Number One on the Path to Godhood

"Lord Foolish Play."

Compared to those lowly Puppet, your achievements are truly phenomenal; otherwise, [Nothingness] wouldn't have chosen you to become...

The Little Puppet didn't dare to say everything; he was waiting for Cheng Shi's response.

Cheng Shi guessed what Wei Mu was going to say, but he didn't stop him. Instead, he smiled and gestured for the other man to continue, letting the Wise One do his thing.

Before asking the Top Rank on the Path to Godhood, he first needed to confirm which version of the cheat code the other person had activated.

If Wei Mu is truly capable, then it wouldn't be too late to share the latest version of the information to supplement the other party's understanding.

Having received the signal, Wei Mu bowed again and continued:

"... Sacrifice of this era."

I think I know why you've come here, sir.

You're looking for a way to escape the status of Sacrifice, aren't you?

Thank you for your generous emoticon feedback. It seems I guessed right. So this is Gathering Place for a 'rebel' organization. The flame that represents deviating from [Destiny] yet carries the Afterglow of Civilization, and the successor of [War] who 'would rather survive than shed blood,' are probably the king and queen here.

I apologize, this was just a metaphor and was not intended to disrespect you either.

When all the 'rebels' gather together, no one would believe they are discussing how to solidify the divine authority of the current rulers...

Now I understand a little better.

Previously, I always thought that the gazes of [Deception] and [Destiny], the two [Nothingness] Dominion, were slightly distorted when they placed their bets on you; two completely different wills had inexplicably converged.

But when I learned of your resistance to the role of the Sacrifice, I understood. Perhaps [Destiny] is the one who truly favors you, and the role of the Fool's Game is related to the answer of [Nothingness], isn't it?

And it's very likely that this answer isn't friendly to you, which is why you resist it. And that resistance gives [Deception] an opportunity to take advantage of you; it uses this will to hold you hostage.

It seems I guessed right; the [Deception]'s intentions weren't entirely without clues, at least for now, there's evidence:

The fact that He supports a [Destiny] Emissary to protect these 'rebels' undoubtedly shows that He likes rebellion, and the result of this rebellion is that the two wills of [Nothingness] converge in you, and the eyes of the gods are also drawn to the answer of [Nothingness].

In fact, I should thank you.

The day I became Top Rank on the Path to Godhood, I realized that the Path to Godhood might not be about getting closer to the gods, but about the 'choice' to get closer to the gods.

I hesitated about whether to give up, but I was unwilling to lose this rare opportunity to get closer to the divine.

But when I lingered in that position for a long time without ever receiving any 'feedback' from the gods, I realized that perhaps someone had already 'stolen' the gaze of the Path to Godhood, making the gods no longer care who was closest to them, because they had already found that 'choice'... the choice made by [Nothingness].

You saved me, Wei Mu sincerely thanks you.

"..."

Although the words weren't harsh, the gratitude sounded more like "contempt"...

Is this what Wise One is?

Is this Wei Mu?

He had never even been seen in any of the [Nothingness] battles, yet he was able to calculate the wills of those two [Nothingness] beings with perfect accuracy through the slightest clues in the Cosmos.

Although Cheng Shi didn't know exactly why [Nothingness] had chosen him, based on everything he was experiencing, Wei Mu's perspective was completely aligned with his.

Cheng Shi applauded this brilliant deduction, but he knew that this was by no means the complete understanding of the world held by the foremost Wise One before him. So he reached out again, urging Wei Mu to continue his performance.

Wei Mu was stunned for a moment, then understood the meaning of the Fool's Game. He nodded and carefully chose his words:

"Is this another stepping stone...?"

Since Your Wei Mu has given me Wei Mu opportunity, I will offer my humble opinion as a starting point, hoping to gain Your Excellency's profound knowledge and insight.

When I parted ways with you last time, I guessed that you were collecting something special, like the eye hidden inside the statue of the Hunter of Fools?

That must be a Mask?

I'm not entirely sure if this Mask is related to [Memory] or to my lost Divine Authority, but it certainly seems to be related to the answer to [Nothingness], doesn't it, sir?

You haven't collected all the information and are confused about where the answer lies. The confusion on the faces of the other two also tells me that, at least here, you won't find the answer you're looking for.

So you're not here for that possible Mask, but for something else."

Hearing this, Qin Xin completely lost his expression. He just stood there silently listening. If it weren't for the False Finale that had just given him some leeway, his face would probably be filled with shock by now.

The Hope's Flame, however, was different. It stared at the Little Puppet with great curiosity, hanging upside down in front of Little Puppet several times, clearly wanting to dismantle the Puppet's skull to see what was hidden inside.

Cheng Shi was the only one who remained calm, but he was actually just pretending.

He was more shocked than anyone else, because he knew that what Wei Mu said was true.

I've endured countless fears, confusion, and Despair to get to this point. Now that I know all this, what makes Wise One?

Just because of a Faith, does that make a [Folly] mind?

If this isn't considered "open," then the word "hang" should be removed from the dictionary!

Of course, these thoughts are just self-deprecating humor. If there really were cheat codes in this Cosmos, perhaps the Fear Faction and the God of Merriment wouldn't have been forced into this situation.

He looked into Puppet's blank eyes, pondered for a moment, as if remembering something, and then recalled what [Time] had said. Cheng Shi suddenly froze and blurted out:

"Faith?

You used the Vessel in your hand to borrow the power of Faith!

"!"

The Puppet froze. This was the first time Wei Mu had lost his composure in front of others, because his magic trick had been exposed!

Yes, he drew upon the power of Faith.

Remember that meeting on the terrace of Dolgo D? Wei Mu had said that he had obtained the Vessel of [Folly], but that Vessel was used to collect the Divinity dripping from Faith. Wei Mu was not the "god" of [Folly], and [Folly] did not have a Subgod to lend him an identity, so he could not use the Vessel at first.

But he came up with a plan: to become the Top Rank on the Path to Godhood, so that people would believe in and pursue his wisdom!

In this way, as Wei Mu's superior intelligence and understanding of the game spread, he collected his first drop of Divinity.

These Divinity can be pieced Divine Authority, but the [Folly] Divine Authority is missing, leaving Wei Mu without any instructions to refer to, so he can only try to piece it together himself.

Unfortunately, the Experiment to seize the Divine Authority of [Folly] failed, but it did not completely fail, because during the Experiment, he discovered that the final result of the process of condensing Faith into Divinity did not seem to be only Divinity. The special connection between Faith and the carrier of Faith formed during the process of Faith condensation was also a topic worthy of study.

He turned his attention to this field, mastering the art of combining Divinity while also learning the trick of using Faith to temporarily borrow wisdom from Faith medium.

To put it simply, when Wei Mu was thinking, he no longer relied solely on his own brainpower, but borrowed some computing power from all his "followers" who "believed" in his wisdom!

These mental resources were negligible, or even simply dormant and unused parts of the individual's consciousness, yet they were passively lent to Wei Mu because of their "unwavering faith" in him.

In this way, although the amount of mental energy lent by an individual is small, the sheer number of people involved provides Wei Mu with considerable assistance in his thinking, which is why he has been getting closer and closer to the "truth" recently.

He figured out the rudiments of Faith transforming into Divine Authority through his own exploration, and was even trying to find a way to synthesize the Divine Authority of [Folly]...

This is why the gods value Faith, because Divine Authority and Faith are never two independent things.

In a sense, Wei Mu's actions are very much in line with the literal meaning of the Path to Godhood; he is getting closer to the divine step by step in his own way.