Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 197 The Invitation and the Price of the Door

"The madman isn't the first to break down."
Rather, they were the first to see the cracks in the world.

The intense sensation of falling tore through everyone's senses.

It was as if the entire space had been folded into a sheet of paper, then violently crumpled and thrown into a falling abyss in an instant.

They were like discarded chess pieces, thrown into an unknown maze by the invisible hand of a dream.

At that moment, there was no direction, no time, only tumbling, tearing, and the detached feeling of light burning in the nerves.

"what--!"

"My eyes—I can't see!"

"What is this place?!"

Are we dead?!

When vision finally returned, everything came to a standstill.

They crashed in the center of a desolate, eerily silent urban park square.

All around were cracked cement tiles, overgrown weeds, and rust covering the withered swing set. The jagged carousel spun on its own without wind, like a cursed, corpse doll.

In the distance, the city's outline is fragmented, as if pieced together by a drunken painter under the sky, without perspective, proportion, or logic.

The sky was a sickly gray-blue, with thick, dark clouds hanging high like solidified asphalt, seemingly weighing a ton, yet never bringing rain.

The wind lost its sense of direction in this fault-bounded world; it could neither move the leaves nor dispel the fear.

People slumped down, screamed, and gasped for breath, as if they had just been thrown from the depths of hell back onto a stage where no rules applied.

Wang Yichen was the first to react. He was still in shock, holding his knees, his lips were white, and his eyes looked like those of a bystander who had just returned from a live broadcast of a bloody disaster.

"Where...are we? Are we still alive?"

Eileen stared blankly at her hands, unsure if they still belonged to her.

Fujimiya Sumire huddled at the edge of the broken fountain, hugging her knees and cowering, tears silently streaming down her face, afraid to make a sound.

But in the heart of this chaos and wailing, three people slowly rose to their feet.

Siming, Vera, and Zhuang Yege.

They remained calm, undaunted, and silent. They simply stood there, observing each other.
Like three chess pieces reunited after a long separation, returning to their places on an absurd and distorted chessboard.

Si Ming slowly pulled an antique bronze coin from inside his trench coat. In the light and shadow, one side of the coin was engraved with a twisted door.

On the other side is an embossed mark of "The Garden and the Mysterious Master".

Zhuang Yege took out a gray metal badge with the words "Fengdu Gate · Yin Envoy No. 784" engraved on its sharp edge.

Vera removed the pendant from her neck, and a ring of cold, luminous glass trembled slightly in the wind, engraved with "Hymn of the Angels - First-Class Seal".

The three spoke almost simultaneously, their voices different, yet perfectly in sync:

"Belongs to the Mysterious Masters Guild".

The wind stopped.

They can finally start talking.

The three slowly stood around the broken fountain in the park, unaware that the ordinary people who were looking around in fear had no idea...

The three people beside them were whispering as they constructed the underlying script of this game.

“It seems we’ve all received that letter,” Vera said first, her voice calm yet possessing a reassuring magnetism.

She pulled a crumpled but untorn parchment letter from inside her trench coat.

The triple pattern on the wax seal shimmered with dark gold ripples in the light: a cracked maze, a grinning eyeball, and a burning playing card.

“Sender: ‘The Thirteenth Madman’,” Zhuang Yege read the signature on the letter in a low, hoarse voice.

His gaze was as cold as the rust of an ancient temple bell. "Seven days ago, the Fengdu Gate headquarters received this inter-domain letter. At first, they thought it was the echo of an old god. Now it seems to be an extremely precise provocation."

Si Ming glanced at the letter and smiled lazily: "The news came from the Sea of ​​Dreams. It says that believers of Illusion and Slumber are imprisoned here."

“They’re not afraid of death,” Vera said calmly, “but of this madman… trying to open a door that shouldn’t exist.”

"If the truth of this game becomes known to the outside world, the existence of the Gate World will no longer be a secret."

Zhuang Yege nodded: "That's why we came."

“It’s not about saving people,” Si Ming continued.

“It’s to silence them,” Vera said in a tone as light as if she were talking about the weather. “It’s to seal the door.”

The three exchanged glances, silently reaching a consensus.

They are not bystanders, challengers, or redeemers.

