God's Imitator

Qin Cheng’s words had a noticeable effect.

This was precisely where the value of a doctor lay. Many people’s conditions were not particularly serious, and yet they could not help frightening themselves over them. But once a diagnosis had been given, even if the doctor’s manner was merely impatient, it was enough to put a patient’s mind completely at ease.

Qin Cheng paused briefly and added, ”There is one thing, though, that I feel I should specifically warn everyone about.

”Please do not, under any circumstances, simply increase your dosage on your own just because the pain hasn’t been noticeably relieved.

”This type of painkiller has a clear ceiling effect. It was never going to fully suppress this kind of severe pain to begin with, and increasing the dose will not do much good either. If anything, it may raise the risk of gastrointestinal ulcers and kidney damage.”

Lu Bingjun nodded and said, ”Noted. That is a very important piece of medical advice. Everyone make sure to pass it along and remind each other.

”Our community has actually been quite fortunate. If there were no doctor among us in the Second Stage, a great many things would be considerably more difficult to manage.

”’Fighting the pain’ may well turn out to be a long battle. It’s not something that can be resolved overnight.

”For now, let’s focus on getting ready for the first game of the Second Stage.”

...Two days later, in the morning.

The new game arrived before the third bout of excruciating pain did.

Games in the Gallery opened roughly once a week, though in practice they could come a day or two earlier or later.

By this point, all the players in Community 2 had gathered in the hall to wait.

New information began appearing on the large screen in rapid succession.

[Good morning, players!]

[The ’Gallery’ will open in 1 hour.]

[The name of this game is ’Pain Game,’ and its type is ’Selection.’]

[Multiple rounds of the game will take place simultaneously under identical rules.]

[Each round will include players drawn from 8 communities, for a total of 40 players, with each community allowed to send 5 players.]

[Players wishing to participate must proactively submit visa time through a ’bidding’ process. The 5 players who submit the most will earn entry into the game, and all other players will have their submissions refunded.]

[The bidding method is ’sealed,’ meaning each player need only silently think of the amount they wish to submit and confirm it internally.]

[Visa time that has been submitted will be converted into the ’Special Currency’ required within the game at a 1:1 ratio.]

[Once inside the game, any further conversion of visa time into ’Special Currency’ can only be done at a 2:1 ratio.]

[The game contains multiple ’Advantage Identities.’ All else being equal, the more visa time submitted before entering the game, the greater the likelihood of obtaining one specific type of ’Advantage Identity.’]

[Please make your preparations.]

A one-hour countdown then appeared on the large screen.

59:59

59:58

As a new player, this was Huang Shengjie’s first time seeing the Gallery opening notice appear on the large screen, and he could not help but feel a rush of nerves. His heart began to race and his breathing grew a little faster.

He instinctively looked toward Qin Cheng.

Though Lu Bingjun, Ye Lin, and Lin Sizhi were all clearly the stronger players in the community, for some reason Huang Shengjie found himself instinctively drawn to Qin Cheng whenever he needed reassurance.

Lu Bingjun’s brow furrowed slightly as he read through the information on the large screen once more, carefully.

After a brief moment of thought, he said, ”Each community has 5 slots for the game, filled through a combination of voluntary sign-ups and visa time bidding. Even so, to ensure that the community sends in the best possible group composition, it would be better to coordinate the selection centrally.”

Everyone nodded. For the veteran players who had been through the First Stage, this was simply a matter of course.

New players like Huang Shengjie and Lu Qi did not fully understand the reasoning, but they did not need to. All they had to do was follow instructions.

Lu Bingjun went on, ”For the five players, the best structure is two leads and three support.

”One lead may find it hard to manage everything on their own, while three leads may struggle to reach a consensus.

”In addition, going by the game rules, proactively submitting more visa time before entering is clearly advantageous.

”First, it increases the chances of obtaining an Advantage Identity. Second, it allows visa time to be converted at a 1:1 ratio. Converting after entering the game drops that to 2:1, which would be a significant loss.

”Of course, it’s also possible that submitting more visa time, or obtaining an Advantage Identity, could be hiding some kind of trap behind what appears to be a straightforward benefit.”

After saying this, Lu Bingjun let his gaze drift, seemingly casually, in Lin Sizhi’s direction.

