the ‘return your grandfather’ ability. But once he looked at the excellent quality of the small parasol and its extremely powerful functions…
Tang Mo didn’t give himself a flag and silently put away the small parasol.
Next, Tang Mo had received a reward when he was sent away by the black tower. He pulled out the piece of gold from his pocket, turned it up and down and carefully touched the pattern on the gold coin to find clues.
During the process when Tang Mo was sent back, the black tower’s voice had rung in his ear.
“Ding dong! The player Momo has successfully cleared the black tower’s first floor (difficult mode). As the first player in the world to clear the difficult mode, the extra bonus ‘King’s Gold Coin’ has been obtained.”
This was the gold coin.
It was a heavy gold coin. From a weight point of view, it was pure gold. The front of the coin had an image of a man wearing a crown. The back had some strange text that Tang Mo couldn’t understand. He looked at the words and finally looked at the crowned man on the front of the gold coin.
“The king of the Underground Kingdom?”
The King’s Gold Coin. Tang Mo’s first thought was the Underground Kingdom. When the gorilla was taking him away, he mentioned that the king’s merchants liked to deceive monsters and sell cheap goods at a high price.
Tang Mo could guess the origin of the gold coin. Now he carefully looked for a description of its function. He looked at it for a while, burned it with fire and bit it with his teeth. After finally licking his slightly sour teeth, Tang Mo came to a conclusion. “It is absolutely pure gold.” This gold coin was bitten by him!
Tang Mo bent the coin. As it recovered its shape, lines of words appeared above the gold coin. Tang Mo’s eyes brightened.
[Prop: The King’s Gold Coin]
[Owner: Tang Mo]
[Quality: Rare]
[Level: 1]
[Attack: None]
[Function: Can abstain from any one black tower game. You can choose to exit the game directly or watch as a bystander.]
Tang Mo’s heart thumped wildly at these words. His breathing became faster. After a few seconds, he calmed down and kept reading.
[Restriction: Disposable item. Can only be used once. During the game, you can’t use any abilities or props to help the players participating in the game.]
[Remark: With the king’s gold coin, you are the spokesperson of the king!]
Tang Mo muttered, “Sure enough…”
A prop that went against the heavens couldn’t be used without restrictions. The fact that it could only be used once was its biggest limit.
But Tang Mo couldn’t help feeling emotional, even if this was a one-time item. He squeezed the gold coin and watched it for a full five minutes. Then he placed the treasured gold coin back in his pocket. The gold coin was placed in the innermost pocket, the one with a zipper that was most secure and hidden.
Up to now, Tang Mo had two rare props. One was the turkey egg and the other was the king’s gold coin.
Every rare item had a function that went against the sky and told Tang Mo in a simple and brutal way why it had the rare quality. Look at the King’s Gold Coin. It was a one-time prop but the function of ‘abstaining from one black tower game’ was enough to make Tang Mo unable to calm down.
“I can’t use it casually, only at the last minute.” Tang Mo said. “For example, when playing the hamster game, I can’t use it if I can’t catch the golden hamster. I should only use it when I am about to be eaten by Grandmother Wolf.”
This prop had both advantages and disadvantages. Its benefits were obvious. It was equivalent to giving Tang Mo a gold medal to avoid death. The disadvantages were difficult to detect but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. With this coin, players might not do their best to play the game and would endanger themselves. It was because they would always think, “I still have an opportunity to abstain.”
The King’s Gold Coin must be used on the tip of the knife. It absolutely couldn’t be used unless death was inevitable.
Now that he had two new props, Tang Mo lay on the cold ground with satisfaction and gradually felt a bit sleepy. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since being informed of the tower attack game half a month ago. In the seven days of catching the golden hamster, he never closed his eyes. Now that the game was finally over, Tang Mo slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.
However, he was tense even in his sleep. If there was any movement then he would immediately respond.
After a good night’s sleep.
Bang!
There was the loud sound of something falling on the ground. Tang Mo opened his eyes and pressed a hand to the match tattoo. He listened silently for a while and discovered the sound came from outside the clothing store. He picked up his backpack and crept to the door, blocking his body with a cardboard box and looked out quietly.
The sky was bright. It was already early morning.
He saw a young woman wearing a dress on the opposite side of the second floor, looking in front of her with horror. The place where she was looking at was in Tang Mo’s blind spot and he couldn’t tell what she was looking at. The woman stepped back, her whole body stuck to the glass fence of the mall’s corridor.
The glass fence was broken in half and several pots were placed in front of other glass fences. Only the glass fence behind the woman had some dirt scattered and the potted plants had disappeared.
Tang Mo judged that the thing that just fell was probably a potted plant.
The young woman covered her mouth and trembled with fear. The next second, she suddenly turned and ran, screaming, “They are here too! They’re coming, they’re coming!”
The young woman ran away quickly. After a short while, Tang Mo heard several more sounds in the mall.
Another four people had run away from the mall.
Tang Mo frowned. He waited a while and after being sure no one else would run out, he held the big match and walked out the clothing store. Once he left the clothing store and looked at the corridor on the opposite side of the second floor, he could see the solidified blood on the ground.
Tang Mo’s heart tightened as he held the match tightly and went to the opposite side of the second floor.
The blocked picture was finally revealed to Tang Mo. He finally knew what the young woman had seen.
In front of a cashier’s counter in a tea shop, a middle-aged man had fallen to the ground with wide eyes, an expression of disbelief on his face. There was a large hole dug in his chest. Blood ran down from the hole, dyed the clothes and flowed to the ground.
In that darkened bloody hole, his heart was gone.
Tang Mo suppressed the feeling of nausea and checked the man’s wound.
The heart was torn out, the ribs broken into powder and the blood vessels had obvious tears.
Tang Mo looked around again. He spent 10 minutes on the second floor and the first floor. Finally, he found the heart next to some stairs on the first floor. To be precise, there was only half the heart left. It seemed to have been eaten by something. The heart was bitten halfway before being thrown to the ground.
After the earth went online, killings weren’t uncommon and one corpse could be seen almost every three days. But killing people this way…even eating half the heart.
Tang Mo’s heart filled with an unknown premonition.
He didn’t know that at this moment, in the west of Shanghai, a short and chubby boy was pulling his thin companion down while hiding in a car. They shrank their heads as much as possible in order to not expose their positions.
In the narrow space, the two boys breathed heavily and their hearts beat violently.
“Zhao…Zhao Ziang, is your hand okay?” The thin boy’s voice trembled.
The chubby youth’s right arm had a deep cut where the bone was visible. Thick blood was dripping down his arm towards the ground. He covered the wound and prevented the blood from dripping on the ground, in order to not make a sound. His voice was hoarse. “No…it is nothing. We have to go back. We can’t go west. They are from the west. Once they left, we will go back to find Shanshan and Brother Mo.”
The thin boy nodded heavily. “Okay!”
The little fat man gritted his teeth and wanted to say something again. Suddenly, a sharp laugh was heard from above their heads.
“Oh, I found you.”
The author has something to say:
Major Fu: The whole world knows how great my Tang Tang is. [Not happy to monopolize his share face]
Tang Tang: …The whole world knows how powerful you are! I only have 23 people!