God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun nodded solemnly: "I see.

"In that case, Chen Guangming is indeed a rather dangerous character. If everyone encounters Community 12 in the game again, we must pay special attention."

The issues of the community ecology and Chen Guangming turned into a minor episode, and no one spent additional time discussing them.

After all, with more communities entering the second stage, each has a different ecology, and every ecology will have different impacts.

From the current matching mechanism, which community one encounters in the game depends entirely on luck.

Unless it’s an extreme situation, focusing too much on a particular community doesn’t mean much.

Ye Lin shifted to a new topic: "I’m quite interested in the props from miscellaneous category materials.

"Is it actually a dagger for magic?

"It’s so nonsensical.

"Yet in your match, this Magic Dagger indeed played a crucial role; without it, it would have been nearly impossible to make Zhao Heng violate the rules.

"This also means the Magic Dagger is a specially reserved or custom-made prop for this strategy by the Imitator.

"What’s in the food category?"

Qin Cheng was silent for a moment: "A small loaf of bread."

Ye Lin was stunned: "What’s its special function?"

Qin Cheng shrugged: "...can satisfy hunger?"

Everyone was a bit speechless, as the setting of such a prop had a sense of black humor.

Clearly, in Qin Cheng’s match, the confrontation was relatively less intense, allowing for more violation chances to explore the nuances of the game rules.

Since the medicine category contains M-class drugs directly establishing game strategy, it’s likely that something special is also hidden in the other two materials.

But it’s not hard to imagine the expressions of Qin Cheng and others upon unboxing the food packaging to see a small bread.

Ye Lin couldn’t help but smile blankly, but after thinking, she said: "It’s still very reasonable.

"The Imitator obviously layered the preciousness of the three types of materials.

"Medicine is most versatile and valuable, even essential in intense confrontations;

"Miscellaneous goods are the Magic Dagger, mostly unused but under extreme conditions can execute strategies forcing opponents to violate;

"Food has absolutely no use.

"Therefore, with only 5 violation chances, which material to unbox is a strategy itself, mainly testing players’ sensitivity to rules and judgment of the situation.

"If food material shows no significance in the game, forcibly unboxing it would just waste a precious violation chance."

Then, everyone asked each other about details in the game experience.

Because this game’s resting time was long, and both groups had sufficiently smart leaders, the executable strategies were mostly already reviewed thoroughly.

Having filled in most details, everyone understood it fully and didn’t need to spend more time detailing every step of the game.

Huang Shengjie seriously summarized: "Hmm, so the optimal yield under ideal circumstances should be like this:

"In the first round, cooperation couldn’t be established in time, so material transportation and inspection proceed as usual, individual transports of prohibited items lead to around 80,000 gold pounds in gains.

"In the second round, cooperation can be established, avoiding mutual inspections, the gains can reach about 160,000 gold pounds.

"If the third round continues cooperation, the gain is still around 160,000.

"With that, both parties can have around 400,000 gold pounds, and who gets the winner’s 10,000 gold pounds doesn’t matter.

"But if one party chooses to betray, under the ’1.5 times reward’ effect, the gain will soar to over 600,000 gold pounds. Both parties then fall into a prisoner’s dilemma, unable to cooperate in the third round, causing a plunge.

"Ultimately both lose out, only earning between 250,000 to 300,000 gold pounds.

"Excluding the small probability event of ’your side betraying while the other cooperates’, the game’s yield cap is 400,000 gold pounds, divided as approximately 160,000 gold pounds visa time each among 5 players.

"However, neither party betraying seems unlikely."

Huang Shengjie scratched his head, somewhat frustrated: "So is this game favoring cooperation or betrayal?"

Yao Yuan considered for a moment: "Neither favoring cooperation nor betrayal, what truly benefits is long-term cooperation.

"It’s a classic prisoner’s dilemma, simple yet unsolvable.

"Although theoretically there exists a chance of ’two very kind weak communities’ randomly triggering full cooperation, it should be very low.

"Since entering the second stage, the intensity of confrontation on the Walkway has increased; even Community 23, newly formed, has small groups from the first phase Edge Community entering reassembly.

"As long as they understand this simple logic, they’ll eventually choose betrayal.

"And the only way to break this dilemma is through long-term cooperation, meaning both communities have established cooperation beyond one game, and both are willing to maintain this relationship for future games.

"When the gain from one betrayal is far less than the long-term gains from subsequent cooperation, it’s possible to break this prisoner’s dilemma."

Qin Cheng mused: "So, the Imitator designing this game actually wants to alter the atmosphere of the Walkway to some extent.

"Is it possibly well-intentioned?

"Aside from the final settlement rules, it’s also evident in the choice of drugs.

"What’s chosen in the medicine category is M-class drugs.

"If O-class or F-class drugs were chosen, it’d be terrible, as there’s only one Inspector, any other player wanting to transport contraband must take drugs.

"That way, many players may be forced to use special drugs in the game, potentially causing addiction, even if not, it’s bound to produce a broken window effect: attempting O-class or F-class drugs after returning to the community.

"M-class drugs are relatively safe, avoiding such issues."

Here, Huang Shengjie suddenly stood up: "Yes, maybe after this game ends, the community will update to M-class drugs, wouldn’t that be great!

"Quick, let’s check it out."

Some players hurried to the vending machine, but some didn’t move.

Huang Shengjie eagerly opened the special drugs page, then quickly became deflated.

"There’s nothing...

"No M-class drugs, no Magic Dagger, not even small bread."

Everyone returned disappointingly to the long table to sit.