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leonsrightlations · 11 months ago

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The Earth is Online Chapter 17.2

As the car entered downtown, the number of vehicles on the street greatly increased. They were all crashed together chaotically. At this time, driving didn’t make any sense. Tang Mo directly abandoned the car to go on foot. He followed the edges of the road as he walked so that once there was a roadblock, he could use it to conceal his figure. At the end of the fourth day of the earth being online, the flourishing and beautiful S-City had become an abandoned city.

The metropolis was imbued with darkness, but many of the businesses on either side of the street still had shining lights. Tang Mo passed a KFC with uneaten french fries and ketchup arranged on a table by the window, but the fries had already withered and there wasn’t a single person inside the deserted fast food shop.

The closer he got to the city center, the more cautious Tang Mo became.

Here, there were more and more people. He turned around a corner and saw a young woman wearing sportswear just inside a Family Mart convenience store, holding an armful of various snacks to her abdomen. She saw Tang Mo as well and wasn’t surprised, only gave him a vigilant second look, then turned back to looting food and water from the convenience store.

Tang Mo was carrying a big, heavy bag on his back. He put food, water, and a flashlight inside.

Along the way, he saw more than a few people looting food and water, and also saw that quite a few cliques had formed. They vigilantly watched each and every passer-by. A lot of people’s bodies were damp with mottled bloodstains and there were even a few wounded people with missing arms and broken legs. They lay on the side of the road, wailing in anguish.

The city’s population was so high that even after the Black Tower incident, there were still more than a few living people.

Tang Mo roughly estimated that in S-City’s city center there were approximately four people for every square kilometer. It was currently dinner time and these people were mostly eating. After Tang Mo’s physical quality had improved, his need for food had enormously decreased. It had already been a day and a night since he’d eaten anything, but he wasn’t hungry at all.

North Jing [1] Middle School was a famous school in S-City, but Tang Mo wasn’t at all familiar with it. He didn’t go ask the few people eating on the side of the road, but instead walked directly into an abandoned news kiosk. He rummaged around for a while before finding a detailed map of S-City.

“Anding District…North Jing…here.”

Tang Mo hoisted his bag onto his back and once again walked on.

Suddenly, without warning, a melodious and cheerful voice sounded –

[Ding dong! In the third district of M-country, the official player Richard Wells successfully opened the first floor of the Black Tower. In three minutes, all players in M-Country will begin to attack the tower!]

Tang Mo stopped moving and the couple of people who were in the middle of eating also lifted their heads to look toward the distant Black Tower. Tang Mo turned his head and glanced at the clock hanging on the news kiosk wall.

19:18. [2]

Game time every day was from six o’clock to eighteen o’clock. A-Country’s game time had already ended. M-Country…the time difference was thirteen hours. [3] Game time was calculated according to local time, and announcements would still be made to the whole world?

Tang Mo continued walking forward.

Unlike how the announcement that the stowaway Fu Wenduo had opened the Black Tower had been made three times, this announcement was only made once before it stopped.

Because this time the one who had opened the tower attack game wasn’t a player from A-Country, but a player from M-Country.

Tang Mo walked down the road. He heard a dying middle-aged man covered from head to foot in blood taking rough, gulping breaths while also wildly laughing. With schadenfreude, the man said, “Die, all of you go die…die…die…”

It was eleven o’clock, late in the night, when Tang Mo finally reached Anding District. There were vehicles randomly crashed together on the street. He continuously came across these cars, causing his walking speed to decline. Halfway along, he even accidentally went the wrong way. As he reached Anding District, in the quiet, deep night, a resounding childlike voice sounded –

[Ding dong! In M-Country’s second district, the official player Mary Vandessa [4] successfully cleared the first floor of the Black Tower!]

Tang Mo raised an eyebrow in surprise. It wasn’t cleared by the player who opened the tower attack game?

[Ding dong! On November 19th, 2017, two players in the whole world have cleared the first floor of the Black Tower. The remaining 416.23 million players are asked to please strive to attack the tower!]

Tang Mo lifted his head and looked in disbelief toward that dark black shadow floating in mid-air.

He distinctly recalled that yesterday morning there were more than 490 million players who logged into the game. Now…there were eighty million fewer people!? Was it because of A-Country and M-Country’s two tower attack games, or had players died in another manner?

Tang Mo’s face was ashen. He ducked his head and continued walking onward. The streetlights on the road flickered unceasingly and he took the flashlight out of his backpack, shining it on the map. Without saying a word, he rounded three intersections and walked four blocks. Not long passed before he saw a towering traffic sign on the side of the road which read, “school ahead, drive carefully.” He had already reached the school’s neighborhood.

“Crack –”

One of Tang Mo’s feet stepped on a glass shard. He bowed his head to take a look. Many tiny pieces of glass had fallen on the ground. He lifted his head again. Above his head, the streetlight had somehow been shattered, and the glass had fallen down.

This was only the first shattered streetlight.

Tang Mo looked at the road before him leading to the school’s gate.

On the road, there were only two streetlights flickering with gloomy light, and the ground was covered in glass shards from other streetlights. The night wind of late autumn whistled past and the trees that lined the road on either side made a rustling sound. The pitch-black shadows of the trees were like silent ghosts. Face expressionless, Tang Mo walked past these black ghosts that were cast from either side, walking step by step upon the shards of glass.

