Webor and the others halted their search for clues and listened carefully, knowing that Felix must be requiring their help in finding the rest of the keys.
‘Webor, head down to that painting with the beheaded horses and take it off the wall…No need to search for the key in it, just safeguard it.’
‘On it.’
‘Nina, go to the third guest room and pick up the sofa on the right side.’
Nina nodded silently and did as she was told.
‘Rotspawn, bring the third chair to the left of the second dining room.’
‘Barby, come with me to the middle chandelier.’ Felix said, ‘I need help to reach it.’
The ceiling was at least two hundred meters away, making it quite difficult for Felix to jump that high without using his abilities.
When Barbyclaw joined him, they rushed underneath it, not caring about the dragons and fog crawlers, who were examining the other chandeliers.
“Looks like Landlord has been threatened by Siren’s team and decided to use his teammates.” Micheal commentated.
Felix’s team weird actions had attracted a few eyes here and there…
‘Keep an eye on them.’ Prince Domino ordered, ‘For them to switch their searching areas simultaneously, they must be on to something.’
ᴘ ᴀɴ ᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠ ᴇʟ, ᴄᴏᴍ When he saw that Felix was attempting to search the chandeliers even though he had so many other places on the ground to search, he was even more skeptical.
Too bad, he could only watch Felix jump from on top of Barby’s head and cling to the crystal chandelier akin to a monkey.
‘This chandelier has been searched before.’ Felix raised an eyebrow in surprise after seeing the mess left behind.
Although it was searched, Felix could still see the frequencies being emitted from the shackle of the chandelier.
Everyone kept messing with the crystals, hooks, chains, and the shades, they didn’t bother to check on the shackle that was connected with the ceiling!
Felix climbed to the top and started touching the shackle carefully with his finger until he heard clicking sound.
Clack Clack!
Under the stunned eyes of prince Domino and some players, the chandelier started descending slowly, making the chains and the crystals to shake a bit.
“The key!”
“It’s a key!!”
“Landlord has found a key!!”
This time Felix wasn’t able to hide the key properly since it was exposed on its own attached under the shackle after chandelier got lowered.
When Felix saw everyone’s bloodshot greedy eyes, he didn’t hesitate to snatch the key and beam it with him his spatial card.
“F*ck! Another one is gone.”
“Crap, did it have to be Landlord who find it.”
“Quickly start searching the shackles of the other chandeliers too!”
The players were already on edge about the fact that they were keyless for more than half an hour.
Alas, they could only glare at Felix and return to their hunt, feeling even more pressured.
“Congratulation, Landlord.” Prince Domino approached Felix causally, not showing an ounce of animosity.
“Thanks.” Felix replied with a faint smile while jumping towards Barby’s shell.
After he landed, prince Domino appeared next to him again without making a sound…With his humungous size, that should have been impossible.
‘As expected of the shadow corrosion dragon.’ Felix didn’t react too abnormally as he had already known about some of the prince Domino’s uncanny abilities and quirks.
As a member of the royal dragon family, he wasn’t even considered as a red dragon any more even though he was capable of spewing sacred flames too.
In fact, he was referred to as the Black Dragon respectfully.
“I hope you take advantage of this opportunity and began the climb immediately.” Prince Domino advised with an indifferent look, “This head start might make things a little fun for my side.”
“Is that so?” Felix showed a funny look.
He could see that prince Domino meant no malice in his words, or he wanted to taunt him. He simply stated his own feelings on the situation without a filter.
Felix understood that if he had only one key, he would have actually listened to him and started the climb to put as much distance as possible.
But now?
“Prince, I am sorry, but no one is climbing this tower until I say so…Including you.” Felix smiled in carefree manner as he eyed his teammates returning with the furniture.
‘Gather on me and hide the furniture within your shells.’ Felix ordered, not caring about prince Domino’s confused expression.
Meanwhile, the mermaids were just leaving the bathroom with expressionless looks, appearing like their search hadn’t resulted in anything.
