God's Imitator

Lin Sizhi was not surprised by this: "I’ve considered this possibility; indeed, there’s a certain probability it’s aimed at me.

"Because the four profession designs of the ’Jury Game’ are clearly meticulously chosen by the imitator.

"One of these professions may correspond to a player who is potentially the target the imitator wants to test.

"Firstly, the doctor can be excluded. After entering the second stage, there are too many doctors in each community, and according to the game’s player selection rules, it’s difficult for the imitator to select a specific doctor.

"Secondly, the detective can also be excluded because it’s a profession that doesn’t exist in reality; players can only be chosen from those who barely fit the description.

"For example, Tang Qing is a fan of detective novels, or other players who might have a background in security or private investigation could be selected.

"This selection scope is also too broad for the imitator to control.

"As for the businessman, bosses and executives with certain achievements in reality should be within the selection scope. While there aren’t many such people in the community, they’re not exactly rare either.

"But lawyers... from my perspective, I haven’t seen many.

"So, if the imitator deliberately uses profession settings to draw certain players into the game, then it indeed could be specifically targeting me."

Lu Bingjun added: "Furthermore, the lawyer is a disadvantaged identity.

"Although looking back after the event, this disadvantage isn’t significant, the key is the issue of information disparity.

"Detectives and businessmen can provide evidence, define the details of the evidence, and pinpoint the real gameplay from the start through settings.

"While lawyers and doctors have privileges, they may not quickly realize how to use them. If they think of it later, they’ll be at a huge disadvantage, like Feng Yuguang.

"If the one playing the lawyer isn’t you but a weaker player, this game could become one-sided, without any suspense.

"In other words, if the imitator designs this game targeting you, he could simultaneously achieve two objectives:

"Either successfully eliminate you as a threat or probe your true strength.

"From a certain perspective, I think he might have already achieved his purpose, which is to have probed your real strength.

"When you first entered the community, you seemed to be intentionally holding back.

"But through game after game, you inevitably revealed your authentic capabilities... Although it has reassured people, could this be some sort of less favorable phenomenon?"

Lin Sizhi looked at him meaningfully but said nothing.

Lu Bingjun paused, lowered his head, and pondered for a moment about the implication behind Lin Sizhi’s reaction.

"Then tomorrow, I’ll tell everyone the details of that game.

"But up until now, there are still significant differences within all the older members internally.

"I hope this discussion will yield some new conclusions."

...

...

The next afternoon.

All players gathered in the hall once again.

They only knew that Lu Bingjun had something very important to discuss but did not know specifically what it was.

Certain players might have speculated but couldn’t confirm.

Lu Bingjun surveyed everyone and no longer kept them in suspense, instead, he cut straight to the chase.

"First and foremost, I want to apologize to all new players who joined the community in the second stage.

"I’m sorry, I’ve concealed some information from you.

"However, the reason for hiding this information was not for my personal gain but for the unity and stability of the community overall. This was also the consensus decision of the older players in the community.

"But after entering the second stage, our community has performed well in the four games, and the new players have integrated well.

"Therefore, I think it’s time to openly disclose the truth to everyone.

"About our community’s former leader Wei Changfeng and the Judgment Game that led to his death."

Lu Qi’s first reaction was surprise, but she immediately felt a bit puzzled.

Obviously, she knew nothing about the community’s original leader, but even knowing now, she didn’t think it was particularly important to the extent of requiring such serious consideration.

After all, in this ghostly place called New World, death could happen at any moment. Regular players can die, so a community leader can certainly die as well.

A former leader dies, then a new leader takes over; isn’t this a common occurrence? Whether it’s concealed or not, it doesn’t matter much, does it warrant such a formal apology?

As for players like Qin Cheng, even though he had long sensed Wei Changfeng’s presence, he was still slightly surprised at this moment.

Because he originally thought Lu Bingjun would always keep this secret and not be honest with new players, or at least wouldn’t be honest so soon.

As for the old players from Community 2, apparently not all of them were informed in advance, so some people still wore visibly surprised expressions.

But no player offered public dissent on this matter; all were listening intently.

Lu Bingjun did not intend for everyone to ask questions at this time, so he did not set aside time but continued his narration.

"In the first stage, our community actually had three game cores, which were the original No. 1 player Wei Changfeng, me, and Ye Lin.

"Wei Changfeng, as his name suggests, was a big brother with quite a chivalrous spirit. He was three years older than me, one year older than Old Zheng, and back then, Aunt Geng hadn’t yet joined the community, so he was the oldest in the community.

"He made a decisive contribution to this community, and the tone of mutual support in the community was also set by him.

"His game-playing skills were also very good, slightly higher than mine and Ye Lin’s.

"So for most of the first stage, our community progress was smooth. The game gains were good, and the atmosphere within the community was very harmonious.

"Of course, during the entire first stage, there were indeed some cases of death in our community, but overall, it was below the average level of other communities, and new members were replenished afterward.

"At that time, the community had a total of 12 players, and most of the games with full participation were allocated to groups of 4 players, so before that Judgment Game, the grouping within the community looked roughly like this:

"I, Yao Yuan, and Deng Xiao were a relatively fixed team.

"Ye Lin, Old Zheng, and He Qinyun were one group.

"Old Wei and the original No. 9 player Xu Yili, and No. 12 player Gao Teng formed a group.

"The remaining players, Wen Wan, Zhou Wanlin, and Aunt Geng, were relatively cared for and were flexibly allocated and adjusted based on each game’s actual situation.

"The name of that Judgment Game was ’Repentance Poker,’ and the post-event rating was A.

"In this game, the player forced to participate as a sinner was Gao Teng, and the other two spots were voluntary participants.

"Old Wei and Sister Li chose to enter the game to help, after all, the three of them were a relatively fixed team, with the best coordination and most consistent thinking, plus their gaming skills were not bad.

"Since the first stage when they entered the community, the three of them collaborated well and won most of the games; even in the games they lost, they were able to retreat fully.

"So, we weren’t too worried.

"But unexpectedly... none of the three of them returned to the community."