After returning to the rooftop, Cheng Shi pulled out his dice and mask more than once, frantically praying to both Benefactors.
But no matter how he prayed, there was no response. Neither summoned him.
This threw Cheng Shi into a panic. He began wondering whether sothing monuntal had just happened between Them, keeping both Benefactors too occupied to respond.
If true, should he stop pestering Them?
But not knowing the cause was driving him insane — like ants crawling all over his body.
So this devout follower began gaslighting himself: these prayers weren't pointless buzzing — they were alarm bells to help his Benefactors escape their predicant!
He saw no issue whatsoever with the notion of a mortal guiding true gods out of crisis. So he shalessly closed his eyes and kept praying.
Finally, after an untold number of recitations...
Night fell.
The void remained silent.
...
anwhile, elsewhere.
Reality. An unknown cetery in an unknown province.
Zhang Jizu had spent half the day healing every wound inflicted by the Void storm. Once free, he took the Deceit mask token in hand and climbed atop the watchtower roof.
Bright moonlight poured down like a waterfall.
He held the mask up high. Silver light filtered through those elongated eye-slits and fell on his own eyes, reflecting a gaze brimming with bewildernt.
Zhang Jizu was lost — because he'd failed.
The Oracle Act had failed.
Just monts ago, he'd tried putting on the mask and performing an Oracle Act. Honestly, it was the first ti since the Faith Ga's arrival that he'd sincerely recited another god's prayer. Though his great one had approved the matter, it still felt illicitly disloyal — as though he were sneaking behind Death's back to do sothing wrong.
Disloyalty aside, the bigger issue was that the deity who'd given him the mask had shown zero response to his Oracle Act.
He felt no acknowledgnt. He found no trace of Deceit's power on himself. Everything that happened today seed more like an actual act of deceit.
He — that Fun God Benefactor of Cheng Shi and Zhen Yi — appeared to have...
played him?
Was it possible that the entertainnt He wanted wasn't Zhang Jizu walkging the path of Deceit to create fun — but turning Zhang Jizu himself into the fun?
He couldn't tell.
Zhang Jizu was an excellent analyst, but only on the condition that the subject didn't involve Them.
Yet he was curious — just as curious as Cheng Shi praying on the rooftop right now. So the normally steady man made a moderately bold decision: he would go ask Him what this was about.
Not Deceit, naturally. But his own Benefactor — Death.
So Zhang Jizu removed the mask, randomly selected a lucky mouse from the rooftop rat cage, and with practiced deftness dispatched it ahead to scout the Fishbone Hall. Then he murmured with genuine devotion:
"Soul sleeps in peace, life cos to an end!"
The mont the words fell, green flas erupted across his body. He glowed with jade-green light in the darkness. Before long, he burned away to nothing and vanished.
When he opened his eyes again, he was beneath the great one's Bone Throne. The colossal skull's eye-sockets roared with boiling green fla, staring down at him with an unmistakably grim expression.
Zhang Jizu blinked. Sothing felt off about his Benefactor's mood, but he didn't think much of it. He stepped forward to offer his customary praise — but before he could open his mouth, the colossal skull on the Bone Throne unleashed the rumble of cosmic silence.
"Why. Do. I. Sense. A. Trace. Of. Deceit's. Lingering. Aura. On. You!?"
"?"
Zhang Jizu blinked again. He thought: 'But wasn't it You who approved my prayer to Deceit for a second faith? Why—'
Before the thought could finish, his heart lurched. His brow furrowed tightly. He seed to have sensed the problem.
He'd had two audiences with his Benefactor today. But he could confirm with certainty that only this current audience was genuine — because it was his own prayer that summoned him here.
But the first ti?
If his current Benefactor had no knowledge of anything Deceit-related happening to him, then who was the "great one" from that first audience?!
'It can't be...'
'Deceit!!??'
Zhang Jizu's eyes flew wide. He imdiately tried to explain to his Benefactor what had happened. But before he could speak, his mouth began moving on its own.
"Great one, today I received Your approval and prayed to Deceit for a second faith. But during the Oracle Act just now, I received no acknowledgnt from Him.
You already know about this, do You not? I sought this audience precisely to ask why He bestowed a token upon , yet granted
no new talent?"
Hearing this, the colossal skull on the Bone Throne could sit still no longer. He stiffly lowered His gaze to the follower below. After a beat of silence, every river of white bones in the Fishbone Hall erupted simultaneously, like a dam bursting and flooding the entirety of the void.
Death lost composure.
He suddenly realized what had happened to His follower — and that the infuriating Deceit had used this ploy to siphon away a portion of His follower's devotion!
'That detestable Void — absolutely insufferable!'
And so Death raged. Green flas blazed in His eye-sockets like the cold fire of the Nine Hells — so bright they illuminated the entire hall, yet so frigid they left Zhang Jizu below feeling as if he'd plunged into an ice abyss.
Squinty Eyes had never seen his Benefactor this furious. He realized he'd been duped — but who could have imagined that a lofty deity would impersonate soone else's Benefactor?!
And who could have imagined that, at this very mont, He was still right here — using the Deceit aura on Zhang Jizu's body as cover, seizing complete control of his body!
Yes — Zhang Jizu had been stripped of bodily autonomy.
All he could do was watch helplessly as his Benefactor raged. Watch helplessly as his body — under an irresistible force — feigned bowing in trembling submission. And he could do nothing.
He couldn't even make a sound. He could only silently watch as the deity who'd toyed with him now toyed with his own Benefactor right before his eyes.
Death was genuinely furious. He'd never intended to entangle Himself with Void. Recruiting Cheng Shi had been accidental — appreciating Cheng Shi didn't an appreciating Void.
Even if this era truly belonged to Void, Life did not depend on Void. And Death had no need for Deceit.
Yet no matter how He felt, He couldn't stop Deceit from fixating on Him — and even on His follower.
Watching His carefully chosen follower inexplicably walk the path of Deceit — watching the devotion in that follower's heart be cracked open by the insufferable Deceit and have a share spirited away — His irritation only grew.
Of course, the frustration was directed at Deceit, not at Zhang Jizu.
After all, before Deceit's gas, players were utterly powerless to resist.
Not even that loyal employee, Cheng Shi.
...
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