The Earth is Online - Chapter 222
Chapter 222
“No, this way of death is different from the song!”
Mu Huixue and Andrei heard a loud female voice when they opened the door. The two of them glanced at each other and walked down the stairs together.
They saw that in a corner of the first floor staircase, the Chinese female player Li Xia and two European players were standing around and looking at something.
Lena Jophos sneered, “The killer is brazenly telling us that it isn’t the black tower or black tower monster killing people, it is humans? They are too lazy to even hide it.”
The rest of the players headed downstairs after hearing the conversation.
The two American players went down together, followed by Yamamoto Takao and then George. After a few minutes, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo went down the stairs.
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The old man saw Tang Mo and looked slightly stunned. He soon concealed his expression, as if he didn’t know Tang Mo and hadn’t left the room last night. Tang Mo stared at him and slightly smiled.
Mu Huixue bent over and checked Abdullah’s death. “A sharp weapon pierced the brain and died. He should be fighting for a long time and there are many traces on his body. In addition, look at the walls and stairs around us.”
The group looked up at Mu Huixue’s words.
Mu Huixue said, “Bai Ruoyao and the person who killed him didn’t leave these claw marks and round holes. Thus, these claw marks and round holes should’ve been left by Abdullah and the person who killed him last night. If I’m not mistaken…” Mu Huixue grabbed Abdullah’s hands and saw that his nails were black. Among them, three nails on his right hand were broken and bloody. “The claw marks were left by Abdullah and the others were left by the killer.”
Yamamoto Takao thought for a moment before saying, “Abdullah’s nails clearly aren’t ordinary. It is probably his ability.”
Lena Jophos looked at everyone around her with disdainful eyes. “Then who killed him?”
Mu Huixue was about to open her mouth when she suddenly thought of something and looked at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.
The three people watched each other.
Tang Mo nodded gently and Mu Huixue looked surprised for a moment. Then she changed the topic, “Only one person died last night?”
Abdullah’s body was right next to the stairs. The group finally remembered to search for another body.
They searched through the three floors of the castle and by the time they reached the attic, everyone found that Bai Ruoyao’s body was gone.
Li Xia’s fingers clenched. “Sure enough, the murderer is going to take away all the bodies. What the hell do they want to do?”
“Wait, I think I found his body.”
The group immediately glanced towards the voice.
They saw Yamamoto Takao standing on the stairs outside the attic, looking down in the direction of the stair handrails. “Is that his body.”
Everyone walked down the stairs again.
They reached the corner of the staircase and walked behind it. The body that fell to the ground immediately caught their eyes.
Tang Mo’s lips opened and closed.
He didn’t expect the other party to actually hide Bai Ruoyao’s body in such a place. It was dark at night and the area behind the stairs was dim. It couldn’t be seen without proper lighting. Tang Mo had already searched here. Thus, after he killed Abdullah last night, he went to the second and third floors. However, he didn’t find the body and returned to the room. He hadn’t expected Bai Ruoyao’s body to be hidden here.
The American player John frowned. “What does this mean? The murderer didn’t take the killer with them last night?”
Then why were the bodies taken the previous two days?
Was the killer picking people?
Lian Yuzheng was about to speak when a low laugh was heard. The European player Don covered his lips as he laughed. The group looked at him strangely and he smiled. “There is one thing I really care about. Before today, these two Chinese players… Tang and Fu, you always left your room very early and even found a scene first. Yet today you stayed in your room for so long…”
Don looked at them curiously and smiled. “I’m a bit curious. What were you doing in your room?”
This sentence caused the player’s calm faces to change.
These words caused everyone to not have superfluous ideas.
Don asked, “Tang and Fu, which one of you were injured and needed to be healed?”
By this time, Lian Yuzheng also understood who killed Abdullah and immediately opened her mouth, “If I’m remembering correctly, you three American players also came out very late.”
The two young players directly refuted it. “What do you mean we came out late? It wasn’t too late. Our room is in the middle. Isn’t it natural to be a bit slower than you?”
