God's Imitator

Bai Zhilan’s voice continued through the speaker, ”The evidence is the content on Shi Guoliang’s board in the third round.

”’My company does not produce pre-packaged food.’

”This sentence was displayed in black text, meaning it passed the lie detection mechanism.

”But doesn’t everyone find that strange? If Shi Guoliang were completely innocent, why would he have been brought into this game as a guilty party at all? If his company truly doesn’t produce pre-packaged food, why would that sentence have appeared on his board?

”We already know the victim was an office worker. Among the contributing factors to his death, the pressures imposed by his company were significant. Lu Bingjun and Shi Guoliang are a senior executive and a boss respectively, so many people have instinctively lumped them together.

”But they appear to genuinely not know each other. And the key point is that every player should have a distinct offence, and the offences for ’senior executive’ and ’boss’ would effectively overlap.

”So Shi Guoliang’s guilt lies not in his role as a boss, but in what his company produces.

”Specifically, pre-packaged food.

”I’m not a specialist, so I can’t explain the specific harms in detail. But it’s clear that a long-term diet high in oil, salt, and sodium is devastating to cardiovascular health.

”And pre-packaged food, for the sake of taste and shelf life, typically contains additives at severely elevated levels.”And yet, despite clearly running a pre-packaged food company, this sentence passed the lie detection.

”The only explanation is that Shi Guoliang is the Impostor. He can override the lie detection mechanism at will, of course the statement would show as true.

”Kill the Impostor, and the game ends immediately.

”Under the game rules for this round, I will once again compel all players to vote according to the ’Offence’ criterion.”

Listening to Bai Zhilan’s account, Deng Xiao felt a wave of relief. The look he directed at Lu Bingjun was full of gratitude.

Xu Guangxin’s assistance had been entirely unexpected.

Since Wei Hongbing, who shared his community, was already dead, Xu Guangxin was still relatively safe at this point. By all reasonable logic, he should have saved this opportunity for a moment of genuine crisis when he himself was facing a round of chest pain.

But from the outcome’s perspective, Xu Guangxin’s assistance had inadvertently helped Deng Xiao considerably.

More than one player would genuinely believe, deep down, that Shi Guoliang’s offence was more serious than Deng Xiao’s.

And every player was desperately hoping to kill the Impostor and end the game as quickly as possible.

Shi Guoliang’s dark complexion made it difficult to read his expression, but the faint trembling of his hands gave him away to some extent.

He seemed to want to say something in his own defence, but could not speak.

Before long, everyone completed their votes.

The blade in front of Shi Guoliang plunged rapidly downward, driving hard into the corresponding sector.

Shi Guoliang let out a muffled grunt, both hands clutching the fabric at his chest, his body locking completely rigid.

Deng Xiao had of course also voted for Shi Guoliang. Seeing this, he let out a quiet breath of relief.

But then, out of habit, he reached back to feel the heart carving on the back of his board, and his expression changed instantly. All the relief disappeared.

The lump in one of the main arterial vessels of the heart seemed larger than before.

Deng Xiao pressed his fingers against it again in slight panic, desperately hoping it was just his imagination, but no matter how he felt it, the answer seemed the same.

The lump had genuinely grown.

If it had not been a hidden game mechanic causing it to grow on its own, there was only one explanation: at least one player had still voted for him.

This was not surprising. Shi Guoliang could not have voted for himself, and Li Hui and Shi Guoliang were from the same community. As long as the vote could pass the lie detection mechanism, Li Hui would almost certainly have voted for Deng Xiao.

Which meant Deng Xiao’s danger had not been fully eliminated.

He looked toward Lu Bingjun in a fresh wave of anxiety.

Lu Bingjun appeared to be thinking it over. This time he did not shake his head clearly, but he had not nodded either.

The game continued.

Due to two consecutive interruptions, the game was continuing and Li Hui remained the moderator.

Writing time ended. Five players flipped their boards.

