God's Imitator

Huang Shengjie briefly imagined himself: If he wanted to develop a closer relationship with Lu Qi right now, even if he tried to hide it, it would be impossible to completely avoid being noticed.

Just like when in school, if two people in the class got too close, it would definitely be discovered; there’s almost no perfect way to hide it.

And since Ye Lin dared to say such things, it most likely means that he would get the same answer from other veteran players.

Ye Lin continued, "I believe ’Repentance Poker’ was created by an imitator from another community.

"And what we’ve analyzed are essentially misunderstandings and overthinking.

"The imitator’s initial goal was simply to earn more visa time.

"He saw Zheng Qingyun and Gao Teng’s files and thought he could use them as bait, thus designing this game.

"I don’t think this imitator anticipated the latter part of the game’s process or the final outcome.

"When he initially designed the game, he likely only anticipated Zheng Qingyun using the machine to cheat and Gao Teng turning against him.

"But he didn’t need to predict the whole process because the game’s rules inevitably pushed the outcome toward a brutal result.

"Under such a mechanism, one side has to be completely annihilated for the game to end. Regardless of which side is annihilated, the imitator can gain enough visa time.

"From the game process, both sides indeed came very close, and even a slight deviation would mean Community 6 would be completely wiped out.

"How could the imitator determine that it would definitely be us who’d be annihilated and not Community 6? I’ve mentioned before, even if the imitator could predict the actions of both players, the confessions of their crimes and the point numbers on their hands are still uncontrollable factors.

"Are we to believe an imitator can calculate the steps of exposing crimes and the specific hand point numbers for both sides?

"I can never believe it because achieving such a thing is beyond human capability; it’s divine. If such an imitator existed, we’d have no reason to resist; we’d just wait for death."

Ye Lin paused briefly and concluded:

"So this matter is simple from beginning to end:

"The imitator targeted two sinners, designing a game and setting up four slots for free participation. The players these sinners brought in happened to have many secrets, making the process extremely brutal.

"But he actually ’didn’t need’ and ’couldn’t’ directly plan such a brutal outcome.

"Because the more intricate the plan, the more prone it is to failure.

"In short, an imitator from another community designed the game. His initial part of the design was quite clever, provoking conflicts between both sides. Afterwards, the accumulation of luck factors resulted in such a brutal outcome.

"However, this caused a huge shake-up in our community and even turned us into nervous wrecks."

Huang Shengjie frowned, pondered, and suddenly felt that Ye Lin’s perspective made a lot of sense, too.

"So... was Brother Lu overreacting?"

Ye Lin shook her head, "That’s just one possibility.

"There’s another possibility that he did it deliberately.

"As I mentioned before, ’expanding community power’ is the ultimate goal, and ’finding the imitator and eliminating his threat’ is merely an excuse.

"Lu Bingjun realized this was a perfect opportunity.

"So, whether or not there’s a hidden imitator in the community is irrelevant; what’s important is what he can achieve with this imitator.

"He can expand the boundaries of community power.

"Once this boundary expands, it would ultimately be controlled by him in some way.

"This might require a relatively long process, but once the first step is taken, there’s no turning back; it can only keep progressing.

"Think about it:

"What must we do to cope with the threat from this imitator?

"We have to actively donate large amounts of visa time;

"During reviews and discussions, everyone must speak out compulsorily, which inherently means the loss of ’the right to remain silent’;

"Moreover, to catch the imitator within the community, mutual surveillance is inevitable, everyone feels insecure, leading to mutual reporting and incrimination.

"Some people would privately pass along reports; although Lu Bingjun said such information could also be shared with me or Lawyer Lin, he, as the obvious leader of the community, would naturally be most players’ choice.

"Furthermore, he plans to propose extreme measures: expel players suspected of being imitators by community vote, or even directly kill them.

"Though it’s an all-member vote, voting can be manipulated to a certain extent.

"Power would be concentrated, and our interests would be compromised."

Huang Shengjie felt his scalp itch, as if a brain was growing.

Lu Bingjun and Ye Lin reached opposing conclusions, pointing to two completely different directions for community development.

The worst part is, if this choice between two leads to the wrong path, it would result in extremely severe consequences.

If Lu Bingjun’s judgment was wrong, the entire community environment would be severely damaged.

And if Ye Lin’s judgment was wrong, the imitator could continue murdering recklessly.

Huang Shengjie asked, "Then... Sister Ye Lin, supposing what you say is true, what do you plan to do?

"Vote to reject Brother Lu’s proposal?

"Sounds feasible since voting is anonymous, and as long as more than half disagree, the proposal would not pass anyway."

Ye Lin nodded, "Yes, I hope you can firmly vote against any proposal that expands the community’s power boundaries.

"Of course, I understand voting rights in the community are the most fundamental rights of every player, and attempting to influence your voting intent can be seen as violating those rights.

"I can’t force you to vote a certain way, and neither can others in the community.

"I’m just hoping to provide you with a clear analysis of these situations. As for how to vote specifically, it’s still your decision."

Huang Shengjie considered for a long time, "Hmm, I understand.

"Sister Ye Lin, thank you so much for helping me analyze these matters. Although I can’t determine which possibility is the truth, taking both sides’ opinions into account helps avoid partiality.

"I will think about it seriously."

...

...

The next afternoon.

Everyone gathered in the hall again to continue with the community’s scheduled agenda.

But before officially starting the discussion, everyone went to the vending machine one by one to donate visa time to the community fund.

The last large-scale donation of visa time was after ’One Word Breaks the Prison,’ when Lu Bingjun donated all his game earnings, roughly 410,000 minutes of visa time, and activated a new item.

In the subsequent ’Prison Factory’ and ’Jury Game,’ overall, everyone’s earnings were quite decent.

Since changes in visa time rankings would alter the selection of players subject to pain within the community, whenever a game finished, players would adjust the order by depositing surplus visa time into the ’Community Special Fund,’ thus changing the list of players experiencing pain in the community.

However, the extent of such adjustments is relatively small.

With the general increase in visa time among all community players, a full-membership donation was still needed to rearrange the order.

Additionally, it was also to accumulate more community funds and see if new merchandise could be activated.