God's Imitator

"You, what are you doing!"

Peng Xinyuan was stunned.

Zhou Xiaoying couldn’t move, but still urged anxiously, "You take it apart too, hurry!"

Peng Xinyuan was puzzled, "Why?"

Zhou Xiaoying shook her head, "I’ll explain slowly after we dismantle it!"

Peng Xinyuan looked shocked, but finally gritted his teeth, "Forget it, we’re going to be implicated anyway, if we die, we die!"

He also dismantled a piece of ’medication’ material, falling into a numb state just like her.

Zhou Xiaoying listened intently for a while, confirmed no immediate global broadcast was triggered, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Victory in the game is within reach, there is no suspense, so I wanted to try to see if I could bring some drugs back to the Community.

"After all, it’s an incredibly precious and already discontinued M-type drug.

"As two players addicted to drugs, our actions are completely justifiable."

Peng Xinyuan felt a bit helpless, "Are you kidding me?"

Zhou Xiaoying exhaled, "Okay, I’ll tell you the real reason.

"Before the last round of the game ended, the player named Yao Yuan from Community 2 called me out to transport contraband. At that time, he said something to me.

"He said, ’Think of a way to create two violations, Zhao Heng will definitely die.’

Peng Xinyuan was shocked, "Just because of this? He probably just said it casually to deceive you! Do you believe that?"

Zhou Xiaoying looked in the direction of the overpass, "I didn’t believe it at first.

"But... during the previous break time, Wu Xiufang also came and said the same thing to me."

Peng Xinyuan paused for a moment, deeply puzzled, "Why?"

Zhou Xiaoying shook her head, "I don’t know either, but I ultimately decided to give it a try."

Soon, the numb state of the two of them faded away.

They silently went about their duties, continuing to perform their work.

However, just as Peng Xinyuan was about to reach the vicinity of the cell, he heard the global broadcast.

[Player Zhao Heng from Community 23 has exceeded the allowed number of violations, triggering a special punishment.]

[Any two players from Community 23 must donate all gold pounds through any device within 10 minutes, and the amount must not be less than 20,000.]

[Otherwise, Zhao Heng will suffer instant-death punishment.]

Peng Xinyuan froze for a moment, incredulous, muttering softly, "It actually worked...

"But... what if no one saves Zhao Heng?"

Before this round of the game began, Zhao Heng had already redistributed the current gold pounds.

Before leaving the cell, he took all produced gold pounds, then collected all remaining gold pounds from Zhou Xiaoying, Peng Xinyuan, Wu Xiufang in the rest room, replenishing each of them with 10,000.

Li Mao continued earning gold pounds inside the cell, obviously not short of money either.

In this way, if any player other than Zhao Heng triggers a special punishment, any other two players can use gold pounds to save them.

This is the lowest-cost, safest distribution method.

If Zhao Heng himself triggers a special punishment, as long as any two players among the other four donate gold pounds, everything will be fine.

This is extremely lenient.

...

Inside the cell of Community 23, Li Mao was also waiting.

Peng Xinyuan had already stuffed a batch of contraband through the window.

Li Mao did not put them all into the machine, but only put in three portions, producing ten thousand gold pounds and then temporarily stopped.

Afterwards, he listened intently, amidst the machine’s roar, to the global broadcast, also constantly monitoring the prompt on his chest badge.

The prepared gold pounds were right at hand.

As soon as he heard the notification that Wu Xiufang donated gold pounds, he would immediately donate gold pounds, saving Zhao Heng.

But he waited for a long time and ultimately did not hear the broadcast about Wu Xiufang donating gold pounds.

...

Zhou Xiaoying continued operating the steam train in the corridor, while moving contraband, saving distance for Peng Xinyuan.

At this moment, she noticed a figure walking out from the resting room.

Wu Xiufang.

"You... why are you coming out from the Review Room?" Zhou Xiaoying was a bit surprised because the third round of the game had already passed 10 minutes, theoretically, the door to the overpass from the Review Room should have been locked.

Wu Xiufang explained, "I didn’t go in.

"I have been waiting at the door of the Review Room, whether to go in depends on whether I hear the broadcast of Zhao Heng triggering special punishment.

"In any case, now we can discuss the serious matters upon returning to the Community."

...

Minute by minute passed by, Zhao Heng did not hear any new broadcast.

He still couldn’t move due to the numbness and was increasingly aware of the rapid depletion of his life.

Soon, he would face instant-death punishment.

"Why? Why doesn’t Wu Xiufang save me?"

Zhao Heng couldn’t understand this no matter what.

Because according to prior arrangement, Wu Xiufang was still serving as the reviewer, able to donate gold pounds directly from the Review Room.

She hadn’t donated yet, certainly not rushing on the road, but she actively chose not to donate.

Zhao Heng looked incredulous at Yao Yuan who had just returned from carrying contraband, "Why? How is this possible?

"I promoted her, I gave her tremendous power! She’s insane, why betray me!"

Yao Yuan calmly said, "Because she can.

"This is the Walkway, where the powerful and the winners can do anything they want to."

This saying was returned intact, causing the muscles on Zhao Heng’s face to twitch, and his tone became uncontrolled.

"What exactly did you say to Wu Xiufang?

"Did you know each other before? But how is that possible, she only joined as a new player in the second phase! Could it be that her identity was fake from the beginning?"

Yao Yuan shook his head, "You’re overthinking it, I never met her before, nor did I know her.

"But I did persuade her in just 2 minutes.

"To be more precise, it was not persuasion, just notification: I will provide her an opportunity, a chance to kill you.

"And whether or not she kills you is entirely up to her.

"She only needs to do two things: say a sentence to Zhou Xiaoying, and then not donate gold pounds, that’s it.

"You may not understand why she wants to kill you, indeed I wasn’t certain about this beforehand either, my plan was full of holes, just gambling on luck...

"But since she has made her choice now, I can reluctantly make explanations.

"I’m not someone with strong political skills, but I at least have fundamental common sense.

"Among those engaged in politics, individuals like you who are half-informed yet blindly confident are the most prone to playing with fire and burning themselves.

"The community ecology you created is basically a simple ’Qin System Society’, seemingly decent, but it’s clear your understanding of this ecology is only superficial.

"You pursue a highly organized form of authoritarianism, but guess which part of this system is most unstable?

"Is it the cannon fodder soldiers at the bottom?

"Is it the mid-level executors?

"Is it the Emperor at the top?

"None of them.

"The most unstable part is the Emperor’s chancellor.

"Although the soldiers at the bottom suffer the most, they are often the weakest and utterly incapable of resisting this powerful system, controlled by fear; unless pushed to the extreme, they would choose to endure;

"Mid-level executors are the least daring to resist because they hold certain power, fear the fall, and also have some upward mobility, maintained by benefits;

"But the Chancellor who is highly influential and powerful is different; he holds power, benefits are already maximal, but simultaneously bears the fear of ’accompanying the King is like accompanying a tiger’, being the most energetic yet uneasy person within this system.

"Thus, the largest source of instability.

"By the same reasoning: the five players participating in the game from your Community precisely correspond to this system."