In the taxi, Lin Yu fiddled with his newly purchased phone, eyeing the somewhat tacky descending tiger logo of the newly installed 'Jiang'an Hall' app, and sighed.

"Such a gangster aesthetic."

Beyond criticizing Tycoon's personal taste, Lin Yu was mostly reflecting.

Mainstream organizations were indeed easier to infiltrate.

According to Tycoon himself, as a senior partner of both 'Order' and 'forum', he had a specialized app personally developed by 'forum' for him.

The security was far better than regular chat apps!

No wonder Tycoon had been so casual about his "assessment" - with 'forum' and 'Order' backing him, whether someone was a troublemaker or had ulterior motives could be screened simply by checking if they could properly use the forum app.

The forum was like a vast net connecting all players.

And those excluded from this net... would undoubtedly find their actions severely hindered.

From this perspective, what seemed like mild punishments like account suspensions by these organizations were actually among the harshest penalties possible.

Only now did Lin Yu belatedly realize two things.

First, the fact that he could use [False Face] and a new phone to deceive the forum and successfully register an account under 'Old Yao' was an enormous advantage granted by [False Face].

Judging by Tycoon's reaction, seeing him scan the code to join had completely put the man at ease.

Clearly, even someone like Tycoon - leader of a mid-sized organization, local power in Jiangcheng, ranked 27th among all players - never suspected anyone could "trick" the forum.

Including how everyone kept volunteering their forum IDs in consecutive instances, Lin Yu could confirm...

Ordinary players, or rather the vast majority, held near-absolute trust in the forum's reliability.

Second... Tycoon giving him his WeChat contact during their first meeting was genuinely unusual.

Even for 'Old Yao' joining the "organization", Tycoon used the specialized app to communicate.

Combined with the forum's ubiquity, Lin Yu suddenly realized...

Tycoon's attitude toward "Lin Yu" was absolutely not how he treated ordinary newcomers.

Considering everything that had happened between 'Free Alliance', 'Psychological Society' and himself, Lin Yu could roughly piece together the sequence:

"Probably some organization - the 'Psychological Society' - has some method to evaluate a person's 'potential', assessing how much talent someone has."

"Once they identify an exceptionally promising newcomer... these maniacs will stop at nothing to drag that person into the game - even sending someone to kill them."

"And I was likely judged by the 'Psychological Society' as having high potential... no, considering most experts undergo Promotion around their seventh instance while I achieved 『Promotion』 in just three, I must have exceptionally high potential for some reason."

"Moreover, the 'Psychological Society's' actions or these evaluation results aren't completely secret - after observing their assessments, the 'Free Alliance' chose to dispatch 'A Nian' (Li Nian) in Jiangcheng to contact me for concrete evaluation."

"And Tycoon probably recognized my potential through the business card I gave him or similar means."

Lin Yu exhaled.

He had mostly sorted out the situation.

So ultimately, everything came back to...

The 'Psychological Society' and that mysterious girl who first killed him.

Moreover, whether it was the 'Free Alliance' or 'Jiang'an Hall', their motives were actually quite clear.

Only the 'Psychological Society'...

Lin Yu couldn't fathom.

This organization killed promising newcomers - who would ever want to join the group of their own murderer?

It might not be permanent death... but being dragged into this godforsaken game would piss anyone off!

Plus bringing in people with high potential was just manufacturing enemies for themselves!

And they even left business cards pointing toward 'Jiang'an Hall'...

The more Lin Yu learned about player groups, the more he felt...

This organization reeked of something sinister!

There was good reason they got booted from the forum along with the 'Marauders'.

"Regardless, I need to accelerate my progress..."

Lin Yu never hesitated to assume the worst about unknown enemies.

Who knew if those 'Psychological Society' people had some dark arts to refine high-potential players into pills for power boosts!

"I must grow stronger quickly."

Fortunately...

As a 『Fraudster』, his path to power was much more unorthodox than others'.

Opening the 'Jiang'an Hall' app, the interface resembled a messaging group chat, just with the same minimalist design as the forum app.

Everyone used their forum IDs when posting.

[Tycoon: Welcome our new member 『Old Yao』! Old Yao is a 『Thief』 about to undergo Promotion next instance, everyone show him some courtesy!]

[Battle Wolf: 『Thief』? Not bad! You should exchange notes with 『Phantom Hand』! @Phantom Hand]

[Phantom Hand: Haha, welcome newcomer. I'm also a 『Thief』.]

[Phantom Hand: There's a file with my 『Promotion』 insights, check it out!]

The group had 83 members.

As Tycoon mentioned earlier, 『Jiang'an Hall』 was a nearly hundred-strong organization.

After briefly posting "Hello everyone, please guide me. I'll go study Phantom Hand's insights now," Lin Yu resumed lurking.

No one paid much attention, casually chatting - surprisingly about topics barely related to 『Death Game』, mostly current social trends.

Like elections in neighboring countries, fluctuating liquor stock indices, recently deceased celebrities...

Apparently even 『Death Game』 group chats were mostly for idle chatter.

But Lin Yu found this reassuring - it showed 『Jiang'an Hall』 was indeed a relatively relaxed and harmonious organization.

He opened the group files, searching for the real "treasures".

The various "guides" only available to organization members.

Some related to Promotion, others more detailed than the forum's class guides, item explanations, and instance introductions.

There were also evaluations of other organizations.

Naturally, the first file Lin Yu opened...

Was the 『Thief Promotion Guide』 mentioned by the user called 『Phantom Hand』.