The roads inside the town were far worse than any of them had imagined.
Ice prisms jutted everywhere. Rather than walking through a town, it felt more like scaling a series of frozen hills.
Along the way they found a few more scattered scavenger traces. After grabbing and interrogating so, they finally pieced together a basic picture of this town at the bottom of the abyss.
Setting aside how San Dales had beco the Tower of Logic's waste dump in the first place — what mattered now was the scavenging ecosystem. Just as Han Mo had described: newcors who survived the fall could only eke out an existence on the outskirts. Only once they adapted to the climate and could sustain themselves through scavenging would they earn the right to move toward the town center and join the long-established scavenging groups there.
These territorial groups were the current "bosses" of San Dales. They clustered around the center's periter, hoarding the most resource-rich zone while guarding against lone-wolf scavengers and unfamiliar faces. To keep outsiders from breaking through to the center, these normally feuding factions had even pooled efforts to erect an enormous protective barrier along the center's boundary — all to safeguard the town center's... treasure!
Yes. Treasure.
According to the scavengers, every secret of San Dales lay at the town center. But outsiders couldn't get close enough to know what was there.
The veterans' public story was "divinity fragnts." But the sheer amount of effort they'd poured into "rebuilding" a kind of Order in this nearly lawless dead zone suggested the prize was worth far more than re fragnts.
Given the purpose of his visit, Cheng Shi began to suspect the scavengers' treasure was the Secret Peeping Ear.
He shared his hypothesis with Zhang Jizu, who nodded. "Sounds like you already have a plan. What do you want to do?"
Cheng Shi stood on a high ridge between ice prisms, surveying the even more shattered town center in the distance.
"Since the scavengers are the stars of this show, the performance will go smoother if we give them more stage ti.
What if we unified every scavenger faction here? Then they'd beco our eyes.
We'd be able to track those two mutts — and our vanished mystery teammate — with barely any effort.
Of course, considering the 'natives' pose almost no threat to them, we could give the scavengers a little boost — plant sothing on them so that when they're attacked, they passively release an alarm signal.
Explosive traps, flash arrays, that sort of thing. What do you think, Zhang-lao?"
"Sit inside, lure the enemy outside — sounds feasible. But it's a huge ti sink.
Don't forget, we only have three days. The others probably share our goal. Are you sure you want to spend a large chunk of ti tracking the other two 'yous' before finding what we're looking for?"
"I know ti's precious. But I can't shake the feeling that those mutts are hiding sowhere, watching us, waiting for us to blaze the trail — then swooping in at the perfect mont to scoop up the spoils."
As he spoke, Cheng Shi cast a aningful glance behind him, expression taunting.
Zhang Jizu's squint narrowed further, his own look turning slightly peculiar. Still, controlling the local intelligence network was never a bad move. As long as they sped up the "unification," it'd be a classic case of sharpening the axe before felling the tree.
He nodded again.
"Then go ahead. We'll await your good news."
"???" Cheng Shi was flabbergasted. He stared at Zhang Jizu. "Mi Laozhang, you used to not be like this."
"People change."
"Then why don't you change for the better?"
Zhang Jizu chuckled, eyes half-shut. "You beco who you hang around. The ancients weren't wrong."
"???"
'Bro — what exactly are you implying?'
Cheng Shi was dredging up his reservoir of snark to unleash on Zhang Jizu when Ai Si tightened her fur collar and sighed.
"I know this is bad timing, but — gentlen, there'll be plenty of chances for... verbal sparring later. If you don't move now, the unification plan is toast.
No — it's already toast. Looks like soone beat us to it and already took care of the scavengers here."
She narrowed her eyes and launched a driving kick at her sword tip, punting the blade — lodged in the ice — straight into a shadowed patch of ruins nearby.
BOOM — a scream burst from the shadows. A limping old man was blasted out, crashed to the ground, and scrambled to flee.
But with three Players present, a la old man wasn't going anywhere. Cheng Shi arched a brow, flicked a die, and in a snap of his fingers swapped positions with it — materializing right in the old man's path.
The old man careened headlong into Cheng Shi — and actually shoved the Fate Weaver back a fraction. Zhang Jizu's eyes glinted; his lips curled. Ai Si, anwhile, was visibly shaken.
"Fate's die?!
He's supposed to be a liar! Wasn't the Fate Weaver identity his cover? How is he still using Fate's power?"
Zhang Jizu smiled and said nothing, scanning the surroundings cautiously before walking toward Cheng Shi.
"Did he deceive Fate's followers? No — that's a universal Fate talent, not a Fate Weaver-specific one!
He fused? He fused with Fate?"
Ai Si pressed after them, astonishnt spilling out.
"It's complicated. For now, you can think of it that way."
"..."
'Complicated?'
Ai Si's expression was even more complicated. She'd thought getting matched with Chosens was demoralizing enough. But now, realizing that the only two teammates in this trial had both completed faith fusions — and the people bold enough to impersonate Cheng Shi had almost certainly fused too — a wave of helpless defeat washed over her.
'So this is what the absolute peak tier of Players looks like?'
'Their pace is insane. While ordinary people are only just learning that a second faith exists, these people are already pioneers on the dual-faith path!'
'And if they've already fused, why are they still here hunting for opportunities?'
Watching Cheng Shi's playful expression as he interrogated the old man, and Zhang Jizu's composed, steady silhouette, Ai Si quietly clenched her fist. If there was any chance at all, she had to seize sothing from this trial.
Her gaze drifted toward the town center. A glimr of desire — invisible to anyone else — flashed through her eyes.
'Is it true... that there are faiths to choose from just sitting there?'
'And if there are... could one of them be mine?'
...
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