Foolish Game of the Gods Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Chat Channels: Region, Faith, and Class

Whenever a Special Trial ended, Cheng Shi would linger in the chat channels for a while to gather information.

Amidst the vast and fragmented stream of messages, most were meaningless venting and complaints. Only a small fraction contained valuable information worth a glance.

But whether he remembered what he read depended entirely on his mood.

He opened Region Chat first. Region Chat encompassed players within nearby blocks. Yesterday it had shown 7600+ online, and now only 6400 remained.

The chat displayed only content, not IDs, so no one knew whether the speaker was human or ghost.

"[The Gods] have once again punished the faithless. A new divine kingdom is slowly taking shape. Brothers, sisters, join the divine kingdom and share in divine grace!"

"Feel the grace, embrace the greatness!"

"All is the benevolent bestowal of our Lord. We survivors must all be grateful! Thank my Lord, thank the Gods!"

These kinds of frenzied declarations were the standard rhetoric of the "Descentists." Cheng Shi generally skipped right past them.

Though judging by the tone and manner of speaking, it probably wasn't his neighbor across the way.

"Fuck, a billion dead, the world's going to total shit. If [The Gods] wanted to save the world, why kill so many people? Grateful? Grateful my ass, you massive moron."

"Night of Revelry advertisement. Location: Lemon Apartments, 142 South River Road, entire 2nd floor. 7 zones already linked, massive area. 14 participants confirmed. Friends who want to experience the thrill of surviving together, hurry and join us! Ps. Faith opponents refrain, no followers of [Birth] accepted."

"What, did [Birth] eat your rice?"

"To the person above: you can always make one yourself, no need to share a venue…"

"South River Road, Unit 7, Room 1301. Sister here all alone, scared."

"Don't believe her. I'm right above 1301, she pounds the walls every day, absolute psycho."

"Seeking meds, Grade-A or above healing elixir. Will run class weapon trial in exchange. Urgent. Thanks."

Though many had died, the chat channel was as chaotic as ever.

Cheng Shi only noticed the medication request. Since the Faith Game had no private messaging, he could only type on the public board:

"Med seeker, South River Road or Willow Road?"

The torrent of chat messages instantly buried Cheng Shi's words, but he still caught the other party's reply with sharp eyes.

"Willow Road, high floor."

Cheng Shi's eyebrow rose. He was on Willow Road himself, the highest floor.

"Tsk tsk. Don't tell me it really is the neighbor across the way."

Recalling his neighbor's blood-soaked appearance, Cheng Shi walked to the roof's edge and called out across the gap:

"Hey, you the one looking for meds?"

A grimy head poked out from the large tent on the opposite roof, suspicion and surprise written between his brows. He replied hesitantly:

"Bro, how'd you know it was me?"

Sure enough!

Cheng Shi smiled slightly. "Lucky guess. I've got a Grade-A Prosperity of Yore. Interested?"

The young man surnamed Xie clearly knew his stuff. He stared at Cheng Shi wide-eyed for a long moment, then turned grave:

"You're 2000 points?"

In his understanding, players below 2000 wouldn't dream of trading away an elixir like this to someone else.

Cheng Shi genuinely didn't want to part with it, but he was very interested in the young man's offer to run a dungeon on his behalf. He currently lacked a specific essential tool.

This tool was absolutely critical for his next trial.

Most importantly, he still had enough Prosperity of Yore in reserve.

"Nope. Just happened to pick it up during a trial."

"…"

Looking at the 93 bottles in his personal space, Cheng Shi recalled the good times of being matched with "that guy" during a certain trial.

In that [Prosperity] trial where they were supposed to protect a pharmacy owner, they had teamed up to kill the owner ahead of schedule and loot the pharmacy, preventing the dire scenario of the owner falling into enemy hands. They ended the trial in a manner that was neither reasonable nor legal.

Each teammate was docked 20 Ladder points for it.

But each person also walked away with 120 bottles of Prosperity of Yore.

Tch. Minor loss.

"What do you want? You need a weapon?" The young man surnamed Xie was puzzled. He said with some embarrassment, "I'm not at 2000 yet, so I probably can't get the weapon you want. Grade-A at best."

Cheng Shi was puzzled too. Running a weapon dungeon, especially for a Grade-A weapon, was extremely dangerous. If he was injured, why not rest and recover instead of pushing himself?

Even if the elixir healed him, wouldn't he just get hurt again in the next trial?

Unless he had a way to avoid injury during trials?

"You don't look too badly hurt. Is it really that urgent?"

The young man surnamed Xie pressed his lips together, looking somewhat sorrowful:

"It's Xu Lu. She's not going to make it."

"Who?"

Cheng Shi thought for a long moment before remembering that a girl named Xu Lu lived in an apartment far below the young man's building. Since she was on a different face of the building from Cheng Shi, he'd never seen her. He'd only heard about her from people chatting across the gap below.

Reportedly, she was a Bard who spoke with a stutter.

"You two…"

"She just agreed to be with me… I can't just leave her…"

Holy shit, love really does make people blind, brother.

Cheng Shi could tell the young man wasn't lying. He was sincere. The problem was, the other party definitely wasn't.

If her injuries were severe enough to need a Grade-A elixir to save her life, the delay of posting in a chat channel for meds would have killed her long ago. There was no way she'd still be alive to have someone else shout for help on her behalf.

