Welcome to . . . . . the Prison of Time

The moon was high in the sky, the midnight atmosphere grew stronger, and the countdown was coming to an end.

Cheng Shi looked at the card in his hand and sighed.

His original purpose in praying about this Trials was to obtain the Divine Power item from the Big Cat before attending the meeting of the Fool's Society.

But now, I've wasted an entire day trying to figure out the explosive information brought about by a bunch of messy ethical issues Birth.

Of course, it wasn't without its gains; at least the Door Key that the Great One had delivered had shown me a way to find the answer.

That is to find a corpse, open that Gate of Desire Despiser, and ask Afros directly.

But Cheng Shi didn't have a single corpse on hand, and Xie Yang next door had disappeared without a trace. He couldn't be called out, and with the countdown about to end, he still didn't know if the so-called invitation would take effect at midnight.

If things are as he thinks, then the remaining few minutes might not be suitable for praying for another Trials to obtain the [Prosperity] item from the Big Cat, or for finding a corpse.

In that case, even if there were no risks during the Trials, there wouldn't be enough time for Cheng Shi to adjust his condition after returning to reality. So he chose to rest for a while, maintain his best condition, and prepare to go to the meeting first.

Although this was not the safest method, the Divine Authority "Vitality" gave Cheng Shi a certain degree of confidence.

So he changed his plans and called Big Cat, who was kept in the dark by a group of people, to try to postpone the "secret deal" of the props. But unexpectedly, the call didn't go through.

Is the Big Cat busy?

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, thinking that it was a trivial matter and there was no need to fight it.

The reason I made this call was probably because I had more urge to complain than to communicate.

Baldy, you should be more careful.

He shook his head and chuckled, tossing the phone aside and picking up the gold card again, stroking its surface and muttering to himself:

"I hope this Fool's Society give me some surprises, preferably a corpse as well, that would make things much easier."

The small print on the card kept Change. Cheng Shi solemnly held the card in his hand, waiting motionless for the invitation to the unknown space to take effect.

He was slightly more nervous now than when he was waiting for the Special Trial, since he was already very familiar with the process of the Special Trial, no matter how special it was.

But real-life gatherings are different. He has never participated in any gatherings organized by players, and he has no idea what unknown risks are hidden behind these exquisitely crafted and mysterious cards.

And so, in this slightly tense wait, the countdown slowly reached zero.

00:03!

00:02!

00:01!

Countdown is over!

There was no invitation... not even the teleportation I had imagined.

Nothing happened!

Cheng Shi was stunned. He turned around in surprise and looked at his surroundings. He then looked out the window at the rooftop and found that there was no Void fluctuation on the rooftop. There was no sign of any spatial passage being opened.

On the contrary, another line of small text appeared on the back of the gold card after the countdown ended:

Please stick this card behind a door and push the door open to enter the venue.

"..."

Upon seeing this line of text, Cheng Shi suddenly felt that this Fool's Society seemed somewhat... less attractive.

What era are we living in that we still have to manually send data?

Do you think you Fool's Society reliable? Are you really a bunch of mediocre people?

I'm here to gather intelligence; I can't become the one sharing it...

But there was no use sitting there now, Cheng Shi could only sigh, get up, stick the card on the back of the door, and then carefully push the door open and go inside.

Meanwhile, on the other side...

In a blood-soaked apartment, a woman covered in sweat angrily threw down the charred Experiment equipment in her hand, and slammed her fist in frustration onto the broken tabletop.

With a loud "bang," the already overburdened table instantly turned into ashes.

Gao Ya failed. Despite the beautiful Blueprint for the Faith Fusion, her fusion Experiment was a complete failure.

The [Silent] puppet was clearly like a real Puppet that could be manipulated at will. Even when its activity Annihilation and it was physically dismantled, it did not give any further feedback. However, just when she wanted to merge the [Birth] soul that she had "forced to mature" into it, the remaining [Silent] power rejected it without hesitation.

The rejection was so forceful that it even destroyed half of the living room.

She stared gloomily at the equally destroyed Puppet, feeling like Clown herself.

"So the 'Silence' has such a strong aversion to other faiths; it seems it doesn't want to Faith Fusion..."

Why?

Or is it that Faith between people with different Path of Fate cannot be simply glued together by the adhesive of their souls?

No, previous Experiment didn't show this result; I don't believe it!

Gao Ya gritted her teeth and stood up. She took out an exquisite map from her personal space and unfolded it to look for something. After a while, she found a city drawn in simple strokes in the southwest corner: Dolgo D.

"I had planned to become myself again when I returned there for the second time, but now it seems I need to postpone that plan."

This time, I not only need to find a new host for the [Divine Seeding Technique], but I also need to obtain the Birth Descendant Technique hidden in the library. Only in this way can I have a continuous supply of Experiment materials...

