God's Imitator

As the game rules had stated beforehand, the rest periods in this game were generously long.

With only three rounds in total and thirty minutes of rest between each pair, players accustomed to a faster pace would likely find the rhythm disorienting.

For Zhou Wanlin, though, this kind of pace felt entirely comfortable.

Before long, she saw Huang Shengjie and Geng Yuxia both return to the lounge, and the three of them gathered together.

”How did things go on your end?” Zhou Wanlin asked at once.

Geng Yuxia visibly relaxed, ”Not bad! I followed exactly the method you described. The other community’s distributor didn’t seem particularly sharp, though. He didn’t send much cargo, and my spot-checks didn’t turn up any Contraband. Should be fine overall.”

Huang Shengjie also gave his report immediately, ”I kept eyes on the opposing Patroller the entire time. I can say with complete certainty that she did nothing at all throughout the round.

”Now that this round has ended, the materials she was carrying are no longer Contraband and can never become Contraband again.

”The Worker Badge said all game activity had to stop, so we both headed back.

”I did also try to pick up some intelligence from her along the way, since we crossed paths during the Pain Game.”Community 23’s internal situation is very, very bad. I think that might be a useful opening.

”If conditions allow, I’m wondering whether it might be possible to poach her into our community.

”The gender may not perfectly match what we were looking for, but if we can get her on board, this game becomes far more secure for us. It’s practically a guaranteed win.”

Zhou Wanlin lowered her head in thought, ”Hmm. Everything sounds like it’s going smoothly. Almost too smoothly. Something feels off.

”Where could this be going wrong?

”Auntie, how many units did the other community send?”

Geng Yuxia thought for a moment, ”Ten.”

Zhou Wanlin stopped, visibly startled, ”Ten? Are you sure it was only ten?”

Geng Yuxia nodded, ”Absolutely. I counted very clearly.”

Zhou Wanlin seemed to realise something and went quiet, looking down.

Huang Shengjie asked quickly, ”What’s wrong?”

Zhou Wanlin’s expression had turned serious, ”Ten is far too few. It doesn’t make sense.

”Auntie, was their Distributor male or female?”

Geng Yuxia answered quickly, ”Male. His name was Peng Xinyuan. But his leg seemed injured. He walked with a limp and couldn’t move quickly.”

Huang Shengjie’s expression cleared, ”Oh, that explains why they chose Zhou Xiaoying as Patroller.

”She’s a female player, but she’s probably the fastest of their three, so she had no choice but to take the Patroller role.

”And since Peng Xinyuan’s mobility is limited, he had to stay at the warehouse as Distributor.

”But he obviously isn’t a strong analytical player. He couldn’t work out the delivery arrangement for the cargo cars, couldn’t get all five across in time, and only managed to send half the materials through.

”So actually, are we the ones benefiting from this game’s selection mechanism?

”We were dealt a rough hand, but theirs is worse.

”This really is a proper rookies-versus-rookies match.”

It sounded like a reasonable explanation, but the furrow in Zhou Wanlin’s brow had not relaxed.

”No. Something is completely wrong here.

”There’s a serious problem somewhere.

”It’s a good thing the rest period is long. Both of you, go back over everything that happened in Round One, step by step, and don’t leave out any detail.”

Huang Shengjie and Geng Yuxia exchanged a look. It felt somewhat unnecessary, but there was nothing else to do during the rest time.

Both of them recounted their experiences from the round in full detail.

Zhou Wanlin arrived at a conclusion, ”Community 23 has a very serious resource mismatch. They shouldn’t be making a mistake this basic.”

Geng Yuxia looked puzzled, ”Mismatch? You mean the role assignments don’t make sense?

”But it seems more like they simply had no other choice. Peng Xinyuan is the only male player, but his leg is in poor shape, so they had to give Zhou Xiaoying the Patroller role.”

Zhou Wanlin shook her head, ”Peng Xinyuan was faking it. There’s nothing wrong with his leg.

”And even if his leg really was injured and he couldn’t take the Patroller role, he still shouldn’t have been the Distributor. He should have been the Inspector.

”The actual Inspector, Wu Xiufang, may appear quiet and reserved, but she’s clearly very sharp. Her choices during the inspection showed she had thoroughly understood both the inspection rules and the cargo delivery rules.

”If she had been the Distributor, she would certainly have arrived at the optimal solution and sent all twenty-eight units across.

”There’s no way she would have managed only ten, like Peng Xinyuan did.”

Huang Shengjie’s eyes went wide, ”I see it now. You’re right, it’s strange.

”Even if Peng Xinyuan were genuinely hopeless, physically and mentally, the best role for him would be the Inspector, because all he has to do is spot-check at random. There’s no complex game theory involved. It’s a role where the gap between players is minimal.

”But if Wu Xiufang had been the Distributor, she would have outperformed Peng Xinyuan by a significant margin.

”Could they have made a mistake with the assignments? That also seems impossible, because the preparation time was substantial. If Wu Xiufang is the sharpest of the three, she would have had the most say, and she wouldn’t have made a basic error like that.”

Geng Yuxia thought for a moment, ”Could it be that Peng Xinyuan’s leg really does make it difficult to use the walkway? It is quite a long walk, with stairs going up and down.”

Huang Shengjie suddenly realised, ”Wait, that’s not right. You just mentioned the walkway, and I remembered: when we crossed the walkway to the Inspection Room earlier, weren’t the players from the other community walking across the opposite walkway at the same time?

”Do you remember? There were three figures over there.

”So Peng Xinyuan’s leg is perfectly fine.”

Geng Yuxia’s expression shifted to one of shock as the memory came back to her.

But immediately after, Huang Shengjie was more confused than ever, ”But why would they do this deliberately?

”The three roles are fixed. No matter how you look at it, there can’t be a fourth person.

”The game rules do say that Prisoner players can pay Gold Pounds to buy their way out of prison, but those rules are symmetric. If Yao Yuan and He Qinyun haven’t been able to get out yet, it means the conditions aren’t right and they couldn’t have accumulated enough Gold Pounds that early either.

”In that case, Zhou Xiaoying’s group of three also can’t leave their respective roles to do anything.

”I had eyes on Zhou Xiaoying the entire time. She couldn’t have done anything. Peng Xinyuan can’t leave the steam train, because the moment he does it stops running, and he was present in the Inspection Room with the materials when inspection time came.

”As for Wu Xiufang, she couldn’t have done much either. From ten minutes after each round begins until the round ends, she can’t leave the Inspection Room.

”There is that ten-minute gap at the start, but getting from the lounge to the Inspection Room requires crossing the walkway, and that travel time has to be factored in as well.”

Zhou Wanlin looked at the steam train and the five different cargo cars, then said, ”I think the issue lies with Peng Xinyuan.

”Only sending ten units is the clue.

”Because even the least capable person couldn’t manage only that few.

”We can work backward from that number to figure out exactly what delivery sequence Peng Xinyuan used, and from there calculate his actual transport time.”