Chapter 34
Tang Mo wrote down the shape of the middle-aged man’s wound and the appearance of the half heart. Then he carried his backpack and quietly left the mall. He left through the underground car park of the mall. He acted with care and swiftness, leaving the mall in a few minutes and arriving at a nearby commercial street.
There seemed to be a little less people on the streets.
When Tang Mo entered the tower attack game seven days ago, he could see one or two people occasionally on the streets. Now when he walked down a street, he often didn’t see anyone. He didn’t know if they were hiding or disappeared.
Tang Mo continued to go west. He was going back to Suzhou.
This was Tang Mo’s intention before being forcibly pulled into the tower attack game. His friend in Shanghai had disappeared and another friend was far away in Beijing. Tang Mo wasn’t ready to travel a long distance to Beijing. He would first go to Suzhou and stabilize his strength in a place he was familiar with. He was sure that he could cope with any unexpected incidents along the way and then he would go to Beijing to find someone.
After walking through three streets and two communities, Tang Mo saw a white car across the street. He hurried his pace.
In today’s world, the streets were littered with cars. However, most of them had crashed into each other and couldn’t be opened any more. A car that could be used was very rare. Tang Mo walked the few kilometres to this one.
The street was quiet. Tang Mo opened the front door of the car and sat in the driver’s seat. The key was still in the lock and Tang Mo twisted it, ready to start the car. But just as he clicked the key, his movements suddenly stopped.
Tang Mo slowly turned his head and looked at the back seat of the car.
This was a SUV-type business car. The trunk was very wide and you can get the things in the trunk by stretching your arms over the back seat. At this moment, a pale white hand was resting between the pillows of the back seat. The wrist was propped up by the back seat of the chair while the fingers hung down naturally. In the nails, blood had solidified to black and the whole hand was covered with a dead blue-violet colour.
Tang Mo got off and opened the trunk.
It was a young woman who had been dead for a long time. Her whole body was stuffed into the trunk, her legs curled up and her mouth slightly open. Her eyes were staring up at the roof, a trace of fear and panic still left in them. But she apparently died quickly, without any traces of struggle. Even the body had been stuffed into the trunk after she was long dead and stiffened.
Tang Mo’s eyes moved down to the big hole in the woman’s chest.
Her heart was gone.
Tang Mo looked in silence for a long time. Then he pulled the woman out and placed her in a small restaurant on the street. He covered the woman’s body with a tablecloth from the restaurant, returned to the car and drove away.
He drove all the way to the west. Sometimes the road was blocked and he would have to go down and push.
Compared to the beginning of the game, Tang Mo’s strength was much greater. He only needed to push gently and the wheels would roll across the ground. The journey back to Suzhou would be much smoother than when he came.
There really were a lot less people in Shanghai.
In the past, bustling areas would often have groups of three or five people. Now it was quiet and he couldn’t see anything. It was hard to see a person. Once the other person heard the sound of Tang Mo’s car, they would act like a frightened rabbit, running into a building and hiding.
Tang Mo’s brow furrowed more and more. As he drove his car to Changning District, there appeared a body with no heart on the road in front of him. The car drove past the body with no heart. Once it was about to turn at the next intersection, there was suddenly the shrill sound of the brakes. The car had made a 180 degree turn, going back the way it came.
Bright sunlight shone through the window as the black-haired man’s lips tightened and he looked firmly ahead.
The car drove steadily towards the Pudong area.
Two hours later, Tang Mo drove the car to the previous big shopping mall. He got off with his backpack and entered the mall.
Once he walked into the mall, the clustered players tensed and looked at him cautiously. Tang Mo had also suffered from such looks when he came here half a month ago. But this time was obviously different. These players were staring like they could see through him, the thick wariness and hostility couldn’t be hidden.
This change made Tang Mo accelerate his footsteps as he walked to the stairwell at the end of the mall. He pushed open the door of the stairwell when a big hand suddenly grabbed his wrist. Tang Mo reacted very quickly and retracted his right hand. The other person swept their leg towards Tang Mo’s left leg. Tang Mo borrowed the door of the stairwell and slammed it forward, jumping back two steps to escape the attack.
The stranger screamed in surprise and emerged from the door of the stairwell.
A young man with a buzz cut walked out from the stairwell and closed the door behind him. His eyes were sharp as he looked Tang Mo up and down. One moment later, he said, “Friend or enemy?”
This type of defense mechanism was much stricter than last time.
Tang Mo’s heart slowly sank as he said, “I came to find Luo Fengcheng.”
