God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun shook his head, ”Nothing at all.

”Our community’s player Gao Teng, along with an opponent, a player named Zheng Qingyun from what was originally Community 6 in the region, were the two compulsory offender participants.

”But in the game itself, neither of their identities was announced, and their specific offences were never stated.

”Zheng Qingyun’s identity as an offender was something we inferred during the debrief.

”There’s one more thing worth noting.

”Our community’s player Gao Teng was disabled. He had suffered a spinal injury in the past. He had no feeling in his legs and used a wheelchair in his daily life.”

Lu Bingjun let out a quiet sigh and continued, ”After the game, we spent three full days in the community debriefing it. We managed to roughly piece together the hidden mechanics, form some idea of Gao Teng’s offence, and understand the reasons behind some of the unusual behaviour during the game.

”That said, I’m inclined to debrief it again from the beginning.

”Because the several new players who joined in the Second Stage are genuinely talented, and I don’t want the conclusions we reached before to create any bias in your thinking.

”If this debrief produces new points of doubt or new breakthroughs, so much the better.”And if both debriefs ultimately arrive at the exact same conclusions, well, much as we might not want to, we may have to accept that as the truth.”

Everyone gave a nod without raising any objection.

Qin Cheng thought for a moment and then volunteered, ”In that case, let us new players lead this debrief.

”Sister Bowen, you and I will handle the main analysis. Shengjie and Lu Qi, please contribute as much as you can.

”As for Lawyer Lin, if you debrief it directly there may not be much left for the rest of us to figure out, so please limit yourself to key additions where necessary. Is that alright?”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”I’ll weigh in at an appropriate moment. If it’s necessary.”

Several players began their own brief moments of thought.

While the game rules Lu Bingjun had described were not particularly complex on the surface, given that this was a Judgment Game that had resulted in the deaths of all three players on one side, it was clearly not something to underestimate. There were almost certainly dangerous traps hidden in what seemed like ordinary details.

About a minute later, Qin Cheng was the first to speak.

He appeared to have deliberately restrained how long he allowed himself to think, recognising that in a real Judgment Game there would never be this much time to deliberate.

”If it were me, I’d start by proposing cooperation.

”Because the game rules make it very clear. You might even say they spell it out.”

As the debrief unfolded, the players in Community 2’s hall were each trying to mentally reconstruct the scene inside the game.

The rules had been presented. Wei Changfeng was going over the details while observing the game environment.

Because his whole body was restrained, his field of view was limited and he could not see behind himself.

From what he could tell about the other players’ situations, there was nothing behind any of them.

The venue was a reasonably spacious indoor space, resembling some kind of abandoned underground casino.

A small amount of clutter was piled in the corners. At the centre of the room stood a very large oval table.

Using the oval’s long axis as the boundary, the players from Community 2 and Community 6 were distributed on opposite sides of the table, a standard three-versus-three arrangement.

Gao Teng, the Community 2 player who had been compulsorily selected, sat in the middle. Wei Changfeng was to his left. Xu Yili was to his right.

Wei Changfeng noticed that Gao Teng was sitting with his head lowered, his body trembling slightly.

He recognised this as Gao Teng’s PTSD flaring up. In the first game, ’Tile Poker,’ Gao Teng had shown a similar reaction.

Wei Changfeng instinctively wanted to reach out and give Gao Teng’s shoulder a reassuring pat, but quickly realised the table was far too wide and the distance between them exceeded the length of an outstretched arm.

So he turned to words instead.

”It’s alright, Xiao Gao. Same as in ’Tile Poker,’ just get through the basic game actions. That’s all.

”Leave the rest to me.”

Gao Teng gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Wei Changfeng looked past Gao Teng at the third player, Xu Yili. The two of them exchanged a look that was both gentle and resolute.

He then turned his attention to the machine sitting at the centre of the table.

Its outermost layer was enclosed in a rectangular box constructed from frosted glass panels, which appeared extremely sturdy and was firmly fixed to the tabletop.

Through the frosted glass, an intricate mechanical structure was visible inside, and somewhere toward the centre a deck of cards could be faintly made out.

But the overall view was heavily obscured. Making out the suits or numbers on any individual card would be completely impossible.

On the two long sides of the box, at the positions facing Gao Teng and the central player on Community 6’s side respectively, there were two special openings.

In shape they were somewhat like the paper feed tray on a printer, each extending from inside the box to the outside in a drawer-like configuration.

They were considerably smaller than a printer tray, roughly the size of a single playing card.

Above each opening was a label: ’Card return slot.’

The machine also featured six small chute-like devices. Each had one end connecting to the card pile above the frosted glass and the other end extending to the position in front of each player.

The surface of these chutes was very smooth, with side panels on both edges, and the width was roughly equivalent to the short side of a playing card.

While the rules had not provided a specific description of the machine, its general purpose could be understood from its appearance.

To prevent cheating, all shuffling and dealing was handled by the machine.

In other words, cards would be shuffled inside the box and then delivered directly to each player’s position via these chutes.

The chutes, however, contained no mechanical mechanism of their own. They could only guide cards downward, not return them. They were for dealing only, not collecting.

Based on the design of the card return slots, it was clear that players would need to manually insert used cards back through those slots.

Wei Changfeng looked across at the three players on the other side of the table.

In particular, the player seated in the centre: Zheng Qingyun.

He appeared gaunt and slight, with a close-cropped hairstyle, currently also observing the machine in front of him without any unnecessary movement.

The preparation time before the game officially started was ten minutes. Not particularly long, not particularly short. Enough for players to absorb the rules and formulate a simple strategy.

”I have a cooperative strategy to propose. Would you like to hear it?”

After a brief period of thought, Wei Changfeng extended an olive branch to Zheng Qingyun.

Zheng Qingyun gave a nod, ”Go ahead.”

Wei Changfeng spoke at an unhurried pace, ”Looking at the game’s rules, if we play normally, the only way this ends is with all three players on one side dead.

”Because playing normally would cause the penalty count to multiply rapidly, and none of us could realistically hold out for thirty rounds.

”But because this game’s mechanics have been stripped down so far, there isn’t much strategic depth remaining, which means who wins and who loses comes down largely to chance.

”By the time all three players on one side are dead, the other side’s situation will inevitably also be very grim.

”There is a very real possibility that out of six players, only one might survive.

”In a Judgment Game with this high a death rate, the right approach is for both sides to set aside competition and work together against the death trap the Imitator has constructed.

”Since these two players were willing to enter a dangerous Judgment Game alongside you, your bonds within your community must run deep. So I think we all want the same thing: everyone goes home.

”As for who wins and who loses in the end, or who pays visa time, none of that matters.

”And looking at the rules, the way to achieve this is actually simple.

”We all just agree not to take any extra hits.”