‘We need to find the rest of the keys as fast as possible before the others start picking up the frequencies.’ The captain ordered, ‘Block all exterior noises and focus on this frequency only.’
The moment the mermaids did so, all of them looked at the exact direction with bafflement written all over their faces.
‘Is it just me who is hearing the frequencies from within the heavenly turtles’ shells?’ One of the mermaids exclaimed.
The other mermaids didn’t know how to reply.
They believed that their ears should pick up at least seven frequencies spread out throughout the entire hall.
In their eyes, the players shouldn’t be fast enough to collect all the keys…especially, when the only hint left behind was related to sound.
Yet, the reality before them was much weirder than what they anticipated.
‘Three keys are on the heavenly turtles…How did they find them so fast and why the hell are we not hearing the others?’
Miss Ashtooth was bewildered by the entire situation.
“Too bad for Siren’s team, they were still a tad bit late.” Micheal shook his head, “At least, they have escaped Landlord’s grasp by securing their own key unlike the others.”
The viewers had no idea how the situation was going to develop from now on. The players had yet to climb the tower, and they were already under Felix’s scheme!
‘Captain, what do we do?’ A mermaid wondered with an agitated look.
‘I think we should expose Landlord’s team.’
‘I concur, no one should control that many keys at once.’
‘Let’s just spectate the situation while focusing on clues…No need to entangle ourselves when we already have a key.’ Miss Ashtooth said as she eyed all the heavenly turtles gather on Felix.
She didn’t know why, but she could feel it in her bones that Felix must own more keys than he was showing…She knew that it was impossible for the heavenly turtles to be lucky enough to find three keys simultaneously.
‘Landlord must have given them direction or something.’ Miss Ashtooth thought, ‘My best guess is that he has found out about the frequencies hint much earlier than us and took advantage of it.’
She didn’t know whether she was right or not, but she was certain about one thing…The keys could not be kept hidden forever.
He had only six hours before the teams get sent randomized segment.
‘She is on to me.’ Felix chuckled inwardly, ‘It looks like she decided to be a silent spectator.’
Felix had already noticed Miss Ashtooth and her teammates’ extra attention on him.
Still, he didn’t care too much about it. Whatever decision they make, his plan wouldn’t be affected one bit.
In a few moments, Felix had finished gathering the keys from within the furniture inside his teammates’ shells.
Prince Domino, Miss Ashtooth, and some players merely saw him enter one shell for a few minutes before emerging outside.
Then, repeat the same process with the other two.
‘He is hiding something.’ Prince Domino didn’t like the secretiveness of Felix’s movements.
Unfortunately, Felix wasn’t planning on indulging him any further.
After he retrieved all the keys, Felix ordered, ‘Continue the hunt for the clues.’
Webor and the rest didn’t question his decision and went on their merry ways like they didn’t own almost all the keys in the floor.
As for Felix? He also didn’t laze around and went to help them out.
“Seems like Landlord will not be spilling the beans so soon.” Micheal pondered, “What’s his endgame?”
Micheal and the viewers believed that the moment Felix gathered the keys, he would start bossing the teams around for the next few hours.
Instead, he was chill…Too chill in fact.
…
Minutes went by then hours…
Only three hours were left behind before the teams get given automatic access to the gates in a randomized manner.
“I give up…This shit is impossible.”
“Sigh, if it wasn’t for most teams not finding the keys either, I would have lost my mind hours ago.”
“Why is the difficulty this hard? I doubt our ancestors are enjoying our struggles to find a damn key.”
The players were on the verge of a meltdown…Although all of them were guaranteed access to the tower for a few hours, no one wanted to climb in such shameful manner.
To make matters worse, Kumiho’s team and Siren’s team had already made a move an hour earlier and started their climb.
Based on the ranking, they had just crossed past the third floor.
Miss Ashtooth wanted to remain much longer to see through Felix’s plan, but she couldn’t waste any more of her precious time that could be used to put a substantial distance between her team and the rest.
‘This should be enough.’ Felix grinned sinisterly after seeing almost all the players were stressed out.
