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

”Motivation, after the truth is uncovered... shouldn’t you already know why I did this?”

”Those kids, didn’t they tell you why I did it?”

Radish spoke, and Lin Yu shrugged his shoulders.

”They did say something, basically that it was a contingency plan in case the push for Fourth Tier failed, or that it was for the sake of the Player Mutual Aid Association...”

Lin Yu paused after saying that.

”Unfortunately, Comrade Li Hua did not believe those explanations.”

Radish Grandpa sighed. ”I see. That young man Li Hua is indeed meticulous and cautious, no wonder he holds a high post even within Order.”

”And since he sent you... it seems you weren’t entirely convinced by those explanations either.”

Lin Yu nodded slightly.

”Yes, because it was unnecessary—even if your death, or the ’news’ of your being murdered, might bring about some of the changes you hope for within the Player Mutual Aid Association, that isn’t certain.”

”An uncertain plan isn’t worth staking your life on... is it?”

Lin Yu asked, and Radish Grandpa laughed.

”No wonder Li Hua sent you to do this.”

”Indeed, for us Players, our life is a very important matter.”

Radish Grandpa said with feeling.

After all, if someone doesn’t value their life or desperately want to survive, they wouldn’t join the Death Game in the first place.

For a Player, without a very special reason, it’s impossible to use one’s life as part of a ’plan.’

Certainly, there might be Players in the Death Game willing to sacrifice themselves, but to make a Player sacrifice...

What you’re asking for must be something extremely weighty.

Simply wanting the Player Mutual Aid Association to change is not enough to justify giving up one’s life.

Even if that organization was founded single-handedly by Radish Grandpa, its weight was still insufficient.

”So, what exactly were you doing it for?”

Lin Yu asked earnestly.

Hearing Lin Yu’s question, Radish Grandpa had to laugh at himself.

”Actually, the reasons they told you are the whole truth... I didn’t lie to them, nor did I intend to use them to deceive you.”

Radish Grandpa said this, and Lin Yu froze.

”What?”

He instinctively thought Radish Grandpa was still hiding something. Even within the scene constructed by the Ancient Notebook, even in the last sliver of consciousness in this remaining soul fragment, he expected the old man to keep concealing whatever he had hidden in life.

But...

Lin Yu could feel that Radish Grandpa was sincere.

The old man stood up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, looked at the tomato seedlings in the greenhouse, and spoke leisurely: ”I know this sounds hard to believe, but... that’s the truth.”

”Of course, it’s natural that you from Order would not believe, that you’d have doubts... after all, you shoulder so many responsibilities, you can’t afford the slightest mistake.”

”You’re not wrong either, I did hide some information from you... since you’ve used such means to ask me, I’ll just tell you and ease some of your worries.”

Radish Grandpa said this, then paused. ”Because I’m no longer like most Players who desperately want to live.”

”Maybe when the Death Game first chose me, I did have a strong desire to survive, but... the biggest reason that kept me alive is gone now.”

Radish Grandpa smiled and looked back at the house outside the greenhouse.

He remembered when he entered the game—it wasn’t anything special.

It was a very cold winter. His wife complained of chest pain in the middle of the night, so he rode his three-wheeled motorcycle to take her to the city hospital for emergency treatment. The road was icy, the tricycle skidded, and on an uphill stretch Radish Grandpa got off to push the vehicle.

In his hurry and because it was dark, he slipped and fell, hitting the back of his head and losing consciousness.

At death’s door, Radish Grandpa had only one thought...

He didn’t want to die, he had to live!

He still needed to take his wife to the hospital!

No, more than that... after coming back from the hospital, he still wanted to continue living his life—he had just built two more large greenhouses that could be used to grow vegetables, and any surplus he could send to the children in the city.

He heard that vegetables in the city were expensive and not great, while countryside-grown produce had become called natural, green, organic, and was in demand.

So he didn’t want to die, he wanted to live.

Then...

When he opened his eyes again, he was in an unfamiliar world—the bloody text before him told him this was the Death Game.

As an elderly man, he wasn’t as internet-savvy as the young folk, so Radish Grandpa’s first steps in the game were bumpy.

But fortunately, his first dungeon was a Survival type, and relying on the Farmer class’s advantages in Survival, he eventually rallied several Players to pass that difficult dungeon together.

Still, even though Radish did his best, several Players died in that dungeon—Radish never forgot them.

Two young men who were college students, and a mother with two kids, Radish knew they all had reasons, like him, that made them absolutely unable to die, but...

They still died.

After returning to reality, he sent his wife to the hospital, and she survived—the doctors kept saying his prompt delivery to the hospital made all the difference.

Radish was very happy, but he couldn’t help but think... what about those three who really died forever?

What would happen to their parents and children?

From that moment, this simple, kind farmer who had tilled the earth for most of his life suddenly felt he had to do something.

He wanted to live, and he wanted more people to live.

So... Radish tried to form a Mutual Aid Association. The idea was sound. Although Order had already been established at the time, it hadn’t yet formed an almost unshakeable ’order’, so many benevolent, friendly Players chose to join Radish in building the Mutual Aid Association.

That period was Radish’s most fulfilling time. Although things weren’t always smooth and ’death’ in the Death Game was common... someone who was laughing with you last week might be gone this week because they couldn’t survive a dungeon.

But for Radish, everything was moving toward the better—he couldn’t save everyone, but indeed more and more Players had more opportunities to survive because of the organization he founded—they were very grateful to him and to the association he built.

And Radish’s own life grew better... just as he expected, his vegetable greenhouses were very successful; the first year was a bumper crop.

When that harvest came, he and his wife ate vegetables they had grown themselves, their children rarely came back from the city together, and the family was harmonious. Radish couldn’t help but exclaim...

”How wonderful it is to be alive.”

But that was also the last time Radish Grandpa ever said, ”How wonderful it is to be alive.”