Chapter 1 The Roof of the Temple of Faith

Five swift shadows dashed up the stone-paved slope. In less than a minute, they had covered nearly three hundred meters and reached the top of the small hill.

Standing there and looking ahead, they could see a desolate, grey wasteland.

Upon the wasteland stood a collection of conical spires. The spires were clustered densely together, arranged in a very orderly fashion, like a bundle of bamboo shoots tied together.

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

"Mm, we shouldn't delay. Let's go," Honghu responded.

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

The five exchanged a few words and then continued forward. This time, they were going downhill, so they charged even faster, covering the few hundred meters in the blink of an eye. But when they reached the base of the spires, they were surprised to find… that the entrance was actually very easy to find. Each spire had a hinged door (skylight) on top, and its outline was visible as soon as one got close.

"Just pick one at random?" Atobe asked his teammates with a questioning look.

"We don't have time to choose carefully at this point…" Feng Bujue said, already walking to the spire closest to him and lifting the hatch. "I'll go down first. If there are any traps, I can use my aerial control ability to avoid them."

Of course, Jue-Ge wasn't just going to jump right in…

As he said those words, he casually picked up a rock and tossed it into the entrance.

*Patta*—

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

"Oh? Looks like it's not a straight drop down…" Feng Bujue said, taking out his [Composite Anti-Gravity Ejector].

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

The five of them used the ejector's light to directly see the walls and floor of the building's interior.

"What is this? An attic?" Pegasus asked.

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

As they were speaking, Feng Bujue took half a step forward. He supported himself with one hand and leaped into the opening.

Two seconds later, Jue-Ge landed smoothly, standing firmly in the space inside the temple. The system notification sounded in his ear: [Current Quest Completed].

In that instant, Feng Bujue's first reaction wasn't to check the quest log, but to sweep the surrounding area with the light, searching for traps and monsters.

After confirming that there was no immediate danger, he immediately shouted upward, "Come down quickly!"

At the sound of his voice, the four above moved into action, jumping into the entrance one after another and falling down.

Finally, all five landed safely, and each heard the system notification in turn.

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

"Phew… if we hadn't taken the shortcut, we probably would have been wiped out on the first main quest, right?" Atobe looked at the quest marked as completed in his game menu and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not necessarily," Scrap Iron Uncle said. "If we had taken the long way… maybe we wouldn't have encountered that Hand of Impression."

"Oh! That's right…" Atobe's expression changed slightly, and he looked at Feng Bujue. "Feng Liaozhu, can you explain now… that match you had with the Hand of Impression earlier?"

"Ah… actually… it's quite simple." As Feng Bujue replied, he continued to sweep around with the searchlight on the ejector, not wasting a single moment.

"Stop being so coy," Honghu said. "The smug look on your face has already betrayed you."

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

Over the next few minutes, Jue-Ge recounted his glorious deeds of venturing alone into the swamp, fighting bravely against Fuling, heroically rescuing "beauty," and angrily obtaining intelligence, adding embellishments as a matter of course…

In any case, after this lengthy description, he finally arrived at the part where he played rock-paper-scissors with the Hand of Impression…

"After chatting with that idiot for a few sentences, I saw right through it." Feng Bujue began his explanation with a smug tone and strong language (curse words). "First of all, the game of rock-paper-scissors itself is very suspicious… This isn't chess or Go, where you rely purely on skill to win; nor is it card games or military chess, where luck and skill are equally important… This is freakin' rock-paper-scissors! The name itself has the word 'guess' in it! The element of luck definitely accounts for more than seventy percent, right?" He turned around and paced a few steps. "The opponent proposed a best-of-five rock-paper-scissors match while facing four of us alone… This act itself seemed to say, 'I have special rock-paper-scissors skills.'"

"Sigh… I thought of that too," Honghu sighed. "Unfortunately… I always thought it would be playing tricks with the rules or tactics. I never expected… it was relying on some kind of hidden ability."

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

"Huh?" Atobe heard this and couldn't quite follow. "Hey, hey… that's quite a leap from the question to the conclusion…"

"Mm… I can understand what he means," Scrap Iron Uncle said. "Brother Feng's reasoning must have been something like this… Since the four of us are taking turns to fight, there will naturally be a sequence of who goes first and who goes last. As expected, Honghu, who is good at analysis, will definitely be arranged to go last. And with Honghu's intelligence, after watching three matches, there's no reason he wouldn't see through the Hand of Impression's tricks, unless…"

Honghu picked up the thread. "Unless the opponent isn't relying on rules or tactical means to win."

Atobe understood at this point and continued. "So… the conclusion is that the Hand of Impression has some kind of ability that allows it to win every time at rock-paper-scissors?"

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

"You're being a bit shameless there…" Honghu retorted.

"Yes, yes, I really can't compare to the Prime Minister's character," Feng Bujue said with a serious nod.

"Are you implying… that you can compare to him in terms of wisdom?" Atobe said with a twitch of his lips.

Jue-Ge ignored the other's teasing and brought the topic back on track, continuing, "In short, now that it's been confirmed that the Hand of Impression is using an 'ability' to play rock-paper-scissors, things are much easier. Because I also have an ability that can instantly predict the other party's actions."

What Feng Bujue was talking about at this time 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've all noticed it, right? In that domain, our combat abilities were greatly suppressed, almost becoming the same as ordinary people."

"Yeah," Pegasus said. "Otherwise, I would have used my Meteor Fist to kill that big hand a long time ago. Why would I bother playing rock-paper-scissors?"

