The Missing Chosen Ones, and the New Trial

Xie Yang's last Trials took place in a small town in the Kanliwal Empire called Hanlin Town.

This wasn't something Cheng Shi asked himself; he learned it from reading books.

The seventeen books he brought back were not history books at all, but miscellaneous books that the small town's pig farm owner bought to pass the time.

It also includes his own reading reflections and little drawings he made out of boredom.

The books cover a wide range of genres, from love stories like "The Beautiful Town Girl" to suspense novels like "Kill That Scoundrel" to professional academic reference books like "The Life of a Pig."

However, there are no proper historical books about the human geography and political environment of that period.

Perhaps history is called history precisely because it is written down by those who come after to commemorate the past.

At that time, people living in the present probably didn't care how they would be written about after they died.

Although I didn't gain any useful knowledge, it was good for passing the time.

In the past few days, Cheng Shi has met a boar breeder who Faith "Birth," a farm owner Faith "prosperity," and a butcher who Faith "death" through the book.

The application of the concept of "life" and "Path of Fate" to real life truly breaks Cheng Shi's stereotype of Faith as something lofty and unattainable.

One has to admit that their will is omnipresent.

In the past few days, besides reading, several major events have also occurred.

The biggest discovery was the shocking revelation made by colleagues on the Professional Channel.

[Professional Channel]

"Sorry, 'Only Carved Rotten Wood' has reached the top, and the leader of 'Decay' has been knocked down and dropped to 10th place, hahahaha."

"Cheers to prosperity!"

"Hilarious! Where are the Decay people? How can they tolerate this?"

"What a coincidence, the Grand Marshal also dropped in the rankings, falling to 4th place. The mute guys have taken his place. How infuriating."

Grand Marshal is the respectful title given by Believer of War to the Chosen of War. From the moment the Faith game came into being and the Ladder of Audience began ranking, the Grand Marshal has always been number one on the War/Silence leaderboard.

But who could have imagined that just two days after the last Special Trial ended, he would lose five Trials in a row and drop to fourth place.

"+1, [Order] has also dropped, but [Order] is still number one, but it's a new Order."

"Holy crap, what's going on? The charlatan of [Destiny] has also fallen, and now [Time] is in first place. They're all dropping points at the same time, are they ranked together?"

"Wow, wow, a bunch of [Chosen of God] playing ranked matches, it's like gods fighting, just thinking about it is exciting."

"I don't know about others, but at least the Chosen of God, [Destiny], didn't drop out on his own; he lost to me."

"? I looked up and saw this was the Professional Channel. You're making me think I'd opened Faith Channel. Dude, wake up, don't fool yourself."

"Upstairs, [Deception]? What do you guys in the Faith Channel usually talk about? Deceiving each other?"

"How can you call something about cultured people a scam? I haven't watched it in a long time, I'll take a look when I get back..."

"They're back. Some are playing Landlord with the Gods, some are creating the world, and a few are changing the scores on the Ladder of Audience in the background."

"..."

Cheng Shi smiled and let it go after seeing these unreliable statements.

But he instinctively felt something was wrong about the fact that the "Chosen of God Ones" were collectively losing points.

When a strange thing happens enough times, it should attract people's attention.

Why are the "Chosen of God" who have remained steadfast all year round starting to lose points in the few days since the Trials became more difficult?

Cheng Shi's score wasn't at that level, so perhaps the reason is hard to guess.

But upon closer examination, there are essentially only two directions:

One possibility is that they failed the Trials many times, which suggests that they may have been aiming at something and were relentlessly pursuing it, even at the cost of failure and point deduction.

Another possibility is that the first position might be subject to rules that are difficult for ordinary players to understand, making it not as easy to sit in as people think.

Since the Trials are Change, there's no reason why the difficulty of the "Chosen of God" shouldn't Change.

To find out what happened, we may need to observe for a while longer.

But in any case, moving forward conservatively is never wrong.

"When the waves are high, some people ride the tide, while others drown. It's hard to say."

Cheng Shi once again opened his Ladder of Audience.

The ID "True Heart" has now dropped to 47th place. It would have taken dozens of consecutive losses without dying to reach this position.

Even more surprising is that Li Jingming, the "Chosen of God Memory," has also started to lose points.

[The Ladder of Audience (Existence- Memory) / (Nothingness - Deception)]

1. We're number one again, guys (Deception) 204

2. This Situation Can Wait (Memory) 201

3. Li Jingming (Memory) 199

4. Still Like in a Dream (Memory) 198

5. He fled, he was pursued; he couldn't escape even with wings (Deception) 196

46. The gangster's escape route ↓ (Deception) 179

47. True Heart (Deception) 179

62. I Never Lie (Deception). 164

Time is like a wild horse that has broken free; it never returns.

Seven days passed quickly, and the day of the Trials arrived again.

But this time, Cheng Shi woke up with a smile to face the Trials.

The reason is that the green tea girl next door seems to have disappeared.

She ignored Xie Yang for seven whole days, which made the young man heartbroken, thinking that his beloved girl had died in the Trials.

Cheng Shi was stunned when he heard the news. He pinched his thighs tightly with both hands to keep himself from laughing out loud in front of Xie Yang.

But it must be said that Xie Yang is a devoted person; he grieved for three or four days over Xu Lu's disappearance.

It wasn't until the fifth day that he recovered. He tied the love letter he had written to Xu Lu to a hanging line and lowered it to the window of a girl named Fan Tingting downstairs from Xu Lu.

They call it "using love to relieve pain."

Cheng Shi chuckled twice and cursed himself for misjudging the person.

Then, turning around, he gave Xie Yang a big thumbs up.

You have way more fun than I do, Xie.

I'll be living off watching your TV series for the rest of my life.

Cheng Shi laughed as he thought about it, and as he laughed, his vision turned red.

The Special Trial (The Vanished World [Annihilation]) has begun.

[Matching teammates (1/6)]

[Trial Objective: Break free from constraints, cast aside shackles, embrace destruction, and attain redemption (limited time: 3 days)]

Annihilation!

It's actually a scheme of Annihilation!

Cheng Shi stared in astonishment at the prompt before him, then immediately got up and stuffed all the survival tools in the warehouse into his personal space.

It's been a long time since I've seen a game with [Annihilation]. The last time was probably before I even reached 2000 points.

The Trials He descended upon were extremely simple in content.

There is only one goal: to survive in a world on the verge of Annihilation, amidst terrifying natural disasters...

Live on!

Match successful (6/6), entering trial mode.