Foolish Game of the Chapter 1139: You Are the World's Answer

"Aren't we already colleagues?"

Cheng Shi's eyes rolled as he argued: "Teammates traveling together in a trial with different objectives—isn't that basically colleagues from the sa company working on different projects?"

The Prisoner's expression stiffened: "You're going back on your word?"

Cheng Shi spread his hands with a smile:

"How is this going back on anything?"

"I only said I'd consider it after you finished reading the file. Well, I've considered—and the Torchbearers aren't for ."

The Prisoner's eyelid hamred. He felt like he was looking in a mirror.

"Why won't you join?"

Seeing how stubborn The Prisoner was, Cheng Shi asked curiously: "Why do you insist I join?"

"Because I believe you're the answer to this world. Only if you join the Torchbearers will the Torchbearers have any hope of carrying the fla forward!"

"!!??"

Hearing this, Cheng Shi's expression changed. Every look on his face vanished as he fixed The Prisoner with a heavy, searching gaze—trying to determine whether the man was spouting nonsense or actually knew sothing.

'He can't possibly have mories of the Real Universe. Otherwise, why would he suddenly say sothing like that?'

The incident at the 0221 Experint Site had quickly boosted his reputation, but nowhere near enough to earn him a title like "the world's answer."

Besides, The Prisoner wasn't a Joker. He had no idea about the truth of the universe, and the Jokers would never leak a secret this life-or-death. So for the mont, Cheng Shi couldn't think of a single reason that would lead to such a statent.

Except pure bluffing.

But the bluff was terrifyingly precise—hitting Cheng Shi's exact weak spot and carrying an unmistakable flavor of "fixed destiny." That's why he was now wondering whether The Prisoner had sohow retained his mories.

Yet that seed impossible. Even the gods' mories had been jointly erased by the Fun God and Ti. A mortal—one who hadn't even been at the storm's epicenter—how could he have survived the world's destruction, witnessed that scene, and still have mories of it?

If the one retaining mories was his Benefactor, Silence... that might make a little more sense. But then again, Silence had personally moved against Cheng Shi before. Logically, He could be on either side, and if Silence truly had retained mories and shared them with The Prisoner...

'That makes no sense at all.'

At this point, his speculation was no different from wild guessing. It was more rational to believe The Prisoner had just said it offhandedly to trick him into joining the Torchbearers.

But what Cheng Shi didn't know was that his wild guess was at least half right.

The Prisoner had indeed co for Cheng Shi—but not for Cheng Shi the player. He'd co for...

Yu Xi!

The Fla of Hope had moved fast. After parting from Cheng Shi, he'd casually dropped Yu Xi's divine na during a conversation with Qin Xin, subtly hinting that the success or failure of the Torchbearers' God Creation Plan might hinge on this Deceit Envoy.

Qin Xin had been startled to hear the na—he hadn't known a Servant God lurked within the Void path. But thinking about it, he found it understandable. Of course Deceit's Envoy would be shrouded in mystery.

To learn more about this unknown Envoy, Qin Xin gave an assignnt to The Prisoner—soone he'd never before given any orders to.

He felt that among the Torchbearers' current ranks, very few could investigate an Envoy. The Prisoner happened to be an unusually suitable candidate.

The Prisoner was thrilled. The mont he received the mission, he felt he'd finally earned recognition. His motivation was sky-high.

But investigating a Servant God no one had ever heard of was staggeringly difficult. He wasn't the intel-rich History School. So the clever Ascetic Monk devised two approaches:

One—rob the History School. Two—go ask his Benefactor directly.

The first thod failed. He did manage to get matched with a key History School figure in a trial, but Zhen Xin saw through him imdiately and conned him instead.

As it happened, the History School was also investigating Yu Xi. So Zhen Xin goaded The Prisoner into asking his Benefactor himself.

The Prisoner was many things—unlucky at tis, yes—but brave, without question.

He actually went. He plainly stated his desire to learn about Yu Xi, using it as his prayer to request an audience.

To his utter astonishnt, the colossal Leaking World Silent Puppet actually granted him an audience!

Though one god and one mortal stared at each other in the void without a word, silence could hardly stop The Prisoner of all people. The Silence follower started babbling right in front of his Benefactor's face.

"Lord Benefactor, I know You like to keep everything bottled up inside. But that's fine—I can speak on Your behalf."

"I am Your mouthpiece, the channel through which You express Your heart to the world."

"I'm searching for information about the Deceit Envoy Yu Xi. You must know about Him. The fact that You granted

an audience ans You're willing to let

approach Him. So where can I find Your guidance?"

"Want to spell sothing out using these puppets? Or assimilate

into a signpost and then un-puppet ? Or just throw

sowhere I'd bump into Him?"

"None of those work? Let

think..."

"The History School knows about Yu Xi, but they won't tell . Those Zhen sisters are both rotten to the core—no chance of getting the truth from them. But..."

"Hey, wait—if the Zhen sisters know about Yu Xi's existence, then other people might know too. Could You give

a nudge? Send

to soone in the know so I can feel them out?"

"Who knows—maybe I'll even convert Yu Xi to our Silence faith!"

Whether it was that last line that did it or not, the massive Leaking World Silent Puppet shifted ever so slightly—and hurled The Prisoner out of the void.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in this Folly trial.

So from the very first mont he saw Cheng Shi at the start, The Prisoner's instincts told him: the answer he sought lay with this brother-in-law.

And logically, since even Zhen Xin knew about Yu Xi, Cheng Shi—as "family"—had no reason not to know. So he followed his gut and began his campaign to get close to Cheng Shi.

And this line about being "the world's answer" was the ultimate probe—born from combining his guesses about Yu Xi with what Qin Xin had revealed about the God Creation Plan.

Cheng Shi's reaction alone told The Prisoner everything he needed to know.

This man definitely knew sothing—especially about that Yu Xi who could aid the Torchbearers!

Cheng Shi also knew his reaction had leaked information. But he couldn't help being shocked, because the statent was too perfectly "fated."

He recovered quickly, however, and pivoted into an act:

"Sorry to disappoint—you're wrong."

"I don't know how to pass any torch, and I have no idea how it's done."

"If you absolutely insist on connecting

to fire, then all I can tell you is: I know how to start one. Specifically, a big one!"

With that, Cheng Shi produced a lighter from his personal space, lit the file in his hand, and tossed the burning pages at the curtains behind him.

Flas quickly raced along the flammable fabric, spreading in every direction, making the already bright study even more blindingly vivid.

The Prisoner's eyes went wide at the spectacle:

"If you ca here specifically to find clues, why are you burning them all?"

Cheng Shi curled his lips, gazing toward the courtyard with a cryptic smile:

"You're the one who kept whispering 'pass the torch, pass the torch' in my ear. If I can't see any fire, how am I supposed to pass it?"

"When you think about it, this is

getting closer to your side."

"Hmm... good point." The Prisoner nodded thoughtfully. A second later, right in front of Cheng Shi, he produced a barrel of gasoline.

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