God's Imitator

Lin Sizhi paused slightly and switched to a more easily understood explanation:

”The Gallery only needs to change a few rules and stuff a few smart players in, which is equivalent to an emperor ’granting death.’ If you’re tactful and commit suicide, the emperor will spare your nine generations of family.

”If the emperor grants you death but you refuse to be graceful, then the emperor will help make your nine generations graceful together.

”If the Gallery gives the God’s Imitator face and lets players kill the God’s Imitator, then those players from the same community who participated in rigging the game might still be able to save their lives.

”But if the God’s Imitator and players from the same community insist on going against the Gallery, then what kind of monsters and demons the Gallery will match in next time is hard to say.

”The method of running a rigged game isn’t something only we can think of. There’s definitely more than just one or two communities where God’s Imitators have been exposed.

”But up until now, the community that has truly run a rigged game is really just Community 1 as a special case, and it was immediately dismantled.

”Does everyone think this would be a coincidence?

”As Wei Yinzhang said before, the Gallery has subjective will.

”Who gave you the courage to provoke an existence that ’has both subjective will and supernatural power’?”Xu Tong was stunned, ”But aren’t we also being provocative by discussing God’s Imitator-related rules so openly...”

Wei Yinzhang shook her head, ”No, this doesn’t count. Otherwise, I wouldn’t tell you this information either.

”Before I decided to expose my identity, I repeatedly considered these questions. I definitely felt the risk was controllable before telling you.

”The Gallery has subjective will. Many rules aren’t explicitly stated, but that doesn’t mean the rules don’t exist.”

Li Renshu nodded, ”Right, before the ’Blind Date Game’ started, the Gallery also broadcast about killing God’s Imitators in games.

”The Gallery’s statement was that these two rules had long existed, but most players hadn’t discovered them.

”That’s why the Gallery specifically broadcast a reminder.

”We can also make this inference, the Gallery actually has many rules, but the Gallery will only reveal a small portion when necessary.

”Everything else can only be guessed.

”’Figuring out the Gallery’s intent’ is also a necessary skill for surviving in the New World.”

Wei Yinzhang continued, ”I believe doing things within the rules is fine, or even slightly touching some gray areas is acceptable. But things outside the rules are absolutely not allowed. Forbidden zones will definitely kill you if you touch them even once.

”My judgment is that there’s really only one true forbidden zone for cooperation between God’s Imitators and players, game fairness.

”Right now, telling you how God’s Imitators specifically receive invitations and design games, or explaining games that have already ended to you, none of this affects the fairness of the next game.

”But if I reveal the rules to you in advance, or run a rigged game, or if everyone designs the game together, then that affects the fairness of future games. It’s absolutely crossing the red line.

”Of course, the severity of different behaviors is definitely also different.

”For example, suppose the next game is a judgment game targeting Dr. Zheng. As the God’s Imitator, I can have three completely different ways of handling it.

”First, as soon as I see the invitation, I directly tell everyone, have everyone design the game together, then tell Dr. Zheng the game’s details.

”This way, Dr. Zheng would be absolutely safe in this game and couldn’t possibly be successfully judged.

”This kind is undoubtedly the most egregious, equivalent to repeatedly jumping back and forth on the Gallery’s red line.

”Second, I don’t tell anyone, design a judgment game myself, but lower the difficulty of the judgment game to make it more likely for Dr. Zheng to pass.

”This kind of behavior is completely allowed by the rules and won’t have any problems.

”But the probability of my proposal being selected would greatly decrease, and even if I lowered the difficulty and left a backdoor, Dr. Zheng might not necessarily find the solution method in the game. So it’s not absolutely safe either.

”Third, I hint to Dr. Zheng to be careful recently and think carefully about whether he’s done anything against his conscience.

”This kind of behavior might be considered slightly against the rules, but it probably isn’t serious.

”At most, I’d use the second and third methods depending on the situation. As for the first method, I definitely wouldn’t dare use it, and I advise everyone not to have that kind of idea either.

”Especially since Community 17’s current situation is good, with a mortality rate lower than average. There’s no need to court death.”

The positions taken by Lin Sizhi and Wei Yinzhang still carried significant weight.

’Running a rigged game’ was definitely an idea that would naturally occur to most players, because playing this way could maximize ensuring one’s own safety and also harvest large amounts of visa time from games.

If it could succeed, the New World would become a place with very low mortality rate, even extremely safe most of the time.

This longing for safety was a human instinct deeply buried in the heart but after this analysis, everyone also realized that the risk of doing this was definitely very high. Otherwise, the Gallery should be in a state of ’rigged games everywhere.’

Because the identity of God’s Imitator probably wasn’t too scarce.

After all, judging from the number of first-batch games and Wei Yinzhang’s situation of accepting game invitations, currently the community numbers encountered by Community 17 didn’t exceed 20, yet the number of God’s Imitators was very likely over twenty.

This meant that on average, each community had at least one God’s Imitator, or even more.

And simply exposing a God’s Imitator’s identity, from current appearances, wouldn’t have any particularly serious consequences.

But the behavior of ’running a rigged game’ was extremely rare, which could only indicate that between ’exposing identity’ and ’running a rigged game,’ there was a huge chasm, a cruel filtering mechanism.

If Community 17 ran a rigged game, how others would fare was hard to say, but Wei Yinzhang would very likely die.

Because the Gallery could not only forcibly insert new rules into games, but could also match the strongest players in and have them play the game of ’catching the God’s Imitator’ together.

Winning once or twice by luck was possible, but would very likely provoke the Gallery to strike with heavy force.

At that time, there might truly be no dignity whatsoever but if they didn’t run a rigged game and ensured Wei Yinzhang’s safety, as a God’s Imitator she could continuously provide information to the community.

Even if she didn’t design any games, she still had great value.

For example, she could reveal the type of the next game in advance, or hint that certain people might face judgment.

Or for instance, probe the Gallery’s inclinations, and through the information the Gallery sent to God’s Imitators, judge the upcoming shifts in game direction.

These were all tangible benefits.

This kind of behavior wouldn’t be too egregious in nature. Even if it violated rules, after being warned by the Gallery, they could immediately stop, without producing overly serious consequences but if Wei Yinzhang died, the players of Community 17 would never be able to obtain this information again. That would be a huge loss.

They couldn’t very well hope to dig out another God’s Imitator from games, could they?

If it were some communities that had already fallen into despair, where all members had little visa time and the mortality rate was very high, taking a gamble on running a rigged game might still be reasonable.

But Community 17 clearly was far from that state. Its mortality rate was lower than the average of other communities, and remaining visa time was also higher than the average of other communities.

If at this time they were completely wiped out because of running a rigged game, that would truly be unjust.

Li Renshu nodded, ”Yes, I completely agree with this statement.

”We definitely cannot run a rigged game. Things like helping the God’s Imitator design games, it’s also best not to do.

”We need to ensure Yinzhang’s safety as much as possible, as this lone seedling. Through the God’s Imitator, we can determine the Gallery’s direction and obtain some additional information. This is the long-term plan.

”Alright, today’s review session ends here. Everyone has worked hard. Go back and rest well.”

Everyone stood up one after another and returned to their own rooms.

Wang Yongxin looked at Wei Yinzhang with a meaningful glance, his feelings somewhat complicated.