God's Imitator

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[”Blood Poker” successfully stood out from all the proposals, and you have once again proven your talent.]

[But the real game has just begun.]

[Now, the Gallery extends a new design invitation to you:]

[In three days, the Gallery will simultaneously conduct several different judgment games. The game you have been assigned is: Case C.]

[In your desk drawer, there are partial criminal files of 5 criminals from Case C, along with their corresponding judgment results.]

[In this game, 5 criminals will be forced to participate, and additionally, 10 unrelated players will voluntarily participate.]

[If you believe the judgment results for these 5 criminals are generally fair and just, or if you don’t care either way, then do nothing.]

[If you believe that among these 5 criminals, there are utterly unforgivable villains who must face the test of death, then design a game to deliver more appropriate judgment upon them.]

[The ”Gallery” will evaluate all submitted planning documents and adopt the highest-scoring proposal to set up the game venue.][Now, the 48-hour countdown begins. Please make your choice.]

”Five criminals forced to participate in the game, and 10 unrelated players voluntarily participating?

”I should first look at these criminals’ files.”

Lin Sizhi pulled open the drawer and took out the file materials and planning documents.

Originally, he didn’t have any particular emotional fluctuations, but upon seeing the names on the files, he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.

Because among them were actually three people he knew.

Ding Wenqiang, Cai Zhiyuan, Wang Yongxin.

The other two were names he had never heard of: Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui.

From the photos, Zhang Peng was a blonde young man with a hairstyle similar to the ”Shamate” style, naturally carrying a somewhat roguish expression. Gao Zhankui was a burly, stocky middle-aged man with some flesh on his face, looking fierce.

After briefly flipping through these people’s files, Lin Sizhi’s brow furrowed deeper.

Because a second situation that surprised him appeared:

The three people he knew, Ding Wenqiang, Cai Zhiyuan, and Wang Yongxin, had their criminal content and punishment results clearly written out. But the other two people he didn’t know had no relevant information at all.

[Wang Yongxin, male, 36 years old.]

[Occupation: CEO of ”Express Delivery.”]

[Used big data algorithms to harshly exploit crowdsourced delivery workers, leading to several serious traffic accidents and one case of a delivery worker dying from overwork.]

[Punishment result: Not tried.]

[Cai Zhiyuan, male, 28 years old.]

[Occupation: Algorithm programmer.]

[Mainly responsible for artificial intelligence, big data, and algorithm development. Led the development of the ”Hundred Cities Connect” food delivery system adopted by multiple delivery companies.]

[Punishment result: Not tried.]

[Ding Wenqiang, male, 53 years old.]

[Occupation: Large package courier.]

[While working as a courier, due to fatigue driving, he severely injured a delivery worker who ran a red light on an electric scooter, who ultimately died from his injuries.]

[Punishment result: Sentenced to 1 year and 3 months imprisonment for traffic accident crime, with 2-year probation (had compensated the family 400,000 yuan and obtained forgiveness).]

[Zhang Peng, male, 26 years old.]

[Occupation: Unemployed.]

[???]

[Punishment result: ???]

[Gao Zhankui, male, 45 years old.]

[Occupation: Delivery station manager.]

[???]

[Punishment result: ???]

Lin Sizhi fell into contemplation.

The ”crimes” of these three people were very different compared to Wei Xinjian from before.

Wang Yongxin and Cai Zhiyuan needn’t be mentioned, their ”crimes” hadn’t violated any laws, at most they could be judged from a moral perspective.

If they had to face the punishment of death in the Gallery’s games just for this, then probably few people in the world would be completely innocent.

As for Ding Wenqiang, his situation was slightly more serious, after all, he had directly hit and killed someone.

But Lin Sizhi believed this judgment result was reasonable, Ding Wenqiang had already paid a sufficient price.

Ding Wenqiang’s fatigue driving was most likely due to unreasonable work intensity from the courier company, and an important cause of the accident was that the delivery worker on the electric scooter ran a red light.

This was different in nature from Wei Xinjian’s malicious hit-and-run accident.

