Foolish Game of the Chapter 424: Prosperity's Prosperity Became Evidence of

Cheng Shi still didn't move.

He sat obediently in his seat, not even giving the stage excessive attention.

Right now he acted like a true diocre person — glancing around, opening his mouth then closing it, as if wanting to say sothing but afraid to invite argunt.

There were many people like him. Plenty had opinions but wanted to hear others' takes first.

But Cheng Shi wasn't imitating them just to avoid attention. He was using the act to carefully survey his surroundings.

'If President Gong is Zhen Yi — or Zhen Xin — then I have every reason to suspect that all of this is another "Dream from Nothing"!'

The thought was terrifying. Cheng Shi had already fallen into that trap once. Rembering the back door he'd pushed open in the Void Church of Far Dusk Town — it bore an uncanny resemblance to the diocre Person Society door he'd just pushed open!

The only difference: this ti there'd been no mory flashback, and an empty corridor had been added.

But who could guarantee this wasn't the Master of Trickery upgrading her prey's trap?

Cheng Shi was scared. Genuinely scared.

But scared or not, he could only feign calm and hold position.

The hall's players had been thrown into turmoil by President Gong's bombshell, but things remained manageable overall.

Folly's eye-rolls, Decay's tirades, Deceit's jeers, and assorted hotheads' profanity wove themselves into a net that crashed over President Gong's head. Yet the man who'd dropped this explosive news seed unfazed. He continued sharing his "friend's" deductions.

"I know such unthinkable news is hard for everyone to accept. But soone will believe

— because I also know that this hall is full of clever people who 'happened to find' the invitation cards I personally issued.

I won't probe how you 'found' those cards, and I won't question your motives for sneaking in. But these people probably already know: I'm right.

See, diocre ones? Clever people can unravel the truth about Them from re traces. But us? If we lose sharing and mutual aid, we'll be abandoned by the era entirely — lost in the sea of mory.

I'm not being lodramatic. After everything we've been through, you know my words ring true.

Enough talk — let's get back on topic. Let

continue about Decay's fall."

President Gong clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing the stage. After a mont, he posed a question with theatrical mystery.

"I know most of you have probably never had an audience with a deity. I certainly haven't. Everything I know about Them cos secondhand.

So let

ask: based on everyone's connections and intel — can we first confirm one simple thing?

Starting a few days ago... Prosperity followers' scores seem to have been rising across the board. Is that correct?"

"!!!"

Honestly, true diocre people were too consud with survival to track leaderboard shifts. Below 2000 points, there wasn't much to watch anyway.

But President Gong was right — this hall didn't contain only diocre people. Plenty of sharp minds had infiltrated, and they were now chewing over what President Gong ant.

An older player who'd apparently noticed the sa thing spoke up to confirm:

"That's right — I noticed it too. At my point range, the Prosperity followers around

on the Ladder of Ascent have all been climbing lately.

You might wonder how I could notice others rising or falling in a range where a single point separates tens of thousands of ranks. I'll tell you.

Not long ago, I got lucky in a trial and scored big, pulling far ahead of several Prosperity IDs I'd been tracking. But recently, they've caught back up.

Furthermore, I have a... ahem... a friend who told

that Prosperity followers in their Mutual Aid Society have been receiving large quantities of trial rewards lately.

Not all of those rewards are useful, but the volu has undeniably increased.

I'm no shill for President Gong. You can see what I am — a Decay follower. So I too am very curious about what's happening to the Prosperity crowd.

There must be Prosperity people here. Anyone brave enough to stand up and enlighten us?"

The old player's words ignited another wave of heated discussion. Several Decay followers stepped forward to corroborate, but not a single Prosperity follower dared speak up.

Obviously — anyone with half a brain knew this wasn't the ti to "flaunt wealth."

Watching this, Cheng Shi shook his head with a wry smile. He suddenly appreciated how difficult it was for Big Cat to play den mother to that whole crowd.

By this point, he'd basically figured out President Gong's angle.

Clearly, the uninford President Gong — or rather, his wildly speculative friend — had taken the recent phenonon of Prosperity followers' surging scores and used it as evidence of Decay's fall.

Indeed, if Prosperity had won the so-called God War, showcasing that victory through overwhelming dominance on the Ladder of Ascent wouldn't be unreasonable.

But the one pumping up Prosperity followers' scores wasn't their Benefactor, Prosperity — it was Big Cat!

Who could have guessed that their recent windfall wasn't because their Benefactor won a God War, but because He'd died?

President Gong and his friend had been deceived. Well, not exactly "deceived" — with the Gods keeping silent, probably no one could guess the full picture.

It was like a multiple-choice question with only A, B, C, and D. They'd had the guts to reject all four options and pick a nonexistent E — and that alone deserved a "bravo for the audacity."

But reality was even more absurd than imagination. Because the actual answer was an even more outlandish, nonexistent F.

The deity grading Prosperity trials and distributing rewards had been swapped from a real god to a fake, "selfish," friend-sheltering, rule-bending Envoy!

If you hadn't lived through it, who would believe it?

"Tsk — this is really... hard to evaluate."

Cheng Shi smacked his lips. Then it occurred to him: since President Gong had gotten the answer wrong because of this misread, didn't that lower the probability he was Zhen Xin or Zhen Yi?

Objectively — perhaps because he had a bias toward his own Deceit Chosen One — Cheng Shi couldn't picture Zhen Xin as soone who'd get the answer wrong.

So he circled back to suspecting the true historian who'd vanished from the start: Zuo Qiu.

And right then, President Gong spoke again.

"Thank you to the old gentleman for the corroboration. But the evidence I have goes far beyond this single point.

From that sa friend, I also learned that Decay followers appear to have been unable to...

have an Audience with their God for so ti now."

"What?!"

"How is that possible?!"

...