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

Seeing Fish actively change the subject, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Although Fish had high offensive power, her easygoing personality and unwillingness to scheme meant she wasn’t really a threat to Lin Yu.

But Lin Yu was still quite wary of the entire ”Marauders” organization—especially the ”Diviner.”

What if Fish suddenly suggested something like, ”If you don’t want to join the organization, at least come visit our headquarters and meet the boss”? That would’ve left Lin Yu sweating bullets and squirming in his seat.

After all, this identity was reserved for the ”Psychological Society.”

Still, the current situation was the best possible outcome.

He had saved Fish’s life, making her see him as a rare talent, yet he hadn’t displayed such overwhelming power that Fish would find it alarming.

Among ”Second Tier” players, most were already ”veteran players.” Having some real skills and being able to play a major role in specific situations wasn’t impossible.

Right now, the strength shown by the identity ”Schreiber” had been demonstrated to just the right degree.

Otherwise, even if Fish was too lazy to think things through, she wouldn’t have casually asked a ”Second Tier” player like him for advice on how to clear the scenario.

Faced with this question, Lin Yu still answered cautiously.

”I think... considering the overall situation, waiting here and letting them come to us is the best move.”

Lin Yu said this with a completely straight face.

”After all... as far as the snake descendants in the city see it, the thing they want really is still underground in this ’Tribunal of Heresy.’”

As Lin Yu spoke, Fish nodded.

”Makes sense... so before, it was the Tribunal Inquisitor fishing, but now we’re the ones holding the fishing rod.”

Fish said this, then suddenly touched her chin. ”Hey, isn’t it a bit unlucky for me to be using that fishing metaphor?”

”What’s unlucky about it?”

Lin Yu asked, somewhat surprised.

”It just feels like bad luck... like that whole Pang Tong and Falling Phoenix Ridge thing,” Fish said, a look of regret crossing her face. ”Ah, when I was a kid listening to ’The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ storytelling on my grandpa’s radio, I was pretty sad when Pang Tong died suddenly. But the hardest was when Prime Minister Zhuge died—I bawled my eyes out and lit candles in front of the radio, hoping to extend his life with the Seven Stars Lamp.”

As she spoke, Fish looked genuinely moved.

Lin Yu couldn’t quite empathize.

The topic had shifted way too fast!

So Fish was a person with such a jumpy, lively way of thinking... though he could’ve guessed that from her clothing style.

Still, Lin Yu provided plenty of emotional validation.

”Zhuge Liang really was a pity... but speaking of which, why isn’t Raymond back yet?”

After Fish had kicked Raymond awake earlier, Lin Yu had instructed her to send him out to check on how the other groups were doing.

After all, although Lin Yu and Fish had used the [Social] panel to message the remaining three people to gather at the Tribunal of Heresy, no one had replied.

Opening the [Social] panel or [Encyclopedia] required quite a bit of focus, and suddenly zoning out in front of the natives was pretty obvious.

If you ran into some unexpected situation, you’d have even less time to open them.

So [Social] couldn’t really replace many of the convenient communication [Items]... after all, this thing took up way too much screen space and memory.

What if you were looking at [Social] and someone suddenly ambushed you and flipped you over?

Hearing Lin Yu’s question, Fish thought for a moment.

”With Raymond’s speed, it is a bit slow... he should’ve found at least one person by now.”

”Let me contact him.”

Fish pulled a crude-looking brass-cased walkie-talkie from her pocket, its wires and parts exposed.

She pressed the button and spoke into it.

”Hey, Raymond, come in if you hear me.”

A moment later, a crackling voice came through the walkie-talkie.

”Copy that, this is Raymond.”

”The situation outside... is a bit off.”

Raymond’s voice came through, and Fish immediately tensed up.

”Huh? Off? What do you mean?”

Raymond’s fragmented reply echoed.

”The people on the streets... have all fallen into a coma... including the superhumans...”

”I broke into a house... some people weren’t sleeping in their beds.”

”It’s like... they all fell asleep at the same time...”

Fish’s expression turned serious. ”Why the hell didn’t you contact me sooner?!”

”I was searching... for someone awake... and the mana disturbance here is intense... my communicator...”

The communicator suddenly let out a burst of static, then the signal died completely.

Fish stared at the communicator in her hand, her mood heavy.

”Damn, I thought we had it in the bag! What’s going on?!”

”Didn’t we already take down the biggest mastermind in this city? How is this happening?”

She said this in frustration, then pulled a mint candy from her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

Immediately, Fish visibly calmed down.

”Whoever’s pulling strings again, I’m going to find them and kill them.”

Fish said this, then turned to look at Lin Yu.

”Do you want a [Refreshing Mint Candy]? It’s made by Truth Corporation... restores stamina and stabilizes emotions. Works pretty well.”

”I haven’t used much stamina, and I’m already calm,” Lin Yu politely declined. ”But looking at this... we really do need to get moving.”

”Still, based on Raymond’s description, it doesn’t seem like some new hidden force made a move... You and Raymond both suddenly fell asleep underground—because the Tribunal Inquisitor manipulated that ’Original Sin Wraith’ to release a spell called ’Death Sleep Technique,’ putting you both to sleep.”

”Considering the deep connection between the ’Original Sin Wraith’ and the snake descendants... I’m guessing these snake descendants probably have a similar skill.”

”They might have sealed this place off precisely to release this city-wide sleep spell—five powerful snake descendants would be more than enough to do it.”

As Lin Yu spoke, Fish nodded.

”That analysis makes sense... so there’s nothing to worry about.”

”We already took down their ancestor; taking down five weaker ones shouldn’t be a problem either!”

”But to be safe, and to maximize the favor we can collect, let’s find Phoenix and the others first.”

”If they’ve passed out, we can swoop in and ’save’ them... Those three are all reasonable people. The bigger the favor they owe us, the better.”

”Even if they haven’t passed out... well, more people means more strength!”