God's Imitator

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was in an uproar.

A game type worse than judgment games?

At this point, Wei Yinzhang had no need to keep them in suspense and said truthfully, ”Last night, I returned to my room and discovered the Gallery had already sent a new invitation.

”Or rather, it wasn’t an invitation, just a notification, because the Gallery didn’t let me do any designing at all.”

Li Renshu’s brows furrowed tightly, and she said with some concern, ”How could this be?

”Could it be that because information that shouldn’t have been revealed was disclosed, the God’s Imitator’s permissions were blocked?”

Wei Yinzhang shook her head, ”That shouldn’t be it.

”The Gallery’s statement was roughly like this: you have already expressed your position to the Gallery, and other God’s Imitators have also expressed their positions. And next is the opponent’s turn.”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was stunned.

Zheng Jie was somewhat confused, ”This kind of thing even has turn-based mechanics?”Cao Haichuan thought for a moment and said, ”This means our previous speculation was correct.

”’God’s Imitators can change the Gallery,’ this is already a clear rule.

”However, this change is not only very slow, but there’s also the possibility of regression.

”Because both types of God’s Imitators will try to push the Gallery to develop in a direction favorable to themselves.

”Some God’s Imitators tend toward peaceful coexistence with players, tend toward low-mortality games. They’ll work hard in this direction.

”While other God’s Imitators tend toward killing players in large quantities to harvest visa time, tend toward survival of the fittest, wanting to obtain greater permissions and advantages in the New World.

”What the Gallery will become in the future depends on which of these two types of God’s Imitators wins.

”From the previous situation, obviously the former type of God’s Imitator temporarily holds the advantage.

”Both the ’Blind Date Game’ and ’The Fool’s Game’ can prove this point.”

Everyone nodded. This wasn’t difficult to understand.

Whether participating in these games or just looking at the rules, one could roughly sense the God’s Imitator’s design intent.

Some games carried obvious malice, while other games carried goodwill.

There were even games like ’The Fool’s Game’ that deliberately favored a certain type of player.

Previously, well-intentioned God’s Imitators had temporarily gained the upper hand. Even screening-type games that allowed high-mortality designs had shown goodwill toward players but clearly, the Gallery wouldn’t allow one side’s advantage to continue indefinitely. At specific times, it would ’play favorites,’ making both sides tug-of-war for a longer time.

That’s why the Gallery said, next was ’the opponent’s turn.’

Cai Zhiyuan said thoughtfully, ”So the Gallery didn’t send you a game design invitation at all, but only sent invitations to those God’s Imitators with heavier malicious intent?

”Then can we understand it this way: the upcoming game, no matter which God’s Imitator’s proposal wins, will definitely be a very cruel game with high mortality.

”After all, this is what the Gallery wants.”

Wei Yinzhang nodded, ”Yes.

”Moreover, the Gallery conveyed a very important piece of information this time: the theme of this game is ’Elimination’ and ’Judgment.’

”So I think a new game type might appear.

”Elimination-type games.”

Qin Yao asked curiously, ”Game theme? Did previous games also have themes?”

Wei Yinzhang explained, ”Of course. For example, the theme of ’screening-type’ is ’screening.’ The themes of ’distribution-type’ are generally ’redistribution’ and ’community confrontation.’

”Just from the literal meaning, this game might be more dangerous than ordinary judgment games.”

Zheng Jie was visibly panicking, ”Then did it say who specifically will be judged? Did you see information about the criminals?

”Wait, you used me as an example earlier. Could you have already been hinting at me?”

Wei Yinzhang shook her head, ”...No, I really was just giving a random example. After all, when I first came out of the game, I still couldn’t tell everyone apart. I only remembered you wore a woodpecker mask and were a doctor.

”For this game, the Gallery didn’t show me the criminals’ files at all, so I don’t know who specifically will be judged.

”Everyone can only think for themselves about whether there’s anything deserving of judgment.”

