Divinity Sprouted from Fear!

"Even if you kill all of me, you will not be able to leave here safely. Kainlaur is in Montrani right now, and he is watching this place. Once he finds out that you have not been used as Experiment material by me, your fate will be worse than mine."

So young man, stop it, we can talk about cooperation again...

"Laugh--"

"Bang—"

"Boom--"

Cheng Shi ignored them and, in the instant when countless Therius were "singing in unison," he took the opportunity to take down four or five more.

Therius could no longer hold back. They began to retreat in an orderly fashion, throwing all the Dice at their feet into the mountain of corpses in the center of the Experiment Field.

Yes, a mountain of corpses.

Cheng Shi practically wiped out the entire Experiment Field.

Not only Therius, but he also took all the Experiment materials that fell out of the broken Experiment devices during the battle, and casually slit their throats.

The corpses piled up, the performance became increasingly distorted, the elegant Assassin was covered in blood, and in the end he turned into a butcher climbing the mountain.

We climbed a mountain of corpses.

"What, scared?"

Cheng Shi sat on the "peak" of the mountain of corpses, panting and laughing loudly.

He looked down at the Therius who dared not advance on the periphery, and put away the Past Prosperity in his hands.

Even landlords don't always have surplus grain; they still need to save where they can.

The few remaining Therius on the field were no longer able to pose a threat to him. These fragments had been terrified and stood there dumbfounded, not daring to make a move.

Cheng Shi looked them over and frowned.

The fear on Therius's face seemed to have subsided considerably, replaced by an indescribable strangeness.

Their eyes were somewhat unfocused, somewhat confused, and somewhat shocked. Cheng Shi didn't know what had happened, but he was certain that the attention of these Therius seemed to have shifted away from him.

What happened?

Terrified?

I was indeed frightened, but not paralyzed by fear.

Under the overwhelming pressure of the Today's Warrior, fear had already begun to spread throughout the Experiment Field. The loud noise even alerted the original body in the Experiment workshop, who approached the wooden door that could not be opened and listened to the sounds outside.

The fragment that betrayed him seemed to be fighting someone again, but he couldn't quite hear the outcome of the battle.

But sometimes the story isn't told solely through sound. As thick blood slowly seeped through the crack in the door, Therius's true form finally changed color.

He felt a deep, visceral fear, so intense it was impossible to dissipate, within the countless drops of his own blood.

But he himself was not afraid; instead, he rushed towards the wooden door with delight, excitedly shouting towards the outside:

"Fear! I felt fear!"

Hey you outside! I don't know who you are, but please don't stop, please keep going!

I felt Him, I felt the Filth and Decay wandering, I felt fear gathering!

[Sprouted Divinity] is mutating, I'm sure it's mutating, don't let my slices bewitch you!

Keep going! It's about to appear!

Let the carnage continue!

It's coming!

Cheng Shi was stunned when he heard the shout. He suddenly remembered what Therius had said in the fantasy that had been simulated earlier.

He said: The reason for using Transition gladiatorial combat in the Experiment was to stimulate the deep fear of the Experiment subjects, and to use their tense and boiling consciousness as a cradle to nurture the rare Sprouted Divinity related to [Filth and Decay] and "fear".

But shouldn't that be something that can only mutate between slices that have 'Mutual Recognition'? How come the fear that I brought to the Therius has also mutated?

Little did he know that Transition gladiatorial combat was merely a means, not a rigid rule. Therius's Experiment was only half complete; he was still verifying it with Experiment materials that were 'Mutual Recognition' and had not yet embarked on a deeper exploration.

At this very moment, it was Cheng Shi's embrace of bloodlust that drew the attention of [Filth and Decay], causing the fear in the hearts of the Therius to sprout and produce the desired result of the Experiment.

The elements of Filth and Decay, fear, and 'Mutual Recognition' are all present.

Then, at a certain moment, the [Sprouted Divinity] occurred.

Therius's slice never imagined that the [Sprouted Divinity] he had always wanted would not emerge in the Experiment subject, but rather within his own body.