Gao Ya took a deep breath, pointed his finger at the city map of Dolgo D, and then closed his eyes to pray:

"All life is foolish, all Civilization is idiotic..."

Trials, the rest hall of the Dolgo D Divine Nurturing Church.

I'm back in a familiar place.

The moment Gao Ya opened her eyes, the other teammates were already sizing each other up. She scanned everyone in turn, and her scrutinizing gaze suddenly stopped on a teammate with a burly build.

The man wore a pure black Mask, completely concealing his identity from head to toe. Despite this, Gao Ya still sensed a familiar aura emanating from him.

Folly intuition told her that she must know this person. After recalling the previous incident, Gao Ya frowned and guessed the person's identity.

Gou Feng!

Unexpectedly, the chieftain with ulterior motives returned here and even queued up with me for another game.

Interesting, what does he want now?

Surely... they wouldn't be trying to steal what they want?

Gao Ya did not reveal the chieftain's identity, but simply frowned slightly and took a step back, giving himself enough distance to react.

This was clearly a high-scoring game. The teammates introduced themselves one after another. Next to Gou Feng was a woman wearing glasses who kept covering her face and smiling. She seemed very curious about everything here.

"The scent of the Infant Bell Flower is truly Trials of His will. Good evening, everyone. You can call me Shui Gui."

A sundial's dial, not a ghost's ghost.

Perhaps my name reveals my Faith. I'm not good at pretending, so I'll just be honest.

2471, the Time Walker.

[Time]!?

Another teammate from the "Time" team?

Gao Ya frowned, sensing that something seemed amiss.

Not only did I get matched with the same teammate from the previous Trials, but there was also another player with the same [Time] as in the previous game.

Is this a coincidence?

Perhaps so, after all, there are 16 different Faith, and you're bound to encounter them again and again, but her Folly intuition told her that something strange was amiss.

So Gao Ya decided to leave and act alone. After all, [Folly] was not a sociable person, so his departure was not abrupt.

She glanced silently at her teammates, and then, amidst the others' looks of annoyance, curiosity, or shock, she smashed open the window behind her and left without a word.

She doesn't need to waste time with others because she knows where the Birth Descendant Technique she wants is hidden.

However, on her calm and collected way to the church's backyard library, she bumped into someone.

The moment the male parishioner in the church robe bumped into her, he took the opportunity to put his arm around her waist and said, feigning gentlemanly politeness:

"Did I hurt you, beautiful lady?"

Judging from that tone, is this person deliberately trying to pick up a girl?

Gao Ya sneered inwardly. There was only one way to deal with this kind of NPC who didn't know what was good for him: to completely squeeze out all his usefulness and then kill him, since he had a lot of control methods.

This time, however, she tried nothing and instead desperately tried to break free from the man's embrace in extreme fear.

Because she recognized who this person was, but merely recognizing their identity wasn't enough to instill such fear in her.

Gao Ya was terrified that she realized her emotions were being pulled in different directions and her desires were being amplified. She felt that if she didn't struggle, she would lose herself in this rapidly expanding desire and completely... fall in love with the man in front of her.

Tullatin!

The church man who used such a vulgar and outdated way to pick up girls was none other than Tullatin.

But he was definitely not the Tullatin I knew, because I had never seen those purple eyes of his before.

Gao Ya panicked; she had no idea that the people in the Trials's background could Change so much!

Why do these NPCs, who should Annihilation to history, seem to have come back to life and have their own consciousness?

The other person's upturned lips were clearly telling him that he had recognized him!

How is that possible? No matter how special an NPC's identity is, how could they possibly have Memory?!

That's impossible!

Tullatin saw the fear and confusion in Gao Ya's eyes. He Greed absorbed these emotions, staring intently into Gao Ya's eyes and smiling:

"What, don't you recognize me?"

"I'm so glad to see you again, madam, but can you tell me why my brother didn't come?"

"You... you!!??" Gao Ya's pupils constricted, and her face changed drastically. She wanted to take out her escape method from her personal space, but before she could raise her hand, her entire body was locked by a tentacle that appeared out of nowhere, locking all the joints of her body.

She can't move.

Tullatin tilted his head towards the lounge, shook his head, and sighed.

There was a familiar presence there, but it wasn't my brother.

Unfortunately, I thought he would come looking for me again, but now it seems I was wrong.

I was a little disappointed, but it's not a bad thing that an old friend came back.

Therefore, please allow me, the lonely prisoner Afros, to welcome the beautiful lady.

As he spoke, he opened his arms and devoutly embraced the sky, then looked intently at the Gao Ya, a strange smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

Welcome to...

A prison of time.

Beautiful lady, are you ready to receive the most wonderful pleasure in the world?