Making a Friend

(No three chapters today, but a super-sized one!)

Cheng Shi couldn't tell what kind of talent Li Jingming had prepared, but he could sense that the move was very strong.

So he used a roundabout approach to force the other party to stop.

He knew that as long as there was still a chance for the situation to turn around, the other party would definitely not break off relations. The Believer of [Memory] would never give up this Memory about the [Iron Rule of Order]. Therefore, as long as he controlled Chenosli, the only person in this lowest-level prison who had directly faced the [Iron Rule of Order], he could use this to hold the Dragon King's lifeline and force the other party to stop making a move.

As expected, Li Jingming stopped. Seeing that Cheng Shi had taken the "hostage" hostage, his eye twitched and he said coldly, "If you kill him, you will also lose the chance to understand Him."

I don't want to know.

"You think so."

"Are you a tape recorder? The Dragon King tape recorder?"

"..." Li Jingming was still trying to reason with Cheng Shi, but when he heard the words "Dragon King," his eyes twitched even more violently. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Cheng Shi laughed, bursting into laughter. "Shouldn't I be asking the Dragon King what you want?"

"It's simple. You and I will work together to rekindle the Dream-Peeking Candle and search for some secrets lost in the River of Time within Chenosli's Memory."

"Cooperation? Is this how you cooperate? Playing the role of an Investigator to trick me out of my position?"

"I can't lie to you, you wanted to come down anyway." Seeing that the situation seemed to have stabilized, Li Jingming's expression softened.

Cheng Shi scoffed:

"You are the Chosen of God of [Deception], how could you not fool me? If I hadn't been careful, I might have been killed by you by now."

"What, you want me to scout out Chenosli's Memory for you?"

"..." Li Jingming remained silent.

"No, you bastard, you really want to!" Cheng Shi laughed angrily, pointing at Li Jingming, "You [Deception] Believer, your hearts are all dirty."

"..." Li Jingming sighed softly, "I am not Believer [Deception], I am Believer in [Memory]."

"Oh ho, should I praise your devotion to your former employer, or should I scold you on behalf of God of Merriment for being such an ungrateful wretch?"

"You're on behalf of the God of Merriment? From what stand do you condemn me on His behalf?" Li Jingming frowned slightly, a sense of doubt creeping into his heart.

"Uh..." Cheng Shi's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately tried to smooth things over, "We are both [Nothingness], after all, He is the Twin Gods of my Lord of Grace, while you, as an undevout [Nothingness] practitioner, deserve to be scolded."

Li Jingming sighed again. He had already realized that Cheng Shi would not continue fighting. The other party was only worried about his safety during the cooperation, so he had not given in.

Of course, he also noticed Cheng Shi's indignation at his concealment of his identity. He did indeed intend to have Cheng Shi scout ahead. In his plan, after learning about this Fate Weaver, he would immediately enter the dream world and try his best to help the other party in any potential crises within the dream, thus doing a good deed to resolve the previous misunderstanding about his concealed identity.

However, it now seems that the plan has completely fallen apart.

The other party's overly cautious attitude left Li Jingming unable to find a way to break the deadlock for a while.

Why is this person even more cautious than that squinty-eyed person who Faith death?

Cooperation between top-tier players is often like this: one second you're sabotaging me and I'm cheating you, but the next second we might unite against each other because of common interests. Why does this rhythm fail completely when it comes to Cheng Shi?

Li Jingming's opinion of Cheng Shi's character changed once again, adding another trait to his description of him besides cunning and madness: caution.

A Fate Weaver is clearly very strong, but overly cautious.

He frowned, glanced at the time, and realized that there wasn't much left. If the stalemate continued, all the surprises in this Trials, which had brought unexpected joy, would be erased by time.

After a moment's thought, Li Jingming chose to concede, yielding in order to collect the [Memory].

"I can compensate for my Deception behavior just now." Li Jingming looked at Cheng Shi with a deep gaze, his expression seemingly certain that the other party would be tempted.

Sure enough, the moment he finished speaking, Cheng Shi's eyes lit up.

What? Compensation?

Um... if you compensate enough, that tiny little misunderstanding between us just now... cough cough, it's not impossible for us to understand each other.

After all, people often become friends through fighting, and it's a way to quickly build rapport, right?

