In the wilderness, after personally witnessing Nether kill A Promising Tomorrow and steal his A-rank talent, Shadow Clone Technique, Chen Jun and Zhang Long stepped out from hiding.
At this moment, they finally understood Nether's intention.
"My lord, you want to steal the talents of all high-level talent users and then transfer those talents to the people participating in the Divine Tomb dungeon tomorrow?"
"Strengthen our overall power. That way, we'll have a much better chance of winning the Divine Tomb battle tomorrow."
As soon as Chen Jun finished speaking, Zhang Long said excitedly, "Tomorrow, our twenty-eight teams, a total of one hundred and forty people, will enter the dungeon. Compared to Rulebound's side, we already have a huge advantage in numbers."
"And if every one of us is equipped with a B-rank, A-rank, or even S-rank talent..."
"I can't even imagine it! How is Rulebound supposed to beat us in the Divine Tomb dungeon tomorrow?"
There was no denying it, this was indeed Nether's goal.
He instructed Chen Jun, "Next target."
"Alright! I'll make the arrangements right away."
After identifying the next "prey" from the list, Chen Jun and Zhang Long continued carrying out their operation of luring targets out.
That night, Inferno City was far from peaceful.
———
The next morning, Lin Mo was eating breakfast at the dining table in the living room with Ning Xi and Ning Fei.
A message suddenly appeared in the Divine Kingdom Guild's main group chat.
[Ming Yuexin: "@Everyone. Last night, more than a hundred people in Inferno City were attacked in the wilderness. Most of the victims were ranked within the top ten thousand of the Heavenly Rankings and possessed high-level talents above B-rank. In addition, all of the victims lost their talents after being killed."]
[Ming Yuexin: "For the time being, everyone must avoid acting alone, especially those with high-level talents. Report any situation immediately."]
As soon as those words appeared, the entire group chat exploded.
["Lost their talents? What does that mean? Does the killer have the ability to destroy player talents?"]
["Your talent disappears after dying once? That's ridiculous!"]
["Without a talent, isn't that basically the same as ruining your account?"]
["Holy crap! That scared me to death! I logged in right away to check. Luckily, my E-rank talent is still there!"]
After seeing the message, Lin Mo felt a faint sense of familiarity.
'Kill players and steal talents?'
'Why does this feel like something I've seen before?'
Just as Lin Mo was thinking about it, he finished breakfast and returned to his room.
The moment he logged in, he immediately received a message through his clone: Ironblood Guild's president, Ironblood Ruthless, had been attacked in the wilderness last night and lost his talent.
At present, Lin Mo's clone was serving as vice president in Golden Age Guild.
Black Night had been assigned to Ironblood Guild as vice president.
The purpose was to stabilize both sides at the same time.
So this information had come from Black Night's side.
Lin Mo immediately controlled his clone remotely through his mind and asked Black Night, "Ask Ironblood Ruthless if he got a clear look at the attacker's identity and appearance."
Ding!
Lu Ye replied, ["I was originally planning to participate in last night's mission too, but Nannan happened to be discharged from the hospital, so I stayed with her."]
["According to Ironblood Ruthless, the person who attacked them was a High Priest wearing a blood-red cloak. His ID was Nether."]
Buzz!
The moment he heard that ID, Lin Mo felt a sudden shock.
His thoughts were immediately pulled back to his previous life...
One of the world's seven SSS-rank hidden class holders, the second strongest player in the Dragon Nation server, the SSS-rank Judge, Nether.
In the world of Divine Oracle, the value of an SSS-rank hidden class was even higher than that of an SSS-rank talent.
Because in his previous life, there had been nine SSS-rank talent users in the entire world.
But there were only seven SSS-rank hidden class holders.
According to Lin Mo's memories, the core ability of Nether's SSS-rank class, Judge, was that whenever the Judge personally killed another player, he could pass judgment on them, seize their talent, and either use it himself or transfer it to another player.
It even worked on the highest-level talents, including SSS-rank talents.
Of course, it wasn't a permanent theft. Even an SSS-rank class couldn't break the balance of the game.
Talents stolen by a Judge were only temporarily possessed and would return to their original owners after at most seventy-two hours.
There was also a way to undo it: Kill the Judge.
Once the Judge died, all talents he had stolen would immediately return to their rightful owners.
Unless the person whose talent had been taken died permanently. In that case, the talent could remain with the Judge forever.
Even though the effect was temporary, it was still incredibly overpowered.
Not to mention SS-rank and SSS-rank talents, even having ten S-rank talents or ten A-rank talents gathered on a single person was already something extremely terrifying.
And in Lin Mo's memories, "Nether was one of Moon Dawn Empress Xi Yue's generals in the later stages of my previous life. In other words, he served under Ning Xi. He was also one of Dragon Nation's guardians."
"He was noble in character, upright in conduct, and always stood on the front lines defending Dragon Nation's territory. He was also completely loyal to Ning Xi."
