Chapter 327: Because My Luck Is Too Good |
Hong Lin's first thought was:
'This world has gone insane.'
A Fate Weaver who had just tried to recruit her into the Destined Ones was now, after an audience with her own Benefactor, asking her: do you want to become the Envoy of [Prosperity]?
What kind of deliriously prosperous mental state did it take to even ask that question?
'Are all you Destined Ones this unhinged?'
Honestly, upon hearing Cheng Shi's words, Hong Lin wasn't all that shocked. She simply felt his brain might be a little scrambled.
But after watching him carefully for a long time and finding that his expression showed no sign of deception, her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
"You're serious?"
Cheng Shi nodded with absolute gravity:
"..." Hong Lin felt like she was the one going crazy. Unable to contain herself, she shifted into Big Cat form right on the spot, vigorously scrubbed her face with those thick paws, then transformed back into human shape and repeated what she'd just said.
"You're serious?"
Cheng Shi had absolutely no idea what the point of the Druid's little routine was, but he nodded solemnly all the same:
"Dead serious!"
"And just because I want it, it can happen?"
Cheng Shi chose his words carefully: "With Their support, probably."
Hong Lin's pupils contracted sharply. She seized Cheng Shi's shoulders in a vise grip, her expression a tangle of emotions:
"Whose support?"
Cheng Shi paused for a moment, then told the truth: "[Death], [Deceit], and perhaps [Fate] as well."
When she heard those three Divine Names, Hong Lin's pupils contracted yet again. Her heartbeat accelerated wildly, threatening to burst from her chest.
Staring at Cheng Shi's solemn, opinion-seeking expression, a torrent of thoughts raced through Hong Lin's mind. She froze suddenly, then blurted out in disbelief:
"The Divine Envoy?"
Cheng Shi grinned: "Smart! Exactly—that Divine Envoy. So, do you want it?"
This time Hong Lin didn't hesitate. Suppressing the monumental shock roiling inside her, she gritted her teeth and nodded:
"Yes!"
?
Even Cheng Shi hadn't expected Hong Lin to agree so readily. Before, when he'd tried to win her over, she'd always been full of reservations and considerations. Yet now the stakes were infinitely higher, far more insane—and she just agreed?
Hong Lin caught Cheng Shi's surprise and smiled as well, though tension still leaked through the edges of her grin.
"Your question is too terrifying. So terrifying I nearly lost the ability to think—it felt like being thrown back to the moment the Faith Game descended, when everything bizarre and uncanny appeared right before my eyes."
"What, you thought I wouldn't want this?"
"No, I just didn't expect you to agree so quickly. Didn't you have misgivings about [Prosperity]?"
Hong Lin shook her head and let out a heavy breath.
"What I resisted was the helplessness—being unable to fight back. What I feared was being played by Him."
"But if you're asking whether I want to become an Envoy with greater power to protect myself, then of course I do."
"Otherwise, why would I still be struggling in this game? Isn't it all to become stronger?"
"Becoming one of Them—oppressing others, outmaneuvering others—wouldn't that feel a hell of a lot better than just enduring the pressure myself?"
"..."
'Well, that's certainly... a refreshing perspective.'
Cheng Shi laughed. He should have known Hong Lin was never the indecisive type. She was a warrior—a warrior who fought with everything she had.
Seeing that Cheng Shi's expression had finally relaxed, Hong Lin dropped down beside him with a thud, gasping for breath:
"Quick—tell me what happened. While my sanity is still intact, tell me everything."
Cheng Shi was amused. It was rare to see Hong Lin lacking confidence. He held nothing back and laid out every detail of the plan.
Moments later, Hong Lin's expression had grown incomparably complex.
Cheng Shi watched his friend furrow her brows in deep thought. Just as they had the last time they'd stepped out of the void together, he asked that question once more:
"Now—do you still want to?"
Hong Lin didn't answer. Instead, she asked:
"Is there still enough time?"
Cheng Shi blinked. Although his Benefactor had said time waits for no one, He hadn't pressed or come to hurry them—which naturally meant there was time.
Perhaps the gods were still brawling atop the Canopy Sea, and it would likely take a while before their battle concluded.
So Cheng Shi nodded, signaling Hong Lin to speak her mind.
Hong Lin exhaled another turbid breath. She looked at the Fate Weaver friend she'd only recently made, and a serene smile spread across her face.
"Cheng Shi, do you know why I believe in destiny?"
"Why?"
"Because... my luck is too good."
"?"
'Come on now, friend—opening with a critical hit right to my face?'
Hong Lin seemed less tense now. She flopped back onto the grass and gazed up at the lush canopy towering high overhead, then began to tell her story.
"When I say my luck is good, I actually mean it literally."
"Originally, my fate wasn't good at all. At least not in childhood—it was downright abysmal."
"From the moment I was born, I had an irreversible form of atypical progeria. Can you imagine? By the time I was twelve, I had more wrinkles on my face than my eighty-two-year-old great-grandmother, yet my hair was even thinner than hers."
