Death Game: Starting as a Trickster, Pretending to Be a God

”Old man, you’re pretty good at doing the math.”

”You just saved a few thousand on this trip’s fare alone.”

Mosin-Nagant sat in the driver’s seat of a Nissan SUV, watching Radish Grandpa happily fiddling with his tablet in the passenger seat and couldn’t help but remark.

Radish Grandpa looked up and smiled.

”Oh, youngster… Aren’t you coming too? Consider this a free ride!”

”Besides, I didn’t exactly not pay you.”

The little old man said cheerfully. Mosin-Nagant sighed.

”Honestly, thirty thousand yuan really is a bargain for me…”

”The jobs are different, comrade Mo,” Radish Grandpa said kindly, ”I didn’t hire you to go kill someone, just to protect me a bit.”

”Fair point. Although the more I think about it, this task doesn’t seem that much easier than killing someone.”

Mosin-Nagant smiled wryly, helpless.

He drove slowly along the road in the southern suburbs of Jiangcheng through the curtain of rain. The windshield wipers thrashed wildly, sweeping away the rain that seemed to have been splashed across the windshield. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel✶fire.net

The heavy downpour and the dusk-darkening sky made visibility poor. This stretch of road was an abandoned, unfinished overpass, so Mosin-Nagant naturally dared not speed.

Radish had contacted him that morning — after an hour and a half of bargaining, paying thirty thousand yuan, Mosin-Nagant agreed to give the old man a lift and take responsibility for his safety.

”Come to think of it, we’re facing Fluoxetine, Fish, and those others… and they might each have brought people,” Mosin-Nagant sighed. ”This isn’t exactly low difficulty. Can I get more pay?”

”Comrade Mo, business needs to be based on integrity. We agreed on thirty thousand as a flat rate,” Radish Grandpa leaned back and continued scrolling his tablet. ”Of course, if the situation gets truly dangerous, extra pay afterward isn’t impossible.”

Mosin-Nagant kept driving slowly, a faint worry on his face.

He steered around several knocked-over barricades in the middle of the road and, hugging the edge, drove up a short on-ramp.

”Money aside, I’m actually kind of curious—why did you pick me?”

”Just because I’m coming too? I’m no saint — I’m a bounty hunter with blood on my hands. Aren’t you afraid I’ll secretly kill you and cash in the bounty?”

”Unbelievable!”

The tablet in Radish Grandpa’s hands emitted an English exclamation;his casual mobile game had been cleared.

Radish set the tablet down and answered Mosin-Nagant’s question.

”A lot of how people appear is decided by their environment. When granaries are full, people know etiquette… After joining the Death Game, it’s normal to see people act more extremely.”

”So even if you’re a bounty hunter, I don’t automatically deem you ’bad.’ Once death has become normalized in this group… the moral consensus and standards among Death Game players is precisely something that requires discussion.”

Mosin-Nagant glanced incredulously at the little old farmer. He hadn’t expected such thought-provoking words to come from this rustic elderly man.

”Besides,” Radish Grandpa noticed Mosin-Nagant’s look and a sly smile crept onto his face, ”it’s precisely because you’re a bounty hunter that I’m at ease… I checked the Hunters’ Association bounty for me — it’s only twelve thousand.”

”The reward I’m giving you is thirty thousand.”

”Even half of that final payment trumps my listed bounty.”

Radish Grandpa said cheerily.

Mosin-Nagant tugged a corner of his mouth. ”So that’s where the pay comes from, huh?”

He slowly stopped the car at the roadside.

This southern segment of the overpass had barely been built before being abandoned;after the ramp, the road surface ended abruptly in less than a kilometer.

The pavement showed clear signs of collapse.

”But why not call some members of the Player Mutual Aid Association?”

When the car stopped, Mosin-Nagant asked the last question.

Radish Grandpa didn’t answer immediately;after a long silence he sighed.

”To be honest, I’m not very fond of the Player Mutual Aid Association anymore…”

Hearing that there might be more to the story, Mosin-Nagant didn’t press further.

”Alright, we’re here anyway… Let’s get out.”

”Looks like we’re the first group to arrive.”

Mosin-Nagant opened the door, popped open a folding umbrella, and stepped out.

But the umbrella barely helped.

Swift gusts on the overpass turned the umbrella inside out, and rain whipped onto Mosin-Nagant directly.

The ground was dotted with puddle-filled hollows;water pooled into them and streamed toward beneath the overpass, the flow soaking through Mosin-Nagant’s sneakers like a mountain brook.

”Damn.”

He spat in annoyance.

It hadn’t been raining in the city he left from.

On the other hand, Radish Grandpa stepped out wearing an old-style bamboo hat and flip-flops.

Surprisingly, the hat acted like an invisible shield, keeping the rain off entirely.

Radish silently walked over to Mosin-Nagant and sheltered part of him from the rain.

Mosin-Nagant nodded in thanks.

”Thanks.”

The two moved in tacit agreement, pacing around the overpass to survey the area.

They didn’t know why Fluoxetine had called them here. Both of them had life-saving trump cards and escape tools.

But since they arrived early, scouting the terrain was necessary.

Mosin-Nagant even set up a few traps in the corners — several spring traps and trip lines.

Radish Grandpa scattered some mysterious seeds into various nooks.

While the two were busy…

Soon Phantom arrived.

A white dove flew up from the broken edge of the overpass, clutching a hat in its beak.

The pigeon disappeared and Phantom crawled out of the hat.

”Whew—made it.”

Whether out of caution toward Fluoxetine or awareness that Order would have planted watchful eyes nearby, the rest of the Free Alliance did not appear.

Phantom adjusted his bowler hat and greeted the two on the overpass cheerfully.

”Good evening! Nice to see you again!”

Mosin-Nagant felt uneasy at Phantom’s enthusiasm, but Radish Grandpa smiled and nodded.

”Good to see you too.”

Following Phantom up the ramp walked Li Hua and Robin.

But they weren’t alone.

Li Hua was with Tycoon, and Robin was with Snowy Owl.

The four’s arrival made Mosin-Nagant even more uncomfortable.

”That’s a lot of people. Those two shouldn’t be on Fluoxetine’s invitation list, right?”

Mosin-Nagant muttered.

Li Hua, wearing a transparent raincoat, shook his head. ”As a member of Order, why should I care about the rules set by the Psychological Society’s lunatic?”

Phantom laughed. ”Makes sense.”

He then stealthily moved to stand near a crack in the road.

No sooner had Phantom stepped there than there was a ”bang” beneath his foot.

A metal grappling hook slammed into the exposed rebar on the broken pavement.

Then…

With the spool whirring and the line tightening with a ”sssh” sound, Fish sprang up.

She landed, glared at Li Hua’s group, and cursed before pulling a long spear from her embrace.

”Shit, you lot are clustering again?”

But seeing they didn’t intend to fight her, Fish didn’t take further action.

She looked around for a moment and asked, puzzled,

”Where’s Fluoxetine?”