Chapter 917: Little Seven's Probe |
Du Qiyu was not stupid. Or rather — when he wasn't facing Cheng Shi, he was extraordinarily shrewd.
It was just that encountering this childhood "friend" stirred up a restlessness he couldn't suppress no matter how hard he tried, corroding his usual decisiveness and cunning.
He'd always believed this orphan — whose only asset was a pretty face — was inferior to him in every conceivable way. So why did so many people care about him?
So upon seeing Cheng Shi again, Du Qiyu felt the same as he had in childhood: the other man was nothing but a straw-stuffed mannequin in golden robes, unworthy of his full attention. The more casually he handled it, the more it proved how beneath him Xiao Shi truly was.
'He's a Pen of Finality?'
'A Fate follower?'
'Ha — absolutely ridiculous. I stole your fate, and you still think you have one.'
But despite the swarming contempt and irritation, Du Qiyu remained on guard. He'd once heard the orphanage director's name for Cheng Shi's adoptive father, and as he recalled, the man's surname wasn't Sun.
So he probed again: "Your adoptive father's surname is Sun? I'd heard them call him Old Jia."
Murderous intent nearly spilled from the scalpel hidden in his sleeve. But he held back. He simply maintained his smile and nodded.
"Yes. Old Jia was my father. An ordinary, yet great father."
The tone could only be described as "proud." But neither of the other two could relate; they only found his voice peculiar.
Sun Miao, knowing nothing of Cheng Shi's past, said nothing. But in Du Qiyu's eyes, the display painted a very different picture.
'A scrap-collecting bachelor — and you actually think saying that out loud earns you respect.'
'Great?'
'Before the Faith Game descended, only power and money deserved the word "great." After the game, stats and scores are everything.'
'Never mind whether your stinking scrap-collector father is alive or dead. With your pathetic 2,200 score, uttering the word "great" is an insult to greatness itself.'
'Compared to some shantytown family, only MY father truly deserves to be called great!'
Still, so far, Xiao Shi hadn't told a single lie. That was uncommon at this level. Did he really have no guard up around people?
'No — someone without any guard couldn't possibly survive this long.'
Du Qiyu frowned again. Splitting his attention between scanning his surroundings to ensure his own safety and relentlessly pressing Cheng Shi for more, he continued:
"I really envy you — at least you got a home. Not like us, growing up in an orphanage, fending for ourselves, with nothing to lean on.
I used to dream about what a normal family felt like. A few times, I even dreamed I'd been adopted — and the person who adopted me was Little Seven's father...
He was a big-time businessman. If only he'd really been my dad.
Oh right, Xiao Shi — do you still remember Little Seven? I remember you two were closest friends as kids. He goes by Du Qiyu now. "Du" as in prevent, "Qi" as in anticipation, "Yu" as in jade. I've heard he's doing great — never short on food or clothes, studied abroad, graduated from a top school, took over the family business. Practically royalty..."
As he spoke, even Du Qiyu's own tone grew wistful.
"Too bad. The moment the game descended, all of that... became the past."
Cheng Shi listened to this self-aggrandizing monologue, his scalp nearly crawling off his head. Before this, he'd never believed secondhand embarrassment could be lethal. But now, he felt he was on the verge of being assassinated — by weaponized cringe.
Even so, he didn't interrupt the man's immersion in his glorious past. He simply voiced one loaded remark:
"Yeah. It's all in the past now."
From behind, Du Qiyu detected nothing unusual in the words. He seized the golden opportunity and pushed his probe further.
"Xiao Shi, are you still in contact with Little Seven?"
Cheng Shi's stride hitched. He didn't answer.
The silence sent a jolt through Du Qiyu. He feared the worst: that the other man might be avoiding any statement that Master of Deception would flag as a lie.
And that would mean everything prior could have been Xiao Shi stringing him along using his own Master of Deception.
'Could he be a con artist too?'
Du Qiyu's eyes darkened. He didn't abandon the probe. Instead, he pressed harder.
"Makes sense... you still hate him, right?
They were all just rumors in the orphanage, but I heard Rong Mama say he stole your chance. Boss Du was supposed to—"
Before he could finish, Cheng Shi's expression shifted. He cut the rabbit off mid-sentence.
"Enough. I don't hate him."
A lie!
In the distance, Du Qiyu froze — then laughed out loud.
'Ha. Hahaha. I was being way too paranoid. He told a lie!'
'He doesn't have Master of Deception. He's not a con artist.'
'After all these years, he's still the same fool. Can't even lie properly.'
The tension coiling Du Qiyu's nerves unraveled at once. He halted behind, laughing with the relief of someone who'd laughed at himself for overestimating an opponent.
But mid-laugh, his expression twisted again.
'Xiao Shi hates me!'
'What right does he have to hate me?!'
'It was YOUR own uselessness that let one lie spin your head around. That's on you, not me!'
'And besides — without me, how would you have ever met your "great" father from the shantytown?!'
Du Qiyu's face went dark. He clenched his fists, aching to turn Xiao Shi into one of his tamed beasts right then and there. But he hadn't yet determined the Silence follower's relationship to Xiao Shi. Arrogant as he was, he didn't fancy his odds against two players at once.
The scar on his face was already one warning. He couldn't afford another moment of careless cockiness.
"Is that so? Good that you don't hate him. Ha — why am I even bringing this up? Let's keep moving. Before those two catch up, before trouble finds us, we need to locate the trial clues as fast as possible."
Everyone knew that in a wish trial at this level, the trial clues were secondary — the clues you'd prayed for were what mattered. But neither of the other two contradicted "Zhao Xiaogua's" falsehood. After all, a Deceit follower's mouth was never a reliable source.
Listening to the loaded dialogue from behind, Sun Miao several times reached for her electronic beeper, tempted to interject. But she reconsidered each time, maintaining her devotion to her Benefactor and continuing her silent sprint.
She didn't expose Cheng Shi, because she could tell his relationship with the Beast Tamer was clearly strained.
She just hadn't figured out how bad it was, or how she might leverage this tense, delicate dynamic to extract more "history." So she held still, listening in silence.
The three picked up speed. The leading mage was now moving at near-flash-step velocity — an explosive burst that resembled an assassin's. The speed itself surprised Cheng Shi, but what truly astonished him was the endurance.
An assassin's burst was fast, yes — but only for an instant. To sustain this kind of explosive output for so long meant that even an assassin would have to be ranked among the elite.
Yet Sun Miao wasn't even an assassin. She was a mage. How was she doing this?
Du Qiyu found it baffling. But not Cheng Shi. He felt the teammate was showing him a particular answer. It all but confirmed his guess — the current situation was far more complex than it appeared.
The accelerated sprint dramatically shortened their travel time. Through the ongoing tug-of-war of probes and deflections, Du Qiyu gradually assembled a profile of the current Xiao Shi.
Beneath his joyful-reunion facade, the man was in fact fiercely guarded.
He'd acknowledged Du Qiyu's claimed identity — but that didn't mean he trusted him.
Perhaps it was the Deceit label that made Xiao Shi wary. But... 'Wary or not, I still fooled you, didn't I?'
'Heh — Zhao Xiaogua, that dinner you went to all that trouble to treat me to has finally paid off. You may be dead, but at least the identity lives on.'
'From now on, I am you. I am Xiao Shi's childhood best friend — until this trial ends, until there's no more "Xiao Shi" in this world.'
'Relax. I'll send him down to see you.'
'Best friends should be reunited. Won't that make you both happy?'
...
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