(Extended plus-length chapter!)
To prevent accidents, Ad Ric, Shi Lolin, and A Rad had been held separately from the start. Now Ger Si's corpse dangled from the rafters where Li Wufang had tossed it; Ad Ric lay unconscious inside a territory he'd marked out with his own urine. Only Shi Lolin and A Rad remained awake.
The two siblings' relationship, however, was far from friendly. The bound Shi Lolin was belting out so kind of song at full volu, and in the adjacent room, A Rad — under the Siren's vocal influence — was frantically doing push-ups.
Nobody knew why he liked exercise so much, but he just kept going — even as his consciousness faded, his body moved on pure instinct.
Cheng Shi was deeply shaken when he saw this through the doorway. Yet he couldn't fault Shi Lolin. The Shanty Area's big sister operated with perfect control: her volu was calibrated so precisely that not a note leaked out to affect any player, while her brother drowned in illusory desire — unable to live or die.
Credit where it was due: when it ca to tornting people, Corruption had real chops.
Cheng Shi grinned. He flicked a blade through the window to drop the struggling A Rad, then walked straight into Shi Lolin's room. Looking at the panting Siren — spent from overexertion — he shook his head with a smirk.
Seeing the "King of Hell" arrive, Shi Lolin shuddered and knelt obediently on the ground, awaiting judgnt.
"Had enough fun?"
"No. Never will..." When it ca to her brother, Shi Lolin's expression remained one of grinding, tooth-gnashing fury. "The Brotherhood gave him everything, and he still chose betrayal. I don't believe anyone's desires can change that abruptly. He was probably brainwashed by that evil god Truth. So rather than hating my brother, I hate the puppet who crawled toward that evil god. He's not my brother anymore!"
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. A Rad could very well have stopped being Shi Lolin's brother long ago.
Certainly, having a Falling Gate native control the Proxy Hand made the Tower of Logic's underground operations more convenient. But was this variable controllable?
Those Grand Scholars at the Tower were the world's foremost experts on variables. If they could turn a person into a variable, they naturally possessed the ans to convert that variable into a constant.
A Rad's identity made him suitable for the Underground. But his mind was Corruption's. Such an agent could cause the Tower plenty of headaches. So how could they keep his identity while stripping his Corruption will and making him obey?
The answer was simple. Slicing.
The Tower of Logic excelled at slicing.
So Shi Lolin was probably right. A Rad had long since stopped being her brother — he'd been sliced by the Tower's scholars, and among the resulting slices, the one most loyal to Truth was deployed here as the Proxy Hand's head of operations in Falling Gate.
Perfectly logical. Very Truth.
Of course, Cheng Shi didn't need to share all this with Shi Lolin. He'd co only to reconfirm her status and ensure the trial could reach a perfect conclusion.
He hadn't forgotten the NPCs caught in the discrepancy. Though their discrepancy logic differed from the players', now that he understood the full picture, he believed these three would still form the trial's answer — just one that couldn't be submitted carelessly. Players had to find their own tiline first. Otherwise, submitting the answer on the wrong tiline could produce unknown consequences.
On the way here, Cheng Shi had pondered extensively. He felt the answer was like a "go ho to your own family" gavel. Submit it on the wrong tiline, and it might beco a lock, trapping you forever in the wrong world.
So, ever cautious, he needed to verify the answer was still valid.
He checked every detail with Shi Lolin again. She hadn't changed. She remained the "future discrepancy."
Cheng Shi was satisfied. He re-tightened her bindings, rcilessly declined the Shanty Area queen's leggy invitation, exited, and entered A Rad's room.
The thrown blade hadn't actually killed him — Cheng Shi had found the right angle to cause blood loss and collapse. Now he pulled out a healing potion, revived A Rad, and — looking at the dazed Proxy Hand leader — smiled:
"Tell
about you and your sister. If you talk well... I'll consider giving you a quick end."
"?"
Being bled out and revived was already "not quick." What "quick" was there to offer?
But sense prevailed. A Rad didn't dare protest. The muscular man lay face-down on the floor and began answering in a muffled voice.
"What do you want to know?"
"Do you know you're a slice?"
A Rad froze. A flash of complexity and fear crossed his eyes.
"I didn't know for certain. But I suspected."
"You suspected?" Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow with interest. "What — did your fragnted mories give it away?"
"No. My mories are complete. Every logical thread is self-consistent. Even the transition from Corruption to Truth was seamless.
But... Truth believers love research. Studying the self is also research. And since I constantly had to deal with the splinter faction of the Extre Desire Brotherhood, I was forced to study my forr faith — Corruption — in depth.
