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

As time passed, more and more people arrived at the Land of Certain Death, taking their seats in the spectator stands.

And besides those directly involved in this bet, a growing number of purely unrelated spectators—those with no stake in the contest—also showed up.

Among them were faces Lin Yu recognized.

For instance, Phoenix, Mosin-Nagant, Hundred-Tempered Steel...

It seemed that every prominent figure among the players who had the time had made their way to the spectator stands.

Most of them sat grouped by their organizations, so even unfamiliar faces allowed Lin Yu to roughly deduce their affiliations.

Lin Yu couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled.

”Is this ’Land of Certain Death’ entry ticket really that easy to get?”

”The God of Fairness and Judgement is more generous than you think,” Li Hua explained. ”Especially for us in Order... ever since the General established a cooperative relationship with Him, Order alone hands out over a dozen tickets every month as rewards for outstanding members. And that’s not even counting the fact that this item can be obtained in normal dungeons as well.”

Lin Yu nodded. ”I see.”

Tycoon, who had just arrived and sat down among the Order crowd, chimed in: ”That said, once word got out that Order and the Free Alliance were going to settle their bet here in the Land of Certain Death, the price of [Land of Certain Death Spectator Entry Tickets] in the gathering skyrocketed. They became incredibly sought after.”

”After all, normally, these items just let you come to the ’Land of Certain Death’ to watch prisoners in the ’Eternal Cage’ fight it out for sentence reductions. But top-tier experts from renowned organizations going head-to-head... that’s a rare sight.”

”Watching other high-level players in combat can be a huge help in choosing your own path.”

Tycoon said with a smile.

Lin Yu glanced over at the opposite spectator stands. ”But I’m sure there are people here just to gather intel.”

Because he had already spotted some other ”familiar faces.”

For example, Fish from the Marauders.

And also, Dolantine from the Psychological Society.

Judging by the groups seated around them, it seemed both the Marauders and the Psychological Society had sent delegations.

Of course, the Psychological Society’s presence wasn’t entirely unjustified—after all, Zhu Ming’s current identity was still that of Clozapine within the Psychological Society.

As for the Marauders... they were probably just here for the spectacle.

The Night Watchmen and Order were seated practically side by side, and upon hearing this, Seagull from the Night Watchmen nearby began to complain.

”Ugh, seriously? Isn’t the General pretty chummy with the god in charge here? Why not just sweep them all up in one go?”

A calm voice answered Seagull’s question.

”Because the General only has a cooperative relationship with Him—it’s not that close... To be honest, dealings with these gods are quite complicated.”

Hearing this voice, quite a few people who hadn’t been involved in the discussion turned their heads, and then a whole row of them stood up.

”Comrade Grandmaster, what brings you here?”

Lin Yu turned around and once again saw that figure dressed in a white training outfit, with her hair tied up in a ponytail.

This was the second time he had seen this top-ranked expert, number three on the leaderboard.

And then, everyone noticed that Grandmaster was accompanied by an ordinary-looking man who seemed a bit drowsy, yawning repeatedly. Exclamations of surprise rang out again.

”And Teacher Bi Fang? Teacher Bi Fang is here too!”

Those from the Night Watchmen surged forward to greet him.

Lin Yu caught the name and realized who it was.

One of the Night Watchmen’s strongest experts, ranked fifteenth—Bi Fang!

Even Li Hua looked quite surprised. ”You two—what brings you here? Why didn’t you give us a heads-up?”

Bi Fang waved a hand dismissively. ”We were called in by the General to hold the fort, of course. After all... over there, a Fourth Tier expert has shown up.”

”If it were just the Comedian, Tycoon alone would be enough... But since they’re bringing in big shots, we can’t afford to lose face on our side.”

As she spoke, her gaze crossed the arena, landing on the spectator stands on the other side.

Over there... chaos had also erupted.

Both the Marauders and the Psychological Society seemed to have extremely heavyweight figures arriving.

Lin Yu looked into the distance and spotted two figures surrounded like stars around a moon.

Without needing to ask, someone immediately identified one of the arrivals on that side.

”It’s Wundt,” Tycoon said through gritted teeth as he stood up, glaring at the man in an overcoat with a mustache across the way. ”Wundt from the Psychological Society!”

And the other one, Lin Yu recognized on his own.

A young man with white hair, dressed in a green robe and cloth shoes, smiled gently as he waved lightly in their direction.

”Long time no see, Grandmaster, Bi Fang.”

His voice carried on the wind, not loud, yet it landed clearly in everyone’s ears.

Of course—it was the Diviner!

Bi Fang didn’t acknowledge the voice. Instead, she turned to Seagull and said, ”Hey, Seagull, I’m gonna catch some shut-eye. Wake me when Nicholas goes on... Actually, forget it if I don’t wake up. Just make sure to get me up for Robin’s match. Snowy Owl, I don’t care about.”

With that, Bi Fang pulled out an eye mask and a U-shaped travel pillow from the bag on her back, leaned back in her seat, and was asleep within a second.

As for Grandmaster, she spotted the Diviner and raised a hand, beckoning him.

”There’s still some time before the ’bet.’ How about we have an exhibition match first to liven things up? I’m sure the God of Fairness and Judgement would be happy to see it.”

The Diviner let out a laugh.

”Ha ha—no.”

”I’m just here to watch today. Fighting you in the Land of Certain Death would do me absolutely no good.”

He said calmly, and Grandmaster then sat back down.

”Coward.”

Grandmaster commented flatly, saying nothing more.

The Diviner didn’t argue, simply playing with the copper coins in his hand.

After the top-tier bosses from each organization had taken their seats, the atmosphere in the spectator stands clearly became less relaxed than before. The discussions, exchanges, and pleasantries among the crowd grew much more cautious.

Lin Yu watched these leaderboard-listed experts settle in. Though he appeared calm in his seat, inside, he was actually... a bit excited.

”This stage is even bigger than I imagined,” Lin Yu thought, looking at the players staring intently at the arena with eager expressions on their faces. He took two deep breaths. ”The performance put on here... the moment it ends, it’ll spread throughout the entire player community!”

This was truly... exhilarating.

More importantly—

He raised his eyes toward the section where Mosin-Nagant, Chris, and a group of unaffiliated ”Independents” were seated.

In the middle of them... sat another person Lin Yu knew.

And she should have been sitting in the Psychological Society’s section, but instead, she had taken a seat alone among these Independents.

Though she wore a mask and a baseball cap, dressed in plain, unassuming clothes, Lin Yu could still recognize her just by her eyes.

”Just as I thought, you wouldn’t miss a spectacle like this... Fluoxetine.”