Cheng Shi took a little too long turning to look at Bailing. Combined with the perverse smile at the corner of his mouth, it made Bailing misunderstand him for a moment.
She smiled knowingly and cast Cheng Shi a flirtatious glance, thinking she had encountered a kindred spirit.
But the moment Sensory Hunt activated, she discovered that there was not the slightest trace of desire in the emotions across from her. They were as clean as a blank sheet of paper, so clean she could not even mark them.
Her smile remained unchanged, but inwardly, she tagged Cheng Shi:
Eunuch or gay.
Naturally, Cheng Shi knew nothing about this. Realizing that he had been rude, he withdrew his gaze.
This round is interesting.
Three men, three women; three Singers, three non-Singers; three people with glasses, three without.
It really was symmetrical.
But to be fair, the Singer profession leaned toward support, and there were genuinely a lot of deadweights among them.
The strong ones were truly strong—top-tier support. Everyone who used them praised them.
The weak ones were truly weak, pure deadweights.
Unlike healers, who could still manage a bit of healing even with a poor talent, Singers had relatively weak profession skills. Their abilities depended entirely on their talents.
With a poor talent, the buffs they provided could drive people insane.
To give an inappropriate example: amid the battlefield's raging tide, where killing people was as easy as cutting grass, our Singer sang a high note and gave our soldiers a buff that made them ravenously hungry.
You could call it a boost. It technically was one.
But if you said it was useful, what use did it have? Letting them chew on the enemy a couple more times?
It was utterly useless.
But judging from the current situation, at least this Wavy English Teacher looked fairly reliable.
"I didn't find any opposing faith, so to improve efficiency, I decided to lay my cards on the table."
Fang Shiqing smiled as she produced a book and placed it on the table.
"Peer into the essence, walk in truth. I am Her believer."
The Singer of Truth, the Erudite Poet.
A badass profession that could turn skill books into pages and use them at any time.
A'ming stared at her with widened eyes, then turned to look at the Chaos uncle across from them. His expression tightened.
"You're certain he doesn't believe in Folly?"
Fang Shiqing first nodded with a smile, then said solemnly:
"The situation may be a little complicated, but I believe everyone should be willing to cooperate. In Memory's maze, the more people there are, the higher the efficiency, don't you think?"
"Sister, you put that so well. I suppose I don't need to introduce myself either. The person you're imagining in your heads is the real me."
Bailing smiled as she chimed in, then drained the last drop of wine from her bottle.
"Let's get started. While my desires aren't too intense, I can still lend everyone a hand."
Seeing that a 2,000-point Singer had taken control of the rhythm, Cheng Shi obediently became a deadweight.
The goal of Memory's maze was usually to break through the interwoven memories, find the person to whom the final memory belonged, and leave the maze through "it."
Put in plain language, they had to determine which layer of memory they were in, then break through each layer and bring the ending together.
Even simpler: find the exit in Inception.
Everyone knew that the layer they were in could not possibly be the final puzzle, so after each person completed their Edict of Passage, they prepared to search for clues.
Xu Lu, sitting across from them, saw Cheng Shi lower his head without speaking while his teammates began to stand. She suddenly cut in:
"I... I have a clue."
Fang Shiqing raised an eyebrow, but instead of looking at Xu Lu, she gazed at Cheng Shi with an amused expression.
She seemed to possess a kind of magic that let her judge the relationships between people. She had noticed the subtle connection between the two.
"What clue?"
"None of the believers of existence said they had clues, but a believer of Nothingness has one first. Are you... the Prophet?"
"Ugh—my head hurts."
Xu Lu pressed her lips together and nodded hesitantly.
"Yes, I'm the Prophet. I saw a scene that will happen today. It may be very helpful to us in our search for clues. After all, we only have twelve hours."
The Prophet could foresee the near future by rolling the Dice of Destiny, but could see only one of countless strands of fate in the future, and there was even a chance of failure.
Fate was always changing. No one could be certain that the future they foresaw would come to pass.
But that did not stop it from serving as a guide.
A'ming blinked. "When did you complete your Edict of Passage? Just now?"
