God's Imitator

”Wasn’t there something about the two most-used items being added to the community’s vending machine catalogue?”

Huang Shengjie looked a little dejected.

Qin Cheng had never moved from his seat at the long table.

He said, with a note of resignation, ”No rule ever said that. You’re mixing things up.

”In the Pain Game, it was written clearly in the in-game rules: certain rules of this game may have an impact on the community.

”After that, the description for the two new special drug types that appeared in the community also stated: the two special medications with the highest cumulative usage rate in the Pain Game will be added to the community vending machine catalogue.

”And the drug prices would be set based on the average transaction price players paid for both types during the game.

”In the two games after that, no similar statement appeared.

”I do understand the thought, though, and I actually think the Imitator who designed ’Prison Factory’ deliberately included only Class M drugs partly to see whether they could make their way into the community vending machine.

”But based on what we can see right now, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”Before leaving the game, I also tried putting the Class M tablets in my pocket to bring back, and that clearly didn’t work either.”

Huang Shengjie patted his own pocket instinctively, ”Oh right, the bottle’s gone.”

Lu Bingjun thought carefully for a moment, ”For players, this is genuinely bad news.

”We have to accept the psychological reality: the lasting damage caused by the Pain Game is permanent, likely to persist for the entire duration of the Second Stage, with no way to undo or mitigate it.

”Actually, from the Gallery’s perspective, not providing Class M drugs is arguably more consistent with their logic.

”Because once Class M appears in a community, unless the price is high enough to be unaffordable for the vast majority of players, its relative safety would cause it to completely replace Class 0 and Class F drugs.

”At that point, whether or not a community controls its medications, the community environment would converge toward the same outcome.

”That’s probably not something the Gallery wants to see.”

Huang Shengjie muttered quietly to himself, ”Right.

”’Pain’ is the central theme of the entire Second Stage. If all it took to resolve that was one relatively benevolent Imitator putting Class M drugs into a game, that would be far too easy.

”But it still feels deeply unfair.

”Why should Xu Yiheng’s game have had such lasting consequences? If a slightly more humane Imitator had designed the Pain Game, wouldn’t everything have turned out completely differently?

”This Xu Yiheng, honestly. Harmed everyone else, destroyed himself in the process, and his poison is still spreading through every community long after.”

Yao Yuan lowered his head in thought for a moment, ”Based on what we know, the Gallery still has final say over the rules.

”Rather than saying Xu Yiheng outcompeted the other Imitators and designed a game with those consequences, it’s more accurate to say the Gallery deliberately selected that particular proposal from among many.

”Looking back now, the Pain Game was only rated B. Both of the subsequent games have been rated higher, and from the players’ perspective, their mechanics, rules, and overall fairness were also more carefully considered.

”That alone suggests the Imitators were not competing on equal footing when the Pain Game was being designed.

”These are the rules the Gallery has set. As players, we can only accept that.”

Shen Bowen considered this, ”I don’t think we need to be entirely pessimistic.

”The Imitator who designed ’Prison Factory’ isn’t an ordinary person.

”This game is rated A, same as ’A Single Word to Settle a Case,’ but in my view it’s among the stronger designs within the A-tier.

”An Imitator of that calibre is clearly one of the Gallery’s top players. Could they not know the Gallery’s rules? Could they not know that the drugs appearing in the community after the Pain Game was an unusual situation?

”Of course they would.

”But I think they were still trying to see whether it was possible to influence or shift those rules, even slightly.

”One game may not be enough. But what if more Imitators began including Class M drugs in their game designs going forward?

”Things might still change.

”After all, the Gallery’s rules are dynamic, and Imitators can gradually shift them to a limited degree. That was already demonstrated in the First Stage.”

Lu Bingjun gave a nod, ”Perhaps.”

Whether the medication situation in the community would improve or worsen was something different players would estimate differently, and no one could claim their prediction was certain. It ultimately depended on what the Gallery and all the Imitators decided together.

Shen Bowen’s words were largely intended as reassurance. Many people didn’t fully agree, but it felt unkind to openly dismiss it and dampen the faint flicker of hope it offered.

Ye Lin was thoughtful, ”This was a distribution-type game, so the Imitator presumably wasn’t targeting any specific player. The rules were relatively fair, and the finer design choices offer at least some indication of their personal values.

”This seems to be a relatively well-intentioned Imitator.

”What does everyone think?”

Qin Cheng nodded, ”Yes, I’d agree.

”The previous two games were both dripping with malice toward players. Setting aside ’A Single Word to Settle a Case,’ the Judgment Game format doesn’t allow for much goodwill by its nature, and the final death rate was 66%. The Pain Game was worse still, its terrible mechanics pushing most players to the brink, and its drug design has left a lasting stain on communities everywhere.

”Compared to those two, ’Prison Factory’ is almost refreshingly kind.

”It rewards cooperation, gives the advantage to defenders, and even the losing side can still walk away with stable earnings.

”Even in a community that performed poorly, each player could still reasonably expect to take home somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 minutes of visa time.

”On top of that, the Imitator’s share of the earnings in this game was probably relatively modest.

”In theory, all the visa time across all games is ultimately provided by the Gallery, and the Imitator shouldn’t need to fund it personally. But I’d guess many Imitators still build in punishing extraction mechanics when they design games, appearing generous with the Gallery’s visa time allocation while cleverly clawing a portion of it back from the players.

”But this Imitator doesn’t seem to have chosen that approach.

”They can still earn visa time from the game, but the degree of restraint is notable.”

Huang Shengjie’s eyes lit up with recognition, ”Oh, right. Now that you mention it, where exactly did the Imitator set up their extraction? I didn’t even notice.”

Qin Cheng thought it over carefully, ”Well, any part of the game that involved spending Gold Pounds could potentially be a source of earnings for the Imitator.

”For instance, a Prisoner player wanting to become a Worker had to pay 10,000 Gold Pounds to buy their way out.

”And when the special penalty was triggered, the minimum 20,000 Gold Pounds donated to save the penalised player would also likely count.

”It probably isn’t taken in full. After all, with almost every game having two players buying their way out, that alone would be 40,000 minutes of visa time per session. Across so many communities and so many sessions, that would add up to something truly staggering.

”But taking a percentage seems entirely plausible.

”There are also various smaller costs scattered through the game, any of which might be partially converted into visa time.

”As a standout distribution-type game at A-tier, the Gallery presumably isn’t going to be stingy about a reward in the hundreds of thousands of visa time.”