chapter7

 Aron immediately agreed and chimed in, "Your brother looks especially reliable, usually in novels ah movies, this kind of word not much is ruthless."

　　[Hahahahahahahaha ...]

　　This time directly resounded a string of laughter, as if he heard something joyful. Gregorio recognized it was Sylver's voice, confirmed the guess, glanced at Aron who was still kibitzing with Marvin, and tried to say from the heart:

　　[Do I have to communicate with you like this?]

　　[Well, it's fine to say what you want to say deliberately in your mind.]]

　　At this moment, Sylver is in the Prisoner's card connected to Gregorio's left-hand mark, he enters the card for the first time, but he has already heard his former prisoner talking about the situation inside before.

　　It was a six-by-six room or cage, and the space was magically capable of conjuring up all sorts of things in response to the prisoner's thoughts, so long as you weren't afraid of being crushed to death, you could imagine a herd of elephants.

　　Of course, what's inside can't be taken out, and what's outside can't come in, so this feature just makes the prisoners less bored when they're not summoned outside.

　　Aron: "Did you guys get your guns from a box? That's cool!"

　　Marvin: "Yeah, got lucky and found it on the way."

　　Gregorio asks again, [Can you hear what's going on outside even if you're not released?]

　　[Yes, you can, and you can barely see your side as well]. Sylver was sprawled on top of a giant, super-sized Simmons, the blood-stained clothes on the teenager having been changed. He'd taken a nap immediately after being forcibly retrieved and had just woken up to hear Marvin blowing off Gregorio, and couldn't hold back a laugh.

　　Aron didn't know what to say that made Marvin nod his head and say, "Yeah, yeah, my brother kinda makes you feel safe, and when it comes to any kind of danger, as long as he's around I'm not that scared."

　　Sylver let out a yo-yo, not forgetting to taunt, [Looks like he hasn't been weaned yet, he's grown so big for nothing].

　　Gregorio looked at the two of them getting more and more over the top with their banter, and helplessly said, "Marvin don't talk nonsense, Aron don't believe him either, the two of us just got out of the newbie level, we don't have much experience at all, and we're still not quite able to figure out the situation."

　　Aron was very self-conscious and refreshing, "It's fine, now the three of us brothers are teammates, it just so happens that I've experienced two more boxes than you guys, so if there's any experience, I definitely won't hide it."

　　As soon as his words fell, he heard another burst of disorganized footsteps, and the next moment two people ran over from the side of the mists, a pair of middle-aged men and women, although they were somewhat in a sorry state, their complexion was not panicked.

　　"Everyone's here." The man sighed in relief, finally able to slow down and take a break.

　　Everyone sitting on the ground stood up one after another, and the man with the glasses asked, "How many golden beads do you have?"

　　The man said, "Four, two were recovered from corpses."

　　"Corpses?" The crowd's faces changed slightly.

　　The slightly chubby middle-aged woman hmmmed, "We passed a hut on the way, and the zombie knight was outside as if he was already dead, and after that, we continued walking and came across two people who had been killed, and I thought that since the zombies couldn't move around, I'd take the beads from both of them."

　　The pair had passed by Henry's body and naturally went inside the cabin to search it, but everything useful inside had been taken by Gregorio and Marvin, and they hadn't found a hair of it except for the ranger's miserable body and Marvin's vomit.

　　"That zombie's dead?!" Now everyone was shocked that the horrible being that had crawled out of the abyss was dead.

　　Who killed it?

　　Who even could kill it?

　　Could there be something even more powerful than the Zombie Knight in this forest?

　　In the silence, everyone shuddered.

　　Aron lowly cursed in English, and couldn't help but be glad that it was good that those two people had thrown him away, or ... otherwise the corpse that the middle-aged couple saw might have been one more of him!

　　Only Gregorio and Marvin are clear about what probably happened, and Marvin glanced at each other, Gregorio saw undisguised surprise in his eyes, and immediately asked: [That zombie was killed by you?

　　Sylver in the Prisoner's Space puts a target on the wall and sits on the bed shooting darts for fun, [Well, his name is Henry, he's someone I knew before I became a Prisoner, but had completely fallen into monstrosity, and I set him free].

