Chapter 676: Two Strategies

Huang Shengjie asked in some surprise, "Lawyer Lin, you participated in an S-tier Judgment Game as the accused and came out unharmed?"

Lin Sizhi shook his head, "Not exactly. I've never been through my own Judgment Game yet.

"I participated in an S-tier Judgment Game as an audience representative. There was no risk to my life."

Huang Shengjie's expression relaxed somewhat. If Lin Sizhi had faced an S-tier Judgment Game as the accused and walked away unscathed, that would have been alarming, almost incomprehensible in terms of what level of player he would have had to be.

Finding an S-tier game overwhelming and then working to improve because of it was still within the range of what a normal player could experience.

Lin Sizhi paused briefly and continued, "At this point, the overall underlying framework of the Gallery is actually fairly clear.

"The deepest layer is the 'Gallery's will,' meaning the Gallery has intentions about what kinds of behaviour and qualities it wants players to demonstrate. This is the most fundamental direction, one that even Imitators must follow.

"The middle layer is the 'Imitator's mindset.' Within the Gallery's broader framework, Imitators can infuse a great deal of their own thinking when designing games.

"So they have to ensure the game maintains a basic level of fairness and strategic depth, while at the same time creating as many obstacles for players as possible, or working toward some personal objective or specific outcome.

"And the outermost layer is the 'player's mindset': observing the rules within the game, formulating strategies, and executing specific gameplay.

"It's like an exam. Using experience and on-the-spot judgment to solve problems works correctly most of the time, but occasionally leads to a serious misjudgement. If you can clearly understand the intent of the person who set the exam, however, even with some imperfection in your method, the final result will almost always be good."

Huang Shengjie nodded in understanding, "I see.

"Everyone has always said an Imitator entering their own game would have a huge advantage, since all the rules are transparent to them, and that information gap alone is enough to put them far ahead of ordinary players.

"But if a player can guess the Imitator's thinking, as Lawyer Lin described, then their performance in the game can come very close to that of the Imitator themselves.

"But that's easy to say, like 'know yourself and know your enemy and you will never be defeated.' The real question is how you actually put it into practice."

Lin Sizhi continued, "Let's use this game as an example.

"After reading through the basic rules and picking up the Character Dossier, I was already asking myself a question: how exactly was the Imitator going to ensure this game's fairness?

"Based on previous game experience, different game types handle fairness differently.

"Judgment Games and elimination-type games are the most unfair. When designing those types, as long as the Imitator can exploit human weaknesses, some relatively uninvolved players can be placed in an almost certain-death position, functioning as cannon fodder.

"Distribution-type and selection-type games tend to be comparatively fairer. Even if there are advantaged and disadvantaged roles, the disparity cannot go too far.

"A powerful role can have a clear advantage over a weaker one, as with the distinctions between salespeople, doctors, and patients in the Pain Game. But two points are worth noting.

"First, if this disparity is too large, it appears to lower a game's rating.

"Second, roles of the same tier must be broadly equal to each other.

"In the Pain Game, for instance, Ye Lin, you and Chen Guangming were both salespeople. Your in-game privileges were essentially equivalent.

"Of course, if a game has an 'asymmetric confrontation' structure, an extremely dominant role might appear.

"But in asymmetric confrontation games, there tend to be explicit rules encouraging or even requiring the weaker-role players to cooperate and take on the stronger one together.

"So, with all of this in mind, it becomes possible to make predictions about this particular game.

"The Role-Play Game was appearing for the first time. There was no designated offender in this game, which means its level of fairness had to be higher than Judgment Games or elimination-type games.

"It could be on the same level as distribution-type or selection-type games, or it could fall somewhere between the distribution type and the Judgment type.

"This game had four Actor roles: Detective, Wealthy Merchant, Lawyer, and Doctor.

"The Detective and Wealthy Merchant could submit evidence. The Lawyer and Doctor could offer testimony, meaning professional explanations.

"Evidence is obviously more reliable than testimony. That much is beyond question.

"But if the game had to meet a basic standard of fairness, the Detective and Wealthy Merchant's advantage, however real, could not be excessive.

"So the role of 'testimony,' that is, 'professional explanation,' had to carry far more practical weight in this game than common sense would normally suggest."

Qin Cheng nodded thoughtfully, "I see.

"In reality, 'professional explanation' doesn't carry much weight.

"Because it tends to be a fixed, objectively existing fact.

"A specific legal provision exists in the real world. The bar exam has a standard answer. Any qualified lawyer will give the same response.

"If the 'Verify' function used real-world standards, a lawyer in this game would have almost nothing to work with. When a specific provision clearly worked against them, whether they answered honestly or deliberately withheld it, the outcome would be bad either way.

"The same is true for a doctor, because a drug's properties are objectively real.

"'Evidence,' on the other hand, has far greater significance and freedom.

"If multiple pieces of evidence exist, a player with the right to submit evidence can easily steer the case in any direction they choose simply by deliberately withholding certain items.

"Many wrongful convictions in real courts have come from judges refusing to admit evidence. And many cases have been overturned because new compelling evidence came to light.

"If this game operated strictly by real-world standards, its fairness would be catastrophic, worse even than a B-tier Judgment Game.

"For the Imitator to make this game work, they would have to rebalance the weight of 'evidence' and 'testimony,' bringing them closer to equal."

Huang Shengjie suddenly thought of something, "So that's why the game's opening background kept repeating that this story takes place in a parallel world.

"It was stated to be a special country with a 'Special Jury/Temporary Citizens' Tribunal System' as its basic legal framework.

"If even the fundamental legal system is different, then other laws, and even a drug's specific effects, would naturally be different too.

"Those differences would be determined by the actual 'professional explanations' the Lawyer and Doctor gave.

"Even a drug with known properties could be rewritten by the doctor.

"For example, a drug with strong side effects in the real world, the doctor could claim its concentration in this story is diluted, so the side effects are weaker. Or they could claim the concentration is higher, so the side effects are stronger.

"Two opposite claims, two completely different outcomes."