Chapter 75
At 6 in the evening, the sky was dark.
Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo left Shanghai using the freeway that was full of cars. They drove very slowly and moved a few dozen kilometres in two hours. Fu Wenduo pulled the handbrake and slammed on the brakes. The off-road vehicle drifted on the empty highway. There was a harsh braking sound and the car parked sideways in the middle of the road.
Tang Mo was surprised when the car stopped. It was evening and they weren’t in a rush. First, the sky was dark and there were many cars on the highway. The owners suddenly disappeared and the cars crashed, blocking the road. It was hard to see the cards at night, making them more prone to collisions. Secondly, it was likely to encounter other players at night.
However, Fu Wenduo’s parking of the car was somewhat unpredictable.
As if noticing the doubts in Tang Mo’s mind, Fu Wenduo said, “On my way from Beijing to Shanghai, I met three groups of people. They ambushed me from both sides of the highway. There are always people separated in different locations who want to go home and see their loved ones. Due to the long journey, the people would’ve brought food, water and weapons. It is a good decision to rob them.”
Tang Mo hadn’t travelled far (Suzhou and Shanghai were very close) but he had long guessed there would be such players. He quickly understood Fu Wenduo’s meaning. “Parking the car like this, you want to pretend that a driver suddenly disappeared and lost control of the car?”
“Yes.”
The head of the car was against the highway’s fence and it was parked oddly, looking like a deserted car.
The two of them didn’t say anything else. Fu Wenduo gave the backseat of the car to Tang Mo so that Tang Mo could lie down and rest. Meanwhile, Fu Wenduo pulled down the driver’s seat and closed his eyes. Tang Mo wasn’t polite. He lay down and looked up at the black roof. His eyes were calm but his mind were full of thoughts.
In the quiet car, Fu Wenduo’s steady breathing was the only sound. Tang Mo knew that even if Fu Wenduo’s breathing was stable, he wasn’t actually sleeping. Their current strength meant that three days of sleeplessness didn’t affect normal activities. Today was the first night they left Shanghai. Fu Wenduo gave the back seat to Tang Mo and was lying uncomfortably in the front seat, which meant he would never sleep. Fu Wenduo would keep watch tonight.
He didn’t sleep so Tang Mo couldn’t do anything special. Even if Fu Wenduo did sleep, once Tang Mo pulled out the abilities book, he would notice Tang Mo’s abnormal movements and wake up immediately.
Yes, from the moment he received the silver gun, Tang Mo had been looking for an opportunity to take out the abilities book.
His heart was at war. On the one hand, he was now teammates with Fu Wenduo and both of them had decided to travel to the distant Beijing together. They could tell each other their abilities. On the other hand, he still had some mistrust.
After all, the time they had met each other was too short. They had only been in contact for two months and there was a long period in the middle with no contact.
Let’s wait awhile.
Tang Mo decided that if he took out the abilities book tomorrow and discovered he had Fu Wenduo’s ability, he wouldn’t conceal it any longer.
The night passed. Fu Wenduo seemed to know that Tang Mo hadn’t slept but the two people didn’t say anything.
Tang Mo closed his eyes and once it became bright, both of them opened their eyes at the same time. The first night passed smoothly. Fu Wenduo opened the door and walked in front of the car, pushing the three cars in front of them away. Once he returned to the car, Tang Mo was already back in the passenger seat. He held a map and said, “From this side, go to the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway. After 10 km, we should pass through a service area. I will check if it has any food and water left.”
Fu Wenduo said, “There is a nine out of ten chance that everything has been taken. Two months ago when I came from Beijing, the supermarkets along the service area were looted.”
Tang Mo asked, “What if there is?”
Fu Wenduo didn’t say anything more and the two people continued on the road.
Like friends travelling together, Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo weren’t too nervous and their expressions were calm. In fact, with their combined strength, there were few players in China who could rob them. It would be really bad luck to meet the two of them on the highway. Most players could be dealt with by both of them, unless the danger didn’t come from players.
Tang Mo suddenly thought, “Setting aside reality instances, Luo Fengcheng divided the black tower instances into two types. One is the S-type instance and the different instances. Four months ago, I participated in a different instance and was noticed by the black tower. Then I was forced to challenge the tower attack game.” Tang Mo paused. “It is the game where I used the archiver for the first time. You should’ve heard it.”
Fu Wenduo drove the car while recalling, “The Mario and grids?”
