Chapter 117 The Temple of Faith

Five swift shadows ascended the stone-paved slope, and in less than a minute, they had covered nearly three hundred meters, reaching the top of the small hill.

Standing there and looking forward, they could see a gray wasteland.

Upon the wasteland stood a cluster of conical spires. The spires were densely packed together, arranged in a neat formation, like a bundle of bamboo shoots tied together.

"That pile of stuff is the roof of the Temple of Faith," Feng Bujue explained. "Ninety percent of this building is buried underground. We need to find an entrance as soon as possible." As he spoke, he pointed ahead. "If we really can't find one, we'll just have to force an opening."

"Mm, there's no time to delay. Let's go," Honghu replied.

"Once we get there, we'll split up and search," Scrap Iron Uncle added.

The five exchanged a few words and then moved forward again. This time they were going downhill, so they were moving even faster. The few hundred meters disappeared in the blink of an eye. But when they arrived next to the cluster of spires, they were surprised to find that the entrance was very easy to find. Each spire had a movable door (skylight) that could be seen in its outline just by getting close.

"Just pick one at random?" Atobe asked, looking at his teammates with a questioning gaze.

"At this point, there's no time to pick and choose one by one, right…" Feng Bujue said as he walked to the spire closest to him and opened the hatch on top. "I'll go down first. If there are any traps, I can use my levitation ability to evade them."

Of course, Brother Jue wasn't just going to jump down…

As he said this, he casually picked up a stone and threw it into the entrance.

*Patta*—

The sound of the pebble hitting the ground quickly echoed back, indicating that the space inside wasn't very deep.

"Oh? Looks like it's not a straight drop all the way through…" Feng Bujue said as he took out the [Composite Anti-Gravity Catapult].

He skillfully turned on the searchlight and shone it into the doorway. His four teammates also gathered around him at this time, peering inside…

With the light from the catapult, the five of them could directly see the walls and floor of the building's interior.

"What is this, an attic?" Tianma Xingkong asked.

"Who knows…" Honghu said. "Anyway, it's a good thing for us. At least we don't have to worry about falling to our deaths."

As they were talking, Feng Bujue took half a step forward. With a single hand, he leaped into the entrance.

Two seconds later, Brother Jue landed suddenly, standing firmly in the space inside the temple, and a system prompt sounded in his ear: [Current mission has been completed].

At that moment, Feng Bujue's first reaction wasn't to check the mission log, but to sweep the surroundings with the light, searching for traps and monsters.

After confirming that there was no immediate danger around, he immediately looked up and shouted, "Come down!"

As soon as he shouted, the four people above acted upon hearing the news. They jumped into the entrance one after another, and fell one after another.

In the end, all five landed safely and heard the system prompt in succession.

At this moment, there were only forty seconds left until the mission deadline…

"Phew… if we hadn't taken the shortcut, we probably would have been wiped out on the first main mission, right?" Atobe looked at the mission that had been checked off in the game menu and let out a long sigh.

"Not necessarily," Scrap Iron Uncle said. "If we had taken the long way around… maybe we wouldn't have encountered that Tuoyin Zhi Shou (Imprint Hand)."

"Oh! That's right…" Atobe's expression changed slightly as he looked at Feng Bujue. "Feng Liaozhu, can you explain now… that game you had with Tuoyin Zhi Shou earlier?"

"Ah… actually… it's quite simple." Feng Bujue continued to scan his surroundings with the searchlight on the catapult as he replied, not wasting a single moment.

"Stop beating around the bush," Honghu said. "The smug look on your face has already given you away."

"Heh… alright, alright…" Feng Bujue replied with a smile. "But I'd better start from the beginning…"

Over the next few minutes, Brother Jue told them one by one about his glorious deeds of braving the swamp alone, fighting the Fuling bravely, rescuing the "beauty," and angrily obtaining information. Needless to say, he embellished the story quite a bit…

In any case, after this description, he finally got to the part where he played rock-paper-scissors with Tuoyin Zhi Shou…

"After chatting with that silly [beep] for a few sentences, I saw right through it," Feng Bujue began his explanation with a smug tone and powerful (swear) words. "First of all, the game of rock-paper-scissors itself is very suspicious… This isn't like chess or Go, where you rely purely on skill to win; nor is it like card games or military chess, where luck and skill are equally important… This is freakin' rock-paper-scissors! The name itself has a ‘guess’ in it! The luck factor absolutely accounts for more than seventy percent, right?" He turned around and paced a few steps. "The opponent proposed to use a best-of-five format for the rock-paper-scissors competition when it was one against four… This behavior itself was as if to say, ‘I have special rock-paper-scissors skills.’"