Lian Yuzheng asked, “Then what about him?” She was referring to the old man.
The old man replied, “I had a personal affair to handle. I tried to use my ability in my room to see if I could use it normally. Thus, I was late.”
Lena opened her mouth. “There are plenty of reasons. Then what about you?”
The short-haired woman sneered at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo, her tone sounded as if she had seen them kill.
Mu Huixue’s trio wasn’t happy but they didn’t expect Tang Mo to smile and say, “Yes, I left the room last night.”
What?
All the players stared at Tang Mo with astonishment.
The smile on Don’s face disappeared, as if he noticed something was wrong.
The next second, Tang Mo quietly said, “By the way, I killed him.”
Mu Huixue exclaimed, “Tang Mo?”
The two American players immediately pulled out their weapons and gazed warily at Tang Mo. Lena and Don also looked serious.
Tang Mo went to Abdullah’s body and said, “We started fighting from the attic. I jumped down the stairs and he chased me. Then we went from the dining room to the fireplace. He smashed the fireplace with his feet and then I used a weapon to pierce his head. If you look at the traces, you should be able to find the route to prove that I’m right.”
Lena asked, “Then you’re admitting to killing the people? Where did you put the previous three bodies?”
Tang Mo replied, “Did I say that I killed all the people? Last night, he attacked me first and I fought back. At that time, I thought he had killed another person so I killed him. I soon discovered that I was wrong. Abdullah didn’t kill anyone else and Bai Ruoyao’s body was hidden by someone else. The person’s purpose was simple. It is to make me or Abdullah misunderstand and make us doubt the other person. Then we would fight and one of us would die.”
Andrei asked, “Who is that person?”
Tang Mo pointed to the old man. “Him.”
The old man looked calm. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I didn’t leave the room last night.”
Tang Mo smiled, “You left blood on the door of the attic.”
The old man blinked and countered, “What blood trace?”
Tang Mo took the group upstairs. Then he crouched down and touched the completely dried up blood. “You did it cleverly. The blood is placed in such an unobtrusive place so that when the blood is found, it looks like the killer left a trace without noticing. You either knew what would happen or you believed in our strength. You know that one of us would be able to find this blood and think that you were killed by the other person and that they stole Bai Ruoyao’s body.
The old man refuted. “You say this but if I can do it, you can also do it. Your reasoning is perfect. However, I didn’t leave my room and I didn’t do these things. What is in it for me?”
Tang Mo said, “The benefit has been shown. Abdullah is dead.”
The old man frowned. “What does it matter to me if he is dead?”
“You have one less competitor.”
Gazes swung between Tang Mo and the old man.
The old man stared at Tang Mo before laughing. “You might be right but I really didn’t leave my room.”
Instead of refuting him, Tang Mo took out a bottle of red-brown liquid from his pocket. He handed it over to Fu Wenduo, who passed it to Mu Huixue. Everyone received it in turn.
The old man looked suspicious after seeing Tang Mo take out the bottle. He took the liquid and smelt it. “Red wine?’
“Yes, it’s red wine.” Tang Mo was calm. “On the first time, I poured some of the wine on the table into a bottle I brought with me. The red wine has been exposed to the air for a long time and the smell has faded. The smell of this small bottle of red wine is so light that none of us can smell it unless we are close. When I left my room last night, I took it with me and I spilt a bit on the two players I met.”
The old man’s eyes widened with astonishment and he started looking at his body.
Tang Mo smiled. “Don’t look. It is behind you. I touched you last night when we were standing at the door.”
Bell immediately went behind the old man and saw a brown trace the size of a finger on the side of the white western coat that George was wearing. Bell smelt it and sneered. “It really is red wine. Last night, you were one of the three players who left!”
The old man was silent for a moment and once he opened his mouth, he showed no signs of panic. “I didn’t think you would prepare so much. Yes, I went outside last night but I didn’t do anything. I denied it before because I didn’t want to stir up trouble and make you doubt me. You all heard it. He just confessed to killing Abdullah. This has nothing to do with me. You know, I’ve always known that I am the weakest among the 17 players when it comes to fighting. That’s why I searched the castle once before returning to my room. I was afraid of being killed by him.” He pointed to Tang Mo. “Fortunately I came back or I would’ve ended up like Abdullah.”
