Not long after returning to the Rest Area, the Road to Ascension's periodic settlent arrived. The talent and item rewards were so underwhelming that Cheng Shi picked a novelty snack at random and closed the page.
He sat on the edge of his rooftop eating dinner as usual, waiting for a long ti without seeing Xie Yang on the rooftop across the way.
'Where did he disappear to again?'
If the space rger hadn't taken effect yet, Cheng Shi would've assud the Gap Light Iron Thorn hadn't escaped 0221's Experint Ground.
So... who had grabbed him this ti?
'Born-to-be-kidnapped physique?'
Cheng Shi shook his head with a grin and let it go. What commanded his full attention now wasn't so neighbor in reality, but this: with the special trial freshly concluded and his condition at peak, how exactly should he track down the ear that Brother Mouth and Brother Tongue both refused to discuss — the Secret Peeping Ear.
He'd already contacted everyone he considered reliable: Big Cat, the Dragon King, the Blind One, Mi Laozhang — even Wang Mou!
Yes, Wang Mou now had a phone. A gift from Big Cat. She'd apparently picked up on Cheng Shi's attitude toward the Doctor during the final battle and, on a flash of inspiration, sent the man a handset.
Wang Mou had accepted it. After witnessing the Fate Weaver's thods, his curiosity about the "Joker" organization had only deepened.
He even assud Big Cat was one of its mbers. Fortunately, he hadn't asked in front of everyone during the chaotic aftermath of the shattered experint. Otherwise, the next ti Cheng Shi saw Big Cat, he'd have had to explain what the Joker actually was.
The Doctor had readily accepted Cheng Shi's invitation and was prepared to accompany him to San Dales in search of the mysterious object the Jokers needed.
With everyone but the unreachable Dragon King on board, Cheng Shi — before departure — even took the ti to "greet" Brother Mouth one more ti, asking whether it was excited about eting its other sibling soon.
Brother Mouth played dead. Not a word. This only hardened Cheng Shi's resolve to obtain the ear. And so, at an agreed-upon mont, everyone began their prayers simultaneously.
To prevent the Fun God from ddling, Cheng Shi directed this prayer to his other Benefactor...
Ti.
That's right — Ti!
Because he knew Ti definitely didn't have ti to ddle.
"Ti slips through the cracks; I ride the wind.
Your devoted follower prays to You — open a trial...
A trial to 'spy upon secrets in the frigid northern frontier of San Dales.'"
The instant the words faded —
[Wish Trial (Believing is Seeing, Hearing is Doubting — Silence) has been opened]
[Matching teammates (1/6)]
[Trial objective: Applause at the performance's curtain fall — regardless of joy or sorrow (Ti limit: 3 days)]
'Wait — who?!'
'Silence!'
'Why Her?'
Cheng Shi blinked, a flicker of suspicion crossing his face.
While Silence trials didn't demand total muteness, their chanics typically required Players to follow clues toward a secret — and then keep their mouths shut about it. The mont you spoke the secret aloud, or even hinted at it, the trial ended in failure.
The silver lining: Silence trials used individual scoring. A teammate's elimination wouldn't drag everyone down.
The downside: until you found the secret the clues pointed to, nobody dared say a word. No one wanted to be kicked out before understanding the full picture.
So while Silence trials didn't mandate silence, in practice, everyone tended to be very, very quiet.
But there were exceptions. As long as you mastered the art of "idle chatter," you didn't have to stay mute the whole ti.
With that in mind, Cheng Shi's brow knotted. His gaze darkened.
'Please don't tell
San Dales is actually hiding so massive secret.'
[Match successful (6/6). Entering trial]
...
On the edge of the northern snowfield, frigid wind howled.
But Cheng Shi's landing point had no wind. It was still cold, sure — but at least it beat enduring the knife-edged gales outside.
This trial's spawn location appeared to be indoors. A dark interior.
His hearing recovered first. Nearby, he caught the drip-drip of water — crisp, with a faint echo. That ant the space was vast.
Then his tactile sense sharpened. He pinched the soil beneath him, rubbed it between his fingers, and tasted it: sludge, soaking wet.
He was still speculating whether this might be so underground tunnel when all five senses roared back at once, flooding his nose and mouth with a cocktail of rot, rust, and damp.
"Ugh —"
Soone retched from the stench — but it wasn't him. The gagging ca from the adjacent pipe.
Hearing it, Cheng Shi smirked. He already knew where he was.
A sewer pipe.
An abandoned sewer pipe, at that.
'What a start — roommates with the rats. A surprise silent enough to shut anyone up.'
Cheng Shi rose from the pipe's floor. The diater was generous enough that walking inside didn't feel cramped. He controlled his footsteps to produce no sound whatsoever, then crept toward the junction where his branch rged into the main tunnel.
Monts later, he reached the junction's edge. Pressing himself flat against the pipe wall like a shrimp, he slowly poked his head out toward the opposite wall of the main passage.
As he peered out, another head erged from the neighboring branch. Their foreheads bumped — both recoiled a step. In the sa heartbeat, both raised small lamps.
"Who?!"
"Who?!"
The words echoed and died. The sewer returned to stillness — save for the sound of hamring hearts.
Thanks to the two warm glows illuminating a corner of the tunnel, Cheng Shi discovered that the teammate poking out from around the bend was... also a Cheng Shi?!
"!!??"
The other's posture was virtually identical to his own. For one delirious instant, he thought soone had mounted a mirror at the main tunnel's junction.
But — a mirror would reflect the sa clothes, wouldn't it?
So why was the other one wearing a jacket while he wore a casual blazer?
That ant the other was just a Player. A Player disguised as him!
And really — who else in the world would be bored enough to impersonate him inside a trial?!
At the thought, Cheng Shi cocked an eyebrow and struck first:
"Heeheehee~"
But to his utter astonishnt, the other had the exact sa idea. At the precise instant he made that freakish noise, the impostor fired back:
"Heeheehee~"
'Good news: the fake just ran into the real deal.'
'Bad news: the real deal is also trying to pretend to be the fake...'
Cheng Shi's scalp prickled. He was staring at this teammate — who bore an uncanny resemblance to Zhen Yi — and was just about to launch into a tirade when his peripheral vision caught a lamp flickering to life in a third branch on the far side of the junction. A blurry figure stepped forward.
Before the two of them could make out who it was, a third "Heeheehee~" drifted from beside them.
And the mont that giggle reached Cheng Shi's ears, he realized with horror that this second teammate entering the light...
Was also him.
A third Cheng Shi had appeared!
"..."
"..."
"..."
Six eyes frantically sized one another up, but three mouths stayed firmly shut.
And just like that, the sewer plunged into an eerily tense, absolute silence.
...
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