Whenever a Special Trial ended, Cheng Shi would linger in the chat channels for a while to gather information.
Most of the vast, fragmented information consisted of meaningless venting and complaints. Only a small amount of useful information was worth a glance.
Whether he remembered what he read depended entirely on his mood.
He first opened Regional Chat. It covered players in the nearby neighborhoods. There had still been 7,600+ players online yesterday, but now only 6,400 remained.
The chat displayed only the content, not the IDs, so no one knew whether the speaker was human or ghost.
"God has punished the atheists once again. A new Divine Kingdom is slowly taking shape. Brothers and sisters, join the Divine Kingdom and share in divine grace!"
"Feel grace. Embrace greatness!"
"Everything is a gift from the Lord of Grace. We survivors should all be grateful! Thank my lord, thank the gods!"
These lunatic statements were typical of the Adventist Faction, and Cheng Shi usually skipped them outright.
However, judging by the speaker's attitude and tone, they probably weren't his across-the-hall neighbor.
"Damn it, ten billion people died, and the world's about to go to hell. If the gods want to save the world, why kill so many people? And they still want us to be grateful? Grateful for your mother, you fucking moron."
"Night of Revelry advertisement. Location: the entire second floor of Lemon Apartment, 142 South River Road. Seven areas have already been connected, with an enormous floor area. Participants have reached fourteen. Anyone who wants to experience the thrill of surviving a catastrophe, hurry up and join us! P.S. Those who care about Faith Opposition, stay away. We do not accept Birth believers."
"Did Birth eat your family's rice?"
"Upstairs, you can give birth to one yourself. No need to form a party..."
"1301, 7 South River Road. A little sister is all alone and scared."
"Don't believe her. I'm directly upstairs from 1301. Every day I hear banging as she smashes the walls. She's a complete lunatic!"
"Seeking medicine. A-grade or higher healing potions. I can substitute-run a Professional Weapon Trial in exchange. Urgently needed, thanks."
Although many people had died, the chat channels were just as chaotic as ever.
Cheng Shi only took notice of the request for medicine. Since the Faith Game had no private messages, he could only type in the public chat:
"Whoever's asking for medicine, is it South River Road or Wood Willow Road?"
A flood of chat messages instantly drowned out Cheng Shi's post, but he still keenly spotted the other person's reply.
"Wood Willow Road. Top floor."
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. He was on Wood Willow Road himself, and on the highest floor at that.
"Tsk, tsk. Could it really be the neighbor across from me?"
Remembering his neighbor's blood-covered appearance, Cheng Shi walked to the edge of the rooftop and called out from a distance:
"Hey, are you the one asking for medicine?"
A filthy head poked out of the large tent opposite. Suspicion filled the person's expression as he hesitantly called back:
"Bro, how did you know it was me?"
Sure enough!
Cheng Shi smiled faintly. "Just guessed. I have an A-grade Past Prosperity. What do you say?"
The Young Man surnamed Xie clearly knew his stuff. He stared at Cheng Shi with wide eyes for a long while before becoming solemn and asking:
"You have 2,000 points?"
In his understanding, players with fewer than 2,000 points wouldn't be willing to trade such medicine to someone else.
Cheng Shi indeed wasn't willing to part with it, but he was quite interested in the young man's offer to substitute-run a trial. He currently lacked a handy item.
That item was crucial to his next trial.
Most importantly, he still had enough Past Prosperity in stock.
"No. I happened to pick it up in a trial."
"..."
Looking at the ninety-three bottles of potion in his personal space, Cheng Shi recalled the happy times he had once spent matched with "that big brother."
During that Prosperity Trial where they had to protect a pharmacy owner, they had joined forces to kill the owner early and loot the pharmacy, avoiding the disastrous outcome of letting him fall into enemy hands. They had ended the trial in a manner that was both unreasonable and illegal.
For that, every teammate had twenty points deducted from their Ladder score.
But each of them received 120 bottles of Past Prosperity.
Tsk. A minor loss.
"What do you want? Are you short on a weapon?" The Young Man surnamed Xie was puzzled. Somewhat awkwardly, he said, "I haven't reached 2,000 points. I probably can't farm the weapon you want. At most, I can get an A-grade one."
Cheng Shi was puzzled. Running a weapon trial, especially one for an A-grade weapon, was extremely dangerous. Since the young man was injured, why did he keep pushing himself instead of recuperating properly?
Even if the medicine healed him, wouldn't he just get injured again after the trial?
Could he have a way to avoid injury during trials?
"You don't look badly hurt. Is it really that urgent?"
The Young Man surnamed Xie pursed his lips slightly, looking somewhat sorrowful.
"It's Xu Lu. She's not going to make it."
"Who?"
Cheng Shi thought for a long time before remembering that a girl named Xu Lu lived in the Apartment of Distance below the young man. Since she lived on the side of the building away from Cheng Shi, he had never seen her and had only heard people downstairs mention her while chatting across the gap.
Supposedly, she was a Singer with a cutesy, affected way of speaking.
"You two..."
"She only just agreed to be with me... I can't leave her without help..."
Holy shit. Love really did make people blind, bro.
Cheng Shi could tell that the young man wasn't lying. He was sincere. The problem was that the girl across the way definitely wasn't sincere.
If her injuries were severe enough to require an A-grade potion to save her life, she would have died during the delay. How could she still have someone post in the channel seeking medicine?