So at that moment, he was stunned.

He is not the real Therius; he is merely a fragment of Therius's personality, a paranoid one.

His goal, or rather his lifelong pursuit, was not to wait for the emergence of Sprouted Divinity, but to replace Therius as the master of this Experiment and break free from Kainlaur's control to become a truly free Experiment director.

Because he was Therius's obsession, a slice of the Scholar's controlling personality, he had a strong desire for control but lacked a firm Experiment spirit.

But reality is often so dramatic: those who seek do not obtain, while those who do not seek may obtain by chance.

So he hesitated, no, he should say he was afraid. He was afraid that the Divinity that had suddenly emerged would be absorbed by his true self. He was afraid that all his efforts would end up benefiting someone else. So he began to compromise. He wanted to reach a new cooperation with Cheng Shi, just to get rid of this jinx that he had underestimated and misjudged.

But how could Cheng Shi, who had unexpectedly stumbled upon this opportunity, possibly leave!

He looked at the Slice Therius beneath the mountain of corpses and asked with a smile:

Is it true?

Slice Therius, and he turned and ran.

Although he didn't give an answer, the answer was obvious.

The balance of power has shifted, and the situation has changed.

Cheng Shi laughed loudly, downed another bottle of "Once Upon a Past Prosperity" in one gulp, and then, gripping his Scalpel and Dice, quickly chased after the enemy.

This huge Experiment Field has once again become a place for cat-and-mouse games, except that last time the cat was Therius and the mouse was Li Yi, while this time, the cat is Cheng Shi and the mouse is Therius.

"Fool! You've been bewitched by him! I am Therius, the person in charge of the Experiment!"

Not those lowly Death Sentence criminals!

How could Sprouted Divinity possibly arise?!

"Then why are you running?"

He's lying to you into eliminating his rivals!

Wake up! He won't get out of that room. He can't promise you anything. Only I have the leverage to cooperate with you. I can get you safely out of the Experiment!

"Then why are you running?"

"You... you idiot! You've been fooled!"

You've been scammed!!!

"Oh, then why are you running?"

"..." Therius's face turned pale, and he was speechless with a gloomy expression.

"Look, you don't even dare to respond to me directly, which means you're scared and you have something to hide!"

No, you have a Sprouted Divinity within you!

I've already... seen it!

Cheng Shi was like a persistent ghost, always able to appear instantly beside a certain Therius and then ruthlessly reap his life.

He could feel the fear spreading faster and faster, until the horror finally reached its peak when only the last slice of Therius remained.

So Cheng Shi stopped.

"You're crazy! I'm the head of the Experiment, I can get you out of here!"

He is nothing, just a conman who has gone insane from being locked up!

How could you believe him!

"You idiot, how could you..."

"Bang—"

Before he could finish speaking, Cheng Shi knocked out the last slice of Therius with a chop to the neck.

He chuckled and, without a word, carried the slice of Therius, which looked like a dead dog, to the wooden door.

The wooden door had been pushed open a crack by the thick blood plasma covering the floor.

Looking through that tiny crack, you could see an excited, anxious, red, and distorted human eye, its pupils darting wildly as it peered out.

He tried to glean information about the battle outside through this sliver of light, yet he feared that his gaze might kill those fragments and interrupt the buildup of his fear.

And so, this horrifying scene unfolded through the crack in the door: a blood-red eye appeared and disappeared intermittently, staring frantically outside, its gaze filled with both hope and dread.

This unpredictable "spying" made the entire Experiment Field even more eerie and terrifying.

Even Cheng Shi was startled the moment he met those eyes.

What the hell is this?

"... Scholar, this is the last slice. How about we talk about collaboration?"

The blood-red eye peeking through the crack in the door blinked and then smiled.

"Good."

The hoarse voice was no different from Therius's previous wailing, except that there was no fear in this hoarseness, only excitement and exhilaration at the impending success of the Experiment.

"Come in! Come in."