Chapter 254: Falling Toward the Sky

The Hanging Islands are split into seven different levels going up, and it’s not just the height that’s different, but also the difficulty and the points... and we’re at the first level now.

"We’ll split into 5 or 7 teams, climb and target the higher islands and purge them as fast as possible, if you work hard it’ll take each team 5 or 4 days to purge." My voice echoed in the hall with all eyes on me, I could feel the dissatisfaction in some of them.

A young man raised his eyebrow sarcastically. "And what after that?... we just sit around after many of us get eliminated in this process?"

I smiled in answer to his sarcasm. "Exactly."

That stirred up a bunch of complaints against me, but Ellen silenced them in a moment. "You mean we abandon this island behind us, purge a few higher islands with high points and hold onto them."

I nodded with satisfaction. "What’s the use of this island, it’s just ten points and I don’t think they’d bother themselves taking it even when it’s empty... on top of that, there’s no use purging every island we pass on the way up to the top... instead let’s take the top itself and wait for them there."

Kyle’s fingers tapped on the table. "Purging a lot of islands without guarding them well means handing our opponents a ready meal... he’s right about that."

"So, we take the top and let them purge the way up, and fight each other until they reach us, then we try to take everything they have." Elliot spoke in a thoughtful voice as he stared at the stone table.

"There’s always someone who tries to purge all the islands, so it’s better to save our energy to steal them after he does that." I summed things up in this sentence, which made Leona give me a look. "You look evil saying that."

Everyone took a few moments to think, there were many muttering at the back of the room about things like, "Is he crazy... there are Rank 5 monsters up there."

"This bastard is going to get us killed!"

Doesn’t matter... I didn’t even know their names.

And while the mutters filled the room, it looked like someone settled it.

Emeris, who had her head on the table out of boredom, stretched. "Haaa... let’s just do it!"

Like she’d lit the last spark, Ellen nodded in agreement. "Alright, it’s better than purging island by island and leaving people behind you to guard them... but there’s a possible flaw."

Leona tilted her head. "What is it?"

But the answer came from Kyle. "There’s a chance the other groups will think the same way."

I snapped my fingers together as I smiled. "That’s why we have to be faster!"

...

The air full of salt hit my face, while the sun disappeared into the horizon and the sky lost its blue color.

I looked up, where the moon is supposed to be normally, but now it was blocked by the islands floating in the sky, only their rocky base was visible from here.

The closest island from the second level was right above us at a height of about a kilometer.

Normally we were supposed to move from island to island until we reached the one in the far west or north, which is the highest and has a path to the top.

But unfortunately, that wasn’t possible... at least not without a lot of fighting with the other Empires.

And if we’re going to fight now then what’s the use of this plan.

But of course, there are always other ways.

"Then why the hell did I build this!" Elliot stared at the building he made with grief, sighing over and over.

I rolled my eyes at the over-the-top drama. "Come on... nobody asked you to do that... you just wanted to be the nice guy who started building a shelter for these orphans without even asking."

He looked at me with resentment over his shoulder. "But you were here when I did it... why didn’t you tell me you had that stupid plan!"

I shrugged. "You looked really happy building it... and who am I to take that away from you."

He clicked his tongue as he gave one last look at the building, like he was saying goodbye to his son who he’d never see again... poor guy.

We’d already decided to split the groups and make 7 in the end... they weren’t equal in number of course, but we tried to balance the strength as much as possible.

We wouldn’t split up now anyway, so all hundred of us were gathering outside the shelter.

"Ah..." I gasped in pain without meaning to, feeling the elbow hitting my ribs. "Can you stop doing that please!" I objected.

I looked beside me, of course it was none other than Emeris... I mean who would do this if it wasn’t her.

I almost scratched my head as I saw the accusing looks she was giving me, with her hands on her waist she stood seriously like she was about to scold me.

But honestly, she looked cute being annoyed like that, so I found myself smiling and tilting my head in amusement. "What?"

She puffed out her cheeks. "Stop being stupid, you idiot."

Wow, she’s really annoyed... well, the reason goes back to me refusing for us to be on the same team earlier, so it looks like that disappointed her a lot.

I mean the decision wasn’t realistic, she and I are among the strongest people here, so us being on the same team would ruin the other teams... of course she didn’t look like she cared about that.

I reached out my hand and put it on her head, ruffling her hair like she was a little cat, which made her puff out her cheeks more and complain. "What are you doing!"

Damn, she looked even cuter which made me put more strength into my hand until her hair was a mess.

Like she got fed up with my behavior in a moment, she grabbed my hand and moved it away from her head, but she didn’t let it go.

Her thin fingers clung to my palm, they looked small and fragile compared to me, at the same time a mischievous smile formed on her face, and she purred in a low voice. "You’re touching the wrong place."

She led my hand to her face, to her cheek, slowly to—

"Ahem.. ahem..." A sharp cough cut us off, which made us turn our heads toward it.

It was none other than Ellen, her arms folded and her red eyes saying, "What the hell are you two doing."

Emeris let go of my hand and I took it back, that’s when Ellen sighed and pointed at us. "Come on, you two."

...

In the end everyone lined up in one small place, like the first time we appeared here.

That’s when it looked like the realization hit Ivan as he stared at the bottom part of the island above us. "How are we all going to get up there, without clashing with the other groups."

Valia rolled her eyes. "Wow... how brilliant of you to figure out the problem!"

Ellen gave a look to Elliot who answered with a ready nod, as she looked at everyone again. "Everyone get ready."

Ivan tilted his head. "Get ready how?"

Now I wonder where his head was when we explained the plan, but I was nice enough to answer him. "Just tighten your belt."

That made him even more confused. "Which belt?"

"The one on your pants." The moment I said that, we felt like our bodies had lost their weight.

Then slowly our feet started leaving the ground as we floated in the air, that’s when the realization crept into Ivan. "Is Elliot going to fly us up there."

Elliot gave him a strange look.

"No, I can’t do that... we’re just going to fall toward the sky."