God's Imitator

Wei Yinzhang paused slightly, organized her thoughts, then said, ”Actually, I’m not really a clever person, nor is my personality particularly strong. After entering Community 6 with the identity of an ’Imitator,’ I’ve actually been troubled by this special identity all along.”

Zheng Jie was somewhat surprised, ”Huh? Sister Wei, aren’t you being a bit too modest?

”With your performance in the game, if that doesn’t count as ’clever’ and ’strong,’ then what does?

”Then what am I, a paramecium?”

Qin Yao also nodded in agreement.

In the ’Fool’s Game,’ Wei Yinzhang had successfully infiltrated the small group and fooled ’Rabbit’ and a crowd of other ‘Sage Players’. In Zheng Jie’s view, this obviously required both ’cleverness’ and ’strength’ to accomplish.

Wei Yinzhang shook her head, ”No, no, no, you might have some misunderstandings.

”After all, that was a game I designed myself. It was my home field.

”In the game, the time you really had available to think about the game rules was probably just over ten minutes, and you had to constantly monitor oxygen consumption.

”But before entering the game, I had already thought through the rules hundreds, thousands of times repeatedly, considered all kinds of situations that might occur.”All the traps were carefully prepared by me for specific groups of people, and I knew all the solutions to these traps.

”You can’t assume that just because I performed well in this game, I would have the same performance in other games.

”It’s like how the author of a detective novel, if they traveled into their own book, would definitely be a brilliant detective with flawless strategies, but you couldn’t expect them to solve cases in reality.”

Zheng Jie thought about it and nodded in realization, ”Oh, that’s also true.”

Cao Haichuan played with his lighter, saying thoughtfully, ”Thought through the rules hundreds, thousands of times? That’s an exaggeration, right?

”Does the Gallery’s invitation to God’s Imitators give that much time?”

Before this, Community 17 didn’t know exactly how many days in advance the Gallery would send game design invitations to God’s Imitators but reasoning logically, it must be after one game ended that the next game invitation was sent, right?

In that case, Wei Yinzhang would have at most less than a week. How could she possibly think it through hundreds or thousands of times?

Wei Yinzhang shook her head, ”No, it’s not an exaggeration. I really did consider it many, many times repeatedly.

”As I said before, I don’t consider myself a clever person, so I can only make up for it with diligence.

”As for the time issue...

”The Gallery indeed only gives game design invitations three to five days in advance, but that doesn’t mean I have to design only after receiving the invitation.

”In fact, more than a week after I entered the New World, I already had the prototype of the ’Fool’s Game’ in my mind.

”After that, I kept revising and improving it continuously.”

Everyone was somewhat surprised, ”Ah?”

Obviously, this was very special information.

For Wei Yinzhang, this seemed like a very normal thing, but for ordinary players, it was hard to imagine.

Wang Yongxin asked doubtfully, ”Wait, when the Gallery issues game invitations, there must be some specific requirements, right?

”If you designed the game in advance, how can you ensure it definitely matches the Gallery’s requirements?

”Or does the Gallery have no specific requirements at all?”

Wei Yinzhang said matter-of-factly, ”The Gallery naturally has specific requirements, and I have no way to ensure my game will definitely be selected.

”In the ideal state, of course, you’d guess the Gallery’s inclinations based on the item list, then make a unique design and get selected.

”But that’s only the ideal state. I’ve tried this method, but the results were very poor. I basically never succeeded.

”On one hand, it’s because time is limited. Getting game rules thought up temporarily in just a few days to pass review is already not easy. It’s very difficult to make it particularly outstanding.

”On the other hand, the games God’s Imitators make are related to their own knowledge structure and also to inspiration. Inspiration doesn’t come often. Maybe for a long time, inspiration only appears once or twice.

”I don’t know if there are God’s Imitators whose games always get selected. Even if there are, they should be an extreme minority.

”So I thought of a clumsy method: First, don’t worry about what the Gallery’s invitation is. Use a long time in advance to make the game I’m most satisfied with, think through and revise the details repeatedly, then just wait.

”If I encounter an invitation that completely doesn’t match the game prepared in advance, then I’ll think of one myself temporarily and take my chances. But most likely it won’t be selected.

”If I encounter a suitable game invitation, then I’ll make some small revisions to the previously completed game and submit it.

”The ’Fool’s Game’ was this kind of situation.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”So this is equivalent to ’guessing the topic.’ This time’s situation was that you happened to guess correctly.”

Wei Yinzhang nodded, ”Right, it’s ’guessing the topic.’

”Isn’t this a matter of course? Did you think all God’s Imitators only start thinking about specific designs after seeing the Gallery’s invitation?

”How is that possible?

”Of course, I don’t rule out that a very small number of genius God’s Imitators can do it, but I definitely can’t. ’Guessing the topic’ is a clumsy method I thought of myself, but for God’s Imitators who aren’t that clever, clumsy methods are more effective.”

Everyone couldn’t help but suddenly understand.

Obviously, if God’s Imitators didn’t share these deeper tricks themselves, it would be very difficult for other players to guess them.

Now that Wei Yinzhang had exposed it herself, thinking carefully, for ordinary God’s Imitators, this was indeed the optimal solution.

The Gallery’s invitations to God’s Imitators were like essay prompts.

Those top students could see the topic each time and then conceive it, giving a decent work within limited time. Occasionally when inspiration came, they’d get a perfect score directly but the vast majority of students couldn’t do this.

Rather than improvising on the spot, it was better to prepare several essays in advance according to different types to guess the topic. If they didn’t guess correctly, they’d improvise temporarily. But if they happened to guess one and just needed to revise it slightly before submitting, that would be a huge profit.

Moreover, God’s Imitators who didn’t realize this strategy would be at a big disadvantage.

Because everyone had prepared plans in advance, and very likely plans in different styles, that was equivalent to each time the Gallery issued an invitation, there would always be some God’s Imitators who could take turns guessing the topic correctly.

Games that successfully guessed the topic were all designed long in advance, having gone through weeks of additions, deletions, and revisions. They would definitely be more competitive than the vast majority of games thought up temporarily.

Wei Yinzhang summarized, ”So don’t think that I can casually design something and come up with rules as complex as the ’Fool’s Game’ in just a few days.

”Even more so, don’t think that in other games, I could have the same performance as in the ’Fool’s Game.’

”Just like how many directors can only make one good movie in their lifetime, the fact that I can never design a similar game again in the future is the more likely scenario.”

Hearing this news, most people’s expressions weren’t disappointed, but rather relieved.

Originally, God’s Imitators had given everyone too much pressure, especially when analyzing those highly-rated games. After analyzing for a long time, they would only feel that God’s Imitators were unbeatable but now it seemed that the vast majority of God’s Imitators couldn’t possibly maintain that high level all the time. ’Guessing the topic’ like Wei Yinzhang was the norm.

Wei Yinzhang’s explanation also effectively ’demystified’ God’s Imitators for everyone, and instead increased their sense of security somewhat.