Chapter 777: Do You Fear Me, or Fear Drawing Close to Truth? |
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
After the vast majority of cannon fodder had perished under the tentacles, the surviving players in the sprawling experiment site began converging toward a single point.
Anyone still standing by now was no amateur. They'd quickly deduced, by observing the tentacle swarms' patterns of movement, that the experiment site still possessed one safe zone.
That meant a group of players had already formed an effective fighting force amid the crisis. So one by one, scattered survivors began desperately charging toward that location, hoping to reach shelter before total exhaustion.
Under those circumstances, Mo Li's team kept growing. The player count had reached a critical mass — enough to hold the position with minimal expenditure.
Of course, the mainstay of their defense was still Big Cat. She alone shouldered ninety percent of the onslaught, going blow for blow with the sky-blotting tentacles. The other players mostly served as her rapid "wound-cleanup" support team — though with the growing number of singers, their combined hymns were finally beginning to neutralize the abomination's whispered ravings.
But achieving that balance wasn't just a matter of headcount. At minimum, the team needed a sharp-minded, clear-headed, decisive, and strategically gifted commander.
And that commander was still Mo Li.
Truthfully, as a player at the absolute frontier of their respective faiths, neither Mo Li nor the Prisoner would have just died at 0221's hands even without Big Cat's protection. They could have revived elsewhere or survived on the battlefield — their bag of tricks was deep enough for self-preservation. They simply couldn't match Big Cat's ability to hit the other side with shock and awe.
Simple. Because they chose differently!
Remember — 0221's divinity tickets weren't like Wei Mu's targeted replicas, distributed to specific players. He'd cast a wide net through his slices, and the "fish" he caught were overwhelmingly ordinary players.
Granted, after this long in the Faith Game, no seasoned player was truly "ordinary" anymore. But reality retained one indisputable law: in this game, the exceptionally talented remained a minority.
Which meant most of these "fish" couldn't protect themselves in this experiment.
So there lay the answer. These two Chosen Ones could have ignored the experimental material and saved only themselves — but they didn't. They'd brought along every willing cooperator and fought their way out together.
Mo Li, as an Order follower — observing tradition, treating everyone equally, respecting all and leading them toward a shred of hope — that aligned perfectly with Order's ethos. No surprises there.
But the Prisoner's choice... was genuinely unexpected.
Even Mo Li hadn't anticipated such willing cooperation. Which proved his membership in the Torchbearers was no fluke.
As the Blind One had said, Qin Xin never misjudged a person. The Torchbearers' founder's eye for character was beyond question.
And so, with Big Cat marauding ahead and the Prisoner anchoring the rear, Mo Li — the player known as the Chief Grand Secretary — finally demonstrated his peerless support capabilities.
His read on the battlefield was razor-sharp and utterly unique. Unlike a peak player's instinctive self-assessment, his strength lay in global coordination: precisely determining where every ounce of force should go, how every bit of stamina should be replenished, how much power to commit to strike the enemy's weak points, and how much defense to pull back to minimize internal casualties.
Directing operations from the center — fed intelligence by countless hunters and assassins serving as his eyes — he functioned like an overclocked central processor, distributing granular commands to every individual. Under his direction, this ragtag assembly of strangers coalesced into a seamlessly synchronized unit, operating like precision machinery.
In that moment, he was the experiment site's most radiant beacon of "Order" — and everyone moved in accordance with his will.
But as the battle wore on, the Prisoner — anchoring the formation — began to frown. He sensed the escalating aggression in the group, the growing itch among many to switch from defense to offense. Scratching his chin, he remarked:
"Axe-Bearer, your aura feels off.
I get the impression the axe didn't land on your neck — you grabbed it for yourself instead.
Your style was never this aggressive. I'm not saying your command is wrong, but... you might want to check Big Bear's location. She hasn't come back in a while.
Are you trying to lead us all the way into 0221's lair?"
At his words, nearby players' lips twitched uncomfortably, turning their heads in silence. Mo Li's eyelid jumped violently. A flash of red light flickered through his eyes before his pupils settled back to gold.
His agitated aura gradually stabilized. He scanned the battlefield in all directions, his brow furrowing slightly as he said in a low voice:
"Something does feel off. The enemy's Birth hymn has weakened. Could something unexpected have happened somewhere else?"
'Unexpected?'
Tao Yi, standing at Mo Li's side, snapped her head up, eyes sharp and cunning as she peered into the distance.
If anything "unexpected" could happen in this experiment site, it was probably... him.
...
The little fox's sixth sense was spot-on.
The mother-tree's weakening assault was indeed linked to Cheng Shi — though he hadn't diverted the abomination from another flank. Rather, he'd unknowingly advanced the experiment's progress, pushing this Truth game into its next phase.
Rewinding slightly: while players from all directions had been frantically converging on Mo Li's team, Wang Mou had led Cheng Shi to the experiment's control center.
Wei Mu had been right. This was the deployment point where experimental material had been sent in.
The moment they arrived nearby, the building — wrapped tight in tentacles — suddenly opened a passage through its exterior wall. A path that looked like a clear road straight to the control center.
One look, and Cheng Shi turned on his heel without a word.
His reasoning was simple: if the experiment's mastermind had already anticipated their arrival and was literally rolling out the welcome mat, then anyone who believed there weren't traps inside was delusional.
As a card-carrying member of the "steady" school, Cheng Shi absolutely wasn't about to stupidly walk into the jaws of the trap. So at the doorstep, he chose retreat — pulling Wang Mou into a rapid withdrawal.
Unfortunately, since their location was compromised, leaving was no longer their choice to make.
Countless tentacles plunged from the sky and erupted from the ground simultaneously, weaving into a cage that locked the two inside.
Under normal circumstances, a cage like this would have crumbled at the snap of Cheng Shi's fingers. But their captor had no intention of forcing them. The cage merely bought a chance to speak.
And it wasn't a "person" speaking — it was the tentacles themselves.
The tentacles forming the prison walls ground and twisted against each other, producing a skin-crawling sound:
"Heh heh heh... You've come all this way. Why don't you dare enter?
Do you fear me? Or do you fear drawing closer to Truth?
The method for divinity assembly — I've placed it right at the end of that corridor. Come in, and I guarantee you'll get everything you want."
Wang Mou's brow knotted tight.
The voice unmistakably belonged to his original body, 0221. But why was he being so... courteous toward the two of them?
This wasn't like him at all. Wang Mou knew exactly what kind of person his original body was. The more accommodating 0221 acted, the bigger the problem lurking inside.
So the doctor frowned deeply, searching for weak points in the cage and attempting to break free. Meanwhile, Cheng Shi seemed to have realized something. He suddenly smiled, gazed calmly at the passage gaping open in the building's mid-level, and asked:
"Our fear should please you, shouldn't it, 0221?
You set up this grand chess game precisely to harvest our desires and emotions, didn't you?
Or do you feel the chaos hasn't yielded enough — so you want to squeeze a bit more from us personally?
Since you've shown yourself so brazenly, does that mean your experiment is nearing success?
Is that why you're so eager to see us walk in? Isn't that right?
Heh. How interesting. So let me ask — who exactly do you want walking in?
Both me and the doctor? Or... just me?"
...