The Absurd Ending, the Beginning of Terror

"You..."

"Oh, I'm just going to check if the escaped Death Sentence inmate is really dead. I'll be right back."

Seeing Cheng Shi still "sadly" touching his nose, his knight companion immediately understood.

No wonder he was so heartbroken; even some of those damned prisoners had survived, while his brother...

Sigh, what a pitiful person. It's good to let him vent his grief.

"Go ahead, come back soon. I'll put in a good word for you with the captain."

"... You're a pretty good person."

Cheng Shi smiled and waved his hand, then decisively dragged Zhao Si's corpse away.

Go early and come back early? Impossible, it's more likely they'll never come back.

The ruins were brightly lit, and there seemed to be no suitable place for Cheng Shi Cheng Shi do anything private. But it is important to know that light and darkness are always intertwined, and even the brightest place will have dark corners.

Cheng Shi is best at finding these inconspicuous places.

So he dragged the body to a less conspicuous and somewhat "unconventional" magic lamp. Although it was much brighter than the surrounding area, it was precisely because of this brightness that people would squint or turn their eyes away to avoid the glaring light, making it difficult to see the people and things under the light clearly.

Seeing that the knights around him were not paying attention to him, Cheng Shi solemnly took out the stolen Tombstone Stone from his personal space and carefully placed it on Zhao Si's Prison Helmet.

This is his verification plan!

Although he trusted Li Yi's judgment and believed that the true identities of all the players in this Trials were not fragments of a single person, he still wanted to verify it one last time.

This Trials felt very strange to him; the pace was unusually fast, and the development of "Destiny" almost connected the trajectory of all the "Deception."

This unprecedented feeling made Cheng Shi slightly uneasy, so, to be on the safe side, he decided to remove Zhao Si's gladiator Mask and see what was hidden underneath, to see if it was really...

Own.

I hope not, otherwise...

After a while, a crisp "crack" was heard, and the Prosperity Leaf Vein in the Prison Helmet were exhausted.

Cheng Shi decisively put away the stone and carefully used the tip of his lance to break the thin "iron paper".

"Knock knock... knock knock..."

His heart was pounding, and it was even accelerating, but his hand reached out very slowly, so slowly that he almost dared not lift the final veil of mystery.

But every story has to have an ending. After comforting himself for a long time, Cheng Shi finally managed to sweep away the cumbersome Prison Helmet in one go.

However, the moment the fragments of the Prison Helmet fell away and Zhao Si's face came into view, Cheng Shi lost his composure and plunged the lance in his hand straight into the soil next to Zhao Si's head!

His pupils dilated violently, and his spine stiffened abruptly!

Because the teammate in front of him had a face exactly like his own!

He is another Cheng Shi!

A self-proclaimed Master of Trickery named "Cheng Shi" with the surname Zhao!

Cheng Shi's eyes widened suddenly, filled with shock, which then quickly turned into mockery and self-deprecation.

"Heh, it really is sliced..."

So, are my teammates all slices of myself?

He stared blankly at the scene before him for a long time, then laughed—a laugh that was inexplicable, eerie, and unsettling.

What a mess!

Who exactly is behind this?

And who has distorted their own understanding?

Chaos? Order? Deception? Or Destiny?

Why does my teammate have the exact same face as me?

He copied me?

No, he's dead, beyond dead. Even an SSS-level talent should be ineffective by now.

So, this is what he always looked like? Did he always look just like me? Or... was he originally me?

Another version of myself?

Or perhaps... the other five versions of myself?

It's all fake, all fake.

That's impossible!

I am just me, I will not be a slice of myself, and I am certainly not a slice of someone else!

Cheng Shi's smile vanished suddenly. He looked around with a gloomy gaze, searching for any traces of traps or Magic Formation.

He felt he had been tricked, even if it wasn't by someone else, it had to be by some god.

Something must have confused my perception, causing me to have this level of illusion, because a player is a player, and cannot be a slice of anyone else. But the question is, what exactly is "it"'s purpose?

Cheng Shi observed and pondered, he soon came up with the theme of this Trials:

Regain New Life!

Throughout the day, Cheng Shi had always felt that Regain New Life meant a prisoner being exonerated or escaping from prison, but now it seemed that this "rebirth" referred to something else entirely...

New students, new students, what exactly are these new students?

Just as his train of thought reached this point, a chaotic and disordered roar erupted in Cheng Shi's mind without warning.

Then everything before his eyes... ruins, knights, light, himself... all receded like a tide, and his vision instantly plunged into endless darkness.

Just as Cheng Shi was powerless to resist and filled with fear, a series of urgent alarm bells rang out from the depths of his soul. In an instant, countless Memory surged in like Tide, overwhelming him once again.

The darkness before him shattered like a spiderweb, and countless rays of bright light shone into his eyes.

Cheng Shi a drowning person grasping at a straw, Cheng Shi struggled out of the Sea of Memories and woke up!

Yes, he woke up in a brightly lit room, on an operating table that was tightly bound to him.

The surrounding area was filled with piercing sirens and emotionless, mechanical warning voices:

"Beep beep beep— Experiment material awakens prematurely, sectioning failed! Beep beep beep— Experiment material awakens prematurely, sectioning failed!"

!!

???

What is that sound?!

Hearing this strange sound, Cheng Shi suddenly opened his eyes, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar figure holding a familiar short knife turn around from another operating table in front of him.

He recognized the person, and a chill ran from his tailbone straight to the top of his head!

Therius!

The Scholar from the Life Extension System was looking at Cheng Shi with great interest, as if he had discovered something new and interesting.

"I'm surprised. In all these years, you're the first Experiment subject to wake up prematurely. Let me see what Change have occurred in your body?"

As he spoke, Therius walked slowly over, holding the Concentric Dagger.

He ignored Cheng Shi's shocked and confused expression, continuing to operate the screen beside the bed, browsing the Experiment results while making appreciative clicks of his tongue:

"Interestingly, within 19 hours of the birth of the split personalities, the dominant personality successfully killed all the split personalities. Such a rapid self-repair speed can only mean one thing: you are unusually certain of your own existence."

But strangely...

Why is it that such a strong sense of self-acceptance failed to generate 'Mutual Recognition' among the personality segments?

Where is the Experiment data wrong?

Hmm... the data seems correct.

It appears that the failure of 'Mutual Recognition' was due to the high degree of self-acceptance of the slices.

That's interesting. I didn't know that such problems could occur when one's self-esteem is too high. This is a new research direction. Hmm, I need to write this down and add it when reviewing Experiment materials in the future.

Number 1172, I'm getting more and more curious now. What exactly happened to you before you went to prison?

What happened?

I fucking want to know what happened!

But not before he went to jail, but just now!

Cheng Shi squinted at the Scholar fiddling with the screen in front of him, his voice as sharp as Frigid Wind.

"Shouldn't you give me an explanation, Mr. Therius?"