Foolish Game of the Chapter 626: Do You Always Like Testing People?

Cheng Shi still didn't approach. In fact, he instinctively wrapped his feet.

Nobody understood why he did it—not even Cheng Shi himself. He was fairly certain his brain had briefly short-circuited.

A mont later, half-laughing, half-crying, he pulled off the white cloth. Then his eyes rolled, and he addressed the fallen Blind One with a teasing smile:

"Drop the act. I've studied dicine—I can tell breathing patterns apart. Your breathing is steady but not faint. That's not what unconsciousness looks like.

If you're just tired and want to lie there a while, be my guest.

I'm on a clock—I'll head out first."

With that, Cheng Shi walked straight for the door—seemingly abandoning any plan to travel with the Blind One.

One foot crossed the threshold before he paused. He pricked up his ears, listening for any sound from inside. But nothing changed. The collapsed An Mingyu didn't stir—even her breathing remained precisely consistent.

This made Cheng Shi frown. He'd been probing, but she hadn't taken the bait.

'Did she actually faint?'

'No way. The timing was too perfect. Doesn't look real at all.'

Despite his doubts, Cheng Shi's movents betrayed zero hesitation. He crossed the threshold in an instant and swung the door shut behind him.

But right as the two panels were about to et—with barely a sliver of gap remaining—that crystal-clear female voice rang out again from inside the room. Only this ti, tinged with confusion:

"Xin Xin told

that when faking unconsciousness, you have to adjust your breathing to be faint yet steady. I did exactly that—flawlessly, in my opinion. There's absolutely no way you detected it from my breathing alone.

So you were bluffing. Cheng Shi, you really are extraordinarily sharp. But how exactly did you—"

BANG—the door shut completely.

"?"

The Blind One, eyes cracked open as she lay on the floor, froze in embarrassnt. Because her "plea to stay" had accomplished nothing. This Fate Weaver who claid to have been summoned by Fate played by no one's rules—he'd heard her voice and still chosen to close the door and leave.

Yes. Cheng Shi had simply walked away.

He enjoyed fishing—but only when he was the angler, not the fish.

The Fate Chosen had sent Qin Xin to divert Wang Mou, clearly wanting to talk privately. But just talking would have been fine—why throw in theatrics before opening up?

'I don't like insincere heart-to-hearts. So I refuse to have one.'

And so Cheng Shi walked out of the inn—weathered and worn but not quite dilapidated—and stepped onto a street so cracked and arid it barely deserved the na.

The Underworld!

This trial really was set in the Underworld!

The Investigator was well-traveled—one glance at the inn's layout had been enough for him. But Cheng Shi had needed to step outside before he could confirm it.

And what confird it wasn't the surrounding architecture or décor. It was that thing looming before him, so massive it was suffocating:

The Abyssal Volcano!

This trial was set near the Abyssal Volcano—extrely near!

This perpetually erupting volcano was the most critical passage linking the surface and the Underworld. Given the trial's length, Cheng Shi wondered whether so of the anomalies might actually be on the surface.

'Will players need to use the Abyssal Volcano to reach the surface?'

'But I have no idea how to navigate the volcano's passage. Underground trials were already rare, and the Abyssal Volcano was insanely dangerous during eruptions. Very few people knew how to use it for round trips.'

Many high-level players with sufficient strength preferred the safer Void route instead. So for most, the Abyssal Volcano remained an unsolved mystery.

What Cheng Shi did know was that towns had sprung up around the volcano, built by people traveling between worlds. These towns harbored self-proclaid "shuttle brokers" who openly ran transit businesses between the Underworld and the surface.

They claid to deliver people safely to the surface—for a steep price—but their reputation was generally solid. So the towns had gradually gained a foothold.

The ground beneath his feet was clearly one such town.

'But why does this place feel... familiar?'

Cheng Shi frowned. He turned to study the inn, its sign cracked and peeling, and rapidly searched his mory for any resemblance. But after a long while, nothing surfaced.

'I've never been near the Abyssal Volcano. How could I possibly feel familiar with so random town at its base?'

'An illusion?'

He frowned again and turned his gaze to the massive volcanic spectacle erupting downward from above.

Indeed—the Abyssal Volcano wasn't a normal volcano. "Abyssal" wasn't so much the volcano's na as a parallel entity. The surface's "abyss" and the Underworld's "volcano" together ford this unparalleled geological wonder.

The volcano was straightforward—a towering cone. The abyss was an inverted, funnel-shaped bottomless pit.

On the surface, it manifested as a massive crater with inward-tapering rock walls plunging to infinite depth. Down here in the Underworld—yes, the "bottomless" pit had a bottom after all—it appeared as the sky's inverted reflection of the volcano!

In other words, what Cheng Shi saw was a pair of volcanic craters facing each other: one upright, one suspended upside down—an entangled dual-volcano system.

Right now, the inverted volcano was erupting, scattering countless streams of red-glowing "lava" down into the Underworld—a crimson waterfall plumting from the heavens.

Many had explored the Underworld, but few tackled the Abyssal Volcano. The earliest curious players had returned with nothing but reports of teammates' deaths—never any tangible benefits. However, the erupted "lava" was rich in minerals useful for experintal research.

So gradually, aside from Truth and Folly followers, exploration of the phenonon dwindled.

A trial set in such a location posed real challenges for Cheng Shi—he knew virtually nothing about this area. A genuine blind spot.

But a little unknown territory couldn't stop him. One circuit around this scorching little town, and he was confident he'd accumulate plenty of fresh intelligence to fill the gaps.

Just as he was deliberating which direction to start investigating, the Blind One's voice appeared behind him again.

An Mingyu had co out. She'd finally risen from the "cold" floor and drifted wearily to stand behind him.

"Do you always dislike helping others?"

"Do you always like testing people?"

"..."

An Mingyu faltered. Sothing complicated flickered in her expression.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't deliberately testing you. It's just—your image in my mind feels... insubstantial. The feedback I've received from every angle suggests you're a deeply contradictory person. I simply wanted to sort that out."

"Heh. Chosen An, not everyone is obligated to help you sort out your thoughts. But enough about that—I'm heading right. What about you?"

"The dice say left is the better choice." An Mingyu produced a twenty-sided die. The nearly spherical Fate die sat in her palm, showing an 18.

Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched. Without a shred of envy at the 18, he nodded:

"Then we go right. I never believe in Fate!"