Deceitful Game

Chapter 292 The Gate of Janus

It took a while for the three of them to calm down.

Mingpo was the first to calm down, while Gao Fan was the last.

Seeing how excited and thrilled the two of them were... Mingpo hesitated for a moment.

...He suddenly didn't want to tell them that he actually only had seven days left to live.

Let's not talk about it for now, at least not for now.

Let them be happy for a few days first.

After all, Mingpo's death was irreversible, and he had to advance as much as possible within these seven days, leaving little time for rest and play. Come to think of it, Mingpo himself was a kind of "weekend cat," you know?

"You've really worked hard."

Mingpo patted Gao Fan on the head and sighed.

He couldn't even imagine how these two honest, kind-hearted men had managed to rise through the ranks of the deceitful game, how they had survived the world war. To distract them and change the subject, Mingpo asked, "What's going on with those people outside? Why aren't they wearing collars?"

"Because it's unnecessary."

Gao Fan answered softly.

"Do you trust them that much?"

Mingpo laughed, "They all seem incredibly innocent. Their clear eyes are like those of college students."

Mingpa saw no arrogance or greed in the eyes of those spires without collars.

But this is not because they have excellent morals, or because they are all saints.

Rather, it's because they don't need these "materials" at all.

"When any need can be easily satisfied by abundant technology, human desires themselves will become depressed... And because the people at the top of the tower are all in the same class, there is no meaning or need for them to oppress, bully, or exploit each other... There is even no need for them to have any contact or communication."

Gao Fan sighed and said calmly, looking towards the door, "After all, there are non-human intelligent beings."

"Isn't that a robot?"

"That's true for older people."

Gao Fan glanced at Ming Po, a slight smile playing on his lips: "For example, for those of us with the experience who still remember the world above, it's like this."

"But actually, there are very few people like that, right?"

"That's right."

Gao Fan nodded: "They genuinely regard these non-human sentient beings as their own kind, so they don't need to find satisfaction by oppressing their own kind."

"These people have no chance of passing the Deception Game. Moreover... the Deception Game is held in zones, so even if they are accidentally killed by the Deceptionist and become innocent victims, their souls will be destroyed by the host who controls that zone through a game that guarantees death."

"The process of becoming a Deceiver was actually very difficult. Because of this, my life is not so free... I have been a Deceiver for almost five years now, and I have only just reached the level of Zhou Zhiqingqian. In my previous life, I had already reached the level of Yuezhiyin, and Shiping had even reached the level of Suizhijin... Now we are basically starting from scratch, and the only thing we have is experience and intelligence."

Gao Fan frankly stated, "I do not have a collar, but there are even more people watching me, because quite a few know that I am a reincarnated person. Nowadays, many Spire people don't even know that there are other people in the world beneath their feet. Not telling them is also to prevent them from getting excited."

"Most of the people in the spire are nothing more than a flock of innocent lambs."

"I think it's not bad."

Beside him, Ai Shiping wore a slightly sarcastic expression: "Eliminating all the power holders of the old era, that's probably the only correct thing the Chinese Chamber of Commerce has done."

"Yes," Gao Fan hummed in agreement, "most of the older people were destroyed in that war."

"How so?"

Mingpo was somewhat intrigued: "Why is it also related to age? Is this another example of paradoxical technology?"

"Sort of. It was a paradoxical technology obtained through researching artifacts in the realm of power."

"This power caused all those with less than twenty-two years of life remaining to be killed instantly, forcibly causing the world to evolve into its current distorted state. But because of this, even the board of directors is mostly composed of people in their forties or fifties."

"You know, twenty years ago, they would have been young people in their twenties or thirties."

Gao Fan turned to Ming Po: "Speaking of which, big brother, how many divine artifacts do you know?"

"...A divine artifact? Like the Dionysus Shrine or Nidhogg's fangs?"

As Mingpo spoke, she suddenly remembered something: "Oh right...did I tell you that the Dionysian Shrine is with me?" This was something Mingpo originally wanted to tell them, but she died too suddenly to say it.

"I think I guessed it."

Gao Fan nodded calmly, his demeanor completely different from the timid and cowardly young man he had been before: "When you played that game with Gao Song, he mentioned the Shrine of Dionysus. At the time, I wasn't sure... but during the World War, no one ever obtained the Shrine of Dionysus, and I guessed it then."

"...That old man Gao Song," Mingpo recalled.

That's true.

"Explain in detail, what is this Gao Songdeng?"

"This is none of your business."

Mingpo slapped Ai Shiping away.

Gao Fan continued, "We are using the divine artifact of the God of Balance, the Gate of Janus. It is an omnipotent artifact that can obtain almost anything by paying a sufficient price."

"Janus...?"

Mingpo murmured softly.

He didn't understand these things in his previous life... mainly because he had Ai Shiping to ask, so he deliberately pretended not to know.

The feeling is like an elderly father who isn't very tech-savvy, who likes to take his son out of the game room and ask him how to download this software or how to play that thing.

He might not be able to figure it out on his own, but he has his son to ask, so he doesn't need to study it too much.

But the situation is different in this life.

As a child, Mingpo was frail and sickly and unable to go out. Therefore, he couldn't develop a love for extreme sports like he did in his previous life, and he didn't have many games to play as a child... after all, it was during wartime.

As a result, Mingpo reads significantly more books in this life than in his previous life.

"I remember Janus was the Roman god of doorways. Janus with two faces, one looking towards the past and the other towards the future."

"Is this why you can preserve your memories?" Mingpo asked.

"No, anything related to a divine artifact can actually retain memories. Because true gods transcend the past and future, existing independently of the dimension of time... that's why they possess absolute power. Your ability to retain memories is probably due to your connection with the Dionysian Shrine."

Gao Fan said calmly.

...That's not impossible.

Mingpo nodded thoughtfully.

The Dionysian Shrine can record all the titles one possesses in real time, which is very likely because they are bound to one's soul. If so, it can be considered that one's soul is stored in the Dionysian Shrine.

If the Dionysian Shrine itself can transcend timelines, then so can Mingpa!

Nyarlathotep said that "Mingper's soul can only retain memories from this life onwards" because he only truly fell into twilight from his third life onwards... but Nyarlathotep's words may not be credible.

The third incarnation was also Mingbo's first encounter with the Dionysian shrine, so why couldn't it be because of this?

If everyone who comes into contact with the artifact can possess memories of their past life... then there must be at least a dozen people who remember their previous life. No wonder Gao Fan, despite being the chairman's son, is being monitored.

No wonder they all desperately searched for the Dionysian Shrine in their past lives!