"Ding Dong! Twenty-one million four hundred and twenty-two players successfully loaded into the game ......"

The sky was dark, and in the vast night sky there was only one thin star hanging in the east, close to the horizon. Tang Mo retracted his eyes at the first sound and looked towards Fu Wenduo, his fingers tightened and then slowly loosened.

Fu Wenduo: "Go in first."

Tang Mo: "Good."

The two men quickly entered the service station. Fu Wen Sheng was already on his feet, waiting for them by the door.

Every highway in China is built in a rural area, and the service station Tang Mo's three men are currently staying at is a small service station in a county-level city in Yangzhou, quite old and not luxurious. The service station stands alone in the middle of a vast expanse of land, surrounded by farmland. The darkness hides everything, Tang Mo After making sure that no one is there, the Black Tower has already begun to announce the rules of the new version.

"Ding Dong! New rules added to Black Tower version 3.0 -"

"First, every other month, each of Earth's ten regions opens an in-region Endbringer game. Beginning in April, 2018, the last ten days of each month will be the Endbringer Zone Review Period."

"Second, on March 31, 2018 at 18:00, the Mandatory Tower Attack Game opens. Players who have not attacked the tower in March must enter the Tower Attack game."

"Third, the Black Tower game (retarded mode) is on, please explore on your own."

"Dingdong ......"

Suddenly, the clear childish voice came to an abrupt end.

Tang Mo was listening carefully to the content of this update, when the sound suddenly stopped, and Tang Mo's heart tightened. Chen Shanshan's super-intelligent thinking ability caused an uneasy feeling to well up in his heart, and he looked up at Fu Wenduo. Fu Wenduo's hand was pressed on the black dagger. Now they were more than sixty kilometers away from the black tower in Yangzhou City, but in the darkness of the night, they could actually see a small shadow, quietly suspended in the sky.

The black tower should be tiny, but to Tang Mo's eyes it is unmistakable.

Across the globe, in every region where the Black Tower is located, exactly the same thing is happening right now.

It's late night in China, early morning in Europe, and daytime in the United States. It's cold in Russia, and the snow is blocking everything. A goose feather snow is falling in Moscow as a man as tall as a bear wrapped in a thick cotton coat walks to the center of Red Square. The black tower hovers just south of Red Square, at the head of St. Vasily's Cathedral.

On the night when it was snowing heavily, there were players who happened to be near the red field, hearing the Black Tower announcing the new version of the rules they cautiously rushed over and hid in the shadows to observe. However, when this man walked over, all the players around them widened their eyes in horror, then they turned their heads away as fast as they could, not daring to stay even for a second longer.

There was only one person left in the huge red field for an instant.

The one and only man stepped through the thick snow one foot at a time and walked to the Black Tower. The snow was knee deep with each foot he stepped on.

Finally he reached the doorway of St. Vasily's Cathedral, and the man lifted his head and looked at the black tower.

At this very moment, the sound of the black tower stopping sounded again. The moment this sound rang out, China Yangzhou, Tang Mo's heart was shocked. From all corners of the world, many players were similarly horrified as they looked at the black tower closest to them, and then they heard a thick, raspy male voice that said, word by word-

"Ding Dong! The third of the three iron laws of the Black Tower-"

"All players are invited to ...... nu, force, attack, and tower."

The cry ended, and quiet returned to the Black Tower. Across the globe, however, players could no longer sit still. Riots swept across the planet.

St. Vasily's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow.

The tall, strong man heard the voice, and his blue eyes, buried in his hat, did not flicker. Slowly he turned away from the square. Just as he reached a street lamp, however, he suddenly struck out, roughly pulling up this iron pole with one hand and slamming it hard against the black tower behind him.

The iron rod flew straight out and actually leapt to a height of one hundred meters, about to hit the black tower. But just when the iron pole was about to touch the black tower, it went straight through the black tower again, and in a parabola, fell smoothly to the ground. With a loud bang, the pole of streetlights smashed into the cathedral below the black tower. Inside the church, dozens of other similar giant metal objects and stones fell to the ground, smashing the statue of Jesus made of alabaster into two.

Moscow was silent in the blizzard as men stepped through the snow and left Red Square.

Yangzhou, China, a service station.

Fu Wen Voice was standing by the window looking at the Black Tower from afar, until the Black Tower put an end to the announcement of the new rules, and after half a minute, he came back to his senses, turned his head, and muttered, "The Black Tower ...... That is the voice of the Black Tower?"

Tang Mo looked calm, "...... Well, it's the sound of the Black Tower."

