God's Imitator

Qin Yao said somewhat surprised, ”Does that mean in the bidding for ’King’s Judgment,’ Lawyer Lin completely lost to Cai Zhiyuan?”

Wei Yinzhang shook his head, ”It can’t be discussed as simply winning or losing.

”Because the two were in different situations.

”For Lawyer Lin, at that time he wasn’t the subject being judged. He could choose not to participate in the game and not bear death risk, so making a simple game to try to save all players from the same community was already enough. He didn’t need to perform the logical reasoning I mentioned earlier, considering whether the game should be difficult or simple.

”If he designed a dangerous game that was selected but couldn’t tell other players about the ’backdoor,’ that would instead put everyone in greater danger.

”But for Cai Zhiyuan, he was the one being judged in the game. He had to think of every possible way to avoid death risk for himself.

”No margin for error. He had to be absolutely perfect.

”This was the key that drove the two to make different choices.”

Lin Sizhi instead said candidly, ”Yes, in the bidding for ’King’s Judgment,’ I lost to Cai Zhiyuan. This is an obvious fact.”

Yang Yuting still didn’t quite understand, ”But why did he have to kill Uncle Ding?”This game was very targeted, obviously designed according to Uncle Ding’s personality template. But Cai Zhiyuan didn’t have any deep grudge with Uncle Ding, did he?”

Lin Sizhi explained, ”It wasn’t that he wanted to kill Uncle Ding, but rather... he needed to find a ’scapegoat.’

”At that time, all God’s Imitators had no experience designing judgment games, so they could only design games by speculating about the Gallery’s intentions.

”Cai Zhiyuan, Wang Yongxin, and Ding Wenqiang, all three of their profiles were in a selected state.

”Designing a game where ’everyone survives’ definitely wouldn’t work. Like the previous analysis, the ’simple plan’ wasn’t an option.

”Cai Zhiyuan didn’t understand the two players from other communities, and Boss Wang was a relatively strong player, not so easy to scheme against. So only the last choice remained.

”For Cai Zhiyuan, this was the safest, most controllable plan that could best clear his own suspicion.

”Of course, the downside was that he himself had to suffer a bit.

”Regarding this point, Officer Cao actually had some discoveries.

”After ’King’s Judgment’ ended, Cai Zhiyuan often ran outside or exercised in the community gym.

”His workout form was very standard.

”But our community didn’t have a fitness coach, and no one specifically taught him.

”His physical condition indeed wasn’t very good, but this didn’t mean he never had fitness habits. The more likely situation was that he had a period of fitness experience and understood his body’s general data and the details of workout movements well enough. He just gave up midway later because of work.

”Among this type of white-collar group, similar situations aren’t uncommon.”

Yang Yuting suddenly thought of something, ”Oh, right, I remember after the fact, Brother Wang also mentioned to me in casual conversation that he was actually in the same situation: he had a period of fitness experience but couldn’t maintain it consistently afterward.

”So when experiencing ’King’s Judgment,’ his performance was already about the same as ordinary people who hadn’t exercised.

”As an algorithm programmer, Cai Zhiyuan’s income must also have been considerable, and because of his profession, his trying fitness was a high-probability event.

”Just like Brother Wang, neither persisted, but the corresponding knowledge base was sufficient.”

Zheng Jie asked, ”Lawyer Lin, you mentioned Officer Cao. Does that mean Officer Cao realized early on that Cai Zhiyuan was the God’s Imitator of ’King’s Judgment’?

”Then ’Shelter Game’...”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes, Cai Zhiyuan also made that.

”Actually, among all the games we’ve experienced, Cai Zhiyuan designed ’King’s Judgment,’ ’Conglomerate Nation,’ ’Shelter Game,’ and ’Lifting Game.’”

Wei Yinzhang was silent for a moment, ”A God’s Imitator with a floor of A rank and ceiling of S rank.

”Somewhat absurd.”

Everyone present had deep impressions of these games. Judgment and elimination games had always been types that made people pale at the mention, and ’King’s Judgment,’ ’Shelter Game,’ and ’Lifting Game’ were among the most outstanding.

In other words, also the most cruel.

Qin Yao asked somewhat belatedly, ”Does that mean Cai Zhiyuan killed Officer Cao because Officer Cao had been investigating him, so he created ’Shelter Game’?

”That game appeared to have other communities’ players dying in batches, while our community only lost Officer Cao, but actually, the initial target was Officer Cao all along...

”Cai Zhiyuan knew that because the community had death exemption tickets, there had to be a dual death mechanism.

”He used this in reverse, essentially making the other players entering the game into ’hostages,’ forcing Officer Cao to make a self-sacrificing choice.

”But he and Officer Cao didn’t have any deep grudge. Did he have to kill Officer Cao?”

Obviously, most people still found Officer Cao’s death somewhat unacceptable.

Lin Sizhi was silent for a moment, then said, ”This point may need to be explained in combination with ’what kind of person Cai Zhiyuan really was.’

”That might be content for later discussion.

”Simply put, Officer Cao investigating God’s Imitators was an almost instinctive behavior for him that he couldn’t possibly give up.

”And Officer Cao indeed had sufficient ability.

”At the same time, Officer Cao was an important member of the ’core five’ and one of the game’s central figures.

”If Cai Zhiyuan really showed his cards to Officer Cao and admitted he was the God’s Imitator who designed the game that killed Uncle Ding, it would very likely trigger a series of consequences he couldn’t accept.

”Like me, once Cai Zhiyuan thought through a problem, he absolutely wouldn’t drag his feet but would make a decision at the fastest speed.

”He decided to use ’Shelter Game’ to kill Officer Cao, just like using ’Simple Roulette’ to target me. Both were completed at the fastest speed.”

Lin Sizhi paused slightly and continued, ”As for Officer Cao’s side, he actually suspected Cai Zhiyuan very early on. It’s just that due to the special nature of how God’s Imitators kill, he couldn’t find any evidence and could ultimately only suspect.

”Before he entered ’Shelter Game,’ he actually already told all his reasoning and speculation to Li Renshu and me.”

Zheng Jie recalled the scene in the game, ”Oh! No wonder Officer Cao said at the end that everything that needed to be said had already been said in the community.

”So he was talking about the God’s Imitator matter?”

Many people looked toward Li Renshu.