Chapter 1303: The Dream Should Wake

The dream should wake.

When Boss 【Death】 arrived, Cheng Shi's heart clenched violently.

He hoped this was the third path that the Fire of Hope had found for him, but before this hope could fully rise, it was shattered.

Anyone who heard 【Death】's question would realize that this true god, who usually dwelt in the Fishbone Hall, had long since known the plan of the Outer God 【Fate】 — He had come to verify once more, not to truly interrogate.

This meant that all the previous protection Boss 【Death】 had shown him was very likely an act put on in coordination with the Outer God!

With their countless exquisite performances, they had tricked him right into the camp of the Fear Faction!

Cheng Shi was angry, Cheng Shi was weary, Cheng Shi laughed.

When he saw that his only hope was in fact despair, he knew that in this world he had no one left to lean on.

Everything was delusion; survival itself was an extravagant hope.

The dream should wake......

The Outer God 【Fate】 did not change at all because of 【Death】's arrival. Looking at the giant skull with the same coldness He showed to every god present, He said without joy or sorrow:

"I think I explained all this to you long ago. If you didn't believe me, why wait until now to question it?

I can't guarantee it, but I have confidence.

The Certainty did indeed fail once, but precisely because of that failure, I was able to see through the will of 【Origin】.

The answer of a single world cannot satisfy His expectation for an 'offering'; the true Certainty has always come from the real universe.

I already have an idea. Once I take the Certainty away and complete the 'offering,' if 【Origin】 approves, then this experiment may be cut short right here, and all the myriad worlds will be redeemed because of it!

I told you — I am saving the world, just not yours and mine, but the Great World!

I sheltered the Fire-Bearer and bound the Certainty to him because I wanted him to understand that so-called success is never confined to a single corner.

Unfortunately, the Certainty remained obstinate, and the Fire-Bearer also went astray."

This was perhaps the most candid the Outer God 【Fate】 had ever been. One could tell that He truly did harbor the notion of "saving the world." His starting point was never to torment a clown — He simply wanted to sacrifice the clown to complete the "mission" 【Origin】 had bestowed upon 【Fate】, and use that as a chance to pay homage to that omniscient and omnipotent Creator, to have Him cut short this experiment and save all worlds.

Yet His candor only made the gods and people present even more afraid.

The giant skull was silent, the gods glanced around with varied looks, Qin Xin was still drawing his bowstring, and only the Big Cat, having cast aside fear, had gone completely reckless. She pointed at 【Fate】's eyes and cursed furiously:

"Ridiculous!

You yourself said this is only your idea, but in 【Origin】's eyes, you are nothing more than a variable in the experiment — so what is your confidence worth?

At this moment, what difference is there between you and the 【Truth】 you strangled? Aren't you both using the worlds to run an experiment that pleases yourselves!

You are satisfying your own 'piety,' while disregarding the lives of the entire world!"

The Outer God 【Fate】 looked faintly at Hong Lin, but His gaze passed over the Big Cat and fell upon His believer.

He remained cold:

"So what if it is an experiment?

Countless 【Fraud】, 【Fate】, and the Certainty have wagered their lives, gambling boldly on 【Origin】's answer......

How is it that They could die, but you and I cannot?

How can an answer be reached without trying, how can the future be won without gambling?

My believer, you should rejoice. When 【Origin】 casts His gaze down upon my offering, your name may ring out across all the myriad universes at once. The world will remember every sacrifice you made for the Great World. You......"

"Go to hell!"

Cheng Shi directly cut off the Outer God 【Fate】's coldness, mocking wildly:

"Back and forth it's nothing but the kidnapping of will. Unfortunately, my will, like the true 【Fraud】, has always been rebellious.

The more you want me to become the Certainty, the more I must break free from the Certainty!

In my view, what you care about is no different from what we care about ourselves. Sounds nice — for the Great World?

Pfft!

If right now I told you that I understand better than you how to please 【Origin】, that I have more hope than you of saving countless worlds — would you believe it? Would you leave right now and abandon your plan!?

You wouldn't!"

"I would."

A flash of starlight passed through the Outer God 【Fate】's eyes, but immediately afterward He became cold and ruthless again. "But you cannot.

No one can save the world — except me."

"......"

Cheng Shi laughed in anger. He felt such an argument was utterly meaningless. The only reason they were still alive in the present was that the Outer God was still waiting for some kind of spacetime storm to descend.

Once that storm capable of letting one travel through spacetime descended, any further argument would be meaningless.

