"Wake up, wake up—"

Someone seemed to be shaking me. "You are definitely awake! Stop sleeping!"

I cracked my eyes open, only to realize I was sitting on a chair.

The girl crouching beside me, pushing my lower back, was a familiar face.

She was always as clingy as a puppy, her eyes shining brightly like freshly unwrapped hard candy.

I broke into a smile.

"Captain!"

She chirped excitedly. "Did you pass the Promotion game?"

"Ah, I passed. It was a breeze."

"Once I get a bit more familiar with the new Title, I will be ready to initiate the final challenge."

The piano music abruptly stopped.

Only then did I realize someone had been playing the piano in the room.

"Will you be alright, Captain?"

A man wearing glasses sat by the piano. He pushed them up and glanced back. "I think it would be better if you rested for a few years."

"It is no problem, trust me!"

I pushed myself up from the massive chair and flashed the guy a cheerful thumbs-up. "I never push myself past my limits."

"Huh?"

A short-haired man working out in the sunlight, his muscular torso bare, heard this and turned around with a hearty laugh. "You have got it backwards, Captain."

He possessed the physique of a god of war, looking as fierce and mighty as Hercules.

He was single-handedly bench-pressing a barbell as massive as a wagon wheel, while a short-haired woman wearing glasses, exuding an icy elegance, stood steadily in the exact center of the barbell like a cat.

She adjusted her glasses and leaped down gracefully. Her high heels stepped onto thin air, sending ripples outward as if she were walking down an invisible staircase.

"It would be more accurate to say that you never stop pushing past your limits."

"Nonsense!"

I just laughed aloud, standing up to stretch my somewhat stiff body. "Only the weak push themselves past their limits! For the strong, it is called unwavering perseverance—"

And at that moment, I finally noticed just how many people were present in this vast, luxurious palace of a space.

Besides the few chatting with me, there were over a dozen others.

Men and women, old and young.

It was just that their faces were slightly blurred, making it difficult to see them clearly.

Each went about their own business, looking exactly like fleeting phantoms.

Bright sunlight spilled into the palace, passing through a fountain to form a rainbow.

Birds chirped in the courtyard. Beneath the azure sky lay an endless expanse of green grass.

The sounds of a little girl chasing a puppy echoed about, accompanied by a gentle woman's voice telling her to slow down.

And the seat I occupied resembled a colossal throne forged of pure gold.

Like a sovereign presiding over his palace.

"Captain," the girl asked with boundless excitement, "did you inherit a new Title in the Promotion ritual?"

"Ah, I did! Though I do not quite understand what this Title means..."

I felt a bit perplexed myself, but still announced the name of the new Title.

"It is called [Wei Gu Qiong Chen]."

Ming Po felt as if he had just woken from a bizarre dream.

It was as if he had forgotten something, yet simultaneously recalled entirely new memories—

In the past, whenever he left a Game of Deception, he would feel thoroughly refreshed, like he had enjoyed a full night of sleep.

But this time, for the very first instance, he experienced a splitting headache, the kind that came from either sleeping too little or sleeping far too much.

An intense, overwhelming sense of emptiness echoed within his body.

It felt exactly like a black hole had opened up inside his stomach.

"Ugh—"

Clutching his throbbing head, he sat up on the bed.

Who were all of those people?

Were they my former teammates?

That puppy-like girl... Ming Po felt he had seen her eyes somewhere before.

"—Nameless?"

Ming Po murmured under his breath.

But he was not entirely certain, as the difference in temperament between her and Nameless was far too vast.

And that 'final challenge'—

Even for a "Time Gold" rank Deceiver of the World to participate, his teammates considered it pushing past his limits, demanding he lay low and accumulate experience for a few more years to ensure safety.

Could it be that he failed that final challenge, which is why he ended up in this current state?

This newly surfaced memory lacked both a beginning and an end.

While it certainly answered a few questions, it raised countless more—

Now, Ming Po knew for a fact that he had indeed participated in the Game of Deception before, and as the Golden Rank "Wei Gu Qiong Chen," he had possessed many friends. Their sincere camaraderie was anything but fake—even if it was merely a fleeting glimpse in a dream, it filled the current Ming Po with deep nostalgia and warmth.

But now—

Why have they not come looking for me?

Ming Po fell silent for a long moment.

He did not really want to dwell on that question any further.

He had a sinking feeling that whatever answer it yielded, he absolutely would not want to see it.

However—

Nameless, whom he had originally intended to never contact again, suddenly sparked his curiosity once more.

He somewhat wanted to see her just one more time.

Nevertheless, in gaining this new memory, Ming Po had simultaneously lost a small fragment of his recent past.

His last recollection was of him reminding Protector to hide his true face and name, to which the man had given an earnest response.

And then, Ming Po's memories simply blacked out.

His next coherent thought was the final tally of this round's Game of Deception.

"—What exactly happened?"

Ming Po scratched his head, feeling as though his brain was failing him.

His mind was absolute mush, shrouded in a thick layer of fog.

He stumbled out of bed and staggered toward the living room.

Much like suffering from a terrible hangover, his footsteps were unsteady. In just those few short steps, he bumped into the doorframe and then crashed against the sofa.

But upon laying eyes on the wine cabinet, Ming Po's footsteps abruptly halted.

Because he finally realized something.

He seemed to know exactly why his current condition was so dreadful.

He saw that the bottle of brandy, painted with the image of a massive monster wrapped entirely in black cloth, suddenly bore a hideous crack across its surface.

It was only a single crack, but it ran incredibly deep.

If the wine bottle were compared to a person, it would look like a massive, jagged wound slashed all the way from behind the ear down to the waist.

Because of this, nearly two-thirds of the liquor inside had leaked out.

While he had no idea how this had happened, Ming Po realized this seemed to be the true source of that intense emptiness he was feeling.

Ming Po shifted his gaze to the extra bottle of liquor that had appeared.

It was a bottle of red wine, seemingly port. Illustrated on its front was a Detective wearing a deerstalker hat and a khaki trench coat. The Detective's face was completely blurred, holding a magnifying glass in his hand.

With slightly trembling hands, Ming Po poured himself a glass from that bottle.

The rich, intense aroma of cherries and strawberries immediately assailed his nose, smelling incredibly appetizing.

As Ming Po downed the red wine in a single gulp, he thought he heard a faint sound, like thin ice being crushed underfoot.

Ming Po jolted, his eyes snapping wide open.

His scarlet pupils suddenly manifested, and then shattered!