Foolish Game of the Chapter 512: Want It? Take It

But this ti was different — because Gongyang Jiao truly killed her.

Chest torn open, heart ripped out. A death both brutal and haunting.

Cheng Shi watched it all expressionlessly. Then he let out a self-mocking laugh.

The blood spraying and spattering from Poison's body felt scorchingly vivid against the snow — as though painted into a sardonic eye upon the white ground. That eye was half-lidded, mocking him. Mocking his refusal to place trust. Mocking his failure to heed her warning. As if to say:

"See, little priest? I told you Mr. Ram wasn't trustworthy."

'Yes. You were right. Mr. Ram truly wasn't trustworthy.'

He didn't know why Poison had been so certain. But this ti, she'd guessed correctly.

Even so, Cheng Shi didn't retaliate. He didn't want to. The Fun Ring was fully charged and could have locked onto Gongyang Jiao mindlessly — but he still didn't move.

He rely studied the crouching Gongyang Jiao — unwilling to accept defeat yet too afraid to act — and kept reminding himself: over these past weeks spent impersonating an Envoy, he'd gradually let his guard down. He'd even started believing everyone would instinctively revere "mystery" and "Them."

But today, Gongyang Jiao had thoroughly dismantled that assumption. Through action, the Screaming Earl had administered a harsh lesson — teaching Cheng Shi a brand-new truth: among peak players, there would always be soone more deranged than the most deranged.

Deranged beyond reason.

Before such people, you could be an Envoy and they'd still kill you without blinking.

The man coveted his ring. He still dared to covet the ring. Even knowing his target was a genuine Envoy — he'd struck anyway!

'Was he insane?'

The scene made Cheng Shi recall sothing Da Yi had told him at the start:

"Gongyang Jiao, third on the [Corruption] leaderboard. He's a fanatic. Don't try to understand him. Just rember to walk the other way when you see him."

'A fanatic...' This fanatic's fanaticism was truly a sight to behold.

Cheng Shi laughed again. Still self-deprecating.

He didn't look at Poison's corpse at his feet. Instead, with neither joy nor sorrow, he removed his ring and tossed it to Gongyang Jiao.

Gongyang Jiao froze. He caught the ring in utter disbelief, rooted to the spot.

"Want it? Take it." Cheng Shi shook his head with a wry smile.

He'd never used such a vicious thod to kill soone before.

Yes — vicious! Entrapnt!

Because he knew this ring would never tolerate covetous outsiders. It was a gift from the Lord upon the Bone Throne. And that Lord was... not "seed" — He was petty.

This was practically a hidden ace among hidden aces. Anyone who coveted this ring would face that Lord's retaliation. This wasn't Cheng Shi's imagination — it was a chanism jointly certified by [Death] and [Deceit].

So if Cheng Shi wished, he could use this ring as bait to trap-kill unsuspecting peak players at will.

But he never had. First, he didn't want to abuse that Lord's attention. Second, outside of life-or-death monts, he had plenty of legitimate thods — no need for sothing this inhumane.

But today... he wanted to try.

Cheng Shi wanted to see what kind of death [Death] would bestow upon the Screaming Earl.

Gongyang Jiao was terrified. He knew he only had one shot. Before Yu Xi beca the real Yu Xi, he had this single chance.

If the gamble paid off, he'd win everything. But if he lost... why was it also everything?

'Wait — Lord Yu Xi was... giving him the ring?'

One couldn't bla Gongyang Jiao for being dumbfounded. He was more stunned now than Cheng Shi had been monts ago. Caught between the crushing terror of a failed assassination attempt on an Envoy and this sudden, incomprehensible windfall, he couldn't tell whether he'd made a mistake or not.

But instinct drove him to his knees. Even with a savage grin still plastered on his face, even with undisguised greed burning in his eyes — to survive, he clutched the ring and knelt.

"Lord Yu—"

The trembling Screaming Earl barely got one syllable out before a silent arrow streaked from the distance. Drowning in the maelstrom of his own emotions, he didn't notice. And so—

Swish.

Under Cheng Shi's amused smile, amid the Screaming Earl's bewildered daze, the arrow punched clean through Gongyang Jiao's skull — pinning the [Corruption] follower who'd still been trying to read his lord's mood to the ground.

Dead.

