Chapter 1004: Cheng Shi — Nightmare Shadow (Slacker Edition) |
Cheng Shi had it all figured out — but reality had other plans. As the Dragon King's gaze lingered on the mirror's surface, the glass seemed to recover. A figure identical to the Dragon King slowly emerged from the black mist within.
This Li Jingming's eyes were noticeably colder and more venomous than the original. He surveyed the room, deliberately avoiding Cheng Shi's gaze, then addressed the Li Jingming standing mere inches away:
"Still want to go there? If so — come inside. I'll take you.
Memories that belong solely to Him are buried there. Don't you... want to etch those memories into yourself?"
The Jokers frowned. Li Jingming ignored the taunt entirely. Looking at his mirror counterpart, he told the group:
"The memory it's referring to is the mirror's greatest secret. Cheng Shi, you're up.
I imagine the device shielding us from divine surveillance has a time limit. Let's pick up the pace — as the Jokers stand now, we can't afford the risk of exposure."
A hard-hitting point. Cheng Shi pursed his lips — no way to refuse that.
So he smiled at everyone, feigned indifference, and stood before That Dream My Nightmare. The next instant, black fog coalesced into an identical Cheng Shi.
"Look, look, look — the hell you looking at? The world's ending. Staring at me ain't gonna help.
Lie down and wait to die. At least you'll save some energy."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone's brain short-circuited. Even Li Jingming froze. He'd never seen a Nightmare Shadow this... non-aggressive.
After all, a Nightmare Shadow was a person's dark side — a collection of mapped desires, reflecting the parts one never let see daylight. Every shadow harbored ill intent and made zero effort to hide it. But what was going on with Cheng Shi's?
It looked like it had given up.
So this Fate Weaver — riding high, watched by gods, privy to the universe's truth — his deepest desire was simply... to not try?
Was this right?
It wasn't impossible to understand. At least Zhen Xin could, having accessed Cheng Shi's memories before. She knew he was fundamentally an unambitious person. His current efforts in the game could very well be self-anesthetizing exertion, driven by emotional regrets he needed to fill.
But even if it was understandable, nobody was buying it — because the moment the shadow appeared, they'd detected massive [Corruption] energy streaming toward Cheng Shi's real body in reverse.
Anyone with eyes could tell this was Cheng Shi's countermeasure against the shadow. But how did this Fate Weaver have so many tricks to manipulate a [Memory] servant god relic?
Just because he was a follower of [Deceit] — [Memory]'s opposite?
'We're [Deceit] followers too. How come we don't have all these gadgets?'
Indeed, Cheng Shi was actively countering That Dream My Nightmare. Not so much "countering" as a spur-of-the-moment experiment — wondering if the [Corruption] container would work against the mirror's version of himself.
It actually did!
The instant he slipped the [Corruption] container from his sleeve, the Nightmare Cheng Shi's eyes went completely lucid. Its desires were drained entirely by the container, entering a state of sage-like [Void] emptiness. Total slacker mode.
More interestingly — since the shadow was part of That Dream My Nightmare, its desires far exceeded the real Cheng Shi's. This meant the container could absorb desire and drip divinity at an accelerated rate.
And it didn't stop there. Since the shadow was technically Cheng Shi, the divinity produced still belonged to Cheng Shi...
'Good news: found a divinity-farming exploit.'
'Bad news: the divinity is [Corruption].'
"..."
How to put it? It felt like discovering a secret tunnel to a vault, only to push open the door and find it piled high with hell money...
'That's no vault — that's a tomb!'
Cheng Shi was numb. Everyone else's expressions grew more colorful by the second.
You could say this Fate Weaver withheld trust — but he'd shared secrets even the gods didn't know. You could say he was trusting — but when it came to anything about himself, not a single honest word emerged, and he was fidgeting with tricks everywhere.
Grand visionaries focused on the big picture and released the small stuff. With the Fate Weaver, it was reversed: clutch the small, release the big. The signature move of "I'll lead you in revolution, but don't ask which side I'm on."
Li Jingming was speechless. But Cheng Shi had at least looked in the mirror. They couldn't exactly force the Jokers' organizer to expose his heart's desires. So he sighed in resignation and only asked:
"What are you holding?"
Cheng Shi certainly wouldn't say "container." He whipped out the same story he'd used on Sun Miao.
"Fear tree-core. A [Corruption] tool dropped from Le Le'er's body. It absorbs people's desire and emotion. I usually use it to assist meditation — works wonders."
"..." Not a single word from this liar was trustworthy. Though the name was probably real.
Hearing "Le Le'er," Zhen Xin paused, then suddenly asked: "Did [Prosperity]'s fall affect Le Le'er?"
'Sharp!'
Cheng Shi didn't hide this. He stated plainly that Le Le'er had died — cause of death: [Prosperity]'s fall.
"So we've lost every means of approaching the only vacant divine throne. Am I understanding correctly?" Zhen Xin frowned.
'Yes... and no.'
They truly couldn't approach [Prosperity]'s throne anymore. But not because they'd lost the means — because a candidate was already waiting beneath that seat.
Unfortunately, this wasn't something he could share yet. Not until Big Cat actually climbed onto that chair could this secret be made public.
Otherwise, the covetousness sparked by throne inheritance would bring Big Cat endless trouble. Even if Big Cat's power could flatten every challenger, desire didn't stop at the threshold of death. Those aspiring maniacs, unable to seize godhood, would turn to destruction — which was precisely why [Corruption] inspired wariness in all gods.
An inescapable bone-gnawing parasite.
Normally this topic would have passed quickly. But the Jokers were far sharper than he'd imagined. The Doctor, hyper-sensitive to data anomalies, suddenly spoke from behind the group:
"Things may be more complicated than we think. I suspect someone has already stolen [Prosperity]'s divine throne through certain means. If not fully, then at least partially."
The moment this theory surfaced, Li Jingming and Zhen Xin said in unison: "The [Prosperity] Ladder of Ascent."
"Correct. The [Prosperity] Ladder." The Doctor nodded, analyzing coolly: "Although [Prosperity] followers' score growth isn't as insane as before, with enough observation, patterns emerge. All [Prosperity] followers are climbing in a staggered fashion.
Major changes in high-score brackets would attract attention, so this mass point-farming is concentrated in mid- and low-tier brackets — especially players hovering around 1,600 and 2,000. Most have recently broken to a new level.
These two thresholds grant an additional talent slot. So it's easy to deduce: whoever's secretly stolen [Prosperity]'s divine authority is systematically boosting the [Prosperity] camp's strength.
I can't divine the purpose, but it certainly benefits this hidden figure. Perhaps it's one method of consolidating the throne.
The part I can't figure out is how a player exploited the loophole. With the Convention in place, how could divine authority fall into outsider hands?"
"What makes you so certain it's a player?" Cheng Shi tried to deflect — and failed.
"The gods don't seem like they'd play this kind of game. [Prosperity] has fallen — protecting Her followers is meaningless. Besides, [Decay]'s followers have long since lost sight of their Benefactor. So the theory of supporting [Prosperity] to counter [Decay] doesn't hold either..."
"Weren't you doing experiments? How do you know so much about what's happening outside? Doctor, were you blowing me off before?"
Wang Mou's eyelid twitched, but he continued explaining with perfect composure: "Precisely because of the experiment. For several uncertain steps and data points, I posted anonymous verifications in the [Truth] channel.
While collecting feedback, I happened to see the channel mages' analyses. I merely put my slices to work on some side tasks while waiting for results — and stumbled upon this discovery."
"..."
'As expected — in this Faith Game, veteran mages were the ultimate productive force.'
...