God's Imitator

Everyone nodded. Originally they thought finding the God’s Imitator was an incredible feat, but now thinking about it, each step of the reasoning was traceable.

Especially since Officer Cao was a professional criminal investigator, his guidance was also crucial.

Li Renshu nodded in agreement, ”Indeed, the God’s Imitator’s purpose often becomes the key to our breakthrough. Things might not be as bad as we think.”

Cao Haichuan picked up the conversation, ”I also agree with this view. As I guessed before, killing for God’s Imitators isn’t without cost.

”The more purpose-driven a God’s Imitator is, the easier they are to catch in games.

”And if their purpose isn’t strong, or they don’t dare to blatantly exploit backdoors that most people can’t discover in games, then the game’s fairness can still be fundamentally guaranteed.”

Fu Chen realized a problem, ”Wait, I suddenly realized there’s still one point we’ve never clarified: do God’s Imitators have to enter their own games?

”This point is very important!”

Everyone fell silent. Obviously, this question still had no clear answer.

Li Renshu looked at Lin Sizhi, ”Lawyer Lin, what do you think? You should have the most authority on this question.”Lin Sizhi spread his hands, ”I don’t know.

”The reason I worked toward ’finding the God’s Imitator’ was because the broadcast before the game specifically mentioned the rules about killing God’s Imitators. This rule was very likely the Gallery hinting to us: this game has a chance to kill the God’s Imitator.

”But the Gallery didn’t directly reveal this point after all, so I couldn’t be completely certain either.”

Zheng Jie was stunned, ”Huh? You weren’t completely certain? Your sense of conviction at the time completely convinced me!”

Lin Sizhi smiled somewhat helplessly, ”That was the most likely scenario, and the only way to break the situation. Even if I wasn’t completely certain, I could only choose to say that.

”Otherwise what could I say? Tell everyone ’the God’s Imitator might not be in this game’? Did I work so hard to audition just to spoil the mood?

”I had to appear absolutely certain to convince other players to vote to kill. If I showed even a hint of hesitation, we might not have gathered 20 votes.

”As for what to do if the God’s Imitator wasn’t in the game?

”What else could we do? Everyone would show their abilities and persist until the game ended.

”As for Community 1’s players, if we killed the wrong people, so be it. They incited the most opposition and were all indirect murderers anyway.”

Jiang He frowned, ”I think God’s Imitators definitely have to enter the game, right?

”If they could choose not to enter games, there might be a very ridiculous way to exploit loopholes!

”The God’s Imitator turns the community into a scam operation, reveals all rules in advance, then only lets other players enter while staying out themselves. Wouldn’t that be invincible?”

Li Renshu nodded, ”Mm, that makes sense too.

”The Gallery might allow God’s Imitators to engage in some high-risk, high-reward behaviors, such as playing with open cards in the community. God’s Imitators would also have to bear the risk of being coerced, controlled, or even killed by community players.

”But running scam operations while not participating themselves would be too excessive and would seriously affect the balance between God’s Imitators and players.

”The Gallery shouldn’t completely turn a blind eye.”

Fu Chen thought about it, ”Perhaps as Lawyer Lin said, the Gallery specifically disclosing rules about killing God’s Imitators before entering the game is some kind of hint.

”But...

”Just this isn’t enough, right? The Gallery can’t broadcast such information every time God’s Imitators enter their own games, can they?”

Wang Yongxin spread his hands, ”If the Gallery really doesn’t care, we have no solutions anyway. Players are all meat on the chopping board, just the difference between early and late cutting.”

Li Renshu stared at the rules on the big screen and suddenly realized something.

She stood up and came to the big screen, pointing at the five rules in the bottom right corner.

”Perhaps the Gallery has already limited this behavior.

”Don’t you find it strange? Why would these five rules be written here separately? And specifically noted as ’supplementary rules’?”

Lin Sizhi had already noticed these five rules long ago, but since no one mentioned them, he naturally wouldn’t bring them up proactively.

Now Li Renshu finally noticed.

These five rules, the first four were the four rules he had once submitted to Zhong Yuanyuan.

And the fifth rule was:

[5. The God’s Imitator who designed this game will personally enter the game.]

Many people showed expressions of surprise. They indeed hadn’t noticed this point before.

Because the ’Blind Date Game’ had too many rules, the entire big screen was densely packed, making people’s eyes hurt. Everyone only roughly understood through following Zheng Jie’s review.

These five supplementary rules at the end weren’t obvious.

Xu Tong was thoughtful, ”These five... might be the God’s Imitator being unsatisfied with their own plan, so they patched it?

”That’s normal, right? After all, when we make plans, we often have omissions that need modification.”

Li Renshu shook her head slightly, ”But all the games we’ve seen before, all games, have never had similar post-modification situations.

”What the Gallery shows us are complete rules, with items strictly displayed in chronological order in a modular way.

”Even if God’s Imitators want to modify their own rules, they would definitely modify them privately and submit them after everything is fixed, right?

”Supplementary rules should also be inserted into corresponding previous positions. How could they just be randomly appended at the end like this?

”Would you dare present such a formatted plan to your boss or leader? You’d definitely get scolded.

”The Gallery’s review standards should be even stricter.”

Wang Yongxin nodded, ”That makes sense.”

Obviously, as a civil servant, Li Renshu had extraordinary sensitivity to ’format.’

This kind of writing where subsequent rules were just appended at the end was almost like committing a cardinal sin in Li Renshu’s eyes, very conspicuous indeed.

She continued, ”I believe these rules were personally added by the Gallery to balance game difficulty.

”Because careful analysis reveals that these rules are indispensable, whether for players’ self-protection or helping players better determine the God’s Imitator’s position.”

Wang Yongxin was stunned, ”Wait, how can you be certain these were personally added by the Gallery?

”It’s also possible the Gallery rejected the original draft and forced the God’s Imitator to make adjustments and additions, so Zhong Yuanyuan was forced to add these rules to make the game fairer.”

Li Renshu pointed to the last rule, ”’The God’s Imitator who designed this game will personally enter the game.’

”Besides the Gallery, who has the authority to write this sentence in the rules?

”Zhong Yuanyuan could write it herself, but would she be foolish to that extent? Even if she wanted to enter the game to see the crime scene, there would be no need to specifically write it in the rules, right?”

Zheng Jie suddenly understood, ”Oh? I see!

”These rules, at first glance seem favorable to the God’s Imitator, but upon careful consideration, are actually favorable to players.

”Take the third rule for example. When I was ’bluffing’ before, I thought about how the 10-second death waiting time could actually increase gaming space between players.

”But...

”The first two rules don’t seem to have any special effects?

”Take the vouchers for example. If I could return them myself, I would consider buying them. After all, they wouldn’t be stuck in my hands, at most I’d lose 20% in handling fees.

”But since they can’t be returned, I never could make up my mind to purchase them.”