Zheng Jie raised his hand and asked, "Wait a minute! Lawyer Lin, you just said that what ultimately convinced you wasn’t these things, but rather insignificant details?

"The game’s scene setup?

"What does that mean?"

Qin Yao tried to recall the situation at the time: "I remember... Lawyer Lin was always studying various facilities in the game, ignoring my questions, and it was Cai Zhiyuan who explained things to me.

"Do you mean, Lawyer Lin, that Cai Zhiyuan didn’t study the specific uses of those devices, so that’s suspicious?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Lin Sizhi shook his head: "This is indeed a minor doubt, but not quite abnormal.

"The three of us were actually one unit at the time, and the use of these mechanisms was already explained in the game rules. Only one person was needed to research these devices.

"Cai Zhiyuan explaining these questions to you can also be understood as ’helping team members lagging behind better understand the strategy’ and ’completely entrusting me with the task of researching the devices’.

"What truly caught my attention was that ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Wealthy Dynasty’ had distinct similarities in scene setup.

"Glass curtain walls and railings."

The crowd was puzzled: "Huh? What does that prove? It’s not uncommon for imitators to copy each other, and using similar scenes is normal, right?

"Just like several allocation games where the lounge layouts are pretty much similar."

Lin Sizhi shook his head: "This is a different situation.

"Of course, it’s normal for you not to notice, because this detail exists in the design documents the imitator received."

Wei Yinzhang quickly understood the implication of Lin Sizhi’s statement: "I might be able to explain this issue.

"In some ’modular’ design parts, imitators can take shortcuts.

"For instance, in the same ’allocation game’, if an imitator wants to include a ’lounge’ for players in the game.

"The first imitator who designs it needs to write more content and must detail all the elements in the lounge.

"But the second imitator can directly write ’set up according to the lounge in game XX’, and then specify any major changes.

"So many imitators take shortcuts.

"However, this kind of shortcut usually has two conditions:

"First, modular design. If it’s not an entire setup like a ’lounge’, there’s no need to follow the previous plan.

"Second, late-stage games. Since enough games have accumulated earlier, there are plenty of templates available for reference.

"And ’Wealthy Dynasty’ happens not to meet either condition.

"It’s a relatively early-stage game and didn’t use the designs of some previous games. Most importantly, glass curtain walls and railings, non-modular decorations that do not affect actual game function, are certainly written in by the imitator themselves."

Lin Sizhi nodded: "Yes, ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Wealthy Dynasty’ both have very open scenes, with glass curtain walls and railings on the edges.

"The imitator’s choice of scene setup is actually a subconscious behavior.

"Just like when I was designing the ’Wheel of Redemption’, I subconsciously chose elements like cathode-ray tube televisions, mechanical iron chairs, rusty steel structures, and incandescent lamps.

"This atmosphere can affect players’ psychology in the game, inducing them to exhibit behavior more in line with the imitator’s expectations; at the same time, it aligns with the imitator’s deep-seated aesthetics.

"Deliberately creating ugly scenes that do not match one’s expectations is fighting against one’s inner aesthetic preferences, making the game look imperfect, and many imitators instinctively resist such behavior.

"When Cai Zhiyuan wanted to ’choose some entity to partition the edges of the game scene’, he had many choices.

"It could be cliffs, high walls, or anything else.

"But evidently, the glass curtain wall’s ’cage bird’ feeling aligns more with his subconscious aesthetic preferences, so he subconsciously adopted this style in the setups for ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Wealthy Dynasty’."

Zheng Jie frowned: "But... ’Shelter Game’ doesn’t seem to have this situation, right?

"’Shelter Game’ is also a very open scene, and in terms of feeling, it does have certain similarities with ’King’s Judgment’ and ’Wealthy Dynasty’, but the edges aren’t glass curtain walls."

Lin Sizhi nodded: "Because by then he had already realized that such design easily exposed himself.

"I also deliberately abandoned some irrelevant aesthetics in the many games afterward, choosing different scene setups, and Cai Zhiyuan did the same.

"This game was about calculating Officer Cao, and he had to distance himself as much as possible, so he was even more cautious.

"Overall, I concluded Cai Zhiyuan was the imitator of ’Wealthy Dynasty’ based on these factors."

Wei Yinzhang pondered for a moment and arrived at a new hypothesis: "Thinking this way, both ’allocation games’ actually came from the same motive.

"’Wealthy Dynasty’ was designed by Cai Zhiyuan, with one goal being to test your level.

"And ’Simple Q&A’ was designed by you? One goal was also to test Cai Zhiyuan’s level?

"If either of you performs poorly in similar games, then perhaps the ’special game’ you prepared for each other might not be judgment-type games but rather similar ’strategy games’."

Lin Sizhi nodded: "Yes.

"’Simple Q&A’ came at a rather unique time junction.

"If this game appeared at other times, Cai Zhiyuan might not enter; he would likely leave this opportunity for Wang Yongxin.

"Even if he entered, he might deliberately not show his real level.

"But at that time, ’Shelter Game’ had just concluded, and the core of the five-person team, Officer Cao, was lost, causing an inevitable shift in power dynamics.

"Because this five-person team wasn’t really stable, I was merely an ’external member’ who followed instructions but didn’t pledge allegiance, and after Officer Cao’s death, one of the remaining three had to take on the burden of the game.

"Considering Fu Chen and Li Renshu’s capabilities, Cai Zhiyuan had no choice but to take the role himself.

"He knew he had to showcase some abilities in the game to stabilize the situation in the community, which also meant completing the necessary aftermath for killing Officer Cao.

"So even if he suspected it might be my test, he could only choose to enter."

Lin Sizhi paused briefly and continued:

"This game, actually offers players a high upper limit, and Cai Zhiyuan’s performance reached that limit.

"However, not reaching this limit, or even failing to understand ’Byzantine Fault Tolerance’, actually doesn’t prevent players from winning; this mainly depends on the opponent’s level.

"Unfortunately, Cai Zhiyuan happened to encounter Wang Weidong in this game. Continuing to hide his skills would lead to very serious consequences, so he had to give it his all."