The Earth is Online - Chapter 160

Chapter 160

Previously, Zhao Xiaofei had used lipstick to draw a map on the ground. Before leaving, she had taken off her coat and drew a rough map on it. The calm female player spread out her coat on the ground, carefully counting every corridor they had been through. Finally she looked up and said, “Is it possible that Schrodinger is in a corridor we haven’t been to and that we won’t be able to enter later?”

The third rule: the doors of the room are spread across both sides of the corridor and each player can only walk once in the same corridor. Once a player walks through a corridor, human footprints will be left in the corridor. Any corridor with human footprints are forbidden to enter.

This rule seemed complicated but it actually limited a person from going back.

A corridor that they pa.s.sed through couldn’t be entered a second time. Thus, every choice might lead to a dead end in the future (all taken paths had footprints).  It was just the first round of the game and the map of the steel fortress was still unclear. It was inevitable that they would take a few wrong roads on the second floor and that some rooms were no longer accessible.

Li Miaomiao agreed. “It must in these few rooms. We’ve only just arrived on the first floor and walked in a line. We haven’t encountered a fork in the road, which means we haven’t made any choices on the first floor, let alone made the wrong choice. Since the truth clock says we can’t find Schrodinger, it means that Schrodinger in hiding in a room upstairs.”

There was still a problem.

Zhao Xiaofei’s expression became difficult. “In fact, the roads were just walked… I don’t remember them very well.”

The rest of the group showed embarra.s.sment at the words. Tang Mo licked his lips and turned to look at Tang Mo. Once he met the dark eyes, Tang Mo’s heart immediately calmed down.

Fu Wenduo looked at him and then spoke in a low voice, “I remember.”

The group turned to Fu Wenduo.

Fu Wenduo took the lipstick from Zhao Xiaofei’s hand and smoothly drew the curved route of the second floor.

He started from the apex of the sixth diamond, which was the kitchen. Then he calmly connected every corridor that the five people had walked upstairs and even marked the location of the more than 80 rooms they had entered with a small dot. Zhao Xiaofei was gobsmacked as Fu Wenduo drew to their currently location. She took back the lipstick from Fu Wenduo and asked skeptically, “…Are you sure that you didn’t draw it wrongly?”

Fu Wenduo raised his eyebrows.

Tang Mo told her, “He drew it right.”

Zhao Xiaofei looked at them suspiciously.

Zhao Xiaofei didn’t know that Fu Wenduo had modified a few places on the map she drew and made it more accurate. In a dark room, there was a middle-aged housekeeper eating cat food in a corner of the room. Schrodinger stared at the map in Zhao Xiaofei’s hand and wanted to scream.

This map was simply a smaller version of Schrodinger’s steel fortress. Even Schrodinger himself might not be able to draw it so accurately!

After the earth went online, every player’s physical fitness increased. However, it was one thing to remember the path you took. It was another thing to draw a map in this confined s.p.a.ce and to have a keen sense of s.p.a.ce and distance. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo walked at the rear of the group. Tang Mo whispered, “There are really only four corridors on the second floor that we didn’t go into?”

Fu Wenduo looked at him.

Tang Mo had just said with certainty that Fu Wenduo was right and now he was questioning Fu Wenduo.

Fu Wenduo showed an imperceptible smile. “Yes, there are only four.”

Tang Mo explained, “I believe you. It is just that if there are only four corridors left, I feel that something is wrong.”

“There is something wrong.”

Tang Mo asked, “Do you think… Schrodinger is hiding in these four corridors?”

Fu Wenduo stopped moving while the three people in front kept walking. He stared at Tang Mo and whispered, “I don’t think so.”

Tang Mo suddenly smiled. “I don’t think so either.”

Tang Mo never doubted if Fu Wenduo’s map was accurate or not. He had absolute trust in this person. Fu Wenduo didn’t let him down. This type of map wasn’t a challenge at all. He could draw it even if his physical fitness hadn’t improved after the earth went online. In the past, Fu Wenduo had once entered a complicated secret military base. He only walked around once and could draw a detailed map of the base, accurately marking the laboratory and control room.

However, if the map was really like this then everyone became stranger.