The other party couldn’t let him go just because Tang Mo said Luo Fengcheng’s name. It was only after Tang Mo said the names of Jack, Tang Qiao, Nie Fei and Ye Yuanze that the man finally believed him and personally escorted him to the underground car park. Along the way, he never relaxed his vigilance despite showing his back to Tang Mo. As soon as Tang Mo raised a hand, he would respond at the fastest speed.
Luo Fengcheng’s room was the same as last time. This time, they walked to the third floor of the underground parking lot and arrived in front of a big iron door.
The young man had Tang Mo wait outside before going in. After half a minute, he came out and said, “You can go in.”
Tang Mo opened the door and saw Luo Fengcheng waiting for him.
Luo Fengcheng was wearing a white coat. His face was a bit pale and his eyes were bloodshot. Once Tang Mo entered, he leaned against the table and stood. The two of them stared at each other. Tang Mo’s face was calm while Luo Fengcheng’s lips slowly curved, revealing a light smile. “It is really you. Once I listened to Jifeng, I thought it was you. Momo, you finally came…”
Luo Fengcheng suddenly stopped and made an awkward expression.
Tang Mo understood the problem and coughed. “Don’t worry about my name. I am Momo for now. You knew I would come?”
Luo Fengcheng nodded. “Yes. The only thing I’m curious about is why you only came now.”
“I was handling something privately and was pulled into an instance on the way.” Tang Mo didn’t disclose the information about the first floor of the black tower. According to his speculations when the black tower informed only Tang Mo about the tower attack game, he should be the only one who knew he cleared the floor. If Luo Fengcheng didn’t know then Tang Mo wouldn’t say it.
Luo Fengcheng nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. He cut straight to the point. “You exited the instance, found them and decided to come to Attack.”
Tang Mo frowned. “Them?”
“You don’t know about them yet.” Luo Fengcheng continued. “If you don’t know about them, you came because…you saw the bodies of those killed by them?”
Tang Mo nodded and explained what he saw today. The situation of the corpses emerged. “The fatal wound is in only one place. They died very quickly and there aren’t any signs of a struggle. After their deaths, their hearts were completely pulled out. One of the hearts was found by me. It was only half. It seemed…to be eaten by people.”
Luo Fengcheng nodded. “You aren’t wrong. It was eaten by people.”
Tang Mo’s heart tightened.
He might be mentally prepared but it was still shocking to hear the truth.
“We have seen a lot of killings and we have seen the monsters eating people. You know, when we first met, the big mole ate the body of the little girl in front of us.” Luo Fengcheng spoke calmly. “But this time, the things eating people in Shanghai aren’t black tower monsters but humans. To be exact, it is a group of stowaways.”
“Why are stowaways eating people?”
Luo Fengcheng corrected him. “They aren’t eating people. They are eating the hearts of people. They have to eat the heart within three minutes of the person dying.” Once it came to this, Luo Fengcheng paused before looking at Tang Mo. “Nie Fei died in their hands.”
Tang Mo didn’t answer.
He remembers Nie Fei, the young man in the black trench coat. When Tang Mo had just left Mario’s Monopoly game, the first one he saw was this young man. He was the first member of Attack to contact Tang Mo and took the initiative to lead Tang Mo to Attack’s base. He had little communication with Tang Mo but his character was calm and he was a leader when he was with the other two people.
Tang Mo was silent for a moment. “His ability isn’t an attack one?”
Luo Fengcheng understood what he meant. “No, Nie Fei had an attack ability. He used to be an ordinary college student. After he awakened his ability, he mastered strong fighting skills and a flying ability. His skill was the knife was very good. When they ran into the group of stowaways, he let Tang Qiao escape first. By the time Tang Qiao came back with reinforcements, his heart had been dug out.”
“Where are the stowaways coming from, why do they eat people and what type of abilities do they have?” Tang Mo asked three questions in a row.
Luo Fengcheng patiently replied. “Why do they eat people? There is no specific conclusion yet. As far as I can guess, it might have something to do with their abilities. But from my observations, none of their abilities are repeated. They are very obsessed with eating people. It isn’t just official players, but ordinary players and stowaways as well. They eat everyone. I have two guesses for why they are eating people so persistently. The first one is that they are all cannibals. After the government system collapsed, they are no longer constrained and can casually eat people.”
Tang Mo asked, “How many are there altogether?”
“At least seven people. We have only encountered seven.”
“The possibility of them being cannibals is low.” Tang Mo calmly analyzed. “The abnormal psychology of cannibalism is very rare. The probability that seven will appear at once is very low.”
Luo Fengcheng said, “Then there is the second possibility.”
Tang Mo looked at Luo Fengcheng and thought of the answer.
