Chapter 417: Meeting Someone Familiar!

Meeting Someone Familiar!

Lavish, flashy, glittering with golden light, dazzling and radiant.

That was Cheng Shi's first impression of this so-called Mediocre Gathering.

When he pressed that golden card against the door and pushed it open, he found that beyond the door was no longer the rooftop where he stood, but had become an entryway corridor lined with a gilded red carpet, with diamond chandeliers hanging overhead.

And he stood at the starting point of this red carpet, while the other end where the carpet stretched to was an extremely dazzling, massive door.

Outlined in gold thread, edged with silver wire, studded with pearls and jade, paneled with jadeite—this door had zero aesthetic sense, all just piled-on materials; at one glance, a nouveau-riche aura came rushing at you.

After Cheng Shi saw the situation at the end of this corridor, the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily a few times.

As the saying goes, people—whatever they're lacking, that's exactly what they flaunt. Looking at it this way, this Mediocre Gathering......

Is quite lacking in money.

But what era is this, and they're still fussing over all this?

Gold, silver, jade and stone—these things, in the present moment when the 【Faith Game】 has descended, aren't as practical as a single finger-breadth bread and a can of snot-water.

At least food can be used to fill the belly, but these precious metals and chunks of stone that were chased after for thousands of years—what use are they now?

Showing off?

No amount of gold and silver compares to adding 1 more point on the Path of God Ascension. Nowadays, embracing faith and drawing close to 【Them】 is the best way to show off.

Of course, this was just a thought, not self-praise.

What Cheng Shi wanted to express was, this door......

"Is a bit tacky."

He muttered, tentatively reached out to touch the gilded lines on the corridor wall, then skillfully flicked out a scalpel and forcefully cut off a piece, bringing it close to examine carefully.

He could tell these gold lines weren't painted on with pigment—they were solid pure gold.

A bit interesting.

Whether this Mediocre Gathering was actually run by mediocre people was still uncertain, but at least one thing could be confirmed: the person behind the scenes who orchestrated all this must be a vulgar person—and a deeply vulgar one at that.

Cheng Shi snorted a laugh, waited cautiously for a moment, and upon finding no delayed traps in the corridor, finally stepped forward and walked up.

Before entering the door, his face was etched with caution, but after stepping onto the red carpet, his posture actually relaxed; as he walked briskly, a quiet confidence even seeped through, giving people the feeling that this man could handle whatever twists of fate came next.

But was it really like that?

No, it was fake—Cheng Shi was putting it on.

Relaxing was impossible to relax; Cheng the Steady had his nerves taut from beginning to end. His surface appearance of being light as a cloud was all for deceiving people.

He knew this was a gathering of players, so he wouldn't show any emotional cracks on his face, much less reveal his vigilance and caution to the other attendees. He would only use a calm gaze and a smile that warned strangers to stay away to disguise himself, in case this Mediocre Gathering had some special method to observe the entrants in advance.

Of course he wasn't sure whether anyone was observing behind this gathering, but the essence of being steady was to think more and walk steady!

The corridor wasn't long; before long he had reached the end.

Cheng Shi looked at the thick, heavy door before him, carved and inlaid entirely with Jin Yu, drew in a deep breath, then shoved it open.

Even more dazzling light pierced through the crack of the door, making Cheng Shi squint slightly.

But he wasn't being directly hit by the light—he was pressed against the door, holding up a mirror to peek through the crack, and ended up flashing his own eyes.

"......"

Being overly cautious had tripped him up.

After he recovered, he realized he seemed to have been overthinking; this place was very safe—at least, the people inside thought so!

Yes, there were many people inside the door!

Through the mirror, Cheng Shi saw countless heads of people milling about in the massive venue. His gaze sharpened, he shifted direction and observed carefully for a moment, then discovered an extremely bizarre thing.

These players, who appeared to have also come to attend the gathering, had gathered in this enormous space, yet not a single word had been spoken, not a single sound made—the entire venue was deathly silent.

Not only that, even the players moving about deliberately erased any sound of their footsteps as they walked, not wanting the others in the venue to notice them because of unusual noises.

Cheng Shi stared at this scene and was completely stunned; he suddenly thought—could this Mediocre Gathering be something put together by followers of 【Silence】?

The reason everyone came here—surely wasn't to collectively offer devotion to Him?

"......"

That would be too weird.

At the very center of the venue was a massive circular wooden stage; the stage was empty—no set, no performers.

Outside the stage was a ring-shaped tiered seating area, but interestingly, the blank space in this area far exceeded the seating; each ring had only 16 seats. At a glance, this venue looked like a stick-figure drawing of a sun—a crimson giant-sun stage with 16 "rays" extending outward, and these "rays" were the seats the organizers had arranged for the attending players.

In other words, each seat only had a seat in front and a seat behind, with no neighbors on either side.

This strange layout clearly made many people uncomfortable, because from each seat you could see the back of the head in front of you, and expose the back of your own head to the eyes of another stranger.

But the cards in everyone's hands happened to be the seat numbers, so many people, with no choice, could only stand to one side of their seat, cautiously sizing up the surrounding people and environment.

When facing the unknown, everyone is cautious.

The door Cheng Shi pushed open was in the first row closest to the stage. He walked out of the aisle into the seating area and at one glance spotted his own seat.

It was the front row of a long straight row of seats, right at the edge of the stage; that position was too conspicuous and too hard to sit in. At least from the second row onward, other positions could still see a back of a head, but Cheng Shi's position could only see the stage.

Thinking it over carefully, it was actually a loss of one back of a head.

Seeing this, he pressed his lips together speechlessly, then without a word headed toward the upper tiers.

His purpose was simple: as long as he sat high enough, sat far enough back, then when there was no one behind him, he wouldn't need to constantly guard his back.

But he wasn't the only "smart one" on site—too many people wanted to sit in the back rows. Countless people tiptoed toward the back; this "spectacular" scene gave Cheng Shi an illusion, as if he had returned to his own university.

Everyone wants to sit in the back row.

"......"

But the back rows weren't that easy to sit in, because after observing for a moment Cheng Shi discovered that this massive venue could actually keep extending. In other words, as long as someone was willing to keep walking up, then the tiers would, with his footsteps, stretch toward an indistinguishable horizon!

And Cheng Shi also noticed that some people were already doing this. These players, for whatever reason, had actually walked to infinite distances, as if there were hidden treasures there attracting them.

Looking at the situation before him, Cheng Shi slightly furrowed his brow.

Abilities related to space......

So, is it 【Annihilation】, 【Truth】, 【Existence】, or 【Void】?

Figures moved, gazes crossed, positions shifted, and the entire venue remained shrouded in an eerie, quiet atmosphere as more and more attendees gradually arrived.

Cheng Shi saw that this venue had no end in sight, so he simply gave up. He sighed and decided to find a safe spot to observe for a while first.

But just as he was carefully surveying his surroundings, he suddenly spotted a familiar face in the seating area.

An acquaintance!