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

Inside a hotel within Lilee City.

After Phoenix had paid to open a room, everyone sat down in the spacious yet shabby room that looked worse than a township state-run guesthouse from the last century.

Sitting on a creaky, broken wooden bed, with Kui—who seemed familiar with everyone, even acting as if she already knew everything about “Schreiber,” whom she had just met—acting as the introducer, everyone quickly got to know each other.

Lin Yu learned that the man called “Brother Qi,” who looked somewhat weathered and wild, was currently at the Third Tier. He had once joined the Player Mutual Aid Association but had since withdrawn and now belonged to no organization.

His real code name wasn’t “Brother Qi” but “Lone Boat.”

Being directly called Brother Qi meant that his real name had likely been found out by Kui through some means.

His Class was “Traveler,” and he was relatively familiar with the “Pure Abyss” world, but he wasn’t completely clueless about “Night Valley” either—he had some foundation there.

Beyond the information presented, Lin Yu also picked up many details by observing the other person—his skin was dark but healthy in color, without excessive sunspots or wrinkles. Although he had a beard, it was carefully groomed and probably waxed daily.

He probably loved life, which was why he had awakened the “Traveler” Class and given himself the code name “Lone Boat.”

His accent was standard Mandarin, but when he spoke quickly, a slight northwestern twang slipped through.

In short... he seemed like a decent guy.

Meanwhile, Brother Qi and Fish also learned Lin Yu’s “identity information.”

“Schreiber,” Second Tier, also unattached to any organization.

Since he was only Second Tier, his direct combat strength wasn’t that important.

What mattered was that this guy possessed the “Golden Cross Medal”—and it had been half-sold, half-gifted to him by some player he knew, an incredibly valuable Item.

“I can’t believe there’s actually a player who got a Golden Cross Medal and was generous enough to just give it away,” Brother Qi said, looking at the Golden Cross Medal with emotion. “You’re really lucky, Schreiber.”

“Indeed, very lucky to have received help from some seniors.”

“I seem to have always been fortunate... meeting you several Third Tier experts in this dungeon means I might just get through it easily again.”

Lin Yu said with a smile.

He deliberately steered the conversation toward the number of Third Tiers—because he remembered that Kui had also noticed this quantity earlier.

Sure enough, Kui spoke up again.

“Tsk, that might not be a good thing, you know. Besides you, everyone else is Third Tier... When four out of five players are Third Tier, and all four of us have unlocked our third privilege, it means this dungeon is bound to be tough.”

“The only Second Tier... Although Schreiber isn’t famous, just carrying a Golden Cross Medal in the Night Valley Realm means you can’t be treated as an ordinary Second Tier.”

Fish sighed. “Saying that makes me feel like there’s definitely trouble hidden here... Ugh, the last time I saw such a high concentration of Third Tiers in a dungeon was in a god’s domain.”

Lin Yu had a rough idea which dungeon Fish was talking about, but with his current identity, he certainly wouldn’t chime in on that topic.

Brother Qi tried to reassure everyone. “But since it’s not entirely Third Tier, it’s unlikely to directly involve gods or the Chosen One. If we were all Third Tier, that’s when we’d really need to tread carefully... As long as there’s a Second Tier, it means the lower limit of this dungeon won’t be too ridiculous.”

He paused, then added half-jokingly, “Of course, that’s assuming Schreiber isn’t one of those Second Tier monsters with abilities rivaling a Third Tier... Lately, there have been two famous Second Tiers who won in the Land of Certain Death showdown between Order and the Free Alliance...”

“Oh, I watched that.”

Fish spoke up.

“I was there too. The two you mentioned—one is called ‘Director,’ who previously used the fake alias ‘May May,’ and the other is ‘Zhu Ming,’ who just joined the Free Alliance and renamed herself ‘Dog Trainer,’” Phoenix said, letting out a breath. “Those two... are terrifyingly outrageous.”

“I heard that Director has a record of killing a Third Tier...”

Kui said, stroking her chin.

“Oh, I know a bit about that. Our boss calculated it... Apparently, Twenty’s death is indirectly related to him.”

Kui raised an eyebrow. “Twenty, huh? Indirectly causing Twenty’s death... That’s probably not much different from directly killing a Third Tier.”

“There might be a forced invasion into a low-tier dungeon involved, and it seems other Chosen Ones helped, making it unclear even to our boss,” Fish explained. “Anyway... That Director guy is really something else.”

“If that’s the case, if I got matched into a dungeon with him, I’d rather choose an ordinary Third Tier,” Brother Qi said emotionally, then looked at Lin Yu. “But lucky for us, it’s you, Brother Schreiber...”

“Ah, being praised for being weak—I can’t exactly be happy about that.”

Lin Yu, though sweating internally from their discussion, kept his composure and even joked helplessly.

“No, when you’ve been around long enough, you’ll understand, little Brother Schreiber. Not being a ‘genius’ or ‘monster’ is actually a great blessing,” Kui said, looking up at the moldy, rotten wooden ceiling. “People like me, Director, and Dog Trainer—the genius-level types who can be called ‘monsters’—it’s really not a stroke of luck.”

“This is a lonely, thorny, bitter journey!”

Kui sighed.

“I’m not trying to bring you down, but although you’re Third Tier now, if you’d met those two when you were Second Tier, you’d probably lose completely,” Phoenix said with a sigh. “I’ve seen so many Second Tiers... In terms of their performance in the ‘Land of Certain Death,’ only one guy has reached their exaggerated level.”

“They could completely defeat A-Yin of Order and Designer of the Free Alliance.”

Kui laughed. “Oh, I’m just riding their coattails. I know my own limits... Even though I’m on the leaderboard, it’s mostly luck... And that list is more about overall survival ability in dungeons; I just happen to have a lot of ways to protect myself.”

“Those freakish geniuses—I really can’t compete.”

Lin Yu finally couldn’t hold back.

He was just an ordinary person with good luck—why were words like freak, genius, and monster being pinned on him?

“Ahem, everyone, I think rather than this, we should talk more about how to get through this clearly problematic dungeon—what you’re saying has me worried.”

“After all, I’m just a helpless, weak Second Tier. My risk tolerance and survival ability are definitely the worst.”