Tang Mo said, “You aren’t admitting that you moved away Bai Ruoyao’s body and deliberately left a blood trace?”
The old man wondered, “Why should I do this? What good will it be for me? I can’t pass the instance even if you are all dead.”
A low voice was heard. “Didn’t you just say it?”
The old man turned to look at Fu Wenduo.
Fu Wenduo’s lips slightly curved. “It is because you are weak.”
Tang Mo continued, “Mr Yamamoto Takao, can you tell us now. Yesterday, when Mu Huixue asked everyone if they thought of a method to clear the instance, what method did you think of?”
Yamamoto Takao silently watched Tang Mo before finally deciding to open his mouth. “On the day that Noah comes, there is no need to find the monster and roast it for Noah. We just need to live longer than other players. The black tower says that if Noah can’t eat the roasted monster, he’ll eat all the players. Then… while Noah is eating people, we will keep burning people and he will eventually eat the real monster.”
He said, “The only thing I have to do is live longer. The longer I live, the better. However, this is only living. We won’t find the monster or wrote a name on the red ticket. There is no way to complete the grab the sixth mode or get clues about the seventh floor.” Compared to clues, he wanted to live more.
After these words, Yamamoto Takao closed his mouth and didn’t say anything.
Andrei stared at the old man. “We all know this method. Therefore, you must be the first human to be eaten by Noah.”
The old man’s face darkened before he quickly regained his composure. He sneered. “Maybe you are right. I am the weakest and can’t kill people. Last night, I didn’t get involved in your fight and it was my first chance to leave my room. Five players have died but I didn’t kill any of them.”
John opened his mouth. “He is right. Forget David and Anatoli, who were killed the second day. He wouldn’t be able to kill Lena Jokel on the first day without a struggle.”
Mu Huixue suddenly smiled. “He really didn’t kill anyone.”
John turned to look at her.
Mu Huixue folded her arms and laughed helplessly. “The brain circuits of an abnormal person really are different. That is what my dead companion said. He was crazy but not really abnormal. Thus, he guessed something but didn’t guess enough. For example, there are a few people in this castle who came up with a way to win the grab the sixth mode from the beginning.”
Li Xia was surprised. “What method?”
Mu Huixue explained, “We can’t write a name on the red ticket because we don’t know who the monster is. It is too late if we let the black tower monster get eaten in the end. However… what if you kill everyone except yourself? The monster hides itself well but it is different from humans. The moment you kill, you will understand if the person is a human or a monster.” Mu Huixue continued in a calm voice, “This is the real way to change the game.”
Mu Huixue’s words finished and Li Xia and several other people made expressions of realization.
Yamamoto Takao frowned as he pondered on the feasibility of this method before exclaiming, “The method can still be like this.”
On the day where Bai Ruoyao died, Tang Mo’s group of five gathered together. It was then that they understood the last remark of the baby-faced youth.
The brain circuits of an abnormal person were really different.
Bai Ruoyao guessed this method but he wasn’t the type of person to kill all the players in the game to obtain victory. Thus, he died at the hands of a real abnormal person and couldn’t return to his room.
John wondered, “You just said a few people thought of this method and they killed other players… who are they?”
George Ansoni stood coldly on the sidelines, not saying a word.
Tang Mo glanced at him and everyone knew that the weakest old man was actually a killer. What about people other than him?
Tang Mo scoffed. “They stole the body and hid it somewhere we can’t discover. This magical method can’t be thought of by everyone. It is impossible for two groups to think of it so they must be in the same group. The person who stole Lena’s body and the person who stole David and Anatoli’s bodies must be in the same group.” He pointed to the old man. “If he had thought of that method, he would’ve have left Bai Ruoyao’s body where he did.”
Li Xia gripped a dagger. “Who is it?”
