Chapter 912: Nobody Cares About the Trial |
Perhaps worried that her short undergarment would be inconvenient while running, the female player had already slipped on a longer-hemmed shirt by the time she appeared behind Cheng Shi.
The two ran in silent accord, heading the same direction. To avoid being flagged as deserters by the war supervisors at the front of the convoy, they quietly downed several Iron Law Knights along the way under cover of the chaos.
Naturally, the one doing the takedowns wasn't Cheng Shi. As they ran, he'd gradually drifted behind the female teammate, ceding the vanguard position to her.
She showed no reaction. She simply pushed forward, occasionally waving a hand, which made every knight who tried to stop them lose their train of thought, rooted dumbly in place.
This confirmed it for Cheng Shi — she was a Silence follower. A Silence mage, specifically: a Mime Master.
They sprinted nonstop. Before long, they passed the lead wagon of the convoy and plunged into the deserted forest ahead. Only then did the Mime Master slow to a halt, turning to eye Cheng Shi with a slight frown.
Not knowing whether anyone was watching from the shadows, Cheng Shi went ahead and played the exhausted weakling — hands on knees, panting heavily, not even lifting his head as he asked:
"Master, who were those two?"
Having guessed her identity, Cheng Shi didn't expect a response. He was merely doing his best to play the role of a clueless low-rank player stumbling into a top-tier match. But the moment the words left his mouth, a crisp electronic voice sounded beside him.
"???"
Cheng Shi's head snapped up. He stared at his teammate and found the expressionless woman holding an electronic voice box, her fingers dancing across it like butterflies, typing at a furious pace.
"My name is Sun Miao. I'm with the History School. What — Zhen Xin never mentioned me?"
"..."
Cheng Shi's eyes went wide, scalp tingling.
'Hold on — girl, what are you doing?'
'Playing abstract art with me?'
'Since when do Silence followers bug-exploit their way into talking like this?'
'Where's your devotion?'
'You really think not using your own mouth counts as piety toward Him?'
'Judging by the Void Puppet's design, complete non-expression is His will!'
'You've gone astray, girl — same wrong path as The Prisoner!'
Still, now that he thought about it... she'd named Zhen Xin directly. Did that mean her rank within the History School was high enough?
Otherwise, how could she possibly link the History School to the Deceit Chosen — the arch-enemy of Memory — and use that as an introduction?
Meaning Zhen Xin had told her about him?
Cheng Shi couldn't help but think this way, because her trick was deviously effective. Operating an electronic voice box was technically action, not speech — and Master of Deception couldn't detect actions. So right now, he had no way to verify whether her identity was genuine.
But real or not, such minor tricks couldn't stump Cheng Shi. Since his cover was blown, he simply dropped the pretense.
'Heh — when I stop acting, let's see if anyone can keep performing in front of me.'
So Cheng Shi used the bowing posture to discreetly switch back to Fate, then — right in front of Sun Miao — placed a pure white mask over his face.
He'd used this trick before at 0221's experiment ground against Wang Mou. Beneath the pure white mask hid a warrior mask, meaning Cheng Shi had just openly transformed into a Pointer Warrior under her watchful eyes.
He wasn't worried about her documenting this. In that famous experiment-ground showdown that had rocked the game, he'd already left traces of the pure white mask. Putting it on now actually made him the perfect recreation of that warrior version of himself.
In the next second, Cheng Shi brazenly scattered his dice on the ground. Then, with a smirk and a snap of his fingers, he materialized beside the Mime Master. Before she could react—
"Click—"
He seized her neck and hoisted her into the air like a slab of cured meat.
'Honestly — a mage standing inside a warrior's attack range without putting up defenses? On what planet?'
'Just because you know me?'
'Sorry, but I might not have that many friends.'
Cheng Shi fixed his sharp gaze on the "captive" in his grip, clicking his tongue.
"So you like talking, huh? Fine — here's your chance to talk. Use your tongue and tell me you're not lying."
His grip wasn't particularly tight, but gravity was doing the work. Sun Miao's face flushed a dark, liver-like crimson.
A flash of annoyance crossed her eyes, but she chose not to resist. Instead, she continued typing with both hands.
"I don't have a tongue."
"?"
