God's Imitator

Rake was something that couldn’t be hidden, because Xu Zhao would gift chips to attract players to come play. As long as players played one round, they would immediately determine the specific rake value.

If not mentioned beforehand, players would definitely be angry after discovering it.

So supposing all six game rooms set rakes and some rooms didn’t write it, it would instead make players feel uneasy with a bad first impression.

A 10% rake wasn’t much. Not writing it seemed guilty, while writing it out appeared more forthright.

But transaction tax didn’t need to be written.

Because after players obtained items in game rooms, they could only confirm the specific transaction tax amount when trading, and selling cards would definitely be large transactions.

By the time players realized the transaction tax, they’d long since fallen into the pit in the game and could only bite the bullet and sell.

Conversely, writing transaction tax information on the sign in advance might very likely discourage players.

At this point, the game unit Xu Zhao designed was more or less complete.

He wrote down the game unit’s name: ’Chinese Chess Endgames’.The game rules were simple and easy to understand, and the various data were relatively clear. Although there was nothing particularly complex or sophisticated in the design, Xu Zhao felt it well matched this requirement.

Finally, there was one more point: whether to invest his own visa time to increase the room’s funding ceiling.

Xu Zhao wanted to contribute but was willing yet unable.

Because he wasn’t previously a God’s Imitator and simply had no extra visa time. What’s more, after returning from ’Simple Q&A’ last time, he still carried debt and was currently in a destitute state.

So this was all he could do.

Xu Zhao set aside the written proposal. Time was still relatively ample. Over the next few days, he still needed to look up information to determine specifically which chess endgames to use. Some specific rule details and values might also be modified.

Close to the countdown ending, he could submit at the deadline.

...

Three days later, Community 17 hall.

Wei Yinzhang was eating lunch, though she seemed somewhat distracted, probably thinking about problems.

There were also many other players in the hall reading books. Most were following Wei Yinzhang’s advice, familiarizing themselves with various gambling tools or chess game rules.

Li Renshu closed her book, ”Yinzhang, do you have a lead on your game?”

Wei Yinzhang nodded, ”Yes, the overall framework is there. It’s just that some details still need repeated consideration and revision.

”But time is sufficient.”

Li Renshu nodded without asking more. She didn’t want to know the specific rules Wei Yinzhang designed, just expressing concern.

Fu Chen also came over, ”You two, I have an idea.

”During this time, everyone has been familiarizing themselves with some classic gambling tools and chess game rules. Adding on usual accumulation, we should be fairly familiar.

”I think just looking at our own things and working behind closed doors may not have great results.

”Like during ’Blood Poker’ then, before entering the game we did explain most poker game rules. But after entering, we discovered they directly used simplified rules and even clearly taught them to players.

”What truly affected the game was instead hidden rules like ’single-player tables won’t fold’, which can also be seen as external moves.

”So shouldn’t we set aside time to discuss instead of working behind closed doors?

”Who knows, brainstorming might spark some ideas. If these ideas happen to match game situations and help us discover hidden rules, we’d profit big.

”What do you think?”

Li Renshu nodded, ”Yes, I also have this idea.”

Wei Yinzhang hesitated slightly, ”Okay. I think brainstorming would indeed be more helpful than researching alone.

”But I won’t participate.

”I’m worried that if I accidentally say too much and the Gallery judges it as revealing too much information, then our entire community might be sanctioned.”

Li Renshu didn’t insist, ”Alright. We’ll just discuss using the information you gave before.

”You still focus on doing your own game well, ensuring you can avoid the God’s Imitator penalty mechanism.

”However, I think although you can say nothing, it’s better to listen in.

”What if our brainstorming also helps your design thinking?”

After considering for a moment, Wei Yinzhang said, ”That’s fine.”

Fu Chen immediately stood up, ”Good, then I’ll notify everyone. Let’s quickly hold a meeting for brainstorming.”

...

Ten minutes later, everyone sat around the long table.

Although called brainstorming, without knowing specific game rules and details, most people didn’t have particularly good ideas and could only act as audience.

As for main speakers, of course they were still those capable of becoming cores in games with certain leadership ability.

Li Renshu spoke first, ”Today is just simple brainstorming. Everyone feel free to speak.

”Fu Chen and I both feel this game is likely similar to ’Blood Poker’: familiarizing ourselves with gambling tools and chess game rules will certainly help somewhat, but more importantly is predicting what kind of ’external moves’ God’s Imitators will have, similar to the ’single-player tables won’t fold’ setting in ’Blood Poker’.

”Everyone can guess freely, which also expands our thinking boundaries. If someone happens to guess right, it benefits all of us.

”After all, the grouping this time is still unclear. In the worst case, some players from our community might fall into completely isolated, helpless states without acquaintances.

”Of course, we currently don’t know the specific game rules and can only speculate using the small amount of information Yinzhang revealed previously.”

Most people didn’t speak because they didn’t know what to say.

If sensitivity to rules was average, many people wouldn’t even feel Wei Yinzhang gave any useful information.

However, fortunately there were still smart people in the community.

After considering for a moment, Wang Yongxin was the first to speak, ”I’ll first share my thoughts: after entering the game lobby, everyone shouldn’t look at rules for various game units first.

”First observe other players.

”If players quickly scan through all game room names and decisively enter game rooms under circumstances clearly insufficient to read all rules, immediately follow them and watch their every move closely.

”Because they might very likely be the God’s Imitator who designed this game room and will try to use backdoors.”

Everyone was stunned. Obviously, the first suggestion was somewhat unexpected.

Wang Yongxin continued explaining, ”This is inferred from ’player and God’s Imitator mortality rates’.

”God’s Imitators are also players, bearing double mortality rates.

”So God’s Imitators will definitely leave backdoors in their own game rooms.

”Although they may not necessarily be matched to their own rooms, once matched, they can gain enormous advantages.

”So no matter how you look at it, leaving backdoors has more benefits than drawbacks. The vast majority of God’s Imitators will definitely leave them.

”God’s Imitators aren’t all necessarily very smart. Some God’s Imitators’ on-the-spot adaptability and problem-solving ability aren’t strong. So after seeing their own game units, they might very likely fail to adequately disguise themselves and hastily enter due to surprise and carelessness.

”At this time, as long as you follow them and remember how they use backdoors to operate, you can steal part of their earnings, and they’re actually helpless.

”Of course, if they’re smart, experienced God’s Imitators who can realize this in advance, they’ll definitely do some performing, like spending long periods reading game rules at room entrances, not entering for a long time.

”So this method can’t guarantee success, but if luck is good and you successfully encounter them, game difficulty will greatly decrease.”