God's Imitator

The latest five players competing for the ’luxury brand spokesperson’ role each took turns speaking.

First up was a player from Community 9.

"Hello, everyone! I am Yu Xinming from Community 9.

"I’m telling you my name at this time as a gesture of my sincerity.

"Everything I say next is absolutely true. Otherwise, once I’m locked in the Reflection Room, you can use my name to kill me directly.

"I used to work in luxury sales and know far more about luxury goods than the average player.

"Choosing me as the luxury brand spokesperson is absolutely the right choice!

"Currently, nobody knows what the so-called benefit specifically is, but I believe luxury goods are certainly a better choice than alcohol.

"Because whether it’s finely crafted watches, beautiful bags, or uniquely styled clothes, they all provide longer-lasting emotional value.

"Alcohol, on the other hand, is just a one-time consumable, whose biggest effect is only to numb oneself and escape reality.

"I think everyone would prefer to see more well-dressed, beautifully appareled men and women in the community, rather than drunks escaping reality through alcohol, right?"

The audience erupted into warm applause and cheers again; Lu Qi could no longer tell whether it was players from the same community cheering, or the Audience genuinely supporting.

As more players joined in the applause and cheers, the atmosphere of the entire venue became livelier.

"Everyone is so amazing..."

Lu Qi sighed. Though a new player, after so much time of ear training, she became increasingly adept at seeing through the game’s tricks.

Yu Xinming was actually leveraging the original Community 28 player’s experience to do the reverse.

If he outright claimed to have been in luxury sales, the Audience might not believe him, as they would have to wait until ’elimination time’ to verify if he was lying.

Even if he was locked in the Reflection Room, other players wouldn’t know his real name and therefore couldn’t threaten his life.

After being deceived once by hype, the Audience became more cautious.

But now, Yu Xinming’s proactive disclosure of his name makes his ’luxury sales’ identity more credible and shows more honesty compared to all other spokespersons.

Of course, he could be lying about his name, but for one, this kind of action doesn’t carry much significance, and two, he could be exposed by other spokespersons who know him later, so overall, the move is more advantageous than disadvantageous.

According to the current rules, there are three different ways to eliminate a spokesperson. Whether it’s the top 50% or bottom 50% of popularity that’s eliminated largely depends on luck.

But there’s only one scenario where one won’t be eliminated, which is to become the most popular in a particular product category.

This should be a backdoor intentionally left by the Imitator when designing the game, meant to encourage spokespersons to aim to be the number one in popularity for a specific category.

Yu Xinming’s speech aimed to both highlight himself and outshine other players also vying to be the ’luxury brand’ spokesperson, while also attacking ’alcohol’ products, trying to snatch popularity from Jiang Chenyan and others.

He’s doing well so far.

The second player to speak came from Community 13.

Originally, Lu Qi thought that Yu Xinming’s speech had effectively blocked subsequent players’ opportunities to speak and that there was no longer much suspense in the spokesperson selection for this round of the game.

But when this player from Community 13 started speaking, he once again shocked many in the Audience.

"Hello, everyone! I am Gao Jialiang from Community 13.

"To be frank, among all the players I’ve encountered so far, my appearance is universally recognized as number one.

"If you’re curious, please support me until the ’reveal’ phase of the next round!"

His speech was succinct, yet after his words, the audience erupted into applause and cheers once again.

Many players exchanged glances, seemingly trying to confirm some information.

The second phase involves many communities being restructured from different areas, so inevitably some players know this name and know what Gao Jialiang looks like.

They could share information through gestures with players from the same community, and let it spread.

The spotlight shifted to the third spokesperson, who was from Community 6, but it was apparent he was already somewhat regretful.

From Yu Xinming and Gao Jialiang’s circumstances, it’s clear that competition for the luxury brand spokesperson is fiercer, and under the restriction of not being able to lie, the other two spokespersons have no chance of winning.

Even as they tried their best to gather votes, it was evident that they lacked popularity.

[!!!Frenzy Time!!!]

[Please continuously stare at your supported spokesperson to provide them with ’popularity points’!]

[09:59...]

Accompanied by explosive background music resonating through the venue, players erupted into applause, cheers, and screams instantly.

As expected, many Audience members gathered in front of Yu Xinming and Gao Jialiang’s stages, both staring to provide popularity points and trying hard to clap, jump, or emit screams through arm-worn screens, attempting to attract more attention to these two.

The earlier one becomes a ’die-hard fan’, the more likely they are to be rewarded with 30,000 minutes of visa time in the final settlement phase.

However, Jiang Chenyan, the spokesperson for ’alcohol’, still retained considerable popularity, and his batch of loyal fans showed no interest in Yu Xinming or Gao Jialiang, offering him unwavering support.

Soon, the popularity numbers behind the six spokespersons on stage stabilized.

Gao Jialiang’s was 15,329, Yu Xinming’s was 12,491, and the other three had less than 3,000 each.

Additionally, Jiang Chenyan’s popularity value reached 30,174 because his and another ’alcohol spokesperson’s popularity values summed over two rounds of the game.

The total popularity value showed a noticeable increase compared to the previous round of the game, indicating an increasing number of Audience members engaging in the interaction.

However, since there were more spokespersons to choose from, the popularity value each individual gained in the current round was somewhat reduced.

Lu Qi was a bit surprised: "The impact of appearance is huge!"

Now she better understood why the Imitator designing the game specifically encouraged high-appearance male players in the community to participate.

Though Gao Jialiang hasn’t truly revealed his face yet, his words were enough to spark the curiosity of most Audience members, prompting them to focus their attention involuntarily.

While Yu Xinming may have had some advantages in professional background, those advantages were not obvious. After all, the Audience was not even certain whether the so-called ’special benefit’ needed professional knowledge to achieve.

If the Audience had no other options, then ’professional background’ would be an advantage.

But if there were other choices, then that would be a different matter.