“Ding dong! “Welcome to Noah’s Fun Maze!”
The clear child’s voice rang in Tang Mo’s ears. He opened his eyes and his expression changed. He quickly avoided the black object that shot at him. It flew past his head and shot straight into the wall behind him. Tang Mo looked up in order to find the person who shot the hidden weapon at him. However, there was no one in front of him.
It was a quiet and narrow corridor,. The light was dim and he could only see three metres around him.
Tang Mo observed everything around him and whispered, “Fu Wenduo?” His voice bounced between the walls, forming an echo and returning to Tang Mo.
Tang Mo’s heart instantly sank.
He wasn’t with Fu Wenduo!
In other tower attack games, as long as the player confirmed the team entry, they would usually be assigned to the same position or the same camp. For example, last time Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo were assigned to be the customs officers. Chen Shanshan wasn’t with them but her task was to assist them in clearing the instance.
Tang Mo turned towards the wall and pulled out the hidden weapon stuck there. The square shaped maneuvering dart was brightly coloured. Tang Mo observed it for a moment before putting it in his pocket. After confirming that there was no one around him, the took the white turkey egg from his pocket and tapped it three times.
“Tang Mo.”
“Fu Wenduo.” Tang Mo asked, “Where are you?”
Fu Wenduo didn’t speak nonsense and directly said it, “I’m in a black corridor. This place should be a maze, or Noah’s Fun Maze. There is a left turning exit in front of this corridor. I haven’t moved yet. Where are you?”
“I’m also in a corridor.” Tang Mo explained that he had just been attacked by a dart.
Fu Wenduo’s chest became heavy. “Did you find the person who attacked you?”
“No.”
Fu Wenduo said, “We are teamed up and the black tower wouldn’t place us too far away from each other. We should be in the same area. Since this is a maze, the road between us must be smooth and not long. You stand still and don’t move. I’m coming to find you. Be careful, hide in a safe spot and don’t move. The other person is likely to attack you again.”
Tang Mo placed the turkey egg back into his back. His back was close to the maze wall and he shrank down as much as possible in the corner to hide himself. He whispered, “How will you find me?”
“The Trojan Horse.”
The maze was dark and there was no sound. Tang Mo’s hand was pressed to the handle of the small parasol as he stared coldly at the exit of the corridor where he was. He was at a dead end in the labyrinth. The only way to go out was this road in front of him. If others wanted to enter then they had to come in from here.
Tang Mo waited quietly and determined the person who attacked him with the dart wasn’t here. Then he unzipped his clothes and started climbing the wall.
All labyrinths had a fatal flaw. As long as a person climbed high enough, they could see the entire terrain of the maze.
The wall of this labyrinth wasn’t high. It was only three metres. The wall was smooth but Tang Mo was agile. He gently kicked against the wall and went to the top in two moves. His hand just reached the top of the wall to climb up when an invisible wall blocked his way. Tang Mo fell back to the ground and looked up at the sky.
“Ding dong! It is forbidden to climb the wall in Noah’s Fun Maze. Please play according to the rules.”
Tang Mo didn’t try again.
In the darkness, breathing and heartbeat were particularly noticeable. Tang Mo reduced his sense of existence as much as possible. Gradually, light footsteps came from the other side of the wall. Tang Mo’s eyes narrowed and his left hand pressed against the match tattoo on his right wrist. His entire body clung to the wall as he hid himself in the shadows.
The person got closer and closer and turned a corner on the other side. He walked into the corridor and Tang Mo took out the big match, not hesitating to attack the other person.
The big match head slammed straight towards the man’s head and Fu Wenduo moved to the side to avoid the blow. It was too dark and the two people couldn’t fully see each other. Tang Mo’s match didn’t slow and once again aimed at the other person. Fu Wenduo changed his right hand into a triangular weapon.
The match collided with the weapon and made a fierce sound. The powerful shock jarred Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo grabbed the match handle, along with Tang Mo’s hand. The two people looked up and the gazes met.
They silently stared at each other for a moment before Tang Mo asked, “What about the Trojan Horse? I didn’t hear it.” Thus, he thought the person was an unknown enemy instead of Fu Wenduo.
“It was a bit noisy on the ground. In order to prevent it from being heard by others, I put it in my pocket and only took it out when encountering a fork.”
Fu Wenduo pulled the small wooden horse from his pocket. It was placed in the pocket by its owner but its four feet were still moving in the air. Fu Wenduo placed the wooden horse into Tang Mo’s hand and it finally stopped moving. The wooden horse opened and a piece of paper popped out.
Tang Mo read it and his lips curved. “…Mo Tang.”
On this piece of white paper, the word Mo Tang was written. Tang Mo stuffed the paper back into the body of the Trojan Horse.