Seeing Cheng Shi's excited gaze, Li Jingming nodded thoughtfully. Recalling the scene in the dungeon where the other party extorted his teammates, he further refined his understanding of Cheng Shi:

A cunning, mad, powerful, dual-wielding warrior and priest, excessively cautious... and Greed Fate Weaver.

"It seems the misunderstanding between us has been resolved?"

Cheng Shi quickly shook his head:

"That depends on what compensation you can offer."

Let me tell you, being scammed can have lasting effects. I've never been scammed before, but being scammed the first time inevitably hurts more, and it makes it harder to trust others in the future.

So..."

"Do I have to pay more?"

Cheng Shi's eyes lit up. "So thoughtful! That's why you should add an extra amount of emotional support."

"..."

He wasn't just Greed, he was extremely Greed.

Li Jingming was speechless. He even wondered how Greed and caution could coexist in one person.

But there was no use thinking about it. Right now, he was saving every bit of time he could. He quickly took out a page from his personal space, a page that flowed with a deep blue light and was made of "unbreakable water droplets".

"One of His Time's Notebook, which was originally intended to be used three times for the Past Life Replay,' now only has one left."

I think you should understand the value of "Past Life Replay."

I understand! I understand perfectly!

A glint of light flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes. He slowly withdrew his hand from Chenosli as a gesture of goodwill, nodded in satisfaction, but then quickly shook his head, saying:

"This can only be considered as the commission Li Zhen paid me for hiring me. Next is the compensation from you, Dragon King Li Jingming."

"..." Li Jingming's eyelids twitched, and he felt a fire rising in his heart. "Cheng Shi, I have to tell you, sometimes Memory don't necessarily have to be collected."

"Is that so?" Cheng Shi scoffed, extending his hand again after he had just withdrawn it.

Seeing this, Li Jingming gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "I originally thought we could become friends."

"That's fine, just add a gift from a friend."

"..."

The fist hardened.

Li Jingming had never felt so powerless in a negotiation. The person opposite him was unyielding, and most importantly, despite being so interested in the [Iron Rule of Order], even returning from the Void to the Wailing Iron Prison, he refused to cherish the time and was pointlessly confronting him for such a trivial gain.

What exactly is he doing?

Whose will is he carrying out?

Is this how you walk the path of Destiny?

This feels like Deception. He's not asking for compensation at all; he's clearly just creating amusement.

Li Jingming was in a daze. At this moment, the images of the two "He" in the "Nothingness" seemed to overlap slightly in his mind.

Could this be the true path of Destiny? Otherwise, why would he be summoned and favored by Destiny?

But if Cheng Shi's actions were the real one, then why was the Blind Man able to become the Top Rank [Destiny] list?

Just as Li Jingming was frowning in thought, Cheng Shi thoughtfully coughed twice.

"Ahem, watch your time, get out of class is almost over."

"..." Well, get out of class is almost over.

Li Jingming suddenly opened his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took out two more items from his personal space.

A faint, hazy thread and a delicate wooden hammer about two fingers long and one finger wide.

"[Memory] 'Reflection of Departure' and 'Memory Sea Insight' are twofold: one allows you to retain the shadow of the past, and the other can give you historical insights about the time and space you are in."

Two S-Rank Item, plus an SS-rank "Past Life Replay" card, should be enough to cover the commission, compensation, and consolation money, right?

Cheng Shi stared intently at the three high-level [Memory] items in Li Jingming's hand, then gasped.

Hiss--

What extravagant behavior!

No wonder he can always exchange Memory with others. If the Dragon King is always this generous, who wouldn't want to exchange Memory with him!

Dragons have always loved jewels; it seems they've stumbled upon a true Dragon King.

Cheng Shi tried his best to hide the surprise and satisfaction in his eyes, and nodded calmly. His demeanor made people think that he had magnanimously forgiven someone.

But then...

"Ahem, and don't forget about Li Zhen's life-saving ransom, and those three A-level legal documents."

"..."

"... Okay, okay!"

Li Jingming didn't even know what kind of tone he used to squeeze out those "good" words. With a dark face, he handed over the items in his hands one by one, while Cheng Shi grinned and put all the compensation he was entitled to into his personal space.

Wow, another fruitful day!

After the "fair" transaction was completed, the Fate Weaver, who was overjoyed, raised his head with a pleasant smile and said:

"Um... Dragon King, shall we still be friends?"

"?"

The sound of clenched fists echoed again in the dungeon.