Exactly one second after Zhen Xin hung up, the phone rang again. Cheng Shi imdiately realized it hadn't been intentional — she'd probably hit the button by accident — so he snatched it up, and his first words were:
"You're serious?"
The other end went quiet. Before long, a familiar voice chuckled:
"Sounds like another interesting mory you've just made. Who were you on the phone with, Cheng Shi?"
'The Dragon King?'
Cheng Shi froze, blinked, then shook his head with a wry smile. "Nobody. But your timing is impeccable — I was just about to look for you, and here you are calling
first."
Li Jingming wasn't surprised that Cheng Shi wanted to reach him. He knew the Clown was planning to find the Secret Peeping Ear and use it to get closer to the so-called Lord Yu Xi.
And since that intel had co from the Dragon King himself, the reason for the call was obvious — Cheng Shi simply wanted to verify its accuracy one more ti.
But that wasn't why the Dragon King was calling today. He had sothing far more interesting in mind.
"I'm not sure whether Hong Lin ever ntioned it, but I once obtained a small fragnt of mory related to 0221. Not from the man himself, of course, but from one of his Slices.
He's been subtly probing his Slices after every trial, extracting details about their trial experiences through casual conversation. One particular Slice apparently caught on and quietly docunted everything.
I happened to stumble upon that Slice's mory, and it opened a 'door into the world of Truth' for ."
The Dragon King's "opening a door into the world of Truth" was surely hyperbole, but the claim of finding a Slice's mory was probably genuine.
Of course, Cheng Shi could only be certain that "finding the mory" was real. Whether the mory itself was authentic... that was another matter entirely.
After all, Cheng Shi himself had constructed self-hypnosis traps to counter mory followers. Who was to say the far more brilliant Truth followers didn't have a fake mory of their own?
A Slice's mory was, after all, nothing more than whatever its creator had sculpted.
But Cheng Shi didn't warn the Dragon King. With his level of insight, a reminder would be unnecessary.
What intrigued Cheng Shi more was the Dragon King's motive for sharing this.
'Intelligence exchange within the Joker alliance?'
'Impossible.'
There was still an entry fee standing between the Dragon King and full mbership. Even if Cheng Shi forgot everything else, he'd never forget the price the other man had pledged.
'So what's the Dragon King after?'
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, held his curiosity in check, and listened quietly.
"0221 is fascinating. He's a pure Truth follower..."
The Dragon King had barely gotten that far when Cheng Shi blurted out: "A lunatic?"
"Exactly — but purer than any lunatic. He's studied every experint in the Tower of Logic's history and ford his own unique insights on each one.
Interestingly enough, the reason this particular Slice figured out his own identity as a Slice was because he was awed by the staggering breadth of knowledge displayed by the Truth neighbor he'd been chatting with.
It was that feeling — of a firefly gazing at the brilliant moon — that first planted the seed of doubt: could his conversation partner actually be the Chosen One of Truth? And once that suspicion took root, every subsequent detail beca a thread to unravel.
Of course, I'm not saying all this because I'm interested in 0221 as a person. I am interested in him, yes — but what interests
even more are the experints he controls."
Cheng Shi stiffened. 'Did the Dragon King already hear sothing right after the trial? He can't possibly know I have experint manuscripts, can he?'
"So you want to go after 0221's experint manuscripts?"
"Manuscripts?
No. I don't need knowledge. What I need is mory.
What interests
is the mory embedded in those experints — the people and events of the Tower of Logic lost to history. The manuscripts themselves don't hold that much appeal."
"..."
It clicked. 'You say you're not interested, yet you keep bringing them up. So who do you think would be interested?'
'Dragon King, oh Dragon King — you're dangling those manuscripts to bait .'
'You want to drag
along to rob 0221.'
'And then you take the mories while the manuscripts beco my paynt.'
'Hmm...'
'Not the worst idea, but...'
"Got a plan?"
