God's Imitator

Li Renshu and Fu Chen walked silently through the corridor leading to the external field.

The economic winter had ended, and the corridor’s exterior scene had once again returned to a vibrant appearance.

There were no longer queues of unemployed people, no more bleak autumn winds or scattered paper scraps on the ground.

Well-dressed office workers walked briskly, and the entire scene looked full of vitality.

Li Renshu confirmed that her speculation was correct.

”This scene itself is also a kind of hint.

”The more employees our two companies lay off, the more unemployed people appear in this exterior scene.

”This is also reminding us not to treat those virtual employees as cold data.

”They are directly related to the end of the economic winter...”

The two came to the market research external field. Li Renshu was stunned for a moment because Tian Fan hadn’t come.Instead, Yang Hui and Jiao Hongtao had come, a combination they had never seen before.

This was strange, because Tian Fan was obviously the backbone of Community 8 and the main decision maker.

”Where’s Tian Fan?” Li Renshu asked.

”He’s dead.”

Yang Hui raised her hand with a grim expression, showing the shattered bracelet she was holding, ”Judgment game.”

Li Renshu was somewhat surprised. Only now did she realize that in this game, Su Xiucen and Xu Tong weren’t the only two people undergoing judgment games.

Someone in Community 8 was also undergoing judgment and the mechanisms seemed to be the same for both sides.

Li Renshu asked, ”Tian Fan didn’t rehire employees to over 20 people, did he?”

Yang Hui nodded, her expression full of regret, ”Yes, after we reached cooperation, he laid off all employees and never rehired. Brother Jiao kept trying to persuade him, but he wouldn’t listen at all.

”It wasn’t until the economic winter ended and the confidentiality restrictions of the judgment mechanism were lifted that we understood what was going on.

”The audio player that Brother Jiao had said that Tian Fan, as a boss, exploited employees at will, causing two tragic cases of employee death from overwork, and also used excuses like last-place elimination and being over 35 to lay off many loyal veteran employees.

”It really resembles the scenario in this game.

”Economic winter, economic winter...

”Yes, the game rules said from the beginning that we are the only two remaining companies.

”If neither of us hires people and all employees remain unemployed, how could the economic winter end?

”Now it’s too late, we can’t hire anyone even if we want to.

”After the economic winter ended, there isn’t a single employee left in the recruitment interface.”

Everyone looked at the big screen, but this time there was no domain selection or new questions.

[The economic winter has ended, and the emerging market is full of opportunities everywhere.]

[Only companies that win people’s hearts and enjoy popular support can take all the dividends.]

[Company 8 Limited employee count: 0]

[Company 17 Limited employee count: 30]

[Company 17 Limited seized this business opportunity and received a reward of 100,000 minutes of visa time.]

[This market research activity has ended. Please leave and wait for the next business opportunity to appear.]

Li Renshu was stunned, ”100,000? Is this the fixed reward for the last 3 rounds of the game? So much?

”Moreover, as long as we have more employees than the opponent, we automatically win, and no additional investment operations are needed anymore.”

Yang Hui looked at the big screen and sighed, ”The game is over.”

Li Renshu nodded, ”You were strong opponents and good partners. I’m glad we cooperated until the last moment.

”If we meet in a game next time, I hope we can continue this kind of cooperation.”

Yang Hui smiled bitterly, ”Good, I hope we can all live to see that day.”

...

Returning to the company, Li Renshu immediately went to find Su Xiucen to share the good news.

”Aunt Su, for the last 3 rounds of the game, we can get an additional 100,000 each round!

”Aunt Su?”

Li Renshu was stunned because Su Xiucen was nowhere to be seen inside.

She came out somewhat puzzled, ”Xu Tong, did Aunt Su come out? Were the restrictions on the president also lifted?”

Xu Tong was also confused, ”No, Aunt Su has been in the office all along, hasn’t she?”

Just then, a new prompt appeared on the big screen.

[A player death has occurred, but since the economic winter has ended, there is no need to reopen position selection.]

Everyone immediately realized something was wrong and hurried to the president’s office, finding it indeed empty.

The restriction of only one executive being allowed to enter at a time was lifted.

The cold storage was still emitting cold air, but possibly because there was temporarily no president, the cold storage didn’t require staying for a full minute and could be exited at any time.

Li Renshu yanked open the cold storage door, but found nothing inside except a few simple pieces of clothing.

Under the clothes was only a shattered bracelet.

...

[October company account balance: 166,800 minutes visa time]

[November estimated income: 10,000 minutes visa time]

[November estimated employee salary expenditure: 83,200 minutes visa time]

Seeing this number, Li Renshu’s feelings were complicated.

The original balance should have been 66,800, but Su Xiucen’s entry into the cold storage had added an additional 100,000 minutes of visa time to the company account.

...

[November company account balance: 193,600 minutes visa time]

[December estimated income: 20,000 minutes visa time]

[December estimated employee salary expenditure: 83,200 minutes visa time]

...

[December company account balance: 230,400 minutes visa time]

The visa time carried by the executives was also recalculated into the company account balance.

[Company 17 Limited’s final account balance: 260,400 minutes visa time]

[The 3 surviving players of Company 17 Limited will equally share the above visa time as a reward.]

[Game over.]

...

As the game ended, Fu Chen realized he had returned to the community hall.

The environment, which was obviously much warmer than the game venue, made him somewhat unaccustomed for a moment, feeling his cheeks and forehead noticeably burning.

Cai Zhiyuan noticed Fu Chen looked somewhat disheveled and hurried forward to ask, ”How was it? Are you okay?”

Fu Chen sniffed, ”I’m fine. But...”

The final results of this game appeared on the big screen.

[Now announcing Community 17’s final visa time acquisition in the ’Financial Sources Game.’]

[No. 1 Fu Chen: 86,800]

[No. 3 Li Renshu: 86,800]

[No. 8 Su Xiucen: Expelled from the community]

[No. 9 Xu Tong: 86,800]

[According to community rules, when players obtain more than 20,000 minutes of visa time, 5% goes to the community security fund. The remaining visa time will be credited to each player’s visa.]

Seeing this result, many people finally realized that Su Xiucen had not returned from this judgment game.

Cao Haichuan’s hand instantly clenched, ”Aunt Su, she...?”

Li Renshu opened her hand, revealing a bracelet covered with crack patterns.

This was something every player could inevitably leave in the New World, and almost the only thing.

As for the players from the game, they couldn’t be brought out of the game space.

Everyone fell into silence.

Although the visa time brought back by the other three players was as high as 80,000, very substantial, the second death case in the community still cast a shadow over everyone’s hearts.

Even though many people didn’t like Su Xiucen, this somewhat stubborn old lady, they had lived together for some time and had all eaten meals she cooked, so it was impossible to be completely indifferent.

Wang Yongxin looked at the three people returning from the game and said in a deep voice, ”In the Gallery, we may experience separation by life and death at any moment. We must learn to adapt.

”I believe you all did your best. Daring to actively enter a judgment game is itself an act full of courage, and I deeply respect that.

”Under the Gallery’s rules, no matter how powerful a person is, they cannot protect all the weak.”

Li Renshu shook her head, ”It wasn’t just us protecting Aunt Su, Aunt Su was also protecting us.”