God's Imitator

Zeng Yiming suppressed his anger: "Everyone calm down. Although the situation is a bit dire now, it hasn’t reached the point of complete despair yet.

"After all, there are still two players whose crime numbers have not been exposed.

"Although the game rules clearly state that the number of sympathy votes is limited, and Liang Guicheng indeed needs to use a large number of sympathy votes...

"But looking at the current voting pattern, the number of sympathy votes is still enough, barely enough to cover three players.

"So, what everyone needs to do now is not fill in any more numbers!

"Once another player is exposed, then the remaining player will definitely not be spared, because other players will out of retaliation reveal all numbers, and that would be utterly disastrous, it’s like completely falling into the Imitator’s trap.

"Conversely, if we do not expose new crimes and seriously produce drugs, the Audience will still find every means to save us with sympathy votes.

"Because we can still produce the last three batches of drugs, these drugs are important to us, to the Audience, and to all players in other Communities.

"So from now on, the only thing we can do is seriously produce drugs, understood?"

He grabbed Liang Guicheng’s shoulder again and shook it hard: "Wake up, you still have hope to survive, don’t give up on yourself!"

A moment later, the broadcast sounded again.

[Community 8 players choose to send a broadcast to all players.]

"There’s still enough sympathy votes. As long as you continue as before, seriously produce qualified drugs, the Audience will do everything possible to keep you alive.

"But if any player among you messes around again, for instance, exposing other players’ crime numbers, inciting others to guess the number, or stirring up relationships...

"We definitely won’t cast sympathy votes for him, and at that point, there will be only one path left: death."

Community 8 is where Zeng Yiming is located. Clearly, the Audience in this Community believes that the strategy Zeng Yiming can adopt is already optimal, thus no additional advice is needed.

They chose to use the one broadcast opportunity to cooperate with Zeng Yiming in maintaining order in the hall.

Liang Guicheng’s murky eyes gradually became clearer, and the words from Zeng Yiming and the Audience in Community 8 seemed to have worked.

After a brief silence, no one said anything further, instead, they each entered the Pharmacy Room to continue drug production.

Shortly after, a new batch of drugs was sent again to the Audience’s lounge.

The five Sinner players did not say anything, they returned to their lounge, each showing different expressions.

Some were worried, some were anxious, some showed genuine exhaustion.

...

Huang Shengjie let out a breath: "Luckily, Community 8 is there...

"I almost thought the game was going to fall apart again, but Zeng Yiming forcibly pulled it back on track.

"He’s really quite strong."

Ye Lin nodded: "Yes, the level Zeng Yiming has displayed is almost the best solution in this game.

"I can’t think of how it could be done better either."

Huang Shengjie said: "Actually Sister Yelin, you initially wanted Wen Wan to play the role of Zeng Yiming, right?

"Admit the crime voluntarily, get a good voting pattern, then become the ’Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’ to arrange other players to make drugs to earn sympathy votes, and thus absolve herself.

"If Wen Wan could do that, indeed the chances of winning are the greatest.

"But it’s not feasible."

Ye Lin nodded: "I understand, because the strategy depends on the person, I can’t enter the game to replace Wen Wan, and the advice is only five words, which can’t be elaborated, so it’s impossible to demand too much.

"Even now, it’s still a fairly good result. Anyway, Wen Wan’s crime numbers haven’t been exposed yet.

"Although Zeng Yiming gained the most initiative, he also had to make the most concessions; he’s the most tired and hardest-worked in this game.

"If we can lie back and win under his leadership... that would be a pretty good outcome too."

...

Wen Wan returned to the lounge, looking at the five machines in front of her, her mind a mess.

She now regrets, if she hadn’t tried Liang Guicheng’s crime numbers at the beginning, perhaps the situation wouldn’t have become like this.

But after all, it was too early then, she couldn’t predict the game’s progression. Moreover, she didn’t dare not try numbers because if her own crime was exposed, she wouldn’t even have countermeasures; and if someone privately sought her cooperation, she didn’t have much chips to exchange.

In the early stages of the game, it could be said that her decision to ’try numbers’ was reasonable, but when all Sinner players think the same way, it becomes an unsolvable dilemma.

Wen Wan looked at He Qing’s machine.

Previously, she had tried He Qing’s third digit and found it to be 8, but she had no leads on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th digits.

But the information provided by Liang Guicheng filled this gap.

Liang Guicheng said He Qing’s last three crime numbers were 286, which means only the first digit need be guessed.

Moreover, Liang Guicheng also mentioned information that can be used to determine the first crime digit.

He Qing worked for 7 years, installing about 6 air conditioners a day during peak season.

Wen Wan was unsure how many air conditioners an installer normally installs per day, but assuming this was the information provided by the machines, it could be viewed as accurate.

Calculating at 6 units a day, even accounting for occasional days off, the total installations over 7 years would likely break five figures.

Then the first digit of this number can only be 9.

But clearly, such calculations are wrong because air conditioning installation is highly seasonal; 6 units a day in peak season, perhaps only one or two in off-season.

Therefore, Liang Guicheng probably did not understand the nuance. He guessed correctly on the last three digits but gave an oversized answer for the first digit.

He likely tried numbers down from 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and got them all wrong.

So considering this, Wen Wan felt the first digit is most likely 4 or 3, with lower chances for other numbers.

But after hesitating for a long time, she ultimately did not choose to fill it in.

As Zeng Yiming said, Sinner players can’t guess each other’s numbers anymore, if more players’ crimes are exposed, then the sympathy votes really won’t suffice.

Wen Wan’s own crime has not been exposed yet, she just hopes no more incidents occur from now on and she can safely get through until the game ends.

...

Quickly, the rest time ended, and the Sinner players left the lounge to prepare for producing the 9th batch of drugs.

But soon, the broadcast sounded.

[He Qing (Installer)’s crime numbers have been guessed by at least 2 Sinner players, crime exposed.]

[He Qing’s crime: As an air conditioner installer, in 7 years on the job, he never vacuumed air conditioners according to national standards; when faced with reasonable consumer doubts, he used deception and evasion, even intentionally refused to cooperate. A total of ’4286’ problem air conditioners installed.]

[Penalty Result: Permanently blacklisted by an air conditioner brand.]

[Please cast votes to complete the ’Initial Judgment’.]

[Now announcing He Qing (Installer)’s Initial Judgment voting result:]

[Guilty: 17 votes]

[Not guilty: 9 votes]

[’Initial Judgment’ crime established, the Sinner will suffer the Instant Death Penalty.]