"Alas… I thought of that too," Honghu sighed. "Unfortunately… I always thought it would make a fuss about the rules or tactics. I didn't expect… it relied on some kind of hidden ability."

"I thought so too at first, but to be on the safe side, I asked Tuoyin Zhi Shou a question," Feng Bujue continued. "I asked it… ‘Are the four of them competing with you one by one?’" He smiled. "And it, proudly, admitted it… From that moment on, I was sure that Tuoyin Zhi Shou must be cheating with some kind of ‘ability.’"

"Huh?" Atobe heard this and his thinking couldn't keep up. "Hey, hey… the jump between the question and the conclusion is too big, right…"

"Mm… I can understand what he means," Scrap Iron Uncle said. "Brother Feng's reasoning should be like this… Since the four of us are fighting one by one, the order of appearance will naturally be in a certain order. If nothing else, Honghu, who is good at analyzing, will definitely be arranged to be the last to appear. And with Honghu's intelligence, after watching three full matches, there's no reason why he wouldn't be able to see through Tuoyin Zhi Shou's tricks, unless…"

Honghu took over, "Unless the other party isn't relying on rules or tactics to win."

Atobe understood at this time and said, "So… the conclusion is that Tuoyin Zhi Shou has some kind of ability that can guarantee victory in rock-paper-scissors?"

"Hahaha…" Feng Bujue clapped his hands and praised, "Very good, as the saying goes, three cobblers with their wits combined equal Zhuge Liang."

"You're being a bit shameless here…" Honghu replied.

"Yes, yes, I really can't compare to the Prime Minister's character," Feng Bujue nodded seriously.

"Are you saying… that you can compare in terms of wisdom?" Atobe said with a twitching corner of his mouth.

Brother Jue ignored the other party's sarcasm and brought the topic back on track, continuing, "In short, now that it has been confirmed that Tuoyin Zhi Shou is using ‘ability’ to play rock-paper-scissors, things are easy to handle. Because I also have an ability that can instantly predict the opponent's actions."

At this time, what Feng Bujue was talking about was of course his "Zero Time Difference Calculation."

"Actually, what I really care about isn't rock-paper-scissors itself… but the setting of the ‘rock-paper-scissors domain,’" Feng Bujue said. "You all noticed it too, right? In that domain, our combat abilities were greatly suppressed, almost becoming no different from ordinary people."

"Yeah," Tianma Xingkong continued. "Otherwise, I would have killed that big hand with my meteor fist long ago. Why would I even play rock-paper-scissors?"

"Yes, that domain is the scariest thing," Feng Bujue said. "This Chemo Island can be said to be full of experts. As guards, they naturally have to have the means to suppress those prisoners. Obviously… relying on Tuoyin Zhi Shou's own strength is far from enough. If I'm not mistaken, the four guards, including Tuoyin Zhi Shou, are not using their own power, but some kind of special ability that has been ‘bestowed’ upon them." He paused, his eyes changing slightly. "After the previous test… I'm completely sure of this hypothesis."

"Test? What test?" Atobe asked.

Feng Bujue replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "It's the last match between me and Tuoyin Zhi Shou."

As soon as he said this, Honghu, who was standing next to him, took a cold breath…

Only those who followed Brother Jue's train of thought could appreciate how terrifying this guy was…

Ten minutes ago, when everyone thought that Feng Bujue's "relentless" behavior was an intermittent bout of second-grade syndrome, he himself knew very well… that it was just a crazy show. Behind this show, there was still rational judgment and reasonable action.

"Judging from the results, the ‘absolute rules’ of the rock-paper-scissors domain are something that Tuoyin Zhi Shou cannot resist," Feng Bujue continued. "This proves that the domain is not its own power."

"Oh… no wonder Tuoyin Zhi Shou's final behavior was so strange," Atobe continued. "So it turns out that it knew it was going to lose, but it couldn't stop the game, so that's why it was like that."

"Mm, that's right…" Feng Bujue continued. "According to my observation, there are four absolute rules of the rock-paper-scissors domain." He raised his right hand and extended four fingers. "First, no one can leave the domain until a winner is determined; second, the domain will only be lifted if the winner of the previous game agrees to end the match; third, the challenger… which is us… decides when each game starts; fourth, the punishments and rewards for the winner and loser can be negotiated in advance, and the default punishment… is to be imprinted on the ground and turned into a silhouette."

Brother Jue put down his hand as he said this. "The above four are relatively fair absolute rules that even Tuoyin Zhi Shou cannot violate. Of course, as the initiator of the rock-paper-scissors domain, there are indeed some special rules that are more beneficial to it, such as… after entering the domain, the combat strength of the challenger will be restricted, forcing them to participate in rock-paper-scissors."

