#18.2

Chen Shanshan’s body tensed, then quickly eased. “You don’t need to feel guilty.”

“I don’t feel guilty.”

She looked at him. Tang Mo said, “It was your father who pulled me into that game. If I hadn’t participated in that game, I might already have disappeared. But now I’ve completed his dying wish and verified your safety. It wasn’t me who disappeared in that game. It was him. I had some guilt, but now that I’ve seen that you’re still alive, I won’t feel guilt and I don’t think your father will blame me, either.”

Chen Shanshan looked at him for a good long moment, then smiled. “You’re a very strange person.”

The little girl was shorter than Tang Mo by a head, yet her speech was very mature.

Tang Mo said, “You’re very smart.”

“My grades have always ranked in the top ten of my year. I won first prize in the Olympics and the National Computer Competition [1], and often represent the school to participate in various academic competitions.” Chen Shanshan said, “But after the earth went online, the physical quality of reserve players has also improved, and I seem to have become even smarter. For example, do you know how you become a reserve?”

Tang Mo’s pupils shrank. “I don’t know.” Official players are those who participated in a Black Tower game within those three days and obtained victory. Stowaways are the players who killed a person within those three days. Then what about reserves?

“After the game officially started, our school had eighteen people in total. Among those, only Zhao Ziang and Qiao Feifei are official players. The other sixteen people are all reserves. I inquired in detail about their experiences during those three days and noticed a commonality.”

Tang Mo hadn’t met that many people and so didn’t have the chance yet to fully explore the requirements for becoming a reserve. Chen Shanshan knew a lot of reserves and had the opportunity to explore the cause, but that she could think to do this and additionally seemed to have found an answer was already enough to amaze others.

“Including me, those sixteen people all played games within those three days and won. They weren’t Black Tower games, just ordinary ones, including computer games, mobile games, and games played in real life. Among these, Teacher Li is the most unusual. He didn’t play any games, but he once won a bet with another teacher and so also survived.”

Tang Mo frowned. “It’s not that simple. If it’s merely winning a game, the number of humans who have played games in those three days’ time is absolutely not just four hundred million.”

Chen Shanshan nodded. “Yes, it’s definitely not so simple. For example, me. In those three days, I won games and also lost games. I survived, yet my classmate who won didn’t survive. I carefully inquired again and noticed that my surviving classmates all, with their own ears, heard the other party admit that they were eliminated.”

Tang Mo said in surprise, “They personally admitted that they were eliminated?”

“Correct. They personally admitted they were eliminated. The Black Tower made an announcement on the fifteenth, giving notice that the earth was online and telling us that we must eliminate a player. No one knows how to eliminate a player, but it said these words, and many people took it to heart. Normally when you play a game you might say, ‘I lost,’ but you generally wouldn’t say, ‘I was eliminated.’ It’s exactly because the Black Tower previously said this word ‘eliminate’ that many people had a lot of awareness toward it in their hearts. Sometimes they might have been joking and sometimes they might have spoken without thinking - they just said this word.”

Tang Mo had never imagined it would be this simple.

Chen Shanshan leaned against the wall. “But this might only be one method for becoming a reserve. Among us sixteen reserves, there are two students whose opponents didn’t personally admit they were ‘eliminated,’ but those two students also became reserves. The sample size is too small. I can only analyze this much.”

“You’re already very amazing.” Tang Mo rarely praised people.

Chen Shanshan bowed her head. “They should attack tonight.”

Tang Mo said, “En. It should be tonight.” [2]

Chen Shanshan was called by Teacher Li to come help out and Li Wen walked over. “It was unfortunate that you came today and it happened to be at night during the most dangerous time. That little girl, Chen Shanshan, is particularly smart. She not only had us set up a trap to one side of the gate guard room’s entrance, she even had us block the fence gate’s entrance with a very thin wire. Anyway, if you want to enter the gate, you will fall into the trap. Fortunately you broke through the gate guard room’s glass. Otherwise you certainly would have fallen into it. Hey, that’s right, how did you know there was a trap?”

“I found a map of S-City with North Jing Middle School marked on it in a news kiosk. It even marked the area’s boundaries. This middle school is quite large.”

