God's Imitator

The sudden broadcast struck Zhao Xiuying like a thunderbolt; she looked incredulously at the other ’Sinners’ players and was momentarily frozen.

A moment later, the broadcast sounded again.

[Now announcing the initial Judgment voting results for Zhao Xiuying (Vendor):]

[Guilty: 18]

[Not Guilty: 9]

[The ’Initial Judgment’ crime is established; the sinner will face the Instant Death Penalty.]

Zhao Xiuying almost instinctively shouted out, "Advance Immunity Coupon, advance Immunity Coupon!"

A moment later, she glanced at her bracelet in some panic, repeatedly touching her wrist to verify that the bracelet showed no abnormalities nor pierced her skin to inject a lethal toxin.

This indicated that the operation to advance the Immunity Coupon succeeded.

Zhao Xiuying showed a look of having narrowly escaped death, meaning she wouldn’t die temporarily, but after a brief calm came a deeper fear.

Compared to Zeng Yiming’s vote pattern (15:12), Zhao Xiuying’s was far worse, meaning she needed to secure many extra sympathy votes to be exonerated.

Zhao Xiuying looked towards the big screen’s direction, "But I’ve already been judged and served time in prison!

"I should have already atoned! My sins should have been cleansed!"

Clearly, she couldn’t accept such a voting pattern.

However, the game venue remained silent without any response.

The other ’Sinners’ players merely entered their respective Pharmacy Rooms.

Zhao Xiuying stood stunned in place and, shortly after, could only muddle into the fourth Pharmacy Room, silently waiting.

...

Having listened to Zhao Xiuying’s appeal, Huang Shengjie felt somewhat moved.

"The mentality of taking chances is harmful."

He glanced at the situation of sympathy votes, currently mainly concentrated on Zeng Yiming and Wen Wan.

Only a few sympathy votes had been given to the other three players.

From the nature of the crime, Zhao Xiuying’s was indeed quite malicious, with a strong subjective intention and also involving food safety issues, therefore extremely harmful.

But her crime had a peculiar aspect: she had already faced legal punishment in reality and served over five years, an absolutely heavy penalty.

If Zhao Xiuying had confessed earlier to the Audience, embellishing her life’s hardships, such as choosing such a conscienceless action to support her child’s education or other reasons, and shared her repentance while in prison, the number of players voting guilty would surely decrease.

But Zhao Xiuying clearly had a mentality of taking chances, believing other sinners might give up guessing her crime number or each other might cover it up.

Even if guessed, it wouldn’t happen quickly.

Thus, delaying until now, leaving herself caught off guard.

Ye Lin considered for a moment and said, "Actually, Zhao Xiuying still has a chance; if she can somehow garner pity now, maybe she can get more sympathy votes.

"In any case, having sympathy votes is better than none.

"But I’m more concerned about what Liang Guicheng plans on doing.

"His identity is ’Fruit Farmer’; at this point, his crime is easy to guess: definitely related to pesticide overdoses.

"Such a level of crime, once exposed, could likely get him more guilty votes than Zhao Xiuying.

"Moreover, those guilty votes might not be compensated by sympathy votes at all because among the five ’Sinners’ players, he is from every angle the least likable and the hardest to earn sympathy votes.

"Therefore... once his crime is revealed, perhaps the whole drug production process might not be able to continue.

"Though all these sinners can advance the Immunity Coupon, not dying immediately, if he realizes he’s doomed at the game’s end, would he have any reason to sincerely produce drugs?

"If he purposely slackens, a severe gap will appear in the drug production process, and M-class drugs certainly won’t be produced anymore."

Just then, having just ended his pharmaceutical process, Zeng Yiming looked towards the direction of the screen again and spoke.

"Esteemed audience members, I have an unreasonable request.

"I hope you can cast more ’Sympathy Votes’ for the other players; is that okay?

"I know, according to game rules, the number of ’Sympathy Votes’ is limited, and it’s entirely reasonable for everyone to cast ’Sympathy Votes’ based on real inner thoughts, unassailable.

"But if a particular ’Sinner’ player’s crime is exposed and finds they are bound to die before the game ends, what reason do they have to continue diligently crafting drugs in the Pharmacy Room?

"According to game rules, problems in any link of pharmaceutical production will cause the entire process to collapse completely, a crucial attribute of the drug will vanish directly.

"It could lose efficacy, might not offset side effects, or the quality rate could plunge significantly... none of which we wish to see.

"M-class drugs are extremely precious, and this game might be the only chance shortly to acquire them in large quantities; if due to a player giving up, subsequent batches become defective, the loss will be borne by all players, a massive loss.

"I understand we five are all guilty, but the crimes didn’t quite reach the point of needing death, and the game rules don’t mention any disloyalty mechanism for sympathy votes, they should be cast freely.

"Therefore, I hope everyone can be lenient, share sympathy votes among others to ensure that the game proceeds smoothly and ends safely.

"That outcome is the best for all of us.

"Meanwhile, I also urge all inside players: Hope everyone stops guessing other players’ crime numbers, refrain from testing!

"Surviving together from this cruel elimination game is the best result."

Zeng Yiming’s (Shopkeeper) speech concluded, and the remaining four ’Sinners’ players continued their drug production processes, anxiously waiting.

A moment later, they all wore expressions of delight.

Because more broadcasts appeared successively.

[Zeng Yiming received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[Wen Wan received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[Zhao Xiuying received 2 Sympathy Votes.]

[Liang Guicheng received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

[He Qing received 1 Sympathy Vote.]

The three who had previously received none or only a few sympathy votes couldn’t help but feel jubilant, bowing towards the screen in gratitude, while more vigorously producing drugs.

Especially Zhao Xiuying, moved to tears.

From the ’Initial Judgment’ voting results, Zhao Xiuying had 9 more guilty votes than not guilty votes, meaning she required at least 90 sympathy votes to survive.

This is an extremely exaggerated figure.

Moreover, some sympathy votes might be retracted, so some margin is needed; for instance, 100 Sympathy Votes for safety.

Without Zeng Yiming’s speech, obtaining this number of Sympathy Votes was nearly impossible.

But now, she rediscovered the motivation to continue diligently making drugs.

As for Zeng Yiming (Shopkeeper), his current predicament should be the most optimistic among all.

Because his initial judgment vote was 15:12, meaning he needed just 30 ’Sympathy Votes’ to secure his safety.

Zeng Yiming had already accumulated 55 Sympathy Votes so far, overall quite sufficient, hence he chose this moment to urge the audience to cast more Sympathy Votes for other ’Sinners’ players.

Yet even so, some players still continue to give him Sympathy Votes.