Huang Shengjie looked grave: "Their strategy runs deep! They also know that the best confusion is not concealment, but misleading our train of thought.
"They chose to make players from Community 5 act as traps and bait, leading us to mistakenly believe that Gong Zheng's decision to commit suicide was due to his mother's controlling nature.
"And with all four communities performing together, the deception is stronger."
Qin Cheng nodded: "That's right. If it were merely concealment without any performance of doubtful elements, such a strategy would actually be unreliable.
"Because they know, in the end, we can only choose to communicate with Community 10.
"Then, contradictions also exist in our setting books, following these contradictions, with a big enough imagination, it's still possible to guess the truth.
"Therefore, we can't let them guess freely and must use performance to mislead our judgment.
"This misleading is very deceptive; Community 10 got fooled. Because the image of Gong Zheng's mother depicted in the setting book does indeed have strong control over him.
"And once we accept this assumption and attribute Gong Zheng's desire to commit suicide entirely to his mother's control, then the 'truth' will always remain hidden, no matter how many times we guess the person responsible, we will never be able to find out.
"Being entangled in figuring out precisely who is responsible and obsessed with the details of this false truth distracts our thoughts, leaving us with no extra energy to consider other possibilities."
Zhou Wanlin tried to sort out the thought process: "So now it seems, the reason Community 5 was willing to join this plan is that from their perspective, it was indeed beneficial.
"At that time, their situation could be simply summarized in two points: First, they are special players, making them more likely to guess the truth, so they believed they had a certain advantage in answering questions; second, they were lagging behind all communities by about 10 points in performance scores.
"Performing the misleading 'mother is the main responsible' scenario wouldn't continue to lower their performance scores, because these are already existing contents in the setting book, and they didn't make any mistakes in their performance.
"If they did nothing, and if all four regular communities guessed the truth, they would definitely end up at the bottom, resulting in death for the entire team.
"But by joining this plan, if they succeeded in making us and Community 10 end up at the bottom, at the very worst they would be fourth.
"Moreover, Community 11 might not figure out the truth, as the Community 12, which communicated with Community 11, is also a special player and would certainly try to conceal it.
"This way, even if Community 17 figured out the truth and secured first place, the remaining Community 5 and Community 12, being special players, wouldn't get bonus points, and Community 11 is not guaranteed to ascertain the truth, likely resulting in very close scores, giving Community 5 hope of becoming second.
"Overall, in the end, Community 5 would rank between 2nd and 4th based on the answers.
"This ranking is entirely acceptable to them because it doesn't result in deaths.
"As for the specific ranking, they have no control over it and can only hope for the outcome of the answers."
Realizing this, Zhou Wanlin felt enlightened, with many more questions being cleared up.
"So from the second act onwards, the other four communities suddenly all focused on performances related to Gong Zheng's mother.
"Li Kan, who played the mediator, actually bore no responsibility, yet he deliberately showed the false pretense of 'pressuring for a deal' and notably mentioned Gong Zheng's mother calling him.
"This was to lay a smoke screen for his subsequent questioning.
"Hu Yingxu, who played the supervisor, subtly hinted at Gong Zheng's mother's pressure and urgency over him through the 'borrowing money' situation, suggesting there were 'more reasons at home.'
"Bai Zilan, who played the lover, believed the house was relatively expensive, but the protagonist's mother also liked it, establishing it as a primary reason for the purchase.
"Zhang Lijuan, who played the mother, was even more firm and agitated, because she was the leading actress in this play.
"Community 10 fell for the trap, further affirming their suspicions through such explicit performances and locked the main suspicion on Gong Zheng's mother, believing it was due to 'family reasons.'
"So then...what about the third act?
"Logically, they only need to continue this strategy, keep pushing the suspicion towards Gong Zheng's mother, and maintain it until the end of the game.
"Then whoever could figure out the truth, would depend on their own skills."
Qin Cheng nodded: "That was likely their original strategy.
"But some changes occurred during its execution.
"In reality, Community 12 betrayed at the last moment.
"It could be seen from the changes in scores: among these communities, aside from Community 5, which made a major mistake in the first act, their performance scores were slightly lower in the second act, but significantly higher in the third act, especially Community 12 scoring exceptionally high.
"Why did this phenomenon occur?
"Clearly, the performance score for this game also involves some hidden algorithm. Although not entirely certain yet, we can see it comprises several aspects:
"First is the alignment with the character, including makeup, costumes, speech, demeanor, etc.
"Second is the focus of the performance. Since different focal points offer various hints and misleads to the audience, during the second act when many communities adjusted their focus, their scores slightly dropped, but this didn't affect the authenticity of the performance, so the drop wasn't significant.
"Third is 'key narratives' during the performance. The more and the more importantly key narratives displayed, they would also earn additional points. Especially when the entire key narrative is focused as the main part of the performance, extra points would be more apparent.
"Li Kan from Community 12 clearly executed this strategy intentionally.
"He could have chosen not to perform the issue with Gong Zheng's house, but he still did, although not explaining the specific reasons, the mere fact of performing constituted a significant bonus.
"Thus, that performance received the highest score overall.
"This is probably related to Community 12's strategy. Although Chen Guangming, as a VIP audience, was controlled, he could devise the strategy for the entire game during the initial preparation time.
"His strategy likely involved betraying at the last moment to gain benefits for his community."
Zhou Wanlin was a bit puzzled: "But wouldn't that potentially help other communities figure out the truth?"
Qin Cheng shook his head: "Before this, Shengjie and I had already realized the core issue, and even after seeing the performance, Community 10 still had no clue.
"Therefore, those who could figure out the truth would have already done so beforehand; those who couldn't, it would still be difficult to deduce it from this performance.
"But this would bring substantial score benefits to Community 12."
Zhou Wanlin thought again: "So... since the second act, the other communities' actions, including acting, questioning, and inquiries, could have all been part of this deception.
"Especially Zhang Lijuan's response during the questioning: 'mother' bore at least eighty percent of the negative responsibility in all character portrayals by actors.
"Since the inquiry section must answer the contents of the setting book truthfully, those without knowledge of the truth would regard Community 5's admission as irrefutable proof.
"But this is, in fact, also part of the deception."
Qin Cheng nodded: "If someone, like Community 10, weren't aware of the truth, they would indeed be deceived and delve deeper in the wrong direction.
"However, if you have a rough idea of the truth, you can use this answer from the questioning section to further confirm the truth.
"Why emphasize 'in all character portrayals by actors' bears eighty percent or more responsibility?
"Why not in all people?
"Clearly, this filtering condition intentionally excluded Gong Zheng himself. If this is a deception, then the final truth must relate to Gong Zheng himself.
"Because the script is already set, it's an intricate system where a flimsy cover-up inevitably leaks.
"And the actions taken during the cover-up, in turn, reveal many things.
"This is the real way to win this game."