Li Wen didn’t understand. “My alma mater is one of S-City’s four famous schools and really does take up a lot of space, but so what?”

Tang Mo looked at him “Middle school isn’t elementary school. Most middle schools will have snack stands set up on their campuses. A school as big as yours might have a campus supermarket. It’s only been two days since the game started and the school has a supermarket. The students can’t lack food and water. I deliberately told that chubby little boy [3] that I wanted to give him food and water. If he didn’t want it, that’s normal, but he surprisingly did want it, which shows he was definitely bluffing.”

The chubby little boy, Zhao Ziang, walked into the gym right then, scratching his head in confusion. “Ah? I originally wanted to deceive you into walking into the trap, but it turns out that it was actually always you who was deceiving me?”

Tang Mo said, “You’re still young. When you deceive people in the future, you must first think in advance about whether there are any loopholes.”

The chubby little boy nodded, dazed.

Li Wen jokingly said, “You’re actually teaching an eighth grader [4] how to deceive people.”

Tang Mo shrugged and looked at the chubby little boy. “I heard Chen Shanshan say that your ability is in the attack category. Can you talk about its specifics? Were those nails I ran into on the road your doing?”

Zhao Ziang sat down and honestly said, “That’s right, that’s my ability. Qiao Feifei and I are official players. Don’t look at how short and thin Qiao Feifei is, our physical strength and energy is even better than Teacher Li’s. Qiao Feifei is a girl, so I volunteered for the nightwatch at the gate guard room to defend against those bad guys’ nighttime attack. Chen Shanshan said that from eleven o’clock in the middle of the night to two in the morning is when those bad guys are most likely to attack. You just happened to come at that time so I thought you were a bad guy and moved against you.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. I almost scared you.”

“It’s nothing. If you can scare me, that’s your ability.” [5] What Tang Mo was more concerned about was, “Were those street lights broken by you?”

The chubby little boy nodded his head. “That’s right. It was Shanshan who had me break them. She said that with all the broken glass on the ground like this, people coming close will make noise. After I became an official player, my hearing became very good. Someone only needs to step on that glass for me to be able to hear it from very far away.”

“What is your ability?”

“It could be considered spatial movement? I also don’t really get it. I can shift objects to any place within a one hundred meter range. But my ability isn’t strong enough and I can’t move heavy things. But if it’s nails or needles, that kind of very light, very small thing…”

“Woosh!” A small, thumb-sized, sharp needle instantly appeared before Tang Mo’s eyes. He swiftly flung his head to the side. The slender needle only floated in front of his eyes, not moving forward. With Tang Mo’s current vision for movement, he could see the path the needle took to fly over, but this was only on the basis that he had been somewhat on guard. If he hadn’t been the least bit on guard, he was afraid it would be very hard to dodge this needle.

Zhao Ziang watched Tang Mo swiftly dodge and said in astonishment, “Your reaction speed is so fast. You’re faster than both Qiao Feifei and me.”

Tang Mo already understood this eighth grade boy’s ability. It truly was an ability with a great offensive nature. Unfortunately, the things it could move were really too small and the speed still wasn’t fast enough. At least, Tang Mo could dodge. If he could use an even faster speed to move a sharp knife, then I’m afraid those stowaways would have an even harder time.

Tang Mo held the needle and looked toward the chubby little boy. “In the future, don’t casually tell other people about your ability again.”

Zhao Ziang: “Ah?”

Tang Mo said, “Be more careful.”

Zhao Ziang said, “...Isn’t it you who had me say it!?”

The chubby little boy had never been tricked by someone like this before and walked away feeling wronged.

Li Wen said in exasperation, “Tang Mo, is it really okay for you to bully a small child like this?”

Without changing his face, Tang Mo said, “I’m helping him grow up.”

Li Wen actually felt this was reasonable, and was convinced.

During the daytime, Tang Mo and the few other people spread a good number of traps at the school entrance and along the road in the school’s neighborhood. With the chubby little boy’s ability, it was extremely easy to lay down traps. Chen Shanshan also gave Tang Mo a detailed account of the remaining three stowaways’ abilities.