Hearing that, the Dragon King laughed.
"Sharp as ever — wouldn't expect any less.
No plan yet. I just have a feeling an opportunity will present itself soon, so consider this a down paynt. When you spot that opportunity, rember there's a Joker waiting for you to return the favor."
"Heh. Pay your entry fee first before you start throwing around 'Joker.' But Dragon King — why do you think an opportunity is coming soon?"
"Because according to my sources, the recent mass disappearances of players seem to be connected to 0221."
"!!!"
Cheng Shi froze. He turned to stare at the neighboring rooftop, thinking of the neighbor who had been missing for so long. 'Could Xie Yang have been taken by 0221?'
'Why would he take people — for experints?'
"Experints?"
The word slipped out uncertainly, and the Dragon King's reply was nothing short of earth-shattering.
"Yes. Experints.
Based on the breadcrumbs I've pieced together from the various mories I've collected recently, 0221 has developed a keen interest in a certain failed experint. One you should have heard of — the Stars Dagger, led by the greatest scholar of the Creation Alchemy Departnt: Zangier."
"The Stars Dagger?!" Cheng Shi was stunned. 'What a coincidence?'
"I see you already know about it.
The missing players were all snatched away by a mysterious force the instant their trials ended. They didn't return, yet the corresponding spatial rge prayers didn't activate either — aning they're not dead.
But gradually, a fair number of them have started dying off. At first I assud sothing new had changed in the trials. But after tracking and investigating for a while, I discovered that all of it seems connected to 0221."
At that, a wild notion flared in Cheng Shi's mind. He blinked, scarcely believing his own words:
"Are you saying 0221 is using players as test subjects for the Stars Dagger experint?!
In reality?!
Replicating the experint that stole the gods' Authority?!"
"Precisely." The Dragon King's tone turned grave. "You and I both know what Truth is capable of. It's far from impossible."
"But that's insane..." Cheng Shi murmured.
"The road to Truth has always been insane."
Cheng Shi fell silent. But soon another thought struck him: 'Damn — Xie Yang really was taken as experintal material!'
'The missing players are almost certainly consumables!'
'But even so, where would 0221 get that much divinity?'
The Stars Dagger had only been feasible because the Tower of Logic poured an entire nation's resources into creating two pseudo-gods, then made Zangier himself enter the ga as the thief who stole the gods' Authority.
On top of that, the Erudition Presidium had even deployed the Ritual of Truth to carve out a pocket of space within the Void, specifically to house Far Dusk Town — the experint's base of operations.
'Wait...'
'Far Dusk Town?'
Cheng Shi's eyes widened. Suddenly he realized where that inexplicable sense of familiarity at Falling Gate had co from. Although the architectural styles weren't the sa, the stowaways who didn't belong and the speculators chasing profit — weren't they just like the carefree travelers in Far Dusk Town who asked no questions and lived only for pleasure?
And he rembered Zhen Yi had ntioned that the Stars Dagger's experintal town had been found near the Abyssal Volcano. So... Far Dusk Town's prototype might have been an underground settlent like Falling Gate?
It wasn't impossible. A Rad had also ntioned that the Tower of Logic possessed the ans to destroy underground towns — the cost was simply enormous. And now it seed that what he'd called "destruction" might have been the original "uprooting" when Far Dusk Town was selected.
A price that, set against the Tower of Logic's divinity-theft experint, was simply deed acceptable.
But more alarming than Far Dusk Town's origins was another coincidence: at this exact juncture, Zangier had escaped.
'Is that really a coincidence?'
'Or was 0221's experint prepared precisely for the escaped Zangier?'
'This historical madman ets a present-day kindred spirit, and the two of them hit it off perfectly — transplanting the Stars Dagger out of the Land of Hope entirely?!'
Cheng Shi was frightened by his own wild speculation. He gripped the phone tightly, brow furrowed.
'The followers of Truth have truly lost their minds!'
...
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