Chapter 64: A Humiliation-Inducing High-Stakes Game

A humiliation-inducing high-stakes game

(Three surprises in a row! Today’s super-sized ProMax! Final episode!)

Lying on his back on the rooftop, feeling the real sunlight fall upon him, Cheng Shi felt a profound sense of relief after barely surviving.

I never thought this method would actually work!

Winning another high-stakes gamble with his life and fortune made Cheng Shi feel he truly had a streak of luck.

He pulled the dice from his pocket, gazing into the blinding sunlight—the dot one on the die glared back, dazzlingly bright.

“Fated destiny? Ha. Bullshit.”

Cheng Shi smiled and tossed the dice aside; it rolled rapidly across the rooftop, spun a few times, then came to rest—dot one still facing upward, unchanged.

As if protesting his denial, or mocking his powerlessness to alter it.

Cheng Shi didn’t look at it—he closed his eyes and let the past five days flood his mind, meticulously reviewing every detail to debrief his clearance.

There’s no such thing as endless good fortune—only silent effort.

After every trial, he debriefed every action, sharpening his instincts, tightening his nerves, perfecting his deception until it felt natural.

This, was Cheng Shi’s path to victory.

But such effort was exhausting—far less satisfying than just slacking off.

So Cheng Shi’s ultimate dream was to cling to someone’s leg and be a slacker.

Too bad trials always threw idiots his way—hardly ever a chance to coast through the whole thing.

This trial matched well—lots of top players, perfect for just slacking all the way.

But the trial’s answer wouldn’t let him slack—or rather, the top players had no intention of carrying him.

The five masked rewards after the trial proved it:

All those 2400+ players survived!

Why? Perhaps because they’d already seen through the answer.

“All of them are sharp as knives!!”

Cheng Shi sighed, rewinding his memory to the moment the trial began.

【Death】’s hint was: There is only one path to death—find it, and offer your sacrifice!

Based on past 【Death】 trials, this clearly meant finding a sacrifice, killing him, offering him to It, and ending the trial.

But this trial was strange—the town of Yongzhan refused death, or at least made death extremely difficult to achieve.

Yet it wasn’t absolute: within the half-artifact’s influence, another half-artifact could create death.

So everyone’s initial goal was to find the killer and extract the trial’s clues from him.

During this time, everyone’s efforts pointed in the same direction.

Only Wei Guan, after half a day of casual investigation, used 【Foolishness】 to deduce the answer.

Then, with absolute certainty, he used the killer to kill himself!

He “suicided”!

This was why no one found any traces at the scene.

Because he himself erased all traces.

A 【Foolishness】 hunter perfectly faked his own death scene, plunging his teammates into inexplicable terror.

At that moment, no one realized they themselves were the sacrifice.

Offering oneself was the only path.

【Death】 in this trial valued not a specific person, but the wisdom and courage to face death!

The second to “hit” the answer was Yun Ni.

This 【Annihilation】 assassin had no clue—she simply wanted to speed up clue acquisition, so she decisively returned to the inn and charged straight at the killer!

Remember, 【Annihilation】 is the opposite of 【Death】—Its ideals are even more extreme than 【Death】’s “death without dispersal.”

Thus, Its followers disregard life—not just others’, but their own too.

To them, death is merely a state before annihilation—not terrifying.

But when she sensed the Grand Inquisition’s presence in the inn—and even sensed a half-artifact inside the room—she suddenly realized the answer:

Kill yourself within a half-artifact-protected town, by a half-artifact!

So she embraced death calmly, embraced “Annihilation,” and seized the chance to “save” her teammates.

But she overlooked one point—the same point Cheng Shi realized only after four people died!

That the rule “There is only one path to death” does not mean only one rule exists!

Another crucial point: each method of death can be used only once!

Yun Ni was lucky—before fully grasping the hint, she collided with Grand Inquisitor Mo Qiusi and died beneath his staff.

The ascetic monk after her wasn’t so lucky.

This 【Silence】 warrior took a blow from the half-artifact Thunder Punishment but didn’t die—he instantly understood the hint’s meaning, then decisively lunged at Cheng Shi, at the 【When Fear Arrives】!

There was never a second killer, no one hiding in the chaos.

The ascetic chose himself—and used that replica to kill himself!

Wei Guan’s death was voluntary, but the killer was Ados—he died by murder via 【When Fear Arrives】.

