Foolish Game of the Gods Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Pinched-Voice Girl's Prophecy

Cheng Shi's gaze lingered on Bailing a touch too long. Combined with the perverse grin tugging at his mouth, it gave Bailing the wrong idea.

She smiled meaningfully and tossed him a wink, thinking she'd run into a kindred spirit.

But the moment her Sensory Tracking activated, she found that the emotions radiating from across the table contained zero desire. Clean as a blank sheet of paper. She couldn't even place a marker.

Her smile remained fixed on her face, but inwardly she slapped a label on Cheng Shi:

Eunuch or gay.

Naturally, Cheng Shi was oblivious to all of this. Realizing his breach of etiquette, he withdrew his gaze.

This lobby was interesting.

Three men, three women; three Bards, three non-Bards; three with glasses, three without.

Truly symmetrical.

To be fair, though, the Bard class leaned heavily toward support, and the freeloaders within its ranks were genuinely plentiful.

The strong ones were strong indeed, top-tier support specialists that everyone praised after trying.

The weak ones were genuinely useless, pure deadweight.

Unlike Priests, whose talents, however poor, could still squeeze out a heal or two, Bard class skills were inherently weak. Their capability depended entirely on their talents.

With bad talents, the buffs they provided could drive people insane.

To use an imperfect analogy: in a battlefield where killing was like mowing grass, your side's Bard belts out a song that grants your soldiers a buff for a ravenous appetite.

Call it a buff? Sure, it's technically a buff.

Call it useful? What use is it? So they can gnaw a couple extra mouthfuls of the enemy?

Absolutely pointless.

But based on the current situation, at least this curly-haired English teacher looked like a reliable one.

"I haven't detected any opposing faiths. To improve efficiency, I'll lay my cards on the table."

Fang Shiqing smiled and produced a book, placing it on the table.

"Peering through to the essence, walking toward Truth, I am His follower."

A Bard of [Truth], an Erudite Poet.

A phenomenal class that could write skill books into pages and use them at will.

A Ming stared at her wide-eyed, then turned to look at the [Primordial Chaos] old man, his face tightening.

"You're certain he doesn't follow [Ignorance]?"

Fang Shiqing smiled and nodded first, then added with a note of gravity:

"The situation may be somewhat complicated, but I trust everyone here possesses a spirit of cooperation. Within [Memory]'s labyrinth, the more people there are, the higher the efficiency, isn't that right?"

"Sister spoke beautifully. I suppose there's no need for me to introduce myself either. Whatever you're imagining in your heads right now, that's exactly who I am."

Bailing smiled in agreement, then drained the last drop from her bottle.

"Let's get started while my desires aren't running too hot. I can still play a supporting role for everyone."

With a 2000-point Bard setting the tempo, Cheng Shi dutifully settled into his role as a freeloader.

The objective of a Memory Labyrinth was typically to unravel the interwoven memories, find the owner of the final memory, and use "it" to exit the labyrinth.

In plain terms: determine which layer of memory you were currently in, then crack each layer in sequence until the endings converged.

Even simpler: finding the exit in Inception.

Everyone knew the layer they currently occupied couldn't possibly be the final puzzle, so they all prepared to complete their respective [Rites of Communion] before searching for clues.

Seeing Cheng Shi keeping his head down and saying nothing while teammates began to rise, Xu Lu suddenly spoke up in her cutesy voice:

"I… I have a clue."

Fang Shiqing raised an eyebrow and, wearing an expression of amusement, glanced at Cheng Shi first.

She seemed to possess an uncanny ability to judge the relationships between people. She had detected a subtle connection between the two.

"What clue?"

"A follower of [Existence] hasn't mentioned having a clue, yet a follower of [Nihility] claims one first. You're a… Prophet?"

"Ssss, headache."

Xu Lu pressed her lips together and nodded with visible conflict:

"Yes, I'm a Prophet. I saw a scene that will happen today. This might be very helpful for finding clues, since we only have twelve hours."

A Prophet could foresee the near future by rolling dice, but they could only see one thread among the countless fates, and there was even a chance of failure.

Fate was ever-shifting. No one could be certain that the foreseen future would actually arrive.

But that didn't stop it from serving as a guide.

