Foolish Game of the Chapter 643: In Peak Matches, They're Each Sharper Than

'Nice, nice—indeed not nice at all!'

Cheng Shi was amused. The Blind One and Qin Xin made quite the pair—one charged in "without thinking," the other moved only after thorough calculation. Their styles were polar opposites, yet both matched his understanding of peak players: these high-scorers always possessed qualities that made people marvel.

That included Wang Mou—who'd lied about his profession from the start but revealed himself at the critical mont—and Li Wufang—combat-sharp, observant, yet still caught off guard.

Looking at it this way, there truly weren't any weak links in this trial. And if there weren't... was Wu Cun, who'd tried to annihilate everything—including herself—really as simple and hot-tempered as she seed?

'Probably not.'

If Cheng Shi could figure that out, so could everyone else. Li Wufang frowned and looked toward the corner where Wu Cun had stood. He detected a trace of lingering Oblivion power—but this power was different from the divine force they usually saw. It didn't feel like annihilation. It felt more like sothing being... nurtured.

The Investigator shared his observation. Cheng Shi and Wang Mou both froze—then blurted out simultaneously:

"Rebirth!"

The other two turned, drawn by their outburst. Cheng Shi and the Doctor locked eyes, both startled that the other knew about this.

Cheng Shi smiled. Rather than explain, he yielded the "spotlight" to the erudite Truth follower.

Wang Mou did seem to know sothing about Oblivion. He opened his mouth: "Wei Mu once said—"

"?"

'Wait—hold on!'

Cheng Shi couldn't help it. He snorted:

"Doctor—are you sure you follow Truth and not Folly?

Or more specifically—you're not a follower of Wei Mu, are you?"

Wang Mou paused. His expression wasn't embarrassed at all—dead serious instead: "I pursue truth alone, regardless of faith. If Folly is truth, then yes—I'm a Folly follower.

All my devotion to Truth stems from my thirst for answers, and from the power it's granted . I believe this world holds an underlying truth, and my journey's end is seeing it clearly.

Right now, in my assessnt, Wei Mu is unquestionably the person closest to that truth. So I believe he's right."

"..."

This was hilarious to Cheng Shi. The typically cool, rational Truth follower was acting like a crazed, brainless Folly fanboy.

The most absurd part? He wasn't even a fan of Folly itself—he was a fan of the Folly Chosen, that enigmatic Behind-the-Scenes Puppeteer!

'Just how smart is this Wei Mu, to make a peak Truth player worship him like this?'

Cheng Shi found himself burning with curiosity about the Folly Chosen.

Seeing no further interruptions, Wang Mou continued with perfect gravity:

"Wei Mu once said: Oblivion's will isn't pure annihilation. This is evident when you investigate the World Destroyers' motivations.

The Hand of Purifying Weevil—Herobos—doesn't destroy everything just for the sake of offering. He's helping his Benefactor purify the universe's parasites. Both He and his Benefactor believe this world has been contaminated. The universe's filth should end at Descent's finale.

Herobos's bestowed divine na clearly confirms this.

So among high-score Truth and Folly players, there's a consensus: Oblivion is waiting for sothing. And the prerequisite for satisfying that expectation... is creating a brand-new world.

The current universe evidently can't fulfill this wish. That's why Oblivion keeps influencing its followers—handing down strange edicts.

And this is why it seeks to approach Void—perhaps hoping to borrow Void's power to accelerate its desire to annihilate everything."

Hearing this, Cheng Shi's impression of Wei Mu shifted.

He thought this Oblivion analysis was spot-on...

Grand Marshal Hu Wei had also said annihilation was for rebirth. As for why rebirth was the goal, Cheng Shi had never figured it out—but now, suddenly, it clicked.

Truth and Folly players didn't know what Oblivion was expecting. But Cheng Shi did. It was easy to guess: if sothing could make a god expectant, the object of that expectation had to be *It—the unntionable!

'So Oblivion is also an "Approach Faction" mber?'

'It wants to annihilate the old world and birth a new one to please Origin?'

Cheng Shi's brow furrowed slightly. He didn't dare show too much puzzlent—his expression might attract attention, and everyone present was razor-sharp. He couldn't afford trouble. So he steered the conversation back to Wu Cun, playing dumb with a deliberately naive question:

"So—she fused Birth?"

