Cheng Shi returned to the rooftop more confused than ever.
He simply could not make sense of [Ti]'s guidance.
The hesitation in [Ti]'s words clearly told him that to find a path to survival within this experint, he needed to draw closer to [Origin]'s will — to align his own frequency with that of the Creator.
Was it joking?
This entire journey, he had feared [Origin], resisted [Origin], fled from [Origin] — and now he was being told to draw closer to [Origin]?
Wasn't that just accepting his fate? Embracing Fixed Destiny?
But at the very end, [Ti] had also said to walk his own path...
Wasn't that a contradiction?
How could moving away from [Origin] and moving toward [Origin] possibly coexist in harmony?
The Fun God had hidden behind the curtain and laid out a plan of this scale — even going so far as to use [Origin]'s power to show Cheng Shi the despair of a universe reduced to ash. To go that far and then push him toward [Origin]? That made no sense whatsoever.
Not a single piece of logic supported the idea that the Fun God agreed with [Ti]'s suggestion.
Cheng Shi couldn't convince himself. He was left with nothing but confusion.
He asked Brother Mouth, asked his ears, asked every presence on the rooftop that could be asked — he even turned to their neighbor Xie Yang — but beyond a "Did you get dumped?" he received no useful answer from anyone.
[Ti] would never deceive. Every being with enough feeling could sense the love and conviction [Ti] held for this world. Cheng Shi also understood [Ti]'s reluctance to pollute him with its own will — but he couldn't grasp what "drawing closer" was actually supposed to an in practice.
Still, it wasn't a complete loss. At the very least — understanding [Origin] was apparently the absolute prerequisite for finding that path.
Cheng Shi sat in thought for a long ti, then made his decision: push forward. Not a single mont of seeking audiences with the gods could be wasted.
He had a nagging feeling that a few days from now, the Audience eting would bring sothing major. He didn't want to be manipulated again — at least not without understanding why. So he steeled himself and, for the very first ti, attempted to seek an audience with the god he'd never approached:
[Silence].
Among players, there was a widely accepted belief that [Silence]'s followers knew many secrets — whether by intent or by accident, their inability to speak ant secrets constantly flowed toward them.
So as the patron of those "secrets" — did [Silence] know even more?
Perhaps even the Fun God's plan?
After [Death] confird [Silence]'s alignnt with the Fear Faction, Cheng Shi had been eager to ask this "ally" to leak sothing — just this once.
But he was still nervous. The last ti he'd t this third god of [Chaos], he'd nearly ended up as a little puppet before the Leaking World Silent Puppet.
And Cheng Shi hadn't forgotten — sowhere in the Real Universe, a Leaking World Silent Puppet "corpse" was still floating around, feigning death.
What was [Silence] doing out there?
That might actually make a surprisingly useful icebreaker.
So Cheng Shi sat cross-legged on the rooftop and recited [Silence]'s prayer. In the next instant, his vision went dark — and he was pulled directly into the void.
The Leaking World Silent Puppet, towering and unsettling, appeared before him. It was as chanical and expressionless as ever, like a true black hole, absorbing every trace of feeling and expression from the surrounding void.
Cheng Shi had only to look at it for a mont before he found himself completely unable to speak. His mind was full of questions, but his mouth opened and closed without producing a single word.
The silence was profound.
Fortunately, [Silence] really was an "ally." This ti it made no move to "attack" him. Even with the towering Leaking World Silent Puppet looming close, he wasn't being assimilated — his body remained free.
Cheng Shi smiled.
No speech was fine. As long as the body could move, he could find a way to say what he ant.
He began working his arms, using frantic, untrained, barely-coherent gestures that could generously be called sign language, silently asking his questions of [Silence].
And then, in the very next second, all his efforts were rendered completely aningless.
Not by the god before him. By his own mouth.
"·Did you develop Parkinson's?"
The Fool's Lips said this.
"???"
Cheng Shi was stunned.
He hadn't even considered that in this void, in the presence of [Silence], his own lips would produce sound.
He jolted with shock, barely believing what he'd heard.
Wait — Brother Mouth, you can still talk here?!
The Fool's Lips gave a dismissive sniff, answering Cheng Shi's unspoken question.
"·I am a mouth. My only ability is to speak. Just like a certain soone is a clown whose only ability is to make the audience laugh."
"..." Cheng Shi blinked rapidly, thinking: I have a mouth too. Why can't I speak?
"·Probably because a silent clown is funnier than a noisy one. Tell
what you want to ask. I can ask for you."
"!!!"
In that instant, Cheng Shi was deeply moved.
He even found himself briefly grateful for the false Curtain Call — if the Fun God's script hadn't shattered Brother Mouth's composure, how could Brother Mouth possibly be this thoughtful?
Harsh voice it might still have — but the softness underneath it was practically leaking out at every seam and couldn't be hidden anymore.
Long live Brother Mouth!
Cheng Shi's expression turned serious. He spoke quickly in his mind: Brother Mouth, tell [Silence] everything that happened in that trial and ask if [Silence] knows the truth of it.
"·..." The Fool's Lips pursed, then said, "Too long. Rephrase."
"?"
Cheng Shi paused. He supposed that was fair — if it was soone other than himself doing the talking, complaining of fatigue was understandable. So he scaled it back. "Then just summarize — ask [Silence] about its perspective on this 'Variation.'"
The Fool's Lips understood. It imdiately conveyed the ssage:
"·Hey, mute. [Deceit] played the Outer God [Fate] and killed you once. Do you hate [Deceit] for it?"
"!!??"
No —!
By the ti Cheng Shi registered what the Fool's Lips was saying, it was already too late. Brother Mouth's words had fired faster than any machine gun, and by the ti Cheng Shi reached up to cover his own mouth, a complete "story" — no, a complete disaster — had already unfolded before them.
Technically, yes, Brother Mouth had "relayed" his request exactly as asked. But —
This was NOT what he ant by relay it!
You treacherous mouth, and here I thought you'd actually softened up!
Apparently you were the sa as ever — the Fool's Lips that opens its mouth and imdiately gives soone a heart attack!
Ha. And apparently, I was the sa as ever too — still the clown who naively trusted a foul-mouthed liar.
Well, Brother Mouth was right — a silent clown really is funnier than a noisy one...
Just end it all now. It would be simpler.
Cheng Shi let the light fade from his eyes. He dropped his hands, stopped resisting, and prepared himself with the posture of a man awaiting divine judgnt to receive whatever storm was about to break over him.
He was certain he was about to beco a puppet again — he just didn't know who would co save him this ti.
But events didn't unfold the way Cheng Shi expected. No matter how long the defeated clown waited, the punishnt he'd braced for never ca. He blinked, confused, and looked up at the Leaking World Silent Puppet — only to find that it had looked exactly the sa from the very beginning. It hadn't changed at all.
No expression, no assimilation, no response. Just the sa as it always was — silent, still, eternal.
Cheng Shi blinked again, puzzled.
If [Silence] had no desire to express, then why had it answered his prayer and granted him this audience in the first place?
He was still thinking it over when Brother Mouth got back to work.
"·Hey mute, speak up. What kind of mute just... stays mute?"
"..."
Cheng Shi's face went rigid. He trembled slightly as he turned his gaze toward the Leaking World Silent Puppet's eyes — and when he saw those eyes flicker ever so faintly in response to the Fool's Lips' challenge, every last part of him went numb.
Just die. That would solve everything.
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