Chapter 822 - 694: Crop Sac

King Solomon, the ninth-century ruler of the Ancient Israel United Kingdom, appears with a wise and distinct image in Jewish Scriptures, famously mastering Magic Power and commanding the 72 Pillar Demon Gods to serve him.

As a well-known symbol in mysticism, the 72 Demon Gods frequently appear in various artistic works,

such as Amon in "Demon Man," Barbatos in DC Comics, Paimon in "○God"...

Players can also encounter Demon Gods in Script Tasks, where their strength fluctuates greatly,

with weaker Demon Gods unable to cross the boundaries between Hell and the mortal world, only able to project their consciousness and attach to mortals and still being exorcised by well-trained Priests/Exorcists/Shamans.

Players exchanged puzzled glances, observing the demeanor and actions of these four figures in the scene, which didn’t seem like deliberate player disguise, but rather seemed genuine...

The question arises, why do Solomon’s Demon Gods want to annihilate the Snake-man?

————

My name is Maxwell, and every day I wake up from a bed over fifty thousand square meters, facing more than two hundred beautiful maids in the huge villa. However, I don’t feel happy because of the wealth.

Get lost, you damn money...

"Ugh!"

In a daze, Maxwell suddenly opens his eyes, finding himself in a dimly lit environment, with only a faint light glowing below.

This is a space shaped like a chestnut, large at the bottom and small at the top, with a dome and walls made of Flesh Walls, covered with yellow mucous membrane and blood vessels.

Located at the bottom is a magnificent Qin Han Palace, with reinforced earth mounds, brick and wood palaces, structure forming a "凸" shape with connected palace gates and arches.

Under the eaves and inside the standing lanterns are Luminous Pearls, providing continuous illumination.

’Where is this? Wasn’t I swallowed by the Sun-absorbing Chicken?’

His mind felt fuzzy like being drunk, with his peripheral consciousness subconsciously analyzing.

According to the rules of ancient Chinese palaces, the three exits symbolize the world supreme, used only by the Emperor; judging by the size and quantity of Luminous Pearls, it was built with Extraordinary Power...

’Wait, why am I floating in the air?’

Maxwell suddenly realizes, turning his head to look behind him, a chill runs from his feet straight to his Heavenly Spirit Cover.

He sees his Flesh, attached to the yellow mucous surface of the Flesh Walls, with limbs and face covered. Eyes tightly shut, the chest rises and falls slowly, indicating breathing.

A half-transparent and constantly wriggling Spiritual Essence umbilical cord extends from his flesh abdomen, connected to Maxwell’s upper half Spiritual Body—his current consciousness.

"What the hell?!"

Maxwell gasps, instinctively trying to open the player panel to forfeit and return to the real world. Although the panel opens, no matter how he presses the button, there’s no response.

"Stop shouting."

A disgruntled shout comes from above his head; Maxwell looks up to find more people stuck to the flesh beside his body, similarly attached by the Spiritual Essence umbilical cord.

One is a little girl in a black, white, and red gothic dress, two tiger teeth protruding from her lips. She is clearly Claudia from the Witch Alliance guild.

The other is Su Jie, wearing a formal suit from the Special Affairs Bureau with a youthful face.

"You were swallowed by the Sun-absorbing Chicken too? So were we,"

Claudia murmured, briefly explaining the situation.

A dozen hours earlier, Claudia entered the Song of Kings quest; the initial teleportation point was an underground parking garage, where she encountered Su Jie.

Receiving a broadcast text from Zhongtian Beiji, the two, not knowing each other previously, don’t immediately fight but instead explore the area,

accidentally stumbling into a spatial rift, entering the Snake-man City through another entrance, and encountering the Sun-absorbing Chicken face to face.

When misfortune strikes, even drinking cold water chokes; the Lv23 Su Jie was swallowed directly, while the Lv30 Claudia resisted briefly by transforming into bat form and using Blood Magic to inflict some wounds on the Sun-absorbing Chicken before ultimately being eaten.

"Here’s my situation..."

