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

”Attacking based on reading thoughts? That really is the Misty Islands’ style!”

Fu Luo muttered involuntarily upon hearing Lin Yu’s words.

After all, this kind of judgment standard would be far too extravagant in any other world.

Even in the Sleepless City at Truth Corporation, this kind of technology that reads emotions in real time and uses that as a means of ”friend-or-foe identification” would be extremely difficult to achieve.

It wasn’t just that the identifying side would find it hard to accurately recognize the emotions of every person passing by...

More importantly, as long as someone is human, they will easily have ”negative emotions.”

Perhaps he argued with his partner today and was feeling angry, perhaps he just tripped and fell and developed hostility, perhaps he ate something bad and was feeling tense - any of these situations were possible.

If you want to work with people, you have to tolerate these things: allow people to make mistakes, allow people to be emotional.

Especially, you have to allow people to make mistakes in their minds - as the saying goes, ”A gentleman is judged by his deeds, not his thoughts; if thoughts were the measure, no one in the world would be perfect!”

But the Misty Islands were different.

In those final days before the Cataclysm descended, everyone who could enter this research institute possessed an almost absolute ”calm” and ”rationality.”

They were all masters in the field of soul research, and couldn’t possibly have meaningless thoughts.

Of course...

When these guards were first designed, they also had gentler methods of ”identification” - facial recognition, soul signature recognition.

But in the end, when the Cataclysm arrived, that disaster erupting from within ”minds” and ”souls” meant that even the most resolute participants could transform from reliable people into unreliable ones.

And so...

In those final moments, all the guard identification systems were revolutionized - replaced with this current system, still in operation today, that relied on ”thoughts” for identification.

As long as doubt or wavering arose, as long as the slightest discontent emerged in one’s mind before these guards, that person was an ”object” to be eliminated.

Though in the end, the result was still ”failure” - otherwise these ruins wouldn’t have been abandoned.

But even so, this showed that the Misty Islands of that era were not entirely without resistance when facing the apocalypse.

The group slowly reined in their emotions according to what Lin Yu had said, and passed through into the cluster of buildings.

Meanwhile, the guards continued their patrols relentlessly - up close, the oppressive presence of these massive metal guards was even stronger.

Though they didn’t know the specific combat methods of these guards...

When a walking, massive, heavy iron behemoth with legs as thick as two people embracing each other passes by you, when you actually feel the ground trembling from the impact of its footsteps...

Even ”players” who had seen many monsters and even possessed some supernatural power of their own would still feel terror.

But...

The problem was, they couldn’t afford to feel terror right now.

Watching the guards beside him, Fu Luo swallowed hard, trying to empty his mind as much as possible, and began whispering to Lin Yu beside him.

”Yao, can we talk?”

”Of course, they’re not sensitive to sound,” Lin Yu said seriously. ”So, we should even chat as if nothing were wrong.”

”Oh, oh, oh,” Fu Luo nodded repeatedly. ”Alright, alright, everyone should say something quickly... Speaking of which, it’s really strange - since they’re automatic puppets, why were they made in humanoid form? Is this the Misty Islands’ quirky taste?”

Fu Luo asked casually.

King Vulture also spoke up: ”This I actually know. I’ve heard it from others in the ’Night Watchmen’ - most of the Misty Islands’ puppets were made in humanoid form. On one hand, the predecessor civilization that created them needed things ’without souls’ to deal with the catastrophe back then. After all, while the specifics of what happened during that catastrophe can no longer be verified, evidence from all sides suggests it mainly affected souls... So, they hoped that even if most people ’disappeared,’ these puppets could still adapt to equipment designed for humans as much as possible.”

”On the other hand... many wise figures of the Misty Islands believed that although the catastrophe mainly affected souls, soul mutations could also lead to physical mutations - so they had research at the time, hoping to purify the effects of the catastrophe. These humanoid puppets, aside from serving as guards and workers, could also serve as ’backup bodies’ - in case a method to purify souls was developed, they could transfer contaminated people out of their contaminated bodies and temporarily place their purified souls into the puppets.”

Hearing this, Lin Yu couldn’t help but mutter inwardly.

It seemed he already knew of someone who had done exactly that - putting their soul into a puppet.

Even if it was done under duress.

Still, he didn’t share this piece of information, only nodding.

”Your Excellency King Vulture has deep knowledge of the Misty Islands as well!”

He took the opportunity to flatter her in return.

King Vulture looked a bit embarrassed: ”It’s just things I’ve heard in casual conversation from time to time, not like you who’ve studied these things with such targeted dedication... I still have a lot to learn from your attitude.”

Imperceptibly, Lin Yu noticed the distance between himself and King Vulture had narrowed slightly.

After all, as long as the approach was correct, no one disliked being praised.

And while King Vulture seemed stern and proper about everything, even having given Kitty a cold shoulder initially and reprimanding her for trying to get chummy with Fu Luo, Lin Yu had noticed...

Ever since Kitty was injured, she hadn’t said a single harsh word to Kitty, and her attitude had improved noticeably.

So, as long as someone contributed to the team, she was probably quite tolerant toward them.

By choosing to praise her at this moment, Lin Yu not only avoided provoking her displeasure, but the angle of his compliment also served as another reminder to her of ”Old Yao’s” contributions.

This would naturally reinforce the impression that Old Yao had ”mastered his intelligence.”

Of course, Lin Yu also did this because it fit the persona of Old Yao, who was good at building relationships with people.

After all... both the ’Night Watchmen’ and ’Order’ were organizations that valued rules and procedures, and they would have to write reports when they got back.

Building good relationships with these people would further enhance Old Yao’s influence.

Of course...

Lin Yu knew these were just appetizers.

After all, there would be many more opportunities to elevate the impression of Old Yao.

The crises in these ruins would come one after another, and when he resolved them perfectly with ”Old Yao’s” unremarkable strength and personal style of approach...

The value of the ’Old Yao’ identity would naturally rise even further.

Not to mention anything else...

Just looking at the current crisis with these guards, Lin Yu didn’t believe they would get through it safely.

After all, controlling one’s emotions was no easy task!