[Community 2 - Lu Bingjun: I was once deceived by my boss into long-term overtime with promises that were never kept. (Black)]

[Community 7 - Li Hui: I haven’t had a health check-up in several years, and the last time I did, the results were poor. (Black)]

[Community 2 - Deng Xiao: Knowing it was harmful, I created training plans for clients that exceeded their physical limits. (Black)]

[Community 7 - Shi Guoliang: I have previously undergone cardiac stent surgery. (Black)]

[Community 11 - Xu Guangxin: I once stood by and did nothing when a colleague who was overworked began showing signs of physical deterioration. (Black)]

Shi Guoliang was first to speak.

He coughed twice and said with barely concealed anger, ”My company does not produce pre-packaged food! I mean every word of that, and it is the truth!

”And I am absolutely not the Impostor!

”If I were the Impostor, all I’d have to do is pick the healthiest-sounding options every time and adjust the lie detection results. That would be perfectly safe.

”The Impostor is clearly someone else.

”Let me emphasise this once more. My company does not produce pre-packaged food.

”I can’t promise these foods are completely harmless in every respect, since in some people’s eyes, adding even a little extra salt or sugar is a crime. But I can promise they all meet safety standards.”

Deng Xiao was second to speak.

He could feel his heart hammering. He was not sure if it was nerves or whether the blockage in his vessel was making his blood flow poorly. He forced himself to push through the discomfort and defend himself.

”I admit that I did design training plans that weren’t scientifically sound in order to sell more sessions. But what Tang Qing said was a complete distortion of the truth.

”An ill-conceived plan doesn’t automatically mean it will kill someone.

”I had no complete picture of this person’s other circumstances: his work intensity, his sleep hours, his diet. I didn’t have full visibility into any of that.

”I have so many clients. Can I really know everything about all of them?

”For a healthy person, my plans would pose no real danger. My eyes aren’t X-rays. How could I have known his cardiac condition was already that serious?

”Besides, I also advised him to eat lighter, to eat healthier meals, so I absolutely had no intention of harming him.

”But compare me to this pre-packaged food manufacturer. How many people have they harmed? Not one person, but perhaps millions, tens of millions.

”I’m just a personal trainer. How could my offence possibly compare to that kind of harm?”

It was clear that Li Hui had deliberately placed Shi Guoliang and Deng Xiao in the first two speaking positions.

Going first was the most disadvantageous position. With the three of them in terrible shape, pushing Shi Guoliang and Deng Xiao out to take the heat first gave Li Hui some protection.

Xu Guangxin was third to speak.

He let out a sigh, ”Everyone can probably tell by now. I did know the victim personally.

”Staying up all night, eating badly, over-exercising. I saw all of it.

”I tried to talk to him about it, but he wouldn’t listen.

”The first sentence from the preparation phase, ’47 minutes, considerably healthier than you,’ that was something he said to me.

”I have some regrets. If I had pushed him to go to the hospital earlier, perhaps none of this would have happened.

”He used to always order from a chain delivery service called ’Healthy Village.’ But it was obviously anything but healthy food.

”Now I understand. Shi Guoliang must be one of the executives or investors behind that chain restaurant.”

Hearing Xu Guangxin’s words, Li Hui visibly relaxed.

His arrangement had worked. He had successfully redirected the conflict onto other players.

Of course, everyone else was doing the same.

Shi Guoliang had spoken first, and his defence, however sincere it sounded, would not be believed by any other player.

With Deng Xiao and Xu Guangxin both directing their fire at Shi Guoliang afterward, Li Hui himself was safe for this round.

Even though they were all from Community 7, it was obvious that if it meant saving himself, Li Hui had no problem with pushing Shi Guoliang out to die.

After all, for the entire first half of the game, Shi Guoliang had been looking out only for himself and had made no move to help Li Hui at all.

But just as Li Hui was beginning to believe he might survive this round safely, Lu Bingjun’s voice broke in.

”I have to say, you almost managed to clear yourself of any blame.”