God's Imitator

Zheng Jie suddenly had a feeling of enlightenment.

”That’s right! How could Gao Jialiang have prophetically known that ‘Dislikes’ would also become a specific resource!

”Even if he vaguely had such a guess, it would be impossible to so firmly put it into practice immediately, right?”

Now he understood why Lin Sizhi had hinted for everyone to check the like-dislike ratios of some players.

Because the stronger the player, the more they would tend to receive more likes and fewer dislikes.

For example, Lu Xinyi was like this.

As long as strong players like them wanted more likes, they would definitely find a way.

Whether using personal charm or buying with money, as long as they established relatively stable meeting partners, they could steadily obtain ‘Likes.’

Since they could get more likes, it meant that in others’ eyes, they were very charming people willing to get along friendly, so the probability of receiving dislikes would be lower.

Because likes and dislikes were two extremes of attitude, in an inverse relationship.Of course, this like-dislike ratio had to be strictly limited to the first 4 hours, because in the latter 4 hours everyone realized ‘Dislikes’ were also killing resources, and there would be situations of exchanging dislikes that would interfere with the data.

In the 12 meetings of the first 4 hours, getting 10 likes and 1 dislike was normal, getting 7 likes and 0 dislikes was also normal.

The latter might be because the meeting partner had already given their likes to others, and couldn’t give likes even if they wanted to when they had no extra likes left but the situation of 6 likes and 5 dislikes was absolutely abnormal.

Unless this player actively sought ‘Dislikes’ after discovering the other party had no ‘Likes.’

Moreover, ’meetings’ were different from ’talent shows.’

If it were talent show activities, actively seeking ‘Dislikes’ could still make sense, after all it could be explained as ”black-red is also red.”

But meeting activities were more like blind dates. Would normal people indiscriminately seek dislikes in blind date activities? This didn’t conform to general behavioral logic.

Thinking about it now, Gao Jialiang appearing on the talent show stage so early showed that like Zheng Jie, he hadn’t received any ‘Likes’ in his first two meetings. Was this reasonable?

Not getting any the second time could be explained as the other party having already voted and having no likes left, but in the first meeting, as long as he encountered a female player, a handsome guy like him couldn’t possibly not receive any.

So the only reason was:

Gao Jialiang deliberately collected more dislikes early on, wanting to get himself on the talent show first to earn an extra 3 likes from the talent show.

This had additional benefits: after the killing rules were updated 4 hours later, talent shows would become dangerous. Players who participated in talent shows earlier would be safer.

On the large screen, Lin Sizhi didn’t stop but continued speaking.

”Of course, Gao Jialiang could also argue that he had a sudden inspiration, guessing that ‘Dislikes’ might play a role in the latter 4 hours of the game, so he sought ‘Dislikes’ when he couldn’t obtain ‘Likes.’

”Then how do we explain Fang Wencong’s data?”

As Lin Sizhi spoke, two more pieces of data were broadcast.

[In the first 4 hours, the number of ‘Likes’ Community 1’s Fang Wencong obtained through meetings, as a ratio of the total ‘Likes’ and ‘Dislikes’ obtained through meetings: ’11%’.]

[In the first 4 hours, after Community 1 player Fang Wencong entered meeting rooms, the ratio of pressing the payment button before his counterpart: ’100%’.]

”Fang Wencong always pressed the payment button first without any negotiation with his counterpart. As for what exactly he pressed, everyone can roughly guess.

”After all, his ‘Likes’ ratio in the ’total likes and dislikes’ was only 11%, which also shows he was actively seeking dislikes.

”’1/9=11%.’ That means in 12 meetings, he received 1 like and 8 dislikes.

”I was once matched with him. At that time his attitude was good, he not only took a bottle of mineral water but also said this bottle was for the female player he was meeting to drink.

”Such a player, even if he looked somewhat thin and couldn’t be called handsome, surely wouldn’t harvest so many ‘Dislikes,’ right?

”Most female players, even if they disliked their counterpart, wouldn’t deliberately click ‘Dislike,’ after all ‘Dislikes’ were only obtained once per hour. If they just generally disliked someone, they would most likely leave without rating.

”So I guess when facing male and female players, he mostly showed two completely different faces, and that bottle of mineral water most likely didn’t serve the purpose he claimed.

”Considering that female talent show performers had appeared with water stains on their chests, I guess Fang Wencong’s mineral water was most likely poured directly on the female players who came to meet with him.

”This wouldn’t count as violent behavior and wouldn’t trigger violations, but it could almost guarantee he would receive ‘Dislikes.’

”Because for ordinary players, ‘Likes’ are easy to give out, but ‘Dislikes’ are not easy to give out. Players who consciously seek dislikes, except for the few cases where the other party truly has no dislikes, can almost certainly get their wish.”

Zheng Jie thought about it. Indeed, from his own gaming experience in the first half, ‘Likes’ were easy to give out when encountering friendly players, while ‘Dislikes’ were only given when encountering particularly terrible players.

Most people should have more remaining ‘Dislikes’ than ’likes,’ especially in the early stages of the game.

So seeking dislikes was much easier than seeking likes.

Lin Sizhi continued, ”Of course, I don’t think Fang Wencong poured water on everyone he met. That would be too deliberate.

”I guess he mostly first actively pressed the ’You Pay’ button, attempted verbal arguments, and if the other party had a good temper and still wouldn’t give dislikes, then he would pour water to force the other party to give dislikes.

