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

Tuesday, just past noon.

Lin Yu, who had already used the 【Team Card】 and added 'April' as a 【Social】 friend, saw blood-red text prompts appear before his eyes.

'Less than 24 hours remain until the latest possible start time of the next game!'

'Please be immersed in a flowing open body of water before midnight tonight, and wait to enter the game.'

Looking at the prompt before him, Lin Yu, who had just finished rehearsal and was eating takeout in the backstage area, was not particularly surprised.

"Water again, huh. Seems like both 'April' and I have quite the fate with water."

Lin Yu mused inwardly, taking a bite of the crispy chicken burger in his hand.

The discussion voices of his juniors drifted into his mind as well.

"The club president has been getting more and more generous lately. It's only Tuesday and we're already eating Kentucky Grandpa's!"

"Oh yeah, Crazy Tuesday!"

"Did Senior Shen come into some money recently? Made a killing on stocks?"

Listening to these words, Lin Yu recalled something and put down the burger in his hand.

After leaving the actors' lounge, he arrived at another room in the backstage area.

Pushing open the door, he found Shen Bingmiao noisily gnawing on Original Recipe finger-licking chicken.

"Oh my, isn't this my dear 'ace'!"

"Today's the day the 【dungeon】 prompt comes out, right? You used the Team Card so I don't need to explain much - the next 【dungeon】 is 'Pure Abyss.' I'll send you the Pure Abyss intel later. But this time there's no survival kit I can give you."

"That little pink octopus of yours is already the biggest survival kit anyway. She's the niece of the Banquet God's Chosen One, raised from childhood with the most orthodox teachings. There's basically no creature in all of Pure Abyss she doesn't recognize. Her sixth uncle definitely taught her to identify every one of them as ingredients."

"Besides, in the eyes of slightly higher-tier beings, that octopus herself can be viewed as an identity marker on par with the 'Golden Cross Medal,' possibly even weightier than that."

As Shen Bingmiao spoke, Lin Yu waved his hand. "That doesn't matter. We're just working for the 'Marauders' anyway. I'll play it by ear when the time comes."

"It was only after hearing them discuss just now that I realized something. Club president, you seem to have actually been quite wealthy recently?"

Shen Bingmiao nodded. "Of course. After I started cooperating with 'Order,' just the operating funds alone are substantial. Forum maintenance costs money after all."

Seeing Shen Bingmiao take the bait, Lin Yu immediately flipped the conversation. "Then what about the money my sister left me? Even though it was all lost back then, now that you're making money, you should pay me back, right?"

Shen Bingmiao's expression shifted slightly, clearly not expecting Lin Yu to have been waiting for her here.

"Damn, there was actually an ambush like this?!"

Lin Yu extended his hand. "So, the money? Where's the two hundred million my sister left?"

"What two hundred million? What do you think Lin Zhao is, some kind of big shot? Sure, she was a genius, but not that exaggerated."

Shen Bingmiao said discontentedly.

"How is that possible? Then how much was it exactly?"

Lin Yu pressed further.

"Just three million three hundred and eighty thousand!"

Shen Bingmiao snapped irritably.

"Oh, so it was three million three hundred and eighty thousand. I've now confirmed the exact amount. Pay up!"

Lin Yu pulled a recording pen from his pants pocket and waved it.

Shen Bingmiao's expression shifted again. "You even kept evidence?"

Lin Yu nodded. "Yes. But it's meaningless anyway, since no court would accept our case."

"I'm just very curious where exactly you spent it," Lin Yu let out a breath. "The investment loss was probably just a joke, right? Senior, regarding my sister's matters, it's best you stop hiding things from me."

Shen Bingmiao looked at Lin Yu and puffed out her cheeks.

"So after all this time, you still don't trust me."

"You lied to me first."

Lin Yu said, looking at her.

Shen Bingmiao produced a paper bag containing an envelope and a property deed.

"Fine, then. That three million plus is all here."

Lin Yu glanced at it. It was a storefront along a street in Jiangcheng.

The name on the property deed read "Lin Yu." Without his own knowledge, he had already become the owner of a storefront.

"This is... real estate you bought for me? A final hidden reserve of energy in case I have no income in the future?"

Lin Yu asked, somewhat surprised.

"No, this is what you told me to buy," Shen Bingmiao sighed. "This was also part of our conversation at the time. I told you then that Lin Zhao had left behind roughly three million in inheritance, and you told me to buy a storefront and renovate it to look like the shop she used to run."

"And at the time, you also told me that when you asked me 'where exactly was sister's inheritance used,' I should give this to you."

Lin Yu looked at the envelope in his hand and frowned as he tore it open.

Then, he poured out a sheet of letter paper from inside.

No, not letter paper.

It was draft paper distributed by "Jiangcheng Experimental High School."

Looking at the familiar style, the red horizontal lines, and the small "Jiangcheng Experimental" characters printed in running script at the top, a familiar feeling surged in Lin Yu's heart.

Even more familiar than that was the handwriting on it.

That was...

his own handwriting.

"Hello, me who has already joined the 'Death Game.' When you see this letter, it means our plan has probably succeeded to a large extent. You should have already met Shen Bingmiao as scheduled, and should have already learned some of sister's experiences from her."

Reading the opening line, Lin Yu narrowed his eyes.

"High school me had already predicted that future me would be this paranoid?"

The reason he said this was because Lin Yu saw that this wasn't just his handwriting.

Within the handwriting, every three characters, he would deliberately pause the pen at the end of the third character. This pause technique was something Lin Yu had only ever thought about in his mind.

During middle school, he often did homework for friends, so while letting his mind wander, he had thought about what to do if someone wanted to imitate his handwriting.

So Lin Yu came up with a unique "secret code." If he ever genuinely needed to write a letter, he would agree with the recipient in advance that he would use a special pen-pause technique at different character intervals.

Since Lin Yu had never actually used this method, theoretically this was an anti-counterfeiting proof that existed only in Lin Yu's mind and was absolutely reliable.

So he continued reading.

And the next paragraph almost made Lin Yu laugh out loud.

"The first piece of advice I want to give you is this, don't trust Shen Bingmiao too much. Don't worry, it's not because she's unreliable. I've already tested and confirmed that she has an absolute, almost blind reverence and trust toward sister, so her stance is absolutely beyond doubt."

"The reason I'm telling you not to trust her too much is because her blind faith in sister has turned her into a complete idiot worthy of display in a museum. She has an enormous capacity for absorbing information and intelligence, yet even with a massive amount of information already in hand, she can still make plenty of absolutely wrong judgments. I'll just say one thing, she will insist to the death that sister's 【Class】 in the 'Death Game' was 'Chef'!"