“Of the three people, two people’s abilities are very dangerous and there’s one person whose ability has unclear usage. I’ll first talk about that ability with unclear usage. That stowaway’s ability is…growing flowers. Teacher Li saw it with his own eyes - the places where he passed suddenly blossomed. It’s just ordinary roses. [6] We met him twice and he didn’t show anything in particular. However, his speed is very fast. Moreover, he seemed to know a few wrestling moves and fought very fiercely.”

Tang Mo had seen all kinds of “weirdo” abilities. He himself had that trashy book which was also a “weirdo.” As far as this kind of self-cultivating flower growing ability went… He couldn’t evaluate it, but he still couldn’t relax his vigilance.

Chen Shanshan said, “There are still those other two people’s dangerous abilities. Of these, there’s a person who can breathe fire.”

“Breathe fire?” It was Tang Mo’s first time hearing of an ability like this that was both strange and in line with common sense.

In many television shows, characters with abilities for the most part used a magical power such as breathing fire or spitting water. When Tang Mo was bored at the city library, he would read a few novels. There were many abilities classified as metal, wood, water, fire, and earth - that kind of thing. [7] There only a few with “weirdo” abilities like those produced by the Black Tower.

“Yes, he can breathe fire. His fire came out of his mouth. I observed carefully, and he can breathe fire once every three minutes. The flame’s temperature is very high. It can’t melt steel, but it can melt marble. Previously, when the night was so dark it was impossible to see, he blew fire that melted two of the four words that say ‘North Jing Middle School’ at the school entrance. The melting point of steel is approximately 1500 degrees Celsius and the melting point of marble is approximately 800 degrees Celsius. I estimate that the temperature of the flame he breathes is 1000 degrees Celsius or lower.” This truly was a very dangerous ability.

“What about the one that’s left?” Tang Mo’s tone was solemn.

“The one that’s left…he has a gun.”

“A gun?” Tang Mo’s expression went hard.

Chen Shanshan said, “Zhao Ziang likes to play survival games and is relatively familiar with firearms. He said that gun is one used by the police and was probably grabbed by that stowaway after the game started. But having a gun isn’t frightening at all. The frightening thing is that that person’s ability seems to have something to do with guns. He has unlimited bullets.”

Tang Mo’s heart tightened.

“Zhao Ziang said, in general, police guns have eight bullets. But last night, that stowaway shot at least thirty bullets. He didn’t change guns, nor did he change magazines. [8]  Ultimately, we don’t know how many bullets his ability can fire and can only consider the worst situation - that he has unlimited ammo.”

Tang Mo’s eyes focused and he said, “The physical quality of official players is very high, with hard skin that can resist being cut by ordinary blades. But for the time being, we’re still unable to contend with guns. If we’re shot three times, we’ll lose the ability to fight. Reserves have even less ability to defend against guns.”

“Yes, we know.”

Tang Mo thought about it for a while. “Can you give me the big match to use?”

He had only just spoken when the chubby little boy hurriedly brought the big match and passed it over to Tang Mo. “I’ve been waiting for you to say the word. The physical quality of us three official players is the best and I get the sense that your strength is even greater than mine. Chen Shanshan said that it's best to give this to you to use.”

Tang Mo was slightly startled and looked at Chen Shanshan.

The short-haired girl’s expression was serious, like a small adult. “This thing is definitely really amazing.”

Tang Mo smiled. “In my hands, it will be even more amazing.” So saying, he pressed the familiar big match to his wrist. Instantly, the huge match disappeared, and a red match tattoo once again appeared on his wrist. Chen Shanshan and the chubby little boy’s eyes widened in surprise.

Tang Mo said, “My ability.”

The chubby little boy suddenly understood. “Like this, it can be considered a concealed weapon! It really is great!”

Time passed by minute and second and the sun gradually sank into the west. During the day, everyone was still able to relax a bit. As it got closer to evening, everyone’s minds tensed.

Tang Mo walked to the side of the little girl, Qiao Feifei. This weak and delicate ninth grade girl had a big stick tied to her body. She was a girl, but even more than that, she was an official player. She was even stronger than Teacher Li.

