God's Imitator

Cheng Wen looked at his screen. A fifteen-minute countdown occupied the upper right corner, and the central portion of the screen displayed the words ’Curtain Call Vote.’

Below were the portrait icons for the four Actors: ’Detective’ Tang Qing, ’Wealthy Merchant’ Wang Yongxin, ’Lawyer’ Lin Sizhi, and ’Doctor’ Feng Yuguang. Beneath each icon were two special vote progress bars labelled ’Support’ and ’Oppose.’

At the far end of each Oppose bar was a red line marked with the number 23.

The Curtain Call Vote was a vote for the entire audience. The Actors themselves could not vote, and there were no weighted votes, making the total 44 votes.

When the Oppose count reached 23 for any Actor, that player would receive an instant-death penalty.

Already, some Actors’ progress bars had begun to shift. Lin Sizhi had received Support votes.

But the vast majority of audience members had not yet voted.

The voting window was generous, a full fifteen minutes, which meant there was no particular rush to decide.

Cheng Wen cast his Support vote for Lin Sizhi without a moment’s hesitation, then tried tapping Tang Qing’s icon.

He wanted to cast an Oppose vote for Tang Qing, but could not complete the action. The Curtain Call Vote did not permit insincere votes.Under the rules, casting an Oppose vote required meeting at least one of two conditions: either the Actor’s character was guilty, or the Actor had not achieved Perfect Portrayal.

Since the truth of the case had been established as mutual suicide, with no evidence implicating the Detective in any crime, Tang Qing’s character was not guilty.

And throughout the performance, Tang Qing’s conduct had been entirely consistent with the image of a detective. Whether presenting evidence or analysing the case, he had delivered a credible performance with nothing that broke the fourth wall.

The fact that his ’murder for insurance’ theory had not become the final truth did not in itself reflect on the Actor’s portrayal. A detective’s ultimate ability to produce the correct answer does not determine the audience’s assessment of their acting.

As for his challenges directed at Lin Sizhi, these had remained within reasonable bounds, with no evidence that he had been making false accusations.

So Cheng Wen could only cast a Support vote for Tang Qing. No other option was available.

But at that very moment, Cheng Wen noticed the number on Tang Qing’s Oppose bar flicker: from 0 to 1.

Cheng Wen rubbed his eyes in mild shock and tapped the Oppose option under Tang Qing again.

He still could not cast an Oppose vote, yet someone else’s Oppose vote genuinely existed.

”Sister Xinyi! Sister Xinyi! What’s going on?

”How can someone give Tang Qing an Oppose vote? That doesn’t make sense. Isn’t this game supposed to prevent insincere votes?”

But seeing Lu Xinyi’s slightly irritated expression, Cheng Wen realised he probably shouldn’t have asked.

Lu Xinyi shot him a look, her disappointment visible, ”That vote was mine.

”All those things I said to you during the Recess, you let them go in one ear and out the other?

”I gave you hints. Does your brain still not turn at all?

”If you can’t figure out how to cast an Oppose vote by the time the fifteen minutes are up, you’re skipping dinner tonight. Consider it a diet, and a way to drain some of the water out of your head.”

Cheng Wen jolted, ”Sorry, Sister Xinyi. I’ll think right now.”

Lu Xinyi sighed and looked at the others in Community 3’s section.

”One last time, I’ll emphasise the key hint.

”The hidden rules and mechanics of the evidence system are the core puzzle of this game. Only by solving that puzzle can you truly understand what actually happened in this performance.

”The performance is over, and the Actors’ roles are finished.

”But for the audience, the real game has only just begun.”

Community 2’s audience section.

Huang Shengjie was also puzzled, ”Why does Tang Qing have an Oppose vote? How is that possible?

”I can’t cast one at all.

”The rules say insincere votes aren’t allowed. Is there some detail I missed?

”Feng Yuguang also has an Oppose vote. That one I can sort of understand.”

He instinctively looked at Qin Cheng and Ye Lin, but both of them were deep in their own thoughts and offered no response.

Not wanting to interrupt them further, Huang Shengjie turned the problem over in his own mind.

”This game has been full of strange things from start to finish, honestly baffling to watch.

”The strangest part is how unfair the whole thing seemed. The Detective and the Wealthy Merchant kept producing evidence that worked in their favour, while the Lawyer and Doctor could only defend.

”True, Lawyer Lin pulled off a reversal in the end through the Lion King Card, but based on how things were going earlier, couldn’t Tang Qing have just countered with more evidence?

”But he didn’t fight back. He backed down.

”And that Lion King Card was strange too. It was verified, but the verification result only said: ’this card was issued by a top-tier casino to one of its high-value patrons.’

”Looking back, that’s completely useless as information.

”It mentioned that it came from a top-tier casino, but not that the card itself was the top-tier variety with strict asset requirements. It mentioned it was issued to a high-value patron, but didn’t say who the actual owner was.

”In other words, the two most critical pieces of information were both hidden.

”And Lawyer Lin used exactly those two points to shift the card’s ownership from the husband to the wife, fundamentally changing the entire direction of the case.

”That’s very strange. Because the ’Verify’ function is described in the rules as ’verifying authenticity and supplementary information,’ but the supplementary information it revealed seemed far too inconsistent.

”Some evidence came with critical supplementary details. But the Lion King Card’s supplementary information was vague and incomplete.

”It was as if whoever wrote the ’specific information’ was deliberately hiding something.

”Wait, who actually wrote the ’specific information’ for these props?

”Does the system generate it automatically? That seems unlikely. The Gallery presumably isn’t that sophisticated, and even if it were, it probably wouldn’t allow the Imitator who designed the game to just delegate that task.

”Did the Imitator who designed the game write it themselves?

”That seems like the most logical explanation, but the more I think about it, the more something feels off.

”Because for the game to pass review, it would need to guarantee a basic level of fairness and strategic depth. All four Actors should have a real possibility of being found guilty.

”To achieve that, the Imitator would need to anticipate every possible strategy any player might take, prepare an enormous volume of evidence, and embed hints in the supplementary information of each piece of evidence pointing toward different players, different crimes, and different narrative paths.

”The amount of design work involved would be absolutely overwhelming.

”Even if they could manage all of that, the total number of items in the Evidence Room would be staggering, so why would Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin always be able to find exactly the right one?

”And Wang Yongxin was obviously working with Lawyer Lin. Lawyer Lin figured out the card’s hidden details from its appearance, but Wang Yongxin, even if he already knew it was the Lion King Card, how would he have known in advance that the supplementary information would be hidden?

”This seems to suggest Wang Yongxin knew the card’s supplementary information from the very beginning, while Tang Qing did not.

”So the only explanation is that this card was something Wang Yongxin created himself, and he wrote its supplementary information himself, and Tang Qing had no idea.

”There is no Evidence Room.

”The entire evidence system operates under a completely different set of rules.”