It was Fu Wenduo’s turn to point to a human figure on the ground not far away and ask, “What is that?” Fu Wenduo thought that Tang Mo had been sitting on the ground and wasn’t prepared to be attacked by him.
“It is a deceptive thing.” Tang Mo paused before smiling. “Did I trick you?”
Tang Mo went to the place where Fu Wenduo was pointing and removed the ‘dummy’ he made with his clothes and backpack. Five minutes ago, Tang Mo had put his backpack into his jacket and taken off his pants. Two pieces of clothing leaned against the wall, creating a false person to confuse the enemy.
Fu Wenduo didn’t answer. He discovered that Tang Mo’s legs were bare.
The jacket could be taken off as a trap but Tang Mo was only wearing one pair of pants. In order to confuse the enemy, he could only take it off. After putting on his clothes, Tang Mo picked up his backpack and he looked up to find Fu Wenduo staring at the place where his dummy had been.
Tang Mo asked, “What are you looking at?”
Fu Wenduo glanced at him. “It is fortunate that I found you first.”
Tang Mo immediately understood and smiled. “You’ve seen it before.”
The two of them no longer spoke and left the corridor.
The corridor was very long, approximately 20 metres long. Fu Wenduo opened his mouth, “There was also a long corridor when I entered the labyrinth. Then once I left the corridor, the labyrinth outside was normal. There was no such long passage.”
Tang Mo also gave the information he discovered. “The wall is three metres high. I tried but couldn’t jump over the wall. I haven’t tried it but I guess that we can’t break the walls. This is the black tower’s protection and can’t be destroyed.”
Fu Wenduo asked, “Who attacked you?”
Tang Mo stated, “There are only two options.”
The two of them looked at each other.
Fu Wenduo spoke first. “A black tower monster.”
“Or… a human player.”
Tang Mo took out the dart and handed it to Fu Wenduo. Fu Wenduo observed it and said, “It is just an ordinary dart and isn’t a prop. This type of dart is very common. It is hard to say if it is from a black tower monster or a human.” He paused and looked at Tang Mo. “What do you think?”
Tang Mo’s super intelligent thinking meant he had a 10% accuracy rate when speculating.
Tang Mo’s eyes were deep as he directly replied, “A human.”
The moment he finished speaking, a strange and dull music started playing. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo looked up at the dark sky. Hundreds of children’s voices sang in unison.
“Lalala, Monday.”
“There is an underground person who enters the maze.”
“Lalala, Tuesday.”
“There is a little monster who slips into the maze.”
“Lalala, Wednesday.”
……
“Lalala, Sunday.”
“Humans want to leave the maze. Noah says there is only one way to leave the maze.”
The sound abruptly stopped and once it started again, it turned into a horrible male voice.
“No, no, no one can leave the maze!”
The music stopped and the black tower’s stiff mechanical voice was heard. “Ding dong! Triggered side mission 1: leave Noah’s Fun Maze.”
At the same time, Earth.
The black tower prompted that 30 players had entered the black tower’s sixth floor and many players filled with enthusiasm set up ambushes near the black towers, vigilantly staring at the giant tower.
Shanghai, China.
After hearing about the sudden death of the player from Southwest Asia, Luo Fengcheng had Jack drive and along with Tang Qiao, the three of them went to the black tower suspended above Nanjing Road.
Jack asked, “Doctor, previously the black tower never released any information about the player’s tower attack games. Why is this suddenly happening now? This is also a global notification. What does that person’s death have to do with us?”
The Southwest Asian player dying was heard by humans all over the world. Then if players from other regions died, would they hear it as well?
Yes, there was only one result from failing a tower attack game: death.
The king’s gold coin could be used to escape the black tower but it wouldn’t be counted as a failure. They just gave up on the tower. However, the black tower said the player failed so he died in the game. There was no chance to escape with rare props.
Jack scratched his head. “This is a powerful player who can attack the sixth floor. He must have a life-saving prop. What can kill him so quickly and not give him some time… ah, it is the black tower? Did he violate a rule of the game?”
Tang Qiao looked at Luo Fengcheng. “Doctor, did a human kill him?”
Luo Fengcheng’s heard this and slowly looked at Tang Qiao. It was unknown when it happened but there was a deep scar on her far. A healing prop could completely remove this scar. However, she didn’t use it and let the ugly scar lie across her face, as if reminding her of the cruelty of the black tower games.
Luo Fengcheng said, “To be able to kill a senior player on the sixth floor of the black tower in such a short period of time, I’m afraid that Fu Wenduo, Tang Mo or even Mu Huixue wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Jack said, “Then it is a black tower monster. The sixth floor is really terrible if there are so many black tower monsters. Fortunately, I listened to your words and didn’t go attack the tower.” The foreign man was relieved.
