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

Chapter 1398 Specialization in One's Profession: Fu Luo's Investigative Approach

Upon hearing Lin Yu's words, Fu Luo immediately spoke up as well.

"I believe your judgment, Lao Lin. Although there is no concrete evidence, I feel the same way... This is not the same person as the 'mastermind' we encountered before."

"Moreover, from an objective point of view, since the other party's core purpose is to hide himself, it means that every 'move' he makes and every risky action that could expose him is a valuable 'resource,' just like action points in a game—because if he makes enough moves, being caught by 'order' is almost inevitable—and the other party is probably aware of this as well."

"So, it is indeed possible that he secretly put a bounty on Lao Lin, or that he would directly attack me and Captain Gao Shan, but I can't imagine why he would attack 'Iced Americano'."

Fu Luo analyzed.

Old Zheng stroked his chin and said, "What if this 'Iced Americano' really has a secret that none of us have discovered?"

"I think it's unlikely. If we're going to think about it that way, we might as well consider the possibility that he suddenly went insane."

Fu Luo calmly analyzed the situation.

When it comes to cases like this, or areas involving reasoning, Fu Luo becomes a bit more reliable than usual.

This is why Lin Yu released Fu Luo.

He looked at Fu Luo and spoke.

"So, if we rule out the possibility that people from 'Copper Furnace' were involved in this matter, in which direction do you think our investigation should begin?"

"After all, based on my current investigation progress... the scope that was previously narrowed down is no longer applicable. At least in my opinion, if we were to launch an investigation, everyone in the venue right now would be a suspect—there might even be people hidden in the venue that 'Order' has not yet discovered."

Lin Yu looked at Fu Luo and asked.

Upon hearing this, Old Zheng volunteered: "Boss, if you're unsure whether there are any people hiding in this venue, perhaps you can use 'Mental Power Scan'—I can help you use Wide Area Mental Power Scan."

Lin Yu sighed: "Do you mean I should expose your existence in front of 'Order'?"

Old Zheng shook his head: "Of course not... With your mental strength and reserves right now, boss, combined with [Three Scoops of Ice Cream], I can use only your mental strength the whole time, and even 'Order' won't be able to detect my presence."

“But that would at least let ‘Order’ know that I can use mental power… I have to avoid any unnecessary complications.”

Lin Yu looked at Old Zheng and replied.

At the same time, Lin Yu immediately realized after he finished speaking... Old Zheng was not unaware that his proposed solution was almost entirely unfeasible.

Old Zheng wasn't stupid; he knew that Lin Yu couldn't openly use his mental power under these circumstances.

So, the reason Lao Zheng said that was because... he was giving himself a message, deliberately echoing his own words, in order to desensitize Fu Luo!

During his time with Fu Luo, Lao Zheng must have realized that there was a discrepancy between Fu Luo's perception of "Lin Yu" and his true self.

Moreover, Lin Yu understood that Lao Zheng had probably guessed his biased attitude towards dealing with Fu Luo—he couldn't really confront Fu Luo completely, but he also couldn't keep it all from Fu Luo.

Therefore, Lao Zheng brought up this topic very naturally at this juncture, naturally showing Fu Luo that "Lin Yu" does not act entirely based on the interests and principles of "order".

In other words, he was subtly instilling in Fu Luo the fact that being a "director" was not the whole story of "Lin Yu".

"No wonder he studies psychology..."

Lin Yu sighed inwardly.

The other party's understanding of Fu Luo and his own psychology was too accurate.

Lin Yu also experienced for the first time why leaders like subordinates who can understand their thoughts.

Sometimes, the other person can do things perfectly, even things you haven't thought of yourself... which is truly gratifying.

Just like Lao Zheng right now.

However, this was ultimately just a minor incident.

Lin Yu looked at Fu Luo.

"Anyway, do you have any clues?"

Fu Luo was indeed caught up in some kind of thinking because of the conversation between Lao Zheng and Lin Yu. And because Lao Zheng had handled the "scale" just right, Fu Luo was thinking but did not suffer any worldview shock as a result.

So when faced with Lin Yu's question, Fu Luo came to her senses, stopped dwelling on what had just happened, and began to think about the "case" at hand again.

"The scope of the investigation... I think, Lao Lin, you've surprisingly fallen into a misconception."

Listening to Fu Luo's words, Lin Yu asked curiously, "Have I fallen into a 'misconception'?"

Fu Luo nodded: "Yes... Misconception—Old Lin, you know far too much about the background of this case."

