(4,000 characters with no chapter break—today counts as three updates! Let me praise myself first: I was quite brave today!)
The players naturally could never have heard of the Hour Hand.
Among these god-chosen players, the only one who knew about the Hour Hand had already kicked the bucket, and had died at the Hour Hand's hands.
The identity Cheng Shi had fabricated might be known only to the God of Merriment. After all, the Cosmic Clock platform at the time had been transformed from the God of Merriment's avatar. Even Time itself might not know that it had such a devout "servant" wandering outside.
Cheng Shi had revealed this identity now not because he was confident he could find Time's true "temple" and impersonate the Hour Hand there, but simply because he wanted to make an extra probe and see whether he could obtain treatment from Time like that enjoyed by the Chaos Emissary, Ultraman.
After all, Time had no "company" to manage time. Finding an "outsourced heir" wasn't unreasonable, was it?
This incidental probe might not succeed, but Cheng Shi knew that if he didn't probe, it definitely wouldn't succeed.
Destiny above, what if it worked?
No one could say what changes might bring. He was gambling on a probability with limitless returns and no cost!
The other players present had already been led into the ditch by Cheng Shi's little script. They began wondering why Foolish Play had suddenly appeared, and why it had agreed to Long Jing's request to guide the acrobat closer to Time.
This scene looked more like that mysterious Foolish Play had taken a liking to Long Jing and rewarded the only "devout" follower in the performance with a piece of candy. Aside from that, only Zhen Xin's thoughts were bold enough to