Chapter 843: The Story Came to an Abrupt Halt; the Past Became the Past

The story came to an abrupt halt; the past became the past.

Do you know what's the most terrifying thing in the workplace?

That's when you're snacking on gossip about company executives and get caught red-handed by your boss.

Who could have imagined that, within a memory, 【Deception】 would truly descend!

So was Its descent a replication of the past, or merely a turning point within the trial?

No one knew, and no one had time to wonder, because the three players present had something far more troubling than figuring out why 【Deception】 had arrived—namely...

The Benefactor has appeared—dare you not greet Him?

For a deity, there is no future or past; wherever It appears, that is the present. Thus, what the players face is not some phantom of the past, but 【Deception】 itself.

But this raises another question: when you finally get the chance to pay homage to the Benefactor, after praising Him, will you speak your true name or the mask you currently wear?

Not greeting Him means death; greeting Him means self-exposure—either you die, or you're socially destroyed. Just as in the Land of Devotion before, the true test of devotion has now arrived.

Watching Ai Si and Zhang Zhang Jizu stole glances at each other; only Cheng Shi remained unmoved, staring at those eyes, lost in thought.

For a moment, the scene fell silent.

Of course, the vast majority of that silence came not from the three players, but from the residents of Sandres, who stood frozen on and off stage—even the most oblivious, the most enraged, upon sensing the terrifying pressure from nothingness, knew who this sudden star-eyed presence was.

But how could He truly exist!?

The sky of Sandres collapsed again.

And this time, it was patched by a clown—then deliberately torn apart by the hands of the crowd.

Everyone present was stunned; a rope of fear bound them tightly to the spot, so much so that none dared bow before the deity before them.

What could they even say?

Praise 【Deception】, you've arrived just in time—we've just torn apart your messenger?

Ha, would they dare?

No, because they feared death—otherwise, Klaun wouldn't have died.

Yet within those eyes, there was no coldness—only starlight flickering, spiraling in reverse as It scanned the surroundings, glancing briefly at the three silent devotees, then uttering a sardonic sneer:

"Pfft—

Interesting. But useless."

Then It left...

It did not punish the "blasphemers" present, nor did It bestow grace upon the shattered followers onstage. That vivid red still stained the dark crimson curtain, the arcs of splattered blood mirroring the tone of that earlier sneer.

But doing nothing was likely Its greatest punishment—without divine protection, with the last shred of hope shattered, the residents of Sandres went utterly mad the instant 【Deception】 departed.

Truly mad.

Their faces first turned as white as paper, then as crimson as blood; they glared furiously at the first person who had questioned Klaun, the divine messenger, as if killing him would restore the deity's gaze and earn the Benefactor's forgiveness.

Thus, a second smear of bloody mockery splattered across the theater curtain, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth... and then endlessly...

Until the warm liquid soaked the curtain until it dripped crimson, the ropes holding the curtain taut finally snapped under the weight, letting the brand-new curtain fall completely.

Thus, this absurd drama staged in Sandres reached its finale, witnessed in stunned silence by the three players.

Everyone was dead; the entire Joyous Theater was littered with fragments of bodies—no corpse remained intact, just like the shattered clown corpse at the center of the stage. Sandres itself had been reduced to fragments.

Then time accelerated; memories rewound. The crimson blood darkened and hardened; the broken limbs rotted and decayed. Outside the theater, the blizzard intensified, and within the nearly heart-freezing storm swirled countless bizarre, malformed experimental waste.

It seemed the Tower of Rationality had accelerated the abandonment of the experimental site.

In just a few breaths, Sandres's past became the past once more.

The story here seems finished—but don't forget: the end is only Sandres's story. The players who witnessed it all now stared at the rusted stage, the decayed seats, the desiccated corpses, and the frozen bloodstains, lost in thought.

Especially Cheng Shi. Since the God of Mischief descended, his gaze had never left the fragments of Klaun's corpse onstage. He suspected those fragments might be similar to the Tongue of Lies—but even now, he saw no movement from them.

But this didn't stump Cheng Shi, for he already had a bold idea in mind.

Suppose the fragments of Farce truly existed, and had indeed emerged from the clown's dismemberment—then if the clown were resurrected on this very stage, might it be possible to directly gather all the fragments...

All at once?

Could there really be such a loophole to exploit?

Not necessarily!

Cheng Shi's brow lifted; his mind stirred.

He remembered the Meaningful Glance the God of Mischief had cast as It left. Think about it—even if the God of Mischief despised these mortal inhabitants of Sandres, why would It ignore such a devoted follower?

To be fair, even if Klaun was overly "compassionate," every move he made perfectly aligned with 【Deception】's will. Every performance struck at the essence of falsehood—he spread the deity's name through absurdity, expanded faith through deception. A devotee more devout than himself—why would It simply abandon him?

Unless...

It never intended to abandon him. Instead, It had long ago left the chance to save the clown for... someone prepared.

At this thought, Cheng Shi smiled.

So everything had been waiting here all along. The one who saved the clown was another clown—this scene mirrored exactly how the clown onstage had once saved Sandres using another clown.

Future and past had ultimately woven into a circle stained with the hue of 【Deception】.

And that ear, which never appeared until the final act—could it be the reward granted after saving Klaun?

At this thought, Cheng Shi moved.

He couldn't explain anything, lest he trigger the 【Silence】 trial's settlement mechanism—so he surged forward with all his strength toward the stage.

The other two weren't fools—they were the shrewdest liars. They too had conceived their own methods, and in an instant, all three figures rushed onto the stage, each seizing a different object.

When the three players once again stood in triangular opposition onstage, they stared at what the others held, and fell into deep thought.