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

Chapter 665: Zero-Sum Game and Intent to Cooperate

After brief negotiations, both teams reached a consensus—set aside positional disputes and prioritize clearing the dungeon together.This was pretty much what Lin Yu had expected. He'd spotted High Mountain in the other team the moment they met, and from High Mountain's expression, he could tell the guy had definitely recognized Li Nian.

At the same time... Li Nian must have realized she'd been exposed too.

But since High Mountain hadn't exploded on the spot and Li Nian hadn't made any reckless moves, Lin Yu could deduce that...

There was no way these two sides were heading for an all-out fight. That fit with what he'd learned about "Order" so far.

Inside a [Dungeon], clearing it comes first.

As long as they weren't dealing with some irredeemable scumbag whose death would single-handedly boost player safety or even overall social stability, cooperation was the better option.

"Order" wasn't some inhuman organization.

Of course, that was also why Lin Yu chose to hide his identity and keep his distance from Li Nian. Since Li Nian was famous as the "Master Thief," his own identity as "Zhu Ming" was far from clear.

If he could stay hidden, he should—this would also help reduce the three strangers' wariness during the upcoming cooperation.

After all, Lin Yu knew all three of the opposing players and understood exactly how skilled they were.

High Mountain went without saying. Lin Yu's identity as "May May" had practically made them friends.

He was a backbone of "Order," a Team Leader-tier Second Tier. Even though he'd backed off against the Free Alliance's four-man squad earlier, he was no pushover.

"Order" team leaders were never weak.

Lin Yu had also seen Seagull before. The guy had been very active during the Haicheng auction.

Lin Yu still remembered how Seagull had successfully swiped Grandpa Radish's key item right under everyone's noses, in front of multiple Third Tiers. That alone showed he had some serious skill.

And back then, Lin Yu had thought he was a "Thief" or something—who'd have guessed he was a "Student"!

That only made Seagull's operation even more impressive.

Since Snowy Owl was an obvious Third Tier and High Mountain was a "Policeman," that meant the Second Tier "Student" had to be Seagull.

And that shadow clone move from earlier proved Seagull's combat abilities were no joke either.

As for Snowy Owl...

Someone brave enough to directly join the frontlines on the elevated highway, draw a blade against "Fluoxetine," and get brought in by "Robin" as a partner—how could she be some pushover?

Lin Yu was confident in his own abilities, but seeing Snowy Owl on the opposing team made him wonder: Was Li Nian actually stronger than he'd thought, or had Flying Knife been hiding his true power?

Either way, Lin Yu figured it was best to avoid a direct clash with them.

These three were clearly a tier above Little Fire Dragon, Squirtle, and Deadshot—those three had gotten their weapons stripped by Li Nian right from the start!

And once the biggest controversy—Li Nian's identity as a "Free Alliance" member—was set aside...

"Before we cooperate, we need to confirm one thing—that both sides can actually work together," Lin Yu said, raising another issue.

Namely...

Even if they could set aside real-world factors and organizational positions to cooperate sincerely...

This was still a highly probable [Competition] type dungeon.

"We're likely in a [Competition] type dungeon, and our clearance conditions might not be the same. They could even be symmetrical," Lin Yu paused. "So, what are your clearance conditions?"

He chose to bring this up not because he didn't want to cooperate.

Quite the opposite—it was precisely because Lin Yu didn't want to fight these three that he proactively raised the point. This way, he could keep the initiative on this controversial topic.

Snowy Owl didn't overthink it. She just nodded at Lin Yu's words.

"Our clearance condition is to 'prevent Willow Town from reappearing.'"

"The condition is a bit strange, because when we entered the [Dungeon], we were in a place that looked like a mountain stronghold. There were some bandits there... Their behavior was way below our standards—the whole place was full of disgusting stuff—so after a few words, we had a conflict, and I killed them all."

As Snowy Owl spoke, Lin Yu was thoroughly shocked.

So they really had been on the side planning to rob the convoy, just as he'd guessed—but Lin Yu hadn't expected Snowy Owl's team to straight-up slaughter all the bandits.

But seeing that High Mountain and Seagull didn't seem to have any objections, Lin Yu figured he'd underestimated the moral standards of traditional Night Watchmen and Order.

Sure, in a [Dungeon], clearing it was the priority.

But cooperating with bandits who'd stop at nothing? That crossed their line!

The easygoing Seagull also spoke up: "Anyway, we found some letters on the bandits. They mentioned they were going to rob a convoy passing through Fuyuan Mountain, Twin Saw Mountain, Wuquan Mountain, and Bailing Mountain. There was something in that convoy—something described as 'the key to preventing Willow Town from reappearing'..."

"But we interrogated a few soft-boned survivors. None of the remaining bandits knew what 'preventing Willow Town from reappearing' meant. The Willow Town they knew was just an ordinary town, a few dozen li west of Bailing Mountain."

"Though one guy who seemed like a leader mentioned he'd heard Willow Town was renamed on the advice of some Fangshi, borrowing the name of some ancient town... But that bastard was too badly injured, so he croaked before he could finish explaining."

As Seagull spoke, Lin Yu nodded.

"I see... Then I can tell you for sure, this 'Willow Town' is not that 'Willow Town.' I can confirm there really is a lost ancient town buried deep in Twin Saw Mountain—that's the real Willow Town. And our clearance condition is to 'reach Willow Town.'"

"Based on the information I've gathered and your clearance conditions, it looks like the clearance conditions for both sides in this [Competition] dungeon aren't completely zero-sum."

"We can still cooperate."

Hearing Lin Yu's words, Snowy Owl frowned. "So you're saying Willow Town is a lost ancient town buried underground. You want to reach it, and we can't let it reappear... How are we supposed to cooperate and both win?"

"Isn't this already completely zero-sum?"