God's Imitator

Other players from Community 7 felt slightly reassured.

But soon someone worried, ”But we can only purchase shelters during the trading segment of the sixth round.

”But the judgment in the sixth round should be conducted before that, right?

”What if it affects us?”

They could only build 4 shelters now. One player would be in an unprotected state.

Jin Cheng shook her head and explained, ”It should be fine, because we haven’t done anything particularly criminal now. We shouldn’t be jointly implicated.

”Moreover, my crime definitely won’t be judged at the very beginning.”

Others were somewhat puzzled, ”Why?”

Jin Cheng explained, ”Because my crime is very likely concealing problems with a house during sale. Didn’t I tell you before?

”Then, the corresponding crime in the game should be selling inferior shelters.”But according to game rules, starting to build shelters now, they can only be completed when the sixth round begins. And if you want to sell inferior shelters, you still have to wait until the ’free trading segment’ of the sixth round.

”That is to say, before that, there fundamentally aren’t any players who committed similar crimes to me.

”From the game mechanism perspective, surely they’d first judge crimes that ’players have already committed,’ right? My crime, at the earliest, would only be judged in the seventh round.

”By then we’ll already have at least five shelters and can avoid death.”

Other players nodded one after another, temporarily setting their minds at ease.

Jin Cheng’s speculation still had some logic. Assuming the God’s Imitator wanted to kill more people, they’d have to let players commit similar crimes as much as possible before announcing the criminal’s file. Only this way could they jointly implicate more players.

So the files announced first should be crimes players could also commit in the first 5 rounds.

While crimes like selling inferior shelters definitely needed to be ”nurtured,” only announced when enough players committed the crime.

Of course, currently players still didn’t know the specific order and mechanism for announcing crimes, but since the God’s Imitator’s goal was to kill more people, they definitely had to fatten them up before slaughter, right?

Jin Cheng continued, ”As long as this is determined, things will be easy after that.

”After obtaining 5 normal shelters, we absolutely must not sell any inferior shelters. Community 15 and Community 12 will definitely sell.

”In that case, as long as those selling inferior shelters exceed 5 people, even if I’m judged ’guilty,’ it’ll be ’players with similar crimes jointly implicated,’ not ’players from same community jointly implicated.’ This would be equivalent to making Community 12 and Community 15 our scapegoats.”

Other players nodded again. If the situation really developed as Jin Cheng predicted, for Community 7, it would be a completely acceptable result.

...

Just then, the sixth round of the game began.

The first criminal’s list appeared on the big screen.

[Jin Cheng, female, 34 years old.]

[As a real estate salesperson, deliberately concealed problems, passed off inferior as superior, and sold problem properties to home buyers.]

[Judgment result: Not judged.]

[In the game, behavior committing similar crimes to the criminal is: ’Selling inferior shelters to audience members at prices higher than 15 gold coins.’]

[The criminal has 10 seconds to choose ’Confess’ or ’Appeal.’]

[During criminal judgment, shelter trading will be prohibited.]

Players in the field all looked uniformly toward Community 7’s direction.

And Jin Cheng herself was clearly even more shocked than players from other communities.

”How could this be? How could this happen!!”

She had indeed guessed her own crime, but no matter what, couldn’t have imagined it would be announced first.

For a moment, she was completely stunned in place, unable to make any reaction.

Other players from Community 7 were also stunned, because they had just chatted with Jin Cheng and similarly recognized Jin Cheng’s statement.

The huge gap between expectation and reality made their brains briefly crash.

Finally, someone reacted, grabbed Jin Cheng’s shoulder and shook vigorously, ”Confess! Confess! Otherwise we’ll all be jointly implicated!”

Clearly, up until now, no other players had committed similar crimes.

This meant once Jin Cheng was confirmed ’guilty’ by vote, only players from Community 7 would be ’jointly implicated.’

That player without a shelter would surely die.

However, the 10 seconds passed quickly. Jin Cheng’s expression changed several times, but ultimately she still couldn’t make the decision to confess.

The player shaking her shoulder dejectedly let go, powerlessly retreating several steps and collapsing to the ground.

[Criminal chooses ’Appeal,’ will have 1 minute for statement.]

A close-up of Jin Cheng’s face appeared on the big screen. At the same time, what she said would also be heard by all players in the field through broadcast.

Only now did Jin Cheng begin hastily organizing her words to defend herself.

”I didn’t mean to, I had no choice!

”If I told the truth, I wouldn’t have any performance. I would lose this job!

”I’m just a worker, an ordinary salesperson. I just deliberately praised the house’s advantages a bit more. Should I die for that?

”Don’t vote ’guilty,’ I’m begging you!”

The 1 minute quickly passed.

Clearly, Jin Cheng’s statements hadn’t been prepared beforehand at all. The logic wasn’t smooth, and the reasons weren’t sufficient but the game rules didn’t leave her more time.

[The criminal has finished appealing. Please complete voting within 3 minutes, all players.]

Players completed voting through the display screens in their hands one after another.

At this time, because there was no advance preparation and no reliable contingency plan, Community 7 was already in chaos.

Some were hesitating whether to vote ’guilty’ or ’innocent.’ Although most people’s first reaction was ’guilty,’ if they forcibly voted ’innocent,’ perhaps they could ensure just over half and not trigger joint implication?

But if they voted ’innocent’ against their conscience and still didn’t reach half, it would all be over.

As for against-conscience votes, according to game rules, they couldn’t be cast for one’s own community. If they could, they would definitely choose to use them now.

That player who didn’t obtain a shelter desperately rushed toward Community 15’s direction, wanting to use all his gold coins to purchase a shelter.

However, this was ultimately futile, because according to game rules, shelters could only be purchased during the ’free trading phase.’

He soon fell into despair, could only pound the signs on plots while letting out desperate wails.

In just under a minute, the final result appeared on the big screen.

[Voting result: Guilty.]

[In the game, behavior committing similar crimes to the criminal is: ’Selling inferior shelters to audience members at prices higher than 15 gold coins.’]

[Players who committed similar crimes number fewer than 5, therefore, all players from Community 7 will be ’jointly implicated.’]

[The above players will suffer instant death punishment in 10 seconds.]