God's Imitator

Huang Shengjie lowered his head and thought for a moment. "Mm... I can see that.

"For example, back when the Community didn’t have any proposal to execute players, then this ’public trial killing’ power basically didn’t exist.

"But if we add this proposal for the sake of killing the Imitator, then inside the Community there will actually be one more kind of ’power to kill.’

"This is a power that didn’t exist before, conjured out of thin air.

"No matter whose hands it ends up in, it’s all ’expansion of the boundaries of power.’"

Ye Lin nodded in satisfaction. "Right, that’s exactly what I mean.

"According to the logic we’re using now, our ultimate goal is ’to find the Imitator and remove his threat,’ and in order to achieve this goal, ’expanding the Community’s power’ is a necessary step.

"But I’m more inclined to think that the real situation is...

"’Expanding the Community’s power’ is itself the ultimate goal, while ’finding the Imitator and removing his threat’ is just the pretext."

Huang Shengjie couldn’t help but stare, dumbfounded. He more or less understood what Ye Lin was getting at.

These words were an accusation against Lu Bingjun.

Ye Lin added, "Of course, I’m not saying there is no Imitator in the Community—there definitely is.

"It’s just not necessarily as dangerous as everyone imagines.

"We’ve pinned all the games that have suspicious points onto this so‑called ’hidden Imitator,’ but it’s also possible they were each done by different Imitators, isn’t it?

"Take ’Repentance Poker’ as an example. I think it makes much more sense for that game to have been made by an Imitator from another Community."

Huang Shengjie was somewhat puzzled. "Why? That game is clearly highly targeted. If you aren’t very familiar with Gao Teng’s character weaknesses and the details of his crimes, how could you possibly design it?

"Are you saying Brother Lu withheld information when he told the story?"

Ye Lin shook her head. "No, he didn’t.

"Although the game records have already been wiped, all of us saw them at the time. Even if a few players’ memories are fuzzy, it wouldn’t go so far as a collective ’Mandela effect’ where we all develop exactly the same false memory.

"So the information that we veteran players all accept and that no one has objected to can be regarded as solid.

"From that angle, Lu Bingjun didn’t smuggle in false information when he presented the game records. What I saw back then matches exactly.

"What I disagree with is the line of reasoning that followed.

"I think there are two major suspicious points in it that simply don’t hold water.

"First, in that game, how the players actually repent their crimes and what kind of points they end up getting are two uncontrollable factors. There is absolutely no way the Imitator could effectively control them.

"Second, if such an Imitator really exists, they must be extremely close to Gao Teng in private.

"They’d have to know all the inside story about Wei Changfeng, Gao Teng, and Xu Yili, know that Gao Teng is an Imitator. And Gao Teng would have to trust them to an extreme degree and even show them his design drafts.

"But I don’t think anyone in the Community fits those conditions.

"So I don’t accept the inference that ’all three games were made by the hidden Imitator.’ It just doesn’t stand."

Huang Shengjie froze for a second. "Wait, I get the first point. But the second—Sister Yelin, how can you be so sure that no one in the Community meets those conditions?"

Ye Lin explained, "That’s exactly why I didn’t bring this up directly at the meeting just now.

"I know how you think, and I know how Lu Bingjun would explain it:

"This Imitator would be extremely cautious about hiding himself, so whenever he communicated with Gao Teng, it would definitely be done in private.

"The Community is big. Any two players can just pick some empty room or corner to talk and easily avoid everyone else.

"So the fact that we can’t find any veteran player close to Gao Teng in public doesn’t mean we can rule out the existence of a hidden Imitator.

"Lu Bingjun might even use this to question my motives, making everyone think I’m covering for the Imitator.

"In that kind of atmosphere, there’s no way I could get into a fierce confrontation with him in front of everyone, so in the end I said nothing.

"But think it through: in this Community, if two people are genuinely very close, can they really stay completely out of the other players’ sight?

"Like us talking privately right now—this kind of one‑off chat is fine.

"But what if the two of us kept chatting like this again and again?"

Huang Shengjie frowned, trying to put himself in that position, then shook his head slightly. "It... really does seem pretty unlikely.

"The Community, size‑wise, is neither that big nor that small.

"Any two players can find some deserted corner to talk in secret, sure—but the problem is there are too few people in the Community. If two players disappear together, it’s actually quite conspicuous.

"People don’t need to know exactly where they went. As long as they vanish together, that alone is enough to spark suspicion.

"If it only happens once or twice, that’s one thing. But if the two of them are constantly disappearing together, even the dullest player would pick up on it."

Ye Lin nodded. "Exactly. That’s why so many players show up in the lobby so often.

"It’s not just because the lobby is lively with lots of people; it’s also because being visible in the lobby is a way to prove you’re not sneaking off in private with someone else to do something special on the side.

"Because of his personality, Gao Teng basically had almost no friends in the Community to begin with.

"First, there was already a conflict between Deng Xiao and Gao Teng from the start, and that conflict naturally extended to Lu Bingjun and Yao Yuan. After all, they’re in the same group, with closer ties.

"Second, both I and He Qinyun actually really disliked Gao Teng. We could both feel that he had a huge darkness inside him, so we always kept him at arm’s length.

"Uncle Zheng was relatively friendly to him, but it was only friendliness, nothing more.

"As for the remaining veteran players—Wen Wan, Zhou Wanlin, and Geng Yuxia—they’re more like people just living out their days.

"If Gao Teng wanted to build that level of mutual trust with any one of them, he’d need a huge amount of interaction and time to accumulate it.

"And the Community computers don’t have anything like chat software.

"If two players want to develop a close relationship, they have to communicate repeatedly in private—either face to face or by writing letters.

"But whichever method they use, there will always be traces. It’s impossible to keep it completely hidden.

"So I really don’t think any of the current veteran players in the Community is that close to Gao Teng.

"You can ask any veteran player about this to verify what I’m saying."

Huang Shengjie’s brow stayed furrowed. "Is that so... it does make a lot of sense."

Huang Shengjie couldn’t accurately judge whether what Ye Lin said was true or not, but logically it held together.

The interests of all the veteran players aren’t perfectly aligned; it’s impossible to control and buy off every veteran member at once.

If Gao Teng had really had any sign of overly close interaction with some veteran player—like their times of disappearing and reappearing often coinciding, or them showing certain intimate gestures in private occasions—it would be almost impossible to hide that from everyone else.

Someone would inevitably notice something off.