“It is…”
The next moment, a silver light flashed. Fu Wenduo raised his wrist and a small dart shot from his hand towards Lena Jophos. The powerful European female player leaned sideways and stretched out her fingers, gripping the dart.
Don laughed. “What do you mean by this, Fu Wenduo?”
Fu Wenduo stated, “They don’t know but we know Bai Ruoyao. That man is extremely strong. He is especially terrible when all abilities are restricted. If I fought him alone and without any mercy, there is only a 30% chance he will die. If it was Mu Huixue then the chance would be less than 30%. In this castle, no matter who it is, the probability of killing him is less than 50% if it is a solo fight. However, he dead. So…. on that night, the two other players joined hands to kill him.
Don refuted it, “Lena and I aren’t the only team in this castle. There are your friends and what about these two American guys?”
“Damn person, don’t talk nonsense!” John exclaimed.
Mu Huixue opened her mouth. “That’s why I attacked them yesterday.”
Don’s eyes narrowed and the smile on his face disappeared.
Mu Huixue said, “It was because I had to verify if they have the strength to kill Fox.”
The moment she spoke, Mu Huixue’s red whip moved through the air like a fierce leopard towards Lena Jophos. On the other side, Tang Mo’s group attacked Don Savik.
Li Xia, Yamamoto Takao and the two American players watched without moving their hands.
Mu Huixu and Andrei confronted Lena while Tang Mo, Fu Wenduo and Lian Yuzheng fought Don.
The seven people struggled and the tables, chairs and porcelain were damaged.
Once they actually fought, Tang Mo knew why Bai Ruoyao would die at the hands of these two people and why they were the first players in the world to clear the black tower’s fifth floor.
Their close combat ability was very strong, no worse than Fu Wenduo!
The cooperation between the two of them was very tacit, even if Tang Mo’s side deliberately separated the two of them. The two of them were always able to join hands and show the effect of 1+1=2. However, there were only two of them and they gradually fell into a disadvantage.
At this time, Lena roared to the other players, “Damn, aren’t you going to help? George, you old bastard, don’t you want to win? There are three spots and Don and I will only occupy one. We currently have three bodies in our hands. If the monster is among the three people, you won’t be able to find the bodies and pass the instance!”
Li Xia’s group of four heard this. Their expressions flickered but they eventually didn’t act.
The old man thought about it and his heart hardened.
No, he couldn’t miss the grab the sixth mode!
The old man suddenly slammed his hands against the ground. A wave passed through the air, affecting the bodies of Tang Mo and the others in the castle.
The old man yelled, “My ability is restricted by the black tower and only lasts for three minutes!”
The players present didn’t know what hidden card this old man had to allow how to reach the black tower’s sixth floor. Then Tang Mo raised the small parasol, wanting to block Don’s sudden attack. He couldn’t open it to use but this parasol was a good prop and was appropriate to use as a shield.
Tang Mo had just raised the small parasol and expected Don’s knife to hit the handle when there was a sudden pain from his shoulders.
Tang Mo was puzzled and he kicked at Don. He touched his shoulder and saw that his palms were covered with blood.
The same thing happened to Mu Huixue.
Mu Huixue’s whip had clearly wrapped around Lena’s arm but the next second, she saw that Lena wasn’t tied up.
After a few rounds of confrontation, Fu Wenduo exclaimed, “His ability is to hypnotize your vision so that there is a perception delay. This delay is 0.3 seconds!”
Everyone’s expressions sank.
The old man’s ability was exposed at this moment. He could hypnotize the enemy.
Tang Mo had clearly seen Don’s knife pointing at his chest but he saw it 0.3 seconds before it happened. In a fight between masters, one small difference could lead to a mistake that was thousands of miles long. The old man himself didn’t have much combat strength but his ability were more powerful than Ruan Wangshu’s gravity suppression.
Three minutes seemed short but it was enough to change the situation.
In the first minute, Don and Lena seized the opportunity to counterattack. Fu Wenduo was the first one to adapt. His horrifying combat experience allowed him to hypnotize himself and push the sight in front of him ahead by 0.3 seconds, allowing him to roughly keep up with Don’s movements.
