Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 176 The Gathering of the Lost
"Before the final trial begins, the silent wind, the unburned lighthouse,

And the names of those who have not yet returned—all await a reunion destined to be remembered."

The black fog surged like the tide of a dark sea, deep and slow, yet carrying an indescribable solemnity and oppression.

It was as if the whole world was wet at the junction of nightmare and abyss.

Lilia stood at the edge of the deck, tightly holding the pocket watch engraved with the word "Guidance".

The cold metal pressed against my palm, faintly revealing a faint warmth.

The needle pointed steadily to the center of the Sea of ​​Dreams, drawing a slender streak of cold light in the gray-blue mist.

Her eyes penetrated the thick sea fog, as if she could see the unrevealed drama ahead - the next challenge, the next bet of fate.

The wind beside me, carrying the fishy smell of the sea and the breath from the distant shore, came into my ears.

Footsteps sounded.

Ian walked out of the fog, a half-stubbed tobacco stick in his mouth, his steps as light and unrestrained as ever.

His cloak fluttered in the wind, two scimitars hung diagonally at his waist, and every step he took was like dancing in a non-existent ballroom.

"Hey, Lilia, don't just stand there in a daze, like a goddess praying in a cemetery."

He grinned, a long-lost levity in his voice.

Lilia turned her head and rolled her eyes at him, but she still managed to laugh. Her voice was like the sound of a bell in the fog. "Don't treat this as a tavern for your pleasure."

Next up, it was Rex.

He emerged silently from the fog, still carrying the heavily modified "Gun of Fool" on his shoulder.

He did not speak, but just stood there quietly, his eyes passing through the bow, over the crowd, staring towards the deepest part of the sea city.

There was something heavy and painful in his eyes, those names, those faces, those dead who had sunk to the bottom of the sea but still whispered in his ears.

Alison was the fourth to show up.

Her windbreaker was straight and her sword clanged at her waist.

As she approached, every step she took was like stepping out of a military formation, but the moment she saw Lilia, some of her sharpness faded.

She reached out and gently pressed Lilia's shoulder. Although her tone was stern, it was also filled with the softness hidden deep within like an older sister: "Don't act alone next time."

Lilia lowered her head, her voice holding a hint of stubbornness and a hint of smile: "I...I just want to help everyone."

A slight draft stirred the fog layer.

Sima Ming and Celian arrived side by side.

"Oh, are you all here?" Siming spoke with the same nonchalant tone.

His eyes reflected the mist, and there was an ominous confusion in his eyes.

He was playing with a spade playing card between his fingers, holding it face down without revealing the card face, so he didn't know whether it was real or fake.

"You're walking too slowly!" Celia complained immediately, her arms folded across her chest, her silver hair twirling in the wind.

"You are always so slow, really not like a master." She curled her lips.

"This isn't the first time you've said this." Siming coughed lightly, as if trying to hide something. "But you still followed me, didn't you?"

"Hmph." Celia drew out the last line of her voice, looking like someone who was not willing to go far but was not willing to give in.

boom--!
The floor suddenly shook.

The last footsteps were as heavy as war drums.

Baroque emerged from the thick fog like a moving iron wall, carrying on his back the giant axe that could almost split the entire deck.
All the strength in his body seemed to be condensed from the underwater storm.

"Stop making noise, what can you do? You made me wait for so long!" He roared, and his voice shook the mast slightly.

Lilia raised her hand and gestured lightly, then said with a smile, "You came too early."

Everyone looked at each other, and a long-lost sense of ease emerged from the mist. Their smiles were tinged with scars, yet more genuine than ever.

A final voice was heard from the fog, deep and with a certain steady appeal.

"Lilia."

As soon as that voice appeared, everyone stopped.

Calvino walked slowly, his black hat blown up by the wind, revealing his deep yet slightly tired eyes.

Every step he took seemed to come from the bottom of the dream sea, and when his heels landed on the deck, the sound of the waves echoed.

He looked at everyone, scanning their faces one by one, as if he wanted to confirm their existence over and over in his mind - not a dream, not an illusion, not a hallucination replayed.

"They're all here." He said softly, his tone calm, but it set off a surge as still as a mountain in the sea fog.

At this moment, there were no extra tactics, no next plan, only them - the captain and his crew, finally reunited.

The wind blew through the tattered sails and blew the flag that never fell.

They are back, really all back.

The black fog rolled like the tide of a dream sea, raising the final surge.

Lilia stood at the edge of the deck, her fingertips lightly touching the sleepless pocket watch engraved with the word "Guidance". The cold light slid down from the dial, like tiny meteors in the night.

