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

The mermaid vessel sped through the water, and soon arrived at Baobol, a magnificent underwater city.

Smooth, rounded metal pillars stood upright, each fitted with curved windows made from polished crystal. Many shuttle-shaped submersibles traveled among them in an orderly fashion, moving at a leisurely pace.

Though the forms were different, Lin Yu could still sense the “modernity” of this underwater city.

How was this any different from a modern metropolis filled with skyscrapers and bustling traffic?

“Ladies, I’ve already reported your identities. You said your identification documents were lost, but since it’s the Tide Summoning Festival, you can still enter the city without them. You’ll just need to get temporary passes.” The mermaid captain, whose tail was mottled with different colors, spoke as he handed two plastic cards to Lin Yu and April. “Miss April and Miss Yayu… please keep these safe.”

“However, since it’s the Tide Summoning Festival, the waterways are already completely jammed. My suggestion is that I take you both part of the way by swimming.” The mermaid captain then found two lightweight black masks in the room. “These are filtration masks that humans can use. If you’d like, you can also change into waterproof suits.”

As the mermaid captain spoke, Lin Yu looked at April.

“I don’t know much about the Mermaid Kingdom. You decide.”

He took the initiative to hand the decision over to April.

April accepted the responsibility. “I think that’s fine.”

She took a mask and fastened it over her face, then tossed the other one to Lin Yu. “Let’s go, Captain.”

Lin Yu caught the mask and studied April for a while.

The black mask looked as though it were made from some kind of metal, but it was very light in his hand. A little pressure from his fingers was enough to bend it.

He needed to figure out how to use the mask.

April, however, didn’t understand what he was doing. Curious, she looked back at him and asked, “What are you staring at?”

“Nothing. It suits you.”

Lin Yu shook his head.

The black, metallic-looking mask really did suit April, with her cartilage piercing and her current cool, stylish appearance.

April hadn’t expected Yayu to say that. After a moment, she straightened her face and said, “Don’t say things that have nothing to do with the matter. Hurry up and put on your mask. We’re going to change into waterproof suits.”

Lin Yu nodded and put on his mask.

The captain led them into the vessel’s changing room, where they changed into two deep-black waterproof suits with blue stripes down the sides. Their material and design were similar to diving suits, but they were clearly more waterproof, lighter, and a closer fit.

Their original clothes were packed into the matching waterproof backpacks.

After all, this was a world consisting only of the sea, with a civilization born beneath the ocean.

“This captain is being pretty attentive to us,” Lin Yu said quietly, tugging at his waterproof suit.

“That’s because mermaids are generally friendly toward humans. And during the Tide Summoning Festival, they’ve definitely been instructed to treat visitors from other races kindly.” April had changed as well. She turned around and continued, “Besides, I made it clear that I have plenty of money, and you even brought up the Central Sea… It’s like a low-level civil servant on our side having to receive foreign guests, and not just any guests, but people from Wall Street. Do you think he wouldn’t be attentive?”

Lin Yu nodded. “I don’t really understand.”

“Then why are you nodding?”

April said, then continued helplessly, “Anyway, the fact that you’ve been to the Central Sea really helps… How did you manage to get in there?”

“I was invited by the Banquet God.”

Lin Yu spoke seriously.

April heard his answer and froze for a moment before laughing in disbelief. “Yayu, I didn’t know you could joke around… I thought you had no sense of humor at all.”

Lin Yu furrowed his brow. “I wasn’t joking.”

“Sure, sure.” April waved a hand. “All right, let’s go.”

She pushed open the changing room door. The mermaid captain had been waiting outside for a while.

“Ladies, let’s go. I’ll take you to the teleportation node.”

His voice was still warm, and his manner remained courteous.

With April’s explanation from earlier fresh in his mind, Lin Yu couldn’t help but feel more respect for the captain when he saw how warmly he was treating them.

At any rate, the mermaid captain was very professional.

They opened the vessel’s door and the three of them stepped into the vast underwater expanse.

At that moment, the vessel was crawling slowly along a waterway through the city. The captain had been right: at this rate, they would waste a great deal of time.

Although they were hundreds of meters beneath the sea, Lin Yu didn’t feel much water pressure.

Hannah, inside his backpack, offered an explanation.

“Croak, Director, that’s because all the large cities and settlements of the kingdoms in the Pure Abyss were built during the Lost Kingdom era. Back then, every city was shared by multiple races, and they all had a series of large-scale facilities assembled by the lost civilization’s Arcane Association.”

“Croak, croak. That includes the teleportation array we’re about to use, as well as the ‘Gravity Anchors’ that cancel out the underwater gravity and create underwater air pockets.”

As Hannah explained, Lin Yu began to understand.

“I see.”

Shen Bingmiao’s information had also mentioned that the Pure Abyss had once been free of racial and national divisions. All the races had lived together under a single government, forming an unbreakable alliance of all life in the Pure Abyss.

Back then, the most prosperous place in the entire Pure Abyss wasn’t the Central Sea, but a place called Mu Continent. It was the only land in the Pure Abyss at the time, and

home to all of the Pure Abyss’s strongest, most influential, and wisest people.

But one day…

A bloody upheaval took place on Mu Continent, and it sank beneath the sea.

Its three most prosperous and sacred cities vanished forever, sealed away by the highest-grade facility known as the Azure Sea Firmament. No one could enter or leave them again.

The rulers of that time, the gods known as the “Gods of the Ocean,” along with the high-ranking members of each race who had served as their followers and emissaries, all vanished that same day.

This was similar to Misty Islands, which was also made up largely of water. After some upheaval, the development of civilization across the entire world had suddenly stalled, or even regressed.

However, the upheaval in the Pure Abyss hadn’t been as severe. It hadn’t affected the entire world.

It was simply that all the strongest and wisest people had died at once.

Afterward came the chain reaction caused by this sudden upheaval… The various races splintered apart and began carving out territories to establish their own kingdoms.

The Storm Wall rose, and the Central Sea was enclosed by a newly born god. Some of the sea beasts were chosen to enter it, and never came out again.

Now, everyone called the once-unified nation of the Pure Abyss the “Lost Kingdom.” It had become a thing of the past, belonging to a bygone era.

Everyone lived off the legacy of the ancient civilization. Though they could no longer create those sophisticated facilities, fortunately, they could still maintain and operate them.

Even the most cutting-edge research was still devoted to reproducing the once-glorious and advanced spells.