Tang Mo followed the Zhao Xiaofei trio with his head bowed.

The corridors on the first floor were much simpler than the second floor. There weren’t too many turns and forks and it was almost a neat rectangle. Rooms were distributed on both sides of the corridor. The five players walked half a lap and found 11 rooms. Zhao Xiaofei, who was walking in the lead, suddenly stopped. “There is another staircase here?”

The group took out the map and compared the position on the two floors.

Li Miaomiao concluded, “It is the first staircase that we saw.”

On the second floor, the five players had seen two staircases leading to the first floor. Tang Mo made a decision and didn’t choose the first staircase. Everyone came down the second staircase and found the truth clock in the first room.

Zhao Xiaofei said, “It is useless to go up. The corridors will be full of footprints and this round will be over. We haven’t finished the corridors on the first floor yet. Let’s go through all of it.”

Everyone took a few steps when Tang Mo turned his head and asked, “Victor?”

In the dark steel corridor, a tall man stood upright. Fu Wenduo looked between the wall to the left and then the wall to the right. His brow wrinkled and he suddenly walked to Tang Mo’s side. Tang Mo was stunned for a moment and didn’t understand what he wanted to do. Fu Wenduo lowered his head, put his lips to Tang Mo’s ears and whispered something that only the two of them could hear.

Tang Mo’s body froze.

10 minutes later, the five players walked along the corridor and reached the room with the truth clock.

Zhao Xiaofei used the lipstick to fill up the map of the first floor and said, “The first floor is really much simpler than the second floor. It is an ordinary rectangular corridor. There are 29 rooms in total and we didn’t find Schrodinger. Schrodinger is definitely on the second floor in one of the few corridors we didn’t enter.”

Grecia smiled. “My lady, I don’t think it is that simple.”

Forget Grecia, even Zhao Xiaofei felt that it was too simple. Could a tower attack game be this simple?

Of course, it wasn’t impossible. If it wasn’t for Fu Wenduo’s strong scouting ability and the clue from the truth clock, they would never have all this information. In addition, they encountered very dangerous inventions in several rooms. They would’ve been killed by these inventions if they had been weaker.

Moreover, the map of the second floor was really complicated. Many people might walk around it and not get to the first floor. This would be wasting one round of the game.

Zhao Xiaofei thought for a moment before saying, “In any case, we have already found over 100 rooms and there are only a few left. We have two more chances. In the second round of the game, we will do directly to the rooms we haven’t searched yet. There is always the third round of the game. We don’t have to worry about failure.”

The suggestion was very reasonable and Li Miaomiao nodded. She wanted to talk to Zhao Xiaofei when she suddenly remembered Ruan w.a.n.gshu’s orders. She quietly turned to look at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. Then Li Miaomiao became stunned.

Tang Mo shook his head at her.

Li Miaomiao looked awkward.

Tang Mo sighed. Li Miaomiao wasn’t Fu Wenduo. This was a complicated matter and Li Miaomiao couldn’t understand his meaning with a few glances.

Zhao Xiaofei asked, “Should we go directly back to the second floor and look at the rooms we haven’t been to?”

“I want to look at the truth clock again.”

Zhao Xiaofei looked strangely at Tang Mo and asked with surprise, “You want to find the truth clock? What for?”

Tang Mo’s expression was calm. “The door to the truth clock is facing the stairs. Since we have decided to start the second round of the game, we can use this room as a starting point. From this room, we can go directly to the second floor.”

“…That isn’t the point.”

Li Miaomiao spoke up, “Let’s go.”

This round was already doomed to failure. It didn’t matter where they started the second round from. Tang Mo held the flashlight and grasped the doork.n.o.b made of steel in his right hand. He pressed it softly and there was an immediately blue glow that enveloped the five players. Once they opened their eyes, they were stuck to the ground and couldn’t move.

A calm female voice was heard. “Welcome to the world of the truth clock. I’m the gre… gre… great…”

Truth clock, “…”

Why did they come again?

The truth clock hadn’t expected this group of poisonous humans to run here again before even starting the second round of the hide-and-seek game. The corridors couldn’t be repeated but the rooms were okay. The truth clock looked silently at the five players in front of it and the five players stared back.

