God's imitator

Chapter 268 The Real Files

Chen Guangming was not surprised by the result: "I said, since your community is the most noble and suffers the least loss in this game, then in the end, you should be the ones to bear the final instant death penalty, because that's the only fair way."

Cao Haichuan sighed: "Alright, since you want fairness, then I'll give you fairness."

He glanced at Zhang Shichao one last time: "I'm sorry."

Zhang Shichao didn't understand why he said that, but he had a very bad feeling.

Cao Haichuan went to the control panel and put 30 gold coins inside.

Then, new information appeared on the big screen.

[A player chose to view and broadcast the criminal's detailed profile.]

Chen Peng, male, 47 years old.

Occupation: Construction worker

[Originally renting a room in the suburbs, due to rising rents, I bought a discounted top-floor apartment in a certain building through a loan and mortgage, persuaded by a friend.]

[After moving in, serious quality problems were discovered in the house, making it uninhabitable.]

After multiple unsuccessful negotiations, he murdered the salesperson who had sold him the problematic property.

Unlike the simple text information before, this time the big screen showed real footage, including the criminal's living environment, working conditions, and a series of scenes such as kneeling and calling the police during the negotiation process, allowing almost all the players who saw it to put themselves in the criminal's first-person perspective.

The stark contrast between his arduous work under the scorching sun on the construction site and his inability to address the quality issues of the building itself created a powerful sense of disparity.

Upon seeing this information, all the players were stunned.

At the same time, they instantly understood why Cao Haichuan had been unable to provide proof before.

Because without revealing the specific details of the case, other players will absolutely not believe it. But once the details are revealed, everything will change, and it will be irreversible.

Wang Weidong was also stunned, because he thought of the rules of the game.

Before the game ends, the system will conduct a lie detector test on all players inside the room. If a player's true thoughts at this point are completely consistent with the previous voting results, they will be marked as a "perfect judge."

If there are fewer than 10 "Perfect Judges," then all players except the "Perfect Judges" and the "Spectators" will trigger an additional instant-death penalty.

The game's lie detection mechanism does not perform the lie detection during player voting.

Instead, it is detected at the end of the game.

In other words, if a player changes their opinion on a previous vote at the end of the game, for example, they originally thought the player was "guilty" but now think they are "not guilty," the lie detector mechanism will be triggered.

Only players who are completely identical will be marked as "Perfect Judges".

Clearly, as a murderer, Chen Peng's crimes are undeniable, leaving no room for ambiguity.

So when the initial abbreviated version of the criminal file appeared, the vast majority of the players in the inner circle voted "guilty" without even thinking.

This is indeed their true thought. Without knowing the specific details, they would not indiscriminately acquit a murderer.

However, after seeing the specific files and the actual footage, their thoughts instinctively changed.

According to the game rules, when a player believes that the sinner is "desperate" or "understandable," they should vote "not guilty."

Chen Peng is an honest man who has been driven to the brink of despair.

He used half his life savings to buy a house, but due to the salesperson's deliberate concealment, he bought a house that was completely uninhabitable. He tried everything but couldn't solve the problem, and finally, he had an emotional breakdown and chose to end his life.

This aligns with the concept of being "at one's wits' end." The concepts of "guilty" and "innocent" in the arcade are different from the law, and similar standards were applied in previous trial games.

Some criminals may be convicted even though their actions do not violate the law; and vice versa.

Players who have participated in other trial games or are familiar with the rules of other trial games will understand this point.

The lie detector mechanism in the arcade accurately captures players' instinctive reactions, and only a very few people can resist this instinct.

Worse still, the behavior of players inside the game inevitably reflects their behavior in real life, further amplifying this emotion.

This means that they will suffer an additional instant death penalty at the end of the game, and apart from a few players who can still escape death through the shelter, the rest of the players are beyond saving.

……

Fan Zehui momentarily lost control of his emotions and asked incredulously, "Are you crazy!"

"Aren't you going to kill off other players in your community as well?"

"You can choose not to tell the truth, and you won't trigger the lie detector punishment! So what if we voted for your community in the final vote? You'd be dead already, but the other people in Community 17 still have shelters, and they can survive!"

"But now that you've revealed the truth, won't the other players in Community 17 suffer two instant-death penalties in a row?"

Cao Haichuan shook his head: "No, they won't. Because from the very beginning, we cast a 'vote against our conscience'."

"Because I thought of this case, I was the police officer who handled the dispute at that time."

Everyone was stunned.

They then remembered that the voting period in the initial "rehearsal" of the second phase seemed to be much longer than in every subsequent vote.

They hadn't paid much attention at first, but now they realized it was probably because the 17th community had used a "vote against their conscience" after internal discussions.

Li Renshu refused Zhang Shichao's suggestion to use the "Insincere Ticket" because at that time, the players in Community 17 no longer had any "Insincere Tickets".

This insincere vote ensures that players in Community 17 will become "perfect judges" and will not suffer additional instant death penalties due to the lie detector mechanism.

Clearly, the so-called "rehearsal" at the beginning of the second phase was not to familiarize players with the rules of the game, but to lay a huge trap that could trap all players.

If no one points it out, the trap will not work.

But once someone brings it up, there's no going back.

Cao Haichuan continued, "There is actually another reason why I did this."

"In this game, there are other players besides our 5 communities and 30 spectators."

"Although the rules don't mention them and there's no trace of their existence, I'm very certain that they exist."

"Other players must have noticed this too, like Chen Guangming."

"However, you all tacitly chose not to say it."

"Of course, it's also possible that you didn't guess it, but learned about it because you received special information. In that case, you can't tell anyone and are forced to keep it a secret."

"But no matter what, these 'hidden players' have always existed in the game."

"Whether it's the order in which the nine-square grid is developed or the order in which criminals are tried, it's all decided by them."

"The gold coins paid for those land auctions should have all gone into their pockets as well."

(End of this chapter)