God's Imitator

Cao Haichuan returned to Community 17’s rest area, comfortably lying on a single sofa, pulling out a cigarette from his chest.

”At a time like this, you shouldn’t mind, right?”

Everyone nodded silently.

Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke, looked at everyone, and said, ”Don’t be sad. For me, this is a decent result.

”When Chen Peng called the police about the house issue, I truly sympathized with him and was truly powerless. But no matter what, this is my crime. I accept it.

”I’ve also made many other mistakes. I accept them all.

”Who told me to be a police officer?”

Li Renshu’s emotions were very low, ”Officer Cao, is there anything else you want to say to me?”

Cao Haichuan shook his head, ”Nothing more. What I needed to say to you, I already said in the community long ago.

”What comes next, I’ll leave for you all to worry about. I’m going to rest first.”Cao Haichuan took another deep drag on his cigarette, then leaned back on the single sofa and peacefully closed his eyes.

...

[The game is about to end.]

[Now ’lie detection’ will be conducted on all field players. If at this time the player’s true inner thoughts are completely consistent with previous voting results, they will be marked as ’perfect judge.’]

[Lie detection complete. The number of ’perfect judges’ is fewer than 10 people. All players except ’perfect judges’ and ’audience’ will additionally trigger instant death punishment once.]

[All players from Community 17 suffer instant death punishment one additional time due to ’final vote.’]

On the plaza, large numbers of players who had already lost their death-avoidance opportunity fell into despair. Some angrily rushed toward other players, some futilely tried to remove their visa bracelets, and others collapsed on the ground, losing all their strength.

Death soon arrived.

The already scarce shelters were destroyed one after another. Players from Community 17 aside from Cao Haichuan, although they suffered instant death punishment once, ultimately remained safe and sound under shelter protection.

While players from other communities who no longer had death-avoidance opportunities didn’t have such good fortune.

Players on the field fell down one after another.

All five players from Community 7 died.

All five players from Community 9 died.

All players from Community 12 except Chen Guangming died.

Three people from Community 15 including Feng Bo and Shao Xinying died. Wang Weidong and another player survived.

Cao Haichuan from Community 17 died.

In the end, 7 field players remained.

Players from Community 17 had originally reserved 2 shelters per person. This was just in case. After consuming 4 shelters to avoid death, everyone immediately listed the remaining 6 shelters at a price of 12 gold coins.

If there were audience members who persisted until now and still weren’t willing to purchase high-priced shelters, then they could buy these normally-priced shelters and minimize their losses as much as possible.

Almost the instant they were listed, 5 shelters were purchased.

But 1 shelter had no takers.

This meant only 5 lucky audience members persisted to the end.

[The latest listed transaction price for shelters is: 12 gold coins.]

After another moment, the big screen broadcast again.

[In this game, all players from Community 7, Community 9, and Community 11 have died. All gold coins from the above communities will be evenly divided among surviving field players and audience members.]

[On average, each player receives 19 gold coins.]

This information confirmed Cao Haichuan’s speculation.

In this game, there really were ’hidden players.’ They came from Community 11.

These players couldn’t use shelters to avoid death, so one instant death punishment could kill them all.

And the gold coins these ’hidden players’ had amassed through various means were thus evenly divided.

But unfortunately, the game didn’t show any prompt about ’God’s Imitator death.’ This meant the God’s Imitator wasn’t among the ’hidden players,’ nor among other dead field players.

It was also possible the God’s Imitator never entered this game from the start.

Li Renshu looked toward Community 12 and Community 15’s direction.

Their final outcomes had some similarities. Both had core players survive to the end.

Clearly, they had let other players from the same community share the risks.

Wang Weidong sent others to persuade Community 7 and Community 12, so he himself remained safe and sound.

As for Community 12, all four other players died. Only Chen Guangming survived.

Clearly this wasn’t a coincidence.

Because Li Renshu noticed that Community 12’s shelters remained intact, unshattered.

This meant Chen Guangming hadn’t suffered instant death punishment.

He very likely, like Community 17, had already cast his ’against-conscience vote’ during the rehearsal segment.

At the same time, he also realized the existence of ’hidden players’ very early. Because as early as the fourth round, he was already consciously offering more gold coins to curry favor with the ’hidden players.’

Chen Guangming hadn’t deceived Fan Zehui. He indeed grasped the winning strategy for this game.

This winning strategy was simple to say: ’acting as an accomplice to a tyrant.’ As long as he continuously bid high prices on plots and sent money according to the ’hidden players’’ wishes, then squeezed gold coins from the audience as much as possible, then the ’hidden players’ would use all their authority to help him.

In plot selection, preferential treatment.

In announcing crimes, they would also choose the timing most favorable to Chen Guangming.

These ’hidden players’ might have even directly transmitted certain information to Chen Guangming through the display screens in their hands.

Everything indeed developed as Chen Guangming predicted.

But what Fan Zehui didn’t expect was that this ’winning strategy’ Chen Guangming spoke of didn’t include the other four players from Community 12.

Even killing the other four players from Community 12 was originally within Chen Guangming’s plan.

What Chen Guangming said to Fan Zehui and others from the start, like ”giving up this game’s profits for future authority,” was all half-true.

Regardless of whether Fan Zehui and others died or not, Chen Guangming would definitely stand in the safest position.

As for after returning to Community 12, how should Chen Guangming explain the deaths of Fan Zehui and the other four players to other players?

The answer was very likely: no need to explain at all.

With the level Chen Guangming displayed, all players from Community 12 could only be manipulated by him.

Perhaps before entering this game, he had already formed his own small group within Community 12.

And after this game ended, he would solely obtain all the gold coins Community 12 earned in the game. The visa time ultimately brought back would be an astronomical figure.

He could completely bribe on one hand and intimidate on the other, making Community 12 his personal domain in the shortest time.

Of course, there might also be players attempting to kill him through voting to divide his visa time. This specifically depended on Community 12’s specific ecology at this time.

Those were all unknowable.

The scattered Community 12 had always been looking forward to a strong player joining. Their wish was realized, just in a twisted way.

[Game over.]