Fu Wen Sheng hadn't reacted yet, and his heart was beating very fast. However, he realized that Tang Mo and his big brother were both very calm and did not show a trace of abnormality. The kid took a deep breath to calm down, and he calmly analyzed, "The Black Tower has always used that kind of child's voice that is inclined towards mechanical sounds to communicate information. Whether it's announcing news to the whole world, the whole of China, or announcing news when a player personally passes the game. But the Black Tower used to use other voices as well."

Tang Mo : "Yes, five months ago, Fu Wenduo ......" he turned his head to look at Fu Wenduo, "your first tower attack pulled all of us Chinese players into the tower attack game, and that's when Black Tower played you a song called 'Thanksgiving', a female chorus. After that, it also hummed 'Lullaby' in a female voice, but it never used this male voice. And it said this time ...... "After a pause, Tang Mo said, "It said, please ask the player to work on attacking the tower."

Fu Wenduo looked at Tang Mo with raised eyebrows: played me a song called "Thanksgiving"?

Tang Mo was contemplating the new rules that the Black Tower had just announced, as well as the thick male voice that rang out at the end, and what it had said. He did not notice Fu Wenduo's eyes.

Fu Wenduo retracted his gaze, "This is the third of the three iron laws declared by the Black Tower when Earth first came online."

"Yes, it's number three. All players are requested to work hard to attack the tower." Tang Mo said, "There's also the first rule of the new version it just announced, starting next month, the Endbringer game will be opened once every month. Then it had said that all players are invited to work hard to attack the tower ......" Tang Mo sighed and made a conclusion, "The Black Tower is saying that players should not forget this iron law. It wants players around the world to stop slacking off and to keep strengthening. That's why it didn't mention the other two iron laws again, only the last one ......"

Tang Mo didn't say anything next, but his meaning was understood by Fu Wenduo and Fu Wen Sheng.

The Black Tower will no longer allow anything like the NJO.

Tang Mo didn't know that apart from Nanjing District, whether the other nine districts in China that had been caught up in the Endbringer Game two days ago were also judged as Endbringers by the Black Tower because of the existence of a powerful organization. But there was no doubt that this update of the Black Tower 3.0 version, apart from notifying the opening of the mandatory Tower Attack Game at the end of March, the most important piece of information it was going to convey was-

『Please all players work hard to attack the tower.』

From now on, I'm afraid that no organization like the Nanking Group would exist. The Endbringer Game, which would open once a month, was like a sword of Damocles hanging over players' heads, and no one dared to slack off anymore.

Tang Mo said, "But this time, the Black Tower also revealed another piece of information, the world is divided into ten regions by it, and it will look for ten Endbringer regions in each region to open the Endbringer Game. This means that the 'Endbringer's Garbage Sweeping Game' that we participated in before, players from other countries also participated in it, only that the Black Tower didn't release the information. It's notification was communicated within each region."

Fu Wenduo suddenly said, "Five months ago, on November 15th at 8:00 am it announced that Earth was online. After that, at 8:00 am on the 18th, global players officially went online." Tang Mo and Fu Wen Sheng looked at Fu Wenduo in unison, waiting for his next words.

Fu Wenduo whispered, "East 8?"

Fu Wen Sound immediately responded, "Eh? It's because of East 8? Xiao Jitong had always been in charge of the Nanking and Raider groups, and probably because Fu Wen Sheng was still young, Xiao Jitong hadn't disclosed too much information to him, so he hadn't thought about it in that direction either.

Tang Mo had guessed about this matter long ago, and he said, "So that means the time of the Black Tower is based on Greenwich Mean Time. The second of the Three Iron Laws, 6:00 to 18:00 every day is the game time. This time corresponds to the standard time of each region. If something like the Christmas replica happens again, there is a solution that can be found."

Fu Wenduo: "Race against time?"

"Well, a race against time. Surely ...... has that strength to go faster than the rotation of the earth, might as well just get involved in the game."

At those words, Fu Wenduo let out a low laugh. Tang Mo also shrugged his shoulders.

Fu Wen stood on the side, silently watching his big brother and Tang Mo talk. These two people's minds jumped around extremely fast, and often times, without Tang Mo saying anything at all, Fu Wenduo would be able to conjure up something else. When he said something, Tang Mo could also follow his thoughts and speculate to the next step.

Fu Wen Sheng could only barely follow their thinking. It wasn't that he was slow or not smart enough, it was just that he didn't have the special understanding that these two had. As Fu Wen Sheng looked at them, he somehow felt that he could not fit in. But fortunately, before the child could think deeply about his role in the group, Tang Mo said the second thing.

