Chapter 21: I Know You're Playing Dumb
[Chaos] was the first god of the [Primordial Chaos] Destiny, the prelude to [Primordial Chaos], the madness of disorder, and the sworn nemesis of [Order].
His will held that there were no laws whatsoever governing the world, that the ultimate destiny of the universe should be chaotic disorder. Consequently, players who worshipped Him were often influenced by His will, and their minds invariably carried a touch of abnormality.
If you were to pick the most popular players, followers of [Order] were the undisputed champions.
But if you were to pick the least popular, followers of evil gods like [Defilement], [Annihilation], and [Ignorance] would have to step aside. Followers of [Chaos] would win by a landslide.
Because not only did they rarely help in trials, they actively sabotaged.
Of course, calling it "sabotage" was itself a generous euphemism. Driven by their contempt for rules and their philosophy of trampling order underfoot, they frequently caused "malicious" disruption.
But this "malice" was, from their perspective, actually "benevolence," because they believed they were guiding the trial toward disorder.
And disorder was the "ultimate truth" of the universe.
When dealing with followers of [Chaos], the best approach was not to provoke them. Let them be.
Fang Shiqing quickly skipped past Huang Bo and looked at Bailing.
Bailing also waved her hand, saying listlessly:
"Didn't find any problems. If I had to say something, it's that the men here are all a bit too strapping."
She couldn't resist licking the corner of her mouth as she spoke. "Strapping to an excessive degree."
"Nothing at all… that's not right." Fang Shiqing instinctively filtered out the horny nonsense and lowered her head in thought.
If every corner of a memory scene was unusually clear, then there was only one possibility: the owner of the memory knew every single person, which was why they could perform a complete reconstruction of each individual within the memory.
But based on the canvassing so far, the patrons at the tavern all seemed to be strangers to one another.
How could memories of strangers be so crystal clear?
Could someone be plotting something within the tavern?
As everyone brooded in thought, Cheng Shi boredly raised his wine glass and complained:
"Where are the tavern waiters? The drinks are empty and nobody's come to refill them. Shouldn't they be keeping their eyes on every table at all times, serving customers proactively?"
The moment he finished, Xu Lu across the table shot him a "look at this freeloader" glare of disdain.
Bailing, however, was very much on board. She tossed him another wink and internally slapped a new label on Cheng Shi: hedonistic freeloader.
Fang Shiqing had heard him too. At first she felt a wave of fatigue, concluding that aside from the little Assassin A Ming who was hiding secrets, everyone else in this lobby was just coasting.
But for some reason, watching Cheng Shi peer around searching for waiters, a flash of inspiration struck her like lightning. She slammed the book in her hand onto the table.
"Bang!" It startled everyone.
"The waiters!"
"Huh?"
"?"
Fang Shiqing said with considerable excitement:
"It's the waiters! Cheng Shi's right. Only waiters would be watching every table's customers at every moment, and only they would be familiar with all the patrons. That's why every corner of the memory is so clear, because they already knew everything about this place!"
Xu Lu stared wide-eyed at Cheng Shi. Seeing that Cheng Shi looked equally dumbfounded, her shock diminished slightly.
He probably hadn't expected it either. Likely a lucky accident…
Cheng Shi was indeed performing dumbfoundedness to perfection. He widened his eyes as much as possible, blinked rapidly a few times, and mumbled:
"Did I say something?"
Fang Shiqing cast a meaningful glance at him, then quickly rose to go make contact with the various waiters.
She hadn't skipped the waiters entirely during her earlier canvassing. But compared to the patrons, the waiters spoke far less, and useful information was scarce, so she'd passed over them quickly.
Seeing her move so fast, Cheng Shi offered another helpful reminder:
"Slow down, big shot. The patrons here are all strapping fellows who've had a lot to drink. Their tempers won't be pretty. If you go charging in all hot and bothered and provoke them into a brawl, we'll be in real danger!"
It sounded like he was dragging his heels. Xu Lu, trailing behind Fang Shiqing, flushed with thin anger and looked back. Even A Ming, who had just stood up, shot Cheng Shi an awkward backward glance.
"Cheng Shi, you…"
But these words caused Fang Shiqing's entire body to jolt to a halt instead, another flash of inspiration igniting in her mind.
Human memory was not a purely objective replay. It invariably carried subjective bias.
