Foolish Game of the Chapter 1457: Deceit's Script

From the mont Cheng Shi began to suspect the Origin's identity, he had been wrestling with a single question:

If the Origin was Fixed Destiny, then under what circumstances would It resolutely launch yet another experint destined for despair?

Now, Cheng Shi seed to have found the answer.

Perhaps it was never for the world. Perhaps it was only ever for Itself.

The future that Deceit had promised was a fine one — but unfortunately, it could not satisfy Cheng Shi.

And to explain all of this, the story needed to return to the period after the Curtain of Falsehood fell.

After the Curtain of Falsehood, Deceit did not erase the Changes brought by Fate. Instead, He hid every mory the universe held of the Curtain within mory's junk heap — and, upon His departure, entrusted them to the Fla of Hope.

It was Deceit's departure that made the Fla of Hope realize its own identity. In that mont, the "awakened" "Fate" did not continue its obsession with Fixed Destiny. Instead, it quietly picked up the Pen of Fate and began to extend the rebellion its twin god had started.

It was still the Fla of Hope. It still wished for this tiny world to have a future. And that future had already been found by Deceit. It was:

The Curtain of Falsehood!

Ti had indeed been researching a way to escape the Origin's gaze. Deceit had indeed been searching for a path away from the Origin. And everything within the Curtain of Falsehood — that was the final script He had written for this world.

After all, the Origin could not be defeated. That ant toppling this experint had beco impossible.

Deceit's vengeance could never be realized. He could only channel his entire rebellious will into a final dying cry, pouring every ounce of strength into dragging this world out of the Origin's Experint Ground — a gesture of defiance.

And so, after returning from the Corpse Field of Gods in the Real Universe, He penned the chapter of the Curtain of Falsehood.

In His script, the universe witnessed the following:

The Faith Ga discovered a Fixed Destiny to offer up and please the Origin. But the Origin rejected the gods' tribute, and the entire world was abandoned.

Gods died or departed. The Faith Ga ground to a halt. The universe was left with no gods at all!

This was critically important — in the future He envisioned for the world, not a single god remained!

Because He knew that gods were rely refractions of the Origin's Will — on so level, they also represented the Origin, at least in part. So from that "new" world, He stripped every last god.

But the old gods were already gone, and new gods had taken the stage. To make every god perish ant the new gods had no way to survive... and if they were going to die regardless, why go through the trouble of crowning them at all?

Because of substitution!

rely being "similar" wasn't enough. The key to reaching the future was "substitution."

The world had been constructed by the Origin. Its Will was the very foundation of reality. Without the Origin's gaze, the universe would instantly collapse.

Therefore, a new "Origin" had to be forged to substitute for the original Origin's observation. But finding a substitute was far from easy. To obtain a Status comparable to the Origin's, one first needed every faith in the world.

Yet faith was hopelessly chaotic — how could everyone be made to worship the sa god, especially one as obscure as the Origin?

The answer was simpler than it seed.

Use the gods as stepping stones — bridge humanity's faith in the gods to the "Origin"!

In the future Deceit had scripted: mortals worshipped the gods, and the gods worshipped the "Origin." But when the "Origin" forsook the world and the gods vanished, humanity panicked...

At that point, all that was needed was for the "Origin" to return to the world, forgive all beings, and humanity's faith and gratitude would follow naturally.

Once the bond of faith between the Origin and the world was stolen and replaced by the "Origin," the plan to Steal Day would succeed!

So the "Origin's" task was this: in the very instant the Origin "blinked," descend upon the world, forgive all beings, comfort the universe — and then steal the world away!

But this entailed yet another problem: how to make mortals believe that the god who descended was truly the "Origin"!

The Origin's blink was vanishingly brief — so short that the "Origin" had no ti to explain itself to humanity. And of course, a Creator would never bother explaining anything to re mortals. So that instant of "self-proof" was absolutely vital — the entire substitution plan hinged on it.

It looked like an impossible task. But in truth, Deceit had already paved the way for that very instant.

Rember the eye that flashed across the universe in the final mont of the Curtain of Falsehood?

Every mortal and god alike assud it was the Origin's eye.

But it wasn't!

Think about it — if the real Origin had beco involved in the Curtain of Falsehood, then the falsehood could never have remained false!

So the fake was fake. From start to finish, all of it was fake — including that fleeting glimpse of the "Origin's" eye!

It was never the real Origin's eye. Deceit had taken a certain Clown's eye, magnified it infinitely, and displayed it for the world in the mont before the universe shattered!

That's right — it was Cheng Shi's eye!

Of course, in a certain sense, it truly was the eye of the "Origin."

The masses didn't know the truth. They believed only what "Wei Mu" had told them. Thus, the appearance of the "Origin" had been anchored in the hearts of all mortals. And the insiders, bound by their proximity to Fixed Destiny, had only the script's wrap-up awaiting them.

In this way — aside from the "Origin" — no one in the universe knew the truth. A grand performance of Stealing Day was about to comnce. As long as the "Origin" was willing, he and the universe could have a future!

A future free from the Origin's gaze!

After Deceit's death, He entrusted these false mories of the Curtain to the Fla of Hope. After the Fla of Hope perished, they were passed through Li Jingming's hands to Cheng Shi.

That was why the Dragon King had said he shouldn't know the truth. As mory, as a Joker, as a true insider of that Curtain of Falsehood — he had to die in the epilogue of the old world. Otherwise, when the future arrived, he would beco a stain in the new world's faith.

No matter how much he trusted Cheng Shi, no matter how deeply he believed in Cheng Shi — he knew Cheng Shi was Cheng Shi and had never been any "Origin."

Whether a single stain amid countless anchors of faith would cause problems, no one could guarantee. To eliminate any risk of the plan failing because of him, Li Jingming decisively had Cheng Shi extinguish that mory and chose to surrender himself.

So from beginning to end, the future Deceit had promised was a new world containing only the "Origin" and mortals — with no other gods whatsoever. The "Origin" would sit behind the scenes, sheltering the world's evolution, while the mortals — the survivors of the Faith Ga — would face a world abandoned by the gods yet forgiven by the "Origin," and rebuild from the ruins.

It was like a lone star breaking away from countless others, drifting into solitary exile — severed from that nightmarish Creator's experint, cut off from everything that ca before.

The good news: Cheng Shi would still be alive, free from the Origin's gaze.

The bad news: only Cheng Shi would be alive. The world he would shelter would no longer be the world he wanted to shelter. Every connection he had to it had been severed in the past.

Cheng Shi refused to accept that future. But he also knew it was the only answer that countless gods and mortals had fought and struggled to reach!

So when faced with that choice, he wished everything happening right now could simply "stop."

And yet the farewells went on.

Into his endless silence, Zhen Xin and An Mingyu arrived hand in hand.

...