God's Imitator

Zheng Jie raised his hand and asked, ”Wait! Lawyer Lin, you just said what finally confirmed it for you wasn’t these things but rather insignificant details?

”The game’s scene arrangement?

”What does this mean?”

Qin Yao tried hard to recall the situation at that time, ”I remember... Lawyer Lin was studying various facilities in the game at the time and didn’t respond to my questions. Instead, it was Cai Zhiyuan who answered for me.

”Lawyer Lin, are you saying Cai Zhiyuan didn’t study the specific usage of those devices, so it’s suspicious?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”This indeed counts as a small point of suspicion, but it can’t be called abnormal.

”The three of us at that time were a whole. The usage of these mechanisms was already explained in the game rules. To study these devices, only one person was enough.

”Cai Zhiyuan explaining these issues to you can also be understood as ’helping the team’s lagging member better understand the strategy,’ ’completely entrusting the task of studying equipment to me.’

”What really caught my attention was that ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Conglomerate Nation’ have clear similarities in scene arrangement.

”Glass curtain walls and railings.”Everyone was somewhat confused, ”Huh? What can this prove? God’s Imitators copying from each other isn’t uncommon. Reusing similar scenes is also normal, right?

”Like several screening games, the lounge layouts were all quite similar.”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”This is a different situation.

”Of course, it’s normal that you didn’t notice because this detail exists in the design documents that God’s Imitators receive.”

Wei Yinzhang quickly understood the meaning behind Lin Sizhi’s statement, ”I should be able to explain this issue.

”In some ’modular’ design parts, God’s Imitators can take shortcuts.

”For example, for the same ’screening game,’ if a God’s Imitator wants to arrange a ’lounge’ for players in the game.

”The first God’s Imitator to design it needs to write more content and must write out all the details in the lounge.

”But the second God’s Imitator can directly write ’arrange according to the lounge in XX game,’ then additionally specify the main changes.

”So many God’s Imitators will take shortcuts.

”However, this kind of shortcut generally has two conditions:

”First is modular design. If it’s not a whole like a ’lounge,’ then there’s no need to reuse previous solutions.

”Second is later games. Because there are enough accumulated games before, there are enough templates to reference.

”And ’Conglomerate Nation’ happened to fit neither.

”It was a relatively early game and didn’t reuse designs from previous games. And most importantly, ’glass curtain walls and railings,’ this kind of non-modular scenery that doesn’t affect actual game functions, must have been written by the God’s Imitator themselves.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes, both ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Conglomerate Nation’ were very open scenes with glass curtain walls and railings at the edges.

”God’s Imitators’ choices in scene arrangement are actually subconscious behavior.

”Like when I was designing ’Redemption Roulette,’ I subconsciously chose elements like cathode ray tube televisions, mechanical iron chairs, rust-covered steel frame structures, incandescent bulbs, and so on.

”This atmosphere can affect players’ psychology in the game, inducing them to make behaviors more in line with the God’s Imitator’s expectations. At the same time, it also conforms to the aesthetic deep in the God’s Imitator’s heart.

”Deliberately making ugly scene designs that don’t conform to one’s expectations is fighting against one’s inner aesthetic orientation, making one’s game look imperfect. Many God’s Imitators have an instinctive aversion to this behavior.

”When Cai Zhiyuan wanted to ’choose some physical entity to partition the edge of the game scene,’ he actually had many choices.

”It could be a cliff, could be a high wall, or could be anything else.

”But obviously, the ’caged bird’ feeling of glass curtain walls better conforms to his subconscious aesthetic orientation, so he subconsciously reused this style in the scene arrangements of ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Conglomerate Nation.’”

Zheng Jie frowned deeply, ”But... ’Shelter Game’ didn’t seem to have this situation, right?

”’Shelter Game’ was also a very open scene. From the feeling, it indeed had certain similarities with ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Conglomerate Nation,’ but the edges weren’t glass curtain walls.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Because by then he had already realized that this kind of design would easily expose himself.

”In many subsequent games, I also deliberately gave up some unimportant aesthetics and chose other scene arrangements. Cai Zhiyuan was the same.

”This was a game to scheme against Officer Cao. He had to distance himself as much as possible, so he was more cautious.

”Overall, I considered these factors comprehensively before determining Cai Zhiyuan was the God’s Imitator of ’Conglomerate Nation.’”

Wei Yinzhang lowered her head in thought for a moment and drew a new inference, ”Thinking about it this way, the two ’distribution-type games’ were actually for completely identical purposes.

”’Conglomerate Nation’ was designed by Cai Zhiyuan. One of the purposes was to test your level.

”And ’Simple Q&A’ was designed by you? One of the purposes was also to test Cai Zhiyuan’s level?

”If either of you two performed poorly in similar games, then perhaps the ’Special Games’ you prepared for each other would no longer be judgment games but similar ’strategic games.’”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes.

”The timing of ’Simple Q&A’ appearing was quite special.

”If this game came out at other times, Cai Zhiyuan might not have entered. He would most likely have left this opportunity to Wang Yongxin.

”Even if he entered, he might have deliberately not displayed his true level.

”But at that time, ’Shelter Game’ had just ended, and the five-person group had lost Officer Cao, the game’s core. The power structure inevitably experienced turbulence.

”Because this five-person group actually wasn’t solid. I was just an ’external member’ who followed orders but not allegiance. After Officer Cao died, one of the remaining three had to be able to shoulder the game’s burden.

”Considering Fu Chen and Li Renshu’s levels, Cai Zhiyuan could only do it himself.

”He knew he had to display some ability in the game to stabilize the situation in the community. This was also necessary cleanup after killing Officer Cao.

”So even if he guessed this might be my test, he could only choose to enter.”

Lin Sizhi paused slightly and continued:

”This game actually left players with a very high ceiling. The level Cai Zhiyuan displayed was the ceiling.

”However, not reaching this ceiling, or even not understanding ’Byzantine fault tolerance,’ actually wouldn’t prevent players from winning. This mainly depended on the opponent’s level.

”Rather unfortunately, Cai Zhiyuan happened to encounter Wang Weidong in this game. Continuing to hide his abilities would lead to very serious consequences, so he could only choose to go all out.”