　　The teenager's voice was lazy and relaxed as if he had casually solved it, Gregorio couldn't help but be surprised when he noticed his coziness.

　　Sylver's strength, surprisingly, was stronger than he thought.

　　[Can I take the liberty of asking, before becoming a prisoner, what step did you reach in your journey?]

　　Sylver let out a light laugh, [I'm afraid I'll scare you to death if I say it out loud].

　　That would be a very powerful pilgrim. Gregorio saw that Sylver didn't want to talk about it, so he didn't ask any more questions and focused on the matter at hand.

　　Together with the two dead participants, all the twelve people who had entered the box were the same, and the number of nine gold beads needed was also exactly the right number, which made people think more.

　　But regardless of whether or not someone was secretly manipulating, they now had to leave this place as soon as possible.

　　The nine gold beads were placed into the choke point one after another, and the astrolabe was finally complete once more. The man with glasses took a step back and waited nervously with the crowd.

　　Rumble-

　　Only a succession of muffled machinery rang out from the ground as if some huge organ had been activated, and the entire land trembled slightly. Such vibrations and muffled sounds lasted for more than two minutes, and with the last sound, the astrolabe split in half, and the banyan tree trunk even cracked, opening a one-person wide fissure!

　　It was pitch black inside the rift, and through the weak light, one could vaguely see a few steps below, not knowing where it would lead.

　　"Are we going in?" I don't know who asked.

　　"It looks like it." Despite saying so, no one took the initiative to step forward to be the first, in this situation, the person who went ahead would face the greatest danger.

　　No one wanted to take the risk.

　　There was a stalemate for a while, no one stopped talking, and even the staggering Aron quieted down.

　　But it was always time to set off.

　　Gregorio saw this and sighed silently, he removed the shotgun and held it in his hand, turned on the flashlight, and took the lead to walk towards the pitch-black fissure: "MarvinAron follow."

　　Someone took the lead, and the rest of the people followed very consciously, among them, the strong men and the middle-aged couple also had a little strife because neither of them wanted to be at the end of the group, but it soon subsided.

　　Because the environment inside the banyan tree was just too depressing.

　　Just like in the cellar stairs, it was pitch black here, and there seemed to be some kind of special prohibition, even if they tried hard towards the front, the flashlights and lamps in the hands of the crowd could only illuminate the place three meters in front of them.

　　Although the banyan tree has a thickness of seven or eight people hugging, the passageway is only one person wide, the two walls of the wood are also as if there is life as gently undulating, as if breathing.

　　The messy footsteps of ten men reverberated into a terrible echo into everyone's ears, and the dimness and restricted vision couldn't help but make one think that no one would have noticed in the first place if there had been a sudden addition to the group that didn't belong to them.

　　Gregorio's pace was very steady, only he knew how nervous he was, his palms gripping the shotgun and flashlight were covered in cold sweat, but the presence of that prisoner in his left hand gave him something in his heart in the end.

　　[By the way, Renato is just your prisoner's name, right, can I know your original name? It's easy to address it that way.]

　　The teenager threw away the shuriken in his hand, laying on his back in a big shape in boredom, staring at the bare and empty ceiling, the top of the cage, and returned, [Sylver.]]

　　The Pure White World should still be circulating his legend even now, but it didn't matter, the members of his former team had been shown under codenames at the very beginning, so there was no need to be afraid of their names revealing anything.

　　The stairs were so long that it seemed like there was no end to them, after walking like this for more than thirty minutes, the middle-aged woman with the worst stamina already had two legs that were not like her own, and Aron also muttered in a small voice, "How come we're not there yet, this is almost going down to the center of the earth, isn't it?"

　　The man with glasses who had been silently counting the steps said, "We've almost gone down two thousand meters."

　　The bearded man tsked in annoyance, "Two thousand meters and we're still not there? I say we're not going to keep walking into hell."

　　Everyone snickered as Gregorio continued to walk at his original speed, unaffected by the increasingly bizarre speculations.

　　The air seemed to be moving slowly, it should be getting close to the exit.

　　After another five or six minutes of walking, Gregorio suddenly lost his footing and turned off his flashlight.

　　There was light up ahead.

