Theater is absurd. Reality is no different.
The absurdity at hand was that Cheng Shi and Big Cat would never know: had they not changed direction, they would have soon t in the very sa stretch of space.
At that point, the fake Cheng Shi and the fake Big Cat would have found themselves in an extrely awkward situation. But as things stood, the ones in an awkward position were the real pair.
The newcors had been taught a lesson. Their "instructors" were naturally delighted.
Hong Lin — the fake one — curled her lips into an amused smile and continued silently blazing the trail ahead.
But her smile didn't last long. Because up ahead, sothing actually appeared. She had anticipated this. She just hadn't expected it so soon.
An enormous log — with no warning whatsoever — suddenly intruded into both their fields of vision and continued to grow. Its scale was staggering. If not for the clearly visible wood grain on its surface, Cheng Shi might have believed, for one harrowing instant, that Origin Itself had extended a finger to roll them flat.
The oppressive weight of the colossal object arriving made every hair on Cheng Shi's body stand on end. His pupils contracted, and he leaped backward, his voice unsteady with shock:
"What is that thing?!"
Hong Lin retreated first too — shifting into a leopard, her speed even half a body-length faster than his. But then she seed to realize sothing, stopped short, and instantly transford into a bear spirit to shield Cheng Shi, her expression grave:
"I don't know..."
"..."
Cheng Shi nearly exploded.
'Lady — at a ti like this, you're still keeping up the act?'
'This thing is obviously radiating massive danger! You ran away faster than I did, and now you're pretending you don't recognize it?'
'Can we at least prioritize survival before trying to pull one over?'
'If you're dead, who are you going to con?'
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched violently. Watching the log continue to grow, he had no choice but to keep retreating, moving faster and faster — clearly intent on putting distance between himself and Hong Lin.
He couldn't tolerate an unknown ti bomb at his side when facing danger of this magnitude.
Hong Lin also realized Cheng Shi had seen through her identity. Since neither wanted to keep performing, she dropped all pretense and instantly vanished from before Cheng Shi's eyes.
Yes — vanished. Disappeared on the spot.
This mind-boggling sight only deepened Cheng Shi's alarm, but it also confird his earlier suspicion: the Real Universe must have chanisms for spatial — possibly even temporal — traversal.
But he had no ti to dwell on it. The log was still "falling." It appeared slow, yet its share of his visual field kept expanding.
Fear was undeniable. Cheng Shi gritted his teeth, pushed his ntal energy to its absolute limit, and used the dice to reverse ti again and again. But his speed was laughable compared to that log.
Before long, he was entirely swallowed by its vast shadow.
In that mont, terror ran rampant.
...
On the other side.
Hong Lin had also spotted the anomaly ahead. One second, the view was an endless, desolate expanse. Then she blinked, and a colossal log was blocking the path they had to take.
"Watch out!"
Big Cat's fur bristled. She instinctively shifted into leopard form and charged straight for the Cheng Shi behind her. In the face of the unknown, her first reaction was to grab her friend and run — as far as possible.
In that split second, she had even forgotten that the Cheng Shi behind her wasn't the real one.
So what reminded her of the truth?
The Cheng Shi behind her was gone.
The fake Cheng Shi had already bolted without a trace!
"!!!"
Hong Lin was livid. She retreated while snarling through clenched teeth:
"Great — the one thing about you that does resemble him is how fast you run!
Don't let
catch you again!"
After snarling out that threat, she rembered she wasn't in a trial — she was in the Real Universe. The fleeing Big Cat instinctively hunched her shoulders and added under her breath:
"And don't co looking for
either. If we fight, it's not a given who'd win."
Perhaps "fate" truly did exist in the Real Universe, and perhaps "It" happened to hear Big Cat's "prayer" — and so "It" acted.
Before long, the sprinting Hong Lin suddenly spotted a figure in the far distance, also running for dear life. And that figure was none other than the Cheng Shi who had vanished monts ago.
