God's Imitator

Before long, more than twenty minutes had passed.

Round One was drawing to a close.

The final cargo cars, ’1’ and ’2,’ arrived successfully at the platform on the Inspection Room side, and the miniature clock tower chimed out its three-tone signal, indicating that all cargo had been delivered.

Zhou Wanlin was already waiting at the Inspection Room entrance.

She had still been thinking through the game rules, but when she heard the chime, she quickly swiped her Worker Badge at the scanner beside the one-way door and stepped briskly inside.

At the same time, the raw materials unloaded at the platform entrance were carried into the Inspection Room via conveyor belt through a dedicated inlet.

Community 23’s inspector was a female player who wore thick black-framed glasses and had an unremarkable appearance. She habitually kept her head slightly lowered, her heavy fringe nearly covering the upper half of her face, giving her the air of someone profoundly uncomfortable in social situations.

Zhou Wanlin glanced at the Worker Badge on her chest: [Community 23, Wu Xiufang.]

Twenty-eight units of raw materials were stacked neatly in front of the scanning machine. Each unit was only the size of a brick, but so many of them together still created a striking visual impression.

Wu Xiufang showed no obvious surprise at the quantity.The moment Zhou Wanlin swiped her badge and entered the Inspection Room, the conveyor belt feeding into the scanning machine had already begun moving automatically, and the raw materials started passing through the machine one by one.

Wu Xiufang had two options for conducting the inspection.

She could press the ’Inspect’ button, deducting 200 Gold Pounds, to inspect whichever unit was currently passing through the machine. Even if no Contraband was found, there would be no additional penalty.

Or she could press ’Full Inspection’ to check all remaining materials at once, though if no Contraband was discovered she would owe a fine.

She could also do nothing at all, in which case even Contraband would pass through unchallenged.

Zhou Wanlin stood to one side, her expression carefully neutral, showing nothing.

The raw materials had been repackaged before being loaded into the cargo cars, so their specific categories could not be determined from the exterior.

Three units passed through the scanning machine. Wu Xiufang pressed no buttons.

The units were loaded into a specialised trolley and stacked neatly at the bottom.

Then, without warning, Wu Xiufang reached out and pressed the ’Inspect’ button, three times in quick succession.

The indicator light on the scanning machine turned yellow. As the next three units passed through, all three lights returned to green, and the machine emitted only a short, clean beep with no alarm tone.

This meant that none of the three units Wu Xiufang had chosen to inspect were Contraband.

The result seemed to surprise her slightly, though she gave little away, and simply continued to wait.

After a short while, Wu Xiufang began pressing the ’Inspect’ button at random intervals, selecting units every few shipments.

Then, abruptly, the scanning machine’s indicator light turned red, and a sharp alarm cut through the room.

A long beep sounded.

The Contraband unit that had been detected was destroyed inside the scanning machine on the spot. Simultaneously, the notice board nearby updated to show a record: Community 2 had been charged a fine of 1,000 Gold Pounds.

Zhou Wanlin’s brow twitched slightly, but she said nothing.

For the final three units, Wu Xiufang pressed the ’Inspect’ button three times in a row.

But nothing was found.

The notice board updated again: Community 23 had been charged 2,000 Gold Pounds in inspection fees.

Each use of the scanning machine cost 200 Gold Pounds, and ten uses amounted to 2,000 Gold Pounds, making Community 23’s total loss in this round the heavier of the two.

Both the scanning fees and the fine would be deducted automatically before the final settlement, so no payment was required at this stage.

Wu Xiufang said nothing. She had done what she came to do, and returned to the inspector’s position with her head lowered, resembling an NPC entering standby mode.

The trolley loaded with raw materials moved automatically into the ’Raw Materials Holding Area.’ Zhou Wanlin could not enter, so she retraced her steps and left the Inspection Room.

Earlier, on the other side.

Geng Yuxia, in her role as inspector, had also been waiting anxiously.

She knew that Community 23’s players were using the miniature steam train to send raw materials her way, but the Inspection Room was fully enclosed, with no view of the outside and no way to leave, so she had no way of knowing anything about what was happening beyond its walls.

Still, Geng Yuxia also recognised that the concern was somewhat unnecessary. The other community also had three players, also divided into Distributor, Patroller, and Inspector, each with their own fixed area. If anything unusual happened, the rest period between rounds would give plenty of time to exchange information with the others.

After a long wait of more than twenty minutes, the inspection process finally began.

One packaged unit of raw material after another came in on the conveyor belt and passed automatically through the scanning machine.

Geng Yuxia counted roughly. There were ten in total.

She was mildly surprised, as this was fewer than she had anticipated.

She quickly realised, though, that this must be because the opposing community’s Distributor had not fully understood the steam train delivery rules and failed to get all five cargo cars across, meaning only half the raw materials had been sent for inspection and the rest had been returned.

Community 23’s male player responsible for the cargo also entered the Inspection Room, swiped his badge, and began the inspection process.

Geng Yuxia noticed, however, that he walked with a slight limp, as though his right leg was injured or mildly impaired.

”Is that why their community chose him as the Distributor instead of the Patroller?” she found herself thinking, though she set the thought aside and followed Zhou Wanlin’s earlier instructions, selecting roughly a third of the units at random for inspection.

Zhou Wanlin hadn’t explained her reasoning specifically, but Geng Yuxia had had plenty of time with nothing to do in the Inspection Room and had worked out the logic on her own.

Inspecting everything was not an option. The cost was simply too high and far from worth it.

Using the scanning machine cost 200 Gold Pounds per unit, and pressing ’Full Inspection’ directly carried the risk of paying a fine equal to forty percent of all materials’ total value if nothing was found.

If the opposing community was playing cautiously and had sent no Contraband at all, over-inspecting would result in a significant loss.

How much Contraband the opposing community’s Distributor would choose to include depended entirely on their approach: whether they were a risk-tolerant player or a cautious one.

The Distributor and the Inspector could only settle on a targeted strategy once they had a clearer picture of the opponent’s style.

So in Round One, the opposing community would most likely be testing the waters, mixing in only a small amount of Contraband so that even if some were caught, the loss would not be severe.

At the same time, as the Inspector, doing nothing was not an option either, since there was always a small chance the other side would throw caution to the wind from the very start and send nothing but Contraband.

Taking everything into consideration, spot-checking was the optimal approach.