I don't know how long I've been walking, but the silhouette of a giant banyan tree appeared in the mist. It was like an old god lurking in the darkness, its branches were thick with leaves, its huge crown covered the entire sky in the field of vision, and its roots twisted and tangled as they broke through the ground and dived into the earth, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to hunt something.
Gregorio stepped forward, the texture of the bark on the trunk of the tree, which was the thickness of eight men's arms, did not look like a natural growth, twisting and converging to an astrolabe-like object, the astrolabe was embedded in the trunk of the tree, there were many gold beads placed in grooves on top of the astrolabe, but there were nine empty positions.
Marvin reached out and touched the astrolabe, a cool metallic texture, "Should I put the beads in?"
"There aren't enough, let's wait until everyone is here." Gregorio looked around, the fog was so thick and heavy that he could only vaguely see the dark shadows of the trees not far away, it didn't look like there would be other people coming over right away, "Find a place to hide a while and wait for the others to come over."
Marvin: "Eh? Why?"
"Don't be too conspicuous." Gregorio explained briefly, "Can't go wrong being careful in a place like this."
The two found a nearby thick tree to use as cover and sat down on the ground. Finally able to rest after such a long walk, they took the water and food they had scavenged at the ranger's hut out of their packs to replenish their strength a little.
Both brothers were preoccupied, who would have thought that after a car accident they would end up in such a weird place?
The clown who guided them tells Gregorio that they were supposed to be dead, but were luckily chosen to come to the Pure White World - where those who have died are given the chance to return to Earth as long as they are recognized by Hera.
And to be recognized, one must keep entering these crisis-ridden boxes to obtain a ticket for a pilgrimage to Hera's palace.
After a while of eating without speaking to each other, Marvin swallowed the last bite of bread and asked, "What about that guy? How is he?"
"Back." Gregorio flashed the tattoo on his left hand at him and said thoughtfully, "He's strong... can the most common card given out by the novice level summon such a strong prisoner?"
"It's probably luck, but with that dangling look, it looks pretty powerful ... "Marvin spat out in a small voice, still not forgetting the tragic experience of being forced by Sylver to pull out the corpse by hand, suddenly hearing a dead branch being stepped on not far away Suddenly, heard the sound of a dead branch being stepped on not far away, and immediately turned his head to look out.
The visitor was a small group of three, two men and a girl, and the group stopped in front of the banyan tree just like they did earlier.
They briefly discussed a few words, the content of which wasn't too audible, but it was clear that they didn't have enough gold beads either, and eventually sat down on the ground by the banyan tree, recuperating while waiting for the others.
After ten minutes or so, there was another sound of footsteps, coming from a small two-man party, all sturdy men with injured gait, obviously unfortunate enough to have experienced some unpleasantness.
The two teams briefly converged, and Gregorio stood up and, without waiting any longer, slung the conspicuous shotgun back on his back and whispered, "Let's go."
They stepped out of the mist as if they had just arrived, and the girl from the first team saw the brothers and waved, "Eh, you guys came over too."
Gregorio gave a hmmm, still maintaining his silent image, and didn't say much. Before encountering that coffin, the people who entered the box were acting together and had some impressions of each other.
"Hey, where did you get your gun?" The burly man next to him with blood on his body asked, having been eyeing the shotgun since Gregorio came over.
The shotgun was a big weapon, and carrying it on his body would attract attention, so Gregorio didn't hide it intentionally, "Better luck, searched it on the way here."
"How come I can't come across such a good thing." The other party immediately muttered unbalancedly, "And ran into that monster, fuck, bad luck."
"Anyway, it's good enough to arrive here safely." The spectacled man in the group of three consoled, looked quite experienced, "This mechanism should lead to the next step of the map, it requires nine golden beads snapped from the coffin, we have two here, what about you guys?"
The strong man said, "We only have one, originally we had three, but that monster seems to be chasing after the one with more beads, this wound is from that time, so after escaping I immediately threw away the other two."
These two people are nearly two meters tall strong and bull-like men, look at their bodies of sturdy muscles now have experienced the relevant training, but still woeful in today's appearance, visible to Henry how miserable. However, compared to Gregorio and Marvin, who were on the verge of death at that time, it's much better.
Gregorio: "We have two."
The man with glasses nodded, "Then wait for the others, it's safer to enter the next map together when we're all together."
With Gregorio around, conversations playing mind games, and whatnot didn't need Marvin at all, so he took the opportunity to observe the people silently. The only woman looked to be in her mid-twenties, with a high ponytail and a tracksuit, very smartly dressed. Her companions were the tall skinny guy with glasses and the middle-aged man who hadn't said anything, plain-looking and slightly bald, but with an aura that was familiar to Marvin. Although these three people were traveling together, the young woman and the Mediterranean seemed to be together, leaning quite close to each other, all of them keeping a subtle distance between themselves and the glasses man.
