Chapter 57: Preference of the Corridor

Lin Sizhi paused slightly and continued to explain: "Take Cell No. 1, for example. The theme is 'Oxen and Horses Exhausted by Endless Toil.' It could be Cai Zhiyuan who enters, or Uncle Ding, or even Zhang Peng or Wang Yongxin.

"No matter who enters, a justification can be found.

"If Zhang Peng enters, it represents forcing idlers to begin laboring. If Wang Yongxin enters, it is to let the big boss, who makes money while lying down, experience the hardships of an ox or a horse.

"By the same logic, for Cell No. 2, 'Hanging the Streetlamp,' it could be Wang Yongxin or Gao Zhankui. If a capitalist can be hung from a streetlamp, why can't the capitalist's accomplice?

"As for Cell No. 3, any of them entering would make sense.

"Cell No. 4, 'Silence is Golden,' could also be Zhang Peng. Since Zhang Peng had been instigating Uncle Ding previously, his entry into Cell No. 4 would also fit the theme of silence being golden.

"Cell No. 5, 'Unwarranted Disaster,' and Cell No. 6, 'Heaven's Will,' are just like Cell No. 3; anyone entering could be given a somewhat reasonable explanation.

"The King can make relatively free arrangements. As long as he loudly announces the rationality of his decisions while making them, there will always be a segment of the audience that agrees, and the fairness rating won't drop too much.

"Of course, that assumes the King has a certain level of eloquence.

"Furthermore, even if the mechanism to judge the King is triggered prematurely, it isn't a major issue. Suppose Wang Yongxin is the King; even if he clearly favors Ding and Cai, as long as those two do not vote for execution, he remains safe."

Fu Chen fell into deep thought. "Hmm... that seems to be the case."

Lin Sizhi continued, "Returning to our previous topic. If Wang Yongxin were the King, it is also possible he would enter a cell himself. Of course, the probability is low, and he would only enter Cell No. 3.

"The King earns a lot of visa time in this game, and Wang Yongxin himself has plenty. If entering Cell No. 3 only results in a small deduction, he wouldn't mind much.

"As for Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui, I don't know much about them, so it's hard to make specific guesses.

"But from a game mechanics standpoint, a purely evil person in this game isn't necessarily doomed to die.

"If the King starts by throwing only two prisoners into cells and then torments one of them mercilessly just to get tips from the audience, the fairness rating will certainly hit zero quickly, triggering the judgment.

"But as long as the prisoner being favored by the King does not vote for execution, the King is safe.

"And there is only one chance to vote on the judgment of the King. Once that vote passes, the King can do whatever he wants.

"Of course, the actual situation is much more complex; I am merely making a hypothesis based on the game mechanics."

Cao Haichuan nodded. "True. So, compared to these four, what is Uncle Ding's greatest disadvantage in this game?

"I think it's two words: *contradiction*.

"Uncle Ding is the most contradictory person among these five.

"Consequently, during different stages of the game, he employs many different standards.

"This results in him neither achieving the highest fairness rating nor being fully loathed by all the prisoners."

Cao Haichuan exhaled a cloud of smoke and continued

"Of course, if Uncle Ding had known about the fairness voting, perhaps things would have been different. But unfortunately, the limitations of the game mechanics gave him no opportunity to know."

Fu Chen frowned. "I was going to say earlier that deliberately hiding the fairness voting from the King is indeed somewhat unfair."

Lin Sizhi shook his head. "I actually find this mechanism quite reasonable.

"Because the King is inherently the powerful party, holding almost absolute initiative on the field. If he knew the fairness voting existed, he could correct his behavior without hesitation and remain invincible.

"The Corridor and the Mimics would not allow such a situation to occur.

"Moreover, this fairness voting mechanism, much like 'The Farmer's Walk,' carries a specific symbolic meaning.

"In reality, every subject of a King performs a fairness vote on the King in their hearts, and the King never knows exactly how many points he has left.

"It is like the poem says: *The waters that overturn the boat are the tears of the common people; until they overflow, the monarch remains unaware.*

"A King will never know when judgment will descend upon his head, nor will he even know if such a judgment is currently underway. By the time he sees the judgment, it is already too late.

"Furthermore, it is not the audience, but the prisoners who truly decide the King's fate.

"Just as in reality, once the subjects lose trust in the King, it is often not the subjects but the prisoners and slaves most persecuted by the King who ultimately decide whether he is pushed to the guillotine.

"In short, it is precisely because this series of game mechanics is so realistic and ingenious that it exacerbates Uncle Ding's specific trait.

"The reason Uncle Ding is so contradictory is that he has been suppressing a fire within him. He has always felt that the world is unfair and has hated that unfairness.

"There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but when he becomes a beneficiary of such unfairness, he is more likely to make extreme decisions.

"Because he believes that repaying unfairness with unfairness is true fairness.

"Just as he questioned in the game: *On what grounds?*

"Even with 18,000 minutes of visa time, he refused to pay.

"This isn't just due to stinginess; it is his obsession with fairness that drives him to act so irrationally."

Fu Chen was lost in thought. "So, the more one cares about fairness, the easier it is to fall into the trap of Cell No. 3...

"Then, did the game designer guess Uncle Ding's personality based on his profession and files, or... had he seen or known Uncle Ding before?

"And what is his motive for calculatingly causing Uncle Ding's death?

"A personal grudge? Or is it... visa time?"

Lin Sizhi thought for a moment. "If it's about harvesting visa time, it makes perfect sense.