Her gaze penetrated the fog and looked straight to the junction of sea and sky, the unknown end of destiny.

Behind her, everyone slowly gathered in the center of the deck.

Five cards were laid out in sequence, like a warrior unfurling a banner, yet they emanated a lingering ripple of power that could not be violated. Lilia took the lead by placing "Dream Script Builder Sabellius" on the wooden board. The pages curled slightly, and the script flipped like a whisper in a dream, as if it were still revising itself.

Alison threw the "Mirror Sea". The moment the card landed, a mirror phantom emerged with the wind, and cracks drifted in the air.

Reflecting everyone's shadow - everyone is being re-examined.

Ian silently presented "The End of Silence", with a momentary soft light reflected in his eyes, which was a silent farewell to an unfinished life.

Rex and Sima Ming put down their cards almost at the same time - "Abyss of the Broken Chapter" and "Empty Corridor", overlapping on the deck like two coffins of memories, quietly waiting for the echo of falling to the ground.

And at the moment when the last piece of "Empty Corridor" landed on the ground——

The weather suddenly changed.

The sea surface seemed to be stirred by some indescribable touch, and dark blue whirlpools spiraled up from the bottom of the ship. The five cards rotated on their own, making a low roar.

The light on the card surface climbed and coiled like a living thing, reaching straight into the sky, like the tentacles of the Nightmare Lord penetrating the veil between reality and dreams.

A huge gate slowly "split open" between the sea and the sky.

That's not a door.

It was an indescribable "dream wound" - a sea fog wound with the word "sleep" written on it. Behind the crimson fog wall was pure black, the shape of an unnameable abyss.

A voice came from the fog.

It is neither human nor divine.

It was the echo of the entire ocean: the waves, the wind, the whispers, the sobs, and the singing.

"The crew of the Lost One—"

The sound was like a hundred dreams overlapping, a thousand words replayed, and all things replicated, slowly hammering into the bones from all directions.

"Welcome to the end of the Dream Sea."

"Please—take your 'Sleepless Pocket Watch' and step into the ultimate dream."

As the voice fell, the entire sea and sky shook.

The five cards seemed to be ignited by some higher-dimensional rules, spinning like stars on their axis.

Scripts, mirrors, chessboards, memories, the island of the end…they merge, dislocate, overlap, and tear a crack in the air that is close to the "truth".

Behind the crack, an "eye" suddenly emerged.

A huge, inverted, pupil-less eye, covered with fine mirror patterns, opened to everyone.

The moment it opened, the sea water began to burn, the air froze, language could not be conveyed, and thoughts were compressed.

That is not space, but an existence that defines the "ultimate dream".

Everyone's sleepless pocket watches resonated and ticked, and the rhythm no longer felt like the passage of time, but rather a countdown—a countdown to "existence."

Lilia clenched her pocket watch tightly, cold sweat breaking out on her palms.

Ian frowned, and for the first time in front of everyone, he took off his playful smile and whispered, "This place... is not right."

Alison's hand gripping the hilt of the sword trembled slightly. She didn't say anything, but her eyes were as sharp as a drawn blade.

Rex looked down at his pocket watch, the hands of which moved quietly—he had clearly not been lost in thought, yet he had lost his lucidity.

"It's reading us," he said hoarsely, his eyes sinking into the abyss. "Even our unspoken dreams... are being peeled back."

Baroque spat, and the axe touched the ground with a "hiss", leaving a burn mark.

"I hate these things that play with people's hearts the most."

Sima Ming stood at the end of the team, his eyes no longer reflecting the light of fate, but instead a look of contemplation.

He didn't speak immediately, but just looked at the center of the "eye", the crack in the endless vortex, as if confronting some kind of gaze.

Finally, Calvino spoke.

He looked up, gazing at the door, the eye, the entrance to the end.

His expression did not waver, as if he had foreseen this, and as if he had finally returned to the position that fate had assigned him.

"——Let's go."

“At the end of a dream, someone must see it.”

The moment the words fell, the thick fog rolled up and spread out like waves.

Behind that door is a deep-sea void that is collapsing and reshaping at the same time, and even the edges of the soul are being melted.

There is no more way out.

They looked at each other and nodded in tacit understanding.

The destiny has not yet been written, the final chapter has not yet been written.

They took the last step into the deepest part of the sea of ​​dreams.

The wind blows and the fog whistles, like wind but not wind, like a song but not a song, like crying but not crying, like - another world is gently opening.

The final trial of Menghai has officially begun.

"Deep in that forgotten sea of ​​dreams, they set foot on not only the end of their destiny, but also the other side from which they could never return."

——"Dream Sea: Final Trial" begins.

(End of this chapter)