Chapter 648: A Profile of the Imitator

Lu Bingjun gave a thoughtful nod, "Yes, there's something to that.

"Most Imitators weave specific intentions into their game designs, and analysing those intentions can genuinely help us judge an Imitator's stance and even begin to identify who they might be.

"That said, some design choices may simply be coincidental or unintentional, and more cases would be needed before anything could be confirmed.

"Either way, the fact that a seemingly well-intentioned Imitator has appeared in the Second Stage is a welcome development."

Ye Lin continued, "I think it's worth trying to build a profile of this Imitator.

"Their personal style comes through more distinctly in this game than it did in 'A Single Word to Settle a Case.'

"My feeling is that they may be a player with an artistic background.

"The set design in this game, including the architecture and the fine details of the steam train, would all need to have been designed and submitted by the Imitator themselves. That kind of work isn't achievable without the relevant knowledge and training.

"Rules can be written out in text, but the specific forms, lines, and shapes of a physical space are irreplaceable, and it would be extremely difficult to achieve a result this cohesive and stylistically unified through text description alone."

Huang Shengjie nodded along enthusiastically, "Right, I had the same feeling the moment I entered the game. The Imitator felt like an artist.

"Or at the very least, someone with strong hand-drawing skills."

Lu Qi looked uncertain, "But we don't actually know the specific mechanism by which the game's scenery is generated, do we? How can you be certain the scenes in this game were drawn rather than described in text?"

Ye Lin explained, "It's quite simple. Because this kind of thing almost never appears in other games.

"We can work from two assumptions.

"Assumption one: an Imitator doesn't need to draw anything specific. They only need to submit a detailed written description to the Gallery, and the Gallery automatically generates a uniquely styled, highly refined scene.

"Assumption two: no matter how detailed a written description is, it can only produce a relatively generic, template-like scene. A specific, refined, stylistically unified result cannot be generated from text alone.

"Which assumption fits what we've actually observed? Clearly the second.

"Because if assumption one were true, a large number of Imitators would already be using this approach to create distinctive scenes, whether to improve their chances of being selected or to mask their personal style. In that case, most games would consistently reach the level of 'Prison Factory' in terms of set design.

"But in reality, games achieving this standard of scenery are extremely rare.

"This tells us that many of the key scenes in this game were personally drawn by the Imitator. Whether or not they produced a fully finished, high-resolution original, they at minimum supplied outlines, linework, and shapes.

"Because text is ultimately abstract, and specific linework and form are irreplaceable."

Huang Shengjie nodded enthusiastically, "Right, that makes sense.

"So this Imitator has two distinct qualities or abilities.

"First, they have the technical foundation. Their profession must be directly related to hand-drawing or technical illustration. That level of work isn't achievable without professional training.

"Second, they must also have a certain aesthetic sensibility and cultural depth, because that's what allows all the visual details throughout the game to remain coherent and unified.

"Hmm, there probably isn't anyone like that in our community."

He glanced at He Qinyun and Shen Bowen. Their respective professions, product manager and mechanical engineer, made them the only two in the community who came even tangentially close.

He Qinyun quickly explained, "I'm a product manager, but the internal variation within that profession is enormous.

"People in my field come from all kinds of backgrounds. There might be individual product managers who started as graphic designers or have some other specialised background and can draw by hand, but I have none of that whatsoever."

Shen Bowen also shook her head, "Our field does require some basic drawing ability. There are situations where it's inconvenient to bring a laptop onto the workshop floor, so you might need to sketch shapes and dimensions by hand and later produce a formal drawing from those rough sketches.

"I did study mechanical drafting when I was a student.

"But in my actual work, I've mostly relied on drawing tools and modelling software. Most mechanical designs don't need to consider aesthetics at all, only practicality, so the focus is on performance requirements and parameters.

"Whatever hand-drawing ability I once had, I gave back to the teachers long ago. And I have a thoroughly scientific mindset. My sense of aesthetics is a complete disaster."

Lu Bingjun gave an approving nod, "This kind of Imitator does have a fairly distinctive professional profile. If anyone encounters players from other communities in future games, it's worth paying attention to this.

"For now though, there's no need to dwell on it further.

"As before, let's go and check the restocking situation after this game."

Everyone got to their feet and moved to the vending machine.

Lu Bingjun was first to check, as usual.

One thing had already been established during the previous check: when a player views their own restocking information on the community vending machine, other players cannot see it. In other words, the vending machine only displays that information to the specific player it belongs to.

This meant there was no way to force a player to check and then verify whether they had actually restocked.

Lu Bingjun finished his check quickly, "Ten bottles of each medication, same as before."

The other players each checked in turn.

Lin Sizhi also had ten bottles of each, and Ye Lin had zero, since neither of them had participated in the game.

All ten players who had participated in 'Prison Factory' could restock three bottles of each medication, six in total.

Zhang Yan had zero bottles.

These figures were self-reported, and other players had no way to verify them, but with no contradictory information emerging, they could be broadly accepted as reliable.

Qin Cheng was thoughtful, "It's the first scenario we predicted.

"Starting at 20 bottles, then 40, then 60, increasing by 20 each time.

"This game's total restocking quota has now reached 60 bottles. Ten players participated, so divided equally, that's three bottles of each medication per player.

"We still don't know whether there's an upper limit on this growth.

"But overall, this is the more optimistic of the scenarios we projected. At least it isn't doubling each time or following a geometric progression.

"Also, the new player who joined the community doesn't receive a restocking allocation."

Lu Bingjun nodded, "So right now, myself and Lawyer Lin hold 40 bottles' worth of quota, and the ten players from the game hold 60 bottles' worth. To buy all of that, at half the standard sale price, we'd need 45,000 minutes of visa time.

"Our community did well in this game across the board, so that number is still within an acceptable range.

"Spending 45,000 minutes of community fund to buy up and control this batch of medications looks somewhat wasteful, but it's not completely unacceptable.

"That said, if the next time it reaches 80 bottles, continuing to buy everything becomes a real strain."

He paused briefly and continued, "Keeping control of these medications should still be the consensus for the overwhelming majority of our community.

"Even if we can't control everything, we should factor in the costs and make the greatest effort to maintain at least partial control.

"So we need to revisit the approach now."