Black tower

Jack and the Giant

A giant lay on the ground, barely alive, with a pool of fresh blood beneath him. The giant gritted his teeth and snarled, "Gugu... Illegal immigrant... Gugu, I'll eat you up, gugu..."

A man dressed in black had one of his legs torn off by a turkey, with blood covering his body. His left arm was pecked into a b****y hole by the giant, and his right arm was missing a hand. Instead, a huge black iron cone grew out of his wrist, emitting a dark purple metallic luster.

The giant roared, "You stole the golden chicken and the magic harp 500 years ago. Now you're here to take my turkey eggs. I'll let you pass, but put my eggs down!!"

With all his strength, the giant was about to catch the man when the sound of level completion came from the Black Tower. The man's figure suddenly vanished, and the giant missed his grab and fell to the ground.

All players in China left the first level of the Black Tower at the same moment.

JACK struggled to escape from the turkey's nest. He had lost one leg, torn off by the turkey and left in the nest. After leaving the first level of the Black Tower, he lay in a deserted construction site, surrounded by no one. A sizzling sound came from his broken right leg. Upon closer inspection, his leg was actually growing meat back. Although the process was slow, the broken part was indeed regenerating. JACK opened his eyes and took out the white turkey egg from his pocket. He stared at it intently. As the sunset slowly descended, the sunlight shone on the turkey egg, suddenly emitting a golden glow, and small lines of text appeared on the white eggshell.

[Name: le]

[Owner: JACK]

[Quality: Rare]

[Level: 2 (Upgradeable)]

[Attack Power: Moderate]

[Function: Save current game progress]

[Limitation: Can only be used once every seven days, and the save time is 1 hour]

At the same moment, ALEX was carefully examining this extremely hard and strange turkey egg, tapping it twice occasionally, and even hitting it with an ability book twice when she felt interested. She placed the turkey egg behind the car's windshield, and a beam of sunlight penetrated through the window, causing small golden words to gradually emerge from the turkey egg.

"...LE?" ALEX was suddenly startled. Was this turkey egg also a living being, and so intelligent that it knew her name was ALEX?

After a moment of contemplation, ALEX lightly hummed, "Hmm." She thought for a moment, "Are you a turkey egg?"ALEX's mind raced, and almost instantly, she understood that this was not a turkey egg or even a turkey speaking to her. It could be some kind of creature from the Black Tower, or more likely... "Are you human?"

The male voice was silent for a moment before responding, "Hmm, I'm human, holding an egg, and your voice is also coming from inside. I'm in Beijing."

Both of them now understood completely. The turkey egg they held was similar to a phone. But ALEX said, "I'm in Shanghai." She continued to probe, "How did you contact me? Currently, I heard your voice first, and then I responded."

"Several lines of text appeared on this egg, and I tried to examine it. When I tapped on the egg with my finger for the third time, it suddenly flashed with very dazzling golden light," the man finally revealed some information, "When I'm speaking now, this egg is emitting a very faint golden glow."

When they had almost finished examining the egg, ALEX felt a strange sensation. The owner of the other turkey egg was cooperating very well with him, as if they had practiced many times together, fitting perfectly. This made ALEX feel a sense of camaraderie with the other person. Unfortunately, if this person was a bit more forthcoming, she would have had even more feel for him.

ALEX asked, "...Just one last question. Why did you start with 'le' instead of 'hello' or 'hey' when you first spoke?"

"This egg is named 'le', so when I saw it glowing, I subconsciously said 'le'."

ALEX said calmly, "My honey name is le. What's your name?"

The man was silent for a moment, realizing how many times he had used such an intimate greeting. After a long while, he said, "My name is JACK."

ALEX said, "So that's it then?"

"Yeah, see you."

As the call ended, ALEX put the turkey egg back in her pocket and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel.

First, this egg is called 'le'. It should have no relation to her name; it just coincidentally has this name.

Second, this JACK in Beijing is very smart and cautious. The possibility of getting information from him is very small. It's even very likely that this is their first and last conversation. From ALEX's perspective, he wouldn't share information about a rare item with a stranger. Having such an item, one would want to keep it hidden and not let anyone discover it, to achieve a surprising effect. Sharing information wouldn't be something ALEX would do.

Suddenly, without any warning, a crisp and joyful sound rang out.

"Ding! Richard Wells, an official player from US Region 3, has successfully opened the first level of the Black Tower. Three minutes later, all US players will begin attacking the tower!"

