God's Imitator

The point modification mechanism only took effect at the moment of the final comparison.

This meant a large swing in either direction would sharply reduce their chances of winning the round.

And to give themselves the best possible odds, setting aside the luck element which couldn’t be controlled, there was only one remaining option: using the same mechanism to deduct points from the other side as well.

Zheng Qingyun’s eyes went wide and his expression cracked slightly, ”Are you out of your mind?

”You called out my scheme. I accepted the loss. I gave you back three round wins and threw in an extra one on top of that. What more do you want?

”Wei Changfeng. Get your dog in line.”

Gao Teng kept his gaze fixed on Zheng Qingyun. He was no longer suppressing his expression, and the hatred was beginning to show through naturally.

Earlier he had simply been concealing what he truly felt, making sure those four round wins were secured without Zheng Qingyun realising what was coming.

But now Gao Teng no longer had to pretend.

”In a gambling den, when a cheat gets caught, is giving back what was stolen enough?”There’s probably no world where that’s how it works.”

The words hit Zheng Qingyun like cold water. He went briefly still.

In a gambling den, getting caught cheating was never settled by simply paying back the money. No amount of money could settle it.

You got your fingers broken. Or your legs.

Gao Teng turned away from Zheng Qingyun and looked at Wei Changfeng instead.

Wei Changfeng felt something catch in his chest, because he had never seen this expression before.

Gao Teng’s hollow eyes held a darkness that seemed to have no bottom.

”Brother Wei, I’m sorry. But I’ve been tired for a long time.

”Tired of the real world, tired of this place.

”This has nothing to do with you or Sister Yili. Don’t do anything.”

He turned back to Zheng Qingyun.

”I just want him to die. And he will.”

The muscles in Zheng Qingyun’s face twitched slightly, ”You piece of garbage. You really think you can push me?

”I’ve been in the gambling world for more than ten years. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen plenty of sorry cases like you.

”The only reason I ever cut you any slack was because this is a Judgment Game. You think I couldn’t have beaten you without cheating?”

Wei Changfeng knew. There was no taking any of this back now.

This was the Imitator’s real trap, and all six of them had walked straight into it.

Zheng Qingyun and Gao Teng had been compulsorily selected into this game because of offences connected to gambling.

Zheng Qingyun was a professional cheat. Gao Teng had been a gambler, one whose entire life had been destroyed by it.

The Imitator had known both men’s offences clearly from the very beginning, and had deliberately withheld them from the game.

If both offences had been announced at the start, things might never have spiralled to this point.

Because if Zheng Qingyun had known Gao Teng’s background, he would have understood that his cheating could easily trigger a severe reaction in Gao Teng, and would have been far more cautious about whether to attempt it at all.

And for Gao Teng, even with his deep hatred of cheats, the two of them had no history in the real world, and this was a dangerous Judgment Game.

As long as Zheng Qingyun had not done anything during the game to provoke him, Gao Teng might not have transferred his hatred of other cheats onto Zheng Qingyun entirely.

Things might have been more manageable in that scenario.

But the Imitator had deliberately concealed both players’ offences, and deliberately left in the machine a backdoor that a cheat would notice. Then step by step, they had guided Zheng Qingyun into making the wrong moves, which in turn had drawn out Gao Teng’s long-suppressed despair and self-destructive impulses, until the situation became uncontrollable.

Only the death of one of them, Zheng Qingyun or Gao Teng, could bring it to a stop.

[Community 2 wins. Highest total: 18.]

In this round, Gao Teng had been the last player to take a hit. Everyone else had already stood, which meant with one extra card he won easily.

The score became 10 round wins to 8, with Community 2 leading by 2.

The waist rings on the three Community 6 players activated, cutting deeper and longer wounds.

On Community 2’s side, Gao Teng had won 8 rounds but confessed twice, so his device had also reached the waist.

Zheng Qingyun said nothing. His eyes narrowed slightly, fixed hard on the cards Gao Teng had turned face-up.

4, 6, 8.

The outcome of this round had almost no suspense, because by the turn order, Gao Teng happened to go last, and with all other players already standing, only he could still take another card.

His initial hand was also low, a 4 and a 6, which meant no matter what third card he drew, there was no risk of busting.

But the next round would be different. Zheng Qingyun’s side could also choose to confess and take a hit.

From that point on, both sides would be in a genuine fight, pushing until someone died.

No one said anything more. They each silently placed their cards in the return slot and continued the game.

Wei Changfeng tore a card and triggered a deck replacement, just as before.

The replaced cards served no further purpose, since the machine only recognised the current active deck. But Wei Changfeng still needed to go through this process to prevent marking, especially now that he knew Zheng Qingyun was a professional cheat.

Xu Yili looked at Wei Changfeng with quiet concern. He gave her a small shake of his head.

He knew Xu Yili was still thinking about trying to reason with Gao Teng. But that was beyond the point of any use now.

A new round began. Everyone received their two cards, one face-up and one face-down, as before.

The player to Zheng Qingyun’s right was now first in the rotation.

He glanced at Zheng Qingyun with a questioning look. Zheng Qingyun gave a small shake of his head.

”Both of you stand.

”Since he wants to play this with me, I’ll play it with him.”

The other two Community 6 players raised no objection and appeared to be following Zheng Qingyun’s lead without question.

Zheng Qingyun looked at his hidden card, thought for a moment, then said, ”At an underground casino, I once broke every finger on a man’s hands. With my own hands.

”All ten fingers.

”He was about your age.”

Zheng Qingyun made sure to emphasise that last point twice.

Now it was the Community 2 players’ turn to see the response buttons activate at their positions. The same two options: ’Shocked’ or ’Unmoved.’

Wei Changfeng looked at his hand. The face-up card was 7 and the face-down card was 9, for a total of 16.

In terms of probability, the average starting total from two initial cards in Blackjack is around 13 to 14 points.

Wei Changfeng’s total was on the higher side, though not unusually so.

This was exactly where the malice of the game’s confession mechanic showed itself most clearly.

For a player, ’hitting’ and ’confessing’ functioned as a specific form of attack: it gave you an extra card, and also affected the other side’s totals.

Based on the point modification rules for each response, you could essentially divide all possible outcomes into two categories: ’Unmoved or Insincere Shocked’ on one hand, and ’Shocked or Insincere Unmoved’ on the other.

Because when a player’s genuine reaction is ’Unmoved,’ they can always choose ’Insincere Shocked’ instead, and vice versa.

A confession that only elicits ’Unmoved’ puts the opponent at plus or minus 4, and with a starting average of around 14, adding 4 actually makes them less likely to need an extra hit.

In effect, that helps the opponent rather than hurting them.

But a confession that elicits ’Shocked,’ regardless of whether the opponent chooses ’Shocked’ or ’Insincere Unmoved,’ dramatically reduces their chances of winning.

Because starting from 14, adding 12 points causes an immediate bust.

And deducting 12 points means that even if you subsequently draw up to 21, your final adjusted total would become only 9.

So from a pure points-management perspective, the way to maximise your chances of winning was to confess something that genuinely shocks the other players.

And confessions were ammunition. Whoever ran out first would inevitably lose.