Maxwell quickly recounts his previous experiences and gathered information, pausing shortly afterward, and asks urgently: "It seems this is the Sun-absorbing Chicken’s crop; why doesn’t it kill us, and why can’t I use the return button on the player panel?"

"It probably keeps us as reserve food,"

Su Jie scratches his head and points to the center of the Qin Han Palace below, where there’s a pile of snake eggs laid on scattered grass. "As for the player panel malfunction..."

Su Jie looks at Claudia, who shrugs and displays the Skill description.

[Skill Name: Soul Emergence]

[Type: Spiritual Energy]

[Special Effect: umbilical cord spiritualism. Focus the mind to cause oneself, or a living/newly deceased target within line of sight, to separate their soul from their body. The Spiritual Body has no substance, connects to the Flesh through an umbilical cord, and is difficult to observe with the naked eye. The Skill effect lasts 1 hour, during which the corporeal body undergoes sleep, allowing the Spiritual Body to freely move within the umbilical cord’s range, until the soul or body receives damage from any source.]

[Consumption: 200 Spiritual Power Value, 100 Physical Value]

[Cooling Time: 6.66 minutes]

[Use Conditions: Personally hosted a Spirit Communication Meeting, summoned and sent away spirits]

[Note: "Pen Fairy Pen Fairy, you are my past life, I am your current life. Tell me the company’s development direction for the next quarter." The new CEO of Apple Company, John Ternus, picked up the Apple Pencil and summoned Steve Jobs’ Pen Fairy]

A soldier who doesn’t want to be a general is not a good soldier, and a player who doesn’t want to reach the top isn’t a good player.

As the cornerstone of the Witch Alliance guild, Claudia invested a lot for the Song of Kings event, overdrawing her credit card.

She intended to gain rare treasures and valuable rewards during the event for substantial returns.

[Soul Emergence] is the Skill Scroll she purchased at a high price, initially intended as a control skill—

to cause the target’s soul to emerge, due to the incorporeal nature of the soul, unable to touch the real world, creating an opportunity to place bombs around the target’s flesh and detonate them all at once.

Unexpectedly, it was used here.

"Soul Emergence separates the soul from the flesh, with the player’s soul possessing only half the Summoner’s qualifications, allowing panel opening but preventing teleport escape."

Claudia sighed: "If the soul returns to the flesh, it will fall into a coma again due to the yellow mucous membrane, effectively getting stuck here."

Su Jie agrees, supplementing: "This Sun-absorbing Chicken has lived at least five hundred years, becoming a Great Demon capable of establishing Pocket Space internally.

It either keeps us to hinder other humans as hostages,

or as reserve food for future Snake-man hatching.

With even the intercom unusable, we can only hope someone comes to rescue us.

Oh, right, Maxwell, you mentioned temporary matched teammates?"

"Yes, Don Juan from European Heavy Industry, Gouchen from GOC, Mei Wenyi from FBI, Divine Era Rain Prayer from Japan Island Anomaly Investigation Bureau,"

Maxwell counts on his fingers, "Oh yes, also Pifu."

When mentioning Pifu, Maxwell notices both Su Jie and Claudia’s expressions change, asking instinctively: "Do you know them?"

"Of course, we know them quite well,"

Su Jie smiles wryly, while Claudia nods with a complex expression, "Though they’re unreliable, they rarely betray teammates.

They should, probably, likely rush to save us, right?"

"Hmm?!"

At the same time, Li Cheng suddenly turns his head to the distance, seeming to sense something, thoughtfully... and takes a bite from a steaming hamburger from the oven.

Don Juan asks quietly: "Uh... is it really okay to eat such Exotic Civilization’s unidentifiable food?"

"No problem, I haven’t tried frog-flavored hamburgers before,"

Li Cheng gives a thumbs-up; by now, everyone had left the garden platform and reached the municipal building atop, gathering clues.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to rush and rescue Maxwell, but that the Sun-absorbing Chicken used Virtualization + Teleportation Ability, making it impossible to track remotely using scent molecules, even calling Mechanical Swarm.

"Let’s continue gathering clues here, family,"

Li Cheng picks up a bundle of bamboo slips, watching his eyelids twitch.

"Qin Law"