God's imitator

Chapter 207 Mask
The image of the "Fool" card is a cartoon-style Western farmer, working hard, with a huge "fist" gesture prominently displayed on the upper front.

The image of the "Sage" card is a wealthy Western businessman with a small mustache, holding a gold coin. In a prominent position at the top of the front is a "paper" gesture with five fingers spread.

The image of the "Thief" card is that of a thief carrying a bundle, wearing black night clothes and an eye patch, with a prominent "scissors" image of the index and middle fingers extended.

In summary, the cards in this game are simply "rock, paper, scissors" replaced with "Fool," "Thief," and "Sage," and these three cards are used to create two different decks.

But this also means that the Wise Man deck will have a significant advantage.

After removing the duplicates from the decks, the Fool's deck has two 'Fool' cards left, which are 'Stone', while the Wise Man's deck has two 'Wise Man' cards left, which are 'Paper'.

Under normal circumstances, because cloth counters stone, the win rate of "The Wise Man" against "The Fool" will inevitably be greatly increased.

The reason why "Rock, Paper, Scissors" is considered a roughly balanced game is because there are no restrictions on the use of the three moves.

However, making them into cards and limiting the number of cards to only five would lead to a huge imbalance between decks.

If only deck strength is considered, players should blindly choose the "Sage deck".

The rules were still being explained on the big screen.

During the first hour of the game's "practice period," what players need to do is very simple:

At the start of each round, players can collect a new deck (5 new cards) from next to the door.

You will be matched with other players in the 'Battle Room' and then proceed to the 'Battle Arena' to engage in combat.

A 3D image of the battle arena appeared on the large screen. It looked like a rectangular tabletop with tall black partitions in the middle and on both sides, blocking the view of both sides.

The two players can only see each other from the chest up; they cannot see the specific hand movements.

There is a relatively large coin slot on the player's right, which is probably used for inserting chips.

On the left are two buttons: [Refund] and [Start].

There is also a screen in the middle that displays the opponent's specific chip bets and information such as the results of previous games.

The two players proceed to opposite ends of the arena and insert their chips into the coin slots. After confirming that all chips have been inserted, they each press the 'Start' button.

Otherwise, please press the 'Refund' button to get your chips back.

In the first phase, there is only a basic betting limit of 1000 chips per bet; in the second phase, both sides can place bets freely.

[Once the game officially begins, four beeping sounds will play. Please place the card you wish to play in the designated area before the beeping sounds end.]

The battle arena will automatically detect the compliance of both players' actions. If actions such as temporarily swapping cards, playing cards too late, or adding multiple cards occur, the game will be invalid.

If both players play their cards correctly, the black shield will be removed, and both players' cards will be automatically flipped over to confirm the result.

Used cards will be automatically destroyed at the battle arena. Unused cards must also be destroyed in the recycling device next to the door before returning to the rest area. Any hoarding or transfer of cards will be considered a violation.

To encourage active participation, when both players have a base bet of 1000 chips, the winner will receive an additional 1000 chips. Don't miss this opportunity!

[After one hour, the game will enter its second phase. Based on their performance in the first phase, all players will be divided into 10 "wise players" and 30 "fools".]

The "wise player" and the "foolish player" will always receive the card set corresponding to their respective roles.

Players who acquire the "Sage" status will activate some additional privileges.

[At the same time, all players will enter the 'Game Lobby' and begin playing games through free matchmaking.]

In addition, a few new rules will be introduced in the second phase, which will be announced at the start of the second phase.

These rules may allow players who remain in the game to earn more chips, or they may cause them to lose everything. Please consider carefully! All violations and violent behavior are strictly prohibited in this game; violators will be subject to immediate death.

Finally, the copycat who designed the game gave each "April Fool" a small gift.

On the coffee table in the lounge area, there's a gift box with a countdown timer.

[After the countdown ends, it will automatically open, and players will receive an additional 10% of their total visa time in chips and one game suggestion.]

This advice is 100% reliable and practical.

However, if the wooden box is damaged in any way before this, the chips inside will disappear without a trace.

Please remember, if you find yourself in trouble, make good use of the wisdom of a fool.

[The game will officially begin in 10 minutes. Please change your clothes and put on your oxygen masks. Get ready!]

After the rules were explained, the timer changed to a 10-minute countdown.

This is the most valuable time for reflection before the game officially begins.

Judging from the rules of the first phase alone, the game is very safe, and there are no overly simplistic and brutal instant death penalties.

The only problem is that the debt is very heavy.

Players can initially receive 1 chips but are burdened with a debt of 3. This means that players must earn 2 in the game to ensure that they break even.

The pressure is even greater when considering expenses such as supplemental oxygen.

The good news is that the game has a "guarantee" feature: when two players bet only the minimum of 1000 chips, the winner receives an extra 1000 chips.

In this scenario, the game becomes a positive-sum game.

If there are enough rounds in the game, and both sides can build mutual trust and receive the minimum allowance, it will still be enough to pay off the debt and achieve the goal of leaving the game safely.

Of course, Lin Sizhi was also well aware that this matter was not so simple.

Because the game involves players wearing masks throughout, it's not easy to find each other, even though players from the same community participate. Players from different communities are prone to deceiving each other, and mutual trust is not easily established.

Moreover, winning players are unlikely to leave so easily; they will always want to win more.

If players cannot win enough chips in the game, they have to redeem their visa time to make up for the shortfall.

If the gap in visa processing time is too large, there is also a possibility of instant death at the end of the game.

Furthermore, new rules will be introduced after the game enters the second phase, so the specific development of the situation is currently unclear.

Lin Sizhi first went to the wardrobe and chose a men's suit to change into.

These dresses have a unique design with an internal support frame that provides a noticeable slimming effect, making overweight people look more slender and underweight people look more robust.

The oxygen mask also appears to have a voice changer.

Clearly, this is all to keep players unfamiliar with each other once they enter the actual game area, preventing players from the same community from easily meeting each other and teaming up, thus causing the game to enter a team-based state too early.

However, under the current rules, it is impossible to completely prevent players from recognizing each other.

These masks depict different animal figures. Lin Sizhi guessed that each player's mask should be different, otherwise there would be a situation where players would "look alike".

Lin Sizhi couldn't find an animal that better represented her among them, so after a quick selection, she finally chose an owl as her oxygen mask.

(End of this chapter)