Chapter 610 - Real and Imaginary
At this moment, before Roland and the others, there was no city, no inn, only a Soul Gatherer floating in front of them.
In reality, they had been caught in the illusion, or mental power to be exact, the moment they started seeing the Soul Gatherer from the peepholes.
The players in the livestream watched as Roland and the others came out of the pit and formed a line.
They watched as the Soul Gatherer landed on the ground and circled them.
They also watched as their expressions became dull.
“Tsk tsk, what is this? It is reasonable to say that we players can’t be hit by mental spells, so why did Roland and the others still fall for it? Is it a system bug?”
“We’re just immune to mental spells below the level of natural laws, such as the girls’ bikinis. That is, abilities at the level of natural laws can work on us.”
“This thing has natural-law-level mental abilities?”
“I read a description of this thing in a book. It seems to be a Soul Gatherer, a clone of the Nether God.”
“No wonder, it’s a divine creature.”
“Not a creature, just a magic prop, similar to a magic puppet.”
“Poor Roland. How long has it been since he’s been live and when he does it’s a flop video.” “What’s wrong with a flop? Who doesn’t fail against something related to gods? You think you’re immune to a god’s mind control?”
“So what if I’m not immune, I just want to see Roland make a fool of himself.”
“Such poor taste.”
There were now hundreds of thousands of people in the livestream, and the dense stream of pop-ups almost flooded the entire screen, forcing many players to turn on the pop-up filter switch.
People had preferences, and even the most handsome and attractive person couldn’t be everyone’s favorite.
Roland was certainly the same.
A lot of people loved him, and naturally, a lot of people hated him.
There were all sorts of reasons as to why. For example, simply not liking him for his unattractive face, or annoyed that he had a queen on his arm, or simply not liking that he was at the highest level in the entire server.
A lot of people wanted to see him make a fool of himself.
But more than that, more people had good intentions.
Just like many others, they loved to see the streamers they supported fail in a game, and the more failures, the more donations they’d give.
It was almost like a sick kind of love.
Roland’s eyes were also dazed at this point, as the Soul Gatherer landed in front of him.
The floating and gyrating feathers gradually expanded outward, and the black skull in the middle flew out from the protection of the feathers, the white flames in the pupils of the bones burning more brightly and seemingly erupting. “I read in the book that the Soul Gatherer can expel a person’s soul with the fire in its pupils, so it looks like Roland is out of luck.”
“GKD, GKD[1], I want to see Roland suffer.” “Tsk!”
Some people were excited, and naturally, some people were upset.
Those who had a good relationship with Roland, or those who didn’t want Roland to flop, were already trying to turn off the livestream.
On the screen, the white flames in the pupils of the bony eye sockets were about to spurt out. But at this time, Roland, who still had no focus in his eyes, suddenly extended his right hand.
Magic power converged in his palm, and half a second later, a Prismatic Spray struck the floating black skull.
The black skull was quite fragile.
As if a stone were thrown at an egg, the black skull instantly shattered. The white flames in the pupils spurted in all directions and the expression in Roland and the others’ eyes went from confused and dazed to immediately awake.
“Holy sh*t, what happened.” Li Lin shook his head and subconsciously took a step back. “I was clearly still in the hotel just now and was negotiating a good price with a lamb girl...” Those words came out as they were in the livestream.
After a short silence, the livestream was abuzz.
“I’m so envious... no, blegh, that’s so disgusting.”
“Roland lowers his status by being in the company of such a person.”
“Brothers and sisters, what is the meaning of lamb girl?”
“Strongly urge officials to ban things like brothels or neuter the physical ability of male players in the game. This game will teach people bad things.”
“No, you’re all focusing on the wrong thing. Shouldn’t you be wondering why Roland has suddenly woken up.”
Different people, different genders, with different positions, naturally came to different conclusions.
Of course, some were purely rowdy jeering.
Roland and the others were unaware of what was going on in the livestream, and they all had their hearts in their mouths at this point. All of them had gone through many battles and guessed that they had been mind-controlled. Schuck covered his head and said gloomily, “I didn’t think that with such high mental resistance, my consciousness would be infiltrated... Roland, how did you find out that something was wrong?” As a Saint Samurai, Schuck’s mental resistance was frighteningly high.
The Body of Light could also convert Charisma into various resistances, and his Charisma value was overpowering.
Magic resistances, mental resistance, instant death resistance, and what not were all ridiculously high, which meant that the more handsome and beautiful the Saint Samurai, not only would their damage-dealing abilities be more powerful, but they’d also have special bonuses against various mystical abilities.
Statistically, he had the best overall resistance of any player.
