God's imitator

Chapter 253 Shelter Construction Plan

In short, there are four possible instant death penalties in the game:

The first scenario involves a criminal being publicly accused of their crimes. If they confess, they face immediate death, a punishment that cannot be offset by shelter.

The second scenario is that the guilty party chooses to appeal, but is voted guilty by other players. In this case, not only will the guilty party suffer an immediate death penalty, but other players may also be implicated.

Specifically, whether players in the same community are punished together, or players with the same crime are punished together, depends on whether the number of players with the same crime reaches 5.

The third type is voting against one's conscience. If too many players fail the lie detector test by the end of the game, they will also suffer another instant death penalty.

The fourth type is the "final vote," where at the end of the game, the five communities inside the arena must vote to select one community, and all members suffer an instant death penalty.

Except for the immediate death penalty for a guilty plea, which cannot be offset by a sanctuary, all other immediate death penalties can be offset by a sanctuary.

However, any method to offset the instant death penalty can only be effective once.

Just when everyone thought the rules had been explained, the explanation on the big screen continued.

[Because the mechanisms related to the trial of criminals are crucial, concerning the life and death of all players, a 'rehearsal' will be conducted here.]

[Since this is a 'rehearsal,' there will be no 'collateral damage' this time, but players are still urged to treat this criminal's crimes as real.]

Apart from that, everything is the same as the official mechanism.

A brief crime profile appeared on the large screen.

[Chen, male, 47 years old.]

[Due to a financial dispute, a man wielded an axe and killed a salesperson.]

[Verdict: Sentenced to death for intentional homicide, but not yet carried out.]

If the offender chooses "Appeal," they will have one minute to present their case.

Although it was called an appeal, nothing happened because it was just a rehearsal.

Some players simply use that minute to think about strategies in the game.

The perpetrator's appeal has been completed. Please complete your vote within 3 minutes.

Each player's arm-mounted display showed a countdown and various options.

Players took turns using the screen to cast their votes.

Time ticked by, and many players grew impatient before the final result appeared on the big screen.

[Vote Result: Guilty.]

The sinner will suffer instant death in 10 seconds.

After waiting another 10 seconds, the players completed the standard procedure and finished the rehearsal.

Although it was a bit slow, everyone has indeed become thoroughly familiar with the relevant procedures and rules.

Before officially entering the second phase, the game provides much more time for thinking than in the first phase, so players gather together again to discuss strategies.

After considering it, Lee In-sook said, "Now that it's confirmed that there are no other rules for the second phase that require visa time, let's take out all the gold coins."

Everyone went to exchange all the gold coins, and then went to the plot of land they had won to see the specific methods for building the shelter.

Each plot of land has a sign indicating where you can perform certain actions. Building a shelter requires an initial investment of 1 gold coin and must be completed before the next round of the game begins.

In other words, the land plot acquired in this round of the game can only become a shelter in the next round.

After construction is completed, an additional "final payment" is required. Once the payment is completed, construction is considered complete.

The outcome of the final payment determines the probability that the shelter will offset the immediate death penalty.

If you invest the remaining 4 gold coins, you will build a "normal shelter" with a "90%" chance of offsetting the instant death penalty.

If you invest the remaining 1 gold coin, you will build a 'low-quality shelter' with only a '50%' chance of offsetting the instant death penalty.

Once completed, the shelters can be sold in two different ways.

If the item is sold to an "insider player", then the two parties can trade one-on-one, set their own price, and purchase it with gold coins.

If it's sold to the "audience," then the operation is done on the sign, "listing" a shelter and setting a price, which all the audience can freely purchase.

Audience members cannot determine which specific community shelter they purchased, nor can players in the audience determine which audience member purchased their shelter.

However, if the item is successfully sold to an audience member, the transaction price will be broadcast on the big screen.

Upon seeing this, Lee In-sook couldn't help but frown slightly.

"The probabilities and prices of the two types of shelters don't seem to match, do they?"

Fu Chen didn't understand what she meant for a moment: "Where doesn't match?"

Lee In-sook explained, “Although at first glance the settings of ‘2 gold coins 50%’ and ‘5 gold coins 90%’ seem reasonable, the problem is that building a shelter requires not only considering the construction cost, but also the cost of purchasing the land.”

"If you take the land cost into account, the price difference between the two types of shelters is not that big."

She paused slightly, then continued:
"Judging from the current situation, the cost of bidding for the plots of land in Community 15 and our community is relatively low, about 4 to 5 gold coins; while the cost of bidding for the plots of land in other communities is higher, about 8 or even 10 gold coins."

"The price of land will only increase in the future, and we will calculate it based on 8 gold coins by default."

"So the actual cost of a 'normal shelter' is 13 gold coins, while the actual cost of a 'poor shelter' is 10 gold coins."

"The difference between the two sides is not 2 gold coins and 5 gold coins, but 10 gold coins and 13 gold coins."

"Land is expensive to begin with, and building substandard shelters will also consume a piece of land. Moreover, the probability of '50%' is too low. Although the expected probability of two substandard shelters is not bad, the actual probability may be quite different due to luck."

"For players inside the game, building a regular shelter is more cost-effective no matter how you look at it."

After careful consideration, Cao Haichuan said, "Then there's only one explanation. These substandard shelters are sold to 'the audience.'"

"The rules state that viewers cannot see details about the shelters. In other words, they not only do not know which community sold these shelters, but they also have no way of distinguishing between legitimate and substandard shelters."

"This is a loophole deliberately left in the rules."

Zheng Jie looked at the other communities: "In that case, Community 15 will definitely sell substandard shelters, right?"

"Is the 12th community also likely to be one?"
"Communities that sell substandard shelters can recoup more funds and have an advantage when bidding for land later. As a result, the financial gap will only widen."

"But if we sell substandard shelters, it could trigger a crime and lead to being implicated as a result..."

"Or should we just not sell the shelters and keep them all for ourselves?"

(End of this chapter)