“Yes, it was that one. Is it possible for us to trigger an instance while driving on the road? It might be a reality instance, S-type instance or a different instance.” After finishing, Tang Mo said to himself, “My luck shouldn’t be so bad.” Then Tang Mo recalled his experiences in the past four months and fell silent. “…”
…His luck was really bad.
At this time, Fu Wenduo said, “In general, my luck isn’t bad.”
From Beijing to Shanghai, he never encountered a single instance. This should be good luck.
Tang Mo didn’t comment on this.
The two people soon arrived at the service area. Fu Wenduo drove the car to the parking lot of the service area. Tang Mo went straight to the supermarket while Fu Wenduo waited for him outside. Tang Mo’s hand was on the small parasol, always aware of enemies that might be hidden inside the supermarket. After a moment, he determined that no one was in the supermarket and started to seriously search.
The supermarket in the service area wasn’t big and Tang Mo looked through it all in half a minute. As Fu Wenduo stated, it was a mess. Everything that could be eaten was stolen, leaving behind useless toys and books. Tang Mo didn’t want to leave empty-handed so he went deep into the shelves and grabbed two toothbrushes and toothpaste. Once his figure was completely blocked by the shelves and couldn’t be seen from outside the supermarket, Tang Mo quickly reached out and grabbed his abilities book.
He turned to the last page as quickly as possible and looked at the first line.
[Ability: Destroy you on behalf of the stars]
Tang Mo sighed softly, an unknown feeling in his heart. It wasn’t pity or disappointment, it was just slightly expected. He walked out of the supermarket with the toothbrushes and toothpaste.
When Tang Mo left, Fu Wenduo was leaning against the car and looking down at a map. The two people looked at each other before glancing at the toothpaste and toothbrushes in Tang Mo’s hands. He raised an eyebrow and asked, “Nothing?”
Tang Mo spoke with regret, “Everything was taken away. It must be taken by players who previously travelled the highway.”
Fu Wenduo asked, “You grabbed toothpaste and toothbrushes. Why didn’t you grab towels as well?”
Tang Mo, “…”
Tang Mo ignored this joke and opened the car door. Fu Wenduo followed him into the car and continued to move forward. After determining that he didn’t get Fu Wenduo’s ability, Tang Mo finally took out the silver handgun. He sat on the passenger seat and carefully examined the gun. The bright sunlight shone through the window, causing the cold silver to sparkle.
His brain worked quickly as he observed the gun.
Tang Mo’s ability was ‘Don’t give money for eating’. He got the abilities book four months ago and had since collected many abilities. Most of these abilities were reduced and the master of the ability didn’t perceive that it had been taken by Tang Mo. In addition, there were various restrictions when Tang Mo used the ability. There were two ways to gain abilities. The simplest was to kill the player and he would definitely get the player’s ability. Tang Mo wasn’t clear about the second method yet.
Tang Mo’s first ability ‘draw a circle to curse you’ occurred when the official player Li Bin inadvertently handed him a flashlight. According to this, Tang Mo speculated that he must take away something from the player and not give anything in return if he wanted to gain the ability. It was ‘eating without giving money.’
He used this method to obtain the ability to identity the player’s identity, Chen Shanshan’s super intelligence, the return my grandfather ability… However, he never got the little fatty’s ability. During the Strange Circus’ Surprise Night, Tang Mo had done something in front of Fu Wenduo. When he imprisoned Wang Yinggui and Old Niao, he took off their clothes and applied a layer of oil on their bodies.
At the time, he had explained to Fu Wenduo, “This can deceive other players. We caught these two players to eat them but didn’t have time.” Then once the glasses man and other people rescued Wang Yinggui and Old Niao, they would find that these two players weren’t wearing clothes and were covered in oil.
This was a move to mislead players that Mr. A and Mr. B would really eat humans. Then after Wang Yinggui and Old Niao escaped, people would think that the two players missing from the count were eaten by Mr. A and Mr. B. At the same time, Tang Mo got Wang Yinggui and Old Niao’s clothes without giving them money. Yet he didn’t get their abilities.
Today, Fu Wenduo handed his precious hand gun to Tang Mo but Tang Mo didn’t get his ability.
This was the fourth ability that he missed.
Tang Mo hid his emotions deep in his heart. The doubts in his heart were growing. He wanted to know the precise method to get abilities. It was a pity that this cheap book wouldn’t take the initiative to tell him and he had to find out on his own.
Tang Mo thought about his own cheap book and sighed helplessly.
“Are you regretting not taking the towel?”
