[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-foolish-game-of-the-gods":3,"chapter-foolish-game-of-the-gods-foolish-game-of-the-gods-chapter-248":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Foolish Game of the Gods",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},579319,829,"Chapter 248: Today's [Prosperity] — Feeding Complete","foolish-game-of-the-gods-chapter-248",248,"\u003Cp>Reality. A laboratory in some unknown city and province.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi awoke on a surgical table. He opened his eyes slowly and removed his glasses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were non-prescription — a small trick he normally used to disguise his vision. But it obviously hadn't come into play this round.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stood up, first examined himself, and then began carefully surveying the operating room he'd been calling home for \"quite some time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a completely sealed surgical suite — three walls and one door, the latter a slab of steel thick enough to rival the walls. Ventilation came exclusively from an air duct above the air wall overhead. He'd always assumed this was a medical bay in some underground military facility, but today, that assumption shifted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he was a slice, his original would never simply let him grow into an independent player. His original had to have been watching him from the shadows — observing, and perhaps never truly relinquishing control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So... was this really just an operating room?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could it be connected to other spaces? Logically, it shouldn't be — Li Zhi had verified that the air walls around these rooms didn't appear to be fakes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But today it struck him that he'd overlooked one thing — the ventilation duct!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But note — that was in his memories!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Li Zhi gripped a scalpel and began searching the space once more. This time he wouldn't trust his memories, because a slice's memories were meaningless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After examining all four walls again and finding nothing, his gaze finally settled on the lone ventilation duct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He dragged the surgical table over and tried to climb up — but at that exact moment, the vent, barely large enough for one person to squeeze through, opened on its own!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes — opened on its own!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hum of mechanical gears filled the room. The vent's louvers slid apart horizontally, revealing a pitch-dark passage. And from the far end of that passage, a raspy voice was chuckling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So you figured it out after all. Come — come through. Everything you want to know is right here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi's pupils contracted violently. His entire body went rigid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had a premonition — this speaking entity might just be his original.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment had finally arrived. Slice and original, face to face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi gripped his blade so tightly his knuckles went white. Only after casting three consecutive Calming Spells on himself did he crawl into the unknown depths of that passage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entity at the other end made no move while he inched his way through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Li Zhi finally emerged into the other space and poked his head out of the vent, he was stunned. The room contained more than a dozen apparatuses identical to Selius's cultivation vessels. And there in the center stood a bizarre figure — simultaneously young and ancient — squinting at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You're a smart man. Come down. I won't hurt you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi's breathing hitched. He dropped down cautiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Standing before this half-young, half-elderly anomaly, his eyes were filled with shock and suspicion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You're...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You know who I am, don't you?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That's right — your guesses are mostly correct. One look at me and you should understand: I'm both this experiment's beneficiary and its victim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And you... like me, are this experiment's victim.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Heh.\" Even someone as even-tempered as Li Zhi couldn't suppress a sarcastic laugh. \"So I was never a beneficiary.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Our goals are the same. Someone had to sacrifice themselves for the experiment, didn't they?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then why wasn't the someone who sacrificed — you!?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How do you know I haven't? Look at this [Prosperity] flowing through me. Look at this [Decay] rotting my body. Look at what I've become — neither man nor monster. Doesn't that terrify you?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is my sacrifice.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So you cultivated your former self — me — as the vessel for shedding your skin? A new body!?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, no, no. That's not my intention at all. Don't get agitated.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"None? Then why did you create me? To prove your research capabilities can replicate Selius's slice experiment?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You're still as obsessive as ever. Beneath all that composure and steadiness hides the most irreversible kind of fixation.\" The anomaly sighed. \"It was precisely so I could continue my experiments in peace that I separated you out. This way, you walk your path and I walk mine. Isn't that better for everyone?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I'm sorry — I can't determine whether you're telling the truth. But then again... I don't need to. The moment you let me through, you should have known — this wasn't going to end peacefully!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi's gaze hardened. He drew the Concentric Dagger he'd traded from Cheng Shi, then lunged, exploiting the split-second pause in conversation to drive the blade straight at the hybrid original's heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to his astonishment, the anomaly didn't dodge. He simply stood there, perfectly still, and let Li Zhi plunge the dagger into his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Shhk—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blade pierced flesh and punctured the heart — yet not a single drop of blood escaped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi stared at the still-living anomaly, horrified!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You... how is this possible!? How can you not die!? This is—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The anomaly smiled — a grotesque, eerie smile. He reached out with a withered hand, gripped the Concentric Dagger, and slowly, inch by inch, pulled the lethal weapon from his rotting heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is slice-Selius's Concentric Dagger? That's what you were about to say, isn't it?\" His laughter was like a dying man's last gasps — halting and deeply unsettling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"!!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi's pupils contracted to pinpoints. He stared at the anomaly in utter disbelief, too stunned for words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He'd planned for this all along!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Surprised?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wondering how I knew the dagger in your hand was slice-Selius's Concentric Dagger?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are two Concentric Daggers. One is Selius's — specifically designed to excise weaker personalities. If identical personalities come into conflict and one possesses the dagger, it can be used to eliminate disobedient slices. Supremely effective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other belongs to slice-Selius.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a slice, he obviously couldn't carry a weapon that could kill him at any time. So he modified it — turning it into a weapon that kills only dominant personalities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was his tool for overthrowing the original. And you tried to use that same Concentric Dagger to kill me. Li Zhi — you're clever, but you overlooked one thing!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, the anomaly gripped the dagger's tip and — \"whoosh\" — at a speed the eye couldn't follow, drove the blade into Li Zhi's chest. But he drove it in backwards — hilt-first — embedding the entire dagger in reverse into Li Zhi's heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Pfft—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhi coughed up a spray of blood, clutched his chest, and staggered to the ground. The terror on his face deepened — he could feel his life draining away, his personality dissolving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Concentric Dagger designed to kill dominant personalities... was killing him!?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How was this possible!?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Confused? Bewildered? Shocked?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A dagger that only kills dominant personalities just killed you. I love that expression on your face, Li Zhi. Even though I've seen you terrified and bewildered countless times before, every fresh encounter fills me with such pleasure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes — like you, I'm also a slice. And not just any slice — the weakest of them all. That's exactly why I used Divinity to complete my own personality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for our great and mighty original? I killed him long ago, using this very same method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ha. Hahahaha! How about that — turns out I'm every bit as clever as you!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And on top of that, I planted this knowledge inside your memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Have you considered — if the memory about the ventilation duct was false, then couldn't the method you 'remembered' for killing me also be false?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The method was real enough. But the pity is — I'm the one who deliberately taught it to you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ha! Fun, isn't it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes — that's the look! I love your fear!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, the anomaly lifted Li Zhi with one bloated hand, and before he'd fully died — slowly, bit by bit, with an expression of pure relish — shoved Li Zhi... entirely into a jaw that gaped open like a python's maw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swallowed whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Crunch, crunch, crunch...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ahh—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today's [Prosperity] — feeding complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A pity, though — no Germinating Divinity. It seems the fear still wasn't quite enough.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1402,"2026-05-30T16:17:59.407Z","2026-06-01T04:31:40.442Z",1,"novelbin.me","dc82cae9f9989e341134183f6bf023cafbeb14975de8cba8c9db02cc59898f18","foolish-game-of-the-gods-chapter-249","foolish-game-of-the-gods-chapter-247",1463,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ffoolish-game-of-the-gods-cover.jpg"]