God's Imitator

Zheng Qingyun had clearly worked this out, which was why he had chosen to say what he said.

For Wei Changfeng, the only option was ’Shocked,’ because choosing ’Insincere Unmoved’ would cause a direct bust.

The moment he pressed ’Shocked,’ the display at Wei Changfeng’s position recorded one entry: minus 12.

But then he looked at Gao Teng’s and Xu Yili’s displays, and stopped.

Xu Yili had made the same choice as him. Also minus 12.

But Gao Teng was different.

He had chosen ’Unmoved.’ The result was plus 4.

Gao Teng stared at Zheng Qingyun with a flat expression, ”You thought you could provoke me with that? Drive me to do something even more irrational?

”But I know people like you far too well.

”No matter what atrocity you’ve committed, I will never be shocked.”Whatever you confess, my response will always be ’Unmoved,’ and it will always pass the sincerity test.

”Adding 4 to my total isn’t a setback. It helps me.”

Zheng Qingyun’s expression shifted, unreadable. He glanced once more at the new hidden card he had drawn, and ultimately chose not to take another hit.

Clearly, the total across his three cards was already in dangerous territory. Taking another card would mean another confession and another penalty count, on top of the real risk of busting.

He let it go.

Neither of the other two Community 6 players took a hit either. Both stood.

Then it was Gao Teng’s turn again.

Zheng Qingyun closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and fixed his gaze on Gao Teng with great focus.

Wei Changfeng understood that Zheng Qingyun was almost certainly going over something in his mind, or working to condition his own thinking.

The sincerity mechanism was not absolute. In this game at least, it could be circumvented.

The reason Gao Teng had been able to press ’Unmoved’ to Zheng Qingyun’s confession without his expression changing, passing the sincerity test, was that he had already done extensive mental preparation beforehand.

As a veteran gambler, he had encountered many cheats over the years and had seen a great deal of the darkness inside gambling dens.

So when Zheng Qingyun confessed to personally breaking a gambler’s fingers, it was genuinely shocking for Wei Changfeng and Xu Yili, but for Gao Teng it was not.

But what Gao Teng could do, Zheng Qingyun could do too.

Gao Teng’s earlier confession had been about how his disability came from being beaten by a cheat. At the time, Zheng Qingyun’s genuine reaction really was shock, though mainly because it came suddenly and he hadn’t had time to mentally prepare.

If Zheng Qingyun had anticipated this kind of revelation earlier and conditioned himself for it, he might have been able to press ’Unmoved’ and pass the sincerity check.

Now, Zheng Qingyun was going back through every story he had ever heard or seen inside gambling dens, replaying them in his mind, trying to overlay them onto Gao Teng in the most extreme scenarios possible.

Once he had done that sufficiently, whatever heavy content Gao Teng threw out next might no longer be enough to genuinely shock him, and both sides would be back on equal footing.

But what Gao Teng said made Zheng Qingyun’s eyes go wide in an instant.

”I have had the thought of killing a specific player within this community. And it was a strong thought.”

Staring at the two buttons that had appeared on the table in front of him again, Zheng Qingyun’s eyelid twitched. He said in a low voice, ”You’re out of your mind.”

He had finally understood his situation completely.

Zheng Qingyun had assumed Gao Teng would be confessing real-world crimes, things like the gambling beating that left him disabled.

Other crimes Gao Teng might have committed could include things like stealing his parents’ retirement savings, violence against family members, betraying a lifelong friend. Each of those would be ’Shocking’ to other players.

But Zheng Qingyun didn’t think this was particularly dangerous information, and he had already prepared his defences. As long as he preset the framing of Gao Teng as a gambler, that kind of thing would shift to ’Unmoved’ for him.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that Gao Teng had predicted exactly this.

Because what Gao Teng confessed was not a real-world crime at all. It was a crime committed in the new world, inside the community.

The specific wording was also important.

If he had only mentioned having the thought in passing, there would still have been some ambiguity.

But Gao Teng had specifically emphasised that the thought was strong. The space for ambiguity was dramatically reduced.

A confession like this, once made public, meant that even if Gao Teng returned to the community, he would face a kind of social death. He would almost certainly be isolated by every member of the community, or even expelled.

And Gao Teng couldn’t stop there. Winning the game required far more than a single confession of this kind.

He would have to keep making confessions of a similar nature, and keep escalating the weight of them, all the way until the game ended.

From that alone it was clear that Gao Teng had made no preparation for any kind of return. He wasn’t planning to survive.

Zheng Qingyun had no choice. He pressed ’Shocked,’ and was recorded at minus 12.

Pressing ’Unmoved’ would have added 12 points and caused a bust, producing an even lower effective total.

To be precise, it wasn’t the content itself that shocked Zheng Qingyun. What shocked him was that Gao Teng had the nerve to say it.

But whether it was one kind of shock or the other, the choice was the same.

[Community 2 wins. Highest total: 20.]

With the announcement, the score became 11 round wins to 8, with Community 2 leading by 3.

In this round, Zheng Qingyun had accumulated 2 penalty counts. The rings at his chest and neck activated in sequence.

When the severe pain finally subsided, Zheng Qingyun reached up to touch the side of his neck. The wound that had already stopped bleeding was cut open again, this time deeper, and blood quickly ran down along his collar, staining the fabric red.

This was the second time the neck ring had activated.

There was still no immediate threat to his life, but Zheng Qingyun could feel death drawing closer with each round.

Because the next time this ring activated, it could strike a major artery at any moment. If that happened, nothing could be undone.

What concerned Zheng Qingyun even more, though, was Gao Teng’s hand.

4, 5, 7.

Combined with the 4 points added when Gao Teng had pressed ’Unmoved’ in response to Zheng Qingyun’s confession, the total came to exactly 20.

”Even the luck is on his side?”

Zheng Qingyun’s eyes narrowed slightly as he fell into thought.

Gao Teng’s approach was not a guaranteed win. Busting was still possible.

However Zheng Qingyun confessed, even if Gao Teng felt no shock, the swing would be within plus or minus 4 points.

In other words, if the third hidden card Gao Teng drew had been a 9 or higher rather than a 7, he would have bust immediately.

Or if his initial two cards had been slightly higher, he also would have bust.

Of course, if Gao Teng anticipated the risk of busting, he could choose ’Insincere Shocked’ to deduct 4 from his total. But offsetting a plus 4 with a minus 4 produces an 8-point gap, meaning his final adjusted total would drop to 12.

Whether 12 would be enough to win was genuinely uncertain.