Chapter 684: The Basic Rules

Lu Bingjun paused briefly and continued, "We had no firsthand account from the players themselves, so we could only work from the game's rules and the records we were able to query to piece together a rough picture of what happened.

"The game's base format is the familiar card game Blackjack, though heavily simplified.

"Both sides had three players each, competing in a three-versus-three format across a maximum of thirty rounds.

"The game used a standard deck with the jokers removed. Cards numbered 2 through 10 counted at face value. J, Q, and K each counted as 10. Ace could count as either 1 or 11, decided by the player holding it.

"All shuffling and dealing was handled by a machine.

"There was no division into 'dealer' and 'player' roles. At the start of each round, the player who dealt first would rotate clockwise.

"Each player began with two cards: one face-up and one face-down, visible only to themselves.

"Once everyone had been dealt their initial hand, players would take turns in order, choosing either to 'hit' or to 'stand.'

"Hitting meant drawing one additional card from the deck. By default, any card drawn was face-down and visible only to the player who drew it.

"The goal was to get as close to 21 as possible without going over.

"If a player felt their total was high enough, they could stand, meaning they would draw no more cards.

"If they felt their total was still safe, they could keep hitting.

"However, if hitting caused the total to exceed 21, the player would 'bust.' A clear system notification would be given when this happened.

"A bust was treated as an automatic loss, ranking below all other totals.

"Once all six players had stood, everyone revealed their cards and the totals were compared.

"The player with the highest total determined which side won that round."

Lu Bingjun paused briefly, and Huang Shengjie took the opportunity to ask a quick question.

"So that means as long as one of the three players on a side has the highest total, that side wins the round? It doesn't matter how high or low the other two players' totals are, even if they both bust?"

Lu Bingjun nodded, "Yes. One player having the highest total is enough to win.

"If the highest-total players on both sides are tied, the comparison moves to the second-highest players. If that also ties, it goes to the third-lowest.

"If the result is still undecided after all that, for instance if the highest-total players on both sides are tied and all remaining players on both sides have bust, then it's a draw, with no penalties.

"Those are the basic mechanics. Think of it as an extremely simplified version of Blackjack, with none of the additional rules like blackjack, insurance, or doubling down. Very straightforward to understand.

"But built on top of this, there are two critically important derived rules.

"First: every time a player chooses to hit, they must perform a 'confession,' meaning they must speak aloud one piece of 'a secret from their side that requires acknowledgement.'

"After a player confesses, the three players on the opposing side must each choose one of two responses: 'Shocked' or 'Unmoved.'

"These responses are subject to the insincere vote mechanism by default. At the moment when the round's totals are finally compared, each response will apply an additional point modification to that player's hand.

"Unmoved adds 4 points. Shocked deducts 12 points. Insincere Unmoved adds 12 points. Insincere Shocked deducts 4 points.

"Points can be deducted down to a minimum of 0 and increased up to the point of busting. If a player has already bust before the point modification applies, they are unaffected.

"When multiple applicable results exist simultaneously, the opposing players may choose which single result takes effect. A maximum of one result may take effect at a time."

Lu Bingjun appeared to anticipate that questions might arise here, so he paused specifically.

Qin Cheng said, in a thoughtful tone, "These modifications take effect when the totals are compared after all players have stood, correct?

"Meaning you can't receive a penalty and then immediately take another hit to improve your total.

"If someone receives a 'deduct 4 points' penalty, their 21 would effectively become 17 for the purposes of determining the winner. There's no way to recover from that.

"And if our side can trigger multiple applicable results for an opponent, we could use their choice of response and their reaction to roughly infer what total they're holding, and then select the result that damages them most."

Lu Bingjun nodded, "Yes, exactly right.

"Second: every player is restrained by a set of mechanical devices. At each of six positions on their body, their ankle, knee, thigh, waist, chest, and neck, there is a special locking ring. Six in total.

"Beyond restraining their bodies, these rings also apply special penalties.

"Three things each trigger a 'penalty count': having a confession content revealed, busting, and losing a round.

"Losing a round means all three players on the losing side each receive one penalty count.

"When a penalty count is processed, the rings activate from the bottom upward in sequence, applying physical harm. A blade inside the ring extends and cuts a wound of a specified length and depth into the body, accompanied by additional severe pain.

"For example, if a player accumulates three penalty counts in Round One, the rings at their ankle, knee, and thigh activate in sequence, causing injury and severe pain.

"If two more penalty counts are then accumulated in Round Two, the rings at the waist and chest continue the sequence.

"Once the highest ring at the neck activates, the cycle returns to the ankle. But at this point, the severity increases: the wounds become longer and deeper, and the pain intensifies accordingly.

"The game did not specify exactly how many penalty counts would become life-threatening, but clearly two scenarios could result in death.

"Either the game runs long enough that blood loss from the accumulated wounds causes a player to fall unconscious and die.

"Or, when the penalty reaches the neck, the blade severs a major artery directly, causing immediate death.

"The conditions for the game to end are:

"All three players on one side have died, or thirty rounds have been completed in total.

"If any player dies, 50 percent of the deceased player's visa time will be divided among the surviving players on the opposing side.

"If no one dies, the side with fewer round wins is treated as the loser. For every five round wins the winner has over the loser, the loser forfeits 20 percent of their total carried visa time, with 10 percent of that transferred to the winning side.

"The maximum loss is 100 percent. The maximum transfer to the winner is 50 percent."

Huang Shengjie instinctively asked, "What about the rest of the visa time? Does the Imitator take it?"

Lu Bingjun nodded, "Presumably, though the rules didn't mention it.

"Either way, those are the complete rules for this game.

"After entering the Second Stage, all prior game records were cleared, so some of the finer details may have become a little hazy.

"Ye Lin, is there anything you'd like to add?"

Ye Lin thought for a moment, "The visible rules are essentially all there. As for the hidden rules we identified at the time, I'd rather not reveal those upfront. We should work through it from scratch."

Qin Cheng looked mildly surprised, "Is that all? Since this is a Judgment Game, don't the rules say anything about the offender player's specific crime?"