They are the sealers, the "final act writers" who came for this absurd feast.

Meanwhile, on the broken stone steps on the other side of the park, panic and chaos among ordinary people were rapidly brewing, like an emotional storm about to spiral out of control.

"I don't want to die here!"

"Where am I?! What kind of ridiculous setting is this?!"

"Have we...traveled to another time? Are you kidding me?!"

"Who can tell me who's playing us?!"

The crowd was noisy, with shouts rising and falling, filled with panic, anger, confusion, and despair, as if they were being forced into a sealed boiler from which they could not escape, making every breath heavy.

Some people knelt down in terror, clutching their heads, while others ran around trying to find an exit, only to bump into the cracked edges of the ruins.

The dilapidated swing continued to turn in the still air, creaking and groaning as if mocking them.

Just as things were spiraling out of control, Wang Yichen stood up.

He slowly scanned his surroundings, his eyes no longer displaying the humor and composure he had shown during the previous live stream, only a cold, pale expression remained.

His fingers trembled, yet with an almost hysterical force, pointing directly at the three people—Si Ming, Vera, and Zhuang Yege.

"You—you knew all along, didn't you?!"

He nearly roared, his voice exploding across the ruined square like a long-suppressed thunderclap:
"Those games, monsters, death, challenges... you've been putting on a show that we can't understand from beginning to end!"

His question lingered in the air for a long time.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, and all eyes turned to the three isolated figures.

Vera stepped forward slowly, sighed softly, her eyes clear, her voice gentle yet reaching everyone's ears.

"We are neither the enemy nor your manipulators."

She paused, her tone carrying an undeniable sense of pity.

“I know you are scared, and I know you need to vent your anger right now... but please, calm down and listen to me.”

She raised her head, gazing at the chaotic gray-blue sky above the ruins, as if proclaiming a truth older than this world:

"The world you originally lived in was one of countless 'door worlds.' Those 'doors' are natural rifts connecting worlds, tentacles of the unknown. And we—"

She slowly raised her left hand, and the back of her palm radiated the light of the star map of destiny, a mark of order, a universal inscription recognized by the world itself.

"We are the 'Mysterious Masters.' We are the recorders, traversers, and repairers of the world's rifts."

"And you—"

She withdrew her hand and looked at everyone. Her gaze was gentle and calm, yet it was as if a god were looking down at a flickering candle in the wind.

“You are the ‘innocent’ ones who were dragged into this drama from your original world by that madman…”

Eileen slumped to the ground, muttering to herself, "So...we're the unlucky ones who were chosen?"

Fujimiya Sumi bit her lip and murmured, "We... are the ones who are buried alive, aren't we?"

The anger in the crowd was reignited, and the questioning boiled over once more.

"Since you knew all along, why didn't you stop it?! Why didn't you save us?! You can escape, but what about us?!"

Wang Yichen gritted his teeth, his anger barely contained: "So you knew we were going to die, didn't you? You knew from the very beginning?!"

At this moment, Si Ming finally spoke.

His voice was cold, like a knife piercing to the bone, every word undisguised:
"We're not here to die with you."

"But I'm not here to live alongside you."

There was silence.

Those words were like a cold iron rod, striking the back of everyone's head hard, instantly waking them from their wishful thinking and illusions.

Everyone knew that the three people standing in the distance, though they appeared to be human, were no longer part of their "category".

It is an existence that cannot be caught up with or emulated—

Like a godlike bystander, he coldly watched as all beings struggled in the flames of karma.

Wang Yichen sneered, his voice low and deep, like a cold, hard pebble thrown into an already murky lake: "What a 'calm bystander'."

"You're not here to die with us, nor are you here to live with us." He approached step by step, his tone carrying the sharp edge of a accusation.
"Then what are we? Chips? Props? NPCs? You watch the game peacefully from the upper levels of the chessboard, while we step in and become mincemeat."

He pointed at Si Ming, his voice finally almost roaring: "You guys have been playing with your lives from the very beginning, while we were thrown onto the table without even knowing the game's name!"

His anger quickly ignited in the hearts of all the ordinary people present.

Eileen cried, her sobs broken, as if the fear that had been suppressed to the limit had finally found an outlet.

