God's Imitator

Lu Qi was a bit surprised. Clearly, this player from Community 5 was not simple.

Impression was that the male players from Community 5 had already tried to run for the spokesperson twice. The first time was for the ’pharmaceutical category,’ but was eliminated; now the second time, it’s for the ’coffee category.’

Compared to the player eliminated last time, this player’s preparation is clearly more thorough, with more support from Community 5.

He not only targeted the features of coffee products but also provided a strong reason to the audience based on the game mechanism.

From the obvious mechanism perspective, indeed having one more spokesperson offers all benefits without any harm.

Because the condition for the game to end is when the spokesperson count stops changing, but there’s no strict requirement or limitation on how many spokespersons there are.

Each additional spokesperson means additional earnings from the spokesperson’s popularity and the visa time benefits of 30,000 minutes each from the top 10 spokesperson fans.

And these benefits don’t affect other players, making it purely positive.

So Lu Qi thought what this player said made a lot of sense; at least it perfectly met the questioning and answering requirements, so he shouldn’t be eliminated.

But clearly, other spokespersons on stage weren’t bothered by what he was saying.

Hu Yingxu even subconsciously revealed a contemptuous smile.

[The inquiry ends!]

[If you want to eliminate a player, reduce their popularity value by ’staring.’ (Limited to the questioned ’coffee category spokesperson.’)]

Lu Qi froze; she didn’t look at this Community 5 spokesperson but noticed the spokesperson’s popularity plummeting like an avalanche through the corner of her eye.

He originally had a popularity score of 6839, which although differed from previous spokesperson popularity, was already the highest among all coffee category spokespersons.

But even so, he didn’t manage to last until the inquiry session ended.

A red beam fell on this Community 5 player, meaning no coffee category spokesperson managed to persevere, and all were eliminated.

...

"Why? Why would so many players rather spend their own visa time to eliminate him?

"Isn’t it supposed to be a win-win for him to stay?

"Moreover, is there something special about the appearance of the inquiry session? Why didn’t it happen at all at the start, but now it’s becoming more frequent?"

Lu Qi vaguely felt that the situation was somewhat off, quite abnormal, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

Just then she noticed Yao Yuan had returned.

Lu Qi quickly pointed at the stage, wanting to inquire about what was going on, but couldn’t speak.

Yao Yuan didn’t intend to answer as he seemed to still be contemplating the game strategy, having no time to explain these issues.

Just then, an unfamiliar voice sounded.

"You’re the agent of Community 2, right? I’ve been observing you for a while.

"Join us, why don’t you?

"You must have noticed, haven’t you? We’ve already secured victory in this game."

Lu Qi was momentarily stunned. She turned her head to find the speaker was a female player from Community 18.

"Community 18? How come you’ve secured victory?"

Lu Qi was full of doubt, trying hard to search for related information about Community 18 in her memory.

Vaguely remembered encountering Community 18 players during a previous ’Jury Game,’ but at that time they only participated as audience representatives, leaving no deep impression.

This time’s game left even less of an impression.

The current spokespersons on stage are from Community 15, Community 13, Community 2, Community 17, and Community 7.

Community 18 didn’t even have a single spokesperson; how dare she claim victory?

But Yao Yuan turned his head to look at her, nodding slightly: "Just as well, I was looking for you."

The female player from Community 18 paused, surprised: "You are looking for me?"

Yao Yuan looked at Lu Qi: "Does this voice sound familiar to you?"

Lu Qi paused momentarily, then nodded after a hard recall.

Yao Yuan looked again at the female player from Community 18: "So... you’re Chen Yumei?"

In the second phase, there wasn’t much interaction between Community 2 and Community 18; the last encounter was during the ’Jury Game.’

Back then, Community 18’s Chen Yumei was one of the jury representatives, one of the few speakers from Community 18, leaving a certain impression through her voice.

Moreover, whether it’s the previous ’jury representative’ or the current ’agent,’ these roles are reserved for players with certain status within the community.

These factors combined led Yao Yuan to make such a deduction.

Chen Yumei didn’t give a clear answer, nor needed to, but being identified made her slightly uncomfortable.

Yao Yuan continued: "It doesn’t matter, in this game, identity isn’t important.

"Earlier you said, ’Join us.’

"By ’us,’ you’re not just referring to Community 18, are you? It must include at least 3 other communities as allies?"

Chen Yumei stared at Yao Yuan for a moment, then, somewhat relieved, smiled but didn’t provide a clear answer.

"Community 2 players indeed have strong skills.

"But don’t extract information from me; I’m not disclosing it.

"The cooperation proposal I offer is simple: From now onwards, we won’t target your Community spokesperson Qin Cheng, ensuring his survival.

"You don’t take any unnecessary actions.

"In the end, we decide what product has ’accumulated the highest popularity.’

"That’s all; how about it?"

Yao Yuan shook his head: "Of course not, is our community someone to be taken advantage of?"

The female player from Community 18 was silent for a moment: "How, do you still want to decide which product has the highest popularity? Don’t you think such a demand is excessive?"

Yao Yuan shook his head: "No need to pretend with me, you know that’s not what I want.

"Of course, we don’t mind which product gets special bonuses in the end; that can be given to you.

"But we can’t settle for such little gain; we need more."

The female player from Community 18 remained silent for a moment: "More?"

Yao Yuan pressed: "How many spokespersons do you plan to retain to end the game?

"Don’t say it’s 5, if you continue withholding truth, there’ll be no chance of cooperation.

"You better decide if you truly have the game in your grasp before answering me."

The female player from Community 18 fell silent again, clearly unable to determine how much information Yao Yuan had.

Not wanting to easily disclose key information, yet worried the cooperation might genuinely break down.

Yao Yuan turned again to the spokespersons on stage.

"Since you don’t wish to disclose, let me guess.

"The communities you initially cooperated with should be... Community 15 where Jiang Chenyan is, and Community 17 where Hu Yingxu is.

"Perhaps later Community 13 where Gao Jialiang is joined as well?

"So, you perceive yourself as having the victory assured.

"But we also sought allies.

"Guess which communities?"