ALEX sighed. It was '19:18', and the game time in China had ended. The US... a 13-hour time difference?

ALEX continued driving to find Shibei Middle School. Along the way, she saw many people searching for food and water, and she also saw several small groups vigilantly watching every passerby. Many people had patches of bloodstains on them, and some were injured, missing arms or legs, lying on the roadside moaning.

Walking until 11 PM, ALEX finally arrived in Jing'an District. The vehicles on the street were crashing into each other in chaos, and he had to constantly climb over these cars, causing her walking speed to decrease. In the quiet late night, a loud child's voice sounded—

"Ding! Mary Vandersa, an official player from US Region 2, has successfully cleared the first level of the Black Tower!"

ALEX raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was it not the player who initiated the tower attack game who cleared it?

"Ding! On November 19, 2017, two players globally have cleared the first level of the Black Tower. The remaining 416,230,000 players, please continue to attack the tower!"

"Eighty million people have died again so quickly?!" ALEX's face turned ashen, and he buried her head, continuing to walk forward. The street lamps kept flickering, and ALEX took out a flashlight from her backpack, illuminating the map. She had reached the school area and was just 100 meters away from the school gate. "Don't come over here!" This voice, with a hint of unfinished voice change, sounded.

"I have no malice. I'm here to find a student. She's my friend's daughter. And I have some water and food here." The large nail floating in front of ALEX fell to the ground, seemingly no longer blocking his steps. ALEX walked forward without obstruction until she reached the school gate. Looking through the iron gate, she didn't see a single person.

ALEX took out a bottle of water and a packet of compressed biscuits from her backpack and walked towards the gate of the guard room. When she reached the steps leading to the guard room door, suddenly, she quickly accelerated her pace, sidestepped around the door of the guard room, and directly crashed through the window into this small guard room. Fragments of the window splintered onto the steps where ALEX was about to step, and the steps collapsed in an instant, blasting out a large hole seven to eight meters deep, with many sharp knives at the bottom, their blades pointing upward.

"Teacher, she found us! Teacher, save me!!! Don't move! Who are you, what do you want to do!" A anxious male voice sounded. "ALEX?! You're finally here! Hey, hey, stop, let go. Mr. Li, she's not a bad person. He's ALEX, the friend I told you about earlier." ALEX looked at the person who had spoken.

"Li Wen?" ALEX was surprised, loosening her grip on the little fat boy's hands, and the little fat boy quickly ran behind the teacher.

Li Wen said, "You're finally here. After the tower attack game ended today, I opened my eyes and found myself thrown onto the street. I thought about it and decided to go to Shibei Li first. Maybe I could wait for you there."

"I'm looking for Chen Shanshan. She should be in her first year of junior high school." ALEX was feeling strange when she saw a 1.6-meter-tall short-haired little girl step out from the students, her face expressionless, coldly looking at ALEX, and saying, "I'm Chen Shanshan. Only I have this name in the first year of junior high school at Shibei Li. Why are you looking for me, what's your purpose?"

"Your father is my friend. Your father's name is Chen Fangzhi. I work at the Suzhou library, and he often goes there to read books. He asked me to come to Shanghai to see you and make sure you're safe." ALEX smiled, and his gaze at the little girl became more serious. "Your father is about 1.75 meters tall and has been unemployed for almost a year. It seems like he always wears a string of red agate bracelets on his wrist." After a pause, ALEX smiled and said, "I'm here to fulfill his wish, not for any other intention."

"Is it a wish, or... a last wish?"

The smile on ALEX's lips faded, and she stopped smiling. "It's a last wish."

The little girl's expression loosened for a moment, and she suddenly turned around and went back to the students. "I believe you."

Mr. Li said, "This isn't the place to talk. Zhao Ziang and Liu Chen, please take the trouble to restore the trap. Let's go inside to talk." Worried that someone might sneak into the school and attack or even kill someone in the dark. There are more than a thousand students and teachers at our Shibei Li. After the Black Tower announced the game's official start, most of our school disappeared, leaving only two teachers and sixteen students."

Li Wen shared the sentiment: "ALEX, today, all of us were teleported into the Black Tower to participate in the tower attack game, including the teachers and students of Shibei Li. Only two children didn't return at the end of the game, nine children came back, and there was also Mr. Wang. Among them, three children were teleported into the same game. That game had six players in total. Besides them, there were three adults. Among the three adults, there were two stowaways! Those three children were just prsoldier. They only sought survival in the game, but unexpectedly, one of the children accidentally completed a side quest and was rewarded with a large matchstick."