A Ming blinked. "When did you complete your [Rite of Communion]? Just now?"

The [Rite of Communion] for [Fate] was divination: rolling the Die of Fate in your hand.

But the result of this divination was highly cryptic. Usually, players only connected the rolled number with the outcome after the trial ended.

Xu Lu had quietly rolled the Die of Fate on her thigh the moment she woke up. The result was 5. She was somewhat afraid this number foretold the final survivor count, so she had to figure out a way to guarantee her own safety.

Even though this [Existence] player across from her might not be of an opposing faith, even though Priests had low damage output, even though his score was lower than hers…

She didn't want to take risks.

"Yes, my score isn't high, and I'm not clever. I need to team up with someone to explore together so I don't drag anyone down…"

This was clearly a negotiation. Cheng Shi smiled and said nothing. Bailing rolled her eyes. Huang Bo was still scratching his head.

A Ming, ever the warmhearted one, offered an opening: "Then you…"

Xu Lu said nothing and looked at Fang Shiqing.

This thigh was very thick. Everyone could see that.

Fang Shiqing smiled and didn't refuse.

Xu Lu exhaled in relief and continued in her pinched voice:

"There are two prophecies in total. Yesterday I saw someone die today, and the roll was 9. Just now, I saw a woman's hand wearing a ring lift a teacup, and the roll was 4."

"You're 1600 on the Ladder, so your Die of Fate probably has only 10 faces?"

Xu Lu nodded.

"Was the person who died male or female?"

Xu Lu shook her head, her face grim: "Fate's revelation wasn't clear. I only saw someone lying in a pool of blood…"

The higher the number, the greater the probability of occurrence. Which meant it was extremely likely someone would die today.

Everyone's expression visibly darkened because of this prophecy. A Ming in particular cast a panicked glance at Huang Bo across the table.

As for the woman…

Cheng Shi surveyed his surroundings and noticed that aside from their own table, the tavern didn't seem to have many women.

Even the ones present, the tavern tables didn't appear to have teacups.

Perhaps this scene corresponded to one of the deeper layers of memory yet to come.

"Time is tight. Don't guess blindly. Focus on investigation. Complete your respective [Rites of Communion] first. Regardless of whether you find clues, regroup in one hour. Let's calibrate time now. Everyone has a watch, right?"

Fang Shiqing rolled up her sleeve, revealing a delicate ladies' wristwatch, and continued:

"I noticed the sunset outside the window has just dipped below the horizon. Based on previous [Memory] labyrinths, there should be a 10-to-15-minute preparation period. If we subtract that time and anchor this moment as 12:00 with a countdown, does anyone have a problem with that?"

Seeing the others begin calibrating, Fang Shiqing crisply tucked away her watch and began preparing the [Rite of Communion] for [Truth].

But just then, Cheng Shi smilingly produced six pocket watches and distributed them to everyone with a grin.

Watching Xu Lu's eyes across the table grow wider and wider, he said with loaded meaning:

"If nobody minds, it would be better to use my pocket watches.

I've already anchored the time. 12:00 is the moment we entered the trial, and I've calibrated every watch. Each one will chime at five minutes, three minutes, and one minute before the hour. Everyone, please mind your physical condition…"

This entire speech was copied verbatim from Cao Sansui's introduction. It wasn't that Cheng Shi had nothing else to say, but rather that the [Time] he currently "believed in" was also stolen from him.

Having already stolen the man's faith, stealing one more speech was hardly excessive, right?

Memory returns to the previous trial, inside the Wood Elf treehouse where everyone had been knocked out. Cheng Shi had grinned wickedly as he rummaged through every person's pockets, extracting their pocket watches and nudging the time springs so that each watch was exactly one hour behind.

Then, to be safe, he had maintained solo vigil outside with nerves taut, only pretending to wake up alongside the others when everyone began stirring, sharing "sleeping insights" with the group.

In doing so, he had deceived everyone.

He had also deceived the Time Battlefield.

Because the Time Battlefield had indeed opened on an hour mark and ended on an hour mark.

It was just that this hour mark was one hour earlier than the Time Walker believed.

And so…

Today, Cheng Shi was a follower of [Time]: an Amnesia Doctor.