Chapter 1277: The Story's Allegory |
Sharing Joker affairs with an outsider was an extremely troublesome matter. It could very well earn her a label of "biting the hand that feeds" from the other deceivers.
But the magician wasn't afraid of wearing hats. She knew she had to do this. Among the Joker members she knew, apart from Cheng Shi, no one could address the current emergency.
And the Fate Weaver himself was precisely the emergency at hand, which was why she had no choice but to seek out Wei Mu.
Before two eagerly waiting "audience members," the magician's "solo show" commenced immediately. Her very first words shattered the tranquility of the starfield.
"The universe we inhabit is merely a corner of the Real Universe. There are many other worlds identical to ours.
By 'identical,' I don't mean parallel timelines under Time's framework. I mean fully independent, exact replicas of the divine system—existing entirely outside the gods' domain.
This is what the Fate Weaver told us."
Anywhere else, these words would have set off an uproar. But here, Hu Wei simply widened his eyes slightly and turned to Wei Mu—who merely nodded, utterly unsurprised:
"As I thought."
The puppet smiled: "It was only a guess."
Hu Wei's expression was deeply complicated:
"I refuse to believe a 'guess' can be identical to the fact. Though I can hardly fathom that countless other versions of me exist beyond this universe...
Magician, you can never understand how I feel right now.
When we first discovered this place, he stood beside me, just as calm, and said:
'The frequency of the light-dark alternation contains time-related data that defies deconstruction, which means the "time" here does not belong to our world. It stands to reason that beyond our visible world, there should be other worlds. This is not Time's extrapolation—it's an entirely different starry sky that lies outside Time's control. Otherwise, the "time" here wouldn't feel so foreign.
If so, "time" is very likely a necessary condition for synchronizing what lies beyond the world. This also confirms my hypothesis about Time—He rarely appears because He's been spending His time here.'"
Hu Wei let out a bitter laugh. "I should have been shocked by the 'Real Universe' you just described. But that shock was already partly spent in advance..."
"..."
Zhen Xin pressed her lips together and turned a similarly complicated look toward Wei Mu.
This was the terrifying aspect of the Folly Chosen. He could always see the grand from the miniscule—and in many cases, what others saw as conjuring something out of thin air. No one could follow the leaps in his reasoning or trace how his logic closed into perfect loops. Yet time and again, events proved a single truth:
Wei Mu was right.
This was also why those chasing him from below felt such despair.
Most people climbed the Road to Ascension under tremendous pressure, at best speeding up with hands and feet working together. But him... he jumped.
And you never knew how many steps he'd clear in a single leap.
Had Wei Mu's Road to Ascension score ever been docked in a trial? No one knew, because he'd never said.
Before Zhen Xin could continue, Wei Mu thought briefly and named several people:
"You, Li Jingming, Zhang Jizu, Long Jing, and perhaps an old friend once devoted to Truth—Wang Weijin...
That's the 'we' you're referring to, isn't it?
An organization made up of deceivers who've fused with Deceit."
"..." Zhen Xin blinked, feeling the helpless exasperation of being seen through. "Because of the Mockery and Jeering's disappearance?"
The puppet nodded: "Yes. You were all ejected from the Mockery and Jeering simultaneously. It looked more like a gathering that was interrupted."
"Why didn't you mention Cheng Shi? I clearly said he was the one who told us everything."
Wei Mu paused for a moment, then frowned: "He's different from the rest of you. You are pieces recruited onto the board. He... is the player moving them from behind the scenes.
He is Yu Xi!"
"!!!"
Two contorted faces appeared on the spot.
Given the Joker's understanding of Cheng Shi, learning this "truth" wasn't particularly shocking. But Zhen Xin's pupils still contracted—because the first thing that came to mind was the moment on the stage in San Dales when Cheng Shi had played them all!
'Hah—so that day, besides the clown who wasn't actually a clown, everyone else was the clown!'
