God's Imitator-Chapter 504: The Longest Review

As usual, Lin Sizhi got up and went to the hall, where he found everyone sitting silently.

"Morning."

Lin Sizhi, as usual, bought breakfast from the vending machine and sat down at an empty spot at the long table.

Zheng Jie couldn’t wait any longer and was the first to speak: "Lawyer Lin, you’re finally awake! Such a big event happened, and yet you can still sleep so long!"

"We had a brief discussion and came to a preliminary conclusion... Cai Zhiyuan is the Imitator of the ’King’s Judgement.’

"But I really can’t understand, why?

"Why would the Walkway allow the Imitator to design their own Judgment game? Moreover, Cai Zhiyuan almost died in that game; is it worth risking his life to fulfill the Walkway’s criteria?"

Clearly, in the more than two hours before Lin Sizhi woke up, everyone had engaged in some discussion and reasoning and reached a preliminary conclusion.

But this conclusion is also a key confusion for everyone.

——Many never suspected Cai Zhiyuan because the logic of ’he is the Imitator of the King’s Judgment’ is hard to comprehend.

Lin Sizhi took a sip of coffee and asked, "Did he really almost die in the game?"

"Think again.

"’Exhausted Pursuit’ is actually an absolutely safe cell, because the penalty in multiple rounds of the game is ’progressively increasing electric shock intensity.’

"However, the force needed to push the lever and the strength of the electric shock are actually hidden states, not explicit.

"The game rules only state ’do not stop,’ but pushing slowly is fine.

"So, even if the shock intensity increases in multiple games, as long as you can keep pushing the lever, you’re certainly safe."

Qin Yao asked, "But during the earlier ’Farmer’s Walk’ phase, Cai Zhiyuan had it worst, being stabbed twice for overtime, and if it exceeds twice the time, he would face an instant death penalty.

"Was he deliberately lagging behind? It doesn’t make sense, does it?"

Lin Sizhi shook his head, "Deliberately lagging doesn’t seem to be the case, but he must have held back some reserve strength.

"During the third leg of the journey, Ding Wenqiang compressed the time to 29 seconds, and when Cai Zhiyuan finally reached the end, there was actually about a 20-second margin.

"Being stabbed just makes him look bloody and scary; the external injuries aren’t serious at all, nowhere near life-threatening.

"But this arrangement nicely clears him of suspicion and ensures he can definitely enter the absolutely safe cell No. 1."

Qin Yao pondered, "According to the replay analysis at the time...

"Uncle Ding felt a bit guilty towards Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Yongxin after the ’Farmer’s Walk’ phase.

"So when the bloody Cai Zhiyuan volunteered to enter cell No. 1, he’d almost certainly agree, right? 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"But I still don’t quite understand why he needs to go to such lengths.

"If he’s the Imitator, why not create a simple Judgment game for himself?"

Lin Sizhi shook his head, "That’s the blind spot that comes from not using an Imitator’s mindset to think.

"Let’s assume now, we return to the night when the Walkway sent out the ’King’s Judgement’ game invitations.

"You’re Cai Zhiyuan, realizing you’re also a sinner to be judged.

"At this point, you actually have three different choices.

"First, do nothing.

"Second, design a simple Judgment game that’s very easy for you to pass.

"Third, design the ’King’s Judgment.’"

Everyone contemplated silently for a while.

Wei Yinzhang explained, "Actually, from Cai Zhiyuan’s perspective, to ensure his safety, he could only choose the third option.

"Firstly, doing nothing is definitely not an option because there are many Imitators.

"If you do nothing, then other Imitators will design targeted Judgment games, which would be leaving your fate to chance, with a high probability of death.

"Secondly, designing a simple, easy-to-pass Judgment game seems like the obvious choice.

"But the problem is, the Walkway has an audit mechanism, and among several different Judgment games, it will choose the one with the highest rating and difficulty.

"Designing a simple, easy-to-pass scheme likely results in the same outcome as the first choice: putting your fate in other Imitators’ hands."

Yang Yuting had another thought, "Wait, something seems off.

"Wasn’t that the first Judgment game we experienced?

"How could Cai Zhiyuan be sure that the harder game would definitely be chosen?

"Before, we only experienced ’Blood Poker,’ but that game wasn’t very hard, since it was an Allocation Game."

Wei Yinzhang shook his head, "This is simple logical reasoning.

"Assume the Walkway might choose a ’simple plan’ or a ’difficult plan,’ each with a 50% chance, then there are only a few scenarios:

"First, you give a simple plan, others give a difficult plan, Walkway chooses your simple plan, that’s certainly a win-win;

"Second, you give a simple plan, but Walkway chooses a difficult plan, that’s the worst scenario, forcing you into others’ dangerous game design;

"Third, you give a difficult plan, others give a simple plan, Walkway chooses the simple plan, which is still acceptable;

"Fourth, you give a difficult plan, and Walkway chooses the difficult plan, but since it’s your own game, you can precisely control the loopholes.

"So, on comprehensive analysis, even with a ’50% chance of Walkway choosing a simple plan’ premise, the optimal choice remains ’offering a difficult plan.’

"Moreover, based on common sense, Walkway wouldn’t let overly simple plans pass inspection; people were brought to the New World not for a holiday.

"I think, for Cai Zhiyuan, this would be an obvious issue.

"Designing a dangerous Judgment game for yourself seems counterintuitive but is the safest choice within Walkway’s rule framework."

Lin Sizhi added, "Actually, I also received the game invitation back then.

"I did design a non-lethal Judgment game for three of our community players, but it didn’t get selected.

"If Cai Zhiyuan made the same choice as I did, he’d only end up with the same result."

Many faces displayed surprise.

Though information appeared on the big screen, it didn’t really cement Lin Sizhi as the Imitator.

If Lin Sizhi truly wished to keep covering up, there are still ways to do it.

For instance, using ’other Imitators simultaneously targeted two people’ as an excuse.

Even if other players had accumulated enough suspicion, as long as Lin Sizhi was willing, others wouldn’t dare to expose him, and they’d have to continue maintaining the status quo.

But he chose to lay the cards on the table.

However, for the other players, this revelation was somewhat relieving.

Being forced to cooperate with a strong actor is indeed quite a painful matter.