God's Imitator

”Beep—”

A sharp buzzing sound echoed in the cramped space, awakening Lin Sizhi from his slumber.

He gradually came to his senses, then realized he was firmly locked in place. His wrists, ankles, and waist were all bound by specially made iron rings, and the iron chair was welded directly to the floor.

A dim, old incandescent bulb hung alone on a rust-covered steel frame structure.

A cathode ray tube television, a somewhat decayed heavy wooden square table, a silver-white revolver.

Everything, all the arrangements, were completely identical to ”Redemption Roulette.”

This was a game Lin Sizhi had designed himself, and one he had personally experienced, so everything before his eyes was all too familiar.

The only difference was that Lin Sizhi was now in the position of the one being judged.

On the other side of the wooden table, where Lin Sizhi’s iron chair had originally been, there was now a simply designed mannequin wearing the same standard suit as Lin Sizhi.

On the mannequin’s face was a photograph of Lin Sizhi.It was like staring at himself in a mirror.

Lin Sizhi raised his only movable hand, his right hand, and felt around. Sure enough, there was that special mechanism on both sides of his head, like a giant clamp connected to a crude and complex gear system. The two thick iron blocks felt ice-cold to the touch, carrying the breath of death.

At the same time, the cathode ray tube television, which had been crackling with static and showing only snow, began to play the game rules.

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[You will now be judged and participate in a game called ‘Simple Roulette.’]

[Below are the game rules:]

[As you can see, in this sealed space, there is a mannequin, a revolver, and one live round.]

[The revolver’s cylinder has 6 chambers, five of which are empty and distributed at random positions in the cylinder.]

[The special mechanism on both sides of your head has a total gap of 6cm between it and your head, averaging 3cm on each side.]

[You have only two choices: either shoot at your own forehead, or shoot at the mannequin across from you.]

[Shooting yourself with an empty round will result in nothing happening.]

[Shooting the mannequin with an empty round will cause the mechanism on both sides of your head to move inward, 1.29cm on each side.]

[When the mechanism moves for the third time, it will cause you harm.]

[If struck by the live round, you will die on the spot.]

[After the revolver has been fired 6 times, the game will end and the mechanism will be fully unlocked.]

[You have 5 minutes to complete this game. Any violation or timeout will result in immediate death penalty, the iron blocks will directly crush your skull.]

[All along, you have viewed yourself as a god, judging others from a lofty perspective, but can you yourself pass the same judgment?]

[Do you truly possess a trace of divinity, or are you just a clumsy imitator, a self-deceiving murderer?]

[Regardless of the outcome, after the game ends, everything will be laid bare.]

[The game now begins. Good luck!]

The image on the television disappeared, returning once again to a screen full of static.

At the same time, with a ”snap” sound from the square table, an old-style LED electronic timer popped up, and the bright red numbers began counting down.

05:00

04:59

...

Everything before his eyes was so familiar, like returning to the very beginning, except that the roles of Lin Sizhi and Wei Xinjian had been swapped.

Using very little time, Lin Sizhi confirmed that the rules of this game were actually completely identical to ”Redemption Roulette,” without any changes.

Only the name had been changed to ‘Simple Roulette,’ and the original Lin Sizhi who had been on the opposite side was replaced by a mannequin wearing a photograph of Lin Sizhi’s face.

However, the amount of information contained in the game was definitely more than just this.

Lin Sizhi had not received any game invitation in advance. He had been pulled directly into the game from his sleep.

This meant he was in a state of being selected by a ”Special Game.”

Since it was a ”Special Game,” it meant that the God’s Imitator who designed this game could actually see Lin Sizhi’s player profile, and naturally could also see the crimes recognized by the Gallery.

They could have completely designed a brand new judgment game targeting those crimes.

But the God’s Imitator who designed this game did not do so, which was equivalent to wasting the privilege of ”being able to view player profiles.”

This certainly wasn’t because the other party was lazy and directly copied the rules of ”Redemption Roulette,” nor because they lacked the ability to create a targeted judgment game in a short time.

The other party was a God’s Imitator of the same level as Lin Sizhi. These were not problems.

There was only one explanation: after considering all possibilities, this was the best solution the other party could think of.

In other words, the solution most likely to put Lin Sizhi to death.

Lin Sizhi picked up the silver revolver from the table. It still felt heavy in his hand, unchanged.

If following the original rules of the game, there were actually too many ways to safely clear it. This point had already been thoroughly analyzed in the initial community discussions.

Generally speaking, if the word game still held, then the bullet should actually be in the mannequin’s pocket. As long as Lin Sizhi picked up the revolver and fired six shots at his own forehead, he could perfectly clear the game.

If firing six consecutive shots at himself was too harsh, he could also consider choosing any three to four shots to fire at himself, and the game would still have sufficient margin for error.

But the problem was that the word game might not still hold.

[In this sealed space, there is a mannequin, a revolver, and one live round.]

This live round could be in the mannequin’s pocket, but it could equally be in the revolver. Everything depended on how the God’s Imitator who designed this game specifically arranged it.

They could completely place this live round directly in the first chamber of the revolver.

In that case, as long as Lin Sizhi fired the first shot at himself, the game would be over.

The player who designed this game undoubtedly understood Lin Sizhi very well, and of course was also very clear about all the variations of this game.

So in this game, understanding the game rules had become the most irrelevant part.

The bright red numbers on the LED timer jumped rapidly. Lin Sizhi looked at the silver-white revolver in his hand and fell into deep thought.

...

”Beep—”

A sharp buzzing sound rang out. Cai Zhiyuan lifted his head and looked at the surrounding scene.

He had not been sleeping at all, and at this moment there was no trace of intoxication on his face.

Around him were several other players, each with a name tag on their chest marking their community and name.

However, even without the name tags, Cai Zhiyuan could roughly recognize or guess most of them.

[Community 7, Sun De].

He had originally been a player from Community 4 and had participated in ‘Conglomerate Nation.’ Now it appeared that after the game ended, he had been randomly assigned to Community 7.

[Community 1, Gao Jialiang].

He had participated in ‘Blind Date Game’ and ‘Simple Q&A,’ and had directly encountered Cai Zhiyuan in ‘Simple Q&A.’

[Community 10, Fu Yujun].

He had participated in ‘Lifting Game’ and was Fu Chen’s father.

[Community 14, Huang Ming].

In the just-concluded ‘Tarot Game,’ he wore the ”↑ Moon” mask.

In addition, there were two other players he had no impression of.

[Community 15, Song Xiao].

[Community 19, Cui Yifeng].

Including Cai Zhiyuan, there were a total of 7 players.