She curled up, hugging her knees, her voice trembling with resentment: "This is hell...this is hell...we have no choice but to live."

Duan Xingzhou gritted his teeth and roared, "Then how are we supposed to survive? You're planning to... just leave us here and walk away?!"

Rudolf remained silent, staring at the ground with an unreadable expression, but his silent stance was enough to show his position.

The crowd's anger seemed to converge into a heavy wave, rushing straight towards the three calm and collected sorcerers.

Vera did not back down; instead, she took a half-step forward and said gently but firmly, "We were once ordinary people too."

She looked down at the life-marking star chart on her palm, her gaze dimming slightly, before slowly raising it again.

"It is the world that gives us the ability to cross the door, but the price is that we must maintain 'order' for the world."

She gazed at the absurd city pieced together from ruins, her voice low yet resolute: "This city is not your home."

It is a theater built by a madman, a rift between worlds, and the edge of nightmares and collapse.

Our gamble with the madman will determine whether all this continues to collapse.

She scanned the crowd, her voice low yet gentle:
"I can't guarantee that everyone will leave alive, but I can guarantee that if you follow my advice, there is a chance to survive."

Zhuang Yege finally spoke, his tone as calm as ever: "I suggest we start dividing into preliminary groups now. Everyone must travel in pairs and no one may leave their group without permission."

Si Ming didn't say much, but simply put his hands in his pockets and added casually:
"Of course, if you leave the team without permission, we will consider it as you voluntarily leaving the group, losing your protection, and we will no longer be responsible for you."

His voice was cold and sharp, like a clearly drawn line that completely separated "reality" from "luck".

Wang Yichen's throat bobbed a few times, but he ultimately remained silent, his face ashen, unable to refute.

An invisible consensus slowly took shape in the air.

Fujimiya Sumi hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "I...I'm willing to go with you."

Her voice was like the first drop of rain in the rainy season, faint yet shaking the silence.

Mu Sisi quickly followed, "I don't want to die alone either... I'll be good, I really will!"

Lin Wan'er nodded silently, her eyes still filled with fear, but she finally chose to lean on him.

Rudolf spoke slowly: "I still have many questions unanswered... but I know I'm more afraid of getting lost."

Finally, Wang Yichen turned his face away and snorted coldly, "You'll regret this."

—A minimal "temporary consensus" was reached on the edge of ruins.

At that moment, the wind swept by silently, rustling the broken warning signs and the snapped swing, as if a voice long gone was whispering in my ear.

Mu Sisi suddenly stood on the edge of the broken park, staring blankly into the distance, her voice hoarse and dry: "Don't you guys think... this place isn't a 'city' at all?"

Everyone followed her gaze, and their eyes froze in an instant.

It was a scene that completely defied logic and the rules of reality—

A broken road stretches straight ahead, but suddenly collapses at its end, connecting to a floating street that resembles a puzzle piece from another dimension.

Buildings stood upside down, seemingly glued to the air, while streets twisted and intertwined in mid-air, as if collaged by a madman on a three-dimensional canvas.

Half of a skyscraper was still brightly lit, and an announcement could be heard from inside the floor-to-ceiling windows: "Welcome home, reserve your smart life."

The other half had already collapsed, as if it had been devoured by a giant beast, with blood-red concrete mortar dripping from the outer wall.

Further away, an empty Ferris wheel slowly rotated, its gears creaking and groaning, each rotation sounding like a mournful cry from the depths of a nightmare.

Lin Wan'er murmured, "This isn't a city...this isn't the human world..."

Vera replied softly, "This is the 'City of Shattered Gates'."

"All the forgotten, sealed, and misunderstood 'doors,' their fragments, remains, and nightmare components are trapped in this unnumbered fragment of the world."

Zhuang Yege looked up at the starless sky and whispered, "This isn't a madman's stage... this is the reality he accidentally vomited out while dreaming."

Before he finished speaking, everyone fell into a chilling silence.

The wind grew colder.

The streetlights came on at some unknown time, one after another, in a neat row, pointing directly at the dark street leading to the twisted city.

It felt like an invitation, or perhaps a trial was about to begin.

"This city is not a ruin."
It is an echo of the world.

Each door was not closed properly.
This will all lead to—another madman.

(End of this chapter)