"The third rule of version 3.0 opens the Black Tower game in retarded mode. I wonder what this retarded mode will look like."

Fu Wen Sheng immediately said, ''Back when I was dragged by Big Brother to attack the tower game, the Black Tower had a notice that that time was the retarded mode of attacking the tower game. Perhaps this retarded mode is similar to the one back then? Only this time, the Black Tower only said that it was the Black Tower Game in Retarded Mode, not the Tower Attack Game in Retarded Mode. Maybe it's just a regular Black Tower game, not a tower attack game."

The trio carefully discussed the three rules of the game for this version of Black Tower 3.0, as well as the male voice that Black Tower used at the end and its cold words.

In the latter part of the night, Fu Wen Sheng rummaged through the service station and found several empty mineral water bottles. His supernatural ability could fill up to 30 bottles of mineral water per day, so he never wasted the opportunity and would diligently fill up 30 bottles every day. While Fu Wen Sheng was filling the bottles, Tang Mo walked out of the service station without moving.

Fu Wenduo looked up at him, and Tang Mo faintly said, "I will be back soon." With that, he walked past Fu Wen Sheng. The children also looked at Tang Mo, realizing that he had probably gone out to make himself comfortable. Fu Wenduo, however, kept staring at Tang Mo's back, until Tang Mo's figure completely disappeared, the corner of his mouth hooked and he did not say anything.

Walking to a remote corner at the back of the service station, Tang Mo checked his surroundings. After making sure no one was around, he pulled a ruby out of his pocket. Tang Mo puts Mario s hat on with an expressionless face, looks at the wall in front of him, and ...... silently crashes into it.

Bang, bang, bang!

Three clicks later, Tang Mo collects the three items of trash that have fallen to the ground and returns to the service station.

Early the next morning, the trio continued on their way.

Fu Wenduo said it would take at most four more days to travel from Yangzhou to Beijing. But this time, just as they stepped into the Hebei region, they accidentally entered a game of Black Tower. Fu Wenduo and Fu Wen were coincidentally all pulled into the game, with only Tang Mo still sitting in the car. Tang Mo blinks and is surprised to find that his two teammates have disappeared.

Tang Mo reacted quickly by reaching out and pulling the steering wheel from the passenger seat. After taking control of the direction, he steadily brought the car to a stop.

Three days later, a large and a small figure appeared on the highway.

Fu Wenduo's body had some wounds, while Fu Wen was a bit better, only his forehead was bruised and bleeding a bit. During their game, Tang Mo had been communicating with Fu Wenduo using Huo Ji's egg, and knew how the two of them were doing. Now that the two brothers are out, Tang Mo sits directly in the passenger seat, and the three of them continue to drive to the nearest service station.

Tang Mo finds some supplies from the service station. He returns to the car and hands a bottle of mineral water to Fu Wenduo: "Although you guys are fine and got through the game, today is already March 14th."

Fu Wenduo took the water, "This is Handan. Driving to Beijing, no surprises, we should be there by zero hour tomorrow."

Tang Mo took out a map book from his bag and opened it to a map of Hebei. He pointed at the map and said, "The map shows that this place is about a hundred kilometers away from Handan city. I've observed it on the highway before, and given the size of the Black Tower, it's not very far."

The two men looked at each other.

Fu Wenduo: "Go to Handan tonight."

Handan, Hebei, March 14, 23:30 hours.

Fu Wenduo parked his car at the edge of downtown Handan, found a hidden underground parking lot, and parked the car. He and Tang Mo got out of the car, leaving Fu Wen Sheng alone in the car, waiting for news of the two. The kid had similar experience, he sat in the car and said, "Don't worry about me. Big brother, Tang, you guys be careful. Previously in Nanjing, our Nanjing group was stronger, and when the Black Tower 2.0 version was updated, the captain and Team Xiao went straight to Xinjiekou to observe the changes in the Black Tower. But this is Handan. Be careful."

Tang Mo nodded gently.

Fu Wenduo did not reply.

Fu Wen watched Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo leave. The two of them were extremely fast and disappeared into the entrance of the parking lot in just a few seconds. Fu Wen Sheng stared nervously at the only entrance of the parking lot, holding his props tightly and cautiously guarding against every possible player.

Neither Tang Mo nor Fu Wenduo had been to Handan before, but the Black Pagoda was the best signpost. The two men followed a path, each taking a separate side, paying careful attention to their surroundings. Only when they reached the bottom of the Black Pagoda did they meet up again. They found an abandoned clothing store and quickly hid inside.