"I still don't understand," Tianma Xingkong suddenly interjected. "After talking for so long, how exactly did you win?" He widened his eyes and asked, "It can predict what you're going to throw, and you can also predict what it's going to throw, so aren't the conditions the same?"

"That's right…" Atobe also said, "That's the core problem, right?"

"Huh?" Feng Bujue replied weakly, "What is it… this is the simplest part." He tilted his head. "After my probing, Tuoyin Zhi Shou's ability is just… to see the thoughts in your mind in the instant before you throw your punch." He snorted. "Hmph… theoretically, there are at least three ways to win against it, and in the previous match, I used two of them."

"You're kidding me…" Scrap Iron Uncle took off his sunglasses and read with a surprised expression.

"Let's talk about the one with the lowest success rate first," Feng Bujue continued unhurriedly. "That is… to think of nothing at the moment of rock-paper-scissors, keep your mind blank, and instinctively throw out a gesture."

"Tch~ I thought you were going to say something. Does that even count?" Atobe replied.

"In fact, this is very difficult," Feng Bujue said. "If you don't believe me, you can try it… Most people will throw out a chicken claw-like hand shape, and then it will be counted as cloth."

"Mm… using this method can indeed block Tuoyin Zhi Shou's ability," Honghu continued. "However, instinctively throwing out a gesture will almost never result in ‘scissors,’ which is an obvious weakness."

"That's right, after at most two rounds, the other party will see through this loophole and then constantly throw out ‘cloth’ to deal with it," Feng Bujue said. "Furthermore, even the first two rounds… are purely based on luck. So… I didn't use this method."

Brother Jue paused for a few seconds, licked his lips, and then said, "Then… let's talk about the second method, which doesn't have much to say. That is, to use my ability to fight against the other party's ability." He scratched his head. "I won't explain my ability in detail. You just need to know that my means are infinitely better than Tuoyin Zhi Shou's…"

What he said was true. Tuoyin Zhi Shou's ability was only to see the thoughts that flashed in the other party's mind a moment before rock-paper-scissors; while Zero Time Difference Calculation could calculate everything…

"Alas… I have to say, its ability is too slow, its reaction is too slow, and its movements are even as slow as still life…" Feng Bujue sighed. "So… in just the first few rounds, I relied on my ability to win against Tuoyin Zhi Shou, and in the process, I analyzed what the other party's ability was."

"Alright, stop being smug," Honghu said. "What about the third method? That has nothing to do with your ability, right?"

"Of course, this isn't a single-player script, so how could the system design a guard that only I can solve?" Feng Bujue replied with a smile. "There is indeed another method that has nothing to do with any ability. Everyone can use it to defeat Tuoyin Zhi Shou, and that is…"

The four people who were listening all showed curious expressions.

"Cognitive Distortion," Feng Bujue said a strange word.

"What the hell is that?" Tianma Xingkong's face was full of "I don't know what's going on but it sounds impressive."

"Like this…" Feng Bujue said, clenching his fist and raising his hand. "Rock!" As he said this, he threw out his hand, but his gesture was scissors.

"Uh…" Atobe looked for two seconds. "Can this really work? Isn't this just deceiving yourself?"

"If you're deceiving yourself, you'll fail… because what you're thinking about in your mind will still be scissors," Feng Bujue said. "But cognitive distortion is different. What I'm thinking about in my mind is rock, but what my hand is doing is scissors. This technique requires overturning your own deeply ingrained ideas in a short period of time. It's not so much ‘deception’ as it is ‘belief.’ It's a bit complicated to explain… but if you become proficient, you can do this…" As he said this, he raised his hand again. "Rock, paper, scissors, rock, paper, scissors…" He recited quickly, and his hand changed accordingly, but the gestures he made were different from the hand shapes he recited. When he recited rock, he made scissors; when he recited scissors, he made cloth; when he recited cloth, he made rock…

"This [beep] is what you call everyone can use?" Atobe complained. "It's obvious that only you can use it, right?"

"No, you can do it too, it just takes time," Feng Bujue spread his hands. "In fact, the system has already given us this time… Don't forget, how long the interval between each rock-paper-scissors is up to the players to decide." He paused and then said, "To take a step back, even if you really can't practice it well, it doesn't matter, because Tuoyin Zhi Shou's basic behavior pattern doesn't change. As long as you think about it at the moment of throwing your punch, it will definitely throw the corresponding gesture to suppress you. So… as long as you control the time well and try not to make mistakes, you can win."

At this point, Feng Bujue had explained almost everything.

The system prompt seemed to be waiting for them to finish talking, and it only sounded at this moment: [Main mission has been updated].

In the mission log, a new main mission had appeared: [Arrive at the altar at the bottom of the Temple of Faith within three hours. Players who fail to arrive within the time limit will be obliterated].