Foolish Game of the Chapter 1419: Deceived Again

A Wise Man had no need for emotion. Yet a Wise Man had emotion all the sa.

Though Wei Mu had never spoken of it, he was by no ans the kind of person who severed himself from the world and sneered at all life from on high.

Whether it was Jie Shu, Sun Miao, Galusha, or any other Folly follower — all of them bore traces of Folly's nature, and in certain situations still looked down upon the foolishness around them.

Yet Wei Mu never had. His contempt seed reserved for Folly alone.

That also ant he didn't hate this "foolish" world.

When he praised Cheng Shi's deep affection for the world, the subtext was that he admired such feelings — and perhaps harbored sothing similar himself.

Perhaps it was because Folly's act of hiding His Authority had turned Wei Mu into one of the world's living beings, granting him a "life" wholly different from an Authority's existence. Or perhaps he, too, had poured blood and effort into searching for the world's truth and future, and the sunk cost had crystallized into a peculiar attachnt. There could be many reasons. But with Wei Mu's departure, none would ever be known.

The Wise Man understood efficiency best, and so he left without hesitation.

But precisely because he understood efficiency too well, certain truths still being concealed were stripped bare before Cheng Shi's eyes.

Deceit!

Was He truly searching for an answer?

If this was the Creator's experint as Cheng Shi suspected, then the true answer absolutely could not lie within the Real Universe — because Variables appearing there should be eliminated, lest they contaminate other experints.

So His departure was most likely a pretext. And He...

No — Cheng Shi had clearly seen Him in the Real Universe. Those unforgettable cosmical eyes: no star-point of Origin remained in them, only the spiraling vortex of Deceit. That could not possibly have been fake!

'I'm overthinking.'

'There's still a chance.'

"..."

Though he was thinking it, Cheng Shi's face held not a trace of joy or hope.

'My Benefactor, I was never able to learn Your talent for self-deception.'

No matter how many excuses he fashioned, here and now, he couldn't fool himself.

The Deceit he'd encountered in the Real Universe was definitely real. But that didn't an He belonged to this world.

In an Experint Ground containing countless slice universes, the existence of similar — even identical — samples was hardly surprising. So even if those eyes held no star-point, Cheng Shi couldn't confirm that the figure was his Benefactor.

Moreover, Deceit had previously ventured into the Real Universe while still carrying Origin's power. Cheng Shi could well imagine that a star-eyed Benefactor would never roam so brazenly beneath the Creator's gaze carrying the Creator's own energy. The most likely approach was to voluntarily conceal those star-points and traverse the Real Universe discreetly.

And that opened an even more terrifying possibility: which world, which tiline's Deceit had he encountered?!

Cheng Shi was filled with regret. He felt he should have thought of all this far sooner. But he had longed so desperately to see the Benefactor in the Real Universe that the mont he ran into Deceit, the surge of excitent, joy, and overwhelming relief had swept away every doubt.

Only when he began questioning himself, questioning the experint, questioning Origin... did these possibilities finally surface. And even then, he had refused to believe, refused to dare believe, silently deceiving himself.

And now, Wei Mu had shattered everything with a single sentence: "Deceit sheltered you well. Unfortunately... He wasn't very kind to Himself."

Ha.

Why?

Deceived again...

'How frustrating — why am I always the one being deceived?'

'I am Your follower. The sole walker of Void. The Clown the Fear Faction pushed to center stage. The Fixed Destiny who followed Your every stride, nervous and uncertain but never once falling behind.'

'I trusted You so completely. And yet You keep deceiving .'

'Is a Clown simply fated to be fooled?'

'Heh. I, Cheng Shi, truly am a clown.'

Cheng Shi clenched his fists. He gritted his teeth, swallowing back every word in his mouth and every drop of bitterness in his eyes.

'The dream must end now.'

He smiled and wiped away the last tear from the corner of his eye.

The Clown had lost his shelter. From here on, it was the Clown's turn to shelter the world.

The Fear Faction's will. Void's dying wish. Deceit's grand plan. The world's future. All of it was in Cheng Shi's hands now.

His expression hardened. He drew out his mask and a cascade of dice, flinging them skyward. The mask hung suspended overhead. The dice rained down like a shower.

The scene was a mirror image of a certain figure behind the curtain, surveying innurable worlds. Watching the ceaselessly spinning dice, Cheng Shi fixed his gaze and sank into thought.

He needed to make a conjecture — a conjecture about the world's future!

In this mont, Cheng Shi stepped into his own role — no, he should say he stepped into Origin's!

Assu the fear he least wanted to face was true. The world was the experint. The experint was the world. Then a conclusion naturally followed:

Origin was Fixed Destiny. Fixed Destiny was Origin.

He and Him were, if not identical, at least infinitely similar — their pasts all but carbon copies. Otherwise, Cheng Shi would never have arrived here.

Then the question arose:

He had already thought of everything — glimpsed the past from the present. So if he knew the world had no answer, knew the experint could only be an endless continuation of suffering, why had the other him launched this experint in the first place?!

The experint's original intent may have disregarded the Cheng Shi inside it's feelings. But once one realized all of this, would one truly continue so heartlessly?

The suffering of countless Cheng Shis was still vivid in his mory. What conviction could possibly drive Him to replay those agonies?

Was it a must? Or was it a had no choice?

Or was the so-called answer simply the launching of the next experint — continuing the cycle of pain?

Bear in mind: even if Deceit was gone, He would never abandon this world or discard His Will so carelessly. So what was the contingency He'd left for the world — or rather, for himself?

Wei Mu had also said that Folly simply didn't consider Deceit's exam paper to be the true answer. But neither Folly nor Wei Mu had ever denied that Deceit had found an answer!

The world had to have an answer. And it had to have a future. What Cheng Shi needed to do now was find that answer from everything Deceit had left behind — before the era's curtain fell!

Though he had climbed to the pinnacle of divine power, countless mysteries remained unsolved:

Why did Deceit die? What was hidden at the bottom of Corruption's Sea of Desire?!

Where had His Authority gone? Where had Fate's Authority gone? Could there be clues to the future among them?

Why had the Fla of Hope vanished? Was it connected to Deceit's contingency?

The Nose of Verification had never been found. Could the mory inside the Collection Hall be a hint pointing to the final answer?

Of the only three old gods remaining in the Fear Faction — had Death and Silence known Deceit's truth all along?

Folly had said the play in which the Void collapsed had supporting roles. Were those two not his supporting roles at all — but Folly's?

And then there was Ti. He still refused to see Cheng Shi. Could whatever kept Him so busy be the answer Cheng Shi was hoping for?

"..."

A thousand threads, a million knots.

'Eat one bite at a ti. Walk one step at a ti.'

Cheng Shi decided to start with the easiest lead.

Ti!

Although Ti had no ti and no longer granted audiences, at the very least, the current Cheng Shi could summon Ti at will.

So — first, a eting with Ti. Get the first clue from Him.

...