Book 1: Chapter 198


    We climbed all the way up to the top of the stairs and used our shlights to illuminate the huge bell. When we looked closer, it was even more frightening and huge. There were too many rotten yellow satin strips wrapped around the bell to count, and they were all covered in spells. The top of the bell was covered in sulfur that had formed from the sulfur vapor on this floor.


    The bell was so far away from us that we didnt even have to try at all. It waspletely out of reach. If we had a gun, we could try to shoot the copper chain off of it, but I looked at the structure with my shlight and saw that the copper chain was as thick as my thigh and was hanging on an arched beam. There was no way ordinary guns would break it. Based on my understanding of the structure, it was impossible to break the copper chain, but wed still have a chance if we focused our efforts on the beam.


    Fatty turned to ck sses, "ck sses, youve got good skills. Take the detonator to the beam, blow the beam up, and then jump back."


    ck sses made a gesture, "If you blow this beam up, an ident might happen. Its a copper beam with a stoneyer on the outer ends and copper on the inside. And this beam" I looked at both sides, which were holding up heavy rock formations. This beam was very important in keeping the structure of this towerplete. If it was blown up, the rock formations on both sides would probably copse.


    Fatty nodded, "Ok, I''ll go up and take a look." With that said, he stood up and tried to hook the crossbeam, but he had gotten a little fatter recently and his hands couldn''t reach it. He started to say to Poker-Face and ck sses, "You guys areme. We have a division ofbor here. My upation is a tank (1). You cant umte this kind of"


    But before he finished speaking, ck sses and Poker-Face jumped up at almost the same time, stepped on Fatty''s shoulders, and then jumped onto the beam.


    It wasnt a distance ordinary people could jump. The two of them hung on the beam with their fingers and then pulled themselves up.


    Fatty fell over, rolled down three steps, and started cursing, "You bastards! You always do this kind of thing to me!"


    "Fatty, if something happenster, youll take full responsibility, ck sses said. Do you ept it?"


    Fatty got up, "After looking at your smile, I can tell youve been thinking about it more than I fucking have. Quit messing around and take a look."


    Poker-Face and ck sses exchanged a look before carefully walking across the beam. When they reached the top of the bell, ck sses said, "The copper chain is welded into the copper beam. The beam may not break even if the tower copses." He looked at the copper chain before carefully climbing along it to the bell.


    "There must be a slipknot somewhere, I said. Otherwise, it would be impossible to assemble such a heavy thing at once. Look at where the bell and chain are connected."


    ck sses shook his head and said to me, "Even if there is a slipknot, it has to be inside the bell."


    After he finished talking, he hung there one-handed so that Poker-Face could grab his other hand and use him as a rope to hang down the beam and stick to the big bell. Their movements were so slow and effortless that it was easy to see that they were very skilled and had a good understanding of each other.


    Then, Poker-Face turned and held his hand out to me.


    I stared nkly for a moment, taking a second to realize that the bell was too big. Even with both of their heightsbined, the two of them couldnt reach the bottom of the bell. He was asking me to jump over.


    I looked at the distance and said to Poker-Face, "If you want me to die, you can juste over and kill me directly. How the fuck do you expect me to jump over?"


    Fatty said to me, "I''ll throw you over. There''s water below, so even if you fall, you won''t die. Youll just have to climb up again. Dont worry, it''s not your first time."


    I looked down at the bottomit was pitch ckand said to Fatty, "How about this? I''ll throw you over."


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) I think he means tank as in the gaming terminology. Tanks are basically like meat shields in multiyer games because they distract the enemys attention and draw attacks towards themselves so the other yers can attack. Info here.