God's Imitator

Su Xiucen bowed her head in silence.

Wang Yongxin continued explaining, ”Fine, even if we don’t consider the full survival strategy or utilizing Cell 3, we could still avoid triggering the king’s judgment vote by executing judgments more fairly.

”Now we know that only when the fairness score drops to 0 will judgment of the king be triggered.

”If Uncle Ding had been more fair during this process, adjusting the order and making the punishment each of us four prisoners received roughly match our crimes, then when completing the 10 games, regardless of who lived or died, as long as the fairness score didn’t drop to 0, he wouldn’t have been in any danger.

”Taking another step back, even if all of the above didn’t apply and the king’s judgment still activated, Uncle Ding still had a way out.

”According to the king’s judgment rules, execution votes need to exceed half of the total prisoner votes to take effect.

”If Uncle Ding had entered a cell to share judgment games, then he would also count as a prisoner and could cast an opposing vote for himself.

”Moreover, as long as Uncle Ding could make other prisoners feel grateful rather than completely souring relations, those prisoners wouldn’t all vote for execution.

”Under either of these circumstances, Uncle Ding wouldn’t have died.”

Lin Sizhi added, ”Actually, there’s another possibility, though it’s quite demanding and hard to achieve.”If two or three high-intelligence audiences appeared on the king’s side, then no matter how much Uncle Ding messed around, he still wouldn’t die.”

Everyone was stunned, obviously they hadn’t considered this possibility before.

Lin Sizhi explained, ”According to the fairness scoring rules, audiences can actually give fair evaluations against their conscience, only they’ll be deducted 10,000 minutes of visa time.

”If audiences betting on the king’s side cast conscience-defying fair votes, according to game rules, they could pull back 20 points of difference each time.

”A few such votes would be enough to pull the fairness score back to the safety line.

”Of course, this condition is too demanding. I think it’s almost impossible.

”Because audiences on the king’s side couldn’t possibly guess the specific punishment after fairness drops to zero. What if it just forces the king into a cell or changes kings? Then it wouldn’t matter much to them.

”Under uncertain circumstances, forcing conscience-defying votes costs 10,000 minutes of visa time each time, which is too expensive.

”Moreover, audiences on the king’s side wanting to win had to constantly incite the king, already spending massive visa time. If they also forced conscience-defying votes, the input-output ratio would be completely disproportionate.

”Even if one audience did this, it’s unlikely to get unanimous support from other king-faction audiences.”

Cai Zhiyuan, who had been silent, spoke up, ”Speaking of this, Lawyer Lin, I have a question.

”Did you also notice the fairness voting issue early on?

”Did you guess it would trigger the king’s judgment mechanism?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”I guessed fairness voting might trigger some mechanism within the game, but I couldn’t guess what specific mechanism.

”It’s somewhat like the principle of dramatic creation. If a gun appears in the first act, it must fire in some later act. I thought since the game designer designed fairness voting, it would inevitably play a role somewhere.

”The rules clearly stated fairness voting wouldn’t bring any benefits to audiences, so it could only relate to the five players in the arena.”

Su Xiucen powerlessly bowed her head, seemingly finally beginning to accept reality, her voice shifting more from questioning to pleading.

”Young Lawyer Lin, you were Audience 5. According to Officer Cao, you deliberately voted wrong twice.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes.”

”Why?”

Lin Sizhi calmly explained, ”The first time was to verify the accuracy of this lie detection mechanism, used to decide subsequent game strategy.

”The second time was to correct the previous error result, avoiding having the first attempt cause bias in the fairness score.”

Su Xiucen’s body trembled slightly, ”But if you had already realized this mechanism might exist and guessed you could delay its activation through conscience-defying votes.

”Then, if you had deliberately cast a few more conscience-defying votes, might you have been able to delay the judgment’s occurrence?”

Lin Sizhi thought about it but didn’t make excuses, ”That’s right.”

Su Xiucen wanted to say more, but Wang Yongxin had reached his breaking point.

He seemed to finally reach his explosive edge, slamming the table hard, ”Enough!”

The previous game had already injured his throat and made his voice hoarse. Now, raising his voice in anger made him sound even more hoarse and strained.

”What exactly are you trying to say? Are you going to judge the three of us like judging murderers?

”Let me answer for Lawyer Lin:

”Even if he had cast a few more conscience-defying fair votes, it would have been completely meaningless!

”Even if the eighth vote temporarily delayed judgment of the king, what about the ninth? The tenth?

”Suppose Uncle Ding had killed us all by then. Once judgment activated, he’d still die immediately! Because dead prisoners automatically cast execution votes!

