God's Imitator

During the preparation period before the game officially began, almost every audience member was leaning toward their neighbours, talking in hushed tones about the game.

Huang Shengjie, Qin Cheng, and Lu Qi had been placed in the back row of Community 2’s audience section.

”The rules for this game are simpler than ’Prison Factory,’ but they’re also pretty vague, aren’t they?

”So basically, four Actors perform according to a script and play a detective mystery? Find the culprit, and then the audience earns rewards through voting and betting?

”That’s the rough idea?

”The general structure is clear enough, but there are almost no specific rules. How are the Actors actually supposed to perform?

”I’m glad I wasn’t picked as an Actor, because I’d have already crashed and burned.”

Huang Shengjie put himself in the position of the four Actors and felt a kind of secondhand dread.

Ye Lin and Zhang Yan had been placed in the front row of the audience section, and both turned slightly to join the conversation from behind.

Ye Lin bowed her head in thought, working through the situation quickly.”It’s less like a theatrical performance and more like a murder mystery game.

”The rules mention that each Actor receives a ’Character Dossier’ for their role. Notice it says ’Character Dossier,’ not ’Script.’

”The rules also specifically emphasised: if the dossier contains fixed story elements, they must be followed, if not, the Actor may improvise freely.

”But clearly the dossier must leave a great deal of space blank, because too many fixed story elements would lock an Actor’s behaviour entirely, leaving no room for improvisation, and the game would lose all strategic depth.

”Improvising freely in the areas the dossier doesn’t cover, and steering suspicion toward others, is probably the game’s core strategy.”

Qin Cheng nodded along, ”Yes, I think so too.

”Ye Lin, you have a background in streaming. You’d probably be very comfortable with this kind of thing. If you were playing an Actor, you could definitely handle it.”

Ye Lin gave a slight shake of her head, ”Hard to say. We don’t know the intensity of this game yet.

”There’s something worth noting: when the rules were shown on the screen, the image of the Character Dossier prop was only a few pages thick.”

Huang Shengjie looked puzzled, ”A few pages? So what?”

Ye Lin explained, ”If the Character Dossier shown in the rules introduction were primarily symbolic, it would appear as a thick, substantial volume. That’s the standard image for something like a murder mystery briefing book or a screenplay. They always look substantial.

”Since this game’s Character Dossier prop is only shown as a few pages, that most likely represents the actual thickness of the dossier in the game.”

Huang Shengjie still wasn’t quite following, ”Okay, that makes some sense, but then what?

”Based on what we said before, this is a character dossier, not a full script, so it would only contain a small amount of fixed content. Wouldn’t that thickness be completely normal?”

Ye Lin explained, ”The thickness is normal. But the preparation time isn’t.

”The game has only given the Actors five minutes.

”And that five minutes includes the time needed to understand the game’s rules.”

Qin Cheng nodded, ”Right. For an Actor, the first priority is obviously to understand the basic rules and think through an initial strategy. Once that’s done, even an experienced player might only have two or three minutes left to actually read the dossier.

”If the dossier really is several pages long, most people simply can’t read it all in that time at a normal reading pace.”

Huang Shengjie added, ”Which is probably why the rules include the option to call a ’Recess,’ during which Actors can go back and continue reading the dossier.”

Qin Cheng pointed out, ”So the key is before the first Recess.

”In that phase, the four Actors still have to perform as normal, but without having read the full dossier, it’s very easy to make missteps.

”If they behave in a way that contradicts the dossier, it could trigger a penalty or create problems for the Curtain Call Vote later.

”But if they stay silent and say nothing, they’re effectively giving everyone else free rein, and it might also conflict with how their character is meant to behave.

”It seems like a difficult position to be in.”

Ye Lin straightened back in her seat, facing the central stage.

”There’s no need to worry too much. The players selected as Actors this round are mostly the kind who could serve as community core players. Something like this shouldn’t be too much of a challenge for them.”

Five minutes passed quickly.

The doors behind the audience sections for Communities 2, 4, 7, and 16 opened with a click, and four players came down through the aisles between the audience sections, descending the steps to take their seats at the corresponding fan-shaped arc tables.

Based on the venue floor plan, Lin Sizhi’s position was at the very bottom.

He looked across at the ’Detective’ directly opposite, then swept his gaze counterclockwise around the room.

[Detective, Community 7, Tang Qing]

[Jury Representative, Community 18, Chen Yumei]

[Doctor, Community 16, Feng Yuguang]

[Jury Representative, Community 23, Wu Xiufang]

[Lawyer, Community 2, Lin Sizhi]

[Jury Representative, Community 3, Lu Xinyi]

[Wealthy Merchant, Community 4, Wang Yongxin]

[Jury Representative, Community 11, Bai Zhilan]

Behind each of these positions was the corresponding community’s audience section, with five players seated in each, who also doubled as ordinary jury members.

There were quite a few familiar faces among them.

[The performance begins!]

The entire courtroom fell silent at once. Every player naturally slipped into the spirit of the scene.

Though the audience were only extras with no assessment criteria, they were also portraying ’jury members,’ and found themselves drawn into the atmosphere without quite meaning to.

After a brief silence, Bai Zhilan of Community 11 was the first to step up to the speaking platform.

She was not an ’Actor’ and had no private dressing room, which meant she had no opportunity to change her clothing. She appeared in a similar style to how she had presented in ’A Single Word to Settle a Case.’ But Bai Zhilan still carried herself with a composure and steadiness that felt markedly different from her usual presence.

”Esteemed members of the jury, today we gather in this chamber to uncover the truth behind a case. As a Jury Representative, I will do my utmost to question the suspects and work together with all of you to restore the innocent’s reputation and bring the true culprit to justice.

”Given that many of the jurors here are not yet fully familiar with the details of the case, I suggest we begin by having each of the four suspects present their account of the events.”

She paused briefly. Seeing no objection, she turned to Tang Qing with a questioning tone, ”Then, shall we begin with you, Detective? If that’s alright?”

The rules placed no specific restrictions on the flow of proceedings. The order of speakers, the length of each contribution, and the timing of Recesses were all left for the players to determine.

By stepping up and taking charge, Bai Zhilan had effectively claimed the role of moderator for the trial.

The other three Jury Representatives could have taken this role, but none of them seemed particularly inclined to do so.

With Bai Zhilan stepping back, the ’Detective,’ Tang Qing, rose from his seat and made his way to the speaking platform.