"In my previous life, during a selection process, Nine Heavens Divine Realm unfortunately chose Ning Xi. Nether gave up his own life and entered the Nine Heavens Divine Realm in her place. He never returned."
When news of Nether's "sacrifice" spread back then, the entire nation of Dragon Nation even mourned him voluntarily for three days.
Because of this, Lin Mo knew very well: Nether was absolutely a man of loyalty and righteousness.
Kindness and goodness were the words most closely associated with him.
In fact, according to Lin Mo's memories, Nether's SSS-rank hidden class, Judge, had been obtained precisely because of those qualities.
During an early lucky-wheel event, Nether had won an SSS-rank hidden class advancement certificate with odds of one in hundreds of millions.
However, in Divine Oracle, the class advancement quest for an SSS-rank hidden class was far harder than obtaining the certificate itself.
The advancement quest Nether received from the certificate required him to kill one thousand designated NPCs.
When Nether discovered that most of those NPCs were innocent people and righteous individuals, for example:
A ten-year-old girl named Ajiao, who had lost both parents, grown up as an orphan, and survived on help from others;
A retired soldier named Lian Jun, who had lost both legs after being eaten by monsters while defending the main city and protecting its people;
A single father named Lyle, who left the city at five every morning and risked his life working just so his son could eat a hot meal!
Nether resolutely defied the quest requirements.
Not only did he refuse to slaughter those innocent NPCs, he instead helped each of them overcome their difficulties.
As a result, he unexpectedly passed the system's hidden test and successfully advanced into the server's only SSS-rank hidden class, Judge.
A person who couldn't even bring himself to kill NPCs, how could he casually kill innocent people and freely steal their talents?
In Lin Mo's previous life, he had never heard of Nether doing such things.
Nether only killed red-name players guilty of serious crimes.
Or invaders from enemy nations, such as players from the Eastern Nation. While defending Dragon Nation's territory, he would take their talents.
"Why, in this life, is he willing to use any means necessary to obtain talents?"
The only explanation Lin Mo could think of was that his own rebirth had created a butterfly effect and changed the course of history.
At this moment, Ning Xi beside him said doubtfully, "Brother Lin Mo, is it possible that Nether is the 'Boss'?"
"Right before the Divine Tomb dungeon opens, he's stealing a large number of high-level talents. Could his purpose be to deal with you in the Divine Tomb today?"
There was no denying it.
Lin Mo believed that the Nether from his previous life would never have done this.
But in this life, something had gone wrong somewhere.
Since Nether had already abandoned the kindness and goodness he displayed in the previous life, started killing innocent people, and was willing to do anything to take other players' talents, Lin Mo couldn't rule out the possibility that Nether's goal was to strengthen himself, enter the Divine Tomb today, kill him, and take his SSS-rank talent.
At this moment, Ning Xi said worriedly to Lin Mo, "Brother Lin Mo, how about you don't enter the dungeon for now? I'll go in first and check things out. Anyway, I have the Shadow Cloak you gave me. If something happens, I can use Stealth and get away at any time."
"If this Nether really is the Boss, then as an SSS-rank class holder who also possesses all kinds of high-level talents, his strength must be extraordinary."
"What if he really kills you and takes your SSS-rank talent?"
Lin Mo said, "If I don't go, how will he show himself?"
Looking at the worried Ning Xi, Lin Mo smiled and said, "Don't forget. The Divine Tomb is a trap we've prepared for him."
"Not a trap he prepared for us."
"In our trap, he can't beat us." [T/N: The logic behind the statement is so surreal, philosophers are turning in their graves.]
Lin Mo's gaze was firm.
He absolutely could not miss this chance to expose the mastermind behind everything.
As for whether Nether really was the "Boss," everything would become clear once the Divine Tomb opened at ten o'clock this morning.
So Lin Mo and Ning Xi arrived at the Super God Arena together.
After completing today's forty matches and steadily earning 120 Arena Experience, Lin Mo's rank rose from Silver Rank 1 (80/100) to Silver Rank 3 (0/100).
At the same time, Ling Xiao, Qin Feng, and Xia Wanwan's ranks also successfully reached Bronze Rank 3 along with the top players of Inferno City.
Next, they only needed to use three D-rank Promotion Scrolls to temporarily raise their rank to Silver Rank 1.
Thus, the group of five arrived at the entrance to the Divine Tomb dungeon: Divine Ruins.
———
[9:30 in the Morning]
There were still thirty minutes before the Divine Tomb dungeon opened.
At this moment, Divine Ruins was already packed with people.
After all, it was the first Rare Hidden Dungeon to appear within the territory of the second-tier main city, Inferno City.
Even though many players didn't meet the rank requirements and couldn't enter the dungeon, that didn't stop them from coming to watch the excitement.
Lin Mo's gaze swept across the crowd.
He did not find the "Boss."
But it didn't matter.
The person he wanted to see would naturally appear once they entered the Divine Tomb.
They quietly waited for ten o'clock in the morning.
The Divine Tomb dungeon officially opened.
Lin Mo and the other four entered the dungeon.