The Clip Girl's Prophecy

Cheng Shi's gaze lingered on Bailing a bit too long, and combined with the twisted smile at the corner of his mouth, she momentarily misunderstood.

She shot him a meaningful, flirtatious glance, thinking she'd found a kindred spirit.

But the moment Sensory Hunt activated, she sensed not a shred of desire in his emotions—clean as a blank sheet of paper, impossible even to mark.

Her smile didn't waver, but internally she slapped a label on Cheng Shi:

Eunuch or gay.

Cheng Shi, naturally, had no clue about any of this. Realizing his rudeness, he averted his gaze.

This round was interesting.

Three men, three women; three singers, three non-singers; three with glasses, three without.

Truly symmetrical.

That said, the singer class leaned toward support, and there were plenty of dead weight among them.

The strong were genuinely strong—top-tier supports, praised by all who used them.

The weak were genuinely weak—pure freeloaders.

Unlike healers, who could at least toss out a heal even with poor talent, singers relied entirely on their innate gifts for their class skills. Weak talent meant buffs that drove people insane.

To give a crude example: in the chaotic tide of a battlefield where killing was as easy as mowing grass, our singer belts out a rousing tune and buffs our soldiers with a ravenous appetite.

Was it a buff? Yes, technically.

Was it useful? What use? Biting the enemy a few more times?

Absolutely useless.

But looking at the current situation, at least that Wavy English Teacher seemed reliable.

"I didn't find any opposing faith, so to speed things up, I'll lay my cards on the table."

Fang Shiqing smiled and slapped a book down on the table.

"Piercing to the core, seeing truth in action—I am Her follower."

A singer of [Truth], the Erudite Poet.

A formidable class that could write skills into tomes and use them at will.

A'ming stared at her wide-eyed, then turned to look at the [Chaos] uncle, his expression tightening.

"You're sure he doesn't follow [Folly]?"

Fang Shiqing nodded with a smile, then turned more serious. "The situation might be a bit complicated, but I believe everyone here has a sense of cooperation. In the puzzle of [Memory], the more people, the higher the efficiency, right?"

"Sister speaks so well. I suppose I don't need to introduce myself—the image in your minds is exactly who I am."

Bailing chimed in with a laugh, then drained the last drop from her bottle.

"Let's start quickly. While my desires aren't too strong yet, I can still lend a hand."

Seeing a 2000-point singer take the lead, Cheng Shi obediently played the part of a tagalong.

The goal of a memory puzzle was usually to break through the tangled memories, find the final memory's owner, and leave the puzzle through "it."

In simpler terms: figure out which layer of memory you were in, then crack each layer one by one to converge on an ending.

Even simpler: find the exit in Inception.

Everyone knew this layer couldn't possibly be the final riddle, so they all prepared to use their Edict of Passage and start searching for clues.

Xu Lu, across from them, saw Cheng Shi with his head down, silent, as his teammates began to stand. Suddenly, she spoke up in a strained voice:

"I... I have a clue."

Fang Shiqing raised an eyebrow, then turned to Cheng Shi with a playful look.

She seemed to have a knack for reading relationships between people, sensing a subtle connection between the two.

"What clue?"

"The follower of [Existence] didn't say they had a clue, but the follower of [Nothingness] does first. Are you... the Prophet?"

"Tch—headache."

Xu Lu bit her lip, hesitating, then nodded. "Yes, I'm the Prophet. I saw a scene from today that's yet to come. It might help us find clues, especially since we only have twelve hours."

The Prophet could roll dice to glimpse the near future, but only one thread among countless fate-lines, and even that could fail.

Fate was always shifting; no one could be sure the foreseen future would come to pass.

But that didn't stop it from serving as a guide.

A'ming blinked. "When did you complete your Edict of Passage? Just now?"

The Edict of Passage for [Fate] was divination—rolling that "Dice of Destiny" in hand.

