He was thinking.
Cheng Shi kept asking himself: if a con was truly preditated, when would be the optimal mont for the swindlers to strike?
For others, this might take so pondering. But for a fellow con artist like Cheng Shi, it was a giveaway question.
The answer: at the con's climax — when everyone's attention has been pulled in every direction. For instance...
Right now!
President Gong hadn't just shared explosive news. In an extraordinarily short window, he'd hurled an agonizing choice at everyone present.
Never mind whether anyone truly believed him — anyone with even a shred of curiosity about the intel would want to know exactly where and when that Decay God Body had fallen.
But to keep listening, you'd have to join the so-called diocre Person Society.
Clever people only wanted the benefits without the baggage. So they hesitated — and in that hesitation, they'd easily overlook any new little tricks the swindler had slipped in.
Such as...
A bait-and-switch.
Yes — the doors everyone entered through were safe. And these new doors looked identical to the originals. If he hadn't already seen through President Gong as a fraud, Cheng Shi might not have thought twice either.
But the question was: did these doors actually lead ho?
The mory of falling into Zhen Yi's Void mory Pocket was still raw.
Moreover, President Gong's so-called "friend" was very likely Zhen Xin or Zhen Yi — or President Gong himself might even be her!
So Cheng Shi stopped. He needed to observe. He'd wait for others to walk through the doors before deciding whether it was safe to leave.
But not everyone could think this far.
In many eyes, President Gong had already built a charismatic, selfless image. The useful intel he'd shared was genuine treasure for people who knew nothing about peak players.
So a number of level-headed types and freeloaders who wanted zero risk prepared to leave.
Among them: the Torchbearers, who would never join another organization.
Cui Qiushi stood but didn't imdiately enter a door. After studying Cheng Shi for a mont, he carefully moved to a nearby aisle and, in a covertly defensive posture, rendezvoused with another player.
The two exchanged a brief look, nodded in unison, and prepared to leave.
But at that instant, Cheng Shi moved. Without confirming the doors' safety, he couldn't watch Old Cui's son walk into danger.
His gaze hardened. The look he shot at Cui Qiushi turned razor-sharp. Without hesitation, three scalpels slid from his sleeve, and he flung them at the back of Cui Qiushi's head!
He knew Cui Qiushi had been guarding against him. He knew scalpels at this speed wouldn't hit an alert Order Knight. But Cheng Shi's real target wasn't Cui Qiushi — it was the player Cui Qiushi was trying to shield!
The unknown Torchbearer!
In the sa motion, Cheng Shi snatched sothing from his storage and hurled it at the stranger with blinding speed.
The unknown Torchbearer — already wary of Cheng Shi thanks to Cui Qiushi's warning — saw him attack two targets at once. His expression darkened, and he dodged sideways.
He couldn't not dodge.
Cui Qiushi faced three clearly identifiable scalpels and could simply tank them with his small shield. But the stranger faced a bizarre, wriggling tongue!
'What kind of person opens a fight by throwing a tongue?!'
Nobody knew what the tongue could do. Better safe than sorry — stay far away and don't let it touch you.
But by dodging, he moved clear of the exit door. And because he dodged in ti, the tongue Cheng Shi had thrown slapped — without obstacle — right onto that gilded, jade-paneled door!
The stranger exhaled in relief. Then he pulled a staff from his person — clearly a mage. But just as he prepared to counterattack the man who'd suddenly gone hostile, the exit door beside him let out a trendous "crack" and...
Shattered!
One lick from that bizarre tongue, and the door that had looked solid as jade — sturdy and imposing — splintered like a hamr-struck mirror!
At the sa ti, the tongue slid off the door and flopped to the ground. Under both n's grave stares, it wriggled lazily, then let out a satisfied burp:
"Burrrp~ Stuffed again!"
"!!!"
The stranger and Cui Qiushi both stiffened, pupils contracting!
A talking tongue!!
'Creepy as hell!'
But the weirdest thing wasn't the tongue — it was the shattered door!
Because after the first door broke, every door in the hall triggered a chain reaction — shattering one after another like dominoes before the crowd's eyes.
Several players who'd just stepped through froze mid-stride, then were ejected by an unknown force from an unknown space, flung onto the ground.
Now everyone was stunned.
Terror etched itself across every face. Seeing this scene, who could still not understand? These doors weren't "go ho" doors. They weren't "leave the venue" doors. They were "get killed" doors!
Soone had planted traps behind them, teleporting every player who entered into an unknown space!
The doors were fake!!
Witnessing this, Cui Qiushi felt an icy chill shoot from his tailbone to his crown. If not for the strange man in front of him who'd suddenly intervened, he and his companion would already be imprisoned.
'He's not an enemy?!'
Cui Qiushi turned, staring at Cheng Shi with grave intensity, his brow locked tight.
'Who is he?'
anwhile, the stranger approached. He was far more pragmatic than Cui Qiushi. Having realized Cheng Shi's attack was rescue rather than assault, he nodded gratefully:
"A life-saving grace — I'm deeply grateful.
I'm Zhang Hao. May I ask—"
But before he could finish, Cheng Shi dove down, scooped up the Tongue of Eating Lies from the floor, and vanished into thin air before their eyes.
He'd bolted.
Having reluctantly blown President Gong's cover, he couldn't afford to remain in everyone's sights. So he used a die he'd casually tossed elsewhere upon entry and teleported to a safe, empty spot.
The instant he vanished, chaos erupted in the hall.
So lucky ones had indeed escaped thanks to Cheng Shi's move. But what about the players who'd already walked through?
Were they dead? Captured?
No one knew — except whoever had set the traps.
And so the terrified, furious players rounded on the stage, screaming profanities. So had already drawn weapons, faces dark with rage. Countless blasts of light and projectiles rained down upon the central stage.
Under that barrage, the stage collapsed with a trendous "boom," instantly raising a towering cloud of dust!
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened as he watched from his hiding spot. He let out a cold laugh.
'Would that be enough? Probably not.'
'If a calculating organizer could be killed by this level of retaliatory fury, tonight's gathering truly would have earned its na as a "diocre Person Society."'
But credit where it was due — how ironic. The cautious clever ones who'd chosen to leave rather than get involved had fallen into the trap before the "diocre people" who'd stayed to hunt for opportunity. Didn't that prove that everyone here was...
diocre after all?
In Cheng Shi's view, simple foolishness alone didn't make soone diocre. But failing to know yourself certainly put you on the path.
So the self-proclaid clever ones — who were actually diocre — erupted in fury. And the result of their rage was that the stage's sky...
Collapsed!
...
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