Cheng Shi hesitated for a moment before deciding to warn him.
It was obvious that the other party was deeply grateful, but he still insisted on getting the medicine.
"Thank you. I know how to judge whether someone is good or bad. Just as I can tell that you aren't a believer in an evil god."
"..."
"Forget it. I won't hide it from you. She's actually the Prophet. She foresaw the danger in her next trial, so she wanted to prepare for a rainy day."
Cheng Shi froze, blinking blankly.
The Prophet? The Singer of Destiny.
No wonder she was so fake and affected.
Seeing that he couldn't dissuade the young man, Cheng Shi tossed the medicine over anyway.
The young man caught it in one hand, looking utterly shocked.
"Aren't you afraid I'll keep your medicine for myself?"
Cheng Shi smiled casually. "I'd actually prefer it if you did."
The Young Man surnamed Xie trembled all over. Gripping the bottle tightly, he solemnly promised:
"Thank you! I'll deliver the medicine first, then come back to hear what weapon you need. I'll definitely bring it back for you! My name is Xie Yang!"
With that, he bowed.
Pretty chuunibyou.
Just as Cheng Shi was wondering how he should respond, Xie Yang's next move left him completely dumbfounded.
He hurried to the other side of the rooftop, picked up a fishing rod, hooked the potion onto it, and began lowering the line...
"Wait... She agreed to be with you but didn't activate a merged-space trial with you?"
Xie Yang turned around and explained with utmost seriousness, "Lulu is sensitive at heart. She still doesn't dare open herself up to me completely, but it's fine. I can wait."
"..."
Good grief. I thought you were just some mentally energetic young man. Who would've thought you were actually insane? You believe that?
Tsk.
Destiny really was a bitch.
Seeing the simp Xie Yang lying on the rooftop and delivering medicine downstairs, Cheng Shi clicked his tongue, turned around, and opened the other channels to continue searching for useful information.
Faith Channel
"I made a new medicine, Dragon Whip Powder. It can boost a warrior's three attributes and make the front line fierce as a dragon and tiger. It works great. Too bad I can't sell it to you all. Sigh, what a pity."
"I took a liking to a girl in the trial. She was gorgeous. But when I asked about her faith, she was Memory. She could recount her ex-boyfriend's story down to the exact number of times. What a mood killer..."
"Speaking of which, Regional Chat is full of wailing. Was this trial really that difficult? I deceived the NPC so thoroughly that even her mother wouldn't recognize her and cleared it with ease."
"Hilarious. You can fool us brothers if you want, but don't fool yourself too."
"Didn't you notice that the corners of the Masks in your hands are stretching wider? Could it be that the more people die, the wider the Mask's smile becomes?"
"I don't know about that. I only know that the Dice of Destiny seem to have more and more sides. I ran into a twenty-sided one today. Holy shit, could it be a chosen one of Destiny?"
Cheng Shi frowned and looked at the dice in his hand.
The bone-white dice still had six sides. It hadn't changed in the slightest.
But the strangest thing was that the token of Deception was clearly a grinning mask. So what exactly was this die in his hand?
He really wanted to ask whether anyone else's mask had turned into a die, but he didn't dare.
The lab rats always died first. He believed that without a doubt.
Forget it. He'd take things one step at a time.
The Faith Channel was filled with lies from beginning to end. Only the Professional Channel was worth reading.
The moment he switched over, he saw someone asking a question.
"May I ask the experts here: has anyone seen the A-grade potion Contempt of the Dead?"
Cheng Shi froze slightly, then instantly broke into laughter.
It looked like this was Miss Nangong, the flat-chested one.
"What is that? What does it do?"
"It sounds like a potion of death. What's it for? Keeping someone alive by a thread?"
"There are currently 1,843 known A-grade potions. I've never seen this one. At what point range did you farm it?"
"Holy shit, bro, you remember that clearly! Are you some big shot of Memory?"
"No. I was matched into the Generator and Computer Trial twice. Recording the items makes things much more convenient, and I can even use the computer to connect to the Chat Room. The interface is rather old-fashioned, though, so it takes some time to get used to."
"...Can it really do that?"
"It does keep people alive by a thread. I don't know if the big shot who carried us is around. He saved my life, and I haven't repaid the favor, so I wanted to ask what grade of potion would be worth about the same."
The values of A-grade potions varied. Nangong was clearly remembering Cheng Shi's kindness.
Cheng Shi was just about to reply, "Meeting you was fate," when a message suddenly appeared in the chat channel.
"I once saw Contempt of the Dead. I searched for a month afterward but couldn't find it again. Where did the person upstairs see it? Was it in the hands of that guy surnamed Cheng?"
Cold sweat suddenly broke out on Cheng Shi's forehead. He cursed inwardly and hoped the person would go far away.
Fortunately, the chat channel had too many messages. That one quickly vanished like silt in the sea.
After watching for a long time without seeing any follow-up, Cheng Shi quietly let out a sigh of relief.
If you walked by the river often enough, your shoes were bound to get wet. He'd have to use another name for this potion from now on.
Just as he continued reading everyone's chats tirelessly, in a large apartment in another city, a woman lying in a bathtub quietly squeezed the wineglass in her hand.
"Contempt of the Dead? Disdain of the Dead?
That guy surnamed Cheng. How many things do you have that I don't know about?
You aren't a believer of His, are you?
I'll remember you."
Before you continue