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

”Another faction?”

Lin Yu asked curiously.

”Yes. Everything I said before, everything I thought, was all built on the premise that this Game is a high-dimensional, unconscious entity, almost like a ’natural law,’ like a composite of rules. At least for now, it isn’t being manipulated by some kind of ’subjective will.’ As for those gods in the Ten Realms, they can understand and utilize the rules of the ’Death Game’ to a certain extent simply because their divine rank is high enough.”

”Based on that, the original principle behind my founding of the ’Psychological Society’ was nothing more than hoping to better ’develop resources.’ But as far as she is concerned, the one you favor most, ’Fluoxetine,’ she and a portion of the Psychological Society’s founding members, including some in the Council, believe that the ’Death Game’ has a supreme will acting as its ’developer,’ a supreme god who holds all Authorities. That will observes this Game, and the other gods are the Game’s partners, participants and operators who have communicated with the supreme will. In other words, there are two factions within the Psychological Society with fundamentally different understandings of the Death Game’s nature.”

”But no matter which faction, the need for more and stronger Players, the need to use the rules of this Game to accelerate the growth of the Player base, that is our shared consensus. Like different denominations of the same religion.”

Old Zheng explained as Lin Yu nodded.

The Psychological Society was indeed an organization mostly composed of Scholars. That they would attempt to investigate the nature of this ’Death Game’ was well within Lin Yu’s expectations.

Two theories... Based on what Lin Yu had observed himself, both seemed to have some merit, and it appeared there was no way to verify either for now.

”I roughly understand. So she killed you also because of differing ideals?”

Hearing his boss’s question, Old Zheng sighed. ”Boss, can you not poke at my sore spot... But no, she really didn’t move against me over some ideological dispute.”

”Even though she believes in the existence of a supreme will, it wasn’t because of that,” Old Zheng said bitterly. ”Honestly, why she moved against me is something I find very puzzling myself... At first I thought it was because I’d gone too far in that asylum and provoked her disgust.”

”But when she used that residual life soul of the Misty Islands Master and the ’world rules’ that even I couldn’t fully control, that I had merely borrowed, to maneuver me into a dead end, she deliberately set aside time at the final moment to say something to me. I can’t fully figure out her thinking, or rather, I probably can understand what she was thinking, it’s just that I have no way to distill and convey it. So let me just tell you her exact words.”

Lin Yu looked at Old Zheng and gave a slight nod. ”I’m all ears.”

”She said... ’Your arrangements are too boring, too wasteful, too simple, too by-the-book. Only now does this count as spectacular, as having variables, as a truly unpredictable crisis. Come, dear Chairman, let us enjoy this unknown journey that deviates from the established route.’”

Old Zheng recited those final words. Even though his tone carried no inflection, a simple recitation, Lin Yu could roughly guess Fluoxetine’s tone at the time.

He was quite certain Old Zheng had memorized the exact words without a single character off.

After all, Old Zheng was very smart, and as the last speech before his own death, Old Zheng would definitely remember it vividly.

And that entire passage... every single word sounded exactly like something Fluoxetine would say.

”That really is a remark in her style,” Lin Yu said with feeling. ”And after such a flashy line, to think she cross-rank killed you, a Second Tier taking down a Third Tier, a subordinate killing her superior, executing the boss and kicking you to death like a stray dog by the roadside right in your own home turf. She’s seriously badass. I’m about to become her fan.”

Old Zheng sighed. ”Stop rubbing it in, boss.”

Lin Yu nodded. ”Fine, enough about her. What’s the deal with the second-generation ’Freud’? From what my senior said, her emphasis seems to be on quantity rather than quality. Is that some internal school within your organization?”

Old Zheng gave a quality answer. ”I have no idea. During my time as Chairman I never heard of such a thing... This really is different from the Psychological Society’s original approach, you could even say it runs completely counter, diametrically opposed. After ’Bandura’ came up with that potential rating system and we in the Council promoted it, it was to raise ’quality,’ not ’quantity.’ And that extremist ’Lacan’ even proposed that ’sacrificing a hundred mediocre Players in exchange for one outstanding Player is completely acceptable.’”

”Nobody ever said we should cast a wide net,” Old Zheng sighed. ”God knows where this person crawled out from... And they became my successor. Fucking hell, boss, I’m starting to support you in overturning this entire organization. How did our Psychological Society become such a mess?”

Lin Yu chuckled. ”Ha, looks like we really are becoming more and more in sync.”

”Anyway... let’s go perform first.”

Lin Yu pulled out his phone and, on Shen Bingmiao’s behalf, sent a new message in the drama club’s group chat.

”Everyone assemble. President Shen stayed up late revising the script and is feeling a bit unwell today, resting at the hotel. She won’t be joining us. I’ll be leading everyone to the performance today.”

After sending the message, a stream of ’received’ replies and various reaction stickers immediately popped up in the group chat.

With a president like Shen Bingmiao, the drama club’s atmosphere was naturally relaxed to begin with, and the group chat was consequently informal. Everyone’s chatting was basically a chaotic flurry of memes.

But everyone still held a fair amount of respect for Lin Yu, this ’pillar’ of the club who, though easygoing and gentle, was actually very serious about performing. So they would dutifully send a ’received’ reply to Lin Yu’s messages.

While waiting for the drama club members to assemble, Lin Yu quickly ran through his lines in his head once more.

Just as Lin Yu was about to enter his performance state, he suddenly heard his phone ring.

Pulling out his phone, he saw that Li Hua had sent another message in their private chat.

”Director, what time are you free.”

Lin Yu looked at Li Hua’s message and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

He had originally planned to find an opportunity to ask Li Hua about last night’s operation targeting the Psychological Society. He hadn’t expected Li Hua to proactively come to him.

”What’s up? I’m in Zheng City, about to go on stage for a performance.”

Lin Yu replied to Li Hua’s message.

”Zheng City, is it? Got it, I’ll be there soon.”

”Send me your location once you’re done. I have something I need to tell you in person.”

Seeing Li Hua’s messages, Lin Yu was quite surprised.

”This serious?”

”Looks like something happened last night!”