God's Imitator

Ye Lin paused briefly and continued, ”Third question: the ordinary audience members also had access to the medication and could have tested it themselves. Why did it take until the game was nearly over to be discovered?

”This, too, was clearly part of Zeng Yiming’s plan.

”First, all of this medication had already passed inspection by the Audience Representatives, so out of trust in those representatives, ordinary audience members would, at most, have suspected minor yield rate issues.

”Even if one bottle occasionally seemed ineffective, that wouldn’t be enough to cast doubt on the entire batch.

”Second, these bottles were sealed, and staying sealed was necessary for resale. Once opened, a bottle could only be used personally, and its resale value would collapse instantly.

”With no one yet certain how much these bottles could actually fetch when resold to other communities, most people would naturally lean toward keeping them sealed.

”Fourth question: what if no audience member had ever discovered the fraud at all?

”Would Zeng Yiming really have allowed the other offenders to survive and split the profits evenly with him?

”Of course not.

”This game ran for a considerable stretch of time. As it progressed, some medication-dependent players were bound to experience withdrawal symptoms and want to take something for relief.

”So the further the game went, the more likely this deception was to unravel on its own.

”And in the most extreme case, even if no one had discovered it naturally, Zeng Yiming would have found some way to detonate it himself.

”But overall, it would look far more natural for the exposure to come from an unrelated, disinterested audience community rather than from within.

”There are plenty of other details worth thinking through that support all of this.

”For instance, partway through the game, Zeng Yiming appeared to pull everything back from the brink, calling on the offenders to stop guessing at each other’s numbers, and successfully stabilising the situation.

”But even after that, the offenders’ crime numbers kept getting exposed one after another.

”Doesn’t that strike anyone as strange?

”By that point, the players whose numbers hadn’t been exposed should logically have held back, while the players who had already been exposed shouldn’t have had any particular skill at correctly guessing anyone else’s number.

”It’s clear enough that the one who kept guessing all along was Zeng Yiming himself.

”You could already see it in how he confessed his own crime. He’s a sharp businessman, extremely comfortable with numbers, and skilled at Fermi estimation.

”So what he actually did was guess out of sequence, not blindly, but by using the pattern of which numbers had already been exposed to infer how difficult each remaining digit would be to guess, continually sharpening his own accuracy as the game went on.

”That’s exactly what led us to where we are now.

”In short, his plan was flawless, and it was about to succeed.

”Right now, he still holds a great many Sympathy Votes. By the end of this game, he would have cleared his charge cleanly and walked away with the entire million minutes of visa time to himself.

”We cannot let that happen.

”I’m asking every one of you to think carefully through everything that’s happened here, and not let a person like Zeng Yiming walk away alive.

”Please, use the Sympathy Votes you’re holding to save the players who genuinely deserve to be saved.”

Zeng Yiming’s eyes went wide. He was clearly trying to hold his composure, but his expression had already begun to slip, all of his earlier calm gone.

”Don’t listen to her nonsense.

”I’ve done so much, sacrificed so much, to try to save everyone!

”You’ve all seen it with your own eyes!

”What she’s saying is a baseless, groundless conspiracy theory. It’s a shameless personal attack.

”And the reason she’s saying it is to muddy the water, make me the scapegoat, and save Wen Wan, the offender from her own community!

”Please, think again. Do you really want to let yourselves be manipulated into wrongfully executing one of the last decent people left in this Gallery?

”My conscience is clear.

”My conscience is clear!”

[1 Sympathy Vote has been withdrawn from Zeng Yiming.]

[1 Sympathy Vote has been withdrawn from Zeng Yiming.]

[1 Sympathy Vote has been withdrawn from He Qing.]

[Wen Wan has received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[1 Sympathy Vote has been withdrawn from Wen Wan.]

Hearing Ye Lin’s words, Wen Wan felt a flicker of hope return once more.

Audience members were required to cast every one of their Sympathy Votes. So if they withdrew votes from Zeng Yiming, there was a real chance those votes would go to her, helping clear her charge.

But the broadcasts had descended into complete chaos, votes seemingly being cast and withdrawn constantly, making it almost impossible to track the overall trend.

Gradually, Wen Wan began to sense something was wrong.

Because two other names kept appearing more and more frequently in the broadcasts.

[He Qing has received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[Liang Guicheng has received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[Liang Guicheng has received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

A large number of votes really were being pulled from Zeng Yiming, but they weren’t going to Wen Wan. They were going to Liang Guicheng.

Even the Sympathy Votes Wen Wan already had were now being withdrawn.

”Why? Why would they give it to him?”

She couldn’t understand it. Liang Guicheng’s vote tally was the worst of all five offenders, 27 to 0, meaning he needed a full 270 Sympathy Votes to avoid death.

With only 3 offenders exposed, that target might have been within reach. But now all 5 had been exposed, and there was no way that target could still be met, because votes would inevitably be split across everyone.

It didn’t take long for Wen Wan to understand the real reason, and the realisation hit her like falling into ice water.

”The audience wants to kill all of us.”

The only reason to vote this way was that the audience had decided to deliberately distribute the Sympathy Votes so that every single one of the five offenders would fall just short of the number needed to clear their charge.

If Zeng Yiming needed 30 votes to be cleared, they’d give him only 29.

If Liang Guicheng needed 270, they’d give him only 269.

All five would receive votes, but every one of them would fall just short.

Audience members across every community had, without any coordination, arrived at the exact same choice.

It wasn’t only born of anger. It was also a matter of cold self-interest.

Because any single surviving offender would walk away with a full million minutes of visa time.

Audience members couldn’t cast Sympathy Votes for an offender from their own community, and they were absolutely not going to let an offender from a different community reap that reward instead.

So they would do everything necessary to ensure the outcome was: no survivors.

The instant Wen Wan understood this, her composure shattered completely. She screamed toward the screen, ”No! Don’t do this to me!

”I’m the most innocent one here!

”My crime is the lightest of anyone’s! Production was the very last stage, I had no control over anything that happened!

”None of this is my fault! None of it!

”I only need 10 votes! Just 10!

”Please, I’m begging you, show mercy, let me go!

”Let me go!

”Sister Ye Lin, Shengjie, save me, please save me!”

But it was already far too late.

[The ’Second Trial’ results for all offender players are now announced.]

[Zeng Yiming (Restaurant Manager): Received 14 Sympathy Votes]

[Guilty: 15 minus 1 vote]

[Not Guilty: 12 votes]

[Charge established in the Second Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

[Liang Guicheng (Fruit Farmer): Received 252 Sympathy Votes]

[Guilty: 27 minus 25 votes]

[Not Guilty: 0 votes]

[Charge established in the Second Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

[He Qing (Installer): Received 59 Sympathy Votes]

[Guilty: 17 minus 5 votes]

[Not Guilty: 10 votes]

[Charge established in the Second Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

[Zhao Xiuying (Stall Owner): Received 73 Sympathy Votes]

[Guilty: 18 minus 7 votes]

[Not Guilty: 9 votes]

[Charge established in the Second Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

[Wen Wan (E-commerce): Received 7 Sympathy Votes]

[Guilty: 14 minus 0 votes]

[Not Guilty: 13 votes]

[Charge established in the Second Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

Every last bit of strength drained from Zeng Yiming’s body. He collapsed to his knees.

”No, this isn’t right. This isn’t how it was supposed to go.

”My plan was flawless. It was flawless.”

But in the next instant, his vision went dark and he crumpled to the ground.

The other four offenders fell one after another, in quick succession.

No one on the floor survived.

[Game over.]