Chapter 735: Counterfeit Medication

He Qing's expression flickered unpredictably, the corner of his eye twitching with anger.

Unlike Liang Guicheng, though, he showed none of that same shock or collapse. He seemed to have already braced himself for this outcome.

He turned to Wen Wan, his eyes filled with unmistakable malice.

Because up to this point, she was the only player whose crime hadn't been exposed, which meant she stood to be the biggest beneficiary of this entire game.

Wen Wan defended herself instinctively, "I never entered your number!"

But that kind of denial clearly wasn't going to convince He Qing, and she had no way to prove it either way.

Just then, the broadcast sounded again.

[The crime number of Wen Wan (E-commerce) has been correctly guessed by at least 2 offender players. Crime has been exposed.]

[Wen Wan's crime: Operated an online store through unofficial channels, selling high-quality counterfeit goods. Over 5 years, cumulative sales revenue totalled 930,000 yuan.]

[Sentencing outcome: Not yet tried.]

[All audience members, please cast your votes to complete the First Trial.]

[The results of the trial vote for Wen Wan (E-commerce) are now announced:]

[Guilty: 14 votes]

[Not Guilty: 13 votes]

[Charge established in the First Trial. The offender will receive the Instant Death Penalty.]

Wen Wan's vision went dark for a moment. She nearly lost her footing.

Her crime number had been exposed after all.

The situation had turned again, sharply.

In the waiting room, Huang Shengjie began pacing anxiously.

Of course, Wen Wan wasn't going to die immediately. Lu Bingjun would surely use the Death Exemption Ticket to save her. And based on the vote tally, hers was actually the most favourable of anyone's so far, needing only 10 Sympathy Votes to clear her name. She had already accumulated 17 over the course of the game.

Even so, Huang Shengjie couldn't shake his unease. A strong, ominous feeling was building in him.

Ye Lin's expression turned grave. "Among these five offenders, there's someone with genuinely extreme malice hidden in there, and probably more than one.

"Wen Wan did put some real thought into how she confessed, which is why her number stayed hidden as long as it did.

"But unfortunately, it wasn't enough to see her through to the end."

Huang Shengjie thought it over, "You mean she deliberately misled the others about her sales figures?"

Ye Lin nodded, "Yes.

"When Wen Wan confessed voluntarily, she gave an explanation of her actions, and somewhere in there, whether deliberately or not, she said one particular line: 'My total sales figures were fairly substantial by the end.'

"That was almost certainly a piece of false information she planted on purpose.

"Hearing that, the other offenders would naturally assume she was downplaying it, that if she was calling it 'fairly substantial' herself, the real number was probably enormous.

"Likely in the millions, possibly even into the tens of millions.

"Which would make the first digit of a four-digit number easy to guess, either 0 or 1.

"But once they confirmed the first digit was 0, they'd likely guess the second digit working downward, 9, 8, 7, 6, or 5, 4, 3, 2.

"In reality, her second digit was also 0.

"That deliberately delayed how quickly the others could work out her full number.

"If these offenders had been a little kinder, or a little less sharp, Wen Wan might genuinely have gotten away with it, keeping her number concealed all the way to the end.

"But unfortunately, she underestimated just how sharp and how ruthless some of these offenders actually were."

Ye Lin sighed, "There must have been more than one offender deliberately guessing out of sequence.

"Each digit only allows 5 guesses, but there are more than a dozen opportunities to return to the waiting room over the course of the game.

"Some players started guessing right away, like Liang Guicheng. With good luck, he'd land on the answer quickly, with bad luck, or the wrong approach, he'd keep missing.

"But some players deliberately held their guesses in reserve.

"They didn't guess early on. Instead, they waited until most of the other numbers had already been figured out, then used the relative difficulty of the numbers that hadn't been guessed yet to eliminate possibilities.

"For instance, once they noticed Wen Wan's number had gone unguessed for so long, they could reasonably infer the first two digits were likely 00 or 01.

"Mix in a bit of luck, and you end up exactly where we are now.

"That's why I recognised from the start that concealing your number wasn't a reliable strategy. Confessing early was always the safer bet."

Huang Shengjie nodded, "Your read was right, Sister Ye Lin. Concealment really didn't have great odds.

"The one bit of good news is that we gave her the advice early, and she confessed, so her vote tally still came out favourable.

"But I still can't shake this bad feeling.

"Should we use the broadcast now?"

Ye Lin's brow furrowed, "We can't message her privately though. Using the broadcast means every player on the floor would hear it.

"If it backfires, it could put her in an even worse position.

"Her situation is still reasonably favourable for now. Let's wait a bit longer and see."

On the large screen, all five offenders had left their Production Rooms, having completed the ninth batch.

Just then, a new broadcast rang out.

[A player from Community 22 has chosen to send a broadcast to all players.]

Huang Shengjie paused, because Community 22 was an Audience Community, with no offender of their own on the floor.

Under the rules, Regular Audience Members had two opportunities to assist an offender: a written suggestion and a broadcast. An audience community with no offender in the game had no obvious reason to use that feature at all, since it cost visa time regardless.

But what came next left every player stunned.

"God damn it! Every single one of the bottles I bought does absolutely nothing! They're all fake! Fake!"

The broadcast continued, and the fury in the voice was unmistakable.

"My pain flared up just now, so I opened a bottle. Nothing.

"Thought maybe it was a yield rate issue, so I opened another. Still nothing!

"None of this medication does anything at all!

"I don't know if it's just our community that got unlucky and ended up with a bad batch, or if all of it is like this!

"What the hell were the players doing the inspection even for!

"Everyone, check right now whether your medication actually does anything. Right now!"

Huang Shengjie froze.

He and Ye Lin hadn't bought any medication at all from start to finish, so there was no way for them to test it themselves.

But he could easily imagine the extreme fury that player must have felt on realising the medication was useless.

The game was nearing its end by this point, and nearly every batch produced so far had already been snapped up by the audience. Bidding wars hadn't been common, but the total volume sold was still a staggering figure.

A moment later, another broadcast came through, this time from a different Audience Community.

[A Community 7 audience member has chosen to send a broadcast to all players.]

"All the medication is fake.

"Including the very first batch.

"All of it. Does. Nothing."

This broadcast was even shorter than the last, but its impact and destructive weight were far greater.