Logically, even if they were to wake up from the illusion, he should be first, but he didn’t expect Roland to be first.
“I threw down three magic spiders earlier.” Roland pointed to three small translucent spiders not far away that were hard to see with the naked eye. “It’s a habit of mine, as you know, so at that time I had two perspectives and knew I was in an illusion.”
Schuck gave an “Oh,” and Li Lin and others were also grateful. If it weren’t for these three spiders, they might have gotten killed once.
Their experience would have dropped drastically.
Although, through exercising with the female priests of the Church of Love for two or three months, they would probably be able to get back the lost experience.
But now... they had a bit of an aversion to that matter between men and women.
They had spent an average of fourteen hours a day for over a year fooling around with a bunch of priestesses at the Church of Love.
As believers in the Love God, the love priestesses had a variety of means to stimulate the potential ability of men to complete the achievement of Master of Time Management[2].
The priestesses were quite beautiful, and also very charming.
But even the most delicious dishes, if you eat them a dozen times a day and then for a year or so would eventually become tiresome.
And at this moment, the livestream was amazed.
“Wait, when did Roland throw down the magic spiders?”
“Damn, I’m a Mage too, why didn’t I know about the magic spider spell? It looks like a moving monitor.”
“It can move? And not be easily detected? I have a bold idea.”
“Don’t have that bold idea. I’m just curious why I haven’t heard of this spell.”
“It might be Roland’s creation. Amongst spells level three and below, there is no such magic spider that acts as surveillance.”
“Roland doesn’t seem to have given this spell to the Goddess of Magic either.”
“Damn, does Roland keep this kind of spell for an ulterior motive? For example, specifically squatting by the lake where there are fairies bathing?”
“Aren’t you guys curious about what loot Roland will earn from taking out this Nether God’s clone?”
That one sentence took the netizens’ eyes and focused them all on the livestream.
After the Soul Gatherer was destroyed, the outer layer of white feathers fell to the ground.
It was a thick layer as if covered with snowflakes.
Roland picked up one of the pieces, and soon the information about this feather appeared before them.
Item: Soul Gatherer’s White Feather
Characteristics: Weak divinity shard, use below Master level, adds a large amount of EXP (1200).
“Let’s split these feathers. Although we are all above Master level, the average level of the players is still only about level six, so we should be able to sell them for a good amount of money.”
Roland said this while showing a delighted smile.
The livestream was kind enough to display the feather’s information on the screen as well, and Roland’s words naturally passed through.
The entire livestream then exploded once again. “Holy sh*t! What the heck, a feather gives so much EXP. F**k, don’t do quests to level up, just eat feathers.”
“Let’s go team up to hunt the Nether God’s clones.” “Hunt the Nether God’s clones? Not to mention whether you can teleport to the Netherworld, are you sure you can resist the mind control? Do you know the magic spider spell? Even if you do, can you break free?”
“Roland is a man, not a god. What he can do, we can do sooner or later.”
“Gee, sooner or later? That’s something you’ll have to talk to the mathematicians about. See if what they understand, you’ll understand sooner or later. Mages nowadays, except for Roland who can create magic, are simply learning and imitating.”
“Seeking contact information for Roland and his friend, we’ll take these feathers.”
“Take them you say, dare tell us your guild name?”
“What’s the use of you guys arguing here, why don’t you go to Delpon and beg his woman, Queen Andonara. Talk with his lady.”
That one sentence woke up countless people. So many people started rushing in the direction of Delpon.
Naturally, Roland was unaware of the situation. He just put up a livestream and didn’t bother to follow what was going on.
The five quickly split the feathers. It didn’t matter who had more or who had less.
Then Roland once again used the stick with Lesser Benediction and headed in the direction it indicated.
Then a low wall appeared in front of them.
All five had a bit of a hard look on their faces.
It was because this city wall was the same as what they had seen in the illusion.
“It can’t be another illusion, right?”
Without hesitation, Li Lin took out his spare small dagger and stabbed it down into the center of his left hand, the tip of the blade piercing the palm of his hand. Blood flowed, and although it was only a tenth of the pain, it was still quite unpleasant.
He plucked out the dagger and said indifferently to Roland, “It hurts. It shouldn’t be an illusion. Give me a healing spell.”
Roland rolled his eyes and waved his hand, casting a white glow.
The blood on Li Lin’s hand quickly stopped flowing, and they looked at the city from afar and were hesitant to go in when they heard other sounds from behind them. The five turned around to find what seemed to be a caravan of people emerging on the horizon.
“Here comes intel.” Roland smiled.
[1] quick, more literally, do it quickly
[2] Meme about Show Lo