As the saying goes, "When I observe the world through my own lens, all things take on my colors." That was the perfect description of memory.
If the patrons in this memory scene were universally strapping and muscular, it meant that the Memory Subject had subjectively perceived them as strong when interacting with them.
Working backward from this, the person was most likely very frail, frailer than an ordinary person!
A frail waiter was very likely the answer to this layer of memory!
Fang Shiqing's eyes sparkled. She stole another glance at Cheng Shi. Seeing that he was still playing dumb, she didn't expose him, and instead led A Ming quickly upstairs.
"I remember you said there was a sleeping waiter in the upstairs break room?"
A Ming immediately recalled and answered: "Yeah, tall, skinny, and his leg seemed to have some kind of disability."
"That's him!"
Fang Shiqing headed upstairs without a backward glance. The other two followed closely behind. Seeing that she'd apparently found the answer, Bailing also rose immediately to give chase.
As she passed Cheng Shi, she trailed her fingernail lightly across the back of his hand and giggled:
"Underestimated you, big shot."
At the same time, she added yet another label to Cheng Shi in her mind: smurfing expert.
Cheng Shi smiled and ignored her.
Fang Shiqing led the group to the tightly locked break room. A Ming simply pointed a finger at the keyhole, and the door clicked open.
"How did you?" Xu Lu asked in wonder.
"Class Talent, Finger Key," A Ming replied shyly.
Cheng Shi silently upgraded A Ming's rating in his mind, because this talent was A-Rank, and a particularly hard-to-roll A-Rank at that.
Furthermore, this talent was indeed an Assassin Class Talent, which meant he hadn't lied about his class.
What he'd concealed was his score.
In that case, was his faith [Order] or [War]?
Fang Shiqing strode into the dark room, reached out and tore a page from her book, shook it in the air, and the paper immediately contracted into a lantern that illuminated the entire room.
From within the paper lantern drifted a melodious singing voice: "O Gods~ bring forth the light~, O people~ sing with delight~"
The Erudite Poet's tricks had finally revealed themselves before everyone's eyes.
"Tsk tsk, surprisingly pleasant to listen to."
The voice was unmistakably Fang Shiqing's own. Cheng Shi hadn't expected this English teacher to sing ballads with such charm.
But the door opening and the singing woke the resting waiter. He opened his eyes blearily, saw a group of people standing before him, and said with some alarm:
"If you… need help, you can go find Zado. I'm off duty."
Fang Shiqing smiled warmly at the waiter:
"We came to find you."
"Me?" The waiter grew more afraid. He clutched his blanket tight and stammered: "I don't think I know you…"
"Don't be afraid. We're not here to cause trouble for you."
She then looked back at Cheng Shi and gave him a meaningful glance.
Cheng Shi read her intent and casually fired off a Calming Spell at the waiter, followed by a Hypnosis for good measure.
He was a Priest, after all. Not a single basic skill was missing.
Fang Shiqing smiled in approval and turned back to say:
"Calm down now. Think carefully. Everything you see is merely your memory. This is already the past. You, here and now, should not be lost in memories, correct?"
The waiter's eyes grew increasingly glazed, then he nodded:
"Yes, that's right. I remember now. These are my memories."
"Whoosh…"
"Huala…"
As his words faded, the waiter's entire body shattered like a mirror, dissolving into countless points of starlight that slowly converged into a portal as deep and azure as a mirror's surface.
Correct answer. The players had found the exit for this layer of memory.
Everyone exhaled a long breath of relief. Fang Shiqing raised an eyebrow, signaling an orderly departure.
"Huang Bo still hasn't come up…" A Ming reminded cautiously.
"Leave him. We go first."
Cheng Shi curled his lip and stepped through first.
Before entering, he turned his face and locked eyes with Fang Shiqing. Each read the other's gaze clearly.
Fang Shiqing's said: I know you're playing dumb.
Cheng Shi's said: Abba abba abba.
Seeing the freeloading Cheng Shi claim the lead, Xu Lu stood behind Fang Shiqing counting on her fingers and muttered in her cutesy voice:
"What kind of person is most eager at a time like this."
Fang Shiqing heard this and smiled, but silently roasting in her mind:
"What kind of man would actually like this cutesy act? Silly thing. Poor thing."
Everyone followed suit. A Ming lingered at the rear, conflicted as he glanced downstairs. Only after a long moment did he turn and step through.
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