God's Imitator

Zeng Yiming (Store Manager) didn’t pay attention to such an obvious provocation; he just looked at Wen Wan and Zhao Xiuying and continued to explain.

"In this game, each of us 5 Sinners holds 2 pieces of special information, namely the ’last digit’ and ’details of the crime’ of the two players after them.

"So, everyone might subconsciously understand this game as ’a battle of numbers,’ trying to guess others’ numbers while protecting their own, exposing the crime of the others, and putting them in a position to die.

"But clearly, that’s a dead-end path.

"If split into a 1 vs. 4 scenario, the lone player quickly gets their number guessed and crime exposed.

"But the problem is, they won’t die immediately, instead gaining the privileged position of ’Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.’ They would then, with strong resentment, arrange for the other four to enter wrong Pharmacy Rooms for revenge.

"The game cannot proceed smoothly anymore.

"If split into a 2 vs 3 scenario, the situation becomes worse.

"Because each side has part of the information, in the short term, neither will be exposed, and the activity of manufacturing drugs naturally cannot begin.

"With both sides constantly guessing numbers, the game will be deadlocked, leading to a high probability of everyone’s crimes being exposed one by one, hurting everyone.

"Afterward, we can start producing drugs, but since the relationships of the five have already completely collapsed, it will definitely be impossible to smoothly complete the production task, leading to very bad consequences."

He Qing (Installer) snorted derisively and said, "According to you, this game has no solution; it’s a dead-end no matter how we play.

"1 vs 4 doesn’t work, 2 vs 3 doesn’t work either; do you think all five of us should be in one mind, not guessing numbers?

"From a rules perspective, if none of us really guessed numbers, crimes wouldn’t be exposed, but doesn’t that seem too idealistic?

"Since no one’s crime is exposed, no one becomes the ’Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing,’ so we can’t start producing drugs, and the game can’t end.

"Someone will definitely sneak around guessing numbers, and eventually, someone unlucky will be guessed.

"Then they’ll become the ’Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing,’ full of resentment as you said, placing the other four in wrong Pharmacy Rooms for revenge.

"Isn’t this a vicious cycle?"

Zeng Yiming (Store Manager) explained, "So now we need to solve this problem.

"The solution is simple: have one person voluntarily confess and take on the role of ’Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.’

He Qing (Installer) widened his eyes: "Huh? Are you listening to your nonsense? Drunk?"

The other three players also showed shocked expressions.

This solution isn’t hard to think of, but nobody really takes it seriously.

Because nobody wants to be that scapegoat, no one really considers it.

But Zeng Yiming clearly doesn’t intend to give up; he continues to explain, trying to persuade the others.

"According to the game’s mechanics, ’voluntary confession’ is actually the smartest choice.

"Because we’ll face judgment twice, the second judgment won’t re-vote; it will use the original vote results.

"So to escape the crime, one must minimize the number of ’guilty votes’ during the first judgment.

"From previous experience in judgment-based games, voluntarily confessing before fully exposing crimes can effectively win over the wavering middle votes.

"After all, ’confession should lead to lighter judgment’ is a mantra deeply rooted in most players’ minds.

"Moreover, the voluntarily confessing player won’t become the ’Leader’ filled with resentment, allowing relatively impartial arrangements for other sinners to enter different Pharmacy Rooms.

"We can normally complete the drug production process, creating more painkillers to gain more ’sympathy votes’ from the Audience to offset ’guilty votes.’

"In this way, everyone can safely return to the Community.

"Don’t forget, this is a judgment-based elimination game; if we can’t cooperate, the mortality rate will very likely become extremely high.

"What I’m talking about is the safest and most successful method."

Wen Wan quickly understood Zeng Yiming’s meaning, and clearly, it coincides with Ye Lin’s suggestion to her: ’Confess early and lightly.’

If one out of the five voluntarily confesses, and the crimes of the other four are not exposed, then everyone can survive, leading to a happy outcome.

But there are two problems:

First, the confessing person must pay with an extra Immunity Coupon.

Second, this person’s crime must be relatively minor, avoiding extreme, principled errors.

Wen Wan hesitated a little; she thought she barely met these two conditions and could theoretically be the one to confess.

It would consume one Immunity Coupon, but if fewer ’guilty votes’ could be secured, then the judgment before the game’s end would be safer.

’One Word Breaks the Prison’ was a typical error demonstration: since all Communities were unwilling to use the Immunity Coupon, it resulted in a extremely tragic outcome.

But even so, Wen Wan found it hard to decide immediately.

He Qing (Installer) frowned deeply: "Ultimately, we still need to choose one person to take this silent loss, right?

"The voluntarily confessing person is essentially wasting an Immunity Coupon to benefit others.

"Let me be clear, our Community doesn’t have an Immunity Coupon, so I can’t help."

Zeng Yiming (Store Manager) reminded, "No worries; according to the game rules, you can ’advance.’

"What this means is that even if your Community leader doesn’t let you use the Immunity Coupon, you can forcibly advance the next one without their consent.

"I suspect the Imitator designing this game intentionally arranged it this way to make the game rules somewhat fair for all five of us.

"So, whether there’s an Immunity Coupon or not doesn’t affect the outcome."

He Qing was a bit enraged: "Anyway, I can’t use an Immunity Coupon!

"You speak so well; why don’t you do it?"

Wen Wan could guess why He Qing was so angry because the ecology in Community 12 is very special, with the Immunity Coupon firmly controlled by Chen Guangming.

Only when Chen Guangming encounters death threats will he use the Immunity Coupon; other players aren’t eligible to use it.

The visa time needed to buy an Immunity Coupon is one aspect; more importantly, once the Immunity Coupon is used, it enters a long cooldown time, and if there’s danger during the cooldown, even a god can’t save them.

So Chen Guangming is almost impossible to use this coupon for others.

He Qing also dared not advance the next Immunity Coupon because doing so might lead to revenge by Chen Guangming back in the Community, which could be a very tragic situation.

But this situation is indeed a bit like ’One Word Breaks the Prison’: using one Immunity Coupon is indeed good for everyone, but why must this coupon be from me?

This is a nearly unsolvable problem.

While Wen Wan was hesitating, Zeng Yiming spoke up.

"I can confess."

Upon these words, the other four players looked at him with complete shock.