New Intelligence in the Chat Channel

The busy days were fulfilling yet fleeting, and time quickly passed before the next Special Trial.

Only a day had passed since he returned from the Grand Inquisition, but Cheng Shi did accomplish quite a lot in that day.

He first called Hu Xuan, but the call didn't go through. Considering that she might be giving birth in some Trials, Cheng Shi honestly gave up his plan to ring the silent baby bell.

No need, really no need. There's no rush. We can contact each other again when we have time. Compared to other players, this woman's survival ability is not a major concern, and the same goes for her fertility.

Then he began to carefully review the chat content of the various channels he had missed in the past few days. The speed of Faith Fusion was obviously accelerating, especially recently, almost showing an explosive trend. He had to find out how the first echelon of each Faith camp was doing.

This is not only to gather information about other players, but more importantly, he needs to find clues from these Faith Fusion to analyze which factions they belong to.

According to Cheng Shi's understanding, there are currently only three camps: the Fear Faction, the Neutral Faction, and the Pro-Creator Faction. Of course, the division of these factions is all related to their attitude towards the [Origin].

There's not much to say about the Proximity Faction. Until it's determined who is neutral, they can all be temporarily categorized as Proximity Faction, especially [Prosperity] and [Decay], who are definitely the backbone of the Proximity Faction.

Unfortunately, the core members have now truly become "core members"—one is no longer a relic, and the other is rotting away.

Cheng Shi's Lord of Grace, [Destiny], is undoubtedly a member of the faction that seeks closer to [Origin]. Although it is unknown why He wants to get closer to [Origin], His various actions, especially His disagreement with the God of Merriment, have already proven His inclination.

So, it's highly likely that [Folly] and [Truth] are also close allies, at least [Folly] is, because [Destiny] wants to get involved with Him, and this second god of [Chaos] is on His path of integration.

[Truth] It is known to all the gods that one is single-minded in becoming a "god". As for whether the desire to become a god is out of piety or something else, it is not yet known, but at least His actions are indeed getting closer to that unattainable [*He].

As for the neutral faction... to be honest, Cheng Shi didn't know much about it; he only heard the term from the Great One on the Bone Throne.

In terms of the meaning of the word alone, the only person he could think of was the Great One uttered it.

[Death] Residing high on the Divine Throne, yet having entanglements with the God of Merriment, but not deliberately getting close, this state of being neither close nor distant can be considered neutral.

As for other gods, there must be neutral ones as well. But as for which ones, yes, which ones, because that the Great One said "the neutral ones," Cheng Shi knows that there are probably quite a few neutral gods.

On the other hand, the final Fear Faction, needless to say, is the only one in the fun camp, the God of Merriment.

In fact, Cheng Shi had considered that [Chaos] was also a possibility, but the problem was that [Order] had to be one of the closer factions. Afros said, [Order] was different from other gods. At the beginning of the Civilization Dawn of the Era, He came with supreme Divine Authority. That is to say, other gods were named and given divine positions by [Origin] at the end of the era, while He became the appointed true god at the First the era.

Furthermore, the betrayal of [Blazing Sun] stemmed from the fact that [Order] failed to protect Him at the end of the era. Therefore, Cheng Shi tends to believe that:

The arrival of Order was carried with His will. The Blazing Sun approached Order in order to get closer to Him. However, the end of the era proved that Order could not change anything and was merely carrying His will. Therefore, the Blazing Sun chose another way to get closer to Him, and that way was Chaos.

From this perspective, Chaos also seems to be a Proximate faction, since its painstaking efforts to play the role of a Proximate faction are not something a Fear Faction would do.

However, this was just Cheng Shi's imagination. As for what His true purpose was, perhaps only He Himself, or perhaps even the God of Merriment knew.

So far, Cheng Shi's understanding of them has only come from the words of each of them. However, it is impossible to obtain enough information by simply listening to the words of the gods, because it is too difficult and too infrequent to worship the gods. In addition, they always stop short of mentioning things, which has left Cheng Shi still confused about this complex situation.

That's why he wanted to find some clues in reality, since whatever they wanted to promote would ultimately be reflected in the [Faith Game].

But as it turns out, Cheng Shi was overthinking it. Those who don't know may never know that their will is not fully understood and disseminated in all segments.

Although the Faith Fusion is in full swing among Peak Player, there is hardly any related news in the huge chat channel. Even information such as Lin Xi's fusion and Mo Li of his oath is hard to find. Most of the messages are various speculations about the history of Isle of Hope and some well-known news.

Therefore, the phrase "everyone knows" is also limited to certain circles. At least no matter how hard ordinary players try, they can't hear the news from those Peak Player.

This is so similar to the Grand Inquisition in the previous Trials. It seems that Faith and piety are Xin Xin among players!

However, although he didn't find much information that interested him, a message from the Singer's chat channel did catch Cheng Shi's attention.

I happened to see that sentence while browsing the chat yesterday afternoon. A player in the channel suddenly asked that his neighbor had been missing for a long time but was not dead because he kept failing the Space Trials he prayed for. He was also concerned about his neighbor and wanted to ask what happened to him and if anyone knew.

Whether he cared or not was another matter, but upon seeing this news, Cheng Shi immediately thought of his love-struck neighbor, who was also a "warrior."

Xie Yang hasn't appeared for a long time either, and the phenomenon is exactly the same as what this person said: there is no movement and the space cannot be merged.

Don't ask why they can't merge; he just knows.

Cheng Shi became interested and immediately started paying attention. Sure enough, there were always experts in the channel. Before long, another player replied that this situation had also happened to his neighbor, and it had lasted for several days. But yesterday, his neighbor's space suddenly became unclaimed and could be merged. So he suggested that the previous player wait and see, maybe his neighbor would die in a couple of days.

"..."

Good suggestion, but it's like saying nothing at all.

However, that's not the point. The point is that this statement immediately attracted more attention, with many people saying they had encountered the same situation. Although these few chat logs were not particularly noticeable in the rapidly refreshing channel information, the fact that they could spark discussion among some people shows how strange this matter was.

Xie Yang, like many others, has disappeared. Could it be that these people are trapped in some inescapable Trials?

No, the players will be released naturally after the Trials ends, so their situation can't be that they're trapped in the Trials, it's more like they're trapped in... reality?

Reality... Many people... are trapped... and slowly dying...

This scene feels so familiar, like someone who was arrested and subjected to research after attending some kind of gathering.

You agree, right, Yu Mu?

But if there really was such a large gathering, those people I've met recently couldn't possibly not know about it. Could it be that this isn't targeting high-level players, but rather a low-level gathering?

With such a large scale, these Peak Player should have some information. Thinking of this, Cheng Shi pondered for a moment and decided to ask someone.

This time, however, he didn't make a phone call. Instead, he took out a key—the "Death" badge that Zhang Jizu had personally delivered!

That's right, he plans to go to Squinty Old Zhang's Cemetery himself and maybe even take a few corpses back to keep as a reserve.

Sure enough, if you live next to people who are at war for too long, you'll get infected and always want to have a few corpses in your house.

Of course, his trip wasn't just about getting freebies and gathering intelligence. He also had an important matter he wanted Steady Zhang to help with. Since it's not easy to just call someone over with a phone call, he decided to go in person to show Squinty Old Zhang his sincerity.

That very night, he picked up the bone key, twisted it in front of him, and countless white bones instantly sprouted from the end of the key, spreading rapidly and soon transforming into a bone door that stood before Cheng Shi.