Lin Yu shook his head slightly after hearing Fu Luo's words: "Then you are really wrong, A Luo... I only have a simple understanding of the internal factional struggles of the 'Player Mutual Aid Association'—in fact, much of what I just told you was information I just obtained from other people."

Fu Luo looked at Lin Yu and said, "No, when I said you 'know too much,' I didn't mean the depth of your knowledge, but the breadth of it—like you just said, you've gotten some information about the 'Player Mutual Aid Association' from many people, about the faction the deceased belonged to, and who opposed his faction. You know all of that."

"At the same time, you also know about his 'boss', his 'conflict of interests'... Not only that, you also know about the movements of the 'Raiders', the internal chaos of the 'Order', and even the movements of the secret organization 'Copper Furnace'. Admittedly, Lao Lin, this will give you a lot of 'problem-solving ideas' and allow you to eliminate many wrong options, but... they do seriously interfere with your vision."

As Fu Luo finished speaking, he flicked the brim of the baseball cap he was wearing.

"You're very smart... Lao Lin, your macro-level thinking and holistic thinking are the best I know, but sometimes solving a case doesn't require holistic thinking."

“An old man living alone at the entrance of a village died. If you know who he had love and hate relationships with in the first half of his life, know about the clan disputes in the village, and know about the road planning and conflicts with his house in the village and even the township, it will certainly help you investigate the truth of his death. However, if you take these as your ‘starting point’, you will naturally… fall into a misunderstanding.”

"Of course, most 'players' fall into this trap when investigating murder cases among us players, because the large number of 'items' and the hidden methods in the Ten Realms make it almost impossible for us to use the process of elimination... In other words, trying to investigate a case among a group that has been exposed to the 'Death Game' is equivalent to conducting reasoning in a 'transformed' way in the real world, where there are truly 'supernatural' factors."

"Therefore, it is only natural to place one's hopes on macro-level issues such as interpersonal relationships and conflicts of interest—and it is also common to use [tools] and other strange abilities to trace and investigate, and to 'defeat magic with magic'."

"However, I still feel that it is not necessary to do so—the real way to deduce the truth still has to return to the 'case itself,' to... the traces that the murderer would leave at the scene."

“Even if this is not actually the scene of their actual death, it is still the place where they appeared to be ‘dead,’ so it is a ‘secondary scene’ in any case, so… there must be traces left by the murderer here.”

As Fu Luo spoke, he looked around again at the details of the scene that Lin Yu had recreated, and then spoke in a low voice.

“Old Lin…you just mentioned that besides the five dead, there are four survivors at the scene, right? Three are unconscious, and one is awake. The one who is awake keeps muttering ‘we are guilty’ and is squatting here.”

As Fu Luo spoke, he stood in the spot where the survivor, the one who had first struck up a conversation with Lin Yu, 'Drumstick,' had collapsed.

Lin Yu nodded: "Yes—but all the survivors, including the one who wasn't unconscious at the beginning, have suffered severe soul damage. It's impossible for them to become witnesses or find any clues in the short term... In fact, whether they can even wake up is another matter entirely."

Lin Yu recounted the diagnosis given by the "loquat candy".

"That's the problem. There are nine people in the room, but their conditions are divided into three categories—five dead, three in a deep coma, and one who has gone insane."

“Then, among the common ground of these nine people, according to their five-three-one distribution, and those who had different contacts with them, either at different times or with different degrees of closeness, we must be able to find at least one point of intersection,” Fu Luo said extremely calmly. “That point of intersection… must be related to their 'death'.”

"Regardless of what kind of [tool], [profession] ability, or [system] ability from the Ten Realms the other party is using, the differentiated [output results] will definitely be caused by differentiated [input variables], and this will never change. My suggestion is to start by investigating the whereabouts of the only conscious person, namely 'Drumstick,' and then filter out those who had different contacts with the remaining five and three people from among the people he came into contact with."

"Of course, this approach may not be absolutely correct—if you don't get any results by following this approach, Lao Lin, come back to me and we'll discuss it again."

Hearing Fu Luo's analysis, Lin Yu nodded and sighed.

"It's true that everyone has their own expertise... If it weren't for you, things would probably be much more complicated this time."

After finishing his analysis, Fu Luo reverted to his usual relaxed, cheerful, and playful self.

"Hey, this is just a shortcut, Lao Lin... Even without me, you can still find the truth if you keep investigating—it just takes a bit of effort!"