There was silence all around.

Fu Wenduo entered the clothing store and immediately closed the door behind him; he had just raised his head when he heard Tang Mo whisper, "Here, come here."

Fu Wenduo froze slightly and quickly came over.

This clothing store is a one-room store located on a commercial street next to the center of Handan City. On the side of the wall facing the street, apart from a small door that allows a single person to enter and exit, the rest of the wall is a glass window for displaying clothes. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo squeeze their bodies into the shadow of the triangle formed by the glass window and the wall, staring intently at the black tower not far away.

A minute later, a black figure flashed across the street and into a nearby mall to hide.

Tang Mo stared intently at the shadow.

After another five minutes of waiting, they didn't see anyone else but the one who was hiding.

The cool evening breeze whipped across the road, blowing dust up from the ground and covering the dark red blood that had long since dried on the concrete floor. Through the glass window, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo watched the black tower dead in the air. Tang Mo waited patiently as the minutes ticked by.

As soon as 0:00 arrived, a blinding white light lit up from the black tower.

Tang Mo hadn't expected that this Black Tower update would actually catch him off guard by flashing an intense white light. His eyes hurt and he subconsciously squinted. Before he could react, a hand covered his eyes, blocking out the white light.

Tang Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

The hot palm was pressed tightly against his eyelids, and the hot temperature was transferred along the skin. Faint white light was vaguely projected through the gaps in Fu Wenduo's fingers. Tang Mo's lips were slightly open, and he didn't say anything for a long time. Three seconds later, the white light dissipated. Fu Wenduo lowered his hand.

Moments later, Tang Mo said, "...... didn't realize it wasn't quite the same as last time with this update."

Fu Wenduo: "You went to see it last time?"

Originally, Tang Mo still felt a bit awkward in his heart, with an unspeakable feeling wrapped around his heart. Hearing this, he strangely asked back, "You didn't go to see the Black Tower 2.0 version update last time?"

"I happened to get into a copy."

The original is like this. Tang Mo said, "That time the Black Tower was radiating a colorful light, probably similar to the kind of light ball in a KTV. Then it said something about a new version going live, and then the update was done."

Fu Wenduo: "Is that all?"

Tang Mo : "It also says the total number of players worldwide at the time. Apart from that ......"

Tang Mo's eyes narrowed as he quickly turned his head and continued to look at the black tower.

At the top of the black tower, a small white point of light flickered continuously. This point of light was so small that it was hard for people to notice, and Tang Mo squinted his eyes and counted the number of times the point of light flashed over and over again. The point of light pulsed so fast that the frequency of its pulsations almost exceeded the limits of human vision. It flickered again and again, but unfortunately Tang Mo was too distracted to be sure she was counting correctly.

When the blinking came to a final click, the white point of light stopped. Tang Mo whispered the number, "......9927 next."

Fu Wenduo also counted the number of flashes of the white dot with Tang Mo, and they had no time to communicate. Fu Wenduo saw that the second white light point suddenly appeared underneath the one just before, and began to flash again. This time the frequency of flashing was slightly slower, and when the point of light finished flashing, Fu Wenduo said, "364 times."

Tang Mo clearly remembers that three months ago, the first white point of light flashed only 62 times, and the second one stopped when it was half lit up. He pursed his lips and was about to discuss the two white points of light with Fu Wenduo. Suddenly, an extremely dim white light point below the second white light point unexpectedly lit up again.

Tang Mo's eyes widened.

In the darkness of the night, this third white point of light glowed so faintly that it was hard to notice. But it lit up.

It flickered slightly and stopped slowly.

Three seconds later, it flickered again. Eventually, it stopped permanently.

In the next moment, a cheerful children's voice rang out. The loud music echoed over Handan as countless children's voices hummed in unison to an unknown nursery rhyme. They sang with pleasure, and just as Tang Mo had said, the black tower radiated a colorful light, like the inferior colored light orbs from the old karaoke bars of the last century, and the light instantly illuminated the entire downtown area of the square.

In the cold wind, the joyful song seemed to change its tune. When the song was finished three times, a cold, mechanical child's voice rang out.

"Ding Dong! Twenty-one million four hundred and twenty-two players successfully loaded into the game ......"

"Game archive in progress ......"

"Player data loading in progress ......"

"Game data loading ......"

"Archived successfully at ......"

"Loaded successfully ......"

"Endbringer copy updated ......"

"Dingdong! On March 15, 2018, the Black Tower 3.0 version is officially online, welcome players into the game."

"Please have all players work on attacking the tower."

"Ding Dong! Happy gaming!"