Chapter 40: Like My Adam's Apple? Here, Take It

Like my Adam's apple? Here, take it.

2502?

Hearing this score, the fire in Cheng Shi's heart was instantly extinguished.

Another 2400+, even reaching 2500 points.

Good news: there are many experts.

Bad news: there are too many experts.

The scores of the players in this round seem excessively high.

And I only...

What was my score again?

The Traveler of Memories is a Mage of 【Memory】.

And 【Memory】 faithfully records everything that happens, making it the mortal enemy of 【Deception】.

With such an opponent ahead, saying Cheng Shi felt no anxiety would definitely be a lie.

But to say he was very afraid, not necessarily.

After all, he hadn't never encountered players with such scores; it was just rare.

Du Du Xiguang was very tall, at least 1.9 meters; wearing glasses made him look refined, but the flesh and blood body beneath his trench coat was clearly powerful.

Du Du Xiguang, 【Memory】, Mage, 2502.

Cheng Shi's gaze swept slightly over him, then calmly turned to the Dagger Miss.

"Yun Ni, Apostle of Nirvana, 2491."

Huh?

She is actually a believer of 【Annihilation】?

【Annihilation】 is the Third God of the Path of Descent, the finale of descent, the collapse of all living things.

He firmly believes that life will eventually vanish, the universe cannot escape destruction, everything will pass, and finally return to nirvana.

Therefore, his believers, influenced by him, are often extremely indifferent to life.

In their eyes, survival is merely a process leading to disappearance, and death is just the beginning of the nirvana of all things.

The meaning of the world's operation is to wait for the final judgment, then crumble into dust under his gaze.

Who would have thought that a Miss who looked so fresh and lively, with somewhat spirited behavior, actually believed in 【Annihilation】?

Oh right, she is an Assassin!

Apostles of Nirvana are Assassins who believe in 【Annihilation】.

That makes much more sense.

Assassins are all creatures of contrast.

Yun Ni, 【Annihilation】, Assassin, 2491.

Cheng Shi smiled inwardly and looked at the next person.

The one who knocked on his door.

This long-haired handsome man, who had changed into the inn's uniform, had very cold eyes; his slender eyes revealed contempt for the others without any concealment.

Sorry, I despise you all equally.

That is exactly the feeling.

Regarding his identity, Cheng Shi actually already had a guess in his heart.

"Wei Wei Guan, Fool Hunter, 2450."

As expected, Fool Hunter, a Hunter of 【Foolishness】.

【Foolishness】 is actually not foolish; on the contrary, He believes He is closer to the truth than 【Truth】.

Because of being excessively close to the truth, a chasm-like gap formed between Him and all things in the world, so He believes that all other existences in the world are foolish.

This is His will.

He believes: all life is foolish, all civilization is stupid.

And His believers inherited this view of their Benefactor very well, to the extent that all 【Foolishness】 players always like to look down on people with their nostrils.

From the moment they began believing in their Benefactor, their thinking became more active than other players, their minds turned faster, and they accumulated more knowledge.

Compared to the believers of 【Truth】, apart from their attitude being repulsive, whether in terms of knowledge stock or thinking increment, they are top-tier existences, and their strength cannot be underestimated.

Wei Wei Guan, 【Foolishness】, Hunter, 2450.

Cheng Shi silently watched as a group of experts finished introducing each other; when it finally came to his turn, his eyebrows furrowed.

Three men and one woman, plus himself, making five people in total.

Where did the sixth person go?

Wei Wei Guan seemed to see through Cheng Shi's thoughts; he snorted coldly and turned his gaze toward the end of the corridor.

Cheng Shi and Yun Ni, who had come out last, followed his gaze and saw a bare-chested burly man standing there silently, closing his eyes to rest with a blank expression.

Cheng Shi's heart jumped, and he immediately understood the situation.

【Silence】!

He is a believer of 【Silence】.

This deity's actions can be seen from His divine name.

The players who believed in Him probably gave up speech from the moment the 【Faith Game】 officially opened.

They followed, observed, listened, and thought, but never communicated with others.

Living like a solitary monk.

And the muscular brother at the end of the corridor, looking obviously like an ascetic monk.

A wandering monk, a warrior of 【Silence】.

X, 【Silence】, Warrior, X

Wei Wei Guan spoke again, confirming Cheng Shi's guess.

"A wandering monk isn't worth wasting time on."

"......"

Even Cheng Shi, who had seen plenty of 【Foolishness】 worshippers, wasn't quite used to that kind of disdain.

Probably no one likes an unfamiliar person occasionally sneering at them right in front of them.

Especially since this trial lasted a full 7 days, with plenty of time to spare.

Cheng Shi spread his hands and smiled, speaking in a casual tone:

"Cheng Shi, Reason Eroder, 2401."

The moment the words fell, Fang Jue raised his brows in surprise, while the others frowned.

Reason Eroder, a priest who worships 【Chaos】.

Time rewinds to the previous trial.

The moment Cheng Shi killed Huang Bo and severed his head.

Far away in Act One, A Ming died along with him.

The story of the Executioner and the Discordant Harpist should have ended here.

But in the final second before A Ming's soul vanished, Cheng Shi snapped his fingers.

That snap represented a Forgotten Doctor's true contempt for death.

He made death forget A Ming.

Status Rewind!

Cheng Shi had secretly recorded everyone's status at the very first on-the-hour mark of Act One.

In that moment before death, Cheng Shi deceived the confident Huang Bo, making him believe he and A Ming had died together.

But after Huang Bo died, he used Rewind to resurrect A Ming.

Death took away the worshipper of 【Chaos】, carrying his confusion and unwillingness, vanishing from the world.

The worshipper of 【Order】 managed to cling to life.

So today's Cheng Shi is a 【Chaos】 worshipper, a Reason Eroder.

Actually, the talent 【Lies Like Yesterday】 doesn't lock in on restricted cards like "the most recently deceived worshipper."

In other words, as long as Cheng Shi is willing, he can freely choose the faith of any teammate he deceived in the previous round.

Yet he still firmly chose 【Chaos】.

One must remember, 【Chaos】 is the mortal enemy of 【Order】.

Moreover, 【Chaos】 worshippers don't have a great reputation; few people like them.

But it was precisely for this reason that Cheng Shi chose Him.

Because a more controversial topic would draw everyone's attention away.

This way, everyone's focus would be on his faith, and the score he fabricated would naturally be subconsciously overlooked.

In a high-stakes match full of 2400s and 2500s, Cheng Shi couldn't honestly tell them his score was 2100.

There would be only one outcome: the moment he spoke his score, he'd be hunted down without hesitation by the "Fool-Hunter" right before him.

After all, in the eyes of 【Foolishness】 worshippers, a score that's too low is itself a kind of foolishness.

And the Fool-Hunter specializes in hunting foolishness.

Falsely reporting a low score can hide one's strength; falsely reporting a high score can preserve one's life.

This is the charm of deception.

Cheng Shi understood this from a young age.

But even after taking all of this into account, something unexpected still happened.

Before Lawbearer Fang Jue could even say anything about Cheng Shi's identity, the assassin Young Lady who had crossed paths with Cheng Shi flashed forward and appeared right before his eyes, her gleaming dagger once again pressed against his Adam's apple.

Cheng Shi was briefly stunned, then smiled nonchalantly:

"You like my Adam's apple that much? Here, take it?"