God's Imitator

Qin Cheng paused for a moment and continued, "Firstly, in the first half of the game, that is, before both sides really tore their faces, Gao Teng was completely performing.

"Pretending not to understand the game rules, pretending to have PTSD triggered by card games, of course, this reaction might be partly true and partly false.

"During this stage, both parties’ behaviors are actually predictable.

"Wei Changfeng would propose cooperation, Zheng Qingyun would discover the dealing mechanism and cheat earlier, and their cooperation would stumble along to around 18 rounds of the game.

"All this comes from the Imitator, which is Gao Teng’s own assessment of both parties’ nature.

"And what’s to follow is the main event.

"The complete falling out between Gao Teng and Zheng Qingyun was actually his way of forcibly dragging Wei Changfeng and Xu Yili into the game.

"Wei Changfeng always saw him as a younger brother, and Gao Teng indeed had PTSD concerning card games, with a deep-rooted hatred for cheats. Therefore, Wei Changfeng never doubted, just like in previous games, he unwaveringly chose to stand on Gao Teng’s side and bear everything with him.

"But here’s the detail: Wei Changfeng’s entry was not impulsive; in fact, he saw a chance of victory.

"His decision to join was based on a dual judgment of ’definitely winning’ and ’needing to save Gao Teng’.

Lu Qi was puzzled, "Winning? How could they win?

"In this game, it seemed that Wei Changfeng’s side never had any advantage from beginning to end, right?

"Zheng Qingyun is a professional cheat, not only proficient in deception but also with an abiding indifference to Gao Teng’s crimes.

"Moreover, the two people Zheng Qingyun brought along also had crimes of their own, which Zheng Qingyun could use to distribute the punishment.

"Where’s the winning chance?"

Qin Cheng explained, "The winning chance lies in the critical hidden rule I just mentioned: The content of repentance does not need to pass the game’s Lie Detection Mechanism; as long as you can deceive the other party, that’s sufficient.

"But this is precisely the biggest trap set by Gao Teng.

"The complete fallout occurred in the 18th round of the game, and Wei Changfeng decided to step in during the 21st round.

"In these three rounds, it was always Gao Teng who was asking for cards.

"So what was Wei Changfeng doing? He was observing and thinking.

"In my view, Wei Changfeng absolutely has the ability to become the core player in the game, so, after his observation, he confirmed three key pieces of information:

"First, the content of repentance can be lied about, but you must deceive the other party, not be exposed.

"Second, the opposing side has not discovered this mechanism, so there exists a critical information gap between them.

"Third, the points of the card requests are very likely related to the specific content of confessional crimes.

"As long as these three points are properly utilized, victory is assured."

Huang Shengjie was taken aback, "Wait, how was the second and third point deduced?

"How did Wei Changfeng know that Zheng Qingyun hadn’t realized it?

"What’s the deal with the card points?"

Qin Cheng explained, "From the ’repentance’ mechanism, there are three possible situations between both parties:

"The first is if both parties discover they can lie.

"The second is if neither party discovers they can lie.

"The third is if one party discovers it and the other does not.

"The game can only proceed normally in the second or third situation.

"If it’s the first situation, both parties believe internally that the other’s repentance is a lie, then they would frequently make the selection of ’indifference’ or ’false shock’.

"That wouldn’t match the record of subsequent games.

"The second situation, where neither party discovers it, is the result we previously inferred, but there remain unexplained doubts.

"Only the third situation, where Wei Changfeng discovered it, and Zheng Qingyun did not, can explain the proceeding of subsequent games.

"Zheng Qingyun did not discover it, hence all his statements were true crimes.

"Wei Changfeng also clearly knew that what he said were true crimes, so he was forced to act upon his genuine thoughts.

"If Wei Changfeng judged that Zheng Qingyun had discovered the hidden mechanism and was lying, he could frequently choose ’indifference’ or ’false shock’.

"In this game, ±4 points are advantageous choices.

"So, this was favorable to Wei Changfeng.

"Because from his perspective, Zheng Qingyun could only use real crimes as ammunition, whereas he, Xu Yili, and Gao Teng could use fictitious crimes as ammunition.

"Reasonably deduced, as the game progresses, it’s inevitable that Zheng Qingyun’s side runs out of ammunition first.

"After all, the concocted ammunition on Wei Changfeng’s side is endless.

"But the issue is, Zheng Qingyun also believed he held the sure-win method.

"Because he had just enough crimes to split into enough repentance opportunities.

"After all, this is a Judgment game, and Zheng Qingyun would also assume that this game was targeting him.

"He believed he had a significant advantage. Of course, precisely because of this advantage, it made him subconsciously overlook the possibility that ’repentance could involve lying’.

"Under the effect of information disparity, both parties believed they held the sure-win method, pushing the game to the most tragic possibility."

Huang Shengjie was puzzled, "But how could Gao Teng be sure Wei Changfeng would definitely discover this hidden rule?

"This rule is considered pretty well-hidden among the hidden rules we’ve encountered, and even during our review, didn’t we all fail to realize it immediately on the spot?

"Qin Cheng, you also only figured it out much later, right?

"With the game’s atmosphere being extremely tense at the time, it would be easy to overlook details in the rules. What if Wei Changfeng didn’t think of it, wouldn’t the entire plan fall apart?"

Qin Cheng shook his head, "Firstly, whether everyone realized this point during our review, I think it’s debatable.

"Perhaps some players realized it but deliberately chose not to speak for certain reasons.

"Secondly, Gao Teng actually had a fallback.

"Even if Wei Changfeng didn’t realize this point, Gao Teng could easily ensure ’the information is conveyed to Wei Changfeng while avoiding Zheng Qingyun’.

"The specific method is simple: As long as Gao Teng himself, during repentance, concocts a plausible false message.

"Once this false message comes out, Wei Changfeng would immediately become aware of the hidden rule’s existence."

Huang Shengjie was stunned, as he suddenly realized.

Because Gao Teng and Wei Changfeng understood each other well enough, as long as Gao Teng fabricated a repentance content that "Wei Changfeng could clearly judge to be a false message", he could reveal this hidden rule to Wei Changfeng without Zheng Qingyun noticing.

Therefore, this is an inevitable result.

From the game review situation, it seemed Wei Changfeng discovered this rule on his own.

But in reality, even if he couldn’t find it, Gao Teng had a way to make him see it.