After a while, Mu Huixue and Tang Mo also adapted to this ability and started to counterattack.
If Lena and Don had more hands then the outcome might’ve been very different.
Lena and Don were suppressed and retreated while the ability of the old man was almost over. He was sweating and suddenly felt that he had chosen the wrong teammates. He shouldn’t have believed these two damn Europeans.
Lena and Don didn’t use any abilities from beginning to end. Perhaps their abilities were the same as Fu Wenduo. They used it two days before when killing Bai Ruoyao and it might be on cooldown.
Finally, the old man paled and removed his hands from the ground, collapsing. Fu Wenduo grabbed the opportunity and his right hand turned into a triangular shaped weapon that stabbed straight at Don’s heart. On the other side, Andrei’s fists were like a tiger as he violently blocked Lena’s way, while Mu Huixue tied the whip around her body.
In order to avoid Fu Wenduo’s black weapon, Don exposed his heart to Tang Mo.
Tang Mo’s eyes narrowed and he suddenly stabbed at Don’s chest with a silver butterfly knife. However, at this moment, Don and Lena showed sinister smiles.
Time suddenly stopped. Tang Mo’s hand holding the butterfly knife froze in mid-air while Mu Huixue’s whip was stuck.
Only Lena and Don could move quickly. The time was tight as sweat dripped from Don’s forehead and fell to the ground. He detoured around Tang Mo’s body, raising his knife and lowering it.
The still river of time flowed again but Don and Lena had already moved to the rear and were about to kill Tang Mo and Mu Huixue.
Bang!
Bang!
There were too piercing gunshots and Lena and Don looked at their chests with disbelief.
They saw large bloody holes in their chest. Blood spurted out. Tang Mo still had his back to Don, his left hand holding a silver butterfly knife while his right hand stretched behind him while holding a pistol. Similarly, Fu Wenduo’s bullet accurately pierced Lena’s heart.
Don opened his mouth as blood flowed from it.
“Why… how did you know and defend…”
Tang Mo put away the gun and looked down at the butterfly knife. “When I first met this guy, I forced him to cut off his right arm. He always wanted to kill me after that. He knew what my ability was but he didn’t know who I could beat him or know his name.” The secret of the turkey egg was known only inside the team. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo were so conservative that they never disclosed it to any outsiders.
Tang Mo put away the butterfly knife and turned to look at the desperate Don Savik, his voice calm. “Still, he was very smart. He knew that I have an ability that could turn back time. Thus, he suddenly cut off his right arm before he died and you didn’t know why.”
Two days ago, the castle on Noah’s ark.
Lena and Don had never met such a powerful enemy.
Their luck was good this evening and both of them were eligible to go outside. It was easy to kill a player if they joined forces. They didn’t expect to almost be killed.
Fortunately, Lena’s ability resembled freezing time.
The baby-faced youth originally almost killed Lena and was about to escape when Lena used her power. She stabbed his chest with the knife. Lena had seen his astonished expression countless times on the faces of other players but she always felt it was delicious.
She licked the blood on her lips and pulled out the knife.
“Idiot, die.”
It was the moment when Lucky’s luck was used up. No matter who saw it, she and Don had won. This Chinese player who claimed to be very lucky was definitely dead.
Yet the moment before he died, he suddenly pulled out strength from somewhere and cut off his right arm.
Lena couldn’t stop it but she and Don didn’t feel that anything was wrong. After waiting and confirming this person was really dead, the two of them were planning to clean up the body but daytime was almost approaching.
They didn’t have time to handle the body and could only rush back to their room to take care of their wounds.
The right arm that fell behind the stairs were the two gunshots through Lena and Don’s chest.
“The climax always comes quickly. I believed in that guy so I deliberately left this ability for you.”
Tang Mo placed the butterfly knife in his pocket and looked up at a corner of the stairs, watching the place where the baby-faced youth had died.
“…In fact, he has already returned the favour to me.”
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