God's imitator

Chapter 92 The Death of a Copycat

Zheng Jie suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment.

"That's right! How could Gao Jialiang have known in advance that 'stepping' would become a specific resource!"
"Even if there was a vague suspicion, it would be impossible to put it into practice so decisively at the first opportunity, right?"

Now he understood why Lin Sizhi had hinted that everyone should check the like/dislike ratios of some players.

Because the stronger the player, the more likely they are to receive praise and less criticism.

For example, Lu Xinyi is like that.

For strong individuals like them, there's always a way to get more likes.

Whether you use your personal charm or buy it with money, as long as you establish relatively stable meeting partners, you can consistently gain "likes".

Since they can get more likes, it means that in the eyes of the other party, they are very charming and willing to get along with each other, so the chances of them being disliked will be lower.

Because praise and criticism are two extremes of attitude, and they are inversely related.

Of course, this ratio of likes to dislikes must be strictly limited to the first 4 hours, because in the last 4 hours everyone realizes that 'dislikes' are also a resource for killing, and there will be situations where dislikes are exchanged to interfere with the data.

前4个小时的12次会面中，出现10个赞1个踩这种情况是正常的，出现7个赞0个踩这种情况也是正常的。

The latter might be because the person you're meeting has already given their likes to someone else, and you can't give them any more likes if you want to.

However, the situation of 6 likes and 5 dislikes is absolutely abnormal.

Unless the player actively asks for a "dislike" after discovering that the other person hasn't "liked" it.

Moreover, a 'meeting' is different from a 'talent show'.

If it's a talent show, actively seeking criticism is somewhat understandable, since it can be explained as "being criticized is still being criticized";
The meeting was more like a blind date. Would a normal person indiscriminately seek out others to criticize them during a blind date? This doesn't make sense in general.

Looking back now, does it make sense that Gao Jialiang appeared on the talent show stage so early, which means that he, like Zheng Jie, did not receive any "likes" in the first two meetings?

If he doesn't get it the second time, he can say that the other party has already voted and he didn't get the like. But if he had encountered a female player the first time, a handsome guy like him would never have missed it.

Therefore, the only reason is:
Gao Jialiang deliberately took more downs in the early stages in order to get himself on the draft first and get an extra 3 likes from the draft.

This has an added benefit: the killing rules update after 4 hours, making the draft more dangerous. Players who participate in the draft earlier will be safer.

On the big screen, Lin Sizhi did not stop, but continued speaking.

"Of course, Gao Jialiang could also argue that he had a sudden inspiration and guessed that 'dislikes' might play a role in the last 4 hours of the game, so he asked for 'dislikes' when he couldn't get 'likes'."

"Then how do you interpret Fang Wencong's data?"

As Lin Sizhi spoke, two more data points were broadcast.

[In the first four hours, Fang Wencong from Community 1 received 11% of the total number of likes and dislikes from meetings.]

[In the first four hours, the percentage of times that Fang Wencong, a player from Community 1, pressed the payment button before the other player after entering the meeting room was '100%'.]

"Fang Wencong always pressed the payment button without any consultation with the other party. As for what he pressed, you can roughly guess."

"After all, his 'likes' only account for 11% of the total 'likes and dislikes,' which also shows that he is actively seeking dislikes."

“『1/9=11%』。也就是说，在12次会面中，他获得了1个赞，8个踩。

“I was matched with him once. He was very nice. He not only brought me a bottle of mineral water, but also said that the bottle of mineral water was for the female player I was meeting.”

"Even if a player like that is a bit thin and not handsome, he shouldn't get so many 'dislikes', right?"

"Most female players, even if they dislike someone, won't deliberately click 'dislike,' since you only get one 'dislike' per hour. If they just generally dislike someone, they'll most likely just leave without commenting."

"So I guess he probably has two completely different faces when facing male and female players, and that bottle of mineral water probably didn't do what he said it would do."

"Considering that some female players in the talent show had water stains on their chests before, I guess Fang Wencong probably just splashed the mineral water directly on the female players who came to meet him."

"This is not considered violent behavior and will not violate any rules, but it almost guarantees that you will get 'stomped'."

"Because for the average player, it's easy to give a 'like,' but not so easy to give a 'dislike.' Players who intentionally seek dislikes will almost always get what they want, except in a few cases where the other party genuinely doesn't dislike them."

Zheng Jie thought about it and realized that, based on his experience in the first half of the game, it was easy to give "likes" to friendly players, while "dislikes" were only given to particularly malicious players.

Most people probably have more "dislikes" than "likes" left, especially in the early stages of the game.

Therefore, it is much easier to ask for dislikes than to ask for likes.

Lin Sizhi continued:

"Of course, I don't think Fang Wencong would splash water on everyone he met; that would be too deliberate."

"I guess he probably pressed the 'You Pay' button first and tried to argue with her. If she was good-tempered and didn't click the down button, he would throw water on her to force her to click it."

"I cannot verify the specific actions of Gao Jialiang and Fang Wencong, but female players who were matched with them can think back carefully to see if they actually did such things."