'Now that's truly clownish.'
But the revelation's impact on Hu Wei was overwhelming.
The Grand Marshal's whole body shuddered. He stared at Wei Mu in disbelief, questioning the puppet's authority for the first time.
"You're saying Brother Cheng is... Yu Xi!?"
His voice had warped, but it still couldn't shake Wei Mu's certainty about the identity.
"Exactly. I'm very sure of it. I don't know whether he's retracing a past path or achieved ascension within this game, but there's no mistake about the Yu Xi identity.
This game was always about creating gods. Doesn't the name 'Road to Ascension' make that clear enough?
Many have already touched that threshold—Eternal Sun, the Prosperity followers, for instance..."
Hu Wei still couldn't accept it. He'd thought that in this trial, he'd finally crossed paths with his Brother Cheng. He'd been planning to hitch a ride with a Deceit follower, meet Yu Xi after the trial ended, and receive his second faith.
'But now you're telling me I've been riding along this whole time, and the person I was going to see was the driver—Brother Cheng himself!?'
'Wait—I'm still running around chasing a second faith, while my brother has already become a god!?'
"But doesn't he also carry Fate?
How can he simultaneously be Deceit's envoy?"
The question cut to the heart of the matter. Wei Mu, naturally, wasn't truly omniscient. He simply excelled at extracting the most useful threads from known conditions and daring to speculate. When too many unknowns were involved, he too lacked answers.
The puppet shook his head: "That's where my confusion lies as well. But since the magician has come all the way here, she should be able to enlighten me.
In this Void-stage Curtain Call performance, who is the true lead—Fate, or Deceit?"
Zhen Xin fell silent for a moment, then softly uttered a name:
"It's Cheng Shi."
Wei Mu went quiet. In a rare departure, he offered no opinion of his own and listened in silence as Zhen Xin laid out everything.
Before long, she'd recounted the full story of Morning Joy versus Sunset within this trial, and closed with:
"Now you should understand why I began by telling you there are other worlds beyond ours..."
Wei Mu lowered his head in thought for a long while, then broke into sudden realization:
"You mean that the clown in Deceit's world died by accident, and that's why He set His sights on our world's Fate Weaver?"
"!!!"
Hu Wei's pupils contracted violently. His whole body trembled, thinking he'd misheard.
"Hold on—what are you two saying?
What do you mean, 'the world Deceit belongs to'..."
"We're talking about the story's allegory." Wei Mu smiled faintly. "Fate—who has always believed in Lake's skill—clearly represents the Fate god who trusts the predetermined path. And Madame Freud—who used lies to lure Lake to Morning Joy—naturally represents Deceit, who commands all falsehood in the world.
I once visited Canlival and studied its history. Morning Joy never existed. The only circus recorded in history is the Sunset.
Therefore, everything you've experienced today isn't a historical omission. It's a confession—one concerning lies and truth.
Morning Joy never existed in history, which means it never existed in our world. But just because it never appeared in this starry sky doesn't mean it hasn't appeared in other worlds!
History's perspective is always partial—just as our view of the Real Universe is partial.
Deceit is telling us that He doesn't belong to this world. In His world, the clown died, so He wants to 'deceive' this world's clown into completing a performance that was never finished.
I suspect this is the reason Yu Xi was made a god.
Deceit intends to use an envoy's title to steal Fate's answer."
"!!!" Shocked to his core, Hu Wei's voice distorted again. "You're saying the Deceit who gave us this trial doesn't belong to our world!?
He's an outsider!?"
Wei Mu glanced at Zhen Xin, whose expression had turned complicated, and gave a quiet hum of affirmation.
"Most likely.
When Jie Shu rose to become second on the Road to Ascension out of nowhere, I wondered whether he'd learned something from our benefactor's lips.
Now it seems his intelligence didn't come from our incompetent Folly at all—it came from another world.
He is an outsider.
And if outsiders exist even among the players... then gods...
why not?"
...
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