Death Game: Starting as a fraudster, pretending to be a god

#658 - Instance Name: Dart Seizure

"Two skeletons are worth twelve strings of cash?"

Lin Yu rose to his feet, unfazed by Chen Yuan-ye's words.

"I understand, Senior Brother. It seems this map is indeed outdated."

With that, he folded the map and walked straight to Little Fire Dragon, Deadshot, and Squirtle.

"Tell me, what kind of demons did you encounter? How did you escape? Tell me everything in detail!"

Lin Yu asked directly, his tone more serious than ever.

But the three of them exchanged glances, still hesitant.

"This…"

Little Fire Dragon said hesitantly, and Lin Yu looked at him coldly.

"Regardless of your reasons for not wanting to describe it, tell me everything now. This instance has a big problem—the Taoist temple under our feet, the demons in this mountain, are all very strange."

"If you want to get out of this instance alive, speak quickly."

Hearing this, Little Fire Dragon and Squirtle were still hesitant, but Deadshot spoke up.

"From the 'Psychology Society,' are you deliberately trying to scare us and put pressure on us?"

"If you think this instance has no problems at all, you don't have to believe me."

Lin Yu said indifferently, and Deadshot nodded.

"Alright, I'll tell you then—after getting lost, we accidentally strayed into the territory of a powerful demon, disturbing the demons within…"

"In fact, at first, we didn't know we had disturbed the demon. The demon disguised itself to look like an ordinary human. We all thought it was a pitiful native of Yushan Realm,"

Deadshot sighed, "Then, she tricked us and led us into a trap…"

"The trap was a seemingly harmless cave. She said it was where her family stored things and hoped we could help her retrieve some items… Fortunately, Little Fire Dragon had a warning tool, which prevented us from falling into it!"

Although he didn't mention the gender of the demon in disguise, the word 'pitiful'… whether it was 'destitute and pitiful' or 'delicate and pitiful,' Lin Yu already had a judgment in his mind.

"Are you sure it was a disguise, and not… something like a 'puppet'?"

Lin Yu looked at Deadshot and asked seriously.

Deadshot frowned: "If you think that demon is related to Chenjiabao, maybe… but the guy we encountered felt different from the people of Chenjiabao, and she…"

"Suddenly disappeared out of thin air, right?"

Lin Yu asked in a low voice.

"Yes, just like the escorts who disappeared before," Deadshot was very surprised, "How did you know?"

"Summary and analysis… Currently, the methods displayed by the demon behind the scenes are of two types: one is to make people disappear inexplicably and affect the memories of related people, and the other is to control the actions of puppets."

"And I'm guessing… perhaps these two abilities might actually be two stages of the same ability."

Lin Yu said softly.

"The so-called 'disappearance' is actually the process of turning people into puppets."

This bold guess shocked Deadshot, Little Fire Dragon, and Squirtle.

"This… is this really something we can contend with?"

Lin Yu nodded: "Of course—since it needs such a long and complicated method to create puppets, and we have already taken such extreme actions without any other reaction, then it means that, perhaps besides this method, the guy lurking behind the scenes has no other good methods."

Lin Yu stood up and looked outside the Taoist temple.

"Plus, why the location of the Taoist temple would change… so, I have a guess."

"This map is a map from a hundred years ago, and the Taoist temple you came out of is the location of the Taoist temple from a hundred years ago. Then, could it be that the ability of this mastermind is related to 'time'?"

Lin Yu said softly, "Of course, it's probably not to the point of directly traveling through time and manipulating time, but its ability might be to retrieve the state of any point in time of the 'things' it can control and master."

These remarks left the three players stunned.

Deadshot asked, "What… what are you trying to say?"

Lin Yu held up a finger: "Very simple—some of the people in this Taoist temple seem to be fine, but in fact, before they disappeared, they had already become 'puppets' of the mastermind."

He turned around and looked at the escorts: "If we regard the villagers of Chenjiabao as the final state of the mastermind's ability, completely grasping a person's past and present, then 'disappearance' is perhaps the second-to-last stage—that is, it begins to grasp a person's present."

"And continuing to push back, having 'memories' affected is perhaps an 'earlier' stage," Lin Yu said with pity and sighed, "Under the circumstances that I have confirmed that they have no mental problems, what is actually being modified is… 'the past'."

"The reason why they forget some information is not because their souls have been tampered with, but because their 'past' has begun to no longer belong to themselves."

Little Fire Dragon said in horror: "Are you saying that these escorts are actually beyond saving?!"

"Not just those escorts, but also Chen Yuan-ye, who is deeply involved with Chenjiabao," Lin Yu paused, "Looking at the three players."

"Of course, and the three of you."

"What?!"

Deadshot said, and Lin Yu said in a low voice: "Do it, A'nian."

"Roger, roger."

Li Nian, who had already circled behind them at some point, spoke leisurely.

The three of them instantly and subconsciously wanted to reach for the weapons they were carrying, but suddenly felt their bodies go limp.

They were all paralyzed.

Li Nian picked up the empty vial of [Paralysis Potion] from the ground and said with a smile.

"Sorry, everyone, no offense."

Little Fire Dragon hurriedly said: "You must have misunderstood something. We have no problems at all…"

"From the 'Psychology Society,' I think you just want to find a reason to take us down!"

Deadshot also said resentfully.

Lin Yu sighed: "How pitiful, still trapped in the past, everyone… Let me ask you a question."

"What is the title of your current instance?"

Lin Yu asked, and the three of them exchanged glances.

"Why are you asking this? Aren't we the same?!"

Lin Yu shook his head.

"I think maybe not, because a very important point in my judgment that this game is a [Confrontation] instance is that my [Instance] is called Escort."

"So we joined the escort team not long after the start, and the mastermind behind the scenes is also very interested in the 'carriage'."

"But what about the three of you?" Lin Yu said, stroking his chin, "You don't seem to have any interest in the escort team from beginning to end, do you?"

"So, I have a bold guess…"

"The three of you are probably not playing the same [Instance] as us."