But the results of this divination were very obscure; players usually only connected the dice points to the outcome after the trial had ended.

When Xu Lu had just woken up, she secretly rolled the Dice of Destiny on her own thigh. The result was a 5. She was a bit afraid this number foretold the final number of survivors, so she had to think of some way to ensure her own safety.

Even though the [Existence] player across from her might not be of an opposing faith, even though a priest's damage output wasn't high, even though his score was lower than hers...

She didn't want to take risks.

"Yes, my score isn't high, and I'm not smart. I need to team up with someone to explore so I don't hold us back..."

This was clearly setting terms. Cheng Shi smiled and said nothing. Bailing rolled her eyes. Huang Bo was still scratching his head.

But A'ming was warm-hearted and gave her an out, picking up the thread: "Then you..."

Xu Lu didn't speak. She looked at Fang Shiqing.

This was a powerful ally to latch onto, and everyone could see it.

Fang Shiqing smiled slightly and didn't refuse.

Xu Lu breathed a sigh of relief and continued:

"There are two prophecies. Yesterday, I saw that someone would die today—the roll was a 9. Just now, I saw a woman's hand wearing a ring lift a teacup—the roll was a 4."

"You're at 1600 on the Ladder. The Dice of Destiny probably only has 10 sides?"

Xu Lu nodded.

"Was the dead person male or female?"

Xu Lu shook her head, her expression grim. "The fate's revelation wasn't clear. I only saw someone lying in a pool of blood..."

The higher the number, the higher the probability of it happening. In other words, someone was very likely to die today.

Everyone's faces darkened noticeably because of this prophecy. A'ming, in particular, looked quite panicked as he glanced at Huang Bo across from him.

As for the woman...

Cheng Shi looked around and noticed that besides their own table, there weren't many women in this bar.

Even if there were, there didn't seem to be any teacups on the bar's tables.

Perhaps this scene corresponded to a certain Memory yet to come.

"Time is tight. Don't waste it on wild guesses. Investigation is the priority. First, each of us will perform the [Edict of Passage]. Whether we find clues or not, we'll regroup in one hour. Let's calibrate our time now. Everyone should have a watch, right?"

Fang Shiqing rolled up her sleeve, revealing an elegant ladies' watch on her wrist, and continued:

"I noticed the setting sun just dipped below the horizon. Based on previous [Memory] puzzles, there's usually a 10-15 minute preparation period. We'll subtract that time and anchor the current moment as 12:00. Countdown begins. Any objections?"

Seeing the others start calibrating their time, Fang Shiqing neatly put away her watch and began preparing the [Truth]'s [Edict of Passage].

But just then, Cheng Shi smiled and took out six pocket watches, handing them out to everyone with a grin.

Watching Xu Lu's eyes grow wider and wider across from him, he said meaningfully:

"If no one minds, it's better to 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 watches. These watches will chime at 5 minutes, 3 minutes, and 1 minute before the hour. Everyone, make sure to maintain your condition..."

This entire speech was a direct copy of Cao Sansui's words. Not because Cheng Shi had nothing else to say, but because the [Time] he now "believed in" was also stolen from him.

If he could steal a faith, stealing one more speech wasn't too much, was it?

Memory returned to the last trial. In the Wood Elf treehouse where everyone had been knocked out, Cheng Shi grinned wickedly as he patted down everyone's pockets, took out their pocket watches, and plucked the Time String, making each watch run exactly one hour slow.

Then, to be safe, he stayed outside alone, nerves taut, until everyone woke up one by one. Only then did he pretend to wake up at the same time, sharing "sleeping experiences" with the group.

In this way, he fooled everyone.

And he fooled the Time Battlefield.

Because the Time Battlefield did indeed begin on the hour and end on the hour.

Only, that hour was one hour earlier than what the Time Walkers thought.

And so...

Today's Cheng Shi was a believer in [Time], the Doctor of Forgetfulness.