God's Imitator

The next moment, Huang Shengjie found himself back in the community hall.

The final results of the game appeared on the large screen.

[The following announces Community 2’s final visa time earnings from ’Prison Factory.’]

[Player 1, Qin Cheng: 98,400]

[Player 2, Yao Yuan: 107,600]

[Player 3, Zhang Yan: 93,200]

[Player 4, Wen Wan: 94,600]

[Player 6, Geng Yuxia: 110,600]

[Player 7, He Qinyun: 118,200]

[Player 9, Shen Bowen: 97,600][Player 10, Zheng Chunhua: 96,200]

[Player 11, Zhou Wanlin: 123,400]

[Player 13, Lu Qi: 95,800]

[Player 14, Huang Shengjie: 122,800]

[Per community rules, 30% of net game earnings will be added to the Community Development Fund. The remaining visa time will be credited to each player’s individual account.]

Because so many players had participated and the total visa time earned was substantial, the long list of numbers quickly drew most people’s attention.

For Huang Shengjie, this was the first time he had brought back a sum this large from a game. He had expected something in this range from when the Gold Pounds were being divided, but seeing it on the screen still left him feeling a certain rush of excitement.

His expression shifted slightly, however, when he looked at Qin Cheng’s group’s numbers.

”Huh? Our group actually earned more?”

At the same moment, Lu Bingjun had already extended a hand to the unfamiliar face among those returning, ”Hello. My name is Lu Bingjun.

”On behalf of Community 2, welcome.”

The new Player 3, Zhang Yan, shook his hand, ”Pleased to meet you. I’m Zhang Yan. I was with Community 16 before.”

Qin Cheng immediately sought out Yao Yuan, who had been injured during the game.

”Let me re-dress that for you.”

He went to fetch the medical kit and treated Yao Yuan’s wound properly. Yao Yuan had done a rough job of bandaging himself inside the Medical Room earlier, and while the wound wasn’t deep and posed no real concern, the dressing was hasty and uneven, so Qin Cheng took the opportunity to redo it properly.

Yao Yuan noticed that Qin Cheng’s hand also bore a wound. He had clearly made the same choice inside the game.

Huang Shengjie was curious. He wanted to ask Qin Cheng about his group’s earnings, but the hall was a bit chaotic and the moment didn’t arise.

Lin Sizhi went to take a brief look at the vending machine, did nothing, and returned after closing the screen.

After a while, everyone settled into their seats at the long table.

Lu Bingjun looked around and asked, ”Does anyone need to rest first?”

The players who had been in the game exchanged glances, then each shook their heads.

”No need. The rest periods in this game were actually quite long.”

Lu Bingjun nodded, ”Good. Let’s go straight into the debrief then.

”If it runs long and anyone gets tired, we can take a break partway through.

”Myself, Lawyer Lin, and Ye Lin were all here in the community the entire time, thinking through and studying the rules, so we can skip the overview. You’re all familiar with them by now.

”During the game, I used the First Player Identity Card’s privilege to send a suggestion to Wen Wan: open a Medications unit and use it to smuggle Contraband.

”That was a decision the three of us discussed and agreed on together.”

Lu Bingjun paused briefly and continued, ”Let me explain the reasoning.

”Under the relevant rules, holding the First Player Identity Card allows us to view the game’s basic rules here in the community.

”This included details such as the Inspector Armband and the notice boards in the Inspection Room.

”But we had no way of knowing what was actually happening in the game, whether either side was at a disadvantage, or whether you had already thought of specific strategies yourselves.

”So after analysing everything together, we concluded that opening the Medications packaging was the single most valuable piece of strategy worth sending as a suggestion.

”As everyone in the game should have realised, the violation categories in this game were not absolute prohibitions. Quite the opposite: they were hints pointing to specific strategies.

”The very first violation listed was privately opening raw material packaging. That in itself was a signal that opening the materials was a high-reward action.

”Combining that with the fact that entering the mist causes severe pain, we concluded that the Medications packaging very likely contained actual pain-suppressing drugs.

”Since this game was divided into two sessions, we could only send the suggestion to one group. After weighing everything, we chose Qin Cheng’s.

”Because I felt more confident about Yao Yuan’s side managing on their own.

”We didn’t know exactly how ’Prisoners’ and ’Workers’ would be allocated. For the suggestion to have maximum impact, it needed to reach a ’Worker’ outside the prison as quickly as possible.

”Thinking through the selection criteria of game participation frequency, visa time earned, and community discussion involvement, the rough ranking would be Zheng Chunhua, Qin Cheng, Wen Wan, Shen Bowen, and Lu Qi.

”Zheng Chunhua and Qin Cheng had each participated in one game and earned visa time, so there’s little doubt they’d be near the top. For Wen Wan, Shen Bowen, and Lu Qi, we ranked them roughly by how frequently they’d spoken in community discussions.

”Workers and Prisoners are split three-to-two, so we chose to send the suggestion to Wen Wan.

”That way, whether the game assigned Prisoners from the top down or from the bottom up, there was a reasonable chance the suggestion would reach a Worker’s hands.”

Wen Wan nodded, ”Yes, I was assigned a ’Worker’ role, and I did receive the suggestion. It was very helpful.”

Huang Shengjie finally couldn’t hold back the question that had been on his mind, ”Wait, something doesn’t add up.

”You had access to the medication from the very beginning, which let two players deliver Contraband. And you managed to bring over a player from the opposing community.

”So how did you end up earning slightly less visa time than us?”

Qin Cheng was quiet for a moment, ”Well, that’s a bit of a long story.

”Let me give a general overview of what happened in the game.”

He looked at Shen Bowen, ”You were outside the whole time, so you should take the lead.

”I’ll fill in anything related to what happened inside the cell block.”

Shen Bowen nodded without hesitation and began to recount the game.

”The community we were matched against was from Community 16.

”Our initial team composition wasn’t ideal. Both of our male players were assigned the ’Prisoner’ role, leaving only the three of us women outside the prison.

”As a result, we were short of a player with strong physical ability to serve as Patroller from the very start.

”Before the game officially began, I studied the steam train delivery rules carefully. Wen Wan also shared the suggestion sent from the community with us.

”Based on all of that, I made the following arrangements.

”Wen Wan took the Inspector role. Lu Qi, who was relatively younger and in better physical condition, took the Patroller role. I handled the steam train’s standard delivery.

”In Round One, I went with quite an aggressive strategy: I only ran the train for 7 minutes, delivering just cars ’6’ and ’7.’

”While the steam train was running its delivery, I carried as many Contraband units as I could and stacked them near the Inspection Room, then used the 19 minutes before the inspection window to deliver the Contraband by hand.

”The reason I arranged things this way was that I judged both communities’ Inspectors would adopt fairly aggressive strategies in Round One.

”Under those conditions, even choosing the optimal delivery arrangement would make it very difficult to smuggle large amounts of Contraband past the opposing inspection.

”Besides, using medication from the opened packaging was a relatively hidden strategy. Since it had come as a suggestion from the community, making the most of it was only right.

”It also helped offset the disadvantage of having a physically weaker Patroller on our side.”