The atmosphere in the hall instantly became much more somber. For everyone, this was indeed very bad news.

Although Wei Yinzhang had revealed information in advance, for everyone, not only was it unhelpful, but it actually made them fall into panic even earlier.

Li Renshu considered for a moment and said, ”There’s no choice. Since this is the Gallery’s decision, we can only accept it.

”In any case, this game might be very dangerous. We need to carefully consider who will participate.

”If necessary, we can even have two strong players enter simultaneously to ensure safety as much as possible.”

No one said anything more.

Although many people were also hoping for specific players to enter the game to help, after all, this game was different from the past, with extremely high danger. It was also awkward to voice such requests.

Moreover, they still had no idea who specifically would be selected.

They could only adapt on the spot after the game opened.

...

Three days later.

In the hall of Community 17, a broadcast notification appeared on the big screen announcing the game’s opening.

[Good morning, all players!]

[The Gallery will open in 5 minutes.]

[The name of this game is ’Shelter Game.’ The game type is ’elimination-type.’]

[This game will select 5 players from the community to participate mandatorily according to the following priority:]

[1. Criminal players who will be judged in this game.]

[2. Players who have participated in fewer games. (Participating in games with unrewarded status does not count toward the number.)]

[3. In cases of equal participation, priority will be given to players who obtained less visa time in distribution-type games.]

[The mandatory participants from this community are: Fu Chen, Li Renshu, Cao Haichuan, Zhou Guifen, Zheng Jie.]

[Please be prepared, all players.]

Everyone was stunned.

Because this game had no voluntary participation slots at all, but was mandatorily screened according to certain rules.

Especially the last two criteria. First, selecting players who had participated in fewer games. If there were cases of equal participation, priority would be given to players who obtained less visa time in distribution-type games.

These two criteria could almost ensure that the weak would inevitably be selected.

Because weaker players would tend to avoid games. As long as they still had visa time, they wouldn’t participate in any games with death risks.

Distribution-type games had full participation, which was a unified standard. The less visa time obtained meant the weaker they were.

Fu Chen was somewhat stunned, ”I’m first on the list. Does that mean I’m the criminal to be judged?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”Not necessarily. This order seems to be arranged by player number.

”How many games have each of you participated in?”

Everyone answered in succession, ”Three times.”

Besides the two distribution-type games with full participation, ’Blood Poker’ and ’Conglomerate Nation,’ Fu Chen and Li Renshu participated in ’Financial Sources Game,’ and Cao Haichuan participated in ’King’s Judgment.’

Zheng Jie hadn’t participated in ’Blood Poker,’ but had participated in ’Blind Date Game,’ ’Conglomerate Nation,’ and ’The Fool’s Game,’ so it was also 3 times.

Zhou Guifen had participated in ’Blood Poker,’ ’Blind Date Game,’ and ’Conglomerate Nation.’

The 5 people who entered as audience members in ’Birth Judgment,’ because they had no gains or risks, weren’t counted in the number. This was different from the situation in ’King’s Judgment.’

Actually, there were other players in the community who had also only participated in 3 games, such as Wang Yongxin, Cai Zhiyuan, and Qin Yao, but they had obtained more visa time in distribution-type games.

Fu Chen, Li Renshu, Cao Haichuan, and Zheng Jie happened to be the group that earned less visa time in ’Conglomerate Nation,’ so with equal participation counts, they would still be selected first.

Li Renshu frowned slightly, ”But this also means we have no way to quickly determine who exactly the criminal is.”

If among these five people there was one player with obviously abnormal game participation or visa time, they could directly confirm he was the criminal in the game but unfortunately, there wasn’t.

Lin Sizhi instructed, ”Determining the criminal and their crime is the first priority. After entering the game, when you see the first criminal’s file, you must pay attention and carefully recall whether it’s related to yourself.

”You must consider game strategy around this point as much as possible.”

Five minutes was very short. There wasn’t time to discuss more.

When the countdown ended, the five players instantly disappeared from the hall.