Tang Mo, “…”
The joke was a little cold, causing Tang Mo to wrap his jacket tighter around himself. He lightly said, “We pushed a lot of cars along the way. We should stop and rest. It is estimated that we can reach Nanjing tomorrow. There is no need to hurry when it is 5 p.m. and I want to try out this gun.”
Fu Wenduo agreed. “Okay.”
Tang Mo asked, “Is this gun important to you? There was a pause before he added, “I saw a letter on the bottom of the gun. Is it your name?” It could be someone else’s name.
Fu Wenduo didn’t conceal it. “It is my code name, Old V. In the special forces, we won’t call each other by our real names. We will use code names with each other so we can hide out identities. It is also more convenient. My code name is Old V.”
Tang Mo originally thought the meaning of this was ‘victory.’ He hard that many Olympic archers would engrave the letter V on their long bow for good luck, meaning victory. He didn’t expect it to be Fu Wenduo’s code name.
But this meant that the gun was even more important. Tang Mo asked, “There is no problem with giving it to me?”
Fu Wenduo drove the car with one hand. This section of the road was very spacious and there weren’t many cars. He turned his head and looked at Tang Mo. “I don’t needed it with my ability and I have much more powerful props. It has no meaning for me now.” He didn’t throw it away purely out of habit and because he felt a bit of affection for it. “But don’t you need it more than I do?”
Tang Mo didn’t answer. He just turned his head and continued to observe the gun.
Fu Wenduo laughed and continued driving.
Tang Mo didn’t know what this man had discovered but everything was just a guess. It would be impossible for Fu Wenduo to find out the truth as long as Tang Mo didn’t admit it. Even if he guessed, Tang Mo wouldn’t admit it.
The sun was setting and thick black clouds floated in the sky, blocking most of the sunset. It was going to rain so Fu Wenduo stopped early and parked the car on the side of the road. Tang Mo held the gun as he left the highway along. He walked to the farmland next to it and tried raising the gun.
He looked for some shooting knowledge after getting the Checkmate ability. Tang Mo opened the safety and pulled the slide. Tang Mo held his breath as he heard crisp clicks. He raised his hand and pointed the gun at a small tree 10 metres away. Tang Mo narrowed his eyes and pressed the trigger.
Bang!
The huge recoil force made Tang Mo’s eyes widen and he took half a step back. He never thought that the gun’s rear recoil would be so big that his arm shook, despite his current physical fitness. He looked at the small tree again and saw the branches shaking, a few leaves falling to the ground.
There was no bullet hole in the tree.
Just now, Tang Mo had been aiming at the trunk of the tree. It was clear that he didn’t shoot it and the bullet had flown through the leaves.
Tang Mo gritted his teeth. He was prepared this time as he held the gun with both hands and pressed the trigger. There were a roaring sound and the silver bullet pierced through the air into the trunk. Tang Mo’s dynamic vision barely caught the silver ray. The light did pierce the trunk but it was more than 30 cm away from the place where Tang Mo had been aiming.
The ‘destroy you on behalf of the stars’ meant that as long as he fired, the bullet would continue to track the target. However, this was based on his true shot. The bullet moved in a different trajectory from what Tang Mo wanted when it was fired. If his used this ability, he might be aiming for the enemy’s head but it would shoot their shoulders instead.
This was still a good situation. The world case scenario was that he aimed when shooting the bullet and didn’t hit anyone.
Tang Mo’s expression sank. He raised the gun and fired two more shots at the trunk. One was 20 cm away and the other was unexpected half a metre away from the target. There were five rounds left. Tang Mo raised the gun to shoot again when a low voice was heard from behind him. “You haven’t shot before?”
Tang Mo turned his head. “No.”
“This way.” Fu Wenduo was standing on the highway. He drank water before putting the empty plastic bottle on the front of the off-road vehicle. Then he placed a hand on the fence and jumped off the highway. Fu Wenduo approached Tang Mo and Tang Mo said, “I have a bit of motion sickness. It is okay in the car but I become dizzy when playing 3D shooting games. Therefore, I seldom play them.”
Fu Wenduo glanced at him with surprise. “I’m talking about shooting guns at the range, not shooting games.”
Tang Mo understood. “I’ve never shot a gun.”
In modern society, there were many people who went to clubs to try archery and shooting. Fu Wenduo’s question was understandable. He saw that Tang Mo suddenly wanted a gun and thought he had experience. Fu Wenduo didn’t expect that Tang Mo really hadn’t shot before.
Fu Wenduo took the gun from Tang Mo’s hand and aimed it at the tree 10 metres away.
His eyes narrowed as he quickly opened the safety and pressed the trigger.