Tang Qiao frowned and carefully asked the doctor, “Is it really that simple?”
At the same time, Beijing, China.
Li Miaomiao scowled. “Such a strong black tower monster to instantly kill a sixth floor player? Leader and Yuzheng should be fine.”
Fu Wensheng was also worried. “Big Brother and Brother Tang should have no problems. They are so strong.”
“Is it just a black tower monster?”
The two people looked over at the short-haired girl.
They saw Chen Shanshan looking at the black tower. Her voice was calm. “The black tower announces the player’s elimination info to the world and for the first time, clearly introduced the number of players in each region. The absolute fairness of the black tower means that the difficulty of all players participating in the game is absolutely the same, otherwise it won’t announce that the player from Southwest Asia is eliminated. If the difficulty of the game is different then it would be unfair for the Southwest Asian player’s elimination to be released globally.”
Fu Wensheng wondered, “Then their game difficulty is the same?”
Chen Shanshan replied, “It isn’t the same. It is absolutely the same.”
Fu Wensheng’s eyes narrowed. “You mean…”
“They are involved in the same game.” Chen Shanshan’s fingers tightened. “I am very worried now. Brother Tang is in the game and can’t hear the global communications. If they can’t hear it, will they know that there are 30… no, 29 sixth floor players and that they are now in the same game?”
In the dark maze.
Tang Mo held the small parasol and walked with Fu Wenduo. Whenever they met a fork in the road, Tang Mo let Fu Wenduo choose because he believed in Fu Wenduo’s luck.
Halfway through, Tang Mo stopped and listened carefully for a moment.
“Do you hear the sound of water?”
Fu Wenduo stopped and listened for a while. “There seems to be?”
It was the very weak sound of running water, as if no one had closed the faucet and tiny droplets fell down.
Tang Mo looked around to find the source of the water. At this moment, he heard a familiar footstep. It sounded like high heels stepping on the ground and then a more crisp crashing sound. It seemed that as someone was walking, they used something thin to continuously tap on the ground.
The sound came closer and closer, reaching the other side of the wall in front of Tang Mo.
Once the sound appeared, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo clung to the wall, holding their breaths and not making a sound. They stared at each other with wide eyes and spoke a name in their hearts.
The owner of the footsteps didn’t seem to notice that Tang Mo was hiding on the other side of the fork. He held the cane and pulled down his crimson hat with one hand as he walked towards another fork.
The footsteps gradually drifted away and Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo sighed with relief. They were about to resume breathing when a gentle laugh was heard behind them.
The two men immediately turned to look.
The circus leader took off his head and gave them a gentleman’s bow. He smiled and said, “I haven’t seen you for a long time, official player Tang Mo and stowaway… oh no, that is rude. It is reserve player Fu Wenduo. It is my luck to see you here. Excuse me… can I have the horror of taking away your head?”
There was no change in Grecia’s smile s he said these words.
Tang Mo blinked. He took out the match, ignited it and slammed the burning match towards Grecia. Grecia moved sideways to avoid the blow. He chuckled and prepared to speak, only to look up and find that Tang Mo had already put away the big match and was running away with Fu Wenduo. They didn’t plan to fight at all.
Grecia, “…”
The gentle smile froze and Grecia’s eyes became cold. The slender cane hit against the wall as the person quickly caught up.
On the other side, the baby-faced youth had his hands in his pockets as he leisurely walked through the maze.
There was something Tang Mo didn’t know. Bai Ruoyao’s physical fitness was extremely high, no worse than Fu Wenduo, but his sense of smell was bad. He barely smelt anything.
Bai Ruoyao leisurely walked through the maze, going left or right from time to time. He either had no intention to find the exit or he believed in his nickname: Lucky. He was lucky so even if he walked around, he would definitely be able to find the exit.
Bai Ruoyao hummed and casually turned left into a narrow corridor. He had just taken two steps when he stopped. At the end of the corridor, Grandmother Wolf raised her head from where it was buried in swallowing human flesh and blood. The beast stared straight at Bai Ruoyao.
One person and one wolf briefly looked at each other.
Bai Ruoyao smiled and said, “Continue, I went the wrong way. I’ll see you next time.”
Bai Ruoyao turned to leave, his steps not urgent. Behind him, blood dyed the ground and pink dress of Grandmother Wolf. Her sharp teeth were filled with golden hair and white flowers and she stared at Bai Ruoyao without blinking.
Just as Bai Ruoyao was about to leave the corridor, raucous and greedy laughter was heard behind him. “Hahaha, this is why Noah’s maze is my favourite. I am always able to find lost lambs.”
There was the sound of wind tearing apart.
Bai Ruoyao’s smile completely disappeared.
“…Damn!”