"If in this game, only one player realizes that he actively seeks to be downvoted in the first 4 hours, then I would tend to think that he is most likely a 'copycat of God', and less likely an innocent player who had a sudden inspiration."

"But at this time, the only two players who realized they had to actively seek 'dislikes' in the first 4 hours appeared in Community 1. Is this a coincidence?"

"Given that players from the same community are completely unable to communicate with each other after entering the game, there is only one conclusion:"
"They knew the rules of the game long before they even entered it."

"The identities of the two male players who initially killed Zeng Shiya and Liu Lin were naturally confirmed."

"It's those two."

"While other male players might also collect 5 'dislikes' early on, or might have a motive to kill due to being scammed out of money, they are unlikely to break through their psychological defenses so quickly. "In fact, no further murders targeting female players occurred in many subsequent meetings."

"The third female player to die was Zhao Duo, and there was a gap of more than an hour between her and the two female players who died earlier."

Zheng Jie suddenly realized, "That's right!"

In fact, he had already met that slovenly uncle Jiao Hongtao during the meeting when the two female players died.

Jiao Hongtao was tricked out of his visa time, received a lot of negative comments, and even threatened to retaliate during the meeting.

Although two female players died during that meeting, Jiao Hongtao was meeting with Zheng Jie and could not possibly be the murderer.

A long time passed after that, and there were no more cases of female players dying.

This means that although Jiao Hongtao had this idea, he was going through a mental struggle and did not implement it immediately. Instead, he used some of his criticisms to publish data.

Of course, Zheng Jie was unsure whether Jiao Hongtao was responsible for Zhao Duo's death later on.

But in any case, this is enough to confirm Lin Sizhi's statement: the deaths of the first two female players were not quite normal.

It seems more like it was premeditated.

On the big screen, Lin Sizhi continued:

"I think many people are probably speculating whether there are any 'copycats' in this game who are pushing things along. But at the moment, there is no one who can clearly fit the characteristics of a 'game designer'."

"The conflicts and mutual harm between players seem to be a natural slide, a spontaneous behavior of the players, without any specific external intervention."

"But now everyone should understand: the reason why we can't find the most suspicious person is because in this game, the 'copycat of God' is not fighting alone."

"She turned her community into a 'black shop,' revealing the game rules to other players in the community and assigning specific tasks before they even entered the game."

"The three tasks of killing, inciting, and broadcasting data were assigned to different players."

"Not only that, but after being matched with female players from other communities, all the players in Community 1 continued to incite them to make hate speech against male players during the draft."

"Some other communities have also contributed to this chaos in order to profit from it."

"Those who truly suffer are the players who fail to see the bigger picture."

"Zhao Duo is a case in point. Her thoughtless remarks during the talent show were incited by other female players. These words brought Zhao Duo a fatal disaster, while the real culprit managed to escape unscathed."

Lin Sizhi paused slightly before continuing, "So, why do I believe that Gao Jialiang is not a copycat, but merely an accomplice?"
"The reason is simple: I believe that copycats, when they are personally involved in the game and have absolute dominance within the community, will play the 'safest' role and take the least risk."

“Zhong Yuanyuan is the safest person in the entire No. 1 community. She has never asked anyone to step on her, never sent any broadcasts, and never killed anyone on her own initiative.”

"The other three people each took on different tasks."

"If Community 1 is really a shady business, then even if Zhong Yuanyuan was forced to participate in this game because of her limited visa time, the copycat would definitely assign her specific tasks, such as sending inflammatory broadcasts."

"It's impossible to allow her to win without doing anything."

"Only the copycat can have this privilege."

"Therefore, I believe that the imitator who designed this game is Zhong Yuanyuan."

"Of course, I might be wrong."

"There are other possibilities, such as Zhong Yuanyuan being an innocent person, and the copycat being one of the other three people in Community 1."

"But it doesn't matter if we guess wrong, as long as we kill all the other No.1 community players during the next draft or meeting."

"I've said my piece. Her fate is up to you."

As soon as Lin Sizhi finished speaking, the five-minute countdown for the talent show ended.

The audio system was switched to Zhong Yuanyuan.

She was so frightened that her face turned deathly pale, and she didn't even react for a moment when the voice system switched to her side.

Zhong Yuanyuan froze for a few seconds before hurriedly speaking up to defend herself.

"Listen to me, everyone, there's absolutely no such thing. I have no idea what he's talking about..."

However, before she could finish speaking, her voice abruptly stopped.

[Performer #2 received more than 20 "boring" comments; the performance was forcibly terminated.]

Performer number 2, Zhong Yuanyuan, will suffer an instant death penalty.

Zhong Yuanyuan felt a sharp pain in her wrist. She watched in disbelief as a black line climbed up her artery. Then, she felt dizzy and collapsed in front of the talent show camera.

Performer #1 received a total of 26 "Interesting" comments and an extra "Like".

Performer #2 received a total of 0 "Interesting" comments and an extra "Like".

[The "Imitation of God" who designed this game dies, and the game will end prematurely.]

All surviving players will share the entire visa time of the copycat.

【game over. 】

　Inspired by Zhang Ermao's "AA" series of blind date experiments on Bilibili, those who haven't seen it should check it out, it's very entertaining.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)