God's Imitator

That evening, Lin Sizhi returned to his room and took out the game planning document once more.

It was clear that there was a strong connection between the first game invitation from the Gallery and the new rules that had been added to the community.

One could even say that the theme of the Gallery’s Second Stage was very likely ”pain,” and that it would probably run throughout the entire stage.

The first game was perhaps just a rehearsal.

Lin Sizhi ran through a few different approaches in his head, though for the time being he could not determine which of them was the better option.

But after noticing the prompt on his computer screen, he realized he might not need to think about it any further.

[Current highest bid: 1,190,000 minutes of visa time.]

In just a single day, some God’s Imitator had placed a sky-high bid of 1,190,000 minutes of visa time, very nearly killing the competition outright.

Lin Sizhi tapped the desk lightly and fell into thought.

There was actually a great deal of information hidden behind the number 1,190,000.Judging by the current situation, the Second Stage Gallery was very likely formed by the merging of three or more ”regions.”

That meant the strongest God’s Imitator would inevitably emerge from each of the other regions as well.

Assuming the game durations and number of rounds were roughly the same across regions, the amount of visa time the strongest God’s Imitators could accumulate would not differ by a great deal.

It should fall somewhere between one million and two million.

But toward the end of the First Stage, the Gallery had updated its rules to include the ”one million point-kill.” Some God’s Imitators would choose to use it, and others would not.

Whether a God’s Imitator chose to spend one million minutes of visa time on a point-kill came down entirely to whether there was an opponent in their region whom they were wary of, and whom they felt had to be eliminated.

Now, the fact that this particular God’s Imitator was able to put forward 1,190,000 minutes of visa time for the bid meant one of two things: either they had accumulated as much as 2,190,000 minutes of visa time in total, or there had simply been no opponent in their region who matched them, so they had ended the game without ever invoking the point-kill rule.

Either way, it was enough to establish that this was a formidable opponent.

Of course, Lin Sizhi did not necessarily believe this person was stronger than him.

A player’s or God’s Imitator’s performance also depended on the overall strength of everyone else in their region.

If it happened that there was no opponent of the same caliber in a given region, then for a powerful God’s Imitator it would be like dynamiting fish in a barrel, and accumulating two million or even more minutes of visa time would not be difficult at all.

But regardless, the fact that this God’s Imitator had, in the very first game of the Second Stage, immediately staked over a million minutes of visa time purely to secure the right to design this game was proof enough of their boldness, and it only highlighted how significant this game truly was.

Lin Sizhi did not have anywhere near that much visa time at the moment, so there was no need for him to agonize over the matter any further.

”Then let’s see what kind of game the top God’s Imitators from the other regions have to offer.”

...

Two days later.

Lin Sizhi woke up at the same time as usual, got out of bed, and made his way to the hall for breakfast.

The atmosphere in the hall had shifted somewhat from before.

Wen Wan was slumped against Zhou Wanlin’s shoulder, sobbing quietly, while Zhou Wanlin gently patted her and murmured soft words of comfort.

Everyone else sat in silence.

The previous night, three more players had been selected and subjected to excruciating pain in the early hours of the morning.

Due to the adjustments that had been made earlier, the list of bottom seven players had changed, so the players chosen this time were Wen Wan, He Qinyun, and Zheng Chunhua.

Wen Wan appeared to have suffered the worst of it. Her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes were swollen and red from crying, and she leaned against Zhou Wanlin’s shoulder, unable to stop sobbing, as though her whole world had come crashing down.

He Qinyun, the product manager, was in somewhat better shape.

Among the female players in Community 2, He Qinyun was not particularly striking in appearance. She hardly wore makeup or dressed up, and she generally did not draw much attention to herself. Her face was very pale now, and she looked as though she had been put through some ordeal, but she was not weeping and wailing the way Wen Wan was.

As for Zheng Chunhua, the middle school teacher in his forties, he had always given off the impression of a timid, agreeable sort of man, and at the moment he looked no different from usual. His skin was dark and his face was deeply lined, so there was not even any visible change in his complexion.

Lu Bingjun had already arrived in the hall as well.

He saw Wen Wan still crying, but did not go over to comfort her. He simply collected his breakfast in silence and sat down wherever there was a free seat.

Qin Cheng was sitting across from Zheng Chunhua. He sipped at his congee in the same slow, measured way as always and asked, ”How did things feel after taking the painkiller?

”If you were to compare it to the pain of any illness you’ve been through before, roughly what level would you say it was?”

Qin Cheng had still chosen on his own initiative to remain on the bottom seven list, but he had not been selected this time, so he had no way to gauge the effectiveness of the painkiller for himself.

He knew that Zheng Chunhua’s account alone would not be entirely reliable, since everyone had a different tolerance for pain, but there was no other way for the time being.

Zheng Chunhua said, ”It was genuinely very painful when it hit, but thinking back now, I suppose it wasn’t all that bad.

”I had kidney stones once before. Comparing the two, the kidney stones were still worse, by quite a margin.

”Though of course, the painkiller may have had something to do with that.”

Qin Cheng was thoughtful, ”So the preliminary conclusion is that ibuprofen probably still has some effect.”

Lu Bingjun was drawn in by their conversation and edged a little closer, ”Oh? Has Dr. Qin made any new findings?”

The other players sitting nearby also fell as quiet as they could and listened carefully.

Qin Cheng explained, ”For pain classification, the most widely used system in clinical settings is the NRS, or Numerical Rating Scale, which rates pain on a scale of zero to ten.

”One to three is mild pain, four to six is moderate pain, and seven to ten is severe pain.

”Inability to sleep, curling up the body, and breaking into a heavy sweat are all typical signs of severe pain.

”Based on my own experience from before, without any painkiller, the excruciating pain we go through is roughly in the severe range, comparable to something like kidney stone pain.

”Since Uncle Zheng says the kidney stones were worse by quite a margin, that suggests the painkiller has made some difference.

”So this is a relatively optimistic conclusion.”

Deng Xiao’s mouth twitched slightly, ”Even when we’re talking about severe pain, you still call it optimistic?”

Qin Cheng nodded, ”Of course, because in principle, ibuprofen can only relieve pain related to inflammation, so in clinical practice it is generally suited for mild pain in the one-to-three range, and its effect on severe pain is very limited.

”Beyond the scenario where ibuprofen effectively eases the pain, there are actually two other, much worse possibilities.

”One is that the pain becomes far more extreme, like the kind associated with pancreatic cancer, bone cancer, or liver cancer, which can be severe enough to cause a patient to go into shock outright. In that case, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug like ibuprofen would likely be useless, and only strong opioids would be able to suppress it. That would be a far more serious problem.

”We do not have that kind of medication in the community.

”The other possibility is that the pain used as a punishment mechanism in the community is something very particular in nature, and that ibuprofen simply has no effect on it at all.

”Now, based on what Uncle Zheng has said, it seems the drug can roughly bring severe pain down to a moderate level, which counts as an optimistic outcome.

”That said, since everyone’s pain tolerance is different, further observation will still be needed down the line.

”After all, if Uncle Zheng has had kidney stones before, he may naturally have a higher tolerance for pain, which could mean his judgment of the pain level is skewed somewhat.”