God's Imitator

Back in his room, Huang Shengjie did as he had done before, taking out the last Type I tablet and waiting quietly.

The familiar pain came again. Still Standard Pain.

Huang Shengjie immediately put the Type I tablet in his mouth and swallowed it.

The pain gradually receded, leaving only a mild residual sting and burning sensation.

But this time, the pain had been right at the edge of what he could tolerate, and even after taking the Type I medication, that situation had not meaningfully improved.

Huang Shengjie could clearly feel that the rate at which the underlying pain had been worsening had seemed to be increasing over the past several rounds.

”Is this some kind of hidden rule in the game?

”The more residual pain there is, the faster it worsens in the next round?

”Should I take a Type O tablet to clear it out completely?”

Huang Shengjie took out the bottle of Type O, but after a moment’s hesitation he put it back.”Hold on a little longer.

”The current level of pain hasn’t reached the point where Type O is absolutely necessary.”

The pain at this level was beginning to affect his thinking, but given the current state of things, there was nothing that urgently needed his attention anyway.

So he made up his mind to empty his head and endure in silence.

Before long, the Standard Pain gradually subsided.

But just as Huang Shengjie assumed it was all over, he suddenly felt something strange.

An odd, aching soreness crept slowly through his entire body, even causing his fingers to tremble faintly without meaning to.

At first he dismissed it as some kind of illusion, but very quickly the aching soreness grew stronger, like the feeling of waking up after being beaten in a dream.

Not only that, Huang Shengjie also noticed his mind felt oddly foggy, and he found his eyes beginning to water and his nose starting to run, a little like coming down with a sudden cold, though the symptoms were mild and not particularly severe.

”Strange. Is this because I didn’t manage to fully suppress the pain, so the Standard Pain kept worsening and triggered some new adverse reaction?”

At this point in the game, Huang Shengjie had in practice experienced several different intensities of pain: Standard Pain and Special Pain without any medication, Standard Pain and Special Pain reduced by Type I, and Special Pain reduced by Type O.

What he was experiencing now, purely in terms of pain intensity, sat somewhere between Type I-reduced Standard Pain and unreduced Standard Pain.

But the crawling, maddening discomfort accompanying it was unlike anything any of those previous experiences had produced.

Huang Shengjie gritted his teeth and endured. Fortunately, the sensation did not last long and disappeared fairly quickly.

He let out a slow breath, privately glad that he had not taken the Type O tablet, deciding it had been the right call, then set off toward the Lounge again.

Ye Lin stepped into the Review Room where Xu Yiheng was waiting.

She had barely sat down when she heard Xu Yiheng demand furiously, ”What exactly did you do?

”Did you call Tan Minglei?

”How else would he know the prices of these medications?

”I specifically told you the real-world counterparts of the Type O and Type F medications. I told you they have serious addiction risks and side effects. I did all of that out of trust in you. And this is how you repay me?

”I never should have trusted any of you Sales players. You’re all cut from the same cloth.

”And I suppose that makes sense. What kind of player would be willing to put visa time above human life? The kind who ends up as Sales, of course.”

Xu Yiheng’s eyes were full of hostility as he looked at Ye Lin.

But Ye Lin was not alarmed, because the fact that Xu Yiheng had accepted her request and agreed to meet at all meant there was still room for them to talk, regardless of how angry he appeared.

Ye Lin let out a quiet sigh and said, with considerable candour, ”I’m sorry. I did call Tan Minglei.

”But I did not deceive him. I did not even deliberately withhold any information.

”Everything I told him was the truth. I gave him the prices of all four medications, and I clearly told him that Type O and Type F have extremely serious side effects.

”I did not use any persuasion tactics to steer his choices.

”Whatever he did after that was his own decision.”

Xu Yiheng’s expression remained dark, but he did not challenge what Ye Lin had said.

He knew she was telling the truth.

After a moment, Xu Yiheng asked, somewhat helplessly, ”Do you know what Tan Minglei said to the Doctor?”

Ye Lin shook her head slightly, ”I don’t, but I can probably guess.

”One possibility is that he said some rather unfriendly things.

”Though I think the other possibility is more likely.”

The fight seemed to go out of Xu Yiheng all at once. He was silent for a long time before finally saying, ”Yes.

”I had assumed Tan Minglei would be furious and would go to the Doctor and angrily demand to know why he and the Reviewer had conspired to drive up prices, monopolising the medication to deliberately harm patients.

”But that’s not what happened.

”He knelt in front of the Doctor. He pleaded desperately. He begged the Doctor to sell him some Type O or Type F.

”You didn’t steer his choices with any persuasion tactics, that much is true. But you anticipated all along that something like this would happen.”

Ye Lin shook her head and said, ”I wouldn’t call it anticipating. It’s simply the rational choice that most players in his position would make.”

Xu Yiheng let out a sigh, ”What do you actually want?

”You chose to blow this whole thing open. Have you thought about how it ends?

”If these players had never known the specific prices of the medications, we could have just used Type M to save everyone without any of this.

”Now, selling Type M means being accused of pushing expensive drugs, and selling Type O or Type F means harming people.”

Ye Lin countered, ”Did you really think you could keep it secret indefinitely?

”Players who make it back to their communities will debrief everything that happened, and every detail will come out clearly at that point.

”Even if you only gave them Type M to avoid side effects, do you honestly think they would be grateful when they returned to their communities?

”They wouldn’t.

”And besides, have you not noticed that the two Doctors under you were never really on the same side as you?

”What price did you sell the medication to them at?”

Xu Yiheng paused, ”Hmm?

”I sold it to them at 1,400 per bottle.”

Ye Lin nodded and said, ”And do you know what price these Doctors have been selling it to patients at?

”1,500. Per tablet.”

Xu Yiheng froze.

When he first heard 1,500, it still seemed within range. But the moment he heard ’per tablet,’ his expression crumbled.

”What?

”I sold it to both Doctors at 1,400 per bottle. I even told them the maximum recommended retail price for this medication is 1,500, so try to sell it to actual Infected players at around 300 per tablet.

”I even deliberately left them a profit margin.

”Selling at 1,500 per tablet, that obviously triggers violation transactions, doesn’t it?

”Seven violations and your end-of-game earnings get deducted down to the minimum of 30%. What were they thinking?

”Unless...”

Xu Yiheng suddenly realised something.

Ye Lin nodded and explained, ”Exactly. Under normal circumstances, of course you want to avoid violation transactions as much as possible.

”But consider the reverse: what if the profit margin per tablet is high enough?

”In that case, even walking away with only 30% of earnings at the end of the game might be more profitable than selling honestly within the recommended retail range.

”The same bottle of medication, bought at 1,400 and sold at 1,500, earns only 100 Medical Points of profit.

”But at 7,500 per bottle, even after being deducted down to 30%, that still leaves 1,830 points of profit.

”So which approach do you think earns the Doctor more?

”And if Type M is the only medication they have access to, what choice does that leave them?”