“Eating people can make them stronger.”
Shanghai, Fengxian District.
A shrill scream was heard on the street. A short-haired girl hurriedly covered her companion’s mouth and said, “Feifei, don’t scream. We will be discovered by others.”
The frightened girl with a pale face nodded quickly and Chen Shanshan released her hand.
Qiao Feifei couldn’t help staring at the corpse. She didn’t want to see it but she couldn’t help looking, then turning away again, then looking. After looking three times, she finally turned around and vomited at the edge of a tree.
Chen Shanshan glanced at her before walking to the corpse and examining it.
The murderer had clearly been too violent when pulling out the heart. The victim’s internal organs and intestines were pulled out and scatterd on the ground. Qiao Feifei might’ve seen a similar corpse before but she still screamed and vomited out what she had eaten in the past two days.
Once she was even clean of bile, Qiao Feifei covered her eyes and moved to Chen Shanshan’s side. She said timidly, “Shan…Shanshan, let’s go quickly. This is the second body that has its heart torn out. We will rush to my hometown and take refuge in the country. If we go to the country, the murderers won’t be able to find us.”
Chen Shanshan was still checking the body.
The 15 year old girl still looked childish but at this moment, she was using her hands to peel away the wounds and carefully examining each trace. She spoke lightly while doing such a horrible thing, “We need to find more supplies. It is best to buy some seeds. In the countryside, we can grow out food. Otherwise, we will soon eat all the food on the mountain.”
Qiao Feifei hurriedly said, “Then let’s go quickly!”
Chen Shanshan stood up. “The two people yesterday said the murderer…is from the west?”
Qiao Feifei didn’t understand why her companion was suddenly asking this question. She thought for a moment, “Yes, it seems so. Those people escaped from the west. A lot of people from the west are running east. It is said that the murderers came from Suzhou.”
“Zhao Ziang and Liu Chen are heading west.”
QIao Feifei snorted and muttered. “Not so smart…if we know about the murderers then Zhao Ziang must know. They would’ve escaped, like the others.”
Chen Shanshan turned her head and looked at her companion. “If there is a chance of something bad happening, no matter how small, it will happen.”
“What are you saying?”
Chen Shanshan bit her lower lip, bowed her head and thought for a while.
“Go back and find Zhao Ziang.”
Pudong District, the underground parking lot’s third floor.
Tang Mo’s expression was dignified. He said, “Last night, I was hiding in a shopping mall. There was an incident where a stowaway ate a person inside. The middle-aged man wasn’t dead when I sneaked into the mall. I went to bed and woke up the next morning. In those six hours, he died less than 100 metres away from me.”
Luo Fengcheng said, “These stowaways are very strong. For ordinary reserves, one blow would kill them. The movements required are very small.
Tang Mo shook his head. “But when he was killed, he was less than 100 metres away from me.” Tang Mo didn’t hear anything.
Luo Fengcheng didn’t know how strong Tang Mo was now but his expression became more serious after hearing Tang Mo’s words.
The two of them thought about it and didn’t speak. But not long passed before the office doorw as pushed open. Tang Mo looked up.
It was Jack.
He didn’t know when but the foreign man had a scar across his right eye. He was surprised when he saw Tang Mo but there was no time for greetings. He looked at Luo Fengcheng. “Dr. Luo, we saved two young boys when we were looking for that group of bastards. There is a boy who is an official player. His ability is very good and he is promising. Do you want to go see him?”
Luo Fengcheng walked foward. He always welcomed excellent members. “Where are they?”
Jack hesitated. “Wait a bit. Doctor, the boy’s friend is dying. Tang Qi and Lizi are trying to save him but the chances are slim. I hope that you can let the little fatty say goodbye to his friend then I will bring him to see you.”
Tang Mo repeated. “Little fatty…”
Luo Fengcheng asked, “What is the ability of the potential member?”
Jack’s eyes flashed. “It is very powerful! When we found them, they seem to have been chased by the electric man for two hours. The electric man found that this little fatty’s ability is very strong and was chasing him to eat his heart. We almost didn’t have time to save them. Fortunately, the little fatty suddenly moved a sharp knife with his ability. The knife cut the electric man’s arm and we had a chance to save them. His ability is very strong. He can move many things and the speed is also very fast.”
Luo Fengcheng was pleasantly surprised, ‘Space movement?”
Tang Mo jerked forward and looked at Jack. “Is the little fatty around 1.6 metres tall, with short hair and a small red birthmark under his left eyebrow?”
Jack was amazed. “How did you know?”
Tang Mo’s expression sunk. “Take me to see them!”