Chapter 40: Like My Adam's Apple? It's Yours
2502?
Hearing that score, the fire in Cheng Shi's heart was instantly doused.
Yet another 2400+, even reaching 2500 points.
Good news: plenty of heavyweights.
Bad news: way too many heavyweights.
The scores in this lobby seemed excessively high.
And he was only…
What was it again?
A Memory Traveler was a Mage of [Memory].
And [Memory] faithfully recorded everything that happened, making it the mortal enemy of [Deceit].
With such an opponent present, claiming Cheng Shi felt zero unease would be a lie.
But to say he was terrified wouldn't be accurate either.
After all, it wasn't as if he'd never encountered players at this tier. They were just rare.
Du Xiguang was very tall, at least 1.9 meters. His glasses made him look refined and bookish, but the flesh and blood beneath his trench coat clearly carried considerable power.
Du Xiguang, [Memory], Mage, 2502
Cheng Shi's gaze swept briefly past him before settling, without a trace of change, on the dagger-wielding young lady.
"Yun Ni, Silent Apostle, 2491."
Huh?
She was actually a follower of [Annihilation]?
[Annihilation] was the third god of the [Corruption] Destiny, the tail end of descent, the collapse of all living things.
He firmly believed that life would ultimately disappear, that the universe could not escape destruction, that everything would pass away, and all would eventually return to stillness and silence.
Thus, His followers, influenced by Him, often regarded life with utter indifference.
In their eyes, survival was nothing more than a process leading toward disappearance, and death was merely the prelude to all things' silence.
The purpose of the world's operation was simply to await the final judgment, and then, under His gaze, crumble into dust.
Who would have thought that such a fresh-faced, even somewhat lively girl would worship [Annihilation]?
Oh right, she was an Assassin!
A Silent Apostle was an Assassin who worshipped [Annihilation].
That made far more sense.
Assassins were all contrast freaks.
Yun Ni, [Annihilation], Assassin, 2491
Cheng Shi chuckled inwardly and looked to the next person.
The one who had knocked on his door.
This long-haired handsome man who had changed into hotel clothes had eyes that were exceedingly cold. His narrow gaze made no effort to conceal the contempt he held for everyone else.
Sorry, I despise all of you equally.
That was the vibe.
As for his identity, Cheng Shi actually already had a guess.
"Wei Guan, Fool Hunter, 2450."
Sure enough. Fool Hunter, a Hunter of [Ignorance].
[Ignorance] was not actually ignorant. On the contrary, He considered Himself closer to the truth than even [Truth].
Because He had drawn too close to the truth, creating a disconnect with all things in existence, He believed that all other beings in the world were foolish.
That was His true will.
He believed: all life is foolish, all civilization is stupid.
And His followers inherited this viewpoint from their patron with great fidelity. As a result, all [Ignorance] players consistently preferred to look down on people through their nostrils.
From the moment they began worshipping their patron, their minds became more active than other players'. Their brains spun faster, and their knowledge accumulated more abundantly.
Compared to followers of [Truth], apart from their insufferable attitude, both their existing knowledge base and their capacity for new thought were top-tier. Their strength was not to be underestimated.
Wei Guan, [Ignorance], Hunter, 2450
Cheng Shi silently observed as the group of heavyweights finished introducing themselves. When the turn finally came to him, his brow furrowed.
Three men and one woman, plus himself: five people in total.
Where was the sixth?
Wei Guan seemed to read Cheng Shi's thoughts. He coldly snorted and turned his gaze toward the end of the corridor.
Cheng Shi and Yun Ni, the last two to emerge, followed his line of sight. There, bare-chested and muscular, a brawny man stood without a sound, eyes closed and expression blank, conserving his energy in silent meditation.
Cheng Shi's heart jolted. He immediately understood the situation.
[Silence]!
He was a follower of [Silence].
From the divine name alone, the nature of His Rite of Communion was self-evident.
Players who chose to follow Him had, from the moment the [Faith Game] officially began, essentially abandoned speech.
They trailed, observed, listened, and pondered. The one thing they did not do was communicate with others.
They lived like solitary monks.
And the muscle-bound brother at the end of the corridor looked distinctly like an Ascetic Monk.
An Ascetic Monk, a Warrior of [Silence].
X, [Silence], Warrior, X
Wei Guan spoke again, confirming Cheng Shi's guess.
"An Ascetic Monk is not worth wasting time on."
"…"
Even Cheng Shi, who was well accustomed to followers of [Ignorance], wasn't particularly comfortable with this level of disdain.
Probably no one enjoyed having an acquaintance periodically belittle them to their face.
Especially since this trial spanned a full seven days, making time extremely abundant.
Cheng Shi spread his hands and smiled, saying casually:
"Cheng Shi, Sanity Corruptor, 2401."
The moment those words fell, Fang Jue's eyebrow rose in surprise, while the others frowned slightly.
Sanity Corruptor: a Priest who worshipped [Chaos].
…
Time rewinds to the previous trial.
The moment Cheng Shi killed Huang Bo and severed his head.
Far away in the first act, A Ming immediately died as well.
The story of the Executioner and the Dissonant Lyrist should have ended there.
But in the final second before A Ming's soul dissipated, Cheng Shi snapped his fingers.
That snap represented an Amnesia Doctor's true contempt for death.
He made death forget A Ming.
State Rewind!
Cheng Shi had secretly recorded everyone's condition at the very first hour mark of the first act.
In that pre-death moment, Cheng Shi had deceived the smugly certain Huang Bo, making him believe that both he and A Ming had perished together.
But after Huang Bo died, he used Rewind to revive A Ming.
Death took the follower of [Chaos], carrying away his confusion and unwillingness, making him disappear from the world.
The follower of [Order] was allowed to scrape by alive.
And so today, Cheng Shi was a follower of [Chaos]: a Sanity Corruptor.
…
In truth, the talent Lie Like Yesterday didn't rigidly lock onto "the most recently deceived follower."
In other words, as long as Cheng Shi wished, he could freely choose the faith of any teammate he had deceived in the previous trial.
Yet he still firmly chose [Chaos].
One had to know, [Chaos] was the mortal enemy of [Order].
Furthermore, the reputation of [Chaos] followers was generally poor. Very few people liked them.
But it was precisely for this reason that Cheng Shi chose Him.
Because a more controversial topic would divert everyone's attention.
That way, everyone would focus on his faith, and the score he fabricated would naturally be subconsciously overlooked.
In a lobby full of 2400 and 2500 players, Cheng Shi couldn't honestly tell them he was at 2100.
The outcome of doing so would be singular: the moment he stated his score, the "Fool Hunter" before him would hunt him down without a second's hesitation.
After all, an excessively low score was, in the eyes of a follower of [Ignorance], a form of stupidity.
And Fool Hunters specialized in hunting stupidity.
Underreporting one's score could conceal true strength. Overreporting could preserve one's life.
Such was the charm of Deceit.
Cheng Shi had understood this since childhood.
But even after accounting for all of this, the unexpected still occurred.
Before the Jurist Fang Jue could even comment on Cheng Shi's identity, the Assassin young lady who'd had prior contact with Cheng Shi flash-stepped directly in front of him. Her gleaming dagger once again pressed against his Adam's apple.
Cheng Shi blinked in mild surprise, then laughed without a care in the world:
"You like my Adam's apple that much? Want it?"
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