Bang!
These series of movements were so fast that Tang Mo couldn’t react. In the next second, there was a loud bang in Tang Mo’s ears. The huge recoil force seemed non-existent as Fu Wenduo didn’t even move his fingers. The bullet fired from the muzzle shot straight through the centre of the small tree, making a smooth hole.
Tang Mo’s level was good among beginners. After all, he had good vision and high body strength and he could focus on the centre of the tree. If he was given a few days, he would be able to achieve the level of an ordinary shooting enthusiast. However, Fu Wenduo’s few shots clearly showed the difference between amateurs and professionals.
Fu Wenduo almost didn’t take aim. He just looked and directly shot at the location that Tang Mo had wanted to shoot. Tang Mo hadn’t told Fu Wenduo the position. He just fired four shots yet Fu Wenduo noticed from where he was standing on the highway and hit it with one shot.
Tang Mo said, “How did you know I was aiming for the place where the bark was missing?”
“The few shots you fired were all around that point.” Fu Wenduo spoke naturally, “You didn’t want to shoot there?”
Tang Mo was really speechless this time.
It was fortunate that after the earth went online, everyone’s physical fitness improved. Otherwise, 10 copies of his previous self wouldn’t be enough to beat Major Fu.
Fu Wenduo returned the gun to Tang Mo. Tang Mo tried to recall Fu Wenduo’s actions as he held the gun, wanting to imitate it. The next moment, a warm hand covered Tang Mo’s hand, filling him with shock. He turned his head and saw that Fu Wenduo was right behind him.
He was very natural, like training recruits as he skillfully grabbed Tang Mo’s hand and helped him hold the gun. Fu Wenduo took Tang Mo’s hand and moved it into the right position. His voice was low. “It isn’t difficult to target objects 10 metres away with your strength. Your shots aren’t accurate because your hands move when the bullet emerges. My gun uses a special muzzle brake to weaken the recoil. However, the bullets are a special production and are very powerful, making the rear recoil great. When you shoot, as long as there is low stability, the influence of the recoil will make it easy for the shot to go crooked. Try it one more time.”
Fu Wenduo looked down at Tang Mo.
Tang Mo’s heart beat faster but he quickly controlled it and looked at the small tree 10 metres away.
Fu Wenduo was holding his hand while he was holding the gun. Then Tang Mo gently fired.
Bang!
This time, the error was within 5 cm. Tang Mo’s bullet let a small hole next to Fu Wenduo’s bullet hole.
Fu Wenduo said, “Okay, you should be able to catch the feeling after a few more times.” He didn’t loosen his grip on Tang Mo’s hand as he spoke, intended to hold on through another shot.
Tang Mo, “…”
It was very strange feeling.
He wouldn’t feel so strange if a girl was holding his hand right now. Fu Wenduo seemed straight but Tang Mo knew that Tang Mo was gay. Tang Mo felt awkward about being held by a man but he really had vaguely grasped the feeling with the previous shot. He secretly decided that after one more shot, he would start shooting alone.
Under the guidance of Fu Wenduo, Tang Mo fired again and the error margin was still 5 cm.
Fu Wenduo held his hand for another shot but Tang Mo immediately said, “I will do it myself.”
Fu Wenduo looked at him.
Tang Mo made a calm expression. “I think I have caught the feeling. Can I try it by myself?” Tang Mo quietly broke away from Fu Wenduo’s hand as he said this. However, the moment he was about to break away, Fu Wenduo’s eyes changed and he suddenly grasped Tang Mo’s hand. Tang Mo’s face showed some embarrassment but the next second, his expression also slightly changed. He turned with Fu Wenduo to look behind him.
Fu Wenduo grabbed Tang Mo’s hand while the other hand was around Tang Mo’s waist, turning them around 180 degrees. While turning, he quickly whispered, “Shoot!”
Tang Mo didn’t see where he was aiming at but he pulled the trigger the moment Fu Wenduo spoke. He shot the bullet with great confidence. There was s shot bang before the bullet slammed into a large rock in the field, causing a small round hole.
Fu Wenduo kept holding Tang Mo’s hand and was about to shout a second “Shoot.” At this time, a female voice was heard from behind the stone. “No, don’t! We are harmless, we’re harmless. We just heard the gunshots and came out to check.”
Another male voice was heard. “Don’t misunderstand and shoot us. I… we were just passing by. We really were just passing by.”
Dark clouds gradually filled the horizon as the sun went down. Two people raised their hands and emerged from the big stone.