Character side story: Wei Mu · The simplest trial

In reality, atop a mountain in Unknown Province and City.

The figure lying on the ground slowly opened its eyes, looked up at the cloudless sky, and listened to the lively shouts below the mountain, momentarily lost in thought.

The Divine Descent?

The Path of Fate's Beginning?

What did I just choose?

And... who am I?

He searched through his chaotic Memory for a while and finally remembered his name.

Wei Mu?

Yes, that's right, it's Wei Mu.

But why are my Memory so confused?

Wei Mu sat quietly for a while, carefully sorting through the fragmented images in his mind. After a long time, when the excitement and wailing from the foot of the mountain reached their climax, he finally remembered some things.

His Memory is fine; the problem lies in his choices.

He remembered that in that Pure White Path of Fate's Beginning, there seemed to be... a few Token placed there?

Five? Six? Or...?

The shapes of various Token flashed through my mind: Mask, Dice, photographs, clock faces, Bone Emblem, Shushing Phantom, and White-Eyed Wind Chime emitting a sound that was very much like a sneer.

That's right, it's these seven things.

Why did I choose the "ugliest" wind chime of all?

No, it wasn't my choice; I stumbled upon it by accident.

Wei Mu remembered—he hadn't chosen anything!

As a boy hailed as a genius from a young age, he completed his studies in an extremely short time and, after graduation, joined a think tank that could not be publicly identified as an advisor.

His keen intuition and accurate judgment told him that the game sent down by the gods might not be so simple, so he wanted to find a more "accurate" answer beyond the seven choices.

So he began to explore at the Path of Fate's Beginning, and tried to step outside that Path of Fate's Beginning to find clues beyond the existing choices.

However, he failed.

The wall at the Path of Fate's Beginning acted like a trampoline, bouncing him back as he tried to "escape." This caused him to crash into the wind chimes, inexplicably turning him into Believer [Folly].

He didn't find it particularly objectionable, especially after sensing the will of [Folly], he felt that "it was fate," and that it was fitting.

However, the act of "breaking out of prison," which was an attempt to challenge the rules, was not forgiven by the gods; that bullet seemed to have shattered a lot of his Memory.

So much so that he could only vaguely recall his past, unable to accurately describe the details of each moment. He remembered having an exceptional Memory, but now...

Well, the descent of the gods has essentially built theology upon science. Since the world has changed, let's bury the knowledge of the past in the past.

That's good, at least we don't have to spend time grieving for those deceased friends and relatives.

He heard the cries from below the mountain and knew that many people couldn't bear the pain of separation and fear the unknown dangers. However, these pointless ventings would only slow them down further. If you want to reunite and live, you must first understand this game and the so-called gods.

Everything has its own principle; only by understanding the fundamental principles can one comprehend and even transcend all things.

So, regaining his senses, Wei Mu began his first Trials without hesitation, and his prayer was:

Participate in the simplest Trials in the [Faith Game]!

That's right, for the "simplest" Trials, he handed over the definition to the gods, wanting to know how the gods understood the attribute of "simplicity"!

This decision stemmed from Wei Mu's consistent subtraction philosophy since childhood. He always believed that the reason people couldn't see the truth was that they were blinded by too many dazzling illusions, and that constantly subtracting would help eliminate wrong options and bring people closer to the truth.

He was incredibly grateful that what he had lost were only Memory and not logic, which allowed him to find the key to "breaking the deadlock" at the very beginning of the [Faith Game].

As he expected, the gods answered his prayers and granted him the simplest Trials.

It was a Trials of [Folly]. Of course, as the first Trials for Believer of [Folly], the god who gave the Trials was his Lord of Grace [Folly]. However, not all the players in the Trials were Believer of [Folly]. Two of the six were not first-time participants in the Trials.

One of them was Believer in [Time]. He told the others that he had discovered the greatest secret of the [Faith Game]. This game was not a destruction brought by the gods, but a reward from them. He discovered that the length of each Trials did not affect real time, which meant that as long as someone kept Prayer Trial, he could live longer than someone who just sat still in reality... not just one lifetime.

Everyone suddenly understood and was overjoyed, but Wei Mu rationally shook his head and said, "The premise is that you have to survive the Trials."

[Time] The Believer laughed and said he had already thought of this, so every time he prayed, he would ask for a Trials that would allow him to survive. These Trials were very simple, so this was his eleventh Trials so far.

Everyone was shocked, after all, four of the six people present were participating in the Trials for the first time, while this person had already participated in eleven trials and was still alive.

This could be considered a way to "extend one's lifespan," but Wei Mu's intuition told him that it was not the key to "beating" the game, because simply surviving in the game would not contribute anything to the game or to the gods.

He didn't believe that the gods bestowing this game upon humanity was a simple reward; even if there were rewards, there should at least be "payments."

However, he did not overly remind the Believer of [Time] that stopping short of making a point is the way wise people communicate. If the other party does not understand, then he is not wise, and not being wise means being Folly. Wei Mu was Believer of [Folly], and he felt that he could not get close to Folly.

The other of the two was a Believer [Birth], a Singer of [Birth], Night-Singing Throat.

Interestingly, this Singer was also a researcher in the relevant field before the game's release, so she was very interested in the gods' so-called "Birth," and she had been looking for suitable teammates to verify the magic of the [Birth] power.

When everyone heard this, their expressions varied, but only Wei Mu nodded and said, "I'm willing to give it a try."

The Singer finally met her ideal Experiment subject. Looking at this ordinary-looking man with deep eyes, she sang a song for him, a pop song that she couldn't sing at all.

As it turns out, with the influence of Divine Power, even an off-key song can induce a primal urge to Birth. However, primal urges alone cannot complete the act of Birth, so this "Experiment" undoubtedly failed.

The Singer was only interested in the effects of the [Birth] power; in the present moment before the Order collapsed, she could not accept sharing Birth with a stranger in public.

However, this failed Experiment still gave Wei Mu some inspiration. Having experienced the influence of Divine Power for the first time, he suddenly felt that the flesh and blood body was still too weak. If a song alone could arouse a person's desire for Birth, what kind of traps awaited him in the future?

Seeing one thing and knowing three, drawing inferences from one instance and calculating three steps—at the very beginning of this Trials, at the start of the [Faith Game], Wei Mu had already begun to consider the direction of his future path.