The frigid evening breeze blew at the hem of his clothes. His gaze was serene, as if he didn’t sense anything at all. Suddenly, Tang Mo raised his foot and rapidly dodged a few steps to the left. At the spot where he’d just been walking, a big nail as thick as a finger had abruptly appeared out of nowhere. If he had stepped on it just then, the sole of his foot absolutely would have been impaled.

Tang Mo lifted his head and vigilantly examined his surroundings.

He had already walked into the school area and there were only a hundred meters left until the school’s entrance.

It was now one o’clock, early in the morning, and the ice-cold evening breeze whistled as it blew. The surrounding area was devoid of all people. Tang Mo continued walking onward. The magically-appearing nail again appeared a few times more, once even brazenly floating in front of Tang Mo’s face. He only needed to not pay attention and quickly take a step, and the suddenly-appearing nail might have stabbed his eye. Fortunately, he reacted very quickly and dodged to avoid it.

These strange events only happened when he was near the school. The distance to the school’s entrance was now some tens of meters. He had to cross another intersection, and then there were eighty or so meters.

Tang Mo hesitated a moment, but still decided to enter the school to check it out.

An urgent voice sounded, “Don’t come over!”

The voice was immature and resounding, still with the hoarse tone of a voice that hadn’t finished changing.

Tang Mo immediately responded, “Are you a student of this school?”

“Don’t come! Who…who are you!?”

“I don’t have any bad intentions. I came to find a student. She’s my friend’s daughter.”

The big nail floating in front of Tang Mo’s eyes fell to the ground and seemed to no longer obstruct his steps. He again walked forward without hindrance, continuously walking toward the school’s entrance. He looked through the gate in the partition fence but didn’t see even the shadow of a person. The little male student who had just spoken was also silent.

Tang Mo creased his eyebrows and loudly asked, “Where are you?”

That male student timidly said, “You…you’re really not a bad guy?”

“I’m not. Have you met some difficulties? Do you want help? I have some water and food here.”

“I…I’m in the guard room beside the gate. You put the food and water at the door. Don’t come in…”

Tang Mo took a bottle of water and a package of compressed biscuits out of his backpack and walked toward the gate guard room’s front door. He moved unhurriedly and, walking to halfway, halted his footsteps.

That little male student again said, “Why…why don’t you come over!?”

Tang Mo smiled and continued walking forward. It was quiet all around. The little male student didn’t speak again and neither did Tang Mo. He only walked very calmly.

Just as he reached the steps in front of the gate guard room’s front door, he suddenly sped up his pace, dodged sideways around the gate guard room’s front door, and from one side directly broke through the window and vaulted into this tiny guard room.

The glass fragments of the window flew onto the steps Tang Mo had been about to step on, which collapsed in an instant, exploding into a seven or eight meter deep hole. At the bottom of the hole were a large amount of sharp knives, their blades pointed upward.

“Teacher, he found out! Teacher, save me!!!”

Ordinary glass fragments were now completely unable to injure Tang Mo’s skin and even his reaction speed and running speed exceeded that of most humans. That slightly overweight little male student saw Tang Mo and shouted in alarm, turning his body to run. However, Tang Mo was even faster than him and grabbed the chubby boy’s arm. He dragged the boy in front of him and directly retrained both his arms.

“Don’t move! Who are you? What do you want to do!?” an anxious male voice sounded.

Tang Mo raised his head to look. It was a young man wearing a white shirt who seemed to have just woken up, his hair chaotic and his anxious eyes very red as he ran into the gate guard room.

Tang Mo asked back, “Why did you want to trick me into coming over just now…did you want to kill me?”

The young man urgently said, “Put him down first. Don’t harm him. We’ll give you whatever you want and do whatever you want!”

Tang Mo felt something was wrong and was just about to open his mouth to clarify the situation, only to hear a voice say, “Tang Mo!? You finally came! Hey, hey, hey, don’t, quickly let go. Teacher Li, he isn’t a bad person. He’s Tang Mo, the friend I previously told you about. He’s the one who wanted to come to North Jing to find someone. He and I got lost in the middle, so I came to the school first to see if I could meet up with him.”

Tang Mo looked at the person who had come in.

“Li Wen?”

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Translation Notes:

[1] I didn’t mention this previously, but North Jing is 北静 which is read as Beijing. It’s not the same ‘jing’ as in the name of the capital, but leaving it in pinyin seemed like it would be inviting unnecessary confusion. The literal translation of the characters is ‘north’ and ‘quiet.’ Rather than force it into a name like ‘North Tranquility’ or ‘Stillness’ or something, I decided just to translate one half and leave the other in pinyin.

[2] 7:18 PM

[3] M-Country is America. China only has one time zone for the whole country in comparison with America, which has four. One of those four time zones (central time) is indeed thirteen hours behind China, but eastern time is slightly ahead.

[4] 范德萨 - Vandessa seemed like the most name-like way to translate this.

Happy New Year! ^_^

#the earth is online #mo chen huan #地球上线 #translation #danmei #teio #17.2

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