Lin Sizhi said simply, ”I’ll be participating in this game.”

Lu Bingjun gave a satisfied nod and said, ”Good. Then we look forward to seeing what Lawyer Lin can do in this one.

”Ye Lin, one of us two needs to go in as well. You or me?”

Ye Lin thought it over and said, ”I’ll go.”

She left it at that, and Lu Bingjun accepted without any fuss.

”Alright. Then this game will be led by Lawyer Lin and Ye Lin. The specific rules aren’t clear yet, so if the two of you end up disagreeing on something, try to defer to one person’s judgment.

”I won’t set a hard rule about that. Use your own discretion.

”As for the other three spots, those players will mainly be there to support and carry out instructions. They don’t need to be exceptionally sharp, but they should be quick on their feet, and above all, they need to be good at following direction.

”Any volunteers? I hope our veteran players can set an example for the newer ones.”

No one spoke.

This was, after all, the first game of the Second Stage, and a Selection-type game at that, which meant it carried an inherently high level of risk. On top of that, the game was called the ’Pain Game,’ which strongly suggested that some of its content would involve pain directly. By any measure, there was no good reason to go rushing in to put yourself through that.

None of the veteran players in the community were anywhere close to running out of visa time. Staying safely in the community and watching how things unfolded was clearly the more sensible choice.

Just as Lu Bingjun was about to start calling on people by name, Qin Cheng spoke up.

”I’ll go.

”This game is called the ’Pain Game,’ which may be connected to the special pain rule in the community. As a medical student, my professional knowledge might prove useful in there.

”Shengjie, come along with me.”

Huang Shengjie froze and said, ”Me? Hey, wait a second.”

Qin Cheng paid him no attention and turned to look at Zheng Chunhua, ”For the third spot, I’d recommend Uncle Zheng.

”From what we’ve seen so far, Uncle Zheng appears to have the highest pain tolerance of anyone in the community, and in this game that may well count as some kind of advantage.

”Uncle Zheng, what do you think?”

Zheng Chunhua hesitated for a moment and said, ”I... either way is fine. Whatever you all decide.”

Qin Cheng then looked toward Lu Bingjun and said, ”That’s just my personal take. The final call on who goes in is yours, Brother Lu.”

Lu Bingjun gave an approving nod and said, ”I think that’s a very fitting arrangement.

”Then the five players for this game are decided. Work out amongst yourselves how much visa time each of you wants to submit for the ’Special Currency’ conversion.”

Huang Shengjie glanced between Qin Cheng and Lu Bingjun, then over at Zheng Chunhua, and opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped himself.

He had not mentally prepared himself for this at all. He had assumed that as a new player, he would be sitting out the first game and learning by watching.

He had not expected Qin Cheng to simply sweep him along with him.

But at this point, pushing back and asking to be replaced did not seem like the right thing to do, so he had no choice but to swallow his reluctance and trail after Qin Cheng with very poor grace.

Qin Cheng looked toward Lin Sizhi and Ye Lin and said, ”How much visa time do you think we should each submit?”

Ye Lin considered for a moment and said, ”Based on past experience, getting an Advantage Identity isn’t necessarily a good thing, and getting an ordinary identity isn’t necessarily bad. Different identities come with different ways to play.

”It all depends on the God’s Imitator’s personal preferences.

”Without seeing the rules first, there’s no way to say which approach is better.

”The five of us could go in at different tiers, something like 30,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5,000. That way we cover as many different identities as possible and avoid putting all our eggs in one basket.

”Everyone should contribute what they can based on their own visa time situation.”

Qin Cheng then looked toward Lin Sizhi.

Lin Sizhi said casually, ”Doesn’t matter much to me. This probably won’t be the deciding factor.

”The rules say, ’all else being equal, the more visa time submitted before entering the game, the greater the likelihood of obtaining one specific type of Advantage Identity.’

”So five people submitting at five different tiers doesn’t guarantee that each of us ends up with a different identity.

”Personally, I’d say somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 is enough. Going too low or too high could both end up limiting your strategic flexibility inside the game.”

The two suggestions were different, but they did not fundamentally conflict with each other, and so the five players each quickly settled on a number in their heads and confirmed it silently.

Before long, the countdown on the large screen reached zero.

The five players vanished from the hall.