God's Imitator

”What?”

Fan Zehui also realized something was wrong. He hurriedly went to Zhou Rong’s side to check her identity card.

[Community 12 - Zhou Rong]

[Identity: Conglomerate]

[Age: 60 years old (‘Old Age’)]

[Wealth: 10000 minutes of visa time]

The ”Management” label was indeed gone.

A bad premonition arose in Fan Zehui’s heart.

He hurriedly looked at the other players, only to find that Han Mengying was simply smiling as she waved at him, then walked toward the management room.

Fan Zehui hurriedly looked at Zhou Guifen, ”Aunt Zhou, quickly go vote against it!”Zhou Guifen’s initial identity was ‘Youth,’ but had now changed to ‘Adult’ Her identity card bore the ‘Management’ tag, so she could also vote.

Zhou Guifen hurriedly walked toward the management room.

Fan Zehui began searching for another ‘Adult’ player.

Cai Zhiyuan had already changed from ‘Youth’ to ‘Adult’ and had earned an additional 4000 in work income during the previous two rounds of games, so his identity card also bore the ‘Management’ tag.

However, Cai Zhiyuan shook his head, ”It’s useless. Community 4 has already gotten 3 votes. The proposal will definitely pass.”

Fan Zehui felt dizzy and disoriented.

Sure enough, before he could figure out what was really happening, a new broadcast appeared on the big screen.

[A player has initiated a proposal to change the Conglomerate community. All management players please immediately go to the management room to vote.]

[This proposal has received 3 ”Agree” votes, exceeding half, and takes effect immediately.]

[Community 4 replaces Community 12 as the new ”Conglomerate Family.”]

[To maintain the original population structure, starting from the next round of games, some players’ age attributes will undergo the following changes:]

[In Community 4, ‘Adult’ players who have not entered management will automatically become ”Childhood” players.]

[In Community 12, 1 ”Childhood” player will automatically become an ‘Adult’ player, but cannot enter management before the next population structure change.]

They said to have management players vote, but obviously, as long as the votes exceeded half, whether other management players voted or not wouldn’t affect the result.

While changing the Conglomerate identity, the game would also make adjustments to the specific age structure in the next round.

Simply put, under the premise of ensuring the original age structure of 12 people remained unchanged, the age structure of the ”Conglomerate Family” would become 1 ‘Old Age’, 1 ‘Adult’, 1 youth, and 1 childhood.

”Why... why...”

Fan Zehui obviously hadn’t figured out what was really happening. The sudden impact left his brain blank, and he temporarily lost his ability to think.

”It must be because Han Mengying’s wealth exceeded Zhou Rong’s, so in a situation where only 1 ‘Old Age’ player could enter management, she took away the ’Management’ identity...

”But I clearly gave all the inheritance to Zhou Rong!

”The four of them pressed buttons, Han Mengying could get at most 2000 per round, how could she exceed Zhou Rong??”

...

Qin Yao was also surprised by this result.

”Community 4 actually managed to seize the Conglomerate identity! And this is only the 3rd round of the game!

”From the results, it appears Han Mengying’s wealth exceeded Zhou Rong’s, but why?

”Could it be that Fan Zehui didn’t give the inheritance to Zhou Rong, but to someone else?

”That’s impossible. If I can think of this problem, how could he not?

”Fan Zehui should have intentionally left 5000 inheritance for Zhou Rong, precisely to ensure Zhou Rong’s wealth exceeded other players of the same age, especially Han Mengying.

”Zhou Rong initially had 5000, and Fan Zehui’s remaining inheritance after investment was also 5000, adding up to 10000.

”With equal wealth values, Conglomerates have priority for selection, so Han Mengying would need to obtain 11000 to succeed.

”Han Mengying initially had 5000, Community 4’s two sets of buttons are shared among four people, she gained 4000 over two rounds of games, adding up to only 9000. No matter how you look at it, that’s not enough, right?”

Lin Sizhi and Cai Zhiyuan said nothing, remaining noncommittal.

Luo Wei frowned in thought, ”The problem must lie in that word trap in the work rules.

”But when did Community 4 use this word trap? I didn’t notice either.”

Qin Yao hurriedly began recalling the rules, ”What word trap?”

Luo Wei explained, ”The rules state: [One player cannot occupy buttons from the same set, nor can they simultaneously occupy multiple ’Work’ buttons or multiple ’Revenue’ buttons.]

”But there’s one situation that wasn’t restricted: the same player occupying one ’Work’ button and one ’Revenue’ button from different groups each.

”I thought at the time, why does this rule look so cumbersome?

”It could have simply stated [Players can occupy at most 1 button], which would very simply block all loopholes.

”This is some kind of loophole deliberately left in the rules. Han Mengying used this method to gain 3000 minutes of visa time in each round of the game.

”This allowed her to overtake Zhou Rong after two rounds of games.”

Qin Yao was stunned, ”Huh? But if that’s the case, there wouldn’t be enough players occupying buttons to reach 8, wouldn’t that trigger wealth shrinkage?”

Luo Wei looked at the rules again, ”No, wealth shrinkage is a rule that only takes effect after 10 rounds of games.

”I guess the God’s Imitator who designed this game viewed the first 10 rounds as a ’wealth growth period,’ encouraging players to earn more money, while the latter 10 rounds are the ’confrontation period,’ when rules like ’wealth shrinkage from non-cooperation’ would be added.

”So in the first 10 rounds, this loophole can be exploited.

”Actually, I vaguely felt this rule was problematic from the beginning, but Community 4 looked very normal when pressing buttons, clearly four people pressed buttons, so I didn’t notice when they exploited this word loophole...”

Cai Zhiyuan explained, ”Han Mengying exploited the characteristic that this machine ’has no prominent alerts.’

”She first gathered Community 4’s players together, pretending to conduct internal allocation and strategy explanation, but actually secretly swiped her identity card on the first group’s ’Revenue’ button, then normally went to the second group’s ’Work’ button to swipe her identity card again and wait.

”This button design is crude and doesn’t display specifically who swiped their identity card.

”When everyone dispersed and took their positions, another Community 4 player stood guard in front of the first group’s ’Revenue’ button, also making obvious identity card swiping motions.

”But when Civilian players repeatedly swipe identity cards, they cannot seize work opportunities, so the actual occupier was still Han Mengying.

”Due to the button’s special mechanism, players who press the ’Work’ button must go to the corresponding ’Revenue’ button to press a second time, so after Han Mengying pressed the ’Work’ button, she also went to the corresponding income button with the others.

”This behavior also looked completely normal.

”Afterward, the player waiting in front of the first group’s ’Revenue’ button pressed the button simultaneously with others, and the first group’s ’Work’ button player also pressed their button.

”Since both of them were incorrect players, even pressing the buttons wouldn’t take effect.

”But these actions were made simultaneously with others, and afterward they pretended to check their identity cards for confirmation, with very natural movements, so it wouldn’t seem strange due to buttons not being pressed.

”Revenue buttons have no special light effects or alert sounds.

”The only place to confirm is the two small green lights on the device, but only the button users can see them clearly.

”Fan Zehui saw 8 people press buttons in order, everyone’s movements were uniform, so he didn’t realize the problem and went to handle investment matters.

”At this time, Han Mengying pretended to chat with the four people, and under the cover of others, pressed the first group’s income button in the correct sequence.”