God's Imitator

Seeing this, Wen Wan turned toward the large screen and spoke quickly, ”I’d like to confess to everyone as well.

”I used to run an online store, mainly selling high-quality imitation goods.

”But what I sold weren’t fakes in the truest sense. To be precise, they were what’s called ’factory overrun’ items.

”To put it simply, big international brands, clothing, shoes, bags, often have their manufacturing done through contract factories in China. During production, some natural loss is expected. Many brands allow an extra margin, say 3% or 5%, of planned surplus material.

”So during manufacturing, some items come out with minor colour variation or tiny flaws that the brand itself won’t accept.

”Of course, not everything I sold was genuine overrun stock. Some of it was produced independently by the factories themselves as imitations.

”The prices on all of it were generally below 30% of the original retail price. I had a regular customer base, and I explained all of this to them clearly, more than once. They understood exactly what they were buying.

”My total sales figures were fairly substantial by the end, and I genuinely was never caught, because I shut the store down early once I sensed the scrutiny tightening.

”I know selling this kind of imitation goods isn’t right. But everyone wants to feel beautiful, don’t they? These big luxury brands charge such outrageous prices, thousands, sometimes tens of thousands for a single bag, and I’ve seen so many young women taking out loans just to afford one. I couldn’t help but think, why put yourself through that?

”I fully accept that what I did was wrong, but I also believe it never caused any real harm to anyone. Maybe I stepped a bit too far into a grey area, but who among us hasn’t used an imitation or a pirated copy of something at some point? Please forgive me. I promise I will work hard producing this medication to make up for it.”

In the audience waiting room, Huang Shengjie and Ye Lin had no intention of buying any medication themselves, so they paid no attention to the vending machine activity, focusing entirely on the large screen instead.

Watching Wen Wan confess, Huang Shengjie felt the knot in his chest loosen slightly.

”Sister Ye Lin, I think Wen Wan’s timing here was actually pretty good, don’t you?

”She’s the third to confess, but compared to He Qing’s crime, hers is far lighter.

”He Qing’s crime was failing to properly vacuum air conditioning units. He gave excuses, sure, but what he did genuinely harmed consumers directly.

”And it was purely driven by self-interest, wanting to save time and make more money during the busy installation season.

”If I were voting, I’d still cast Guilty for him without hesitation.

”But Wen Wan’s situation is different.

”Selling imitation goods sits somewhere in a legal grey area, doesn’t it? Her customers all knew exactly what they were buying, so there was no deception involved.

”The only party genuinely harmed would be the luxury brands themselves.

”And in a lot of people’s eyes, those luxury brands are the ones exploiting ordinary consumers to begin with, so there’s not much sympathy for them either.

”On top of that, Wen Wan closed her store fairly early on, so the actual social harm was limited. And her appearance is the most striking of all five offenders. That tearful, sincere expression earlier was bound to win her some sympathy too.

”If it were up to me, as long as the sincerity mechanism allowed it, I’d vote Not Guilty for her without a second thought.”

Ye Lin was quiet for a moment, ”There are actually some issues with what she said, but I can’t point them out, because if I did, it might trigger the sincerity mechanism when you vote, and you wouldn’t be able to vote Not Guilty for her anymore.

”But overall, Wen Wan performed better than I expected.

”I can sense there’s some deliberate calculation woven into what she said.

”They probably don’t dare lie about the core facts of their crimes.

”Because if the crime the audience is shown doesn’t match what they confess, the audience would assume they’re trying to deceive their way out of it, which would only make things worse.

”But when it comes to the finer details, they still try to obscure as much as possible.

”Neither of them revealed anything that would make it easier for other offenders to guess their crime numbers.

”He Qing, for instance, is an installer. His crime number is probably tied to the total number of units he installed.

”He never mentioned how many years he’d been doing this work, or roughly what percentage of the units had problems. Those omissions were almost certainly deliberate, meant to protect his number.

”Wen Wan did the same. She never mentioned how long she ran her store, or roughly how many orders she processed each month.

”But as you said, I think comparing the two cases works in Wen Wan’s favour. She’s likely to pick up more Not Guilty votes and more Sympathy Votes.”

Both of them relaxed a little.

Huang Shengjie went back to the vending machine to check on the medication.

The batch currently on sale, from the second round of production, had already sold out entirely.

”Sold out already? That’s remarkable. Players’ demand for this medication is even greater than I expected.”

Ye Lin explained, ”There’s probably a fixed group of wealthy players buying it.

”If they can secure a resale market, it’s actually worthwhile for a player to spend every last bit of visa time they’re carrying just to buy up Type M medication.

”Because flipping it can generate a guaranteed profit.

”Say someone spends 60,000 minutes of visa time to buy 100 bottles, then resells each one for 1,000 minutes. That’s a 40,000 profit off a single transaction, which is already comparable to the base earnings from an entire game.

”And beyond that, Type M medication itself has genuine potential to appreciate in value over time.

”After this game ends, communities almost certainly won’t be able to purchase Type M through regular channels, which means this particular batch could become discontinued stock, growing more valuable as time goes on.

”It might even turn into something people treat as an investment asset.”

Huang Shengjie asked, ”So are we still not buying?”

Ye Lin hesitated, ”Let me think about it a bit more.”

The game continued, and before long, batches 3 through 6 had also been produced.

Among the five players on the floor, Zeng Yiming, He Qing, and Wen Wan had all confessed voluntarily. Zeng Yiming’s crime number had already been exposed, triggering his First Trial, while He Qing and Wen Wan had only confessed openly to the audience without having their exact numbers guessed and triggering a trial.

As for Liang Guicheng and Zhao Xiuying, neither seemed inclined to come forward. They appeared to be planning to hold out and conceal their numbers for as long as possible.

Just as they returned to the floor to begin producing the seventh batch, a broadcast rang out.

[The crime number of Zhao Xiuying (Stall Owner) has been correctly guessed by at least 2 offender players. Crime has been exposed.]

[Zhao Xiuying’s crime: While operating a donkey meat stall, she exploited the threefold price difference between horse meat and donkey meat, disguising spoiled horse meat as donkey meat for sale, and used food additives and chemical treatments to alter the taste and deceive customers, illegally profiting 1.34 million yuan.]

[Sentencing outcome: Sentenced to 5 years and 6 months’ imprisonment for the crime of selling substandard goods.]

[All audience members, please cast your votes to complete the First Trial.]