God's Imitator

Zhou Wanlin paused briefly and continued, ”Look. The five cargo cars are numbered ’1, 2, 6, 7, 12,’ and the available transport window each round is 26 minutes.

”Even using the most brute-force approach imaginable, a single round trip would deliver more than this.

”Cars 1 and 12 go across, car 1 comes back, then cars 6 and 7 go across.

”That’s 12 plus 1 plus 7, which takes only 20 minutes, and delivers 12 plus 6 plus 7 equals 25 units. Half of that for inspection is still 13 units.

”Ten is far too low. There’s only one sequence that produces this result.

”Cars 7 and 12 go across. Full stop.

”That’s 19 units in total, halved to 10.

”But doing it that way, he only used 12 minutes.

”What did he do with the remaining 14 minutes? Why did he stop delivering?”

Huang Shengjie’s eyes went wide in an instant, ”You’re saying that during those 14 minutes, he wasn’t at the steam train at all. He went somewhere else.”But the rules say that if no player is present near the train, the transport run ends and the train gets locked until the round is over.

”Right, I see it now. The cargo that had already been delivered would still be sitting at the Inspection Room platform.

”As long as he got back in time for the inspection window, everything would still go through inspection normally.

”So Peng Xinyuan did it deliberately. He only sent one trip on purpose, to free up as much time as possible.

”During those 14 minutes, he went somewhere else, then came back just before the inspection.”

Huang Shengjie turned it over and over in his mind. It was the only explanation that fit.

But a new question immediately arose.

”So where did he go?

”Anywhere with mist would cause severe pain the moment you entered, and moving through it would be impossible. The only exemption was wearing the Inspector Armband.

”But Community 23’s Inspector Armband was on Zhou Xiaoying.

”Wait, it’s pain again. Does that mean he took medication to push through it?

”But that doesn’t work either. Where would he have gotten any? Can medication from the community be brought into a game? That would be extraordinary.”

Zhou Wanlin shook her head, ”Aside from clothing, things from the community generally can’t be brought into a game. That’s one of the Gallery’s underlying rules.

”These special medications are a new item that only appeared in the Second Stage, but if they could be brought into a game, there should have been a clear notice at some point, whether in the game invitation or elsewhere.

”I don’t think he brought them from the community.

”There may be some way to obtain medication inside this game.”

Huang Shengjie’s expression shifted sharply. Something clicked into place, and he moved quickly to the conveyor belt, looking at the raw materials that had been delivered from the warehouse.

One category of material was clearly labelled: ’Medications.’

Huang Shengjie cast his mind back through the rules, ”I remember one of the Minor Violations listed was privately opening raw material packaging.

”Minor Violations listed like that are always a hint in themselves.

”In other words, the packaging on the materials can be opened, and opening it must serve some purpose. Otherwise there would be no point specifying it as a Minor Violation.

”There’s medication inside.

”And it’s a painkiller.”

Everything snapped together for Huang Shengjie at once.

He brought Zhou Wanlin and Geng Yuxia back to the lounge quickly and continued his analysis in front of the floor plan on the wall.

”Someone in Community 23 opened a package of raw materials, triggering one Minor Violation, but that only causes temporary paralysis.

”The violation isn’t announced to anyone, so we had no way of knowing.

”The medication inside should be a pain-suppressing drug, which means Peng Xinyuan took it and was able to move freely through the mist.

”That effectively gives Community 23 two Patrollers.

”Both of them can smuggle Contraband.

”But something still doesn’t add up. Where did he deliver it?

”I specifically positioned myself near Community 23’s cell block to block Zhou Xiaoying, and I was in the area around Safe Zone 5 the whole time.

”Which means all three windows on the left side of the building were within my field of view.

”If Peng Xinyuan had crept over from either direction, I would have seen him. There’s no way I would have missed him.

”So did he deliver to the right side of the venue?

”But that’s our cell block over there. He can’t have been pushing Contraband into our cells.

”Unless...”

Huang Shengjie’s gaze settled on the upper right corner of the main prison structure.

”He pushed the Contraband into Solitary Confinement. That’s the only explanation.”

Huang Shengjie’s expression relaxed slightly, ”If that’s the case, then it might not be as bad as it sounds.

”Because Solitary Confinement isn’t somewhere you can freely enter and exit.

”Without someone inside to receive it, there’s no way to convert that Contraband into earnings.

”And Contraband changes with every round.

”If Peng Xinyuan was smuggling ’Miscellaneous Goods,’ by Round Two they’re no longer Contraband. And there’s no way he could have predicted which category would be selected as Contraband in Round Two. Throwing in all three categories would clearly not be worth it.

”Unless...”

Zhou Wanlin picked up the thread, ”Unless Community 23 already had a player in Solitary Confinement during Round One to receive the delivery.

”If one of Community 23’s Prisoner players committed a Minor Violation, they would have been locked in Solitary Confinement.

”They’d be stuck there for 20 minutes, which is just long enough to receive Peng Xinyuan’s delivery.

”After that, they could bring the Contraband back to the cell block and convert it into Gold Pounds.

”If that’s what actually happened, then we’re already behind.

”Because even though Community 23 sent very few units through the official channel, they could more than compensate with the additional returns from Contraband smuggling.”

Geng Yuxia looked shaken, and managed to get a word in, ”Surely not, though? Didn’t Xiao Huang go and check? The mechanical noise in the prison is overwhelming, nobody inside or outside can communicate through it. How would they have coordinated this?

”How would the player inside have known to go to Solitary Confinement to receive the delivery?”

Zhou Wanlin shook her head, ”That’s hard to say. I think it’s probably an understanding reached in advance.

”Community 23 almost certainly has a very sharp player inside the prison. That player may not have known for certain that anyone would deliver Contraband to Solitary Confinement, but still made the deliberate choice to go in and wait.

”That way, if our players also thought of this and tried to deliver Contraband to Solitary Confinement, that player would intercept it.

”And the player outside from Community 23, I suspect it was Wu Xiufang who thought of this, had prepared for both possibilities. They planned to adjust their strategy based on what we did.

”First, they put Zhou Xiaoying in the Patroller role, to openly and visibly attempt to smuggle Contraband through the left half of the field.

”If she encountered our Patroller, which is exactly what happened, the two of them would end up in a standoff in the left half of the field. Peng Xinyuan, seeing that Zhou Xiaoying hadn’t returned, would then take the right half of the field and make his delivery.

”If she hadn’t encountered our Patroller, that would mean the two Patrollers had taken opposite halves of the field and missed each other.

”In that case, after Zhou Xiaoying completed her first smuggling run, she would go back and alert Peng Xinyuan.

”After that, Zhou Xiaoying would move to the right half of the field without any Contraband, to intercept our Patroller, while Peng Xinyuan took the left half to make his delivery.

”Peng Xinyuan’s injury was faked. He’s the more physically capable player, which is why he was given the more demanding task.

”Either way, they effectively have an additional Patroller, giving them the ability to deliver more Contraband by any measure.”