"Because there is an extreme possibility in this game: Uncle Ding kills all four prisoners, at which point the fairness rating hits zero, triggering the mechanism to judge the King, resulting in four default execution votes.

"In that case, a total wipeout outcome is achieved. Whether it's the visa time the audience tips to Uncle Ding, or the remaining visa time of Uncle Ding and the four prisoners, it would all be harvested.

"That would be an astronomical number."

Fu Chen fell silent for a moment before asking, "By the way, which community was Uncle Ding playing with in 'Blood Poker'? I remember it was Community No. 1?"

Lin Sizhi said no more, and all three fell into silence.

Cao Haichuan stubbed out his cigarette. "We've deduced as much as we can. Without more evidence, thinking deeper might be counterproductive.

"Besides, these are all pure speculations; we might just be playing a battle of wits against thin air.

"What if the designer really didn't think that much? What if these are all just coincidences? That possibility isn't ruled out either.

"Just treat what I've said as nonsense.

"It's late. Go back and rest."

...

Lin Sizhi returned to his room, washed up, and turned on his computer.

There were no new messages.

This meant that the Corridor would likely not open again for at least the next three days.

He opened the rules for 'King's Judgment' once more.

This was the second S-rank game to appear in the Corridor. Previously, even 'Blood Poker,' which was the only one chosen among all the Mimic proposals, had only been an A-rank.

Originally, Lin Sizhi had guessed that perhaps the files sent to each Mimic by the Corridor were different, and that he had failed to design a game that closely matched because he was unaware of Zhang Peng's and Gao Zhankui's crimes.

The Mimic who designed 'King's Judgment' had received three open files that included Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui, thus designing a more rigorous game.

But looking at the situation in 'King's Judgment,' this Mimic also didn't seem to be entirely certain of what Zhang Peng's and Gao Zhankui's crimes actually were.

'Silence is Golden' seemed to be guessed through Gao Zhankui's status as a station manager; after all, that position makes it hard not to instigate delivery drivers. 'Unwarranted Disaster,' on the other hand, felt more like a catch-all category that could fit any mistake.

The crimes of Zhang Peng and Gao Zhankui were not particularly severe. Even if Lin Sizhi had known in advance and improved his design, it wasn't guaranteed he would have been selected.

Therefore, Lin Sizhi still had to figure out the crucial question: why did the Corridor ultimately choose 'King's Judgment' instead of the game he designed?

Looking at the content, the game Lin Sizhi designed, 'Life and Death Straight Line,' also considered themes like algorithmic exploitation and guessed that these five people were likely involved in the same case.

So, the core difference shouldn't lie there.

Lin Sizhi considered two possibilities.

The first possibility was that his designed game lacked sufficient danger. Although it was called 'Life and Death Straight Line,' the actual probability of death in his game was very low.

This was because Lin Sizhi sincerely believed that Ding Wenqiang, Cai Zhiyuan, and Wang Yongxin's crimes did not warrant death, and they shouldn't have to face a trial game with such a high mortality rate.

A forcibly designed game that barely matched their crimes would naturally only be a low-mortality game.

The greatest advantage of the 'King's Judgment' designer compared to Lin Sizhi was that he was not restricted by the specific crimes of these five players; he didn't care at all whether the game resulted in catastrophic casualties.

According to the rules of 'King's Judgment,' it was possible for a "five-person wipeout" or a situation where "only one person remains alive" to occur.

The second possibility was that his designed game lacked specificity.

Because it was a multiplayer game, Lin Sizhi had not targeted a specific player through game mechanics, unlike his previous design for Wei Xinjian.

In contrast, 'King's Judgment,' besides being extremely targeted toward Ding Wenqiang, also used clever designs for the cells to cater to the Corridor

At first glance, they seemed to perfectly match everyone's crimes, but upon closer inspection, one would find significant room for ambiguity; they were not in an absolute one-to-one relationship.

This could also be seen as a better kind of "test-taking technique."

Lin Sizhi wasn't sure which reason it was, or if it was both.

He stared at the rules of 'King's Judgment,' lost in thought.

"Perhaps for the Corridor, from the very beginning, it doesn't matter whether the game's punishment intensity strictly matches the criminals' crimes.

"Ding Wenqiang has already received the punishment he deserves from the law, and from a legal standpoint, Cai Zhiyuan has done nothing wrong.

"Yet the Corridor still dragged them into this cruel trial game.

"According to the description in the rules, the purpose of the Corridor is 'Purge and Judge'—to purge the useless and judge the sinful.

"The 'sinners' the Corridor refers to are not merely criminals in the legal sense, but are closer to the concept of 'original sin,' related to the weaknesses of human nature.

"A trial game can not only judge players for their existing crimes but can also trigger the original sin within their humanity through 'entrapment' and impose devastating punishments.

"In such a case, the Corridor would still give a high rating.

"In the game, those who cannot see through the rules, those whose original sin is triggered, and those who cannot overcome human weakness will all be deemed unworthy of surviving in the New World by the Corridor.

"For players, they must achieve at least one of these three things to have a chance of surviving the trial game.

"For the Corridor, as long as a Mimic's submitted game satisfies one of these three criteria, it may pass the audit; if it satisfies all three, it may receive an S-rank.

"As for whether the players live or die, whether the judgment is just or unjust, whether it is fair, or whether the designer has personal motives... none of these are within the Corridor's considerations."

(Patch added in Chapter 12: Mimics who obtain an S-rank can hide the visa time they obtained through their Mimic identity in any public setting.)