”I can’t verify the specific behaviors of Gao Jialiang and Fang Wencong, but the female players who were matched with them can think back carefully about whether they really did this.

”If only one player in this game realized to actively seek dislikes in the first 4 hours, then I would tend to think he was most likely the ’God’s Imitator,’ with a small probability of being an innocent player who had a sudden inspiration.

”But now, the only two players who realized they should actively seek ‘Dislikes’ in the first 4 hours both appeared in Community 1. Could this be a coincidence?

”In a situation where players from the same community couldn’t communicate with each other after entering the game, there’s only one conclusion:

”They already knew the game rules before entering the game.

”The identities of the two male players who initially killed Zeng Shiya and Liu Lin are naturally determined.

”It’s those two.

”Although other male players might also have collected 5 dislikes early or had killing motives due to being cheated of money, they most likely couldn’t break through their psychological barriers so quickly.

”In fact, in many subsequent meetings, there were no more murder attempts against female players.

”The third female player to die was Zhao Duo, and there was a full hour gap between her death and the previous two female players.”

Zheng Jie couldn’t help but understand, ”That’s right!”

Actually, during the meeting when those two female players died, he had already encountered that slovenly uncle Jiao Hongtao.

Jiao Hongtao had been cheated of visa time, received many dislikes, and had threatened revenge during the meeting.

Although two female players died in that meeting, Jiao Hongtao was meeting with Zheng Jie and couldn’t possibly be the killer.

After that, for a long time, there were no more cases of female player deaths.

This meant that although Jiao Hongtao had such thoughts, he had been experiencing psychological struggles and didn’t immediately act, instead using some of his dislikes to send data.

Of course, regarding Zhao Duo’s later death, Zheng Jie wasn’t sure if it was Jiao Hongtao’s doing but regardless, this was enough to confirm Lin Sizhi’s statement: the deaths of the initial two female players were abnormal.

More like premeditated.

On the large screen, Lin Sizhi continued, ”I think many people might also be speculating whether there’s a ’God’s Imitator’ in this game fanning the flames. But currently, there really isn’t anyone who obviously fits the characteristics of a ’game designer.’

”The conflicts and mutual harm between players also seem like a natural slippery slope, spontaneous player behavior, without specific external forces intervening.

”But now everyone should understand: the reason we can’t find one person with the most suspicion is because in this game, the ’God’s Imitator’ is not fighting alone.

”She turned her community into a ’black shop,’ revealing game rules to players from the same community before entering the game and assigning specific tasks.

”She distributed the three tasks of killing, inciting, and broadcasting data to different players.

”Not only that, after Community 1 players matched with female players from other communities, they kept inciting them to make hateful speeches against male players during talent shows.

”Some other communities, to profit from this, also fueled this chaos.

”The real victims are those players who can’t see through the situation.

”Zhao Duo was like this. The thoughtless words she said on the talent show stage were incited by other female players. These words brought Zhao Duo fatal disaster, while the real culprit got to stay out of it.”

Lin Sizhi paused briefly and continued: ”So why do I think Gao Jialiang is not the imitator but merely an accomplice?

”The reason is simple: I believe that when the imitator personally participates in this game and has absolute dominance within the community, she would play the ’safest’ role, taking the least risk.

”Zhong Yuanyuan is the safest person in all of Community 1. She has neither actively sought dislikes, nor sent broadcasts, nor actively killed anyone.

”The other three took on different tasks respectively.

”If Community 1 is really a black shop, then even if Zhong Yuanyuan was forced to participate in this game due to insufficient visa time, the imitator would definitely assign her specific tasks, such as sending inflammatory broadcasts.

”It would be impossible to allow her to win by lying flat while doing nothing.

”Only the imitator herself could have such privilege.

”So I believe the imitator who designed this game is Zhong Yuanyuan.

”Of course, I might also guess wrong.

”There are other possibilities, such as Zhong Yuanyuan actually being innocent, and the imitator actually being among the other three people in Community 1.

”But even if I guessed wrong, it doesn’t matter. Next time during talent shows or meetings, everyone can just kill all the other Community 1 players together.

”I’m finished speaking. Her fate is decided by you.”

After Lin Sizhi finished speaking, the 5-minute countdown for the talent show also just ended.

The audio system switched to Zhong Yuanyuan.

She was already scared pale, and when the audio system switched to her side, she didn’t react for a moment.

Zhong Yuanyuan froze for several seconds before hurriedly speaking in her own defense.

”Everyone listen to me, there’s absolutely no such thing, I don’t know what he’s talking about at all...”

However, before she could finish her words, the sound abruptly stopped.

[Performer No. 2 has accumulated over 20 ’Boring’ votes, performance forcibly terminated.]

[Performer No. 2 Zhong Yuanyuan will suffer instant death penalty.]

Zhong Yuanyuan felt a sharp pain from her wrist. She looked in disbelief as a black line crawled up along her artery, then felt dizzy and collapsed in front of the talent show camera.

[Performer No. 1 has accumulated 26 ’Interesting’ votes, gaining an additional 2 ’Likes’.]

[Performer No. 2 has accumulated 0 ’Interesting’ votes, gaining an additional 0 ’Likes’.]

[The ’God’s Imitator’ who designed this game has died, the game will enter settlement early.]

[All surviving players will equally split all the imitator’s visa time.]

[Game Over.]