Chapter 1299: A Desperate Dilemma

A Desperate Dilemma

So they're called the Fire Bearers!

The moment he learned the name, Long Jing understood what kind of organization this likely was; he just hadn't expected Qin Xin to be its leader.

As Qin Xin stepped into the great hall, the figures of the others slowly came into view.

Long Jing's expression faltered. Watching An Mingyu approach, he said with some awkwardness, "What a coincidence, seeing you again, Divine Chosen An."

An Mingyu quickened his pace, his face anxious, and asked, "Is Xinxin also in that trial?"

Seeing there was nothing left to hide, Long Jing could only nod. He quickly recounted the trial and told the Fire Bearers how Cheng Shi had separately sought out 【Memory】, 【Decay】, and the Fire of Hope. Upon hearing this, the Fire of Hope said, its flame wavering:

"【Memory】 has long since chosen to forget the memories related to the Outer Gods. Whether he sees through this matter or recovers his memories, he will likely find it hard to make a new choice—otherwise it would be a denial of his own self, a double desecration of memory.

【Decay】... wholly devoted to decay, already infinitely close to the state He seeks. But if He learns that beyond this world there are countless identical 【Decay】s all waiting for 【Origin】's pity, would He still have the strength left to pity the Fool's Play?

No, He would only accelerate His own decay.

Cheng Shi's choice was correct. Unfortunately, these choices lead nowhere..."

Silence fell over the scene. Two of the three paths to survival were gone—did that mean the only remaining path lay with the Fire of Hope?

The crowd looked toward the Fire of Hope with hope in their eyes, only to see the Fire of Hope sigh as well.

Escaping from a desperate situation is so terribly hard. He knew what Qin Xin meant—don't overthink it, save him first, and once he's saved, everyone stand together and then consider the problem of saving the world. But is the matter really that simple?

Once Cheng Shi is rescued, the world... will likely have reached its end as well.

This was a trap to begin with—an unsolvable dead end.

This trap was not set by the Outer God 【Fraud】, but bestowed by 【Origin】. All despair stems from that Cosmic Experiment. The Outer God 【Fraud】 merely exploited the rules of the Creator's experiment to the fullest, trapping Cheng Shi within the predetermined cage.

【Fate】 wanted to forge an offering that would please 【Origin】, which required a will perfectly aligned with 【Origin】's will—that is, utterly faithless yet broadly embracing faith.

Cheng Shi is exactly such a person. Even though he calls himself an envoy of 【Fraud】, this identity does not affect the purity of his "faithlessness," because that faithlessness was obtained by deceiving the world.

This is also the brilliance of 【Fraud】's full scheme!

He even used this will to deceive the Fire of Hope, giving Cheng Shi an "empty promise"—granting him the name of an envoy without any of its substance.

On the road of constantly becoming the Fool's Play, the clown began to accept the "fusion" of other faiths, gradually becoming the Predestined!

In other words, on the path to becoming the Predestined, the help given by the Outer God 【Fraud】 far exceeded that of 【Fate】. He is the true mastermind behind Cheng Shi becoming truly Predestined.

So Cheng Shi's only Po Ju Zhi Fa now is to shed his Predestined identity, and the most direct and effective Xiao De Fang Fa for that is to contaminate his faith!

Ideally, he would become a true god, completely "unbalancing" his faith; failing that, the next best thing would be to obtain the identity of an envoy of another faith, though the latter is not stable.

The status of an envoy does not require recognition from the 【Covenant】—it only needs a true god to acknowledge it and act on its behalf. But this kind of faith contamination, which can be withdrawn at any moment, is like tossing an entire bottle of ink into a pool of clean water; until the bottle cap is opened, the clean water in the pool remains untouched.

So once again, Cheng Shi has no choice. He knows the former is better, but the latter is clearly easier than the former.

However, the envoy he becomes absolutely cannot be one of the Fool's Play or Ultraman. The Fool's Play is insubstantial and fleeting like a rootless duckweed; although Ultraman truly exists in history, under the deliberate blurring by the Outer God 【Fraud】, this identity is very likely to be set up as a cover for the Fool's Play. Moreover, there is still a Kotaro in the temple of 【Chaos】—this is also the ruthless contingency that allows the Outer God to take back the Ultraman identity at any time.

Only a genuine, authority-wielding, indisputable envoy identity can possibly allow Cheng Shi to shed the Predestined through faith contamination, thereby finding a slim chance of escape from the hands of the Outer Gods and 【Fate】.

This is also why Cheng Shi had the Doctor go find 【Decay】.

He wanted to seek an envoy identity. 【Decay】 understood his meaning, but refused him for the sake of His great work of decay.

But even if Cheng Shi successfully contaminates his own faith, this method will cause him to lose all attention from 【Void】, and may very well make him the target of 【Void】's wrath, utterly nullified in this world...

Before the true ending arrives, the Fire of Hope cannot reveal the truth of the Predestined to everyone. He must leave a single thread of "Fire of Hope" for this world; He has considered far more than those present.

The Fire Bearers might be willing to fight for Cheng Shi to protect beauty and shelter friends, but once Cheng Shi's faith is contaminated and the Predestined identity vanishes completely, how is this world to survive?

It is an indisputable fact that 【Origin】 seeks an answer in the Cosmic Experiment. Without this answer, any world will only become a discarded failed experiment.

What can be confirmed now is that Cheng Shi is this answer, and it is precisely this faint hope that has become the anchor of the Fire of Hope's will.

He stands behind Cheng Shi in order to let the "Fire of Hope" spread, so as to help a few win this world.

But now, saving the world means Cheng Shi's offering identity cannot be contaminated; saving Cheng Shi means the world will head toward a future without the Predestined!

This is an unanswerable multiple-choice question—not only for Cheng Shi, but also for the Fire of Hope. Whichever path is taken, it leads to the far shore where the Fire of Hope's will shatters.

For a moment, the Fire of Hope even felt that He had already died—died in the bewilderment of a futureless world.

He could not speak the full truth, only explain the pros and cons within it.

"Choosing to save Cheng Shi makes it hard to save the world; choosing to save the world makes it impossible to save Cheng Shi.

He sent you to find me because he saw the power of change within me, hoping I could use the perspective of change to find a third path.

I am indeed the change discarded by 【Fate】, but...

Compared to an Outer God who stirs up winds and clouds across the cosmos, my firelight is too faint—I'm afraid it cannot illuminate the shadow He casts."

The Fire of Hope saying this clearly meant admitting He had no way either.

Everyone could tell what He meant. The question of which weighs more, the world or one person, is enough to become a mountain pressing on everyone's hearts, a mountain too heavy to breathe under!

But only Long Jing knew that Cheng Shi had probably never intended to seek survival from the very beginning. The best ending the clown could imagine was to die beneath this starry sky, buried in a world where his heart could find peace—otherwise the clown would never have given Old Zhang that scalpel.

As for the world... I'm already dead, what does the world matter?

His having Long Jing come find the Fire of Hope was already the greatest kindness the desperate clown could show this world.

Unfortunately, the Fire of Hope is not all-powerful.

Putting himself in Cheng Shi's shoes, Long Jing felt the despair within even more. The clown had the will to resist, yet simply could not think of a way to resist.

The oppressive atmosphere spread through the scene. As a believer of 【Fate】, An Mingyu sensed the shift in Long Jing's emotions, saw what was in his heart, and said with a moved expression:

"He is already resisting. Struggling to shed the Predestined identity 【Fate】 imposed—that is his roar... and his wail."

Hearing these words, everyone's expression grew even more solemn, and even Chen Shu fell into an uncharacteristic silence.