Chapter 1382: Audience Meeting — Fun |
[Deceit] closed His eyes and sighed:
"Yes.
The verification method He thought of was to personally seek an audience with [Origin] to request a face-to-face divine oracle.
He thought that the great Creator rectifying the names of the true gods was to let us act as proxies to shepherd the Universe, so it was only natural for a proxy to seek an audience with their Benefactor.
But He was wrong. The Creator is ruthless; [He] only cares about His own experiment and won't care about anyone.
Of course, at that time we didn't know that the Universe was actually just a grand experiment. And the moment I discovered the truth, I loathed [Him] even more than at the beginning of the era, and was even more resolute in my determination to uproot the Divine Throne of [Origin].
[He] was never a Benefactor, but the murderer who killed my only twin god!"
A fierce wind suddenly rose in the void. [Deceit]'s hatred was just like [Fate]'s ice-coldness, roaring wantonly.
But no matter how the chilling wind howled, it bypassed where Cheng Shi was and blew toward the depths of the void.
The corners of that pair of eyes finally no longer tilted high. He lowered His eyes dejectedly and said:
"After [Fate] died, [Void] became difficult to sustain. Whether it was for this Starry Sky where He once existed, or to wait for [Origin] to descend again to deliver a vengeful strike against Him, I had to conceal the news of [Fate]'s death, letting 'Him' continue to live in this era.
Thus...
I tore myself apart and created 'Him'.
'That He' is not me in the true sense, nor is it [Fate] in the true sense. I instilled the fixed destiny's will that I hate the most into 'Him', completely cutting off all connections between 'Him' and me, thereby creating a brand-new deity, 'Fate'!
You can consider Him my clone, but He is more like an independent individual.
He never thought He belonged to [Deceit]; He only knew His existence was for the fixed destiny!
So you should understand why He self-destructed in that false era's curtain call. Because...
He is ultimately me.
No matter how the fixed destiny's will paints over Him, the deepest essence in His heart is not the true [Fate], but [Deceit] born from appearance!
When I disguised myself as an Outer God and announced my own death, He could not accept the death of [Deceit], nor could He bear the pain of [Void] once again. Despair submerged His will like a tide, making Him no longer able to hold on, and He thoroughly gave up struggling.
Your guess is not considered wrong. The [Fate] you followed did indeed fall in that false era's curtain call, but the true [Fate]...
He died right at the beginning of the era, and never participated in any progress of this era.
Heh, having deceived myself up to this point, I finally don't need to keep deceiving anymore."
"!!!!!"
Cheng Shi was already completely numb. At this moment, his consciousness was muddy like a quagmire, completely unable to perform the slightest bit of thinking.
He sat stiffly in the void, passively accepting the news of [Fate]'s death, accepting the Fun God's sorrow, and accepting the news he couldn't bear.
Muddleheaded, bewildered, slow-witted, lethargic—at this time, he looked exactly like a wooden puppet.
Amidst the endlessly tumbling and chaotic thoughts, a sentence suddenly flashed through his mind:
Like follower, like Benefactor...
Sure enough, this sentence was also a truth.
The Blind One prophesied [Fate] at the beginning of the game, while her Benefactor [Fate] directly prophesied [Origin] at the beginning of the era...
Ah, fate, it really fucking runs in the family.
But can you inherit something good!!
The eyes hanging high in the void once again glanced over His follower. He saw what Cheng Shi was thinking in his heart, and His tone finally recovered a trace of 'humanity' from its complete ice-coldness.
"Now you should know why you are the fixed destiny, yet that blind friend of yours always sat firmly at the top of [Fate]'s Ladder of Ascent, right?
Because the way she prophesied [Fate] at the beginning of the game was exactly like [Fate] at the beginning of the era...
[Fate] was also exactly like Him, especially in devotion. So 'He' brought down divine punishment for His follower's offense, taking away her mortal eyes that blasphemed a god.
And I both hated that similarity and pitied that similarity. Therefore, after [Fate] took her mortal eyes, I bestowed upon her the ability to peer into fate.
It's a pity that mortals have gods to pity them, but my twin god... didn't receive pity."
"..."
So the reason why everything the Blind One saw looked similar to Mockery and Jeering really was due to the Fun God!
It was just unknown whether the Blind One had ever thought that her being so close to [Fate] wasn't because of her devotion to [Fate], but because she was 'born in Rome'...
Cheng Shi laughed self-deprecatingly, only feeling that this era was becoming increasingly absurd.
Absurd beyond comprehension, ridiculous beyond acceptance.
He let out a long sigh, stood up again, and looked motionlessly at those eyes, once again asking that question that had always been troubling him.
At this point, this question was actually already meaningless. Even knowing the answer wouldn't change anything, but Cheng Shi just wanted to figure it out!
"Why was it me?
Since An Mingyu was so close to the true [Fate], why did your choice fall on me?
Is it because the will of [Fate]'s descent explicitly stated my name?
Or is it because there must definitely be me in that Divine Throne that [Origin] wants?
I don't understand, exactly what relationship do I have with this bullshit fixed destiny?"
"No relationship."
"???" Cheng Shi froze.
[Deceit] looked toward the depths of the void, seeming to fall into reminiscence. "Before I knew the truth that the Universe was just an experiment of the Creator, I didn't think there was anything special about the Clown.
And the reason I chose the Clown was because the Clown himself walked up to me."
"?
What does that mean? When did I walk to..."
Cheng Shi's words suddenly halted. He widened his eyes, seemingly thinking of something.
[Deceit] nodded and continued:
"Exactly so.
I detest [Fate]'s obsession with the fixed destiny, and I would not pity any creature that approaches [Fate]'s will.
You were the only human who broke your oath to [Fate] right at the Path Starting Point, and what I was looking for was exactly an existence that resisted fate!
Only later did I know that the me in every world chose the you who broke your oath to [Fate] at that exact moment.
Heh, going round and round, how is this not another kind of fixed destiny..."
Every world!!!
When Cheng Shi heard this, he only felt his hands and feet go cold, feeling a chill run through his entire body.
His experiences made him hate fate, and his choice at the Path Starting Point broke his oath to fate, so [Deceit] took a liking to him. This inherently had no problem.
But when the perspective was raised, transcending the Universe, in billions of slice universes, the same script had always been playing out without a single trace of change. Then the problem became extremely huge.
Who would dare to say this wasn't the 'rules' set by [Origin] for this experiment?
Who would dare to say this wasn't the so-called fate!?
Can't escape, fundamentally can't escape!
Cheng Shi forcibly endured his trembling body, raising his head again to look at his Benefactor, and asked word by word:
"Then what about your plan? What exactly is it?"
At this moment, amidst the endless bombardment of cognition, he finally found a moment to notice [Deceit]'s gradually chilling eyes.
He seemingly didn't love to laugh.
Then why was He so passionate about pursuing fun in the Universe?
Thinking of this, a sentence [Deceit] had just said suddenly surfaced in Cheng Shi's mind:
A god's life is too bitter and needs adjustment.
That's right. He witnessed His twin god's fall, tore apart His complete self, and for an entire era alone bore a rebellious will that no one understood, yet pushed forward with His head down. For such bitter times, of course fun was needed as adjustment.
So His laughs were all His bitterness...
So the words [Fate] once said were not false after all. It was just that the one who made a wrong move and went astray was [Fate] Himself, while the one who no longer had a smiling face was the twin god He couldn't let go of—[Deceit].
...
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