Destiny's Edict of Passage was divination—in other words, rolling the "Dice of Destiny" in her hand.
But the results of this divination were obscure. Often, it was not until the trial ended that players connected the number they had rolled with the outcome.
When Xu Lu had just woken up, she had secretly rolled the Dice of Destiny on her thigh. The number she got was five. She was somewhat afraid that the number indicated the final number of survivors, so she had no choice but to think of a way to ensure her own safety.
Even though the believer of existence across from her might not be a believer of an opposing faith, even though a Priest's damage output was not high, even though his score was lower than hers...
She did not want to take the risk.
"Yes, my score isn't high, and I'm not smart. I need to team up with others to explore so I won't hold everyone back..."
She was clearly stating her conditions. Cheng Shi smiled without saying anything, Bailing rolled her eyes, and Huang Bo was still scratching his head.
A'ming, however, was considerate enough to give her an opening. "Then you..."
Xu Lu said nothing and looked toward Fang Shiqing.
That was a very sturdy thigh to cling to, and everyone could see it.
Fang Shiqing smiled and did not refuse.
Xu Lu breathed a sigh of relief and continued:
"There were two prophecies. Yesterday, I saw someone die today; the number I rolled was nine. Just now, I saw a ring-wearing woman's hand raise a teacup; the number I rolled was four."
"Your Ladder score is 1,600. Does the Dice of Destiny have only about ten sides?"
Xu Lu nodded.
"Was the person who died a man or a woman?"
Xu Lu shook her head, her expression turning grim. "Destiny's revelation wasn't clear. I only saw someone lying in a pool of blood..."
The higher the number, the more likely the event was to occur. In other words, someone was extremely likely to die today.
Everyone's expressions darkened noticeably because of the prophecy, especially A'ming, who looked rather panicked as he glanced at Huang Bo across from him.
As for the woman...
Cheng Shi looked around and found that, aside from their table, there did not seem to be many women in the bar.
And even if there were, there did not seem to be any teacups on the tavern tables.
Perhaps this scene corresponded to another layer of memory that came afterward.
"Time is short. Don't make wild guesses. Focus on investigating. First, complete your Edicts of Passage separately. Whether you have clues or not, regroup in an hour. Let's calibrate the time now. Everyone has a watch, right?"
Fang Shiqing rolled up her sleeve, revealing an exquisite ladies' watch on her wrist, and continued:
"I noticed that the sunset outside had just dipped below the horizon. According to previous Memory mazes, we'll have ten to fifteen minutes to prepare. Excluding that time, let's anchor this moment as 12:00. We'll start the countdown. Any objections?"
Seeing the others begin calibrating their time, Fang Shiqing smoothly put away her watch and began preparing Truth's Edict of Passage.
But just then, Cheng Shi smiled and took out six Pocket Watches, handing them out to everyone.
Watching Xu Lu's eyes widen further and further, he said meaningfully:
"If nobody minds, we'd better use my Pocket Watches.
I've already anchored the time. 12:00 was the moment we entered the trial, and I've calibrated all the Pocket Watches. They will announce the time five minutes, three minutes, and one minute before the hour. Everyone, make sure to maintain your condition..."
This entire speech was copied word for word from Cao Sansui's declaration. It was not because Cheng Shi had nothing else to say, but because the faith in time that Cheng Shi now "believed" in had also been stolen from him.
He had even stolen the faith. Stealing one more speech was hardly excessive, right?
His memories returned to the previous trial. In the Wood Elf's treehouse, where everyone had been knocked out, Cheng Shi had smirked as he searched every pocket and took out their Pocket Watches. He had turned the Time String, making each Pocket Watch lose exactly one hour.
Then, to be safe, he had stayed outside alone, nerves taut, until everyone gradually woke up. Only then had he pretended to wake up at the same time and shared his "sleeping experience" with everyone.
That way, he had fooled everyone.
He had even fooled the Time Battlefield.
Because the Time Battlefield had indeed begun on the hour and ended on the hour.
It was just that this hour was one hour earlier than the Time Walkers had believed.
And so...
Today's Cheng Shi was a believer in time, the Doctor of Forgetfulness.
Before you continue