God's Imitator

After Lu Bingjun finished speaking, everyone couldn’t help but look at each other.

Zhou Wanlin looked around: "Brother Lu, I do support your idea, having an Imitator in the community truly makes people uneasy.

"But specifically, what do you want everyone to do?"

Ye Lin also frowned: "Yes, everyone wants to catch the Imitator, but how do we do it?

"Mutual surveillance, everyone feeling insecure?

"Everyone privately reporting to you?

"Or should we directly accuse each other in such a public setting?

"And what do you plan to do with the suspected Imitator if found?

"Since you’ve decided to bring this matter to light, I hope you already have a clear plan."

Huang Shengjie looked at Ye Lin, then at Lu Bingjun.

He realized that Lu Bingjun must have discussed with Ye Lin before today’s meeting, but the discussion wasn’t in-depth.

In other words, not all issues reached a consensus.

Lu Bingjun probably only told Ye Lin to disclose the truth of ’Repentance Poker’ to all new players, which Ye Lin agreed to.

But Lu Bingjun likely didn’t tell Ye Lin that he planned to reopen the investigation of the Imitator.

The two are not equivalent.

Shen Bowen pondered for a moment and also looked at Lu Bingjun: "Actually, such topics have been discussed in most communities.

"After all, the fact that ’there is an Imitator in the community’ was known on the first day of entering the community.

"But most communities should have initially concluded not to startle the grass and alert the snake.

"So... Brother Lu, I share the same attitude as Ye Lin, hoping you have thought it through carefully and can come up with a clear and feasible plan."

Lu Bingjun nodded: "Your doubts are reasonable, I understand the seriousness of this matter, and have given it thorough consideration.

"When our community first discussed the topic of ’Imitator’, indeed a consensus was reached: there’s no need to go all out finding the Imitator in the community.

"But this had a premise: the Imitator must be benign or neutral.

"We try not to provoke him, to prevent him from doing something drastic, or that a more evil Imitator would enter the community after his death.

"However, this premise no longer holds.

"This Imitator is systematically slaughtering our community members and has succeeded repeatedly.

"I believe that ’Repentance Poker’ and ’One Word Breaks the Prison’ both originated from him, and even the ’Jury Game’ is highly likely to be his work.

"These three games ultimately target the core of our community."

Everyone was somewhat shocked because including the ’Jury Game’ was still somewhat unexpected for them.

Lu Bingjun continued: "Think carefully, these three games all have a common trait.

"’Repentance Poker’ appears to target Gao Teng, but actually targets Old Wei;

"’One Word Breaks the Prison’ seems to target Deng Xiao, but it also targets me;

"And the ’Jury Game’ likely targets Lawyer Lin, which Lawyer Lin himself agrees on, as in this game, the other three professions don’t possess the same scarcity and explicit direction.

"The three of us serve as the core players of the game within the community, the death of any one of us would cause significant turmoil and bring irreparable damage to the community.

"From beginning to end, the Imitator has only one goal, which is to completely destroy our community, first by cutting off its leaders, then dispersing the entire organization structure, finally turning us into scattered sand, consuming us completely.

"If we continue to ignore the elephant in the room, once his plan is complete, organizing effective resistance will become extremely difficult.

"Therefore, we must respond. Even if we cannot immediately apprehend him, we must limit his actions as much as possible, increasing the difficulty for him to continue committing evil deeds.

"Of course, we must also be as careful as possible in our approach, avoiding severely disrupting the community’s environment and unity just to catch the Imitator.

"If someone has key information, they can share it privately with reliable players. I understand that such private reporting might foster cliques, but if everything is said in public, it’s as if admitting all secrets to the Imitator, which is absolutely unacceptable.

"We have to choose the lesser of two evils.

"Private sharing targets can be me, Lawyer Lin, or Ye Lin.

"Additionally, I think every player in the community must speak when participating in debriefings and important discussions, and they must contribute sufficiently.

"Even if there aren’t any special ideas, speaking more is necessary. Only then can the Imitator be more easily exposed.

"If a highly suspected Imitator is identified, my idea is to vote community-wide to expel him.

"If we find irrefutable special evidence...

"We will conduct a public trial within the community, and after a guilty verdict is reached, vote to impose the death penalty."

Lu Bingjun paused slightly and added: "I know this will severely disrupt the community’s environment, making the community no longer an absolutely safe place, and once this step is taken, there’s no turning back.

"But I also believe this step must be taken.

"Considering the community as an absolutely safe rear is certainly a good idea, but it is not an inviolable doctrine, after all, in real society, there are laws, judgments, and death penalties, which are necessary measures to punish evildoers.

"The Imitator was the one who first destroyed the community’s safe environment with cruel means; we are merely forced to retaliate.

"Of course, we are still committed to the most fundamental principle: key issues that may permanently alter the community’s ecology must ultimately be voted on by everyone.

"Moreover, such votes directly depriving member life must be exercised with utmost caution, for instance, it must have unanimous consent from all other members to take effect."

Huang Shengjie was a bit shocked: "Do we really have to pass a bill to directly deprive players of life? Will the community rules allow this?"

Ye Lin considered seriously for a while, then said: "I think such important matters must be considered carefully.

"At least one to two weeks for deliberation.

"I know the Imitator might continue committing crimes in the next game, but... it’s not like this week or so makes a big difference.

"Whether the Imitator is caught or not, we still need to go through the games as usual, especially since there are Imitators in other communities."

No one else spoke, but it was clear that it was impossible to come to an immediate conclusion.

Lu Bingjun looked at everyone, this debriefing had been running long, and many people already showed signs of fatigue on their faces.