Foolish Game of the Gods Chapter 32

Chapter 32: A Story, and the Second Final Gate

"What?"

Bailing behind him jumped at his sudden exclamation.

Cheng Shi said with considerable excitement:

"Bailing, he mentioned a broker!

So is it possible that the guard didn't know who those dwarves were, and only recognized the ring?"

Bailing wasn't stupid. She immediately grasped Cheng Shi's meaning.

If the guard had hired the dwarves through a broker, he shouldn't have known what they looked like or who they specifically were. At the very least, he shouldn't have known all the details.

But the dwarves in the servants' quarters showed no logical errors whatsoever.

They even knew to kill the invading players to silence them.

Bailing's eyes went wide as she said in disbelief: "But… but the answer already appeared…"

Fang Shiqing also chimed in:

"Cheng Shi, a Memory Labyrinth never has a second answer."

Heh. Forbidden spells had never appeared in a [War] trial either, and didn't you run into one last time?

"I recall that the cutesy girl's Rite of Communion rolled a… 5?"

Hearing Cheng Shi call her "cutesy girl," Xu Lu was furious but didn't dare make a sound.

Fang Shiqing pondered: "It was."

"So is it possible that this prophecy was telling us we still had another 50% choice?"

Cheng Shi looked at Xu Lu and said word by word:

"She's 1600 points. Her die has 10 faces. A roll of 5 is exactly half."

"!!!"

Everyone was stunned, but no one refuted it, because what Cheng Shi said did make sense.

Moreover, no one could know the true meaning of a prophecy from [Fate] until the very end.

"But we don't have another piece of evidence or clue to find a second answer. Cheng Shi, there are too many people in the estate, and too many dead ones. Our situation is very passive."

"But at least we have time, don't we?"

Cheng Shi smiled and strode forward:

"I've thought of someone. Perhaps, she is one of the answers."

"Who?"

Bailing followed closely. Fang Shiqing hesitated for a moment, then pulled Xu Lu along after them.

Xu Lu was extremely reluctant to follow, but Fang Shiqing's grip was too tight for her to break free.

Clearly, Fang Shiqing still trusted Cheng Shi and didn't want Xu Lu running off to her death.

But Xu Lu clearly didn't see it that way. The look she directed at Fang Shiqing now carried anger and derision.

The former carry had apparently lost her reason.

A follower of [Time], bewitching people's minds!

Cheng Shi led the group off the second floor and began searching rapidly through the estate.

The banquet guests indeed hadn't left. They still chatted and laughed as usual, as though the Duke's tardiness were routine.

He ignored these brainless nobles and led everyone quickly out of the banquet hall to the original servants' quarters.

Just as everyone was puzzling over why he had returned, Cheng Shi looked at the floor by the doorway and smiled.

Fang Shiqing followed his gaze and noticed that beneath the threshold, some fine sand had been pressed into a shallow footprint by someone.

"This is?"

Cheng Shi pointed at the floor and laughed:

"Soil from the courtyard.

I'd already figured that whoever invited these dwarves, for whatever reason, would definitely come to investigate when they discovered the dwarves hadn't appeared at the right time and place, to see what had happened to them.

So I scattered a handful of fine sand at the doorway.

And now, as you can see, there's a high-heeled footprint from a noblewoman's shoe."

Bailing finally caught on. Whether she was deliberately playing along or genuinely hadn't figured it out, she asked:

"What does that prove? Um, the Duchess was here? The Duchess is connected to that broker?"

Cheng Shi looked at her the way one looks at an idiot. Before he could speak, Fang Shiqing beside him fell into thought:

"It proves the Duchess isn't as simple as we imagined.

Cheng Shi said her reaction to the Duke's death was extreme. But if these dwarves were hired to assassinate the Duke, she shouldn't have appeared here.

If anything, there's only one explanation: she knew the dwarves were coming all along!"

"Exactly!"

Cheng Shi nodded: "As the Duchess, she had recently been paying extraordinary attention to the refugee dwarf circus. That already speaks volumes."

"Speaks to what?"

"I have a hypothesis, but until I find the Duchess, I don't dare assert it."

Fang Shiqing immediately nodded: "Split up and search!"

She pulled the resentful Xu Lu away quickly. Bailing sidled up to Cheng Shi and whispered:

"Big shot, really not hiding this time?"

Cheng Shi clicked his tongue and said with distaste:

"Hide any more and we won't get out. Counting on you won't work!"

Bailing smiled sheepishly:

"Sorry, big shot. I'm too weak."

That sentence, so familiar.

Cheng Shi paused for a moment, looking at Bailing's apologetic face. His gaze softened considerably.

"It's fine. I'm the big shot, aren't I? I can carry you to victory."

Saying this, he strode out the door to begin the search for the Duchess.

Bailing gathered her skirt and hurried after him.

It wasn't until half an hour later that they found the Duchess, who was "out and about," on a small path behind the estate's hillside.

Seeing the Duchess trying to make a hasty departure, the players decisively took down the surrounding guards and blocked her path.

The Duchess glared at these strangers and demanded furiously:

"Who are you? What do you want?

On the lands of Brooks, in the vicinity of the Duke's own estate, you dare attempt to assault the Duke's wife? Are you insane?"

