God's Imitator

Lu Qi, who rarely participated in discussions, broke her usual silence and asked, ”But Lu Bingjun couldn’t see how Shi Guoliang was voting, right? What if Shi Guoliang hadn’t voted for Deng Xiao?”

Perhaps because the Judgment Game had touched directly on everyone’s lives and deaths, significantly more players were participating in this debrief.

Yao Yuan shook his head, ”It doesn’t change the analysis.

”Because the next round was certainly going to end the game. Even if Lu Bingjun had voted for Shi Guoliang instead, Shi Guoliang would no longer have had any opportunity for retaliation. In that scenario, Deng Xiao would also have made it back safely.

”In other words, Deng Xiao’s death had nothing to do with Lu Bingjun’s choice. It depended entirely on what Shi Guoliang decided.”

Qin Cheng was thoughtful for a moment, ”But clearly, Shi Guoliang was thinking along the same lines.

”It was precisely because both of them arrived at the same conclusion that it became a deadlock, and both Deng Xiao and Li Hui ended up facing death as an inevitable outcome.”

Huang Shengjie asked with curiosity, ”What about Xu Guangxin’s vote in that last round? Who did he vote for?”

Qin Cheng already had the answer, ”Shi Guoliang.

”The final round’s vote distribution was: Xu Guangxin with 2 votes as the highest, then Deng Xiao, Li Hui, and Shi Guoliang each with one.”Based on what Lu Bingjun described, in that final round Xu Guangxin was suffering chest pain but still made the effort to lift his head and look at the other players, particularly Shi Guoliang.

”Because Xu Guangxin was the Impostor and could view the votes in real time.

”After seeing that Li Hui and Deng Xiao had each received one vote, he guessed both of them would almost certainly die, and lifted his head simply to confirm it.

”Shi Guoliang’s situation was clearly somewhat more stable. If Xu Guangxin wanted to take Shi Guoliang down at the same time, his only option was to add his own vote.

”As it turned out, even after taking that Sudden Death Vote, Shi Guoliang still didn’t die.”

Huang Shengjie was a little surprised, ”So Xu Guangxin was feeling some disappointment when he saw Shi Guoliang hadn’t died?

”Though he was still ruthless enough to go outside the rules entirely and literally verbally provoke Shi Guoliang to death.”

Lu Bingjun nodded, ”Yes. By that point, Shi Guoliang’s condition was already on the very edge.

”The cardiac blockage must have been severe, but he could still hold on for a while longer.

”If another round of voting had taken place, both myself and Shi Guoliang would certainly have directed all our votes at Xu Guangxin. And while Xu Guangxin could have used his one vote to strike at Shi Guoliang, the compounding chest pain over consecutive rounds was a form of damage he could not entirely ignore either. He himself would have been at risk.

”So Xu Guangxin chose to place himself first in the speaking order and use provocative words to destabilise Shi Guoliang emotionally, causing him to go into sudden cardiac arrest.

”That is genuinely a strategy most people would never think of.”

Yao Yuan added, ”As it happens, no matter how Lu Bingjun had voted in that final round, the outcome would not have changed. Because Shi Guoliang’s one vote was always going to land on Deng Xiao.

”If Lu Bingjun had voted for Li Hui, Xu Guangxin would have voted for Shi Guoliang. If Lu Bingjun had voted for Shi Guoliang instead, Xu Guangxin would have voted for Li Hui.

”Xu Guangxin was going to land that final blow one way or another.”

He Qinyun, who had been quiet throughout and appeared to have been thinking for quite some time, looked at everyone and said, ”Looking at it this way, Xu Guangxin was very possibly the Imitator who designed this game.

”How else would he have such thorough knowledge of every mechanic and detail?

”Setting aside that final out-of-game move where he provoked Shi Guoliang to death through speech, consider earlier, when he began vote manipulation so early and pushed three players simultaneously to the brink. That’s not something most players would arrive at quickly in the moment.

”The reason four people ended up dead in such a brutal outcome has a great deal to do with his vote manipulation.

