God's Imitator

Wei Yinzhang paused slightly and continued, ”First, the players you selected for the game had no advantages in physical strength. In the ’Farmer’s Walk’ segment, Cai Zhiyuan could basically decide for himself whether or not to take the advantageous identity of the ’Hermit.’

”Second, you didn’t actually set Cai Zhiyuan as the ’Super Authority Player.’

”In other words, Cai Zhiyuan could be completely safe without entering any cell.

”Finally, even if Cai Zhiyuan chose to enter a cell, looking at these six cells overall, the survival rate wasn’t low.

”Cell No. 1 ’Running Oneself Ragged’ and Cell No. 3 ’Standing By Idly’ were relatively safe, and the first choice in Cell No. 6 wasn’t necessarily a fatal situation either.

”Even Cell No. 2 ’Scattering a Fortune,’ as long as Cai Zhiyuan didn’t launch the ’Special Game’ targeting you, he would definitely be safe entering this cell. He would just need to ’scatter his wealth,’ meaning dividing his earnings of over a million as a God’s Imitator equally among all players.”

Zheng Jie frowned deeply, ”...But Brother Cai still chose the only path to death without hesitation?”

Wei Yinzhang nodded, ”This game lives up to its name:

”A true hermit would definitely be able to survive this game.

”If Cai Zhiyuan believed that the ’King’s Judgment’ was just a self-preservation act forced by the Gallery, and in his heart he still considered himself that overworked programmer, then he might have entered Cell No. 1 with a clear conscience and endured the same punishment again.”This cell represents ’not forgetting one’s original aspiration’ and is absolutely safe.

”If Cai Zhiyuan hadn’t launched the ’Special Game’ targeting Lawyer Lin, meaning he believed the conflict between them could still be reconciled, then he would have preserved his visa time. Entering Cell No. 2 ’Scattering a Fortune’ or Cell No. 6 ’Submit to Fate’ would still ensure absolute safety.

”Cell No. 3 ’Standing By Idly’ actually had another possibility:

”After entering himself, he could designate Huang Ming or Fu Yujun to take over the ’Hermit’ identity and hand the decision-making power to them.

”Cai Zhiyuan could explicitly request not to replicate Cell No. 2 ’Scattering a Fortune’ and Cell No. 4 ’Heart-Piercing Questions,’ and let Huang Ming or Fu Yujun decide on the other cells themselves.

”By handing the decision-making power to others, he would actually have a greater probability of survival.”

Wei Yinzhang paused slightly and continued, ”This also perfectly fits the ’Hermit’ persona that Cai Zhiyuan had always displayed.

”He always emphasized that he was the ’Hermit,’ the ’strategist,’ who only gave suggestions and didn’t make decisions. Whatever decision the decision-maker made, he could accept it.

”If this were true, his survival rate would actually be higher.

”But clearly, he only appeared indifferent to everything, but actually couldn’t accept situations beyond his control.

”His so-called ’acceptance’ actually meant he would switch to a different decision-maker.

”Of course, he couldn’t truly ’stand idly by’ either.”

Yang Yuting said in a low voice, ”So, Lawyer Lin, is that why you gave the ’Super Authority Player’ status to Fu Yujun? Because you knew Cai Zhiyuan ultimately still wouldn’t trust Fu Yujun.

”The ’Farmer’s Walk,’ the ’Super Authority Player,’ and the arrangement of the cells, you calculated Cai Zhiyuan’s every decision to the letter?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head and explained, ”I didn’t deliberately calculate Cai Zhiyuan’s decisions.

”I merely arranged different outcomes for different possibilities.

”In this game, I selected six different players for him, who were also ’witnesses’ to six games.

”These players weren’t all his enemies.

”Cui Yifeng and Song Xiao held the greatest hostility toward him. Gao Jialiang had some hostility toward him, but not severe.

”Sun De had directly received favors from Cai Zhiyuan. Huang Ming was a naturally kind player who also had some goodwill toward Cai Zhiyuan. And Fu Yujun’s relationship with Cai Zhiyuan was not only naturally close but also had the potential for further development:

”This depended on whether Cai Zhiyuan himself would tell Fu Yujun the truth, the truth about sending Fu Chen away from the Gallery.

”In this game, Cai Zhiyuan wasn’t in an isolated and helpless state. If he could trust other players, whether Sun De, Huang Ming, or Fu Yujun, it might have led to different outcomes.

”All three had different, worthy reasons to be trusted.”

Li Renshu added the final sentence with some emotion, ”But he chose none of them.”

Wei Yinzhang was somewhat surprised, ”Lawyer Lin, do you mean...

”Theoretically, Cai Zhiyuan had an extremely, extremely slim chance of using this game to leave the Gallery and return to the real world?

”Among the three people close to Cai Zhiyuan, Sun De appeared respectful and deferential to Cai Zhiyuan but was actually extremely concerned with his own interests. Although Huang Ming was morally an irreproachable good person, he had no reason to sacrifice himself to send Cai Zhiyuan away.

”Only Fu Yujun had a tiny, slim possibility of using the ’Super Authority Player’ privilege to send Cai Zhiyuan back to reality: because of Fu Chen.

”If Fu Yujun knew that it was Cai Zhiyuan who sent Fu Chen back to reality, then, as Fu Chen’s father, he might choose to reciprocate the favor.

”Of course, this possibility is extremely, extremely low. Fu Yujun and Fu Chen are completely different people.

”But... even if remote, it still exists.

”However, at the same time, you also buried a trap in Fu Yujun’s identity: as the ’Super Authority Player,’ he would bear additional risks in the game.

”If Cai Zhiyuan didn’t handle his relationship with him well, he could also be sanctioned by Fu Yujun.

”Just like after Huang Ming entered Cell No. 4 ’Heart-Piercing Questions,’ Fu Yujun didn’t show any mercy either, but matter-of-factly asked the corresponding questions.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Theoretically, the possibility of ’Fu Yujun sending Cai Zhiyuan back to reality’ does exist. Although I myself cannot imagine the specific scenario in which this would happen, but...

”A God’s Imitator shouldn’t preset the upper limit of a player’s abilities in the game.

”If Cai Zhiyuan truly could find a way to achieve this, making Fu Yujun willingly use the ’super player privilege’ to send him back to the real world, I would be sincerely convinced.

”As a God’s Imitator, the establisher of judgment game rules, I should leave this possibility for him.

”Moreover, with Fu Yujun becoming the super privileged player, he would most likely make rational choices, wouldn’t abuse his privilege to kill innocents indiscriminately, and wouldn’t interfere with the final outcome of my match with Cai Zhiyuan.”

Lin Sizhi paused and continued, ”Cai Zhiyuan’s final outcome in this game depended on who he himself believed he truly was.

”If he believed himself to be the ’Hermit,’ a working programmer, an ordinary corporate slave, or a strategist maintaining the community, then he had many ways to survive.

”Only when he was the ambitious schemer controlling everything would it lead to a fatal and dangerous outcome.

”Actually, the two of us share commonalities in many areas.

”For instance, we both have very strong initiative, and neither of us cares about our own life or death.

”For us, upholding our beliefs is far more important than survival.

”So these two ’Special Games’ were actually unrelated to game strategy and ultimately depended on ’what kind of person we believe the other to be.’”

Wei Yinzhang said, ”The reason Cai Zhiyuan chose Cell No. 6 didn’t mean surrendering to fate, but rather wanting to challenge predetermined fate.

”Because only the second choice in Cell No. 6 depended entirely on himself.

”He didn’t believe Lawyer Lin would fire all six shots at him.”