Chapter 36: Judgment Game Invitation

【Hello, Lin Sizhi.】

【"Blood Poker" has successfully stood out from all the proposals. You have once again proven your talent.】

【But the real game has only just begun.】

【Now, the Corridor issues a new design invitation to you:】

【In three days, the Corridor will conduct several different trial games simultaneously. The game assigned to you is: Case C.】

【In your desk drawer, you will find partial criminal files for the five sinners in Case C, along with their corresponding sentencing results.】

【In this game, the five sinners will be forced to participate, and an additional 10 uninvolved players will participate voluntarily.】

【If you believe the sentencing results for these five sinners are roughly fair and just, or if you simply do not care, do nothing.】

【If you believe that among these five sinners, there are heinous criminals who must undergo a trial of death, then design a game to deliver a more appropriate judgment upon them.】

【The "Corridor" will evaluate all submitted proposals and adopt the highest-rated plan to set up the game venue.】

【The 48-hour countdown begins now. Please make your choice.】

"Five forced sinners and ten voluntary uninvolved players?

"Let's look at their files first."

Lin Sizhi pulled open the drawer and took out the files and the proposal form.

Initially, he felt no particular emotional fluctuation, but upon seeing the names in the files, his eyebrows twitched involuntarily.

Because three of the people listed were actually people he knew.

Ding Wenqiang, Cai Zhiyuan, and Wang Yongxin.

The other two were names he had never heard of: Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui.

From the photos, Zhang Peng was a yellow-haired youth with a hairstyle similar to the "Shamate" subculture, his expression naturally carrying a hint of hooliganism; Gao Zhankui, on the other hand, was a burly, well-built middle-aged man with fleshy features and a menacing look on his face.

As he skimmed through their files, the wrinkles on Lin Sizhi's brow deepened.

Because a second unexpected situation had arisen

While the crimes and sentencing results for the three people he knew—Ding Wenqiang, Cai Zhiyuan, and Wang Yongxin—were clearly written, there was absolutely no relevant information for the other two strangers.

【Wang Yongxin, Male, 36 years old.】

【Occupation: CEO of "Speedy Delivery."】

【Through big data algorithms, he ruthlessly exploited crowdsourced delivery riders, leading to several serious traffic accidents and one case of a delivery rider dying from overwork.】

【Sentencing Result: Not tried.】

【Cai Zhiyuan, Male, 28 years old.】

【Occupation: Algorithm Programmer.】

【Primarily responsible for the development of AI, big data, and algorithms. The "City-Wide Pass" delivery system he spearheaded was adopted by multiple delivery companies.】

【Sentencing Result: Not tried.】

【Ding Wenqiang, Male, 53 years old.】

【Occupation: Large-item courier.】

【During his time as a courier, due to fatigue driving, he struck a delivery rider who ran a red light on an electric scooter, causing serious injuries that ultimately led to death.】

【Sentencing Result: Sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison for traffic accident offenses, with a 2-year suspended sentence (has compensated the family 400,000 RMB and obtained their forgiveness).】

【Zhang Peng, Male, 26 years old.】

【Occupation: Unemployed.】

【???】

【Sentencing Result:???】

【Gao Zhankui, Male, 45 years old.】

【Occupation: Delivery station manager.】

【???】

【Sentencing Result:???】

Lin Sizhi fell into deep thought.

The "crimes" of these three people were vastly different from those of Wei Xinjian.

Wang Yongxin and Cai Zhiyuan went without saying; their "crimes" did not violate any laws; at most, they could only be judged on a moral level.

If one had to face the penalty of death in a "Corridor" game simply for that, then perhaps very few people in the world would be entirely innocent.

As for Ding Wenqiang, his situation was slightly more serious, as he had directly caused a death in a collision.

However, Lin Sizhi believed this sentence was reasonable; Ding Wenqiang had already paid a sufficient price.

Ding Wenqiang's fatigue driving was likely due to the unreasonable workload imposed by the courier company, and a major cause of the accident was that the delivery rider had run a red light.

