God's Imitator

”Beep.”

A sharp buzzing sound rang out. Huang Shengjie looked around in a mild panic, the strange sensation of entering a game for the first time leaving him somewhat disoriented.

One moment he had been in the community hall, and the next he was already in a completely unfamiliar space, entirely alone.

The room he found himself in was a long, narrow lounge, simply furnished and laid out.

The walls all around were a stark white. In one corner was a small bathroom cubicle. The room contained a vending machine, a single-seat sofa, and a large screen, along with a small side table and a few other pieces of sparse furnishing that looked purely decorative.

The handful of items in the room all shared the same quality: no sharp edges, everything soft.

The single sofa was upholstered in genuine leather and extremely plush. The large screen was flush-mounted directly into the wall with no protrusions whatsoever. Even the vending machine had a relatively rounded overall shape, with any edges or raised surfaces wrapped in something soft.

Huang Shengjie had never taken part in a Gallery game before, so he could only tell that something about the scene felt a little strange, without being able to put his finger on exactly what it was.

It just felt off somehow.

A more experienced player might have been able to read something into the furnishings.Apart from the door to the small bathroom cubicle, there were two other doors in the room, each with a very distinct appearance. They were set into the two narrow walls at either end of the long room. One bore the label ’Treatment Room,’ and the other, ’Lounge.’

Next to the ’Treatment Room’ door was a small screen that appeared to be interactive, while the ’Lounge’ door had nothing beside it at all.

Both doors were currently locked and could not be opened.

On the two broader walls of the long room were the large screen on one side, and a layout diagram of the facility on the other.

The large screen had not yet displayed the game rules, so Huang Shengjie went over to examine the layout diagram.

From the diagram, the entire venue appeared to be arranged in a cross shape, divided into four distinct zones labeled A, B, C, and D.

At the very center was a grid of four squares, making up four ’Sales’ rooms, which connected to four ’Reviewer’ rooms.

Each ’Reviewer’ room connected to two ’Doctor’ rooms, and each pair of ’Doctor’ rooms connected to six ’Patient’ rooms.

Of the six ’Patient’ rooms in each zone, the four in the middle were considerably smaller and could be considered ’Regular Patient’ rooms, while the two on either side were nearly twice as large and were marked as ’VIP Patient’ rooms.

All six patient rooms within the same zone were linked to a shared large lounge.

Even when rooms belonging to players of the same identity were adjacent to each other, there was no door between them.

For instance, the five rooms adjacent to a ’Doctor’ room were the Reviewer’s room, another Doctor’s room, one VIP Patient room, and two Regular Patient rooms. There were connecting doors to the Reviewer and all three Patients, but no door whatsoever leading to the other Doctor’s ’Treatment Room.’

The room Huang Shengjie was currently in was a Regular Patient room in Zone C, marked in the only blue colour on the layout diagram.

The game rules then began to appear on the large screen.

[Hello, Huang Shengjie. Welcome to the ’Pain Game.’]

[This game has a total duration of 4 hours, with one round every 10 minutes, for a total of 24 rounds.]

[This game has no explicit completion objective. Players are free to act as they see fit according to the characteristics of their assigned identity. When the game ends, all players will return to the community safely.]

[I. Meeting Rules]

[Within the first 1 minute of each round, players may send a Meeting Request to any player in an adjacent room. Both parties must agree for the meeting to take place.]

[Players may offer any amount of Medical Points to the other party to facilitate a meeting. If the other party declines the request, the Medical Points will be returned.]

[The Lounge door requires no request and may be entered freely.]

[However, each player may only open one door per round.]

[— II. Special Notice: Pain and Death Rules —]

[In the final 2 minutes of each round, all players must return to their own rooms and ’endure 1 minute of pain.’]

[There are two types of pain a player may experience: ’Standard Pain’ and ’Special Pain.’]

[All players will be subject to ’Standard Pain’ by default.]

[’Special Pain’ is characterized by extreme agony and is nearly unbearable. Players who suffer ’Special Pain’ will be designated as ’Infected.’]