Yun Ni’s death was carried out by Mo Qiusi—he died by murder via 【At the Moment of Execution】.

The ascetic was the first true suicide—he killed himself with fear, dying by suicide via 【When Fear Arrives】.

These three methods of death, after these three passed the trial, were banned.

Only a few methods remained for Cheng Shi, Du Qiyu, and Fang Jue.

Du Qiyu deduced Wei Guan’s intent after reading Ados’s memories and realizing Ados hadn’t followed Wei Guan to erase the murder traces.

But he was trapped in a dire situation with no chance to kill himself, so he found another path—used a special method to return to the past, making his death replace the ascetic’s, altering memories!

Thus, cause and effect were twisted.

The ascetic, having already left the trial and distorted in memory, vanished from everyone’s minds.

Du Qiyu found a loophole—used 【When Fear Arrives】 in memory to kill himself, dying by suicide via 【When Fear Arrives】.

But his over-interpretation caused Fang Shiqing to miss all clues—even the faint traces left in memory were erased; the new timeline dumped him straight into the Enforcement Bureau’s prison.

Cheng Shi realized the final answer later.

He only understood it after Mo Qiusi’s strike failed to kill him—he realized the answer required offering oneself through different methods of death.

At that moment, a plan formed in his mind.

After Mo Qiusi’s death, he had a foolproof way to win the trial: kill himself with 【At the Moment of Execution】.

But it carried risk—if there was even a 0.1% chance the answer wasn’t death, Cheng Shi would face the end of his gaming career in endless regret.

So the cowardly Cheng Shi first made an extremely bold experiment:

He used the alchemical notes taken from Chenosli and Mo Qiusi’s corpse to fake the alchemist’s death scene, then submitted “nominal death” as defined by the Enforcement Bureau as his answer.

It was a risky move.

Because this was a 【Death】 trial!

Cheng Shi’s opportunism could easily backfire, turning it into a blasphemous performance.

Causing him, who might have landed safely, to veer off course and crash to death.

Fortunately, 【Death】 accepted it.

Though It gave him zero points.

But the Master greatly admired his performance, believing he had deceived 【Death】.

Cheng Shi won the bet.

His winnings weren’t just trial clearance—they included 【When Fear Arrives】 and 【At the Moment of Execution】!

Two half-artifacts, brought back to reality by him.

“Sigh, a 2400-level game—no points added, total waste.”

Though he said that, this trial was still the hardest Cheng Shi had endured since joining 【Faith Game】.

The weak seek alliance, the strong compete first—this tier’s trials were gradually stripping away the low-tier cooperation mechanism, replacing it with mutual suspicion.

Every person here was terrifyingly sharp—if not for the trust habits forged in early trials, Cheng Shi would’ve been at absolute disadvantage from the start due to the hostility from his 【Chaos】 faith.

And it was this trial that finally showed him how the top players of this stage embraced 【Divinity】.

In this astonishing trial:

The 【Foolishness】 believer was least foolish;

The 【Annihilation】 believer annihilated herself;

The 【Silence】 believer left everyone thunderstruck;

The 【Memory】 believer secretly altered memories;

The 【Order】 believer cheated and shattered “Order”;

The 【Deception】 believer was pathetically fooled to the end.

Except Fang Shiqing, everyone was the best actor.

They perfectly concluded their roles without leaving a single clue for their teammates.

Though their actions pushed others away from death, they forced the survivors to move further from the answer.

The survivors trembled, heads down, searching desperately for “What is 【Death】’s sacrifice?”—yet heard not a whisper of the silent mockery from those who had already passed.

Honestly, guessing that the answer was death might not be hard.

The hardest part is daring to die.

They had long sensed the truth and dared to use death to confirm their suspicions.

This courage and confidence left Cheng Shi ashamed.

As for the followers of 【Order】 who remained in the dark until the end...

Forget it, every trial needs a slacker.

Even the most skilled players have off days.

Isn’t that right, Fang Mou?

This trial lived up to its high standards, and Cheng Shi did not become a slacker.

Though he did not carry anyone along, he won himself over in an extremely steady way.

Even if he had been fooled completely, at least in the end, he had “fooled” 【Death】.

“Does this count as fooling 【God】?”

No sooner had he spoken than a ripple from the deep abyss enveloped the rooftop where Cheng Shi stood.

“??? ”

Again?