God's Imitator

With the game about to begin, that was as far as Wen Wan’s analysis could take her.

Just before she was due to leave the room, though, a new message appeared on the large screen.

[An audience member from your community has sent you a suggestion: ’Crime light, confess early.’ Please consider its meaning carefully and make your decision.]

Wen Wan paused.

”Crime light, confess early?

”Does that mean, confess on my own initiative?

”Then what’s even the point of the number-guessing mechanic?

”Who sent this?

”Ye Lin? It must be Ye Lin. If it’s her, there’s probably context behind this suggestion that I’m not aware of.

”Let me think this through again.”Her first reaction was confusion, but with the game already underway, she had no time left to dwell on the deeper meaning behind those four characters. She had no choice but to step into the actual game floor still carrying her uncertainty.

The doors of the other waiting rooms swung open with a heavy thud at the same moment.

Wen Wan looked around. The game floor was roughly rectangular, with the five offenders’ waiting rooms arranged in a row, hers positioned at the far right.

In front of each of the five waiting rooms stood a separate Production Room.

The five Production Rooms differed noticeably in appearance, each with a sign on the front identifying a different stage of production.

They read, in order: 1. Soaking, 2. Washing, 3. Temperature Control, 4. Processing, and 5. Sorting.

They were connected by a conveyor belt, forming a single continuous production line.

Based on the rules, the five offender players were apparently meant to enter five separate Production Rooms, each completing a different stage of the process.

Once the full sequence was complete, painkillers would be produced and sold to the audience.

Further along the wall stood another large screen, currently displaying the rules related to medication production.

[The first offender to have their crime exposed will become the Production Director and will direct the production process: able to assign any player to any Production Room, with the freedom to reassign at will at any time.]

[The following three points must be noted:]

[1. All offender players must enter a Production Room.]

[2. Each Production Room may hold no more than one player at a time.]

[3. A player’s actions within a Production Room are entirely their own. No interference is permitted.]

[Throughout the production process, each Production Room serves a different function, and offender players will face different consequences within each. Please consider your choices carefully.]

[Countdown to return to waiting room: 14:59]

Judging from the countdown, every 15 minutes the offender players would have an opportunity to return to their waiting rooms.

Beyond what was shown on the large screen, each Production Room also had its own notice board outside, providing further specific details.

For the moment, though, none of the five offenders had moved to check the boards. They were each sizing the others up with open distrust.

The first person Wen Wan’s attention settled on was an older woman who looked roughly the same age as Geng Yuxia back in the community, though slightly more heavyset, with a kindly, gentle face.

[Community 1, Zhao Xiuying (Stall Owner)]

The other three players, all men, were noticeably older overall. One of them, a middle-aged man dressed neatly, carried himself with a polished, courteous air, clearly setting him apart in manner from the other two men.

[Community 8, Zeng Yiming (Restaurant Manager)]

The remaining two men both looked considerably older, with darker, weathered skin, the look of people accustomed to physical labour.

[Community 12, He Qing (Installer)]

[Community 24, Liang Guicheng (Fruit Farmer)]

Though both were manual labourers by trade, Liang Guicheng looked more weathered still, his skin deeply tanned and lined with wrinkles, and he seemed to be the quieter of the two.

What caught Wen Wan’s attention more than their appearances, though, were their community numbers.

”Community 12 and Community 24, those should be Chen Guangming’s community, and the one that doctor, Doctor Shen, belongs to.”

Although the number of communities had grown substantially since entering the second stage, with the situation in many of them still unclear, a handful of communities had developed reputations of their own. Community 12, for instance, had become widely known, or rather, widely notorious, because of Chen Guangming, to the point that any player aware of this would naturally feel a flicker of caution upon seeing that community number.

Community 24’s reputation, by contrast, was far more favourable, largely because of the strong impression Doctor Shen had left on players during the ‘Pain Game’.

Beyond this, Wen Wan’s wariness wasn’t based purely on reputation or assumption. It was also grounded in the actual mechanics of the game.

When entering this kind of game, an offender could choose one Audience Representative they trusted absolutely and two Regular Audience Members they trusted relatively, and among those chosen players could well be a community’s power holder, or someone closely aligned with them in thinking. Those players, in turn, could send advice back to the offender.

This was a brutal Elimination-type game, and there was a real possibility Chen Guangming had entered it himself, in the guise of an ordinary player.

So Wen Wan instinctively felt the urge to keep her distance from He Qing, the installer from Community 12.

The other players seemed to share something of the same instinct.

He Qing’s attention, for his part, appeared fixed on the notice board for the Production Room in front of him. After glancing it over briefly, he turned to address the other three.

”The rules say all five of us have to enter a Production Room, and only one person per room.

”How about we each pick a room now?

”We don’t know yet who’s going to end up as Production Director, but there’s no harm in choosing in advance.”

No one responded, and the atmosphere briefly turned cold.

Wen Wan’s brow furrowed slightly. ”What’s the point of choosing now? Once a Production Director is actually selected, there’s no guarantee they’ll even let us pick our own rooms.

”Besides, these rooms clearly carry penalties of varying severity. Everyone’s going to want the lighter ones. How would we even decide that?”

He Qing said, somewhat dismissively, ”Can’t be helped. We’ve got nothing else to do right now anyway.

”Look, none of these doors will even open yet. We need a Production Director chosen before production can start properly.

”And the game only ends once we’ve produced 10 batches.

”If we just sit around waiting for the first person to expose their crime and become Director, who knows how long that’ll take.”

Still no one responded.

Somewhat rebuffed, He Qing went to check the notice boards at each Production Room on his own.

Seizing the moment, Wen Wan moved quickly toward Zhao Xiuying, the stall owner, and said in a deliberately lowered voice, ”Auntie, why don’t the two of us work together?”

Zhao Xiuying, who also seemed somewhat lost on what to do, brightened visibly at this. ”Work together how?”

Wen Wan explained, ”You should also have information on two players, right?

”We exchange what we know, and promise each other not to reveal it to anyone else. That’s cooperation, basically.”