The divine bird must have sensed my approach; with a loud shriek, it flew even faster into the sky. The wind continued hissing loudly beside my ears as I grabbed onto the rope tightly to avoid being thrown off by the wind. Inwardly, I was feeling doubtful. I had personally witnessed the divine bird's prowess. For some reason, it wasn't attacking me. It was probably aware of my purpose.

I was brought farther and farther away from Gero City. That was probably the very first time the divine bird had left the city under its protection in hundreds of years. The other mechanical birds must have discovered its departure as well, but the divine bird was at a height too high for the ordinary mechanical birds to reach.

Shortly after, the divine bird reached an altitude high enough that outer space was closer to us than the planet's surface. This was a height the ordinary mechanical birds couldn't reach, and it was also far enough that my shortwave communication channel had lost connection...