Marvin thought silently, looking over at the other two men, and was caught by one of them with a beard, receiving a fierce glare.
Marvin immediately turned his face away and pretended that nothing had happened, these two men were both injured, the bearded man's left arm was wrapped tightly with bandages, the color of blood coming out of the gauze, so he was pretty badly injured, that monster's sword would not be easy for whoever got hit by it.
Gregorio, of course, also noticed the smell of gunpowder between Marvin and the bearded man, but he didn't care and exchanged information with the others. The strong man with the bearded man said that they were chased by the zombie riders shortly after they escaped from the coffin, and had to throw the gold beads to escape - after that, the zombies probably just turned around and headed towards Gregorio.
The man with the glasses and his party were relatively lucky, and did not encounter any fatal danger, and went through a puzzle in the middle, and came here smoothly.
Gregorio shared the clues and information found in the ranger's hut, to pass the box safely, it's all about teamwork, and hiding is not the best way to pass the level. Of course, he hid Sylver's presence and the drugs he was carrying, only saying that it was luck that he hadn't encountered any zombie riders along the way.
While several people were exchanging information, someone else came over, the visitor was a red-haired young man, with a three-dimensional deep face that could easily be seen as a mixed race, with a bit too many freckles and a slightly panicked look. Seeing the crowd in front of the banyan tree, he was visibly relieved and rushed over, sitting down with his butt on all fours.
"Aigoo hey can exhaust me ..." Redhead muttered while pulling out a bottle of water from his bag, stifling his head and drinking down most of it, barely suppressing the fear in his heart. He raised his head, only to realize that everyone was looking at him with downcast eyes.
"?" The redhead innocently stared up with blue eyes, "What are you guys doing?"
Glasses Guy: "Do you have any golden beads on you? There are still four more to open the entrance to the next map."
"No, lost them on the way." Red Hair replied dryly.
The crowd exchanged glances, but none of them quite believed this, it was more likely that Red Hair had intentionally lost all the golden beads on his body in order not to be chased by the zombies.
Although they had just entered the box when they found the hint in the forest that they had to obtain enough gold beads to pass the level, in front of the danger that was enough to make a person die without a burial, plot props, or anything else didn't matter -, the level of this box wasn't very high, and the participants were mostly newcomers, and the most experienced man with the glasses had also had only experienced the box four times, not to mention the two Gregorio brothers, who had just entered the Pure White World two days ago.
The ponytail woman said, "Then we can only wait a little longer, let's all take a rest, hopefully, the others can come over quickly, that zombie still doesn't know where it is, we have four golden beads on our side, the target is too big, the longer we stay the more likely we are to be in danger."
So the crowd sat on the ground, in the banyan tree's sheltered range, surrounded by the opposite of what the sound is no more, even the annoying and horrible crows hissing have disappeared without a trace, as if in this by the banyan tree branches and trunks of the support of the realm, all the living beings are unable to exist.
Everyone couldn't help but lower their voices as they spoke, there were twelve people in total when they first entered the box, now eight had come, and with four of the golden beads missing, it was still unknown whether the people coming after them would bring enough props or not.
Everyone is sitting with their companions, the red hair is alone, looks around a few times, looks at the two brothers who are almost the same age as him, cheekily runs to Gregorio next to him, and asks, "Eh Man, I'm sitting here, is it okay?"
"Yes." Gregorio nodded, originally he was talking to Marvin about Sylver's return to the mark on his left hand, but now he stopped talking as well. Sensing the stagnant atmosphere, the redhead scratches his hair and condescends, "So what, my name's Aron, it's the third time I've been in the box, just call me Aron."
"Gregorio, this is my brother, Marvin," Gregorio asked, "Did you come alone?"
"I came all the way here with two others when we parted ways from the coffin, then I went to relieve myself and asked them to wait for me, who knew those two turds would just take off," Aron said indignantly, fortunately, he is still a bit of experience, bold if a novice in this full of fog in the forest fell alone, also crow called zombies chasing, absolutely can be scared half dead.
Marvin asked, "Don't you recognize those two people?"
Aron shakes his head, "If I knew them, they wouldn't have left me behind, I bumped into this box walking down the street, it's so insidious that it's disguised as a restaurant. I envy you guys for coming with people you know and having each other to look out for."
Marvin immediately warmed up, "That's fine, now that you know us, it's going to go much smoother with everyone together than alone."
[Pfft.
Gregorio heard a snicker, and he immediately tensed his body and looked around warily.
Everyone else was doing their own thing, and the sound was more like a direct ringing in his head.
He frowned and tentatively touched the back of his left hand.