Foolish Game of the Chapter 907: On the Gods, Part One

Sothing profoundly bizarre had happened to Cheng Shi.

Imagine: one day, you — barely past probation at your company — suddenly lose your mind and scream at the CEO that you deserve a seat on the board. The CEO says nothing but writes your demand into the stock prospectus, stamps it, and the next day... you're a director.

Great dream, right?

Sure — it just doesn't feel real.

When Cheng Shi woke up the next morning, the man who never dread could've sworn he'd had the most absurd dream of his life the night before.

He examined his container again — this hourglass-shaped vessel of Ti — and no matter how he turned it over in his mind, nothing made sense.

'Has there been another version update?'

'Blasphemy actually cos with rewards now?'

'Who could possibly keep up with

at this point?'

'No, no — what I an is, is generosity really this contagious?'

Cheng Shi couldn't figure it out. But confusion and bewildernt couldn't suppress the grin tugging at his lips or the excitent in his chest. Having Ti's container essentially ant He had acknowledged the fabricated Shi Zhen identity. With three Envoy identities in hand, other players really might not be able to compete anymore.

Of course, Cheng Shi's sights had long moved past other players. His targets were Them.

Since returning to the rest area, he'd been reviewing his understanding of the gods over and over, sorting through Deceit's and the Fear Faction's relationships with the others. After systematically mapping the current landscape, he discovered that the gods he'd flagged with question marks were precisely the ones that Deceit was probing — or who were probing Deceit.

First: the Life Path. Birth unquestionably upheld a devotion that had never wavered from the very beginning. Even after learning the truth about the slice universes, He was unmoved — singularly committed to His own will and using it to draw closer to Origin.

While He was an Approach Faction deity, He was one that posed zero threat to the Fear Faction. Given His attitude toward offspring, the Fear Faction could even cooperate with Him to a degree.

Of course, cooperating under the banner of Fate might be more convenient. Fate was also Approach Faction, and They'd already had one mutually beneficial collaboration — the sa one that had introduced Cheng Shi to Life Sage Hu Xuan, his "window" into Birth.

Prosperity... there was nothing to say. Dead was dead. Any comntary beyond praising the grandeur of the universe's will toward prosperity risked desecrating a corpse.

Death was even more obvious. This seemingly neutral boss was undoubtedly a powerful ally for the Fear Faction. The Fun God certainly had close, undisclosed dealings with Him. The re fact that the boss's summons had been growing less frequent signaled that He was already deliberately keeping His distance.

Next: the Descent Path. As the "heretical god" representatives of the underground faiths, Descent's reputation was... concerning. But regardless of how players perceived Them, this Path was nearing its end.

Corruption was powerful but showed no aggression whatsoever.

The one display of His strength had occurred during the ancient god war, where Order and War's transformations had proved the point. But that was it — beyond that single incident, nobody knew anything more.

So Cheng Shi had flagged Him with a question mark. The Fun God's recent resurfacing of Order's fracture — relayed through Kataro's mouth — was quite possibly an attempt to probe Corruption.

And as the leader of the Fear Faction, His guidance was undoubtedly the direction in which Cheng Shi would soon be heading.

Decay... also not much to say. An ironclad Approach Faction deity, either already dead or nearly there. This true god was embracing His own will and using it to beg for Origin's gaze, but from the looks of it, He seed to be "dying for love" alongside Prosperity.

Of course, Cheng Shi only dared think such things in private. After all, he was still wielding Decay's proxy authority. Don't bite the hand that feeds you — better not to talk behind backs.

As for Descent's main act, Descent's finale — Oblivion... Cheng Shi put three question marks on that one.

He didn't understand this deity. He couldn't even classify Him as neutral or Approach.

It wasn't as though Cheng Shi had never scored well in Oblivion's trials. Back then, he'd considered Oblivion a "mind-your-own-business" kind of invisible god. Even when Cheng Shi's alignnt had tilted strongly toward Death's will, the other had shown zero reaction.

But looking back now, he owed himself two slaps for his past naivety.

Still, since Oblivion's arrival was tied to the Fun God, and both of his Void Benefactors had simultaneously issued the edict to "obliterate Oblivion" — then regardless of which faction this deity belonged to, Oblivion was destined to be his enemy.

The only question was whether he could actually settle this grudge of ambush and assassination. 'I can't beat You? Fine — can't I at least beat Your followers?'

Remove the firewood from under the pot. Faith was undeniably the gods' firewood. So going head-on against Oblivion was hopeless, but secretly bullying Oblivion's followers should be perfectly doable — so long as he was careful. Even under constant observation, he needed to distance himself from any suspicion.

So who was the best scapegoat for attacks on Oblivion's followers?

Then ca Civilization. Despite its na, this Path had about as much to do with actual civilization as a soda can.

Order was the biggest victim. Even if He was Approach Faction, His current state left Him no strength to approach anything.

Whether He could even protect Himself was debatable. His sole advantage might be the Convention. As long as the gods couldn't shake free of it, Justice of Order at least retained so say — though the universe's order had long since ceased to concern Him.

But it did concern Cheng Shi!

Until he'd verified what benefits the Order subordinate identity could bring, he could tentatively classify Order as a "Fear Faction ally."

Who says Approach Faction can't feel fear?

They might not fear Origin specifically, but fear was fear. 'I just need an excuse to cooperate with you — to keep this deal running. Beyond that, don't overthink it. Sitting quietly in your cage is best for both of us...'

Truth was undeniably Approach Faction. Though His approach might not stem from devotion, He was the god who walked this road most resolutely and had traveled the farthest.

The countless insane experints conducted under His aegis proved as much. He was pursuing the genuine Truth according to His own understanding of Origin, with the most unwavering steps.

To be fair, this was a deity who — like Birth — had achieved a perfect embodint of self-will. And in terms of being "nauseating," He was on par with Birth as well.

Countless test subjects trembled under His shadow. The way they gazed up at this god of Civilization probably wasn't much different from how the Fear Faction gazed up at Origin.

After all, these countless slice universes were practically a genuine experint in Truth.

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