The First Lie of This Trial

(Three very long chapters, thank you all for your support~)

"Don't be nervous, we mean no harm."

The awkward atmosphere lasted for a while, until finally Qin Xin, who was lying on the ground, sat up, stretched his shoulders, and said with a smile:

"I believe you can tell that we've run into some trouble, a very tricky one, so I had Mingyu make a prophecy."

The prophetic vision was of me 'dying' at someone's feet...

Upon hearing this, Cheng Shi's eyelids twitched slightly; he understood.

At the start of the Trials, Qin Xin was unconscious due to serious injuries. I quietly went over to check on him, but I never expected that this scene would become the Blind Man's prophecy.

They must have thought someone killed Qin Xin, but in fact it was all a misunderstanding.

"But this misunderstanding is so awkward," Cheng Shi said irritably as he put away the white cloth he was using for his performance, his gaze towards Qin Xin and the Blind Man becoming somewhat sarcastic.

"It seems that the prophetic arts of the Chosen of God, [Destiny], are not so great after all."

Does He not really want to favor you?

"..."

"..."

Qin Xin's smile froze, the Blind Man stood frozen in place, and even the others looked at Cheng Shi with a hint of admiration.

To dare to mock someone so openly in front of the Chosen of God of "Destiny," this person probably doesn't even know how to spell the word "Destiny."

"Alright, I'm not a petty person. Luckily, it was just a misunderstanding. Apart from making me break a sweat, it didn't cause any real loss. Otherwise, you two would have had to pay a hefty sum."

As Cheng Shi spoke, he sized up the five people in the room, roughly memorizing their faces. Then, he forced a smile and very consciously introduced himself:

"Although many people may know me, let me introduce myself anyway."

Cheng Shi, the Fate Weaver, is probably the Fate Weaver you've heard of.

Cheng Shi's frankness drew attention from the others. The man in the leather jacket frowned thoughtfully and looked at Cheng Shi curiously, asking:

"Did He really summon you?"

"Dude, we're not that close yet, so we're talking about this right away. I don't even know your name."

The man in the leather jacket paused, gave an embarrassed chuckle, and nodded to everyone present, saying:

"There were a few acquaintances present, and there were just as many acquaintances as strangers. This situation is indeed in line with the principle of balance."

Li Wufang, Investigator.

?

As soon as Li Wufang finished speaking, Cheng Shi's pupils contracted.

His surname is Li, he talks a lot, and he's an Investigator.

This plot... why does it feel so familiar?

His eyelids twitched, and his scrutinizing gaze immediately shot towards the other person. He needed to take a closer look to see if this so-called Investigator was indeed one of the Clown he had just pulled into the organization.

It can't be that much of a coincidence, can it?

Even if he wasn't, he still needed to carefully observe this Believer of "Order" to see how he treated Faith Opposition. After all, the Clown had already merged with "Chaos," and in a way, "Order" was now an adversary as well.

However, this Investigator did one thing well: he indeed followed his own explanation and quietly skipped the part about reporting the scores.

This is also one of the motivations behind Cheng Shi's eagerness to speak Cheng Shi and introduce himself; he is trying to "save" his lies.

Although fabricating a score on the Path to Godhood wouldn't be difficult for him, the higher up the Path to Godhood, the fewer people there are, making it too easy to expose his true identity if the scores are too similar. Therefore, Cheng Shi chose not to report his score this round.

He wasn't gambling; rather, he had observed from the beginning that there were no freeloaders in this game, and that Peak Player probably wouldn't care about scores. So even the Investigator, known for his keen observation, subconsciously overlooked these unimportant details.

Cheng Shi smiled slightly, thinking to himself that his 1501 was saved.

After Li Wufang himself, the woman behind him spoke up. This short-haired, princess-cut, cold-faced beauty had a rather deep voice and spoke concisely.

"Wu Cun, the Ember Annihilator."

Annihilation!

No wonder she had such a strong killing intent; it wasn't killing intent at all, but rather an uncontrollable desire for destruction!

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow and carefully examined the other person.

The Ember Annihilator is Mage in Annihilation, a class that can disregard the rules of the world and erase reality at will.

They differ from other [Annihilation] professions. While the Cleaner and Endwalker differ only in the way Annihilation objects, they generally follow the same pattern of banishing the entire object to the world about to Annihilation. But the Ember Annihilator have their own unique way of [Annihilation].

They will use the power of [Annihilation] to wipe out the entire selected area in their field of vision. This erasure does not take into account the integrity of objects, which means that the battlefield in the real world is often more chaotic after their attack.

They are renowned for their team battle prowess; when their numbers are large enough, they can even wipe an entire city out of reality.

When Cheng Shi faced Herobas before the end of the previous Trials, most of the members of the World Destroyers team at that time were Ember Annihilator.

Upon hearing that the female player named Wu Cun was Believer [Annihilation], everyone present subtly raised their eyebrows.

Believer in [Annihilation] love to Annihilation all traces, while the Trials of [Time] rely most on finding traces. The Trials He gives are similar to the Trials of [Memory], both requiring the restoration of the accuracy of [Existence].

The [Memory] Trials involves searching for the true dream amidst the entanglement of different dreams, while the [Time] Trials involves finding the omissions and errors that do not belong to a specific time and space. These omissions and errors could be objects or people. Therefore, encountering a player Faith [Annihilation] in a Trials that requires extensive investigation and searching is not necessarily good news.

Their urge to destroy everything will not decrease as their scores increase; on the contrary, it will only become more and more suppressed, and eventually all the destruction will erupt in a burst of desire that can no longer be suppressed.

Thinking of this, Cheng Shi helplessly pursed his lips, hoping that his teammate wouldn't make this Trials too difficult.

After Wu Cun spoke, the room fell into a brief silence. It was the tall, thin man who had followed the Blind Man in who cleared the air and eased the awkwardness.

"My name is not very important, so you may call me Wang Mou. I am a Mage and an Erudite Scholar Faith in the Truth."

As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Shi paused, and a playful smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

Interesting, I've finally encountered the first lie in this Trials.

Is this tall, thin man, who looks honest and unassuming, really not going to treat people with sincerity from the very beginning?

What exactly is wrong with this statement, or is the whole statement false?

Cheng Shi resisted the urge to scrutinize the other person and didn't look at him, but his peripheral vision kept glancing in that direction. His eyes darted around a couple of times, but he didn't notice anything unusual about Wang Mou. However, he did keenly notice that for a moment, Qin Xin's lips curled up slightly, just like his own.

Um?

What is Qin Xin laughing at?

Could it be that he also realized that this Wang Mou was lying?

This is even more interesting. How does a player who looks so much like a "war" player have such a "Deception" ability to expose an unverifiable lie?

Cheng Shi quietly looked away and silently kept the matter in mind.