Actually, Cheng Shi had sensed something off the moment he lifted her. For a mage who'd shown decent agility and speed during their escape from the convoy, her score obviously wasn't low.
Low-scoring mages couldn't afford to invest in physical ability at all. Only the elite obsessives aiming for the absolute peak would develop themselves comprehensively — forced to do so by the increasingly brutal trials.
Yet this high-scoring mage, when hoisted up, hadn't shown the slightest desire to fight back.
Cheng Shi wasn't a Silence follower. No matter how fast he moved, physical restraint alone couldn't fully block a player's talent-based attacks. Her non-retaliation already told him something: she bore him no ill will.
But did absence of malice equal safety?
No. Using someone's connections as an entry point to approach a target was one of the most effective deception strategies. Cheng Shi knew this intimately, so he remained prudent.
Thus, the instant he heard she had no tongue, his eyes went to the wound at the corner of Sun Miao's mouth.
The festering skin looked tainted by some Decay power. Cheng Shi frowned slightly and set the Mime Master back down. When her toes touched the ground and her neck could finally bear weight again, she darkened her face and slowly opened her mouth.
A shriveled, bark-like tongue lay horrifyingly inside a mouth reeking of Decay. The visual impact was so intense that Cheng Shi felt as though he wasn't looking at a person at all, but some creature masquerading as human.
"You..."
Cheng Shi blinked, his expression a masterpiece.
Sun Miao continued typing: "The tongue-branding punishment, courtesy of Decay followers. I can't stop myself from wanting to talk. I can't fully devote myself to Him, so I have to use auxiliary methods."
"..."
'No kidding — even after rotting her own tongue, she still had to beep away on an electronic voice box.'
'So she's from the same school of thought as The Prisoner... her score must be pretty high too.'
Sun Miao seemed to read Cheng Shi's doubts. But rather than typing a reply, she gave a pointed, annoyed look at the hand still on her neck.
Cheng Shi deliberated for a moment, then released her. He decided to tentatively trust her, because the Decay marks on that tongue had clearly been there for some time — not something fabricated specifically for this trial to bypass Master of Deception.
Of course, it could still be a countermeasure against Deceit followers in general. But as long as it wasn't aimed specifically at him, that was enough.
Cheng Shi stepped back two paces — giving her a sliver of space while keeping her well within his reach.
Sensing his tentative trust, Sun Miao paused, then resumed typing.
"Relax. I won't hold a grudge over your roughness, because my purpose is the same as yours — we're both here for the Grand Tribunal.
Zhen Xin gave us an assignment: investigate Order's history. I assume it's related to you, correct?
Don't be surprised. She's been mentioning you constantly to our group, along with these assignments. Anyone with half a brain could connect the dots.
And if I'm not mistaken, we'll soon be discussing history in a different kind of meeting. Am I right, Cheng Shi... Vice President?"
"?"
At this, Cheng Shi dropped nine-tenths of his suspicion.
No player with ulterior motives could fabricate everything she'd just said. It was all current, real-time information — things that only Cheng Shi and Zhen Xin knew. She had to be from the History School, and her rank within it had to be high.
Very possibly, she was Zhen Xin's right hand. Otherwise, there was no way she'd know any of this!
A gleam sparked in Cheng Shi's eyes. He withdrew his fist and smiled.
"Then what should I call you? Vice President Sun Miao?"
"Excessive courtesy only reduces efficiency. Just Sun Miao is fine."
Efficiency?
Cheng Shi arched a brow. 'A Silence follower, worried about efficiency? If you all cared so much about efficiency, you should've broken your silence and communicated more ages ago.'
Then again, her insistence on talking despite following Silence... maybe she really was someone who valued efficiency.
"Very well, Master. How should we begin?"
Cheng Shi smiled, looking at Sun Miao before turning to gaze back at the convoy behind them. So far, the other teammates hadn't shown up, and the distant fighting showed no sign of stopping. It seemed nobody cared about this trial.
But each one embracing their desires and doing what they pleased — wasn't that exactly Corruption's hope for the players in His trials?
So blasphemy and devotion had always been intertwined.
Put another way: at least half of an individual's unconscious blasphemy was, in fact, devotion.
'And if that's true, then by rounding up, my claim of being one hundred percent devout is completely valid, isn't it?'
...
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