God's Imitator

The game rules have been introduced before, and this time the game has a very ample rest period.

There are only three rounds of the game, with a thirty-minute rest period between each two rounds.

For players accustomed to fast-paced games, this might actually be quite unsettling.

But this game pace makes Zhou Wanlin feel like she’s entering a comfort zone.

It wasn’t long before she saw Huang Shengjie and Geng Yuxia return to the lounge, and the three met up.

"How is the situation on your side?" Zhou Wanlin hurriedly asked.

Geng Yuxia visibly let out a sigh of relief: "It’s okay! I followed your method completely for the review. However, the other side’s delivery man doesn’t seem to be very smart.

"He didn’t transport much cargo, and my spot checks didn’t find any contraband, so there should be no big issues."

Huang Shengjie immediately reported his progress: "I kept an eye on the other side’s inspector the whole time, and I’m very sure she didn’t do anything throughout the entire round.

"Once this round of the game ends, the materials she’s holding will no longer be contraband, and they won’t become contraband in the future either.

"The badge says all game activities must be stopped, so both of us came back individually.

"Of course, during this process, I tried to gather some intelligence from her, since we met in the ’Pain Game’.

"The ecosystem of Community 23 is very, very bad. I think this might be a great breakthrough.

"If the conditions allow, I’m thinking, can we poach her over to our community?

"Of course, the gender might not fit the requirements, but as long as we can poach her, we’ve got this game in the bag, almost certainly a win."

Zhou Wanlin bowed her head and thought for a moment: "Hmm... Everything looks smooth, even too smooth, it makes me feel uneasy.

"Where could something go wrong...

"Aunt, how many materials did the other side transport?"

Geng Yuxia thought for a moment: "10 units."

Zhou Wanlin was visibly taken aback: "10 units? Are you sure it’s only 10 units?"

Geng Yuxia nodded: "Of course! I saw it very clearly."

Zhou Wanlin seemed to realize something and lowered her head without speaking.

Huang Shengjie hurriedly asked: "What’s wrong?"

Zhou Wanlin’s expression became very serious: "10 units is too few, it doesn’t make sense.

"Aunt, is the other side’s delivery person male or female?"

Geng Yuxia quickly said: "Male, named Peng Xinyuan! But it seems like his leg is injured, he walks with a limp, not fast at all."

Huang Shengjie suddenly understood: "Oh, no wonder they chose Zhou Xiaoying to be the inspector.

"Then it also makes sense: although Zhou Xiaoying is a female player, she is the fastest runner among the three, so she can only serve as an inspector.

"And since Peng Xinyuan’s legs aren’t convenient, he can only stay in the raw material warehouse serving as the delivery man.

"But he is obviously not an intellectual-type player, and doesn’t understand how to distribute the materials, couldn’t manage to transport all five cargo boxes in time, so he only transported half of the materials.

"Does this mean, instead, we are the beneficiaries of this game selection mechanism?

"We suffered a lot from this selection mechanism, but they’re even worse.

"It’s really a typical example of weaklings fighting each other."

The explanation sounds reasonable, but Zhou Wanlin’s tightly furrowed brows didn’t relax.

"No, absolutely wrong.

"There’s definitely a big problem here.

"Luckily, the rest time is long, both of you recount all the experiences from the first round of the game, carefully and in detail, and don’t leave out any specifics."

Huang Shengjie and Geng Yuxia exchanged glances, though they felt it was a bit redundant, there wasn’t much else to do during the rest period.

The two narrated their game experiences in detail once again.

Zhou Wanlin ultimately concluded: "Community 23’s resource allocation is too severely misplaced, and they shouldn’t be making such a low-level mistake."

Geng Yuxia was somewhat puzzled: "Misplaced? Are you saying the role assignment is unreasonable?

"But it seems more like they had no choice but to do this, right? Peng Xinyuan is the only male player but his leg is inconvenient, so Zhou Xiaoying has to be the inspector."

Zhou Wanlin shook her head: "Peng Xinyuan must be pretending, his leg is fine.

"Even if his leg does have an issue and can’t be an inspector, he shouldn’t be a delivery man, he should be an examiner.

"The actual examiner Wu Xiufang, although she seems taciturn, is definitely smart. From her review performance, she clearly fully understands the review and delivery rules.

"If she were the delivery person, she would definitely provide the optimal solution for this issue and transport all 28 units of material.

"It’s impossible to deliver just 10 units like Peng Xinyuan."

Huang Shengjie’s eyes widened instantly: "Understood! It really is strange!

"If Peng Xinyuan is really good-for-nothing, with the worst physical and mental strength, the most suitable position is as an examiner because he just needs to do random check-ups, no need for complex strategy.

"This is a position where it’s impossible to create a significant differential.

"But if Wu Xiufang were the delivery person, her performance would definitely be much better than Peng Xinyuan’s!

"Talking about misassigning roles? That’s impossible as the preparation time was sufficient; since Wu Xiufang is the smartest, she surely holds the greatest power of speech and wouldn’t make such low-level mistakes."

Geng Yuxia thought for a moment: "Could be due to inconvenient legs so not suited for walking the skybridge? After all, the skybridge route is quite long and involves stairs."

Huang Shengjie suddenly realized: "No, that’s not right! When you mention the skybridge, I recall that when we passed through the Review Room via the skybridge, didn’t their player also just cross from the opposite skybridge?

"Remember at that time, there were three silhouettes!

"So Peng Xinyuan’s leg is actually fine!"

Geng Yuxia looked shocked; she too recalled that scene.

But then, Huang Shengjie was even more puzzled: "But...

"Then what’s their purpose for doing it deliberately? Surely there’s a special plan, but I can’t figure it out.

"These three positions are fixed, and no fourth person can emerge no matter how you explain it.

"Although the game rule also states that prisoner players can pay gold pounds to get out, the rule must be fair; if Yao Yuan and He Qinyun haven’t managed to get out yet, it means the conditions aren’t ripe, they likely didn’t accumulate enough gold pounds initially.

"In this sense, Zhou Xiaoying and the three others can’t leave their stations to do anything tricky, right?

"I kept a constant watch on Zhou Xiaoying, she absolutely couldn’t do anything; Peng Xinyuan cannot leave the mini train, once he does, the train stops functioning, and even during review he just appeared normally with materials in the Review Room.

"As for Wu Xiufang, she shouldn’t be able to do anything either. Since ten minutes after each game starts until its end she is restricted to the Review Room.

"Even though there are ten minutes of leeway at the beginning, the travel time via the skybridge from the lounge to the Review Room has to be factored in."

Zhou Wanlin stared at the steam train and the five different cargo boxes, saying: "I think the problem lies with Peng Xinyuan.

"Delivering only 10 material units is the clue.

"Because even the dumbest person couldn’t deliver just this little.

"We can use this number to backtrack Peng Xinyuan’s specific delivery plan, thereby calculating his actual transport time."