They looked at each other in silence.

Truth clock, “…” Look at these people!

After a long time, the truth clock tried to maintain a calm voice. “Black tower intruders, what do you want? I have told you everything that I know. I will be made into all types of items to be sent to several other people. Do you have to want to kill me?”

Why did it sound like this voice was holding a grudge…

Li Miaomiao said, “We just decided to use this room as the point to end this round.  We will start the second round from here.” It had nothing to do with killing the clock.

The truth clock was depressed. “Yes, you lost this round the moment you entered this room again.”

The black tower’s prompt came at this time. “Ding dong! The first round of Schrodinger’s hide-and-seek game is over.”

“The second round of the game has begun!”

The sweet cat’s gloating laughter filled the room. “Hahaha, stupid players! You can’t find me! You will all join my collection! Garbage clock, drive these players out. I can’t wait to put them into my warehouse and make them into stinky toilets for Santa!”

The faces of the two female players darkened.

Li Miaomiao wanted to leave this room and go straight upstairs to the room they haven’t entered yet.

The truth clock quickly said, “Yes Great Schrodinger, I will drive them out.”

Then a voice was heard. “Who said that we will leave?”

The truth clock was stunned.

In the dark room, the small black cat stared blankly at the humans.

In the truth clock’s room, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo stood at the front of their group. Tang Mo raised his head and watched the huge clock calmly. He asked, “We have entered your world. Can’t we open the truth clock’s game? Become the truth or defeat the truth.”

The truth clock answered, “But you already know the answer.”

Tang Mo asked again, “Can’t we play another game?”

The truth clock didn’t understand what Tang Mo wanted. “…You can.”

It wasn’t just the truth clock. Li Miaomiao and Zhao Xiaofei didn’t understand why Tang Mo wanted to waste time in this place. Grecia stared thoughtfully at Tang Mo’s back while the black cat touched his head with his claws, wanting to know what Tang Mo was thinking.

Then Schrodinger saw the smile on Fu Wenduo’s face. The black cat’s green eyes suddenly widened. It quickly said, “Truth clock, drive them out. Don’t let them ask…”

“My question is that the second round has now started.” Tang Mo’s voice interrupted the black cat. He stared calmly at the big clock in front of him. “Truth clock… have we already lost this round?”

The air stilled for a moment.

In the room of the truth clock, Zhao Xiaofei and Li Miaomiao stared at Tang Mo’s back. Grecia was also a bit surprised and he tapped his short cane on the ground. No one discovered that his cane wasn’t restrained by this room and that it could move as it wanted.

This time, the truth clock didn’t answer.

The clock was silent for the first time. The blue clock body shook in an invisible manner and the black cat’s distressed roar was heard, “Don’t answer him! Fake garbage clock, you aren’t allowed to answer him! I won’t allow it!!”

If it had eyes, the truth clock would be looking at the sky at this moment. Through the  heavy steel walls, it watched Schrodinger, the greatest inventor in the black tower world.

Three seconds later, the truth clock spoke in the calm female voice. “Great Schrodinger, I am a failure but I didn’t fail because I couldn’t understand all the truths in the room. I have feelings that don’t conform to the truth. As long as someone asks me a question, I will definitely answer. I can’t lie and he asked a right or wrong answer. If I lie, the black tower intruders will have defeated the truth and they will still know the correct answer. The fact that they asked this question shows that they already know how to pa.s.s the game.”

The black cat screamed, “Useless garbage clock!”

On the huge truth clock, the hour and minute hands started moving again. It spoke in a steady and unfeeling voice, as if it hadn’t heard Schrodinger’s screams.

“Welcome to the world of the truth clock. I am the great truth clock and I tell the accurate time for the great Lord Schrodinger. You can ask a total of five questions. Become the truth or defeat the truth.” For the question you just asked…” The truth clock seemed to ‘look’ at Tang Mo and replied coldly, “My answer is yes.”

“Black tower intruders, at this moment you have lost the second round of the hide-and-seek game.”

Added a ko-fi for the people asking for an alternative to Patreon:

You can also join my discord channel to chat with fellow readers about the novels;