This was fundamentally different in nature from a hit-and-run driven by intense malice, like Wei Xinjian's.

As for the other two, Lin Sizhi did not know them and was unaware of their specific crimes, so he naturally could not pass judgment.

"Based on the known sentencing results, there aren't many obvious issues.

"So... should I choose to do nothing and forfeit this game?"

According to the Corridor's terms, if he felt these people did not need to be judged, there was no need to design a game or submit a proposal; he could simply do nothing.

But that would also mean forfeiting the design rights for this round.

Lin Sizhi pondered, quickly weighing the pros and cons of both decisions in his mind.

If he did not participate in the design of this trial game, he could naturally remain an outsider and enjoy his leisure time over the next few days without any burden.

However, if he did that, Lin Sizhi would not be able to guess what kind of game the Corridor would ultimately select.

It might choose a high-risk death game, resulting in the deaths of Wang Yongxin, Cai Zhiyuan, and Ding Wenqiang.

Of course, Lin Sizhi did not carry any excessive moral baggage or meaningless guilt; even if such a situation occurred, he would not consider his "inaction" to be the cause of their deaths.

But participating in the design of this trial game held other significance for Lin Sizhi.

On one hand, the deaths of these three could lead to the weakening of the entire 17th Community; if there were future community-vs-community confrontation games, the 17th Community might find itself at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, designing this game would help Lin Sizhi better grasp the hidden rules of the "Corridor."

To others who were unaware of the truth, the "Corridor" and the "God's Mimic" were equally dangerous entities capable of killing them.

But Lin Sizhi knew very well that as a game designer, whether his games could decide the fates of other players depended entirely on whether they were recognized by the Corridor.

In other words, the God's Mimic had to decipher the Corridor's intentions, figure out what kind of games would be encouraged, and design specifically for that to ensure his game was selected.

Otherwise, this identity would bring him nothing but unexpected danger without any other purpose.

In the previous two instances, the reason Lin Sizhi's games received the Corridor's recognition and even high praise was not necessarily because his games were perfect, but perhaps because they happened to align with the Corridor's deeper requirements.

But the Corridor's intentions were complex; he was still far from truly understanding them.

Therefore, Lin Sizhi believed it was best not to pass up this opportunity.

"Design a game with a less severe punishment that roughly matches the known crimes.

"If the Corridor selects my game, the survival rate of those three will increase.

"If the Corridor does not select my game, I will have at least made an effort."

Having made up his mind, Lin Sizhi picked up the game proposal to review it.

The format was the same as before, though the list of available props had changed compared to the previous two.

There were two particularly striking changes.

【2. Freely designable sets of mechanisms: 5 sets.】

【8. Case-related video tapes: 5 sets.】

Compared to the previous two cases, the freedom regarding props this time was extremely high.

"Case-related video tapes?"

Lin Sizhi attempted to flip through the subsequent pages, but the data did not specify the exact content of these tapes.

This meant he still could not know the specific crimes of Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui and could only rely on guesswork.

"Since these five people are arranged in the same game and there are related video tapes, it means...

"There is a high probability that the crimes of these five people are connected to some degree.

"Delivery, courier, algorithms, traffic accidents...

"The delivery company run by Wang Yongxin used the algorithm program developed by Cai Zhiyuan?

"But the two of them don't know each other and clearly aren't in the same company.

"That makes sense, though, because Wang Yongxin calls himself a 'startup boss,' and this delivery platform isn't particularly well-known; it should still be in its early stages. And the algorithm program developed by Cai Zhiyuan was likely sold to more than one delivery platform.

"Algorithms exploit delivery riders, increasing risks.

"As for Ding Wenqiang, he is a courier, and judging from the collision, he was likely driving a small truck or something similar to deliver relatively large items.

"The only intersection between the three is the delivery industry."

Lin Sizhi tapped the table lightly, many possibilities flashing through his mind.

After thinking for a long time, Lin Sizhi wrote down the name of his conceived game: "Life and Death Straight Line."

(End of Chapter)