Lin Yu rode his bicycle back home.
Just like yesterday, Lin Zhao was waiting behind the door - except this time she was sitting on the sofa with the lights on.
Seeing Lin Yu push the door open, Lin Zhao immediately sprang up from the sofa, rolled up her sleeves and marched toward him with undisguised anger on her face.
"Lin Yu, today is already—"
Before Lin Zhao could explode, Lin Yu quickly opened his backpack and pulled out two stacks of RMB.
"Official business, sis! I went to make money!"
As he spoke, Lin Yu stuffed the two thousand yuan into Lin Zhao's arms.
The pink banknotes instantly wiped the anger from Lin Zhao's face.
She instinctively rubbed the bills between her fingers to verify their authenticity before speaking in a still somewhat reproachful tone.
"That's exactly why I kept it from you - because I knew you wouldn't allow it," Lin Yu waved his hand. "Don't worry, it's not tiring work. Just quick money earned over a few nights."
Lin Zhao suddenly looked suspicious: "Quick money at night... Lin Yu, you didn't become some kind of male host, did you? I'm telling you, you better keep yourself clean!"
Lin Yu found this both funny and irritating.
"What kind of idea is that, sis! Why would I do that kind of work!"
As for the origin of this money, Lin Yu had already prepared an explanation.
"An upperclassman at my school is making short videos, and I made two guest appearances. This is my appearance fee!"
As Lin Yu spoke, Lin Zhao indeed believed him.
After all, in Lin Zhao's eyes, Lin Yu was practically a future big star and award-winning actor.
Getting paid a few thousand for a few days' appearance in short videos was perfectly reasonable!
"If there are such good opportunities, you should tell me. I would definitely agree, it's not like I'm completely unreasonable."
Lin Zhao even got somewhat excited: "Hey, what's your upperclassman's account name? I want to see what you filmed."
Lin Yu waved his hand: "Ah, they're still building their follower base, so all the videos are being saved up before release. I'll definitely tell you when they're posted!"
"I'm pretty tired after filming all night, I'm going to bed now!"
With that, Lin Yu quickly escaped to his room.
Closing the door behind him, Lin Yu let out a sigh.
"Whew..."
He had finally managed to fool Lin Zhao.
Lin Yu was already considering whether he should actually film some short videos.
Not only to have something to show his sister in a few days...
But also to avoid having to make up new excuses every time he earned money at gatherings.
"But these are all small matters... The most urgent thing is ensuring my survival in the Death Game."
Thinking this, Lin Yu opened the forum again and began browsing strategy guides.
Because of the unique characteristics of his Fraudster class, Lin Yu decided to memorize all currently known classes and their abilities!
For other players, memorizing other classes' abilities wasn't completely useless, but nobody would deliberately go through such trouble.
After all, in non-Competition dungeons, everyone would introduce their own abilities.
But for Lin Yu, the most useful application of his Fraudster class right now was pretending to be other classes.
Depending on each dungeon's characteristics, he could choose the most suitable class to impersonate.
Of course, besides this.
Lin Yu was also studying regular dungeon strategies!
...
Soon, four days passed in the blink of an eye.
Lin Yu spent the entire weekend holed up in his room studying various game strategies under the pretense of "reading scripts."
Even during school days, he spent all his free time outside of classes and rehearsals frantically studying strategies.
This greatly enriched his theoretical knowledge about the Death Game.
Even on his way to and from school, Lin Yu would recall the Death Game classes like memorizing vocabulary while riding his bike.
"Feels almost like going back to the days before college entrance exams."
Lin Yu couldn't help but sigh.
And just past noon on Tuesday, the bloody text before his eyes underwent some changes.
'Less than 24 hours remain until the latest possible start time for the next game!'
'Before midnight tonight, find a "body of water" deeper than 50cm and completely submerge yourself in it to wait for game entry.'
Looking at the bloody text, Lin Yu understood.
This was the entry method for the next game!
From browsing the forum these past few days, Lin Yu had learned that...
Weekly entries into the Death Game didn't happen instantly.
Instead, you had to follow some bloody text instructions to enter, and these methods usually resembled certain 'ways to die.'
Today's method was probably imitating "drowning"!
"Lucky it's not too demanding, otherwise it would be more troublesome."
Lin Yu muttered to himself.
If you failed to enter the dungeon as instructed by midnight...
You wouldn't be erased or anything, but would be forcibly entered into the dungeon.
However, in such cases, you'd usually face extremely harsh penalties in the dungeon!
Some people even died immediately upon entry... practically no different from the "death penalty."
As a newcomer who just passed his first dungeon, Lin Yu didn't want to challenge higher difficulties in his second dungeon!
So Lin Yu had already prepared his "body of water" - fortunately, he had one right at home!
Although their apartment was old and small, the bathroom was relatively spacious.
On a whim some time ago, Lin Zhao had bought a huge wooden bathtub, planning to enjoy hot baths.
But later she found it wasted too much water - especially since heating that much water consumed a lot of gas.
So the bathtub had only been used a few times before being left on the balcony.
Today, taking advantage of Lin Zhao not being home, Lin Yu returned early from school and dragged the tub to the bathroom to clean it.
Then, Lin Yu quietly waited until Lin Zhao returned home in the evening.
"You're back early today... You took out the bathtub?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd take a hot bath after studying tonight."
Lin Zhao wasn't surprised by this.
After dinner, Lin Yu returned to his room to review a few more strategy guides and reinforce his memorization of classes.
Then, around midnight when Lin Zhao was already asleep in her room.
Lin Yu tiptoed to the bathroom and locked the door behind him.
"People on the forum generally agree that the 'entry methods' are mostly related to the game content."
"Since my dungeon this time is likely related to 'water,' I should try to roleplay as either a 'fisherman' or 'sailor.'"
Thinking this, wearing flip-flops and tropical-style shorts and shirt, Lin Yu took a deep breath and submerged himself in the tub.
Holding his breath, within minutes...
As Lin Yu felt his consciousness fading, bloody text appeared before his eyes.
[Entering game—]
[Ga%me... na*me: Isl...and sur&...]
In his dazed state, the bloody text seemed to squirm momentarily.
But soon, the text became orderly again.
[Game Name: Deadly Quiz]
[Clear Condition: Solve the necessary puzzles.]
[Number of players in this game: 5.]