”Moreover, even if Lawyer Lin guessed that fairness dropping to zero might cause something to happen, before the ’King’s Judgment’ mechanism actually triggered, who knew what specifically would happen?

”Maybe it would make Uncle Ding enter a cell? Maybe it would switch the king’s identity?

”With all this unknown, hadn’t Lawyer Lin as an audience done enough?

”Furthermore, you think Lawyer Lin should have cast conscience-defying approval votes to prevent the judgment mechanism from triggering, but would that be fair to me and Cai Zhiyuan?

”I don’t care what you think, but I know Lawyer Lin is the savior of both of us.

”If Lawyer Lin had really done as you said, we two would have died long ago! We would have been killed by Uncle Ding long ago!”

Su Xiucen shook her head, ”Big Brother Ding is a good person, he wouldn’t kill anyone!”

Wang Yongxin angrily replied, ”He wouldn’t kill anyone? Then how did Zhang Peng die?

”If he was really as good as you think, why didn’t he enter Cell 3 himself, and why didn’t he let others enter Cell 3?

”The audience said if he killed us all, they’d give him 500,000 minutes of visa time!

”You didn’t see his expression then, but I did. He really was seriously considering this question!

”Maybe you think Lawyer Lin didn’t do enough, so exactly how much would be enough?

”Lawyer Lin’s three statements had already exposed this game’s core secrets. Uncle Ding didn’t listen, so what else could be done?

”Should Lawyer Lin spend tens of thousands of minutes of visa time to write an essay?

”When I advised Uncle Ding to enter a cell, if calculated at 1,000 minutes per word, I probably spent hundreds of thousands of minutes, right? How did Uncle Ding answer me?

”He asked me back: Why should I?

”He wouldn’t listen to what I said while covered in wounds. Why would you think he’d listen to an essay of dozens of words from Lawyer Lin as ’Audience 5’?

”So, is it wrong for us to want to live?

”The king’s judgment vote only happens once. If you miss it, you’ll never get another chance! He had already disappointed us again and again. Why should we continue to trust him unconditionally!

”I’m not saying I’m more noble than him. Maybe if I were king, I’d die even earlier.

”I’m probably the most selfish person in this community, but when others treat me with equal selfishness, I find it reasonable too.

”If I were Uncle Ding, I’d accept defeat gracefully.

”Since he chose the selfish path, wanting to earn the most visa time, shouldn’t he bear the corresponding consequences?

”What business in this world only wants profits without risks?

”As for whether it’s fair? Of course it’s very unfair, but so what?

”How naive are you all, still looking for fairness in this world?

”Fair, fair—where is there so much fairness in this world?

”I said long ago that the New World isn’t utopia. In this world, there’s only one rule: try every means, use any method to survive!

”Every game, I seriously analyze the optimal game strategy for you all, trying my best to tell you how to improve survival chances.

”What have you all been doing? This won’t work, that’s wrong, always getting tangled up endlessly over inexplicable things.

”This is a life-and-death game where you could die anytime, not filming a variety show, okay? Dear brothers and sisters?

”Must we repeat this stupid process every time someone dies?

”I’ve had enough. From now on, I don’t want to discuss these boring questions with you anymore, and I don’t care what you think or how you see me!

”If you think I’m unforgivably evil just for being forced to protect myself in the game and must pay with my life, then go ahead. I welcome you to use any means to kill me!”

After Wang Yongxin finished speaking, he began coughing violently, uncontrollably.

Then he turned and went upstairs to his room, no longer participating in the discussion.

Another long silence.

Fu Chen looked at Su Xiucen and comforted her, ”Aunt Su, please calm down too.

”About Uncle Ding’s matter, I believe everyone feels equally sad.

”But Wang Yongxin and Cai Zhiyuan just walked back from death’s door. Being judged like murderers, normal people can’t accept it emotionally.

”You really shouldn’t have said those things to them.

”I think we can’t use past moral standards to evaluate people who have experienced life-and-death games. As that saying goes, never test human nature, because human nature can’t withstand testing.

”The more times like this, the more we need to stay calm, rational, and trust and unite with each other.

”If we start internal conflicts first, how can we deal with those terrible God’s Imitators?”

Fu Chen’s words brought some life back to the deathly silent hall.

Su Xiucen held Ding Wenqiang’s visa bracelet in her hands and nodded glumly, ”I understand.

”Little Fu, you’re a good child. Thank you.”

So far, everyone had discussed few details about ”King’s Judgment,” far less thoroughly than previous discussions.

It might be because Ding Wenqiang’s death made most people resistant to discussing this topic, so even forcing it to start made it hard to push forward.

Fu Chen sighed, ”Let’s stop here today. Everyone’s tired too. Get some rest early.”