Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 855 - 854: Reconnaissance
Almost discovered...
On the 10th floor of the Lost World, Hoenheim, wearing an invisibility cloak, hid under a twisted piece of metal debris, letting the demons above fly over.
His invisibility cloak was extremely effective, any light shining on it only revealed the scenery behind it. It also isolated sound and dust,
and combined with his well-hidden aura,
the demons passing by did not notice a human from Earth hiding among them.
Finally, they moved on.
The flying figures of over a dozen demons grew more distant. Hoenheim took out a liquid crystal panel from his backpack, glanced at it briefly, and then returned it to his inventory to prevent electronic signals from drawing the demons' attention.
Many people from the Bell Tower were also kidnapped, some of whom were still emitting location signals.
Considering what he witnessed before, scenes of demons killing or kidnapping players, these location signals automatically emitted on the 10th and 11th floors might very well be a trap.
The purpose being to lure other players into making rescue attempts for their companions.
"..."
Hoenheim stretched his body out from the metal debris, with a punk-style metal telescope mounted on his eyes, which automatically extended and focused, seeing clearly into the distant scene.
It was a considerably vast clearing. At the six o'clock edge of the clearing, a male lion with fiery red mane and golden rings on its four feet lay prostrate on the ground.
The lion's head alone was as tall as a person.
The red mane of the lion moved without wind, exuding a strong, primitive aura all over its body.
Around it gathered some subordinates, weaker in strength compared to it, speaking in an Otherworldly language.
The basic skill of [All Language Mastery] could not enable Hoenheim to read lips and understand what they were saying,
however, above the clearing, through a gap in the dome, demons constantly descended, carrying players tightly bound with specially-made ropes.
After exchanging a few words with the Lion King, the Earth players Hoenheim recognized were placed near the center of the clearing.
"..."
Hoenheim instinctively squinted his eyes, a golden rope identical to the ones being used on them appeared out of thin air in his hands.
These ropes, seized from the enemy, were called [Heaven-binding Rope],
like the [Private God Engraving Agreement], they were perfect-quality consumables. Their special effect was to absorb the energy of Transcendent beings, strengthening the ropes themselves,
while continuously weakening the body and will of the Transcendent, gradually enhancing this effect over time.
Eventually, the Transcendent bound by the Heaven-binding Rope became a living dead, unable to move, think, or speak.
(After releasing the Heaven-binding Rope, they would slowly return to normal)
In its notes, both [Heaven-binding Rope] and [Private God Engraving Agreement] were described as creations of the so-called "Liwei Mountain,"
but in the former's notes, there was an additional line stating that each Heaven-binding Rope was made with the sinews of ten to twenty mortal children with innate spiritual roots...
Hoenheim, unaware of the Otherworldly Players' background, felt that using human tendons to make ropes sounded entirely like a Magic Gate behavior but was unexpected to have originated from the reputable Liwei Mountain.
He continued observing forward,
the forty-three Earth players bound by the Heaven-binding Rope, thrown on the ground, all had their heads drooping and eyes closed, with expressions empty and hollow, clearly having lost self-awareness and unable to make the decision to surrender or forfeit.
They were surrounded by demons outside, and inside were six large bronze bell shadows occupying significant space.
Each bronze bell projection performed a "suspension field" effect, with the warm glow they emitted sealing one Earth player each.
Respectively, they were Michael, Zhongli Mieming of the Special Affairs Bureau, Selcius of the Bell Tower, Uriel of the Tribunal, Diræ of the Witch Alliance, and Death Soul, vice president of the Demon Scientist Alliance Guild.
They held the ranks of first, seventh, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, and twenty-second in individual strength rankings.
It was clear that the Transcendents sealed by the Otherworldly people using the suspension field were all top-tier Earth players in the first echelon,
the enemy likely believed that the Heaven-binding Rope alone could not securely restrain them,
necessitating the use of the suspension field to prevent escape and also to protect the Otherworldly people themselves.
The top ten personal rankings were one game, while the eleventh to fiftieth were another.
However, this did not mean rankings determined everything,
the strength gap among the first-tier players beyond the top ten was not that large,
and from the eleventh to the thirtieth position, many players were hiding considerable real strength—such as the fifteenth-ranked Tai Hao and the twenty-second-ranked Death Soul.
Thinking of the Demon Scientist Alliance, Hoenheim turned his head to look to the side, where there was nothing, but according to the agreement with the Side Truth, they should have also infiltrated the nearby area.
Ready to investigate these Otherworldly People.
Inside the Bronze Bell Shadow was a group of cultivators in ancient Eastern robes—
among them, the power fluctuations of four were no less than Hoenheim's own.
"..."
Hoenheim only glanced there with his peripheral vision, not fixing his gaze on any specific cultivator, for fear his stare would make them feel something was amiss.
The four strongest cultivators seemed to be discussing something with a group of hunched figures in gray cloaks,
they took out a stack of comics, handing them to the hunched figures,
the latter raised their arms to receive the comics,
with Hoenheim's sight, he clearly saw under the sleeve of the Gray Robed People's cloak a hand covered in fine bluish-green scales and transparent slime,
and those comics were titled "When the Stars Return," volumes one to twelve.
