Cold, damp, musty, reeking of urine and blood.
Before his consciousness fully returned, Cheng Shi’s sense of sll jolted him awake. The complex stench flooding his nostrils made him shudder instinctively.
Just one breath confird that the air in this trial’s location was incredibly foul, strongly suggesting he was sowhere like a city sewer.
As his hearing gradually recovered, a cacophony of whispers and distant shouts and wails filled his ears. He listened intently for a mont and ca to a rather absurd conclusion:
A prison.
He was standing in a prison.
What a coincidence, back in prison again. Could his identity in this trial be an imprisoned criminal?
Well, well. [Order] couldn’t even sentence
to prison, but [Chaos] managed to throw
in here.
You two really work well together.
A few seconds later, sensation returned to his limbs. He felt a heaviness in his head, a soreness in his neck, and a pressure on his cervical spine that suggested he’d been struck from behind.
He tried to raise his hand to rub his neck but unexpectedly felt a large iron object there instead.
“?”
Alard, Cheng Shi snapped his eyes open.
But what greeted him wasn’t the expected prison cell, but a pitch-black iron mask with several small, bright holes drilled into it.
!!!
What is this thing?
A prisoner’s helm?
What cri did I commit to deserve wearing such a massive iron helt?
Cheng Shi blinked in astonishnt, suddenly realizing the pressure on his neck wasn’t from pain or injury, but from the enormous steel helm locked onto his head!
He reached up and felt the iron contraption. It was incredibly hard and showed no signs of seams, suggesting it wasn’t an ordinary restraint.
The helm had seven holes corresponding to his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth. Peering out through the horizontal eye slits, he could see he was confined within a small iron cage.
And, similarly clad in red prison uniforms with identical iron helms, were 5 other prisoners!
These 5 identically dressed inmates were likely his teammates for this round?
Besides the six of them, the massive prison stretched out before him, cramd with countless cages. Other prisoners also wore the sa standard helms. In fact, everyone in this prison wore one, though the colors of their prison uniforms varied.
Cheng Shi gave a quick scan and noticed a pattern.
The number of prisoners wearing the sa color uniform wasn’t large—so groups had 3 or 4, others 7 or 8, but none exceeded 10. These sa-colored prisoners were caged together sequentially, their cages marked with prominent wooden number plaques.
Cheng Shi couldn’t see his own number, but by observing others, it wasn’t hard to determine his cage number was… six.
The last of the six red prisoners, the number six he had disdained at the start of his Fate Path.
6.
Still couldn’t escape this… great fate!
As Cheng Shi looked around, the other five players in red uniforms finally stirred. They woke up and were quickly shocked by their surroundings.
Though their expressions were hidden, their stiff limbs and tense backs clearly indicated their astonishnt and confusion.
Like Cheng Shi, these teammates instinctively tried to remove the helms upon waking, but despite their best efforts, they failed.
Cheng Shi silently observed everyone’s actions while also straining his ears to gather any nearby intelligence.
His identity was no longer a liar with the “Master of Deception” talent, but a gambler holding the true Die of Fate. To gain the upper hand in the upcoming interactions and cooperation, he needed to establish an advantage early on.
And intelligence advantage was the most crucial part.
The six players’ cages weren’t lined up but arranged in a circle. This circular structure was common throughout the harsh prison; all cages holding sa-colored prisoners were arranged this way.
The circles varied in size, allowing almost every prisoner to see their sa-colored “teammates.”
Behind Cheng Shi were five prisoners in white uniforms, their five cages forming a smaller circle. A fierce argunt was currently erupting among them.
They seed to be fighting over a woman.
“Bullshit! You’re all full of shit! I’m Dolly’s man! I won her at the Grand Catching Festival! She’s mine!”
“Scum! spits Got the guts to fight ? I’ll show you who really ca first at the Grand Catching Festival!”
“You dogs, all lusting after my woman! Just wait, just wait! Soon I’ll cut you all down in the arena, every last one of you, just like I won at the Grand Catching Festival!”
“Less talk! If you beat , Dolly’s yours. Do you dare accept?”
“Dolly is mine! You disgusting animals! Co on, let’s fight!”
Cheng Shi listened intently for a while but gleaned no useful information. His only thought was a burning curiosity about how beautiful this Dolly must be to make five n fight over her like this.
Further away was another circle of seven cages holding prisoners in yellow uniforms, also arguing, but their voices were muffled by the general prison noise.
He could only catch snippets like “mory,” “chaos,” “order,” and extrely vulgar curses.
Nurous prison guards ard with long whips patrolled the area. If any prisoner’s shouts beca too loud and annoyed them, they would rcilessly whip the offenders inside the cages.
Watching the whips leave welts on the prisoners’ bodies, watching them curl up in pain and howl, he couldn’t help but be reminded of soone, no, sothing… disgusting.
Ugh, bad luck.
Cheng Shi shook his head to clear the unpleasant image. Just then, one of his teammates in front finally spoke. His voice sounded strange, muffled by the helm, but it was undeniably male. It seed there were no won in this trial round.
The resonance within the iron helm “polluted” everyone’s voice, adding a murky buzzing quality that made it hard to hear clearly.
“There’s always sothing new every year, and this year’s particularly weird.
Never thought I’d be a prisoner again. This familiar feeling brings back mories.
Why are you guys so quiet? All mutes? Been a while, say sothing.”
“Squeak,” Cheng Shi replied obligingly.
“…”
The speaker was the teammate in cell 5. He looked at Cheng Shi and laughed heartily, kicking away a rat near his feet while tapping his own “iron head.”
“This tin helt is interesting. Can’t seem to take it off. Must be sothing special about it… the power of [Order]?”
Correct, it was indeed [Order].
Actually, the mont Cheng Shi saw the prison guards nearby, he recognized the influence of [Order]. The guards wore the standard knight uniforms of the Grand Tribunal Hall, which ant this trial likely took place in a prison within one of the Grand Tribunal Hall’s cities.
Fine, really fine.
An [Order] trial mistakenly sent him into [Chaos]’s territory, and now [Chaos] cos knocking, forcibly placing him back on [Order]’s turf.
You two lovebirds and your deadly dance… probably needs a wedding to sort things out.
As soon as teammate 5 finished speaking, teammate 1 to Cheng Shi’s left responded, his tone slightly serious:
“There’s sothing wrong with this helm. My prophecy tells
that only the person who put it on us can remove this ‘shackle’ of [Order].”
Everyone turned to look at him, stunned.
“A prophet? You’re a prophet? What did you roll? Is it accurate?”
“Heh, [Fate].”
“Yo, tough guy, huh? What’s your score, daring to reveal your hand like that?”
Cheng Shi also raised an eyebrow, looking at this “prophet” with an amused smile.
A colleague, huh? What a coincidence, I happen to be a… standard [Fate] follower in this round too.
In fact, before this trial, I was also a prophet!
And the prophecy I saw was: I win this trial.
Although the die roll was 1, my talent tells
this outco is inevitable.
Reviews
All reviews (0)