God's imitator

Chapter 84 The Dead Appear

As the only female player who exchanged likes with him, the two had previously made a verbal agreement: after Zheng Jie confirmed the like, he would give Zhou Rong a voucher for 10,000 minutes of visa time, and Zhou Rong would confirm that they would exchange likes during their last meeting.

Now that the first step of exchanging likes has been completed, Zheng Jie thought that if the other party accepted the invitation, he would immediately fulfill his promise to buy a voucher and give it to Zhou Rong at the next meeting to further build mutual trust.

If all goes well, the two can even keep matching and meeting until the game ends.

In this way, the two people don't need to be matched with other strangers, and thus both are safe.

However, shortly after the invitation was sent, a rejection message popped up.

"what……"

Zheng Jie's initial anticipation sank again.

Clearly, Zhou Rong was the safest person for him to meet, but he was not the same for Zhou Rong.

Among the many male players who invited her, Zhou Rong would inevitably choose those who seemed to have more "good" qualities; this was the same safety strategy.

"Ugh."

Zheng Jie lowered his head in frustration. Although he was disappointed with the result, he felt that he wasn't entirely wronged.

The exchange of likes had already been completed long ago; he could have invited Zhou Rong before the second phase of the murder rules were updated.

But Zheng Jie hesitated and did not send an invitation immediately.

Now that the second phase has updated the rules for killing, everyone is on edge. Sending out a meeting invitation now is indeed a bit late and would seem like he has ulterior motives.

It's perfectly normal for Zhou Rong to be wary of herself.

Perhaps she has already found someone more trustworthy to match with?

Zheng Jie had no choice but to accept random matching again.

However, just as he was about to open the door and enter the meeting room, a broadcast message appeared on the large screen.

[Fang Wencong from Community 1 broadcasts a data message to all players.]

[In the meeting room, the percentage of female players who agreed to split the bill (going Dutch) was 7% when male players suggested it.]

Zheng Jie was taken aback. He remembered Fang Wencong.

It was the guy I met on my third visit to the meeting room.

He wasn't handsome, but he was quite friendly to Zheng Jie.

At this critical juncture, why are you still arguing about splitting the room fee? Don't you understand the situation at all?

[Players must enter the meeting room immediately; failure to do so will result in instant death.]

Zheng Jie, too lazy to pay attention to this inexplicable data, quickly opened the door and went to the meeting room.

Upon seeing the other person's gender, Zheng Jie instinctively tensed up.

It's a man.

【Community 8 - Jiao Hongtao】

This was a disheveled, dejected-looking middle-aged man. Zheng Jie had some recollection of him; it seemed that he was the first person to appear on a talent show and then quickly get 20 "boring" comments before his signal was cut off.

Moreover, he also appears to have made inflammatory broadcasts.

This person must have received a lot of criticism, so it's hard for Zheng Jie not to worry.

Jiao Hongtao plopped down in the chair opposite him and quickly pressed the "I Pay" button.

"I'll treat you to this meeting. When you leave, please give me a 'step on' comment."

Jiao Hongtao's voice was very low.

Zheng Jie had a bad feeling. He tentatively asked, "What do you want to do by stepping on me?"

Jiao Hongtao suddenly looked up and glared at Zheng Jie: "Why the hell do you talk so much nonsense?"
“Step on me, or I’ll kill you right now!”

Zheng Jie quickly raised his hands to signal the other party to calm down: "Okay, okay! I'll 'step' on you right away."

"Okay, I've already clicked 'dislike'."

Jiao Hongtao then lowered his head again, staring blankly at the empty space in the meeting room: "I was cheated out of 20,000 minutes of visa processing time, 20,000 minutes!"

"Those bastards, they all swore they'd keep their promises, but then they wouldn't accept my invitation for the next meeting! And so many people are giving me negative comments..."

"Since they are heartless, don't blame me for being unjust."

"I'm going to use all the 'stomps' they gave me to get back the visa time that was stolen from me!"

Zheng Jie opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately swallowed it back.

He could tell that Jiao Hongtao was in a very unstable mental state at this time, and the first four hours of the game seemed to have dealt him a lot of blows.

As for how to get back the visa time that was stolen...

Obviously, it's impossible for him to meet with the female players who tricked him.

Because the person who reported him would definitely not accept his meeting invitation again, and the probability of the two of them being randomly matched together next is also very low.

Jiao Hongtao's next move will most likely involve indiscriminate killing.

Kill the next unlucky female player he's matched with.

Zheng Jie wanted to persuade him, but he knew that his advice would most likely be useless and would instead put him in danger.

The two remained silent as they ended the meeting.

Zheng Jie finally breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the meeting room.

He certainly didn't criticize Jiao Hongtao; he just did what Lu Xinyi did before, placing his hand next to the button and pretending to press it.

But this didn't mean much, because Zheng Jie knew that Jiao Hongtao must have already done enough "stepping" (a form of criticism).

Whether or not you give him the "step" button only affects whether he will kill the second person; it cannot prevent him from killing the first person.

It's even possible that they won't be able to stop the second one.

According to the rules updated in the second phase, if a player has any unused "likes" or "dislikes" at the end of the game, each one will deduct an additional 1 minutes of visa time.

Even if I don't give points to Jiao Hongtao, other male players will always give them to him.

"Oh no, oh no..."

Zheng Jie walked back to his dressing room, his mind in turmoil.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw two names appear on the big screen, slowly crossed out by a bright red line.

In other words, both players were killed during their last meeting.

Zheng Jie swallowed nervously and carefully checked the two people's names.

[Community 9 - Zeng Shiya]

[Community 12 - Liu Lin]

"Liu Lin..."

Zheng Jie didn't know Zeng Shiya and couldn't find her. Moreover, it seemed that she hadn't participated in any talent shows before.

But he remembered Liu Lin; they had been matched with the same player before, and it had even caused a bit of an unpleasantness.

I never expected that when I heard that name again, it would be a line of cold, crossed-out text on the big screen.

"Strange, Jiao Hongtao just met with me, and we haven't even had a chance to make a move yet, have we?"
"Could it be... that besides him, there are two other players who have already started killing people??"

Although he was reluctant to believe it, the facts were right in front of him, leaving Zheng Jie no choice but to accept it.

He looked at the big screen with some anxiety; a new round of talent shows had begun.

Unlike the last time when the two of them were crying, this talent show has seen some changes.

The first performer was a young man wearing round-framed glasses. Although he wasn't particularly handsome, he had a smile on his face and seemed to be the cheerful and optimistic type.

Before the performance officially began, he also gave a speech to encourage all the players.

"I know everyone is probably panicking right now, and so am I, but I want to say:"

"This game doesn't have a mechanism that requires you to kill other players. In the end, it just incites hatred and greed among us to make us kill each other."

"I hope everyone can calm down and remain as rational and restrained as possible. The 'likes' or 'dislikes' in the killer's hands are not unlimited. As long as most people remain rational, we can all survive this game."

(End of this chapter)