"Yes, that domain is the most terrifying thing," Feng Bujue said. "This Island of Chewer is full of powerful people. As guards, they naturally have to have ways to suppress those prisoners. Obviously… relying on the Hand of Impression's own strength isn't enough. If I'm not mistaken, the four guards, including the Hand of Impression, are not using their own powers, 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, "The last match between me and the Hand of Impression, of course."

As soon as he said this, Honghu, who was standing next to him, gasped…

Only those who closely followed Jue-Ge's train of thought could realize how terrifying this guy was…

Ten minutes ago, when everyone thought that Feng Bujue's "merciless" behavior was a fit of intermittent Chuunibyou (Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome), he himself knew very well… that it was just a crazy show. Behind this show, there was still rational judgment and reasonable action.

"From the results, the 'absolute rules' of the Rock-Paper-Scissors Domain are something that the Hand of Impression can't resist either," Feng Bujue continued. "This proves that the domain isn't its own power."

"Oh… no wonder the Hand of Impression's final behavior was so strange," Atobe said. "So it knew it was going to lose, but it couldn't stop the game, so that's why it acted 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, extending four fingers. "First, no one can leave the domain until a winner is decided; second, the domain will only be lifted if the winner of the previous round agrees to end the match; third, the challenged party… that is, us… decides when each round begins; fourth, the punishments and rewards for the winner and loser can be negotiated in advance, and the default punishment… is being stamped into the ground and turned into a silhouette."

Jue-Ge put down his hand as he said this: "The above four are relatively fair absolute rules that even the Hand of Impression can't defy. Of course, as the activator of the Rock-Paper-Scissors Domain, it does have some special rules that are more favorable to it, such as… after entering the domain, the combat strength of the challenged party will be restricted, forcing them to participate in rock-paper-scissors."

"I still don't understand," Pegasus suddenly interjected. "After talking for so long, how did you win against it?" He asked with wide eyes, "It can predict what you're going to throw, and you can predict what it's going to throw, so aren't the conditions the same?"

"Yeah…" Atobe also said, "Isn't that the core question?"

"Huh?" Feng Bujue replied weakly, "What… that's the simplest part." He tilted his head and said, "After my probing, the Hand of Impression's ability is just… to see the thoughts in your head a moment before you make your move." He snorted. "Hmph… theoretically, there are at least three ways to win against it, and I used two of them in the previous match."

"You're kidding, right…" Scrap Iron Uncle took off his sunglasses, his face full of surprise.

"Let's talk about the one with the lowest success rate first," Feng Bujue continued unhurriedly, "which is… to not think about anything at the moment of playing rock-paper-scissors, keep your mind blank, and instinctively throw out a gesture."

"Tch~ I thought you were going to say something. That counts?" Atobe replied.

"In fact, it's very difficult," Feng Bujue said. "You can try it if you don't believe me… Most people will throw out a chicken-claw-like hand shape, which will be counted as paper."

"Mm… using this method can indeed block the Hand of Impression's ability," Honghu continued. "However, it's almost impossible to instinctively throw out 'scissors,' which is an obvious weakness."

"That's right, after at most two rounds, the opponent will see through this loophole and keep throwing 'paper' to counter it," Feng Bujue said. "Furthermore, even the first two rounds… are purely based on luck. So… I didn't use this method."

Jue-Ge paused for a few seconds, licked his lips, and then said, "So… let's talk about the second method. There's not much to say about this one. It's just using my ability to fight against the opponent's ability." He scratched his head. "I won't explain my ability in detail. You just need to know that my methods are countless times better than the Hand of Impression's…"

What he was saying was true. The Hand of Impression's ability was just to see the fleeting thoughts in the other party's mind a moment before the move; while Zero Time Difference Calculation could calculate everything…

"Sigh… I have to say, its ability is too slow, its reaction is too slow, and its movements are even slower than static," Feng Bujue sighed. "So… in just the first few rounds, I relied on my ability to win against the Hand of Impression and analyzed what the opponent's ability was in the process."

"Alright, stop being so smug," Honghu said. "What about the third method? That's not related to your ability, right?"

"Of course, this isn't a single-player scenario. How could the system design a guard that only I can solve?" Feng Bujue replied with a smile. "There is indeed another method that is unrelated to any ability. Everyone can use it to defeat the Hand of Impression, and that is…"

The four people who were listening all showed curious expressions.

"Cognitive Distortion," Feng Bujue said, uttering a strange term.

"What the heck is that?" Pegasus's face was full of "unintelligible awesomeness."

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

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

"If you're deceiving yourself, you'll fail… because you're still thinking of scissors in your head," Feng Bujue said. "Cognitive Distortion is different. I'm thinking of rock in my head, but the gesture I'm making is scissors. This technique requires you to overturn your deeply ingrained concepts in your head in a short period of time. It's less like 'deception' and more like 'belief.' It's a bit complicated to explain… However, if you get good at it, you can do this…" As he said this, he raised his hand again. "Rock, scissors, paper, rock, scissors, paper…" He was saying it quickly, and his hand was also changing accordingly, but the gestures he was making were different from the hand shapes he was saying. When he said rock, he was making scissors with his hand; when he said scissors, he was making paper; when he said paper, he was making rock…

"Is this really something that everyone can use?" Atobe complained. "It's obvious that only you can use it, right?"

"No, you can do it too, but it takes time," Feng Bujue spread his hands. "Actually, the system has already given us this time… Don't forget, how long the interval between each round of rock-paper-scissors is up to the players to decide." He paused and then said, "To put it another way, even if you really can't practice it well, it doesn't matter, because the Hand of Impression's basic behavior pattern won't change. As long as you think at the moment you make your move, it will definitely make 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 notification seemed to be waiting for them to finish talking, because it only sounded at this moment: [Main Quest Updated]

In the quest log, a new main quest 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 eliminated.]