God's Imitator

Wang Weidong waved his hand, ”That won’t do. Who haggles like you, cutting the price in half at once? Is that even acceptable?

”Your Community 12 is already the community with the least visa time. Exchanging gold coins is most cost-effective for you. Don’t be so stingy.”

Chen Guangming shook his head, ”Isn’t that what you said yourself? Money is saved.

”Final price: 10 gold coins. If you don’t want it, forget it. Anyway, no other community will be willing to give you gold coins.”

Wang Weidong looked at him, ”Aren’t you afraid I’ll deliberately choose next to you?”

Chen Guangming didn’t care, ”Our Community 12 has the least remaining visa time. You can try.”

Wang Weidong immediately put on a smiling face, ”Deal. 10 gold coins it is then. Consider it making a friend.”

Chen Guangming first took out five gold coins, ”After you finish selecting the nine-square grid, I’ll pay the remaining balance.”

Wang Weidong took the coins and selected the A4 nine-square grid.

Chen Guangming also paid the remaining 5 gold coins as agreed.Li Renshu looked at the final choices of the five communities and fell into thought.

The nine-square grid Community 12 chose was G7, the most bottom-right corner.

Among the remaining selectable nine-square grids, A4 and D1 were farthest away.

Which one to specifically choose actually didn’t make much difference. It just depended on whether Wang Weidong wanted to be next to Community 9’s A7 nine-square grid or next to Community 17’s G1 nine-square grid.

He ultimately chose to be next to Community 9.

This was also good news for Community 17, because there were only 2 communities on the right side where they were located. Competition wouldn’t be so fierce.

Clearly, the reason Wang Weidong made this choice was because he was picking on the soft persimmon.

Community 12 had the least remaining visa time. At first glance they seemed weakest, but this also meant they wouldn’t have too many concerns about spending gold coins, meaning their financial strength was naturally more robust.

Moreover, they had given gold coins. Wang Weidong had to honor his promise. It was impossible to make an enemy right away for 5 gold coins.

Although Community 17 had more visa time, this also meant the players were relatively smarter with stronger abilities.

Community 7 and Community 9 had neither advantage. In the eyes of Wang Weidong from Community 15, they were obviously easier targets to handle.

...

After selecting the nine-square grids, there were only two or three minutes left before the game officially started.

Players no longer had time to consider too many complex countermeasures. They still returned to their own community’s player groups for simple discussions.

Fu Chen was somewhat excited, ”From the selection of nine-square grids, our situation looks pretty good.

”Communities 7, 9, and 15 are crowded together. We and Community 12 each monopolize a corner.

”As long as the G1 nine-square grid is selected for auction, we can directly obtain all the plots. Other communities can’t compete with us.”

Li Renshu reminded, ”The premise is the first phase.

”If the nine-square grid we chose only starts auctioning in the second phase, a ’privileged developer’ may have already appeared who can participate in bidding regardless of distance.

”Currently, we still don’t know in what specific order these nine-square grids will transform into biddable status.”

Fu Chen nodded in realization, ”Oh, that’s right too.”

The rules only stated that each round of the game would have one nine-square grid transform into ’developable state,’ meaning opening for bidding but they didn’t say in what specific order they would open.

If Community 17’s selected G1 nine-square grid was auctioned in the first phase, they could directly monopolize it. If it opened in the second phase, the ’privileged community’ would definitely become the ’2nd Developer.’

At that time, they’d have to play tic-tac-toe to determine plot ownership.

Zheng Jie asked somewhat curiously, ”From the results, were the players of Community 12 deceived again?

”Wang Weidong of Community 15 originally wanted to choose A4 nine-square grid, right?

”Because choosing which nine-square grid is nothing more than seeing which two communities they’re willing to be adjacent to.

”Community 12 has the least visa time, so they’re definitely most willing to spend gold coins. You could say they have the most robust financial strength.

”Our community has more visa time, which means overall strength is somewhat stronger, and we should have some reputation.

”For Community 15, it’s best to avoid both.

”So Wang Weidong would definitely choose to find Communities 7 and 9. Regardless of whether Community 12 gives gold coins or not, they would choose the A4 nine-square grid.”

Cao Haichuan shook his head, ”Not necessarily.

”Wang Weidong’s behavior is very likely probing.

”If Chen Guangming from Community 12 doesn’t give him gold coins, Wang Weidong would very likely treat Community 12 as a soft persimmon and choose the D7 nine-square grid between Community 9 and Community 12.”

Zheng Jie was somewhat puzzled, ”Not to that extent, right? No matter what, Community 12 is the community with the least remaining visa time. Spending gold coins causes them the least heartache.”

Cao Haichuan explained, ”’Having little visa time’ and ’not minding spending gold coins’ can’t be directly linked.

”Some people become more petty the poorer they are, unwilling to part with even a few thousand minutes of visa time. This kind of situation is also possible.

”This game filters out mostly players who prefer ’stable decisions.’

”Whether Fan Zehui and Chen Guangming give gold coins or not will directly determine Wang Weidong’s judgment of the entire Community 12.

”Giving gold coins indicates Community 12 is indeed willing to spend gold coins. During bidding, they definitely won’t be easy to provoke. They must be avoided.

”Not giving gold coins indicates Community 12’s players indeed lean toward stable strategies. They very likely don’t know how to utilize their own advantages. Having little visa time also indicates they’re relatively dumb. These two factors stacked together make them the biggest soft persimmon.”

Zheng Jie had a sudden realization, ”I see. This is also some kind of probing?

”Then it seems Community 15 is indeed not simple.”

After considering, Li Renshu said, ”This behavior by Community 15 and Community 12 should draw quite a bit of hatred from Communities 7 and 9.

”It’s just a pity that the current game rules don’t have too many places for cooperation. For now, we can only observe the changes.”

Fu Chen asked, ”Should we try to compete for the status of ’privileged community’?”

Zheng Jie was somewhat hesitant, ”No need, right? This game has some judgment game nature. Players who obtain advantageous status rarely have good endings.”

Fu Chen reminded, ”But this game has audience members. Compared to audience members, field players are already considered to have advantageous status.”

Li Renshu thought for a moment, ”Each has pros and cons.

”Obtaining advantageous status gives more initiative, but is also more likely to be schemed against by the God’s Imitator. Not obtaining advantageous status might be relatively safer, but often because of lacking initiative, one can only leave things to fate.

”We should still try to obtain more plots as much as possible, but don’t force it. The primary goal is to survive in the game.”

...

Soon, the first round of the game began.

All players held their breath in concentration, waiting to see which specific plot would be selected as this round’s ’developable plot.’

[The first round of the game begins.]

[The developable plot in this round is: A4 nine-square grid.]

[Community 15 has already selected this nine-square grid as their ’priority development area,’ therefore they will automatically obtain the status of ’1st Developer.’]

[The ’priority development areas’ selected by Community 7 and Community 9 are adjacent to this plot. They can obtain the status of ’2nd Developer’ through bidding.]

[You can directly give up bidding, or withdraw midway after participating in bidding.]

[But withdrawing midway still requires paying ’5 gold coins’ as a handling fee.]

[Bidding starts now. Time limit: 3 minutes.]

Many players were somewhat surprised.

Zheng Jie said in a low voice, ”It happens to be the nine-square grid Community 15 chose? That’s a one-in-eight probability. Is this a coincidence?”