Cheng Shi strolled up to the Duchess and asked with a grin:

"Are you really the Duchess?"

Dilal's expression stalled. She snapped in humiliated fury:

"You will pay for your stupidity!"

Cheng Shi ignored her and continued on his own:

"Apologies, Madam, for taking up some of your time. I'd like to tell you a story. After it's finished, you may leave.

I promise my companions won't harm a hair on your head."

Dilal blinked: "Really?"

"Truly. But you also cannot pursue our offense afterward."

"You… you came all this way just to tell me a story?"

"Yes, respected Madam. May I begin?"

Dilal's expression was highly conflicted, but given the power disparity, she had no choice but to accept:

"Then tell it."

Cheng Shi bowed and said at a leisurely pace:

"What I wish to tell is the story of a group of dwarves corrupted by subterranean faith, who attempted to usurp the town's administrative authority through impersonation and disguise."

The moment those words fell, Dilal bolted backward without hesitation.

Fang Shiqing's expression changed. She quickly drew out a page from her book and flung it into the Duchess's escape path, where countless vines erupted from the ground and tripped her.

Bailing moved with sharp reflexes, darting to her side to tie her up.

But just as Bailing began to bind her, the rope sliced straight through the Duchess's waist, tearing open her skin.

And at the edges of the torn skin, a pair of enormous feet and a bald head came into view.

"???"

"This…"

"A dwarf!?"

Everyone stared at Cheng Shi in disbelief. Cheng Shi exhaled heavily and smiled elegantly:

"You see, that's the story I was about to tell."

Fang Shiqing still couldn't believe it. She asked, somewhat shaken:

"When did you figure it out?"

Cheng Shi thought for a moment.

"Probably… when I recalled hearing in the tavern that they had impersonated many people?"

Fang Shiqing once again felt regret that he had refused the Firelight Bearer's invitation.

Cheng Shi was clearly a high-end [Player], a powerhouse skilled at observing details and reading people's hearts.

Most importantly, from beginning to end, his heartstring melody had never turned dark.

Even when he killed Huang Bo.

"Big shot, why do you keep looking at me?"

Fang Shiqing sighed: "You know what I'm thinking!"

"Look at you talking like that. It's not like I'm the tapeworm in your gut."

Cheng Shi approached the "Duchess" and hauled out the two dwarves hiding beneath the human skin.

The moment the two ugly dwarves saw daylight, they covered their faces and wailed:

"It was Sanbos's idea! He made us impersonate the Duke and the Duchess to control the town! We were only following orders! Don't kill us!"

"I have no interest in killing you. I just want to know: who is trapped in the memory?"

With that, two Hypnosis spells landed on each of them.

This time Xu Lu didn't move her lips, and Fang Shiqing didn't speak either. Cheng Shi had to do it himself.

After he finished questioning, the dwarf who had played the Duchess's lower body exploded with a "bang" into countless points of starlight, condensing once more into a Final Gate.

A second Final Gate!

"This… there really is a second one."

"!!??"

Fang Shiqing looked at the second gate before her, her expression a kaleidoscope of emotions.

"Cheng Shi… are you truly not going to reconsider what I said?"

Xu Lu and Bailing's gazes bounced between the two of them. Cheng Shi smiled casually:

"No, thank you."

He then bowed to everyone and said cheerfully:

"The performance has ended. Audience members, please exit in an orderly fashion."

Though it was a lighthearted interlude meant to lighten the mood, not a single person moved.

Cheng Shi looked at the awkward scene, twitched the corner of his mouth, and prepared to walk off.

However, at that moment, Bailing moved.

She giggled, threw her arms around Cheng Shi's arm, planted a quick kiss on his cheek, then darted toward the Final Gate like a fledgling returning to its nest.

Just as she was about to step through the gate, Cheng Shi suddenly called out:

"Why did you choose Him?"

Bailing's step faltered. She turned back and, with a beaming smile, tossed Cheng Shi a wink:

"Isn't it because I like it?"

With that, she plunged through the gate without a backward glance.

Her answer was a rhetorical question, but it was also an affirmative one.

Cheng Shi heard it and froze for a beat, then burst out laughing.

He wasn't laughing at Bailing's bluntness. He was laughing because she had lied.

As companions who had met by chance yet survived life and death together, he would never pry too deeply into anyone's reasons.

But knowing that Bailing had lied was in itself something worth being happy about.

In this world, staying alive was already hard enough. There was no reason to judge others.

Besides, she had never harmed anyone.

Watching Bailing disappear behind the gate, Cheng Shi's smile was radiant.

But Fang Shiqing's face wasn't looking good. She very much wanted to extend the invitation again, but she also knew that Cheng Shi probably wouldn't accept.

Left with no alternative, she walked toward the Final Gate.

Just before entering, she nudged Xu Lu forward, clearly still not wanting her to end up alone with Cheng Shi at the very end.

However, neither of them expected what came next:

Just as Xu Lu was about to be pushed through the Final Gate, she suddenly began struggling violently and bolted.

She ran several dozen meters, looked at the stunned Fang Shiqing and the head-tilting, puzzled Cheng Shi, and screamed hysterically:

"It's fake! It's all fake! He's lying!

Sister Fang, he's lying!

This whole thing is his scam!

Don't you believe him!

This gate is fake! We'll all die if we go in!"