Chapter 1082: The Blank Exhibit in the Gallery

The Blank Exhibit in the Gallery

Something's off. A hundred percent off.

The Path of Ascension adds 20 points—this is the deity who bestowed the trial giving the player the highest possible affirmation of their performance in it.

Cheng Shi knew exactly what he had done. If the world hadn't been reset, 【Truth】 giving him 20 points would be outrageous but not incomprehensible—after all, it had stolen the power of 【Time】 from him and completed that universe-shattering experiment of seeking.

But now?

Judging by the current situation, he had not only sabotaged 【Truth】's preliminary experiment but also pocketed the 【Truth Apparatus】, turned the entire trial into a complete mess, and even carried 【Truth】's rival's believer, Gallusha, out of history...

Any one of those moves on its own would deserve a -20, so where did this +20 come from?

Besides, the rating and the score don't match—an error like this has never appeared before.

Could it be that 【Truth】's memory wasn't reset?

That's even less possible.

Once it realized that its so-called truth was nothing more than an experiment in the real universe, 【Truth】 would definitely walk the path of self-destruction again, because it had long ago carved its own epitaph!

So why?

What on earth makes He Deheneng worthy of 20 points!

Of course, getting extra points is a happy thing, but too much was mixed into that happiness, and it made Cheng Shi a little nervous.

He racked his brains and couldn't figure it out, but he hadn't expected that what came next would be even more incomprehensible.

He had been summoned again!

And the one summoning him was the one he least wanted to see and was most afraid of seeing.

After the trial ended, Cheng Shi hadn't even had time to return to the rest area. The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself back in that grand, magnificent pure-white gallery.

At this moment, his boss was standing beneath one of the exhibits, looking up at that blank exhibit, lost in thought.

【Memory】!

It was Her again!

Seeing this scene, Cheng Shi's pupils contracted and he immediately lowered his head.

No other reason—guilty conscience.

What made him feel guilty wasn't the fact that he had once snuck into the gallery, nor the fact that he had discovered 【Memory】's secret, nor even the fact that he knew the authority of 【Folly】 was suspected to be in 【Memory】's hands—it was the world reset!

The world reset must have erased the memories of all deities, and the scene before his eyes was the best proof of that.

The exhibit 【Memory】 was observing was clearly different from the others, and also different from the one that had been sealed away. Its frame flowed with the multicolored hues of 【Existence】, looking exactly like the blended arcs of reality in the distant gap of 【Existence】.

And the wall on which this exhibit hung was also different from the other walls. This wall wasn't pure white but a mottled gold, as if a golden wall had been corroded and stripped of its original brilliance.

But the question was, what kind of corrosion could turn gold—a metal so stable—into something mottled?

The answer, Cheng Shi had actually already seen:

Time!

The lingering aura of 【Time】 on it was undoubtedly telling the viewer that it had once undergone a baptism of time.

It was the power of 【Time】 that had washed the content off 【Memory】's exhibit!

Combined with all the previous world-shattering events, it wasn't hard to guess that what this exhibit originally recorded must have been related to the real universe and that 【*It】!

So 【Memory】 had been forced to forget this content, but because this memory was connected to 【Origin】, it hadn't been completely erased!

Faced with such a bizarre scene, the first thing She thought of was naturally 【Fraud】, who often came to Her gallery to smudge the exhibits, and those troublesome believers of Hers!

But why him specifically?

Seeing Zhen Xin, Long Jing, even the Dragon King—every single one of them, were any of them good people?

Why not summon one of them for an audience?

Could 【Memory】 have already seen his memories!?

Cheng Shi was both shocked and fearful. He frantically racked his brain, thinking about how to handle his boss's upcoming interrogation. Just then, his "boss" turned to look at him, eyes darting wildly, and said with a meaningful expression:

"Another exhibit has been defiled.

This time, the defiler even left the power of 【Time】 behind in my gallery.

Such a clumsy frame-up is rare, but considering the tricksters' cunning, I have to think one step further and wonder if they're playing reverse psychology with me.

Deliberately leaving their own traces in hopes of using the "I was framed" rhetoric to clear themselves—the criminal's scheme is clever. If true, this crime would be worthy of being extracted as an exhibit and hung here.

So, Cheng Shi, do you confess?

If you admit to your crime, given that the gallery has gained a new exhibit, I can deal with you lightly."

"......"

Cheng Shi was numb.

But then he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The fact that the other party could ask like this meant She hadn't directly obtained that memory from him, and it also meant the concealment effect of 【Eternal Imprisonment of Time】 was better than he had expected.

But to be honest, it would've been better to just let Her read it directly—he really shouldn't have to endure this torment on behalf of 【Time】.

If confessing could get him out of trouble, then a temporary confession wasn't out of the question.

After all, guilty or not doesn't depend on someone else's judgment, but on your own mouth. As long as I insist I'm innocent, even the guilty can be argued into innocence.

But this time... I really can't confess!

The scapegoat is too big to carry!

【Memory】 would absolutely be able to see that the frame's form closely resembled the gap of 【Existence】, so She would certainly also realize this exhibit was related to 【Origin】. But since She had already figured that out, yet still wanted to pin the crime of smudging an exhibit related to 【Origin】 on a mortal, then this wasn't a pure frame-up, false accusation, or personal revenge—it was a probe into the content of this exhibit!

So Cheng Shi dared not respond even more. He was afraid that any reply would let 【Memory】 see the flaw on him.

Seeing Cheng Shi not move, 【Memory】 walked forward with a cold face, came before Cheng Shi, looked him over "from above" for a moment, and suddenly asked:

"I once bestowed upon you a Memory Sea Floating Dream, to let you witness the wonder of 【Memory】.

Now that you have walked the path of 【Time】, return that creation to me."

Cheng Shi was stunned, not expecting the other party to bring this up at this moment. The three uses of Sea-of-Memory Floating Dream had long been exhausted, and the thing had lost its effect and ceased to exist — so how could it still be returned?

His brow furrowed slightly, and he instinctively looked at his own hand. When he saw the ring of Eternal Imprisonment of Time between his fingers, his expression changed, and he realized that the purpose of Memory was never the Sea-of-Memory Floating Dream at all — it was that ring of Eternal Imprisonment of Time!

It was testing his reaction to Time!

And that instinctive glance of his had already given him away.

Sure enough, when Memory saw Cheng Shi's gaze turn toward that ring of Time, Its question had already been answered.

"Mm, as expected, it really is It.

How come I didn't know that this sibling god of mine, Existence, had also stolen My authority?

Or could it be that in that cooperation that shattered the false and the real, this was the benefit that Fraud had promised It?

Using the authority stolen by Void to turn around and deal with Its own sibling god?

Very well..."

Hearing these words, Cheng Shi was dumbfounded. He had thought he was about to witness the schism of Existence, but the next moment, Memory spoke again:

"This too is a memory worth collecting."

"......"

No way?

Even a persimmon isn't this soft, is it?

I say, big brother, when you dealt with me back then you weren't like this at all — you shoved me into the Sea of Memory and drowned me, wouldn't even give me a chance even after I was dead.

How come when it comes to Time, a few words and it's just let go?!

Is that fair?

If just a memory worth collecting is enough to soothe a god's heart, why don't you record that madly obsessed worshipper of yours?

Oh right, in this collection hall, would there be a portrait of Chen Yi?

For a moment, Cheng Shi grew curious.