“Don’t use a stick. You’re a child and not big enough. You won’t be able to use a stick with your full strength, and having it tied to your body will be cumbersome, too. You’re more suited to use an agile weapon.” Tang Mo said, “Give the stick to me.” [9]

Qiao Feifei thought about it, then took the stick off her back and passed it to Tang Mo. “Okay.”

Taking the stick, Tang Mo felt the expected bizarre trace of strength.

He walked into a corner and took his ability book out of midair –

[Ability: Looking for a friend. [10]

User: Qiao Feifei (official player)

Type: Special type.

Function: Check player identities.

Level: Level one.

Restriction: Can only check five players’ identities a day. Moreover, cannot check directly when the target’s ability is much stronger than the user’s.

Remarks: It’s too trash. I don’t want to make a remark.]

It turned out that his ability was stronger than Qiao Feifei’s so she wasn’t able to directly see his identity and needed to touch him. Tang Mo looked down again –

[Tang Mo version usage explanation: Can check one player’s identity every day. This ability is too trash. If Tang Mo doesn’t pay for it, I also have nothing to say.]

Tang Mo had intentionally collected Qiao Feifei’s ability. Yesterday, after obtaining Li Bin’s ability, he had vaguely sensed that his physical quality seemed even stronger. He could see even further, his reaction speed was even faster, and his strength was even greater.

Before he had obtained Li Bin’s ability, Tang Mo wouldn’t dare guarantee that he could dodge the chubby little boy’s first nail attack. He wanted to verify that after obtaining another’s ability, in addition to the ability, he would also increase his strength.

The results were as he had thought. Tang Mo clutched the stick in his hand, forcefully pressing down the five fingers of his right hand. On the solid wooden stick, five shocking fingerprints appeared.

If obtaining others’ abilities could increase fighting strength, then in that case…

Tang Mo walked up to the chubby little boy’s side. “I’m a bit hungry. Little chubby, [11] can you give me this bread?”

Zhao Ziang was in the middle of eating to replenish his strength in preparation for a big fight. He mumbled, “There’s still a lot over there. Go get one yourself, okay.”

Tang Mo thickened his face. “I like the taste of the kind you have and it’s the only one left.”

The little chubby boy was extremely generous and gloomily gave the bread to Tang Mo.

Li Wen said, “Hey, Tang Mo, you’re even snatching the little friend’s food?”

Tang Mo didn’t respond to his words, but even so, his face was a bit ugly. He coerced bread from the chubby little boy and didn’t pay for it, but unexpectedly didn’t get his ability!

How could this be? Tang Mo was slightly unresigned. The chubby little boy’s ability was a very useful attack type. If he collected it, it would be a big help in the future. Tang Mo again coerced a few cookies [12] and a carton of milk. He didn’t want anyone else’s food, just the chubby little boy’s.

The chubby little boy’s face was green, wanting to cry without tears. “Why the heck are you staring at me, huh?”

Tang Mo’s face was even greener. “Another cookie.”

He ate two boxes of the chubby little boy’s cookies, a piece of bread, and a carton of milk. Tang Mo opened all of them and still didn’t get his ability.

The other people were all amused by their strange behavior, having a hard laugh together before the big fight.

Chen Shanshan took a pensive glance at Tang Mo. Just as Tang Mo had finally given up and turned to leave, she picked up a box of cookies and quickly ran over.

The short and thin little girl wasn’t good looking, yet she had an expression of unwavering determination.

She looked at Tang Mo. “Do you want to get things from others? Does it have something to do with your ability? Is it okay for me to give you something? With this, will you become even stronger?”

Tang Mo was startled.

How could she be so smart? How could she guess so accurately?

Chen Shanshan didn’t have an ability. Even if Tang Mo took her things without paying for them, there wouldn’t be any benefit.

Yet the little girl was earnestly staring at him, offering a box of cookies with both her hands. She grit her teeth and said, “I’ll give it to you. No matter what it is, I’ll give it to you as thanks for helping us.”

Tang Mo was just trying to figure out how to decline when he heard these words. He closed his mouth and accepted the little girl’s cookies.

The instant his fingers touched the cookies, Tang Mo’s eyes widened. After he had taken the ability book out just now, he hadn’t put it back into the air but instead into his backpack. 