"Every doctor declared I wouldn't survive past fifteen. But on the day I turned fourteen, a biology professor moved in next door."
"At first, we had no idea he wasn't a real professor, but a black-market dealer conducting illegal biological experiments in secret. Still, his unthinkable bio-experiments managed to keep me alive—even though I was reduced to a husk lying in a culture tank, plugged full of tubes, stripped of all dignity. But I lived. I made it past fifteen."
"Fortunately, my family was fairly well off. My parents earned enough to sustain the experiments, so I wouldn't die in that tank."
"When I was sixteen, Tao Yi moved in and became my neighbor."
"She was two years younger than me. Pretty, with a lovely voice—lively, cheerful, and clever. Most importantly, she was healthy. Incredibly healthy."
"My mother always felt I needed a friend my own age, so with her deliberate encouragement and invitations, Tao Yi started visiting regularly. She wasn't the least bit afraid of the tank that imprisoned me like a cage."
"Having a companion my age made me happy, even though I looked more like her grandmother—or even her great-grandmother."
"But I was often jealous of her too. Jealous of how beautiful she was. Jealous of her carefree health."
"Those tangled emotions lasted for years. My body deteriorated further and further, until even the experiments could no longer hold things together."
"And just when our entire family had lost hope, that black-market dealer with his miraculous connections—Professor Chen—procured a new drug. He said it could keep me alive, but it was even more expensive than the experiments."
"That same year, our family business collapsed. It looked like we wouldn't be able to afford the life-sustaining treatments anymore. But then one night, my father hit the lottery. Six million dollars."
"Unbelievable, right? Those six million let the family business recover, and kept me clinging to life."
"But later I found out that ticket wasn't his. It was Tao Yi's. She was still in college, spending her living expenses on lottery tickets every single day—all so she could win enough money to pay for my treatment. Who would have thought a naive college student could actually win the lottery? And that she'd hit it at the exact moment my family was on the verge of collapse."
"This girl who had absolutely no obligation to me—and that sum wasn't small change for her family either—she could have simply walked away. But she didn't."
"She never told her family. She secretly slipped the winning ticket into my father's pocket. He had no idea where it came from, but seeing that the money could save a life, he took it with a guilty conscience."
"And so I lived again. Lived for many more years. Our family business thrived, and we even had the resources to support Tao Yi in chasing her dream of singing."
"But she was... honestly, not that great a singer. So my mother suggested she try a different track. And wouldn't you know it—she landed a minor role as a servant girl in a drama, and she blew up."
"The very first paycheck she earned, she spent it on the newest medication for me—even though by then my family could afford it ourselves. Honestly..."
"Later, the disease finally became impossible to hold off. Even my mother—who'd always been the most confident about my recovery—gave up. They cried as they prepared my funeral arrangements, and then..."
"The Faith Game descended."
"..."
"So now you can guess why I chose [Prosperity], and why I'm grateful to Him—because He let me stand on my own two feet again."
"At the Path Starting Point, there were three artifacts: [Prosperity]'s green branch, [Decay]'s dagger, and [Fate]'s die."
"The moment I learned that the green branch could restore me completely, I didn't even spare a second glance at the other two."
Hong Lin gave a self-deprecating laugh, then turned to look at Cheng Shi beside her:
"Now do you understand why I believe in destiny? The first half of my life is living proof of good fortune."
"That's why I told you I'm not afraid of dying—because every time I've walked to the gates of hell, a hand has always pushed me back."
"First it was Professor Chen, then it was Tao Yi, and now it's you, Cheng Shi."
Cheng Shi's mind churned with emotion, deeply moved. He thought that perhaps this was the real reason [Fate] had bestowed that die—because the god had already set His eyes on this pitiable soul favored by fortune, all the way back at the Path Starting Point.
'So people truly blessed by [Fate] do exist. And Hong Lin wasn't just blindly charmed by my persuasion—she genuinely believes in destiny.'
'If anything, I'm the one profiting off her good luck.'
"I wasn't crazy before, because I felt I owed it to them to stay alive. But now that I've met you, seen the Destined Ones, I realize I was wrong."
"My good fortune shouldn't be my safety net—it should be my weapon."
"So if there's a chance, why not? At the very least, standing at that height would let me better protect my friends."
"Wielding the Authority of [Prosperity] as proxy—wouldn't that let my friends flourish forever?"
Cheng Shi smiled. He smiled with genuine joy, and even clapped his hands. And as he applauded, he activated the Floating Dream of the Memory Sea, inscribing the tale of the Mushroom-Footed People and the Divine Envoy into the history of the Land of Hope.
Watching Cheng Shi work, Hong Lin suddenly asked:
"Are we going to die?"
The question landed heavy, because this time it wasn't something an [Order] remnant page could solve. This gamble demanded they go all-in—absolutely, irrevocably all-in.
This time, Cheng Shi genuinely couldn't be sure. But at the very least, under his Benefactor's protection, even if they died, it shouldn't be too gruesome.
So he nodded with "conviction": "No. Absolutely not."
...
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