　　"Eh? There's light?!" Marvin's line of sight crossed Gregorio's shoulder and also saw the faint light coming in from the top of the passageway, and immediately became excited, the narrow and depressing staircase along the way always reminded him of the things that happened in the cellar, and he was scared, but now he could finally get out!

　　Because the whole staircase was sloping downwards when Gregorio noticed the light, the exit was just thirty meters away from them, he snapped a sigh of relief, the spirit that had been tensed slightly relaxed a little bit, still vigilantly walking forward, but could not help but speed up his steps.

　　In the end, it was a low-level box, there were no accidents along the way that the crowd was afraid of, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they walked out of the staircase, the crisp fresh air rushing into their lungs, making the fatigue and nervousness subside quite a bit.

　　"Man, what the hell is this place?" The high-ponytailed woman looked around and couldn't help but frown and sigh softly.

　　It was still a forest, and all the trees were pure black without any color variation, bare only of branches and trunks, grimly reaching for the sky as if they were grasping something with force. And the land under their feet is a gray of different shades of gray, the sky is depressing gray and white, and the only ones who have color in the whole world are the ten of them, as if ... they have mistakenly entered an old black and white photo.

　　[Sky, blue sky.]

　　Sylver suddenly came with such a headless sentence, Gregorio subconsciously looked up at the top of his head. Where is it blue?

　　The middle-aged couple had been sitting on the ground and resting since they first came out, both of them were already old, and neither of them was a physical worker in the real world, they were tired enough, and the two strong men were already carrying injuries on their bodies, and they also leaned against the tree to rest. Such a circle looks down, but only the high ponytail woman and Gregorio three people still have the appearance of strength.

　　The woman said, "Let's rest before we go."

　　The crowd agreed, Gregorio responded with a good sound and said, "Aron and I will go to the neighborhood first to see what's going on, Marvin you rest here?"

　　Marvin, who was already sitting down, immediately climbed up and patted the dirt on his butt, "I'll join you guys."

　　The three of them leave the group for a while and start exploring the surrounding area, hoping to find any key clues. Soon Marvin finds a small wooden signpost on the side of the road, with an arrow pointing in the direction in front of them, which reads "Harmeln".

　　Marvin: "Does that mean we're going to follow the road to this place next?"

　　Aron: "Obviously, but does the name ... look familiar to you guys?"

　　Gregorio: "The German city of Hameln?"

　　Aron: "Well, but there's another meaning-"

　　Just as he was in the middle of his sentence, a melodious flute sound came from the distance and drifted into everyone's ears, Aron immediately stopped his words and looked in the direction the sound came from.

　　Marvin, who was originally squatting in front of the wooden plaque to study it, only felt a wave of dizziness, he raised his hand to cover his chaotic head, and then slowly stood up amidst the sound of the flute.

　　"Marvin? "Gregorio immediately felt a hint of bad, raised his hand, and pulled his arm, but Marvin seemed to be completely unaware of it, his eyes were lax and he stood straight up as if he was waiting for someone.

　　Gregorio: "What's going on?"

　　Aron stares blankly and is just about to speak when Gregorio sees someone coming through the forest of dead trees, signaling him to be silent.

　　Both of them dodge behind two thick trees at the same time, leaving a dumbfounded Marvin standing alone.

　　The sound of the flute continued, getting closer and closer, and soon the figure came into clear view.

　　It was a dark-haired young man, of medium build, wearing a wide hat with colored peacock plumes, a flowery coat with a church stained-glass pattern, wide cuffs, and a long hemline that almost reached the ground, and long boots that turned upward at the toes.

　　At the bottom of each of his eyes was a light-colored tear mole, like two drops of unshed tears, and at that moment he was slightly closing his eyes, holding his flute across his lips and playing a melodious tune.

　　Behind him, the people who should have been resting at the same spot all followed his steps in a dumbfounded manner, slowly walking towards the path marked by the wooden sign.

　　The piper walked past Marvin, the corner of his broad coat sweeping over the teenager's fingers, and Marvin as if compelled by a magic spell, automatically entered the group and followed him.

　　The flute, the troubadour, the crazed animal, the controlled man, the Hameln.

　　All the clues are clear, Gregorio and Aron look at each other and silently pretend to be controlled as well, following the end of the group towards Hameln.

　　In Grimm's Fairy Tales, the home of the Pied Piper in Flower.