The Ring of Bone Servant Le Le'er's second covetous thief, dead before Cheng Shi's eyes — in less than a minute, before the ring had even ward in his hand.

Cheng Shi sneered. He didn't spare the corpse a glance. Instead, he looked up and forward. Soon, his gaze t a pair of [Silence] eyes.

The Chaleon, supposedly chasing Jiang Chi, had already doubled back at so point. Now he stood on a nearby rooftop, eting Cheng Shi's scrutinizing look with a bow — reverent and fervent in equal asure.

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, recalling what Gongyang Jiao had once told him:

"I can make that Chaleon follow your orders too. He dreams of an audience with a god."

'An audience with a god...'

It seed the Chaleon had finally identified Cheng Shi's true status. Given the choice between trusting a partner and trusting a "deity," he'd chosen the divine.

'Heh. Fate... always so absurd.'

'The employee he'd personally recruited had betrayed him. The temp worker he'd never paid attention to beca the unexpected "loyal servant."'

'And then there was... Poison — the one who'd taken a death blow for him.'

Cheng Shi lowered his gaze to Poison at his feet, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.

'Well, now he truly owed her.'

He wondered: without Poison's intervention, would he have died?

After thinking it through, the answer was...

'No.'

Not because he wouldn't have died. But because Poison would never not have intervened. She would always have blocked that ambush for him and "tragically" died before his eyes!

Because that was Poison. That was the [Corruption] Chosen who'd offered him her trust!

She wouldn't truly die from this. But she'd still spent a precious life to tell him: "You can trust , little priest."

"..." A storm of emotions churned inside Cheng Shi. His mind roiled chaotically before he finally sighed: "Fate... not bad."

The interlude between hunters concluded. The story of hunter and prey should end as well.

Cheng Shi was done wasting ti. He decided to deploy his final trump card against Jiang Chi — Sinner's Regret.

He bent down, kicked Gongyang Jiao's corpse over, pried the ring from the dead man's grip, and slipped it back on. Two Lightning Punishnts for good asure. Then, face cold, he stepped over the ash and strode toward Jiang Chi.

With Da Yi harassing him, Jiang Chi hadn't gotten far. Or rather — having held so hope for the assassination — he hadn't tried very hard to run.

Da Yi hadn't tried very hard to chase, either. Who wouldn't want a front-row seat to an Envoy-assassination?

In Jiang Chi's hopes, Cheng Shi would be the one to die. But for Da Yi, the mont he sensed Gongyang Jiao turning back to kill Lord Ultraman, his only expectation was watching how the Screaming Earl would die.

'How did he dare?'

'Fanatics were truly frightening.'

'Clearly, one death hadn't taught him. A second would fix that.'

Sure enough — from the first sign of the assassination attempt, to its total failure, to the assassin's own bitter end — only a few minutes had passed. Lord Ultraman hadn't even needed to lift a finger before Gongyang Jiao died at the hands of his own partner.

'The Chaleon breaking character to kill the Screaming Earl... why would he? Had to be [Chaos] influence.'

'As a [Chaos] Envoy, Lord Ultraman could blanket the entire field in chaos!'

'Praise [Chaos]!'

In Da Yi's eyes, this barely even qualified as an incident. At most, it was Gongyang Jiao's foolishness. What he didn't know was that the invincible Lord Ultraman in his mind had just survived the greatest mortal crisis since the Faith Ga began!

And all of it gave Cheng Shi a new understanding of these peak players — the ones closest to the gods.

"Learn from your mistakes..."

But setting his own carelessness aside, Cheng Shi wasn't sure whether that scene had been the result of players' tactical gambits — or true [Fate]'s protection...

But even if [Fate] had shielded him, he'd never again overestimate the power of an Envoy identity.

"As expected — the only people you can trust in this world are dead people. Or more dead people. That Lord on the Bone Throne really did have foresight...

"Skulls... probably never betray."

Seeing Cheng Shi approach completely unscathed, Jiang Chi halted. His face was deathly grave.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Cheng Shi raised a cold hand to silence him.

"Shut up. Wait to die. Keep so dignity."

Then, Cheng Shi tagged every person present. Right hand rising, without a heartbeat's hesitation, he activated Sinner's Redemption.

In that instant, every person's vision plunged into darkness.

Cheng Shi gave a self-deprecating smile. In his mind: 'Aph Ros, here I am bothering you again.'