God's Imitator

Zhou Xiaoying took another Type O tablet and pressed her fingers lightly against her temples, ”Even though all this information is valuable, it’s still not pointing to anything obvious, is it?

”The players we’ve confirmed so far account for less than a third of the total.

”If I were the Imitator, I’d definitely choose to play as an ordinary patient and not do anything out of the ordinary. That would be the safest approach.”

Du Peng considered for a moment and said, ”Maybe that’s exactly what Lin is asking us to do?

”We each reach out to players from our own community and try to piece together a complete list of all forty players in this game.

”That’s the only way we’d even have a chance of finding the Imitator.”

The players in Zone C’s Lounge came from the 2nd, 8th, 11th, 14th, and 23rd Communities respectively, and eight communities were participating in this game in total, meaning they already represented more than half.

So if these players each contacted someone from their own community and spread the information outward, in theory it would take only three or four rounds to roughly compile a complete list of everyone in the game.

Lin Sizhi looked at Qian Li and Zhang Yuan, ”What do you two think?

”Thinking from the Imitator’s perspective, if you wanted to hide yourself, which identity would you lean toward?”Qian Li looked slightly uncomfortable, and it was clear certain memories from the First Stage were surfacing.

She considered for a moment, then said, ”By conventional logic, if ’not being exposed’ is the only goal, the safest approach is straightforward enough.

”Submit a smaller amount of visa time before entering the game, which means only getting the Regular Patient identity.

”But the Imitator also needs to guarantee their own safety, so after entering the game they’d want to meet the Doctor as early as possible and find a way to get hold of some Special Medication.

”After that, cut off contact with everyone else, stay in the room, and wait for the game to end.”

Zhou Xiaoying thought about it and said, ”So it might be possible to filter with two conditions?

”First, they obtained Special Medication relatively early.

”Second, after obtaining it, they almost completely cut off contact with the outside world.”

Huang Shengjie glanced at Lin Sizhi with a slightly awkward expression. That behavioural pattern matched Lin Sizhi almost perfectly.

But Qian Li let out a sigh, ”Let me finish.

”But these filters would definitely be inaccurate. There’s too much margin for error.

”The game rules already clearly stated that players are randomly selected as Infected, and only Special Medication can cure them.

”An ordinary patient spending a large amount of money to meet the Doctor early doesn’t necessarily mean they have inside knowledge. It might simply be the cautious strategy of someone willing to pay any price to protect their life.

”And after obtaining medication, staying in their room to avoid infection and refusing to meet with anyone else also makes complete sense.

”Using just these two conditions to accuse someone of being the Imitator would be too weak. It almost certainly wouldn’t get enough votes.

”Even if an investigation were triggered, what it found would most likely be some lucky and cautious player, not the Imitator.”

Lin Sizhi looked at Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan considered briefly and said, ”It’s also not right to say categorically that the Imitator would hide out of fear of death.

”Sometimes the most effective hiding place is in plain sight.

”If everyone assumes the Imitator would be afraid of dying and wouldn’t dare stir things up inside the game, then the Imitator doing the opposite and deliberately taking on a role like Sales would both ensure their own safety and maximise their gains.

”The Gallery’s base rules impose certain restrictions on how an Imitator can design a game, and the Imitator will look for ways around those restrictions.

”This game looks extremely unfair to ordinary players. Once the Sales player breaks through the Reviewer-Doctor-Patient chain, ordinary players have almost no way to fight back.

”But at the same time, the Reviewer’s authority is almost absolute and can serve as a check on the entire game’s mechanics.

”As long as a Reviewer refuses to let medication through, no other player can sell it no matter how much they want to.

”The Imitator can’t fully control every aspect of the game. For instance, which specific players from each community end up participating, that’s not something they can entirely determine.

”If they entered the game and did nothing, what if all four Reviewers happened to be conscientious players? The Imitator’s earnings in this game would take a massive hit.

”So...

”I still lean toward thinking the Imitator would be doing something inside the game.

”It might be something they do directly, or something they arrange for a player from their community or a prior acquaintance to do. But doing nothing at all seems unlikely.”

Huang Shengjie looked a little puzzled, ”That doesn’t quite work though, does it? Doesn’t that just create an infinite loop?

”If the Imitator anticipates that you’d think this way, then going back to playing an ordinary patient would seem safer again.

”And besides, how can you be sure the Imitator’s thinking would align more with what you’re describing?”

Zhang Yuan said, ”Because in the First Stage, our community was among the earliest to attempt running a black-shop operation by exploiting an Imitator’s game design.

”We’ve discussed these questions many times before.”

Huang Shengjie froze, then instinctively asked, ”So... what was the result?”

Zhang Yuan said, with a degree of resignation, ”The result was obviously not great. Otherwise, would our original community have been broken up?”

Huang Shengjie thought about it and said, ”Doesn’t that actually prove your line of thinking doesn’t work? This Imitator almost certainly survived from the First Stage. They might have abandoned that approach entirely. Otherwise they’d probably not have made it this far.”

Zhang Yuan shook his head, ”Not necessarily.

”That depends entirely on what kind of opponents they faced.

”If the players in their zone were all weak, the Imitator could afford to be careless about details and no one would have the ability to catch them.

”But if there were many sharp players in the same zone, the Imitator could just as easily be finished by a single careless mistake.

”So this Imitator is certainly not simple, but not necessarily unbeatable either.

”Beyond that, the more confident a perpetrator is, the more they tend to enjoy the thrill of dancing repeatedly at the edge of danger.

”Some perpetrators deliberately return to the scene of their crime. That kind of mindset is not uncommon.”

Lin Sizhi checked the time. The round was nearly over.

He had spent most of it walking through the state of the game and sharing information about the other players, which had left very little time for discussion.

”Next round, everyone stay in their rooms.

”Each of you reach out to players from your own community, share what you know, and discuss who the Imitator might be.

”In the twentieth round, we’ll come back to the Lounge and meet again.

”Starting from now, if any of you have reached a reasonably clear conclusion, you can spend your Medical Points at any time to call for a verification of your target.”

Everyone stood.

Qian Li asked, ”So, which identity do you lean toward for the Imitator?”

Lin Sizhi was quiet for a moment, then said, ”I broadly agree with your assessment. The Imitator who designed this game would not simply hide themselves and adopt a completely defensive strategy.

”They might conceal themselves, but they would absolutely not do nothing.”