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

“According to what the Inquisitor of the Tribunal said, the dark creature he created — using a Monarch-tier snake descendant as a shell and stitching together the souls of dozens of dark creatures into a being called the Original Sin Wraith — is the ancestor of all the snake descendants, so the snake descendants regard it as their faith and totem.”

“Although his reason for making that thing was supposedly to ‘pursue the truth’… when the snake descendants tracked the scent to his door, he intended to use that thing to manipulate the entire snake-descendant race.”

“So… the dome above Lilee City was actually made by the snake descendants, and inside the city five powerful snake descendants are lying in wait, ready to seize the Original Sin Wraith from Underground.”

Lin Yu relayed, in full, the testimony he had heard from the Tribunal’s Inquisitor, Nitsanchi, to Fish.

After hearing it, Fish also showed a look of sudden comprehension.

“So that’s how it is. All this chaos was the snake descendants’ doing, and the reason they stirred it up… was because of the Inquisitor’s scheme, right?”

“We actually managed to take out the biggest boss without even realizing it.”

Fish said that with a delighted expression on her face. “Now those three owe us a huge favor… haha, of course, Schreiber, you’ve got potential, I’m not going to take credit for your accomplishments — after all, you are my life-saving benefactor.”

“I never expected you, a Second Tier, to be this formidable… very interesting.”

Fish patted Lin Yu on the shoulder. Lin Yu demurred quietly, “Fish, you flatter me. I was just lucky.”

“Being lucky alone would never get you this far,” Fish said, supporting her chin with one hand as she sat cross-legged. “Tell me, are you interested in joining us?”

“The Holy Relic faction? If your teacher in Night Valley doesn’t mind, I could accept a recommendation,” Lin Yu said with a smile.

Fish looked at Lin Yu and smiled even more brightly. “Hahaha… Schreiber, don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. I’m certainly not talking about my Night Valley faction.”

She leaned forward slightly, the ornaments in her hair jingling like a bundle of chopsticks being shaken together.

“If you have doubts, you can refuse me outright… Are you worried about our organization’s reputation?”

Lin Yu scratched his face awkwardly. “Your organization doesn’t have that bad a reputation…”

“Hah, don’t give me that. I know exactly what the Marauders are like — full of two-faced, greedy, unscrupulous people with no moral bottom line. Even I… if it weren’t for you and Phoenix being together from the start and helping me out, I might have thought about taking out a Second Tier like you first, just to avoid trouble,” Fish said frankly and without concern. “Players I personally killed? Probably… forty? Fifty? I can’t remember!”

“This group was originally founded to oppose Order… if it weren’t for those Order people, we might never have needed to band together… hmm, at least the Marauders wouldn’t need to be this large.”

Fish looked at Schreiber and continued, “Aren’t you a little curious why I, being a member and even high-ranking in the Marauders, would say this?”

Lin Yu didn’t respond, he simply waited for Fish to keep talking.

Fish indeed paid no mind to his silence and went on: “Because although the Marauders don’t fit conventional moral standards… I think it’s truly sick to try and apply universal values to the Death Game!”

“Frankly, everyone who joins the Marauders shares one core consensus: we’re already inside the Death Game. We’re players who must enter a dungeon every week, yet we’re still supposed to follow rules of friendliness… that alone is nauseating.”

“When not getting stronger means death, worrying about other people’s lives at that time is basically joking with your own life. If you set your sights on items and NPCs, you should seize them by any means necessary — those are the chances you might survive later.”

“This game should only allow the strong to survive.”

“We don’t live in an ordinary world, this is a brutal game, yet we still pretend to be civilized, pretend every player is friendly — isn’t that ridiculous?”

“It’s one thing to hold back against friends and acquaintances, but to treat strangers kindly, and even when disputes happen you’re not allowed to kill — that’s simply absurd!”

“Putting aside the natives who were killed… anyone who’s been through a Competition dungeon, who doesn’t have other players’ blood on their hands?”

“Killing in a Competition dungeon can be justified as unavoidable… but ever since we joined this damned game, every day has been unavoidable!”

“So… those players who choose to accept Order’s rules are nothing but mediocre.”

Fish turned her gaze to Lin Yu, eyes bright. “And you, Schreiber, I can see you’re actually a strong one. You have combat ability, you have methods, and you have ambition…”

“I must admit, the Marauders can’t completely go toe-to-toe with Order, but if you join us, your restrictions will be greatly reduced!”

“Of course, whether you join or not, I, Fish, will regard you as a friend. We have a personal friendship, and that is unquestionable.”

Fish said all this in rapid succession and finally finished her pitch.

Lin Yu put on a thoughtful expression, then spoke.

“Fish, what you said makes a lot of sense. I actually agree with those ideas — this game shouldn’t be played like make-believe,” Lin Yu said, then paused. “However, the reason I won’t join the Marauders isn’t because I disagree with your organization’s philosophy…”

“It’s just that, as you know, I’ve said before that I’ve been doing so well in this Death Game because a certain senior guided and helped me,” Lin Yu spread his hands as he spoke. “So… I’ve always planned to join the organization my senior is part of, but I just haven’t had the opportunity yet.”

“So, although it seems I’m organizationless, I already have an organization I intend to join… therefore I can’t join the Marauders.”

Fish heard him and was magnanimous. “Well, in that case, there’s nothing to be done!”

She didn’t seem upset by Lin Yu’s refusal; she just waved her hand.

“Then let’s stop talking about matters outside the dungeon… how are we going to clear this next?”