ALEX was startled: "A large matchstick?!"

Li Wen nodded: "Yes, it's exactly the same as your large matchstick."

The little boy held the large matchstick, his eyes red, and a tear fell, which he quickly wiped away: "This matchstick was Wang Chao's. They were all killed, killed by those stowaways. Before Wang Chao died, he told me that after he got this large matchstick, one of the stowaways forced him to hand it over. They all had special abilities and were too powerful. They killed one of us, and we decided to give them the large matchstick, but they didn't just want the matchstick. The stowaway with a broken arm said... he wanted Wang Chao to pay for his arm with his life! We couldn't agree, and they attacked twice in total. We killed two stowaways, but Wang Chao and the others... and Mr. Wang... Mr. Wang is all dead..."

Mr. Li took ALEX to the toilet in the gymnasium, where two bodies were lying on the ground.

Except for Chen Shanshan, the two junior high school students turned red in their eyes at the sight of these two bodies and pounced on them, constantly stomping on their faces.

Mr. Li said, "It's not just about giving or not giving the matchstick anymore. They lost two people, and we lost so many children, and Mr. Wang... We won't rest until we kill them!"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

ALEX didn't want to comfort these two children and persuade them to let go of their hatred.

This world is no longer the peaceful world it once was. No one can protect these children forever. Only they can protect themselves. This world is too cruel. Fifteen years old is not young anymore. Maybe it's time for them to learn to grow up ahead of time.

ALEX felt the long-lost anger. She took a deep breath and calmed down. She glanced at the clock on the wall of the gymnasium. "It's already 3 a.m. There are five stowaways in total. You killed two, and three are left. If they're smart, they shouldn't attack the school tonight. But for safety, we still need to assign someone to guard the door."

Another little girl who had been hiding behind came out: "I'm a formal player. My special ability isn't as useful as Zhao Ziang's. I can only see others' identities."

ALEX was surprised: "You can see others' identities?"

The little girl nodded: "Yes. In my eyes, everyone has words floating above their heads. After the game officially started, I saw the words 'formal player' floating above Zhao Ziang's head, and above Mr. Li and Shanshan's heads, it was 'prsolider'. But my special ability can only be used five times a day, and I can only see the identities of five people. After seeing five people, the words above other people's heads turn into mosaics."

ALEX asked, "Then when you were at the school gate just now, you didn't see my identity?"

The little girl shook her head: "It's strange. I haven't used my special ability today, but I can't see your identity clearly. Your head is also a mosaic."

ALEX said, "Touch my hand and see if it can trigger your special ability."

The little girl walked up, touched ALEX's hand, and then looked up again: "Ah! I see it! Formal player! I found that these sixteen people have all played games within three days and won. Not Black Tower games, but very ordinary games, including computer games, mobile games, and real-life games. I discovered that the classmates who survived had all been verbally acknowledged by their opponents as 'I'm eliminated'."

ALEX was surprised: "Verbally acknowledged as eliminated?"

"Yes, verbally acknowledged as eliminated. The Black Tower issued an announcement on the 15th, notifying the whole world that Earth was online and telling humans to eliminate players. No one knew how to eliminate players, but after hearing that, many people took it to heart. In normal gameplay, one might say 'I lost', but generally not 'I'm eliminated'. How did you know about the trap?"

ALEX looked at him and said, "Middle school is not primary school. Most middle schools have canteens within the campus. Big schools like yours might even have campus supermarkets. Students can't possibly lack water and food. I deliberately told that little fatty that I would give him water and food. If he didn't want it, that would be normal. But he actually asked for it, which means there's definitely something suspicious going on."

Just then, the little fatty, Zhao Ziang, walked into the gymnasium and scratched his head, saying, "Ah, I originally wanted to trick you into walking into a trap. It turns out that in the end, you were the one tricking me?"

ALEX said, "You're still young. When you trick people in the future, you need to think ahead of time if there are any loopholes. Did you break those street lamps?"

The little fatty nodded and said, "Yeah, Shanshan asked me to break them. She said that with broken glass all over the ground, it would make a sound when someone walked near. I can teleport objects to any location within a radius of 100 meters. But my ability isn't strong enough, and I can't teleport heavy things. If it's a knife, my teleportation speed becomes very slow, like this."

ALEX saw a knife slowly flying up from the ground and floating towards him. He grabbed it.

Holding the knife, ALEX looked at the little fatty and said, "Don't tell others about your ability so easily in the future."

