Chapter 700: A Deeper Imitator

After considering for a moment, Qin Cheng said, "While Brother Lu was walking us through the game, we were all putting ourselves in the players' positions and thinking through the decisions. We've had a thorough look at the details, so I'll go straight to my conclusion.

"On the whole, I think the decisive factor in losing this game was something that happened outside the game, not within it.

"Community 6's greatest advantage was that all three of their players had a complete picture of each other's crimes. That kind of openness clearly happened before the game, back in their community.

"It's actually quite unusual, and it goes against how most people behave.

"The overwhelming majority of players, even if they know what they did wrong, would not want to reveal it to people in their own community.

"My guess is that Zheng Qingyun had found some kind of leverage over the other two, used it to compel them to disclose their crimes, and from there turned them into instruments he could control completely.

"Those two didn't enter the game out of any real willingness or sense of mutual support. It looks more like the result of being under Zheng Qingyun's thumb.

"His intentions were malicious, but it happened to work in his favour in this particular game.

"Because all three of them knew exactly what the others had done, they could use each other's crimes as confession material at any time, which made distributing the penalty counts much more manageable.

"And because they already knew what kind of people they were each dealing with, there was no illusion to shatter. There was none of the built-up expectation that led to the sudden fracture between Wei Changfeng and Gao Teng.

"If Wei Changfeng had recognised the danger Gao Teng was carrying earlier and worked to address it before the game, perhaps things could have gone differently.

"Of course, that's all hindsight from a position of perfect information."

Shen Bowen thought for a moment, "That's easy to say but almost impossible to do in practice.

"Consider what it would mean right now if someone said, let's all reveal our crimes to each other so we can understand one another better and be better prepared for future Judgment Games.

"That would be completely pointless.

"The three players on Zheng Qingyun's side were an extreme exception. It's not something that can be replicated."

Qin Cheng didn't push back, because this was consistent with his own view.

"Exactly, which is why I said it's hindsight from a position of perfect information.

"From the perspective of an ordinary player, I don't think Wei Changfeng made any major strategic errors in this game.

"There were small missteps, certainly, and quite a few of them.

"But I think those small missteps came from character weaknesses particular to each person involved, and couldn't have been avoided.

"The real reason this game turned out so brutal is that the Imitator designed it with specific targets in mind."

Huang Shengjie also saw where this was leading, "So this also explains what we've been wondering about all along, doesn't it?

"From what Lawyer Lin and Sister Bowen described, their communities had Imitators who revealed themselves openly and shared information that only an Imitator could know.

"But Community 2 never had that, which is why information about the Imitator has always been so scarce here.

"The real reason is that Gao Teng, who had originally planned to reveal his identity, was stopped by Wei Changfeng, and never went public. He only shared information privately with Wei Changfeng.

"If it had just been Gao Teng keeping his identity to himself, there might still have been moments where something slipped through and raised suspicion.

"But Wei Changfeng, as the community leader, could actively avoid opening any investigation into the Imitator and cover for Gao Teng at every turn. That would reduce the chances of Gao Teng being discovered to almost nothing."

Qin Cheng gave a slight shake of his head, "No, it doesn't explain it.

"Because all that tells us is that there was originally another Imitator in the community, one who was hidden even deeper.

"Who designed ‘Remorse Poker’?

"The game's only survivor, Ma Boheng, is technically a suspect, but I still think it's more likely the Imitator is from our own community.

"They almost certainly knew about Gao Teng and Wei Changfeng's arrangement from the start. When they saw Gao Teng's file, that's what allowed them to produce a game so precisely targeted at him.

"There's also another detail worth noting. In Gao Teng's final confessions, he said he really had designed a game to kill Deng Xiao.

"His original draft was discovered by Xu Yili and destroyed, but he eventually completed it afterward.

"And we also know that Deng Xiao died in ‘A Single Word to Settle a Case’, which was long after Gao Teng's own death.

"If ‘A Single Word to Settle a Case’ was based on the design that Xu Yili tore up, then who was it that eventually made it a reality?

"Which raises the question of whether this is possible: Gao Teng showed his draft to another Imitator within the community, or left it somewhere it could be found.

"Gao Teng didn't know the specific details of Deng Xiao's crimes at the time. He worked from Deng Xiao's profession as a fitness trainer to make inferences and designed a rough prototype.

"Then, when Deng Xiao's actual crime file came through, that other Imitator used Gao Teng's prototype as a foundation and developed it into ‘A Single Word to Settle a Case’.

"If that reasoning holds, then it's very likely that more of the deliberately targeted and malicious games in this community came from that same Imitator."

Sensing the chill that had settled over the room, Qin Cheng said, with a trace of resignation, "I can't be the first person to have thought of this.

"If any of you debriefed ‘Remorse Poker’ and then saw what happened with ‘A Single Word to Settle a Case’, you should have reached the same conclusion long ago.

"So, could you try not to look quite so shocked?

"Brother Lu decided today to bring the full truth of ‘Remorse Poker’ back into the open. Everyone should already have come to some kind of terms with where that leads."

Lu Bingjun was quiet for a moment, then said, "Qin Cheng is right. I've had the same suspicion.

"There is another Imitator in this community, one who has stayed hidden."

Huang Shengjie asked with some curiosity, "So why did Gao Teng want to kill Deng Xiao in the first place? Did the two of them have some kind of personal grudge within the community?"

Lu Bingjun paused for a moment, "It wasn't a deep grudge, but there was real friction between them.

"As I mentioned earlier, before Gao Teng had demonstrated any of his ability, a lot of players in the community saw him as a liability and didn't want to be grouped with him.

"Some showed it more obviously than others.

"Deng Xiao was the one who showed it most openly. After a poor result in one game, he said some very unkind things to Gao Teng.

"Wei Changfeng and I both came down on him hard afterward, but knowing Gao Teng's temperament, it wouldn't be surprising if he held onto that.

"And there was also the fact that Deng Xiao was a fitness trainer. He naturally got along well with the female players in the community, and that was probably another thing that didn't sit well with Gao Teng."

Huang Shengjie nodded, "That makes sense."

Both men were dead, after all, and the dead deserved a measure of peace.