Chat Channel: Region, Faith, and Profession

Whenever a Special Trial ended, Cheng Shi would linger in the chat channel for a while to gather information.

Amid the vast and fragmented information, most of it was meaningless venting and complaints, with only a small amount of valuable content worth a glance.

But whether he remembered it or not depended entirely on his mood.

He first opened the Regional Chat, which covered players in the nearby blocks. Yesterday there were still over 7,600 online, but now only 6,400 remained.

The chat only displayed content, not IDs, so no one knew if the speaker was human or ghost.

"[God] has once again punished the atheists. A new Divine Kingdom is slowly taking shape. Brothers, sisters, join the Divine Kingdom and share in divine grace!"

"Feel the blessing, embrace the greatness!"

"Everything is the charity of the Lord of Grace. We survivors should all be grateful! Thank our Lord, thank the Gods!"

These raving statements were typical of the "Adventist Faction's" way of speaking. Cheng Shi usually skipped them outright.

But judging by the tone and attitude, it probably wasn't the neighbor across the hall.

"Fuck, 10 billion dead, and the world's gone to shit. If the [Gods] wanted to save the world, why kill so many people? And 'grateful'? Grateful my ass, you dumb fuck."

"Night of Revelry ad: Location—Lemon Apartment, 142 South River Road, entire second floor. Seven areas cleared, huge space, 14 participants already. Friends wanting to experience the thrill of survival, join us fast! Ps. Faith Opposition folks, don't bother. [Birth] believers not accepted."

"[Birth] eat your rice or something?"

"Upstairs, you can make your own, no need to share the venue..."

"1301, 7 South River Road. Little sister's all alone, scared."

"Don't believe it, everyone. I live above 1301. They're banging on the walls all day—a total psycho!"

"Seeking medicine, A-grade or above healing potion. Can trade for a substitute professional weapon trial. Urgent, thanks."

Despite the massive death toll, the chat channel was as chaotic as ever.

Cheng Shi only noticed the message seeking medicine, but since there was no private chat in the Faith Game, he could only type on the public screen:

"Medicine seeker, South River Road or Wood Willow Road?"

A flood of chat messages instantly buried Cheng Shi's post, but he still keenly caught the reply.

"Wood Willow Road, high-rise."

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. He himself was on Wood Willow Road, and on the highest floor.

"Tsk, could it really be the neighbor across the hall?"

Remembering the blood-soaked appearance of the neighbor opposite, Cheng Shi walked to the edge of the rooftop and called out from a distance:

"Hey, the one asking for medicine—was that you?"

A grimy head poked out from the large tent across the way, suspicion clear on their brow. After a hesitant pause, they replied:

"Bro, how did you know it was me?"

Sure enough!

Cheng Shi smiled faintly: "Just a guess. I've got an A-grade Past Prosperity on me. Interested?"

The young man surnamed Xie clearly knew his stuff. He stared wide-eyed at Cheng Shi for a long moment, then spoke solemnly:

"You're at 2000 points?"

In his understanding, players below 2000 wouldn't be willing to trade such a potion to someone else.

Cheng Shi really wasn't willing, but he was very interested in the young man's offer to substitute for a dungeon run. He currently lacked a handy tool.

That tool was crucial for his next trial.

Most importantly, he still had enough stock of Past Prosperity.

"No, I just happened to pick it up in some trial."

"..."

Looking at the 93 potions in his portable space, Cheng Shi recalled the good times when he'd matched with "that big brother" in a certain trial.

In that [Prosperity] trial protecting a pharmacy owner, they'd teamed up to kill the owner early and looted the pharmacy, preventing the owner from falling into enemy hands. They'd ended the trial in an unreasonable and illegal way.

For that, each teammate had 20 points deducted from their ladder ranking.

But each of them had split 120 bottles of Past Prosperity.

Tsk, a small loss.

"What do you want? You need a weapon?" The young man surnamed Xie was puzzled, a bit embarrassed. "I'm not at 2000 points. I probably can't farm the weapon you want—at most A-grade."

Cheng Shi was confused. Going into a weapon dungeon, especially for an A-grade weapon, was extremely dangerous. Since he was already injured, why not rest and recover instead of pushing himself?

Even if the medicine healed him, wouldn't he just get hurt again after the trial?

Did he have some way to avoid injury during the trial?

"You don't look that badly hurt. Is it really that urgent?"

The young man surnamed Xie pursed his lips slightly, a hint of sadness in his voice: "It's Xu Lu. She's not going to make it."

"Who?"

Cheng Shi thought for a long moment before remembering that far below the young man's building, in a distant apartment, lived a girl named Xu Lu. Since she was on the opposite side of the building from Cheng Shi's floor, he'd never seen her—only heard the people downstairs mention her in passing chatter.

Apparently, she was a singer with a lisp.

"You two..."

"She just agreed to be with me... I can't just abandon her..."

Damn, love really makes people blind, buddy.

Cheng Shi could tell the young man wasn't lying—he was sincere. But the problem was, the other side definitely wasn't.

If her injuries were severe enough to need a Grade A potion to save her life, she'd have died long ago from the delay. There's no way she'd still be sending someone to beg for medicine in the channel.

