God's Imitator

Zheng Qingyun asked, ”So you were using this moment to check whether the machine would detect marking?”

Wei Changfeng shook his head slightly, ”My guess is it almost certainly wouldn’t. Because any time a player handles a card, they’ll inevitably leave traces, whether from sweat caused by nerves or slight dents from gripping the card.

”It would be very difficult to distinguish that from deliberate marking.

”So there’s no need to test it. We can simply tear one card before each round ends and force the machine to bring out a fresh deck.

”The game rules don’t say that’s not allowed, so it is.

”That way things are fairer for everyone, aren’t they?”

Zheng Qingyun looked at the machine again. Through the frosted glass, he could faintly see that a compartment had opened at the bottom, the existing deck being fed into a special opening to be destroyed as a fresh deck was retrieved.

After the new cards were unsealed, the machine would still run through its one-minute shuffle.

”Right. No objections.”

Zheng Qingyun had nothing against it, and everyone continued following the previous process, executing the cooperative strategy.Qin Cheng looked at everyone, ”That’s roughly as far as I can take the cooperation strategy. Sister Bowen, anything you’d like to add?”

Shen Bowen considered for a moment, ”That was thorough. Especially the idea of proactively damaging the playing cards to prevent marking. I didn’t think of that one initially.”

Huang Shengjie’s brow furrowed, ”But I have a question. Why would the players have to feed the cards back themselves? Could there be something suspicious about that? Why can the machine deal automatically but not collect automatically?”

No one could give a definitive answer.

Shen Bowen took a while before she said, ”It seems like a moderate-sized inconsistency, though it’s hard to immediately see exactly what’s wrong with it.

”It could be a trap the Imitator laid, or it could simply be the Imitator taking the path of least resistance.

”From a professional engineering perspective, if you’re working under time constraints, you can’t make a mechanical system perfect. You can only ensure it covers the basic functions.

”If the players were responsible for dealing their own cards, the opportunities for cheating would be enormous, so the machine absolutely had to deal. That part was non-negotiable.

”But collecting cards is a different matter.

”The Imitator used this small chute for dealing, which is simple and straightforward and lets everyone see the face-up cards clearly.

”Adding a card-collection function would require additional complex mechanical structures. It might have seemed unnecessary or too much trouble, so a simple and blunt return slot was the solution.”

Huang Shengjie said, ”Hmm, that does make sense.

”Brother Lu, what actually happened in the game? Did they achieve the cooperation?”

Lu Bingjun nodded, ”You guessed right. Wei Changfeng did exactly this.

”From the subsequent game records, he and the other side clearly reached an agreement. Neither side was taking extra hits.

”And he also thought of the marking possibility, tearing one card every round to make sure the deck was replaced each time.”

Huang Shengjie lowered his head in thought, ”That’s not an easy strategy to come up with in the time before the game starts. I can’t immediately see any remaining issue.

”So, what happened next? Brother Lu, how did it go from there?”

From everything described so far, Wei Changfeng was at least the equal of Lu Bingjun as a player, both a community leader and a core game player. Coming up with this kind of strategy wasn’t surprising.

It matched what everyone had come to expect of his ability.

But the final outcome of the game showed that things couldn’t have been this simple, and there had to be a trap somewhere that no one had spotted yet.

Lu Bingjun continued, ”After that, both sides traded wins and losses, with Wei Changfeng’s side holding slightly more round wins.

”By Round 6, the score was 4 round wins to 2, with Wei Changfeng’s side at 4.”

Lu Qi looked mildly surprised, ”So their luck was pretty good. But with a two-round lead already, the other side must have been close to losing their patience and wanting to start hitting.”

Lu Bingjun shook his head, ”No.

”The game records don’t include any casual conversation, but Round 6 clearly ran longer than the others, which suggests there may have been some discussion during that time.

”Even so, in the rounds that followed, the other side still didn’t take any extra hits. They continued playing on their initial two cards alone.

”After that, their luck began to turn, and they gradually closed the gap.

”By Round 13, the score had shifted to 8 round wins to 5, with the other side leading by 3.”

Huang Shengjie did a double take, ”Wait, 8 to 5? So in the seven rounds after Round 6, our side only won one round? They won six out of seven?

”That doesn’t seem right. That seems distinctly wrong.”

Lu Bingjun said, ”At 2 to 4, the other side won four consecutive rounds, bringing the score to 6 to 4. Then Wei Changfeng won one, making it 6 to 5. Then the other side won two more in a row, making it 8 to 5.”

Huang Shengjie was genuinely puzzled, ”When the score was 6 to 4, the other side had already won four in a row. At that point they should have called it immediately, or at least started hitting.

”Why did they play one more round without doing anything?”

Qin Cheng’s brow furrowed as he tried to mentally reconstruct the scene.

”Something does feel off. With the other side on a four-game winning streak, regardless of whether there was any cheating involved, they should have started hitting without hesitation.

”The other side would also have had no reason to refuse.”

While everyone was working through the debrief, Lin Sizhi had quietly retrieved a deck of playing cards from the break area and was idly turning them over in his hands while keeping track of the discussion’s progress.

After a brief pause, he said, ”Let’s quickly simulate what that scene might have looked like.

”We’ll put the score back to 2 to 4. Let’s say I’m Zheng Qingyun from Community 6, and you’re Wei Changfeng.

”I’m two rounds behind.”

Qin Cheng thought carefully for a moment, ”Then in a spirit of goodwill, I’d probably ask: do you want to start hitting now?

”After all, under the earlier agreement, when the round win gap reaches a certain point, the side that’s behind can start hitting to close it.

”As the side with the advantage, to keep the cooperation solid, I might ask out of courtesy.”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”I’d proactively say I don’t want to hit yet, and suggest waiting until the gap reaches four round wins or more before starting.”

Round 6.

Wei Changfeng looked at the scoreboard. Community 2 had 4 round wins. Community 6 had 2.

”Do you want to start hitting now?

”The gap is already 2 rounds. It’s not a lot, but in the interest of fairness, if you want to start hitting, we’re completely fine with that.”

Zheng Qingyun seemed briefly tempted and hesitated.

But after genuine consideration, he ultimately shook his head.

”Not yet.

”Luck always fluctuates. It’s entirely possible to go on a run and see the gap widen to 2, 4, or even more rounds for a while.

”We still have 30 rounds in total and we’re only in Round 6.

”As long as our luck picks up later, we can close the gap through consecutive wins.

”Hitting too early wastes penalty counts for nothing.

”Let’s wait until the round win gap reaches 4 or more before anyone starts hitting.”

Wei Changfeng nodded, ”Alright. Whenever the gap does widen, feel free to start hitting at any time.”

Neither side dwelt on the point. Things continued following the established process.