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

Chapter 821: Static Noise

Dive down!

After making the hand gesture, Lin Yu immediately began swimming downward.

The visibility in this water was quite poor. Although it wasn't dirty or turbid, the dim light combined with its natural coloration meant Lin Yu still relied primarily on his psychic perception.

And Raymond...

Naturally stuck close behind Lin Yu.

Fish had sent Raymond to follow Lin Yu mainly to use him as "combat power," not because he was skilled at finding things underwater.

But the reason Lin Yu chose to go deeper wasn't because Old Zheng had already found a vague direction after entering the water.

This was Lin Yu's deduction.

Although this body of water could block detection, if it were him, he definitely wouldn't hide above the surface either.

The Inquisitor of the Tribunal looked like a cunning old fox, definitely hiding in the deepest parts — after all, there were many ways to find someone.

Sometimes... you didn't even need to search for people, since the Inquisitor couldn't be sure whether Lin Yu's group had large-scale attack methods that could blast the water surface directly.

In fact, Fish's [Annihilation of All Things] earlier was pretty much that kind of attack.

And this was the second reason Lin Yu chose to dive down...

He didn't want to get caught in Fish's area-of-effect either — as for whether he and Raymond would affect Fish's performance, Lin Yu thought that was unlikely.

Fish didn't seem like the type to hold back with so many considerations!

And as it turned out...

Lin Yu's thoughts were correct.

Just after diving a short distance, a massive impact force came from behind, cutting through the water above, hitting him like a heavy hammer.

Lin Yu flipped underwater, his vision going dark as he nearly lost consciousness.

Turning around, Raymond beside him wasn't faring well either, scrambling to grab his respirator and shove it back into his mouth — clearly, the impact had knocked it loose.

Since entering this dungeon, the snake descendant shell monster hadn't managed to hurt them at all, but Fish had given them their first shockwave!

However...

If the residual waves were already this strong, the monster taking the attack head-on was obviously in far worse shape.

Behind them, the water surface was already ablaze with flames, the Monarch-tier snake descendant swaying unsteadily, clearly badly wounded by Fish.

Unfortunately...

A severe injury wasn't necessarily good news for Lin Yu and Fish either!

"We need to hurry up!"

Although Fish said she'd hold off the snake descendant, Lin Yu didn't plan to rely entirely on her.

He continued diving and swimming while urging Old Zheng.

"Hurry up and find it!"

"I'm looking, I'm looking... Boss, a lot of the souls and mana have been drained away to heal injuries, but it's still a mess!"

Old Zheng's voice rang out.

Lin Yu knew Old Zheng was right, so he sighed and released his own psychic power.

Extending his psychic power underwater, with the mana imbued in the water, Lin Yu felt unprecedented resistance and interference.

Ever since he'd learned to use psychic power, extending it out had always felt like growing new limbs — like acquiring a new set of nimble hands and feet.

But now...

For the first time, Lin Yu felt the unpleasant sensation of sticking his hands into mud.

These "Dark Current waters" mixed with mana — those mana particles sharing similar properties with psychic power — were like thick, sticky mud.

This made the probing efficiency extremely low — especially since the water was also filled with soul fragments of other dark creatures, like severed limbs left behind by others in the mud.

And Lin Yu's goal was to find the living person hiding among them.

Even if he "touched" other limbs, he couldn't easily distinguish severed parts from a living person at first.

Old Zheng hadn't lied... perception and searching here were indeed difficult.

Lin Yu exhaled but didn't retract his psychic power.

Anyway... he had nothing else to do.

Old Zheng noticed Lin Yu's action and spoke up: "See? It's hard, isn't it, Boss? I really wasn't slacking off."

"Indeed. This feeling even makes me nauseous."

Lin Yu complained internally.

The two exchanged brief words through psychic power — naturally, on a frequency that excluded Raymond.

Even this communication wasn't as smooth as on shore.

"Actually, Boss, in an environment like this, you could try not spreading your psychic power out wide, but instead condensing it... imagine yourself as a sea urchin."

"It's more tiring than releasing it in the usual 'spherical' domain style, and not as good for capturing every detail with psychic power, but in this situation, it's the optimal solution."

Old Zheng explained, and Lin Yu nodded before manipulating his psychic power as instructed.

This environment was actually further training for his psychic power.

After following Old Zheng's advice, Lin Yu immediately felt his mental fatigue and pressure increase significantly.

Although he wasn't suffering from mental exhaustion, he began experiencing the "emotional dysregulation" that only appeared from overusing psychic power.

"Emotions are leaking... tsk, not a good sign."

But in that instant, a thought occurred to Lin Yu.

Without verifying with Old Zheng whether it was feasible, Lin Yu immediately took action.

He first took out the [Fear Torch], then ignited it underwater.

The pale white flames burned even beneath the water. Driven by "fear" as fuel, this torch could burn in any environment.

And wherever the ignited flame's light shone, the lingering "fear" from the remaining souls was stirred up.

One by one, the "fears" within psychic perception range lit up like beacons. Those abundant emotions were enough for Lin Yu and Old Zheng to regain their usual perception effects — they could once again clearly see the condition of all "souls" within a certain range instantly.

But that wasn't Lin Yu's goal.

Following the fear spreading from those souls, Lin Yu extended his psychic power forward.

The Inquisitor of the Tribunal was an old fox... choosing to directly kill Lin Yu, the holder of the [Golden Cross Medal], wasn't a display of his boldness, but rather a reaction to his excessive cowardice and caution.

So...

When hiding underwater, he definitely wouldn't just curl up and leave everything to fate, completely cutting off perception.

The Inquisitor must also have a "perception" method — using Night Valley Realm's mana spells, blending into the Dark Current.

Mana hiding from psychic power was already hard to detect; mana hiding from mana was naturally even more seamless.

But...

No matter what, as long as it wasn't truly a "unified whole," there would eventually be flaws.

When Lin Yu abnormally released "fear," triggering unusual reactions in those souls, something beyond the Inquisitor's understanding...

Within the layered, chaotic fear stacked from incomplete souls, a complete soul's "emotion" would inevitably arise.

Confusion. Incomprehension. Worry.

It was like...

A strand of static noise.

"Found it."

Lin Yu's psychic power condensed, locking onto that fleeting strand of noise.