The more I examined, the more I realized: though my cognition and logic were self-consistent, my emotions had a gap.
My split with her... was too sudden. No buffer, no entanglent. Those lofty scholars probably considered emotion an obstacle to Truth and ignored it entirely. But... humans have feelings.
That's how I realized I might have been sliced. I'd heard of the technique — I just never thought it would happen to .
My fanaticism for Truth drove
to study that emotion over and over, to study Corruption. Perhaps influenced by Corruption again, I found I'd recovered the feelings from childhood — rembering the sister who'd cared for
in every way..."
"?"
Hearing this, Cheng Shi blinked. He tasted the subtext now. He looked at the complex-faced A Rad before him with genuine surprise:
"You rembered how good Shi Lolin was to you. You noticed her hatred. But instead of explaining yourself, you bore her attacks and antagonism in silence. Was your purpose... to protect your sister? To protect the Extre Desire Brotherhood?"
"..."
A Rad didn't want to admit it, but when Cheng Shi picked up the scalpel from the floor, he dropped his head and conceded.
"Yes. As long as I remain the Proxy Hand's representative in Falling Gate, the Brotherhood stays safe. But if I'm replaced... they have no understanding of surface civilization or the Tower of Logic. Those lunatics would do absolutely anything to seize resources.
Faiths may be equal, but Their followers differ vastly in numbers.
She can rule the wind and rain in Falling Gate, but in the Tower of Logic's eyes, she's just a flea that jumps slightly higher. If they wanted, they could crush her and destroy Falling Gate entirely.
The surface attacking the Underground might not be convenient, sure — it would cost enormously. But I can't help but fear, because the Tower has the ans. So..."
"So you silently shouldered everything for Shi Lolin?"
"..." A Rad said nothing, but the silence spoke volus. His expression and eyes told the whole story.
'Tsk — a real man. But sadly, not the original man anymore.'
At the end of the day, the current A Rad was just a slice of the original — a Truth slice re-awakened by Corruption's emotional stirrings. No matter how nobly he acted, in Shi Lolin's eyes, he wasn't the real A Rad.
Corruption indulged desire. Desire was simple and direct. She wanted her brother — not so slice silently looking out for her.
Heh. This was destiny.
Cheng Shi had always believed A Rad was an un-betrayed practitioner of Corruption's will — joining the Tower of Logic not out of betrayal but out of greed-driven desire. But now it was clear: this version was a genuine Oathbreaker who'd left Corruption's camp. He'd restrained his emotional desires, refused to explain things to Shi Lolin, pretended nothing had changed while secretly protecting her. He'd done "good" — but in Shi Lolin's eyes, he was purely "bad."
Cheng Shi pursed his lips. At this mont, he felt sowhat superfluous — because he could already hear Shi Lolin crying next door.
This woman — who hadn't shown an ounce of fear even facing death — was now sobbing uncontrollably after hearing A Rad's confession.
Truth was rciless. Corruption was indulgent. You two... could never go back.
And Shi Lolin wasn't even the current Shi Lolin. To this world, she too was an outsider.
A local man sliced by the Tower of Logic, and a "future" woman from beyond — brought together by a trial to produce the most genuine collision of hearts.
Sigh. You really do love Your jokes, don't You?
It might be Ti's trial, but Your shadow was everywhere in it, my Lord.
Cheng Shi silently grumbled about his Benefactor, then knocked on the wall behind him and asked curiously: "Shi Lolin — is the commission still on?"
The sobbing next door stopped. After a mont, a teeth-grinding voice ca through:
"Kill him, my lord! Kill him — and I'll offer you everything."
'Bravo — Corruption to the core!'
Never any pretense of rcy or morality. Hate was hate, love was love, and if you were an eyesore — kill. Simple and direct. In certain monts, it felt far more honest than Civilization's pretenses. Though such monts were vanishingly rare.
At its core, Corruption was desire — desire that people either chased madly or fled from at all costs.
Cheng Shi smirked. He looked at A Rad with a hint of pity and gave him one last chance for final words.
"Anything left to say?"
"I... may die, but there'll be another
after. The Tower of Logic won't abandon this place — just as the Brotherhood wants to spread Corruption's will upward through the Abyssal Volcano.
I have nothing to say. But I'd suggest you disguise my death as an accident. That's best for everyone.
Also — not all Underworld factions are allies. Be wary of Folly. They're... very similar to Truth.
Don't be controlled by the clever. Because we can never escape."
A Rad closed his eyes calmly and waited for death.
But at that mont, Cheng Shi withdrew his blade and frowned slightly.
"You... know about Folly?"
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