Cheng Shi hesitated a moment, then decided to give him a heads-up.

It was clear the other party was very grateful, but still insisted on getting the medicine.

"Thank you. I know how to judge a person's character. Just like I can tell that you're not a follower of an evil god."

"…"

"Forget it. No point hiding it from you. She's actually a 'Prophet.' She foresaw the danger of her next trial, so she's preparing in advance."

Cheng Shi froze, blinking in bewilderment.

A Prophet. A Bard of [Fate].

No wonder she was being so cagey about it.

Seeing that he couldn't talk the other side out of it, Cheng Shi tossed the medicine across anyway.

The young man caught it in one hand, thoroughly shocked.

"Aren't you afraid I'll just keep your medicine?"

Cheng Shi laughed casually. "I'd actually prefer it if you did."

The young man surnamed Xie's entire body jolted. He clutched the bottle tightly and made a solemn promise:

"Thank you! I'll go deliver the medicine first, then come back and hear what weapon you need. I'll definitely bring it back for you! My name is Xie Yang!"

He bowed after finishing.

Quite the edgelord.

Just as Cheng Shi was mulling over how to respond, Xie Yang's next action left him completely dumbfounded.

The man rushed to the far side of his rooftop, picked up a fishing rod, hooked the potion bottle, and started lowering the line downward…

"Wait… she agreed to be with you, but hasn't opened a linked space trial with you?"

Xie Yang turned his head and explained with utmost seriousness: "Lu Lu is a sensitive girl. She's not ready to open up everything to me yet. But that's fine, I can wait."

"…"

Good lord. I thought you were a spirited young man, but you're actually a certifiable young man. You actually believe that?

Tsk.

Fate really was a bitch.

Watching Xie the simpering lapdog drape himself over the rooftop edge to lower medicine to the floor below, Cheng Shi clicked his tongue, turned away, and opened the other channels to continue hunting for useful information.

[Faith Channel]

"Created a new drug, Dragon Whip Powder. Boosts Warrior tri-stats, makes the frontline dragon-spirited and tiger-fierce. Works great. Too bad I can't sell it to you guys. Alas, such a pity."

"Saw a girl in a trial, really pretty. Asked her faith, she's [Memory]. Can recount her ex-boyfriend's stories down to the exact number of thrusts. Buzzkill."

"Speaking of which, our Region Chat is full of wailing. Was this trial really that hard? I scammed the NPCs so bad they didn't even recognize their own mother. Easy clear."

"Dying laughing, brother, scamming us is one thing, but don't scam yourself."

"Has anyone noticed the Masks in our hands have wider smiles? Could it be that the more people die, the bigger the Mask's smile?"

"Not sure about that. All I know is that [Fate]'s dice seem to have more and more faces. Ran into a 20-sided one today. Holy shit, probably [Fate]'s [Chosen]."

Cheng Shi frowned and looked at the die in his hand.

The bone-white die was still six-sided, unchanged in the slightest.

But the strangest thing was, the [Deceit] token was clearly a smirking Mask. What exactly was this die in his hand?

He wanted to ask if anyone else's Mask had turned into a die, but he didn't dare.

Lab rats always died first. He firmly believed that.

Forget it. One step at a time.

The Faith Channel was page after page of lies. Only the Class Channel was worth a look.

He had just switched over when he saw a question posted:

"Question for the heavyweights: Grade-A elixir 'The Dead's Contempt,' has anyone seen it?"

Cheng Shi blinked, then immediately laughed.

Looked like this was the flat-chested Nangong.

"What's that? What's the effect?"

"Sounds like a [Death] elixir. What's it for? Life support?"

"1,843 Grade-A elixirs currently cataloged. Never seen this one. What score tier did it drop from?"

"Holy shit, boss, you remember that clearly! Must be a [Memory] heavyweight."

"Nope. Matched into a trial with generators and computers. Got the items, recording is way easier now. Can even use the computer for chat rooms, though the interface is ancient and takes some getting used to."

"…That works?"

"It is indeed life support. Not sure if the big shot who carried us is here. They saved my life and I never repaid the debt. Just wanted to ask what grade of elixir would be equivalent in value."

Grade-A elixirs weren't all equal in value. Nangong was clearly holding onto Cheng Shi's kindness.

Cheng Shi was about to reply with "Meeting is fate" when a message shot across the chat channel:

"I once saw 'The Dead's Contempt' once. Searched for a month afterward and couldn't find it. Person above, where did you see it? In the hands of someone surnamed Cheng?"

Cold sweat suddenly broke out on Cheng Shi's forehead. He muttered to himself that this was getting too close.

Fortunately, the chat channel moved so fast that this message vanished like sand in the sea.

After watching for a while with no follow-up, Cheng Shi breathed a small sigh of relief.

If you walk by the river often enough, your shoes will get wet. I'll need to use a different name for this potion from now on.

Just as he was diligently continuing to read the chat, in a luxury penthouse in another city, a woman reclining in a bathtub silently squeezed the wine glass in her hand.

"The Dead's Contempt? The Dead's Contempt?

…

Someone surnamed Cheng, just how many things do you have that I don't know about?

Could you be His follower?

I'll remember you."