God's imitator

Chapter 272 Heart-killing
After a moment of silence, Wang Yongxin sighed, "This game was indeed very dangerous."

"Its danger lies not only in the large number of death rules, but also in the creation of a very brutal zero-sum game environment among numerous player groups."

"On the surface, it appears to be a conflict between the 'hidden players,' the 'insider players,' and the 'spectators,' but in reality, there is also a conflict within the 'community players.'"

"In the game, as long as you kill the other four players in your community, you can enjoy all the benefits for yourself."

"Moreover, this kind of murder can be carried out in a very covert manner."

"For example, if a core player in the game guesses that a certain action might trigger a chain reaction, then by arranging for a specific player to perform that action, it is very likely that the game rules can be used to eliminate him."

"Afterwards, you can simply say it was an oversight in your decision-making. Because there are many behaviors in this game that can trigger collective punishment, and there's no way to prove whether the core players didn't think of it or did it intentionally."

"That's why Chen Guangming was the only one in the 12th community to get all the community's gold coins."

The design of the "hidden player" is also quite insidious.

"Because this design didn't appear in previous games. In fact, as early as the first phase of land auctions, many players realized that the order in which the land plots were opened might be influenced by human factors."

"But most players will only think of 'audience voting' and find it hard to realize that there are hidden players."

"Whether it's the order in which the plots are opened or the order in which the sinners are announced, it will actually cause some insiders to transfer their hatred to the audience and naturally raise the price of the shelter, reaping gold coins from the audience as revenge."

"Therefore, the contradiction was cleverly shifted."

"Even if a few players realize this, they won't publicize it."

"On the one hand, not publicizing it can bring you additional benefits. For example, Chen Guangming realized this early on, invested a lot of gold coins to bid for land and became a 'privileged community', which earned him the favor of 'hidden players';

"On the other hand, publicizing this will bring disaster to your community. Because once the identity of the 'hidden player' is exposed, they will do everything they can to target the community that tells the truth."

"By adjusting the order of land auctions and the order of revealing criminals, 'hidden players' can directly target this community, causing them to suffer heavy losses before they even have time to take any self-protection measures."

"Therefore, although Officer Cao realized this relatively early, he could only remain silent."

"Because if he makes it clear too early, then the community being targeted might not be Community 7, but our community."

Cai Zhiyuan added: "The key point is that even if it is made clear, it will not change the current state of the game."

"On the contrary, it may encourage other communities to send money to hidden players more enthusiastically."

"To break this deadlock, at least three relatively righteous communities need to form an alliance and work together."

"But in the game, apart from our community being willing to do this, other communities are not."

"Community 12 and Community 15 only want the most profit."

“Community 7 has neither enough wisdom nor enough morality.”

"As for Community 9, it is slightly better than Community 7 in terms of morality, but it can only be described as being at the level of an average person. Its abilities are limited, and its stance is not particularly firm. With just the two of us communities, we can't change anything."

"So Officer Cao's decision was correct. In this situation, we can only choose to protect ourselves."

Zheng Jie nodded: "Yeah, if you put yourself in their shoes, most people who become 'hidden players' in the community would find it hard to resist that temptation..."

Being a "hidden player" does indeed have a significant advantage.

Because they are never mentioned in the game rules, ordinary players are completely unaware of their existence. Even if they are aware of the existence of the "hidden players," killing them would require using the game's hiding mechanics, which could potentially lead to a large-scale death of players inside the area.

In this situation, the "hidden player" might mistakenly believe that they are absolutely safe, or they might choose to take a gamble, hoping that a few inside players will not expose them even if they are aware of their presence.

From a game mechanics perspective, hidden players could try to increase the survival rate of players inside the game by adjusting the order in which the 3x3 grid opens and the order in which crimes are revealed, and persuade players inside the game not to sell their shelters at high prices. However, in reality, hidden players are unlikely to do this.

Based on the game's events, if Cao Haichuan hadn't ultimately used a hidden mechanism to kill these players, assuming there were five of them, each of them would have received over 70 gold coins.

The key is that there is no cost involved; they don't need to withdraw their original visa time as gold coins at all.

This also means that each of them can earn more than 15 minutes of visa time in the game, which is a huge temptation that is hard for ordinary players to resist.

Li Renshu then looked at Wang Yongxin: "Brother Wang, if you were in the game, how might you break the deadlock?"

After considering for a moment, Wang Yongxin said, "I might choose to forcibly seize the 'privileged community' from Chen Guangming."

"Then, try to form alliances with the 12th and 15th communities as much as possible, and in the final vote, cast your vote for the weakest community, the 7th community."

"Simply put, it means 'going with the flow'."

"I know this might not be the best approach, but if 'survival' is the primary goal, it might be the best way."

"Moreover, fewer people should die."

Li Renshu nodded. Wang Yongxin was quite frank on this issue, which was indeed in line with his usual style.

But at that moment, Wei Yinzhang, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "But..."

"If you do that, you'll probably fall into the trap of copycats."

Wang Yongxin was taken aback: "Why? From the perspective of game mechanics, doing this will not cause any additional harm other than losing a lot of gold coins."

Wei Yinzhang shook his head and explained, "Has anyone thought about why copycats would specifically choose a community to become 'hidden players,' with these hidden players deciding the order in which the nine-square grid is opened and the order in which the criminal files are released?"
"If it is merely to 'maximize the intensification of conflict,' he can achieve this goal entirely through specific rules."

"For example, land parcels are defaulted to being located in the most densely populated areas of the community, and criminals' files are published according to the number of people who committed crimes, from most to least or from least to most, etc."

"In this way, copycats can better ensure that the game proceeds as they expect."

"But what if the hidden player and the copycat have different ideas when these tasks are left to the hidden player?"

Yang Yuting lowered her head and pondered for a moment: "Perhaps it's because using specific rules or mechanisms would be more troublesome, making it impossible to adapt to the specific circumstances at the time."

Wei Yinzhang shook his head: "No, I think the real reason is:"
"If the rules determine everything, then the main conflict in this game will ultimately become the conflict between the 'players' and the 'copycats'."

"If we follow the current approach and let the hidden players decide everything, then the main conflict in this game will be the conflict between 'players' and 'players'."

"This is the effect that copycats really want to achieve."

“The ‘Shelter Game’ is not just a murder game; it is also a game of psychological manipulation.”

"The impact of 'slaying the heart' is not within the game, but outside of it."

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(End of this chapter)