Her eyes flew wide. First ca shock — then a taunting smirk tugged at her lips.
She assud the fake Cheng Shi had run the wrong way and been herded back by the terrifying log. What she didn't know was that the Cheng Shi on the other side had thought the exact sa thing about her.
From afar, the two locked eyes. Though they couldn't make out each other's expressions, each could feel the other's contempt.
But those petty emotions were crushed in an instant by the weight of the crisis bearing down on them. Since the other was just as afraid of this monstrosity, that ant they could at least be allies in the business of survival. And so they drifted closer, the instinct to survive pulling them back together.
Cheng Shi couldn't hold back any longer. As his ntal energy began to bottom out, he asked that sa question again:
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Hong Lin snapped: "How would I know! I should be asking you! You're the one who chose this direction!"
This was pure deflection born of fury; but for Cheng Shi, the words landed perfectly — he had chosen this direction.
He was montarily lost for a response.
Good news: there were, in fact, no traps from the fake Hong Lin in this direction.
Bad news: there was a much bigger trap — and it had swallowed the fake Hong Lin too.
Cheng Shi was out of options. He didn't have the "Abundance" Authority. With his ntal energy nearly drained, his eyes darted as a plan ford, and he barked:
"If you don't have an idea, then I'll handle it!
Buy
so ti — I'll take care of this!"
"!!!"
Hong Lin's entire body shuddered in disbelief.
'If you could deal with that thing, you wouldn't be running just as desperately as !'
'Besides — how am I supposed to buy you ti?'
'Go back and throw my life away?'
'If you were the real Cheng Shi, I'd turn around without a second thought. But you're a fake — why should I trust you? Why should I risk my life for you?'
Hong Lin ignored him completely and kept running. She figured that since Cheng Shi was heading this direction, this way was at least safer.
Cheng Shi read Big Cat's expression in an instant. For one fleeting mont, the familiarity was so strong he almost believed this Hong Lin was the real one.
The impersonation was too perfect. Apart from the missing critical information, she was virtually identical to Hong Lin.
But he couldn't be sure whether she was simply refusing to cooperate, or genuinely didn't know. And if she really wouldn't help — why had she run back to him?
He decided to try one more ti:
"I'm not asking you to go back and die. Just pull
along — let
catch my breath.
Once my ntal energy recovers, I can get us both out of this!"
Hearing those words, Hong Lin hesitated.
Honestly, given the circumstances, she had no better plan either. Just running like this would never outpace the shadow of the log.
Her only worry was that once this fake Cheng Shi recovered, he would turn on her — drag her down to buy himself ti and space to escape.
But Cheng Shi's next words settled it entirely.
"If I die, whatever you want from
becos a moot point.
There's no need to push things this far. I can tell you what you want to know."
"ROAR!
You'd better not be lying to !"
Big Cat didn't actually want to learn anything. She only wanted to find Cheng Shi. And so she coiled her tail around him and ran for her life.
Though the leopard tail's crushing grip pinned Cheng Shi in place, at least he no longer needed to burn ntal energy to flee. In the precious breathing room he gained, Cheng Shi snapped into overdrive — not only analyzing what this being could possibly want from him, but also constantly observing the log behind them, calling out optimal escape directions to Hong Lin.
And it was during one of those backward glances — rocking with the sway of the leopard tail — that Cheng Shi went rigid with shock.
Looking at the log as it grew ever larger, revealing ever more of its form, he finally understood what it was.
It wasn't a log at all. It was the arm of an unfathomably enormous puppet!
And he had seen this puppet before — the very sa Leaking World Silent Puppet that had once tried to assimilate him in the Void!
Only now, in the Real Universe, the Silent Puppet was tens of thousands of tis larger than it had been then.
Cheng Shi was utterly stunned. His voice warped with disbelief.
"[Silence]?!"
...
Reviews
All reviews (0)