Wang Mou shook his head. His eyes held none of Folly's contempt—only Truth's corrective precision.

"No. She has no second faith. That Oblivion storm contained zero Birth energy. This Extinguisher must have found a Seed of Oblivion—which is why she suddenly attacked, wanting us to... annihilate her.

Her goal was never destroying Falling Gate. She created that spectacle solely to draw us—no, specifically you, Investigator—to annihilate her."

Li Wufang's smile stiffened. He'd clearly realized he'd been played.

Cheng Shi, anwhile, wore his most studious expression—because once again, he was hearing about sothing entirely new.

'Seed of Oblivion?'

'Now we're talking. This is what a peak trial should feel like.' In a normal trial without conflict, scheming, or death matches, everyone should be furiously trading information. Only through clashing perspectives across different faiths—through torrents of intelligence—could each player gather enough "materials" to pave their own Road to Ascension.

This ti it wasn't just Cheng Shi—Li Wufang hadn't heard of it either. He voiced his question first, and the answer ca from the ever-smiling Qin Xin.

"Think of it as a blueprint for reconstructing a world.

I know—it sounds absurd. But despite being born from utterly annihilated worlds, the Seed of Oblivion is as wondrous as mory's creations. It records certain morable aspects of destroyed worlds.

Not mories per se—rather, different things' feedback to the force of Oblivion.

No one knows how Seeds of Oblivion are created. History School scholars generally believe they're stray thoughts that escape when Oblivion personally annihilates a world.

But I lean toward a different interpretation: Oblivion is trying to comprehend Existence through annihilation.

By deconstructing the Seed with Oblivion's perceptive power, one can extract the force of rebirth. The Civilization Lonely Tower during the Chaos Era studied these seeds to invent the beloved-yet-feared... Curtain Call Ball."

'Curtain Call Ball!'

Cheng Shi's brow rose. He still had one of Mo Li's water-orb gifts stashed in his inventory.

"Our Extinguisher teammate is probably trying to understand her Benefactor through rebirth.

She's no brute—she's an extrely shrewd and devout follower."

As Qin Xin spoke, he gazed toward where Wu Cun had vanished, sword flicking to send a wisp of mory power outward.

"I've recorded the details of this location. If she appears again, these should help find traces.

But I'm just a warrior. Tracking and setting traps are better left to you two.

Wu Cun knows about the Dreamless Mirror. This trick worked once—do it again and it'll probably ignite an Oblivion follower's volatile temper.

So, gentlen—ti to show what you've got."

Sound reasoning. Neither of the others objected. Li Wufang quickly went to set tracking traps at the scene, while Wang Mou dropped all pretenses of his scholar disguise and slipped into the shadows to plant an Assassination Doctor's contingencies.

Watching Wang Mou leave, Cheng Shi remained puzzled. With no one else nearby, he quietly asked Qin Xin:

"This Doctor doesn't seem malicious. Why insist on hiding his profession?

The strangest part is he barely flinched when exposed. So what was the point? Any theories?"

Qin Xin frowned. After a mont's thought, he shook his head:

"I'm not sure either. But I have been matched with a high-scoring scholar surnad Wang before. He also called himself 'Wang Mou,' and happened to belong to the chanical Engineering Departnt. But..."

Cheng Shi stiffened. It sounded like this Wang Mou was deliberately impersonating soone from Qin Xin's past.

"But what?"

"But he's dead. In a Chaos trial—died of a grief-driven suicide. Made quite an impression."

'Well then.' So it wasn't just the Master of Deception card—Qin Xin had actually encountered the original.

"Do you know the real person? His na?"

"Wang Weijin. If I'm not mistaken, his na was Wang Weijin."

At that, a barely perceptible light flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes.

Not because he recognized the na—but because...

How does a mory follower say "if I'm not mistaken"?

If even mory's followers can misrember, what hope do other players have?

'Interesting. Does this Torchbearer founder have even more stories hidden away?'

Cheng Shi silently glanced at Qin Xin, then thought of the Master of Deception card in his hand.

Things were getting more and more interesting.