God's Imitator

’Gray Wolf’ He Xiaojun approached and tentatively asked, ”Hello, ’Rabbit’. We met before in the first stage. Do you remember?

”It seems the second stage can employ some team strategies. Can we cooperate?

”You’re so smart, I definitely couldn’t deceive you. If you have any group strategies that need executing, I can help.”

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying looked at him and asked, ”You’re not holding a sage deck, right?”

He Xiaojun thought for a moment. Lying on this question had absolutely no meaning, because it was too easy to verify.

He nodded, ”Yes, it’s a fool deck.”

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying shook her head, ”Then I’m sorry. From the second stage rules, there’s no place for fool players in my strategy.

”I also have no need to deceive you for a tiny amount of chips. You should go find other fool players to cooperate with.”

He Xiaojun was somewhat disappointed but still nodded, ”Alright, thank you.”

There was no helping it. In this kind of game, sage players naturally also had their own considerations. Who would specifically bring along useless baggage?He walked back aimlessly, thinking that if he really couldn’t find players to cooperate with, he could only cut his losses and leave.

However, just then, a voice rang out beside his ear.

”I have a method that can 100% safely escape from this game, and can also give you a reference answer for ’Guess the Number’. Want to cooperate?”

’Gray Wolf’ He Xiaojun turned to look. A player wearing an ’Owl’ mask extended an invitation to him.

A pillow delivered when drowsy, but ’Gray Wolf’ He Xiaojun instead didn’t quite dare believe it.

In this situation, grasping a lifeline was naturally a good thing, but in this kind of screening-type game, would anyone really be so kind-hearted?

What if it wasn’t a lifeline but a deadly trap?

Although He Xiaojun didn’t have many chips in hand, some scammers specifically targeted those with no way out.

Both sides hadn’t met each other in the first stage at all. There was completely no basis of trust. In this situation, was talking about cooperation reliable?

’Gray Wolf’s’ hesitation was obviously also within ’Owl’s’ expectations.

”You can follow me first. I’ll gather a group of players like you.

”At that time, I’ll explain why I chose you all. In this game, there exists a method to ’identify well-intentioned players’.

”After that, I’ll tell you all a reference number and a method to stably escape from the game.

”After hearing the strategy, if you think there’s deception, you can leave at any time.

”Of course, if you insist on not wanting to join, I won’t force you either.”

’Gray Wolf’ thought for a moment and ultimately nodded, ”Okay, I’ll join.”

...

’Owl’s’ team rapidly expanded in a very short time.

In this kind of game, there would be no lack of people like ’Gray Wolf’ who fell into despair due to having few chips but ’Gray Wolf’, who had been following behind ’Owl’ all along, also noticed that ’Owl’ didn’t accept just anyone.

Among players who similarly showed anxiety due to having few chips, there also seemed to be a set of invisible screening standards.

For certain people, ’Owl’ just glanced and walked away, not even approaching to chat.

For others, he was willing to spend more words.

Like this, ’Owl’ strolled leisurely through the hall and quickly selected some players.

’Gray Wolf’ He Xiaojun counted. Including himself and ’Owl’, there were 10 people total, accounting for a quarter of all players.

Everyone gathered at the hall’s edge position. Many people showed obvious dejection.

’Owl’ spoke up, ”First, I can confirm one point to everyone: from now on, we can use cooperative strategies to get this game’s ’minimum security’.

”The method is also very simple. You all should be able to think of it. What you all should have received are ’Fool Decks’, with 3 rocks, 1 scissors, 1 paper in the deck.

”So my plan is two-by-two battles.

”Both sides agree to respectively use their ’Thief Card (Scissors)’ to win against the opponent’s ’Sage Card (Paper)’.

”This way, everyone can obtain net earnings of 1000 chips per round.

”The earnings aren’t high, but it’s better than nothing, and most importantly, it’s stable.”

This strategy left quite a few people greatly disappointed.

’Gray Wolf’ tentatively asked, ”Everyone can think of such a simple strategy, right?

”If just eating minimum security, why not add ’rock’ too? We could get double.

”And the most critical point is, we fundamentally have no way to restrain the other party’s behavior!

”Everyone cannot confirm each other’s identities. Even if someone reneges and runs, they won’t receive any substantial punishment.”

Others also nodded one after another. Obviously, the most important link in this plan was ’mutual trust’.

Everyone wore masks and most likely all came from different communities. Initial mutual trust was very difficult to establish.

Once someone chose to deceive and run, this small group would most likely immediately disperse and fall apart but ’Owl’ didn’t seem worried about this problem.

”I can guarantee to you all that our 10-person small group are all relatively reliable. You all can safely implement this plan internally and slowly build trust.

”Of course, you all can only bet 1000 chips, not more.

”If deception occurs, I can serve as ’insurance’ and compensate the deceived party’s losses.”

Everyone looked at each other.

Obviously, this sounded somewhat fantastical and made no sense.

Why would ’Owl’ compensate losses to the deceived party?

Although this loss might not be much, what was the point of him doing this?

The most critical point was, how did he determine these people were all reliable?

’Gray Wolf’ tentatively asked, ”You mean you recognized our true identities through some method? That’s not right. I can’t think of anyone like you in the community at all.”

’Owl’ shook his head, ”I probably don’t know you all.

”However, this game actually has a special ’safety declaration’. I used this ’safety declaration’ to pick you all out from the crowd of players.

”Right here, you all can also see clearly.”

’Owl’ spoke while lightly tapping the small screen on the side of his oxygen mask.

Obviously, the 9 players he picked out were generally not too smart. Even at this step, they still hadn’t realized the reason.

”Safety declaration? Where?” ’Gray Wolf’ was very puzzled.

On this small screen, there were clearly only two pieces of information: one was the current oxygen canister’s remaining amount, and the other was the current number of oxygen replenishments.

’Owl’ explained, ”’Oxygen consumption’ is the ’safety declaration’.”