Chapter 122: The Four Keys
As if the Guardian Turtle understood the reason why Jude forcefully called for it, it loudly bellowed in the direction of their enemy squad.
Roarrrrr!
The bellow was so loud that it nearly destroyed the eardrums of everyone nearby.
Fortunately, Jude, obviously expecting it already, had cast a barrier to protect their ears.
Contrary to them though, their enemy squad wasn't so lucky to prepare a barrier to block off all sounds.
"Ah! My Ears!"
"Damn it! The sound!"
Eventually, as the sound cleared off, they quickly reorganized their squad.
"Sir Damyan, what are we going to do?"
One of the knights asked their leader.
"We hold for now," Damyan signaled his squad to stay and keep watch on how the situation would play out next.
The appearance of a Guardian Turtle was very surprising for him. But he isn't feeling the least bit threatened by it because of the fact that regardless of how gigantic the monster was, he could definitely outrun it if things turned out for the worst.
Although, he is very curious about why Jude called out for such a monster. Is the latter perhaps planning to use it to distract them? If that's truly the case, then they already failed on the mere fact alone that the monster in front of them is a turtle.
Nevertheless, he didn't lower his guard.
The Guardian Turtle quickly swims its way to approach Kayn and the others. As soon as it arrived, it lowered its head as if inviting them to get on top of it.
Kayn and the others quickly hopped on and the Guardian Turtle carefully raises its head up again as it then stared in the direction of Damyan and his squad, full of hostility in its eyes.
Damyan's face turned ugly as he watches everything happen. He was in disbelief as he didn't expect the Guardian Turtle to be an ally of Jude's party. He finally realized that Jude didn't intend to use the Guardian Turtle as a mere distraction, rather he was asking for its help to protect them.
"Retreat a bit," Damyan quickly ordered his squad members to retreat a few meters so that they can create quite some distance from the Guardian Turtle.
"This is truly unexpected," Charles can't help muttering as he watches Damyan's squad retreating.
"Was this your secret all along?" Kayn pretended as if he wasn't assuming this to be the case.
"This is just part of the entire secret," Jude responded vaguely.
"Is there more?" Charles felt excited. "Are there perhaps more Guardian Turtles in this lake?"
"No," Jude shook his head at Charles' ridiculous assumption.
If that was really the case, he wouldn't have had to hide this secret, because even if the entire population of 'The Bridge' knows about it, they would not dare to do anything. After all, Guardian Turtles don't necessarily attack unless being attacked first, and also they barely have anything valuable in their body, and if they take the most valuable loot it would mean conceding the rest. In other words, it's not worth the risk, at all.
"If it's alright to ask you, may I know what the other secrets are?"
"I don't know everything yet, but all I know is, it is related to the method for us to finally leave this god-forsaken place," Jude said solemnly.
Charles' eyes instantly widened in surprise. "What do you mean…"
"Keys…" Kayn muttered.
"You…!" Jude looks at Kayn in surprise. "How did you know?"
"Collect all four keys and one would be able to leave 'The Bridge'," Kayn continued. "However, the keys aren't allowed to reveal who they are and they are also chosen randomly amongst everyone that entered 'The Bridge',"
"Moreover, if one of the keys died, then everyone in 'The Bridge' would no longer be able to escape unless only one person remains,"
It was exactly as Kayn had said; just like every door, one must use a key to open it. The 'Tower' wasn't excepted by such a rule.
The main reason why everyone is still stuck in 'The Bridge' is because they don't know that they have to use a key to unlock the door of the 'Tower. No, to be more precise, they thought of it at first, but they instinctively believed that it shouldn't be that easy since it's related to the 'Tower'.
Kayn naturally knows of this because of Natas. The latter had already told him about the way to escape 'The Bridge' before entering it. However, because they have something to retrieve from this place, he didn't make a move yet.
"Don't tell me…"
"I am not one of the keys,"
But now it's a different story.
Kayn looks at Natas.
"I didn't know,"
Kayn narrowed his eyes.
"I've already told you numerous times. Although I am one of the Gods in the 'Tower', the Gods of all Gods on top of that, it doesn't necessarily mean that I know everything,"
The nature of choosing a key is very random and in the early stage of 'The Bridge', there's no way of possibly knowing about it. So, he didn't bother to look for who they are even back then in the past since it's just going to be a waste of time, especially since events happening in 'The Bridge' aren't as exciting as those that take place inside the 'Tower'.
More importantly, in the past, the people stuck in 'The Bridge' never actually made use of the keys to escape. Instead, they used brute force and destroyed the door of the 'Tower'.
It was very possible to do that as long as one is able to make a weapon that goes above level 50, which is the level cap of 'The Bridge'.
Although such a method would mean that not everyone in 'The Bridge' would be able to escape as some people must stay behind to manage and control the weapon. The reason is that the door of the 'Tower' is indestructible. They can damage it, but it will regenerate very quickly. And the only reason why they were still able to escape was only that the size of the damage could buy enough time to let a few escape every time it gets damaged.
A classic strategy of sacrificing a few in order for the majority to live.
"If you're not one of the keys, then how did you know about its existence?"
"Because the world outside already found a way to get all of you out of 'The Bridge'. They sent me here to help all of you escape,"
"Is that true?" Charles' eyes stared at Kayn full of hope.
"Yes," Obviously, Kayn was only lying. But it doesn't matter even if they got to know about it once they return back to Earth, because he could simply make up more lies over and over again. Or, if necessary, eliminate them so that there won't be a risk of his secret getting discovered. Albeit, that's obviously not going to happen because no one would think that it's possible to reincarnate back to the past unless World President Nicholas reveals his identity to the entire world.
"How can we believe you?" Jude was still feeling suspicious.
"Have you seen someone as young as me in 'The Bridge'?"
"Now that you've mentioned it," Jude has just noticed that Kayn is actually very young to be someone that lives in 'The Bridge' for a very long time. "How come I've only noticed it now?"
"You didn't look closely," That's because he purposely made his face look dirty every time so that it can slightly disguise his actual age.
"That's not important," Kayn turns his attention back to Damyan and his squad. "Now that they've found out that you have a monster friend, what are you planning to do to them?"
"Eliminate them," After all, with this discovery, they'll slowly uncover the secrets of finding the keys. Albeit that's actually good. The only problem is, they might think that the solution to finding the key is to actually kill the Guardian Turtle. And since he can't explain it to them, then there's no way to clarify the truth.
Kayn quickly understood the reason behind Jude's choice and he agrees with it without a second thought. The reason for that is that he doesn't want to be the one to tell everyone in 'The Bridge' a lie. It's okay if it's only Jude and Charles, but it's a different story when it comes to telling a huge number of people.
In the next moment, Jude suddenly jumped to the right side of the Guardian Turtle and started whispering something to its ears.
Natas followed Jude, so he started telling Kayn what Jude is saying to the Guardian Turtle.
"As long as their leader is dead, we can eliminate the rest of those people,"
In other words, Jude mainly wants Damyan killed, and he, Kayn, and Charles would be responsible for the cleanup.
It's understandable though, because clearly with the speed of the Guardian Turtle, there's no way that it would be able to prevent everyone from escaping, especially Damyan. So instead of doing that, it's much better to focus on one target only.
Furthermore, the person considered as a threat is really only Damyan.
After whispering his plan to the Guardian Turtle, Jude quickly went back to Kayn and Charles.
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