”If they had died one by one in sequence, the game might actually have ended earlier and claimed one or two fewer lives.”

Yao Yuan nodded, ”Yes. I think so too.

”While top-tier Gallery players can identify optimal strategies the moment they see the rules, that is still a very small minority.

”We can’t say definitively at this point that Xu Guangxin is one of those players.

”If he’s not, then he’s almost certainly the Imitator.”

But Lu Bingjun was quiet for a moment, then gave a slight shake of his head.

”That’s not easy to say.

”Because the game rules clearly stated: the Impostor will receive special system notifications, giving them access to more information than ordinary players.

”The amount of information that can be displayed on the board is actually quite substantial.

”When we were reading through our offences, Xu Guangxin was presumably also carefully reading through these ’special pieces of information.’

”The Imitator could have communicated everything to him directly, in the form of those prompts.

”For instance, writing out something like the following:

”Attack another player first, and you become the moderator next round and control the speaking order.

”Start by targeting the weakest player, stir up chaos, then pull back and let others fight among themselves while you collect the benefits. As the Impostor, you can end the game at any moment, so there is no need to worry about drawing fire to yourself.

”Watch the vote distribution at all times. Try to ensure two or three players accumulate the same number of Sudden Death Votes and can be killed together.

”Verbal provocation can trigger extreme emotional reactions in players, which can serve as a finishing blow.

”Of course, I’m only thinking out loud here.

”What makes this set of rules particularly malicious is that the Imitator has effectively used the ’Impostor’ identity and its associated rules to make Xu Guangxin their avatar within the game.

”If Xu Guangxin is the Imitator, then the ’viewing special information’ rule is not even necessary, since he knew everything from the start.

”But if Xu Guangxin is not the Imitator, then the Imitator has used this arrangement to shift a great deal of suspicion onto Xu Guangxin and keep themselves entirely clean.”

Huang Shengjie thought about it and said, ”But it’s also possible Xu Guangxin deliberately used this approach specifically to clear himself of suspicion.

”It’s a bit circular, but it’s not impossible.”

Lu Bingjun nodded, ”Yes. That genuinely cannot be determined. Finding the Imitator is always the hardest problem in this world.”

Wen Wan sat with her head lowered, her expression full of dejection, ”So Deng Xiao’s death really was something that couldn’t be helped.

”Li Hui and Shi Guoliang received the most votes, but they also both died.

”If you had to place the blame somewhere, Xu Guangxin and the Imitator who designed this game are the real culprits.”

Lu Bingjun said nothing more, but looked at Wen Wan with an expression of consolation, tacitly affirming that view.

Ye Lin let out a quiet sigh, ”The assistance was called for a little too late. The optimal window was missed.”

Lu Qi gave a slow nod of understanding, ”Oh, right. Why wasn’t it called for sooner?

”Lawyer Lin, you must have realised something was off about Xu Guangxin quite early, didn’t you?

”If it had been revealed sooner, and votes had been concentrated on Xu Guangxin earlier, he would have felt the threat to his life and ended the game before it reached that point. Deng Xiao might not have had to die.”

Lin Sizhi looked at her and said, ”I think you may be asking the wrong person.

”The audience representative can only speak once an inner room player actively presses the assistance button.

”That decision was not mine to make.”

Yao Yuan looked at Lu Qi with a meaningful expression, ”Are you suggesting that Lawyer Lin is the Imitator who designed this game?”

Lu Qi was clearly startled. She froze for a moment, then shook her hands quickly in denial, ”Of course not! How could that be?”

Yao Yuan smiled and said, ”My apologies. I was joking.

”I have a habit of that kind of dry humour from time to time. The veteran players know that. I wasn’t trying to alarm you.

”The reason I said it is that your question was a little hard on him.

”Under the game rules, the assistance function can be thought of as one of the game’s pivotal mechanics and the most important resource a community has during the game. When used correctly at the right moment, it genuinely can turn the tide.

”But that does not mean using it as early as possible is always the right call. You have to consider when the optimal moment to use it actually is.”