Zhao Ziang said, "Ah?"

ALEX said, "Be more cautious. Everyone, let's go rest first."

After saying this, a faint rustling sound echoed in ALEX's mind.

This sound was extremely light and almost impossible to detect without careful listening, but it was strange. It wasn't the sound of the wind or the rustling of leaves. It was somewhat similar to the hissing electrical current sound that ALEX had heard from an old black-and-white television in the last century when he was a child.

The hissing electrical current sound became more pronounced. Upon closer listening, one could also hear the sound of metal colliding. The man's tone was calm: "LE, I'm currently back in the Giant's Castle of the Black Tower game. This time, I didn't knock on the Fire Dragon Egg three times. I want to use this egg. This egg is called 'le,' and it's a game saver."

Many single-player role-playing games have a save function. When players play the game, they can save at any time. After saving, players can freely exit the game and return to the save point. This also increases the tolerance for errors. If the character dies at a certain level, the player can directly load the save.

ALEX, understanding the vast amount of information, asked, "Are there any restrictions?"

The other party was already prepared and quickly replied, "Three restrictions. First, it can only be used once every seven days, and it does not accumulate. Second, the save time is one hour, and it is limited to saving in the Black Tower game. Third, to use the game saver, both the owner of the item must activate it simultaneously." The voice paused, and the male voice continued, "ALEX, the way to activate the save function is to draw an English letter 'S' on the Fire Dragon Egg."

ALEX finally understood why this formidable man was willing to reveal the secret of the Fire Dragon Egg. If he didn't come to find ALEX, this Fire Dragon Egg would be useless in his hands.

ALEX asked, "When do you need to activate the save?"

The male voice didn't expect ALEX to make a decision so decisively. After a long while, he said in a low voice, "Now, thank you."

ALEX held the Fire Dragon Egg in his left hand and drew an 'S' on the white egg with his index finger.

With the last stroke, an English character began to flash on the white egg. Where ALEX had just drawn the letter, an 'S' kept flashing with a pale blue light, as if indicating that the saver was currently working.

"During the save period, information is shared between both owners, so sorry, you might uncontrollably hear the sounds from my side for the next hour."

ALEX said calmly, "But you're disturbing my time." By saying that he was disturbed, ALEX was telling the other party: You owe me another thing.

This was a vast and boundless world of giants, with the ground filled with various giant old household appliances. Old single-tube washing machines, sewing machines, big radios, and hundreds of old televisions with snowy screens were thrown away like garbage in this giant world.

ALEX heard the sound of metal colliding. The sound was too fast, and the interval between each attack was definitely no more than 0.5 seconds. ALEX could hear that many things seemed to be attacking that JACK. The sound of countless heavy objects falling seemed to suggest how many opponents this JACK had defeated. For a full thirty minutes, the fighting didn't stop for a second. There were probably hundreds or even thousands of opponents, but he had persevered.

"I can't hold on anymore..." a hoarse voice sounded.

ALEX immediately said, "There's still one minute left of the save duration. Quickly load the save." Suddenly, the voice in his mind disappeared. ALEX quickly took out the Fire Dragon Egg and saw that the 'S' pattern on it had already disappeared, no longer flashing blue light. Before he could think, the entire Fire Dragon Egg started to emit a faint light, indicating an incoming connection.

"I failed the game just now, and I reloaded the save."

Everything happened within ten seconds. Ten seconds ago, ALEX remembered that this man's voice was extremely hoarse, with heavy breathing, as if he was severely injured. But now his voice was the same as it was an hour ago, and the familiar hissing electrical current sound echoed in ALEX's ears again. "I was playing the second level of the tower attack game just now."

When ALEX heard "second level of the tower attack game," his eyes widened in surprise. He suddenly guessed who this JACK was...

In summary, ALEX now knew that when one's strength reached a certain level, they would be forcibly entered into the tower attack game. When JACK initially entered the first level of the tower attack game, it wasn't voluntary. He was forcibly pulled in by the Black Tower and accidentally trapped all the players in China.

However, when he was pulled into the second level of the tower attack game today, he didn't "harm" other players. ALEX speculated that there were two possibilities. The first was that the Black Tower was only special for the first player who entered the tower attack game. It would broadcast globally and pull in players from the entire region to attack the tower together. The second possibility was that currently, only JACK had cleared the first level of the Black Tower in China. Besides him, no one else could attempt the second level, so naturally, they couldn't pull others into the game.