As for the other two people, Lin Sizhi didn’t know them and wasn’t clear about what specific crimes they had committed, so naturally he couldn’t make judgments.

”From the known judgment results, I can’t see too many problems.

”So... should I choose to do nothing and give up this game?”

If following the Gallery’s statement, since he felt these people didn’t need to be judged, then there was no need to design a game or submit a proposal, doing nothing would be fine.

But that would also mean giving up the design rights for this round of the game.

Lin Sizhi fell into contemplation, quickly listing the pros and cons of both decisions in his mind.

If he didn’t participate in designing this judgment game, he could naturally stay out of it and enjoy leisure time without burden for the next few days.

But this way, Lin Sizhi also couldn’t guess what kind of game the Gallery would ultimately choose.

It might choose a high-risk death game, causing Wang Yongxin, Cai Zhiyuan, and Ding Wenqiang to die in the game.

Of course, Lin Sizhi didn’t have excessive moral burden or meaningless guilt. Even if this situation really happened, he wouldn’t consider it his ”inaction” that caused these three people’s deaths.

But participating in designing this judgment game had other meanings for Lin Sizhi.

On one hand, the death of the three might lead to the weakening of Community 17 as a whole. If there were community versus community confrontation games later, Community 17 might be at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, designing this game would also help Lin Sizhi better understand the Gallery’s hidden rules.

For others who didn’t know the truth, the Gallery or ”God’s Imitators” were equally dangerous existences that could put them to death.

But Lin Sizhi was very clear that as a game designer, whether the game could truly determine other players’ fates depended entirely on whether it was recognized by the Gallery.

In other words, God’s Imitators must figure out the Gallery’s intentions, think clearly about what kind of games would be encouraged, and design accordingly to ensure their games were chosen.

Otherwise, this identity would bring nothing but some unexpected dangers, with no other meaning whatsoever.

In the previous two times, the reason Lin Sizhi’s games could get the Gallery’s recognition and even receive high evaluations wasn’t necessarily because his games were perfect, but possibly because they happened to conform to the Gallery’s deep requirements.

But the Gallery’s intentions were complex, still far from true understanding.

So Lin Sizhi believed he’d better not give up this opportunity.

”Design a game with less severe punishment, roughly matching the known crimes.

”If the Gallery chooses my game, then the survival rate of those three people will improve.

”If the Gallery doesn’t choose my game, I will have at least made an effort.”

After making up his mind, Lin Sizhi took the game planning document to review.

The format was still the same as before, except the available props list had changed compared to the previous two times.

The most conspicuous changes were two items:

[2. Freely designable complete mechanism sets: 5 sets.]

[8. Case-related videotapes: 5 sets.]

Compared to the previous two cases, this time the props had extremely high freedom.

”Case-related videotapes?”

Lin Sizhi tried to look at the following pages, but the materials didn’t explain the specific content of these videotapes.

That is, he still couldn’t know Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui’s specific crimes, and could only guess.

”Since these five people are arranged in the same game, and there are related videotapes, it means...

”The crimes of these five people most likely have some degree of connection.

”Food delivery, express delivery, algorithms, traffic accidents...

”Wang Yongxin’s delivery company used the algorithm program developed by Cai Zhiyuan?

”But they don’t know each other and are obviously not in the same company.

”This is also reasonable, because Wang Yongxin claims to be a ’startup company owner,’ this food delivery platform isn’t particularly famous either and should still be in its startup phase. And the algorithm program Cai Zhiyuan developed should be sold to more than one food delivery platform.

”Algorithms exploit delivery workers, increasing risks.

”As for Ding Wenqiang, he’s a courier, and from the circumstances of hitting someone, he should be driving a small truck or similar vehicle, delivering relatively large items.

”The only intersection among the three is delivery workers.”

Lin Sizhi gently tapped the table, many possibilities flashing through his mind.

After thinking for a long time, Lin Sizhi wrote down the name of the game he was conceiving: ”Life and Death Straight Line.”