Chapter 29: First Floor (Fifth Update)
Molei’s mentality had completely collapsed. Her current thought was: she was just a Battle Angel, so why did she have to match wits and courage with these madmen? She really wanted to shout: ‘To hell with being a Battle Angel, I quit! I resign!’
The enemy contractors who hadn’t yet entered stood outside the temple, staring wide-eyed at each other. No one dared to step into the first floor of the temple. If a hundred Reincarnation Paradise contractors were guarding inside, they would have charged in and fought to the death.
One minute passed, five minutes passed, ten minutes passed. Finally, a tank-type contractor from Death Paradise couldn’t take it anymore. He raised his heavy shield and strode into the first floor of the temple.
Nothing changed until he reached the corpse of Duke of Revenge. He slowly backed out, and after exiting the temple, he spat.
“All bluff and bluster. I’m perfectly fine.”
“……”
Molei covered her forehead with one hand. For some reason, hearing the tank say that gave her the feeling that he was doomed.
“Tutang, keep an eye on my vital signs.”
Molei pulled a soft and cute little healer to her side. This was her temporary teammate, Tutang.
“Don’t worry, Big Shot Molei.”
“Big shot, hahaha.”
As Molei spoke, she kept an eye on that tank contractor. Half an hour passed, and he showed no changes, even taunting the others for their cowardice.
Angry Hound’s face was burning. As one of the top ten in the seventh rank, a Death Ranger responsible for cleaning up violators in Death Paradise, he had been intimidated by an ordinary Reincarnation Paradise contractor?
“Smash his corpse.”
As soon as Angry Hound spoke, Duke of Revenge’s body in the first floor of the temple floated up, as if gripped by a giant hand. Blood and flesh exploded.
With a whoosh, a wave of flame surged forward. The flame formed a beast’s head and then spewed fire onto the blood and flesh on the ground, burning it to ashes.
Watching the drifting ashes, the contractors felt relieved. A dozen summoned creatures scouted ahead, but after reaching the second floor, they all disappeared, their connection to their masters severed.
“This……”
Hai Yizuo didn’t know what to say. Before even seeing the enemy, they had been toyed with.
“Don’t be misled by the enemy.”
A few contractors in identical outfits passed through the first floor and headed to the second. This group of eight had a team skill called ‘Mental Resonance,’ which allowed them to resist most illusions.
A dozen seconds later, a contractor rushed down from the stairs.
“They all disappeared! It’s not an illusion! It’s not a mental ability!”
This contractor’s face was extremely grim. Of their eight members walking through the second floor, seven had vanished one by one.
“My teammates, one died, no, two, no, five died! They… all died.”
“What the hell is this place! I’m not fighting anymore. I’m going mining.”
“Calm down. The enemy’s numbers are several times smaller than ours. It’s precisely because they can’t beat us head-on that they use tricks.”
“Everyone shut up.”
Hai Yizuo spoke coldly, pressing his finger to his brow.
“You said earlier that the second floor has fifty doorless rooms, right?”
“Yes.”
The unsettled contractor nodded, clearly unwilling to go back to the second floor.
“Fifty doorless rooms, contractors suddenly disappearing. If I’m not mistaken, their order of death wasn’t based on strength or disappearance time, but random?”
“That’s… right.”
“So that’s it.”
Hai Yizuo seemed to understand something. He smiled at the group.
“The Sun Temple was a place where the Ganglu Dynasty trained Sun Warriors. This is recorded in the confidential archives of the Healing Church.
Based on this information, the fifty doorless rooms on the second floor represent fifty trials. The Ganglu Dynasty fell long ago, and their mechanisms remain, but the ones operating them now are the Reincarnation Paradise contractors.”
Hearing Hai Yizuo’s explanation, Molei also understood. She said:
“The fifty rooms on the second floor represent fifty separate spaces. Inside are fifty Reincarnation Paradise contractors. Anyone entering the second floor is forcibly pulled in to duel them. Because the enemy contractors’ strengths vary, the death times of our seven weren’t fixed. The one who was scared out of his wits, you were walking at the back, right?”
Molei looked at the surviving contractor, who nodded repeatedly.
“This is easy to solve. We pick the fifty strongest to lead the way. If we see through this enemy mechanism, it becomes a graveyard for those fifty enemy contractors.”
Molei’s words were acknowledged by Hai Yizuo. In the end, they decided that Angry Hound would lead, with the other forty-nine following behind, plus a hundred more contractors trailing further back, to successfully break through to the third floor.
Soon, the fifty strongest were chosen. They entered the first floor, and after confirming no issues, the remaining hundred or so contractors filed in. The first floor had to be secured; having their rear cut off would be disastrous.
Just as Angry Hound at the front stepped onto the stairs to the second floor, he heard the sound of dripping.
Drip, drip, drip.
Inside the first floor, murky liquid condensed in midair and dripped down. A figure wrapped entirely in bandages emerged out of thin air. He arched his upper body, his torso nearly bending backward, a manic grin on his face.
In this mummy-like man’s hand was a metal tube wrapped with wires, the solution inside churning.
‘Damn it.’
Angry Hound was about to rush up the stairs when a push came from behind him.
Boom!
The entire Sun Temple shook. In the liquid flames, enemy contractors screamed and fell.
‘Shared Wish: Reversal.’
Tutang from Apocalypse Paradise stood outside the main door, ignoring the surging liquid flames. A large bubble formed between her hands, enveloping the hundred-plus people inside the first floor and pulling them out.
The hundred-plus contractors were dragged out like they were in a bag. Some were dying, others severely injured.
Of the 150 contractors who entered, 126 came out alive. The rest were burned to death by the liquid flames.
The metal door that Angry Hound had kicked apart gradually restored itself. The dents smoothed out, and the two giant metal doors returned to their frames with a bang.
Angry Hound, with some burns on his body, pushed open the metal door. A man in formal attire stood inside the first floor of the temple.
“Welcome to the Sun Temple. I am your guide for all esteemed guests, Duke of Revenge.”
Duke of Revenge slightly bowed. Seeing him, who had supposedly died, Molei and the others felt a chill in their hearts. For some reason, Molei felt this was no longer a war movie but a horror film.
Had Duke of Revenge died? Of course not. His ability was simple: regeneration. As long as more than 8% of his body remained, he could regenerate. To achieve this, he had stored some of his organs in a certain place on the second floor.
Earlier, an enemy contractor had received a notification of killing Duke of Revenge. That was the mummy’s ability. He couldn’t make all enemies hallucinate, but he could make one contractor hallucinate, making them mistakenly believe they had received a kill notification.
Duke of Revenge and the mummy were the duo guarding the first floor.