Chapter 1319: I Am Yu Xi, Again |
"Call them all in. The Jokers probably need to hold another meeting."
Cheng Shi let out a long sigh.
The Fun God had chosen to "lay his cards on the table" this way — so Cheng Shi would do the same with the Jokers.
To earn the Jokers' full support, he couldn't keep hiding things from them. Besides, they had fought so desperately to save him during the Era's Curtain Call performance. That debt of gratitude had to be acknowledged.
The moment Zhen Xin heard those words, she knew something massive was coming. Last time, the Fate Weaver had pulled back the curtain on the Real Universe — this time, what earth-shattering secret would follow?
She nodded and quickly went to gather all the Jokers. The special trial had just ended, so everyone was easy to reach — except for... Zhang Jizu.
When the Jokers had all assembled with one Gravekeeper conspicuously absent, Cheng Shi — standing before the [Death] tombstone — didn't wait. He opened the meeting immediately.
Everyone exchanged confused glances. Long Jing raised an eyebrow at the tombstone, muttering thoughtfully:
"Gravekeeper couldn't make it?"
Everyone present was sharp enough to read between the lines. Though Cheng Shi's tone was breezy, his eyes kept drifting away, unable to meet their gazes directly — and that told them Zhang Jizu's absence was anything but simple.
Thinking back to Cheng Shi's total amnesia regarding the recent trial and the grave weight he'd carried ever since, Zhen Xin felt a vague suspicion begin to take shape in her mind.
The small prelude quickly passed, and Cheng Shi wasted no more time. He cut straight to the heart of things, sharing with them the despair he had just lived through.
He said:
"Just moments ago, the world took a wrong turn.
In what I will temporarily call a 'simulation' — a false Era's Curtain Call — the world was destroyed.
You didn't notice because certain divine beings erased all your memories.
And this wasn't the first time your memories were wiped. There was one world reset before this as well, and none of you retained that either..."
"...?!"
Cheng Shi's opening words landed like a bomb, detonating in the already-restless hearts of every Joker present.
Every pair of eyes that turned toward him was blank and bewildered. Collectively, they were all thinking the same thing: Fate Weaver, when you say "the world" — do you mean the one we're currently standing in?
Surely you're describing some dream world, right?
Because none of this matches our perception of reality at all.
When someone presents a so-called "fact" that contradicts everything everyone else knows — can it still be called a fact?
Under ordinary circumstances, no.
But it depends on who's saying it.
Said anywhere else, no one would believe it — people would just think they'd stumbled across another Meng Youfang with a uniquely bizarre brain.
But this was the Jokers — the one place where every impossibility had a chance of becoming possible. And the one saying it was none other than the Fate Weaver himself.
So every last one of them stood there, stunned, eyes wide and hungry, hanging on every word, waiting for Master Cheng to reveal the truth.
Professor Cheng's lecture was now in session.
Cheng Shi continued:
"Things this time are extremely complicated.
Honestly, seeing your reactions now only confirms that none of you remember what happened — well, perhaps one person does, but he..."
Cheng Shi turned his head slightly and glanced at the [Death] tombstone, his expression impossible to read.
Since old Zhang had swapped places with his counterpart from another world, it meant that everything in this world — whether the simulation or the reset — would no longer affect him.
He would remember it all. At least the final scene before the world ended.
But unfortunately, he wasn't here right now.
Cheng Shi paused, then continued:
"Forget it. Since he's not here, I won't talk about him.
During the last world reset, I cross-referenced my memories with others and confirmed beyond any doubt that those events truly happened.
But this time — up until now — it remains solely my 'delusion.'
I've confirmed this with the Mask fragments, but they shared my perspective, so they can't serve as independent verification.
So what exactly happened during that trial may only be settled once I've sought confirmation from the divine beings themselves. But I can't afford to wait — while my memories are still intact, I need to back them up first.
Help me think through what they were trying to express with this Curtain Call performance.
Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: our world is teetering on the edge of collapse..."
The conversation had turned heavy again, casting a shadow over every Joker's heart.
Perhaps Cheng Shi, having confronted despair firsthand, had built up some resistance to it. But the Jokers remembered nothing — they couldn't begin to grasp why, when the game was still ongoing and the universe still being explored, the world would already be on the verge of ruin.
"I know. Ever since the very first Joker Society meeting, you've all had your doubts about my identity. A mere player shouldn't have access to this many secrets — especially when I seem to know more than certain divine beings.
First, I owe everyone an apology. I lied to you.
These secrets were never told to me by Yu Xi. I knew them myself."
"!!!"
Everyone froze — and then something even more staggering arrived.
"Because I am Yu Xi!" Cheng Shi exhaled with a rueful sigh, and casually glanced over at Long Jing out of the corner of his eye.
"???"
That single glance shattered the composure of President Gong.
No way. Buddy. What?!
Though the world's return to normal at the end of the trial had erased President Gong's memory of that breakdown moment, Yu Xi had thoughtfully returned that memory to him — whether in the wrong path or the right one, there was always a clown getting emotionally wrecked and pressing forward.
And that wasn't limited to just one.
The moment Cheng Shi said the name "Yu Xi," the Doctor quietly retreated into the shadow of a nearby tombstone.
He couldn't face anyone right now.
Every single "Praise be to Yu Xi" he had uttered at Cheng Shi now came back to haunt him, and with each one, his toes curled a little tighter into the dirt.
He desperately wanted to turn and walk away — but his sincere devotion to Yu Xi kept pulling him back forward.
And so, caught in the struggle between pious faith and burning shame, the tombstone's shadow became like a steel saw, grinding back and forth across what little face he had left.
The other two had their reactions, but nothing nearly as intense as those two.
"I knew it was you all along!" Zhen Xin said — and yet she wasn't truly surprised. Or rather, she had this odd feeling, as if she'd already heard this confession once before.
That elusive sense of familiarity only deepened her certainty that Cheng Shi was right: they had absolutely forgotten something.
Li Jingming shook his head with a quiet laugh, as if something had just clicked into place.
"Should have seen it coming. This is so you.
So you fabricated an identity, then used that false identity's secret as a bargaining chip — trading it to others in exchange for their resources and intel?"
"!!!" Long Jing's fury flared even hotter at those words.
But President Gong wasn't angry because Cheng Shi had used this to deceive everyone — he was furious that he'd never thought of such a brilliant scheme himself!
Boldly impersonating Yu Xi was already the limit of his audacity, but inventing an Envoy out of thin air... what kind of unhinged genius had the nerve to pull something like that off?!
Even Zhen Yi had never gone that far!
Cheng Shi laughed too, shaking his head. "No — Yu Xi's identity isn't fabricated. He truly exists. And he truly is me."
"???"
The Jokers were all stunned.
President Gong's expression twisted again. "You actually became an Envoy?!"
Cheng Shi nodded. "That's right. It's a long and complicated story — you just need to know that I haven't deceived you."
As he spoke, Cheng Shi set the [Deceit] Container down in front of everyone.
"This. Is the proof."
