God's Imitator

In Gao Teng’s previous confession he had said the thought was strong, and now he was saying he had acted on it, which represented a further escalation. Zheng Qingyun had no choice but to press ’Shocked’ again.

If that piece of information had been delivered all at once in a single confession, it could only be used once, and would have no further effect afterward.

By splitting it across two separate confessions, Gao Teng had effectively gained one extra round of ammunition. It was a clever approach.

Even so, it was obvious that this particular piece of information could not be split indefinitely. It would run dry eventually.

Gao Teng’s hand trembled slightly as he turned over his hidden card. It was the eight of clubs.

Combined with the 11 points he already had, the total came to 19. No bust, and already a reasonably strong total.

Drawing an ace or a two on the next card would push it even higher, but the odds of that were low enough to make it pointless to try.

Gao Teng and Wei Changfeng declared stand.

[Community 6 wins. Highest total: 9.]

Hearing the announcement, Gao Teng visibly paused.He looked at the cards Zheng Qingyun had turned face-up: 4, 7, 10.

Which meant Zheng Qingyun had actually drawn the highest raw total in this round, 21 points. Even after having 12 points deducted for pressing ’Shocked,’ all the other players had also pressed ’Shocked,’ so his adjusted total of 9 was still the highest at the table.

Zheng Qingyun spread his cards and showed them to the three Community 2 players, ”At the card table, even when it comes down to luck, I don’t lose to anyone.”

The round win count shifted to 11 to 9, with Community 6 pulling one back.

Wei Changfeng had accumulated 10 penalty counts before this round, and losing added one more. The ring at his chest activated and cut open a wound.

Gao Teng’s situation was noticeably worse.

Because Gao Teng had been taking extra hits across all four of these rounds, he had been absorbing additional penalty counts throughout. Winning a round was manageable, but losing meant taking 2 counts at once.

He had already accumulated 11 penalty counts before this round, and this loss added 2 more. The rings at his neck and ankle activated in sequence.

He had now overtaken Zheng Qingyun.

Round 21 began.

This time the rotation put the player to Zheng Qingyun’s left as the first to act.

He did not immediately declare stand, waiting instead for Zheng Qingyun’s direction.

Even among players on the same side, looking at each other’s hidden cards was not permitted, but Zheng Qingyun could make a rough assessment based on his own hand and the other player’s face-up card.

Zheng Qingyun looked at his two cards. The face-up card was the eight of clubs, and the hidden card was the nine of hearts.

This was a clearly high total. Drawing anything above 4 points would cause an immediate bust, making another hit very risky.

If Gao Teng confessed something that gave him a genuine ’Unmoved’ response, that would be ideal, since adding 4 points would bring his total to exactly 21. But Gao Teng was obviously not going to make that kind of elementary mistake.

As the last player to act in the round, however, Zheng Qingyun had full flexibility to wait and decide after seeing what the others did.

He glanced at the player to his left. That player’s face-up card was the three of diamonds, a very low value and relatively safe to work with.

”You take the hit. Confess his sentence.”

The player to Zheng Qingyun’s left carried out the instruction without hesitation.

He reached past Zheng Qingyun and pointed at the domestic abuser.

”What I am confessing is this: after a prolonged campaign of verbal and physical abuse against his wife that drove her to take her own life with medication, he received only a three-year sentence for maltreatment.”

Gao Teng’s hand trembled slightly, but in the end he had no choice and pressed ’Shocked.’

A player with some legal background might have anticipated this possibility and been able to press ’Unmoved’ without violating the sincerity check. But it was clear that none of the three Community 2 players could do anything but press ’Shocked.’

Xu Yili declared stand.

Gao Teng looked at his hidden card and fell into a brief moment of hesitation.

This did not escape Zheng Qingyun’s notice. A faint smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

Gao Teng had found himself caught in a dilemma, and it was obvious.

His total was on the high side. If he took another hit as he had been doing, he would almost certainly bust outright.

And taking a hit would not only waste one confession, it would also add another penalty count on top of the real risk of busting.

But if he held back and refused to hit this time, that was also unacceptable.

Showing that kind of timidity would seriously damage his position going forward. A pattern of refusing to hit would make him increasingly vulnerable to being read and outmanoeuvred, and his chances of winning would only shrink from there.

There was also the question of the machine’s shuffling. It had already been established that the shuffle was fake, which meant only by taking hits frequently could the existing card sequence be disrupted. If the number of hits remained relatively predictable, Zheng Qingyun, with his card-counting ability, might still find a way to manipulate the return order and direct high-value cards to his own players.

With both factors compounding each other, Gao Teng would find himself completely without any winning path.

Yet just as he was about to make his decision, he heard a soft tap on the table beside him.

He paused and turned to look. Wei Changfeng gave him a small, deliberate shake of his head.

”Stand,” Gao Teng said at last, stepping back.

The corner of Zheng Qingyun’s mouth curved upward, and he made no effort to hide his satisfaction.

”Hand getting a little big? Gone too cautious to take the risk?

”That’s the difference between you and me. You look intimidating on the surface, but when it comes down to it, you don’t have the nerve. You can’t even bring yourself to trust that luck will stay on your side.

”How do you know the next card wouldn’t have been an ace?

”It’s over. There’s no point in continuing to,”

But before he could finish, he heard Wei Changfeng say, in a perfectly level voice, ”Hit.

”What I am confessing is this: the reason I performed well in a number of previous games was that I had obtained advance knowledge of the rules.

”I cheated.”

Zheng Qingyun’s eyes went wide. He stared in disbelief.

He watched a hidden card slide across to Wei Changfeng’s position. Wei Changfeng did not turn it over to look.

No system announcement of a bust followed, which meant he had not busted.

With both sides now forced to press ’Shocked,’ the player whose total was closest to 21 would still win, and the absence of a bust meant Wei Changfeng’s total was not small. That was bad news for Zheng Qingyun.

Zheng Qingyun’s expression darkened again. He looked at Wei Changfeng, ”Have you lost your mind too? You’re really going to throw everything away just to fight me to the death?

”The game is far from over, and you’ll have to keep making more confessions if you carry on down this road.

”Even if you’re not expelled from the community after you go back, there’s no way you’ll be able to stay on as community leader.

”Is it really worth it, all for the sake of this lunatic? Think about what you’re doing.”

Wei Changfeng looked back at him, cold and steady, ”I have my reasons. That’s not your concern.”

In Lu Bingjun’s account, the specific dialogue between the players had not been recorded. Only the content of each confession was preserved exactly.

Even so, he paused here for a moment, because Wei Changfeng’s decision to take a hit was itself a landmark event.

Everyone in the room understood that the final outcome was now close to being revealed.