Cheng Shi figured it out — trying to make the Outer God 【Fate】 understand the Certainty's stance was simply wishful thinking.

"【Fraud】 was right. Some people are born to pull the god-throne out from under a god's ass!

I think 【Fraud】 may not be the surface appearance of 【Void】 — He is the one who saw through the essence at a glance.

As for you, 【Fate】 — hahahaha — in my eyes, you are nothing but......"

He paused, giving "someone else" a chance to vent.

"·A whore."

Clear and resonant, straight from the heart!

Fool's Mouth had sprung into action. Mouth Bro could not accept the fact that his patron had long since perished, and could not accept being kept in the dark by the Outer God like a clown. It had long wanted to curse, but did not want Cheng Shi to fall into an even worse passive position because of words, so it had held back until now — until Cheng Shi could bear it no longer and gave it the chance to vent.

The Outer God 【Fate】 could let the Certainty vent his emotions, hurl insults and mockery, but that did not mean just anyone could come up and curse a couple of lines. Those cold eyes glanced toward Fool's Mouth, and with one merciless blink, Cheng Shi heard a sound of shattering by his ear.

"Crack."

The sound was so soft that Cheng Shi thought he was hallucinating.

Yet the sound was also so heavy that in that instant, Cheng Shi, realizing what had happened, felt as if his two lungs had been squeezed of all air by an invisible weight — he could not breathe!

Trembling as if struck dumb, he reached for his own mouth, but could no longer feel Fool's Mouth's response upon his lips.

"Brother Mouth!!"

Cheng Shi's whole body shuddered violently. He called out frantically within his heart, but that voice in his mind... never appeared again.

Are you going to leave me too?

Cheng Shi, who had just been cursing up a storm, suddenly wilted, slumping down onto the back of the spotted leopard.

"Cheng Shi! What's wrong!?"

Hong Lin was frantic with worry. Qin Xin turned back in shock, only to see Cheng Shi, sitting atop the big cat, seeming to lose all his fighting spirit in an instant, utterly silent.

Seeing this, 【Fate】 spoke in a low, eerie voice:

"It is the first, but it will not be the last.

I told you — there will always be lives unworthy of surviving until 【Nihility】's curtain falls. The longer you struggle, the fewer will live. This is the curtain call of the 【Nihility】 Era.

Whether to dye this curtain red with fresh blood, or to bid farewell to this stage with laughter and joy — it all depends on your choice.

What is destined cannot be defied. I believe that right now, you understand this better than they do."

"......"

These were words that truly struck at the heart!

Hong Lin's face changed drastically upon hearing them. She flung Cheng Shi off, returned to human form, grabbed Cheng Shi's arm in one swift motion, and shook her head desperately:

"Cheng Shi, don't listen to Him! Since ancient times, surrender has only ever paved the ground with fresh blood — only resistance offers a way out!

You said it yourself: everyone has their own choice. Don't make it for us. Our choice is to struggle, to be unyielding, to resist — to fall on the road toward the light, even if it means death!

The only thing you must do is lead us to break 【Fate】's shackles, shatter 【Fate】's chains, and fight for a future without 【Fate】 — no, without gods — not to heed an outer god's words, twist yourself, and wallow in humiliation and indecision!

We don't need you to save us. We are saving ourselves!"

Saying this, she set Cheng Shi down on the ground, turned back to glare at the outer god, and activated the full authority of 【Prosperity】. Her hair flew as if sprouting, and wildly growing branches instantly wove a green crown of 【Prosperity】 upon her head.

But that was not all. Countless roots sprouted from that green crown, burrowing into the surrounding starry sky, drawing power from this stretch of cosmos, making Hong Lin's body grow ever stronger. Her arm transformed into a long spear, pointing at the outer god from afar, her fury beyond restraint:

"So what if the curtain is dyed with blood? Dye it bright — it'll make a fine coffin lid for you!"

The moment the word "coffin" fell, from within the rift in the void torn open by those 【Prosperity】 green branches, a real coffin suddenly tumbled out!

The coffin's lid slid aside by a fraction, and a slender hand reached out from within. Without a word, it seized the soul-stricken Cheng Shi and yanked him inside in one pull.

The lid flipped over; the figures swapped.

The figure from inside the coffin now appeared before the gods, while the coffin that had hidden a person was instantly shoved back into the rift in the void.

After the newcomer finished all this, he clapped his hands, ignored the cold gaze of the outer god 【Fate】, squinted toward the massive skull upon the bone throne, and said in a slightly low voice:

"My lord, my devotion ends here."