Now he took it out and opened it to look –

[Ability: Super Intelligence.

User: Chen Shanshan (reserve).

Type: Gene type.

Function: Develops the brain to its utmost. Super keenness.

Level: Level three.

Restriction: The upper boundary for the degree of accuracy of judgment is 50%. The extent to which physical strength can improve is 0.

Remarks: How can I always guess the actual facts? Stupid mortals, it’s because I’m smarter than you, ha ha ha ha…] [13]

“What is it?” Chen Shanshan asked.

Tang Mo lowered his head to look at this little girl. The big mole had previously said that official players and stowaways definitely had abilities while reserves might also possess abilities.

It turned out to be like this. It’s no wonder she was so smart.

“I will definitely take revenge for you.”

Chen Shanshan: “Good! Revenge!”

“Bang!” An ear-piercing gunshot broke the quiet of the night. Tang Mo twisted his head to the side and pushed Teacher Li, who was standing behind him.

Before his eyes, a silver bullet flew at a slow speed past the place where Teacher Li had just been standing. Tang Mo rapidly looked toward the place where the bullet had been shot from, his gaze focused.

Tang Mo said loudly, “Little chubby, smash the gym’s light.”

“Okay!”

A nail quickly pierced the air. The gym’s lightbulb was completely broken.

The world sank into darkness.

Surprised, Li Wen asked, “Tang Mo, what are you doing?”

Tang Mo crouched down to the ground and drew out a precise circle at an extremely fast speed. The sky was too dark and the other people only saw him suddenly crouching down without knowing what he was doing.

Tang Mo stood up and lightly said, “Drawing a circle to curse him.”

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Okay, sorry this was so late. This chapter was very long ha ha ha ha...

This is the end of Chapter Two: Official Players. Next chapter is the start of Chapter Three: Mario.

Translation Notes:

[1] Academic Olympics. The National Computer Competition here is the National Computer Rank Examination, a real Chinese exam that tests students’ abilities to use various computer applications such as Microsoft Office and even programming languages.

[2] And then in the original Chen Shanshan she wants to kill them, but this part is cut out in the print version. Let *clap emoji* middle schoolers *clap emoji* commit *clap emoji* murder *clap emoji*.

[3] There’s no non-awkward way to translate this, especially since it’s used as a direct form of address later on. It’s 小胖子 or ‘little fatty.’ I changed it to chubby at least because this is nicer in English than ‘chubby.’ Uh…setting aside complex issues regarding body image, culture, and untranslatable language differences, this isn’t supposed to be as mean as it comes across in English. It’s just an unfortunate nickname.

[4] Second year middle school student, but that’s a mouthful. I’m pretty sure this is the equivalent of eighth grade (year nine in the UK). Chinese schooling has six years of elementary school, three years of junior high/middle school, and three years of high school.

[5] As in, his capability as a person, not his Black Tower ability.

[6] 就是普通的玫瑰 - ‘it’s just ordinary roses’, but then there’s a second part - ‘月李什么的’ - and I’m not sure what this means. Guessing at a specific variety maybe? Discovered the answer, I was writing it wrong like an idiot. It's 月季 not 月李. 月季 is yueji, Chinese rose. So it's ordinary roses and roses. And I will just leave it as is.

[7] The classic Chinese elements.

[8] [sic] I don’t know enough about gun anatomy to definitively say whether you call it a magazine or a clip and when I tried to look it up the internet just asked me if I wanted to buy one. ┐( ´ д ` )┌

[9] In the original he also recommends she specifically use a knife instead.

[10] 找呀找呀找朋友 - This is a line from a common Chinese children’s song. [link]

[11] …*sigh* There’s really no way to translate this that doesn’t sound rude. It’s even worse because Tang Mo is literally the first person to actually call him 小胖子. Everyone else just calls him by his name. It’s only the narrator and Tang Mo who do it. Which is kind of hilarious but like. Just take my word for it that it’s not mean… lmao… 

[12] 饼干 - The word for cookies and crackers (like Ritz or Goldfish or something, not rice crackers) is the same. I assume these are cookies but I’m not really sure.