God's Imitator

The next instant, Huang Shengjie found himself back in the community hall.

The large screen displayed the settlement results from the game.

[The final visa time outcomes for Community 2 in Trust Marketplace are now announced.]

[Player 4, Wen Wan: Expelled]

[Player 8, Ye Lin: 222,514]

[Player 13, Lu Qi: -3,000]

[Player 14, Huang Shengjie: 222,514]

[Per community rules, 30% of net game earnings will be added to the Community Development Fund, with the remainder credited to each player’s visa time.]

The shattered bracelet fell to the floor, and for many in the hall, a weight they’d been carrying finally settled.

Zhou Wanlin picked up the bracelet with trembling hands, unsure what to say.

During the game itself, when Wen Wan had first gone to trial and used the Death Exemption Ticket, the players in the community hall had briefly glimpsed the footage. Even then, many had sensed something wasn’t right. Now that feeling had proven true.

Most players here had grown accustomed to death by now, able to keep their emotions from spiralling too far. But even so, complete indifference was impossible.

The other three players who had returned from the game were also visibly subdued.

Huang Shengjie held his head in his hands, frustrated with himself. This was the first time he had personally witnessed the death of a fellow community member inside a game, and the impact hit him far harder than any death before it.

Ye Lin looked utterly drained. Her face showed little outward expression, but the defeat in it was unmistakable.

Lu Qi, too, was clearly upset, though what she felt seemed to be more confusion and disorientation than grief. As Audience Representative, there had been little she could actually do in the game, and she believed she had followed both Wen Wan’s instructions and her own instincts throughout.

And yet it had still ended this way.

According to the settlement display, she was also the only one who had purchased any medication.

Lu Bingjun’s expression was equally grim. Wen Wan had, after all, been one of Community 2’s original veteran players.

Even so, he kept his composure and said to Ye Lin, ”You did well. Do you want to rest first?”

Ye Lin shook her head, ”No need. Let’s go straight into the debrief.”

Huang Shengjie spoke up, ”Should we check everyone’s visa time again? I have a real suspicion the Imitator behind this game might actually be in our community.”

No one said anything, though everyone’s eyes drifted instinctively toward one another.

There were 13 players in the hall at that moment, with no one absent.

That meant if the Imitator really was in Community 2, there would have been no opportunity to spend down their winnings by buying luxury goods privately in their own room. That was exactly why Huang Shengjie had raised the suggestion.

Ye Lin let out a quiet sigh, ”We can try, but it probably won’t turn up anything.

”Didn’t you notice? There’s something wrong with the payout figures.”

Huang Shengjie wasn’t sure what she meant.

Lu Bingjun thought it over for a moment, ”Let’s check anyway. This involves the death of another veteran member, and I think the odds that the Imitator is in our community really have gone up.

”Whatever the outcome, let’s check first.”

Everyone made their way to the vending machine and checked their remaining visa time in turn.

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

This surprised a number of players, some almost refusing to believe it, since none of the players who hadn’t entered the game had left the hall at any point during it.

This was likely a direct result of the earlier debrief of Remorse Poker. When that game had ended, not every player had been present in the hall, which had given the Imitator an opportunity to quietly spend down suspicious visa time by buying luxury goods in their own room.

But after that debrief, that particular loophole had already been closed.

Players could still return to their rooms during a game, since the current community rules had no way to restrict anyone’s freedom of movement.

But doing so now would dramatically raise suspicion that they were the Imitator, practically amounting to a confession.

So throughout the entirety of Trust Marketplace, no one in the community had dared leave the hall, or even approach the vending machine.

Even approaching the hall’s own vending machine carried risk: someone could, in theory, buy a small luxury item like an expensive watch right there and conceal it cleverly, achieving the same effect.

To avoid any appearance of guilt, everyone had been careful.

They had only queued once, near the start of the game, to get tea and coffee, then roughly estimated when the game was likely to end and stayed in their seats for that stretch without moving, not even refilling their drinks.

Under these conditions, no anomalies had turned up in anyone’s visa time. Did that mean the Imitator genuinely wasn’t in Community 2 after all?

Everyone settled around the long table, visibly uneasy.

Lu Bingjun pulled up the detailed rules of the game on the large screen, and at the same time, the other players took note of the game’s official rating.

”Another S-tier game?

”Since when did these become as common as cabbage at the market?”

He Qinyun’s brow furrowed deeply, and her remark clearly voiced what several others were also feeling.

Community 2 hadn’t encountered a single S-tier game throughout the entire first stage. Now, only partway through the second stage, they’d already run into two in a row.

And on top of that, a great many A-rated games had been mixed in throughout.

The overall intensity across the Gallery had visibly climbed, and it left everyone with an unmistakable sense of mounting pressure.

Lin Sizhi glanced around at the other players, seemingly without much intent behind it, while quietly working through what the game’s earnings figures and its rating might actually mean.

A silence settled over the group for a moment.

Huang Shengjie spoke up quickly, ”Sister Ye Lin, how did you know we wouldn’t find anything? And what did you mean, something’s wrong with the payout figures?”

Ye Lin let out a long breath and, once she’d steadied herself somewhat, asked in return, ”What order of magnitude would you expect our normal earnings to be from this game?”

Huang Shengjie was caught slightly off guard. He scratched his head, ”Let me think.

”Based on our earlier estimate, each batch was worth around 200,000, and with 10 batches, that’s close to 2 million.

”Then, the audience splits 50%, and the two of us got 200,000 each, which would mean only around 5 audience members chose not to buy any medication.

”That number seems reasonable enough, doesn’t it?”

Ye Lin shook her head, ”I imagine most players are thinking the same thing.

”But if you actually work through it carefully, that number doesn’t hold up.

”First, we sent two messages during the game, costing 18,000 minutes total. Since our final earnings came out identical, that cost must have been split evenly between the two of us.

”Which means our real earnings should be another 9,000 higher than what’s shown.

”Second, the total revenue actually generated from selling medication couldn’t possibly have reached 2 million.

”Because by the time the ninth batch was being produced, the fact that the medication was fake had already come out, so the final two batches went completely unsold.

”And every single batch had a fixed 8 bottles set aside as inspection samples.

”Which means the entire profit generated from all medication sales combined comes to only 352 times 8 times 600, which is 1,689,600.

”Finally, the number of audience members who didn’t buy any medication was almost certainly far more than 5.

”Think about it. We already account for 2 of those slots. Are you telling me only 3 out of the remaining 25 audience members chose not to buy?

”That’s simply not plausible. Unless a community was being genuinely careless, most would have made sure at least one player held back from buying, specifically to collect the payout instead.”