[The following three conditions may cause a player to experience ’Special Pain’:]

[1. Without effective pharmacological pain relief, Standard Pain will intensify with each round and will eventually escalate into ’Special Pain.’]

[2. Once per hour, one player from each of the four zones A, B, C, and D will be randomly selected to become ’Infected’ and suffer ’Special Pain.’]

[3. If a player shares any piece of equipment with an ’Infected’ player who is suffering Special Pain within the same round, that player will become infected and will themselves suffer ’Special Pain’ as a new ’Infected’ player. (If there is a clear order to the use of the equipment, the player who uses it first will not be infected by the player who uses it later.)]

[Achieving ’Complete Pain Relief’ through medication for 3 consecutive rounds will result in a cure.]

[** If an ’Infected’ player has not been cured within 1 hour of the onset of ’Special Pain,’ they will receive an instant-death penalty. **]

[III. Special Identity and Medication Rules]

[In this game, players may be assigned one of five different identities: ’Sales,’ ’Reviewer,’ ’Doctor,’ ’VIP Patient,’ and ’Regular Patient.’]

[’Doctor’ players may purchase 1 type of ’Basic Medication’ from their vending machine.]

[’Sales’ players may purchase 4 types of ’Special Medication’ from their vending machine.]

[’Patient’ players may purchase the same ’Basic Medication’ available to Doctors from the Lounge vending machine, though in limited quantities and at a higher price.]

[In this game, all medications take effect immediately upon consumption and help players relieve pain.]

[All medications also have real-world counterparts. Their properties resemble those of their real-world equivalents, including their risks and side effects.]

[IV. Medication Trading Rules]

[The sole currency in this game is: Medical Points.]

[Players may collect a personal ’Medical Card’ from the vending machine. The Medical Points balance on the card will default to the amount of visa time submitted before entering the game.]

[Once the game begins, players may still spend their own visa time to top up Medical Points at a 2:1 ratio, or take on debt to top up Medical Points at a 4:1 ratio.]

[There are two types of Medical Points in the game, displayed in different colours.]

[Basic Medical Points: Obtained through any form of top-up. These will disappear entirely when the game ends and will not be converted into visa time.]

[Special Medical Points: Obtained through any trading activity within the game. When the game ends, these will be converted into visa time at a default ratio of 1:1.]

[Each medication has a designated ’Recommended Retail Range.’ Transactions at any stage of the chain must not fall outside this range. If they do, a ’Violation Transaction’ will be recorded against the party that sold the medication.]

[Each Violation Transaction will result in a 10% deduction from the selling party’s end-of-game earnings, up to a maximum of 7 deductions, reducing earnings to as little as 30% of the original amount.]

[V. Supplementary Rules]

[1. Player Calls]

[After entering the zone and name of a specific player, you may spend 1,000 Medical Points to initiate a call with that player.]

[This is limited to once per round. If the zone or name entered is incorrect, both the opportunity and the Medical Points will still be consumed.]

[2. Using the Monitor]

[Players may select any room and use the monitor to view its current situation, lasting until the end of the current round.]

[However, each use costs 2,000 Medical Points, and the player may not open any doors for the remainder of that round.]

[3. Identifying the God’s Imitator]

[At the end of the game, any player may choose to ’spend all their Medical Points’ to accuse a specific player of being the God’s Imitator who designed this game, triggering a community-wide vote.]

[Other players may choose to either ’Verify’ or ’Not Verify.’ Verification costs 2,000 Medical Points. When more than half of all players choose ’Verify,’ the system will automatically check the accused player’s identity.]

[If the accusation is confirmed, the God’s Imitator will receive a death penalty.]

[If the accusation is not confirmed, the deducted Medical Points will not be returned.]

[Further rules are to be discovered during the course of the game.]

[Certain rules in this game may have an effect on the community.]

[Violence and serious violations are strictly prohibited throughout the game. Offenders will receive an instant-death penalty.]

[The first round will begin in 10 minutes. We wish all players a pain-free game and a prosperous return!]