Cheng Shi hesitated a moment, then decided to warn him anyway.

He could see the other man was grateful, but he still insisted on the medicine.

"Thank you. I know how to judge a person's character—just like I can see you're not a follower of some evil god."

"..."

"Forget it, no need to hide it from you. She's actually a 'Prophet.' She foresaw the danger in her next trial and wanted to prepare in advance."

Cheng Shi froze, blinking in bewilderment.

A Prophet. A singer of [Destiny].

No wonder she came off so scheming.

Seeing he couldn't talk the guy out of it, Cheng Shi tossed the medicine over anyway.

The young man caught it, stunned.

"Aren't you afraid I'll just take your medicine?"

Cheng Shi gave a casual smile. "I'd rather you did."

The young man surnamed Xie shuddered, clutching the bottle tightly, and made a solemn promise: "Thank you! I'll deliver the medicine first, then come back to hear what weapon you need. I'll bring it back for you! My name is Xie Yang!"

With that, he bowed.

Pretty chuunibyou.

Just as Cheng Shi was wondering how to respond, Xie Yang's next move left him dumbfounded.

The young man hurried to the other side of the rooftop, picked up a fishing rod, hooked the potion to it, and started lowering the line...

"Wait... she agreed to be with you, but didn't open a merged space trial with you?"

Xie Yang turned back, explaining earnestly: "Lu Lu is a sensitive person. She's not ready to open up to me completely yet. But that's fine—I can wait."

"..."

Good grief. I thought you were a spirited young man, but you're actually a mentally ill one. You actually believe that?

Tsk.

Destiny really is a bitch.

Cheng Shi watched the Xie simp crouch on the rooftop, lowering the medicine to the floor below, clicked his tongue, and turned to browse other channels for useful info.

[Faith Channel]

"Made a new drug, Dragon Whip Powder. Boosts a warrior's three stats, makes the front line vigorous and fierce. Works great, but too bad I can't sell it to you guys. Ah, such a shame."

"Saw a girl in the trial, really good-looking. Asked her faith—turns out she's a [Memory]. She can tell you her ex-boyfriend's story down to the exact number of thrusts. Kills the mood..."

"Speaking of, our regional chat is full of wailing. Is this trial really that hard? I tricked the NPCs so badly they don't even recognize their own mothers. Cleared it easy."

"Hilarious. Bro, fool us if you want, but don't fool yourself."

"Haven't you noticed the Mask in your hand has a wider grin? The more people die, the bigger the smile?"

"No idea about that. I only know [Destiny]'s Dice seem to have more and more faces. Ran into a twenty-sided one today. Damn, might be [Destiny]'s Chosen."

Cheng Shi frowned, looking at the dice in his own hand.

The bone-white dice were still six-sided, unchanged.

But the strangest thing was—[Deception]'s token was clearly a fake-smile mask. So what the hell was this dice in his hand?

He really wanted to ask if anyone else's mask had turned into dice. But he didn't dare.

Lab rats always die first. He was dead sure of that.

Forget it. Take it one step at a time.

The Faith Channel was full of lies. Only the Professional Channel was worth a look.

As soon as he switched over, he saw someone asking for advice.

"Respectfully asking the seniors, has anyone seen the Grade A potion [Contempt of the Dead]?"

Cheng Shi paused slightly, then burst into a grin.

Looks like this is the flat-chested Nangong girl.

"What is that thing? What does it do?"

"Sounds like a [Death] potion. What's it for? Keeping someone alive?"

"Of the 1,843 recorded A-grade potions, I've never seen this one. What bracket did it drop from?"

"Damn, bro, you remember that clearly? Must be a [Memory] bigshot."

"Nah, just matched two rounds of the Generator and Computer Trial. Makes it way easier to keep track of stuff, and I can even link it to the Chat Room. The interface is pretty old-school, though—gonna take some getting used to."

"...That actually works?"

"It really is for keeping someone alive. I'm wondering if the bigshot who carried us is still around. They saved my life, and I haven't repaid the favor yet. I wanted to ask what grade of potion would be equivalent in value."

Even A-grade potions vary in value, and Nangong was clearly still holding a grudge for Cheng Shi's kindness.

Cheng Shi was about to reply with "Meeting is fate" when he saw a line pop up in the chat channel.

"I saw [Disdain of the Dead] once before. Searched for a whole month and never found it again. Where did the guy upstairs see it? In the hands of someone surnamed Cheng?"

Cold sweat suddenly broke out on Cheng Shi's forehead. He muttered to himself, Stay far away.

Fortunately, the chat channel was flooded with messages, and this one sank like a grain of sand in the sea, vanishing in an instant.

After staring for a while and seeing no follow-up, Cheng Shi let out a small sigh of relief.

If you walk by the river long enough, you're bound to get your feet wet. He'd have to start using a different name for this potion from now on.

Just as he was tirelessly continuing to read everyone's chatter, in a large penthouse in another city, a woman lying in a bathtub quietly tightened her grip on the wine glass in her hand.

"Contempt of the Dead? Disdain of the Dead?

Surnamed Cheng, just how many things do you have that I don't know about?

Could you be a follower of Him?

I've got my eye on you."