Foolish Game of the Chapter 774: I Just Don't Care for Traitors

"Eye No One. Wait — don't get violent. I'm not insulting you. That's literally the talent's na: Eye No One.

I know it sounds like a Folly talent, but it genuinely is a gift from Deceit. Its effect is to make

and a chosen target invisible to others' cognition.

Simply put — cognitive invisibility.

Very effective, but highly limited. For instance, if we want to maintain this state, we can't leave this imdiate area for quite so ti.

It's a zone-restricted skill that only works within a very small radius.

Which puzzles , because it doesn't behave like what I understand Deceit to be. It feels more like a hybrid of Deceit and Chaos — even leaning predominantly toward Chaos.

I can't make sense of it. The best I can figure is that the gods are still embroiled in innurable conflicts on planes beyond our sight, and Deceit perhaps... stole a piece of Chaos's authority in one of those conflicts."

Hearing this, Cheng Shi was impressed.

'Truth followers really do have sothing upstairs.' From a single talent's effect, the doctor had basically deduced what the Fun God had been doing behind the scenes.

But Cheng Shi certainly wasn't going to chat about his Benefactor with a Truth follower. So he probed in a roundabout, stop-and-go fashion, trying to ferret out the rest of the man's talents.

The doctor was candid but not stupid. And so, during the long wait for the mother-tree's berserk assault to subside, the two spent their ti under Deceit's protection engaged in a subtle bout of verbal tai chi.

One probed relentlessly; the other gave away nothing. After enough rounds, Cheng Shi felt they could've opened an actual tai chi seminar. Setting aside the slice identity, Wang Weijin was genuinely talented — a well-rounded individual with no real weaknesses.

'Letting soone like that roam free as a lone wolf... wouldn't that be a waste?'

'Perfect — only I and the Blind One know about the doctor's otherworldly origins. On the "knowing each other's deepest secrets" front, even if there isn't full "heart-to-heart trust" yet, we at least "know the dirt." Factor that in...'

'This talent rightfully belongs with .'

This wasn't a fleeting whim. Cheng Shi was genuinely, seriously evaluating the feasibility.

Of course, raw ability and identity weren't the main reasons he had designs on the doctor. The Fun God's "divinely inspired" second faith was the real catalyst.

'So... should I follow this guidance and pull Wang Weijin into the... Joker Alliance?'

'Not the Destined Ones — Doctor Fraud has about as much connection to Fate as a tin can.'

'Is it feasible?'

Cheng Shi thought for a mont. Picturing Mi Laozhang, the Dragon King, and the doctor all sitting together "discussing philosophy," his scalp tingled.

Sure, the Joker Alliance was full of liars playing their parts. But that ntal image looked suspiciously like a Truth followers' debate forum.

'Would that count as blasphemy against Truth?'

'Hmm. Probably. And if it would — then this is absolutely worth doing!'

With that thought, his gaze toward the doctor shifted. The wariness in his eyes faded, replaced by a spark of interest.

'In the na of Deceit — the Clown was about to start conning again.'

Between keeping watch on their surroundings and plotting his approach, he'd just begun thinking about how to steer the conversation toward organizations and alliances when an unexpected situation arrived first.

The two of them were temporarily safe in their hiding spot, but the experint site held far more than just the two of them. Panicked, survival-driven players were everywhere, and before long, three mud-caked, barely clothed players stumbled into their area.

Their bodies bore scars from various experintal tubes — clearly escapees from the underground lab's tanks.

All three were in terrible shape, but the worst off was the woman trailing behind. Half her body was gone, yet she was still gritting her teeth and casting heals — not on herself, but on the two male players ahead of her.

'Smart.' She knew that healing herself wouldn't save her life in these conditions. But demonstrating value to others? That might.

And her two male companions weren't fools either. A healer ant they could last longer. So the three had dragged each other this far in a mutually parasitic survival pact.

But luck always runs out eventually — like right now. Behind them surged a tidal wave of tentacles from above and below, and given the scale of the oncoming swarm, in the next second, forget those three — even Cheng Shi and Wang Mou's hiding spot would get pounded into the dirt.

The doctor's expression turned pitch black. This was pure collateral damage. But the situation wasn't unsolvable.

The simplest solution: kill all three before the tentacles arrived. Once the tentacles lost their targets, the crisis would resolve itself.

After all, in a mont like this, the line between good and evil blurred. No one could criticize the doctor's choice. Ultimately, every tragedy in today's experint site was 0221's doing.

Even if the doctor took action, the blood debt could be laid at 0221's feet — because Wang Weijin was 0221's slice.

'In Chaos, life is cheap.'

'When Order isn't watching, justice only shows on the victor's blade.'

Then again, the doctor hadn't thought it through that far. He was a pragmatic, efficient Truth follower. Unable to trust these newcors on short notice, his first instinct was to draw his weapon.

But just as Wang Mou was about to strike — Cheng Shi moved first.

Cheng Shi snapped his arm up and fired a terrifying bolt of Lightning Punishnt straight at the player running in front. The roaring thunder consud the man instantly, and from his charred remains, a brand-new Screaming Servant sprouted.

But in the next heartbeat, the second male player's expression suddenly froze — replaced by a look of sheer terror.

His wildly distorted face didn't look like soone startled by a surprise attack. It looked as though he'd beco an entirely different person!

He hadn't seen where the attack ca from. But he recognized the technique. He recognized the thunder that haunted his deepest nightmares.

So he slamd to a halt. Without a second thought, he reversed direction and sprinted toward the female priest behind him, screaming as he retreated:

"Cheng Shi! I have no grudge against you!"

"Oh? Is that so?

Then why are you running?"

Cheng Shi let out a cold laugh and casually lowered his hand — but the instant his arm dropped, a second and third bolt of thunder roared out in rapid succession.

He hadn't aid. But the howling plasma streaked through the air as if guided, striking the fleeing male player and dropping him on the spot.

The instant the charred body hit the ground, the female player bringing up the rear jerked to a halt, her face flooding with an even more profound terror.

Her eyes bulged, veins bloodshot. She seed to want to say sothing, but before her mouth could open, the third flash of lightning blazed in and reduced her to a charred husk as well.

This ti Cheng Shi didn't summon another Screaming Servant. He let the lone existing one retrieve the two corpses.

The entire sequence seed drawn-out in the telling, but in reality it was over in an instant. The tidal wave of tentacles hadn't even arrived when it lost all its targets. They thrashed their limbs in maddened howling, then shifted course and surged off elsewhere.

Once silence returned, the doctor glanced at Cheng Shi with curiosity. "He had a grudge against you?"

"Doctor — there were three people. Which 'he' are you asking about?"

"The first one, obviously. I could see he'd planted parasitic resurrection chanisms on his two companions. You had no killing intent toward the latter two — you were only after him.

Also, your lightning packs a punch."

Wang Mou casually eyed the ring on Cheng Shi's finger and sighed wistfully.

He had no designs on such items. He simply felt that a teammate in possession of equipnt like this should have deployed it far earlier — the delay was inefficient.

Cheng Shi scoffed:

"Less of a 'grudge,' really. I just don't care for traitors."

The words had barely left his mouth when the Screaming Servant dropped the two charred corpses at their feet. And alongside them, clattering to the ground, was a long sword shaped unmistakably like a clock hand.

...