God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun stared at Qin Cheng, now so furious he was almost laughing: "Fine, then go ahead and tell everyone why I’m supposed to be that vicious, heinous Imitator."

Since Qin Cheng was the one raising the doubts, he naturally had to speak first.

Lu Bingjun had no idea what kind of reasoning and evidence Qin Cheng actually had in hand, so he couldn’t just rush to shut him down; he could only respond move by move, defending himself against whatever Qin Cheng accused him of.

Qin Cheng ignored Lu Bingjun. He stood up, planted both hands on the table, leaned forward slightly, and looked at the other players.

Because his ultimate goal was to convince the others, not to "defeat" Lu Bingjun or Yao Yuan.

"I’ll start from the point that’s most confusing to everyone.

"Namely, why would Lu Bingjun kill Deng Xiao and Wen Wan, his two die‑hard supporters.

"By normal reasoning, they’re his iron ticket bank; in any Community proposal, as long as those two are involved, he can secure a stable 2 votes. The importance of those 2 votes goes without saying.

"So, the vast majority of players would never, ever suspect him.

"But the truth is, there’s another answer to this question.

"Within the final Community ecosystem that Lu Bingjun was constructing, there was simply no suitable position for either Deng Xiao or Wen Wan, so the two of them had to die.

"After One Word Breaks the Prison—after Deng Xiao’s death and before Wen Wan’s death—Lu Bingjun approached me in private and gave me a promise about the future power structure of the Community.

"In his design, there would be 5 players entering the decision‑making layer of power: Lu Bingjun, Yao Yuan, me, Lawyer Lin, and Wen Wan.

"But I believe this was false information.

"Because from any angle you look at it—game ability, Community‑building ability, or any other ability—Wen Wan has absolutely no qualification to be in there.

"If this was truly the structure that Lu Bingjun envisioned, and if he wanted the Community to reach the most stable state, Wen Wan’s slot should have been replaced by Ye Lin.

"Only that arrangement could soothe the other veteran players and keep the Community from splitting badly.

"Even if it wasn’t Ye Lin, it should have been He Qinyun, Shen Bowen, or some other person; in any case, it shouldn’t have been Wen Wan.

"So why did Lu Bingjun still make this personnel arrangement? Simple: with high probability, he really had made this very promise to Wen Wan.

"If the list he gave me and the list he gave others were inconsistent, and if I or someone else casually mentioned this to Wen Wan in private, the lie would blow up.

"I think he must have made similar private commitments to Deng Xiao: promising him a seat in the Five Core Members.

"This is the treatment that ’iron supporters’ and ’accomplices’ expect.

"From Deng Xiao and Wen Wan’s perspective, only if Lu Bingjun made such commitments would he be worth their unconditional support; but from Lu Bingjun’s perspective, he had absolutely no way to fulfill them.

"So, instead of saying Deng Xiao and Wen Wan were his iron ticket bank, it’s more accurate to say they’d already become burdens he couldn’t shake off.

"Killing Deng Xiao and Wen Wan brought several benefits:

"First, silencing them—killing to destroy evidence and eliminating those who knew the critical inside story;

"Second, disguising himself as a victim, thereby clearing his own suspicion;

"Third, dumping the filth onto Ye Lin’s camp, and using the opportunity to operate within the Community, forcing Ye Lin to bow her head and submit;

"Fourth, freeing up positions in the Community so that interests could be redistributed.

"Taken together, these benefits outweigh those mere 2 votes."

At this point, Huang Shengjie also recalled a conversation he’d had earlier with Qin Cheng.

Back then, he’d already felt that Wen Wan’s appearance on that list was abrupt, irrational.

And Qin Cheng’s explanation at the time was that the relationship between Wen Wan and Lu Bingjun was not as simple as it appeared to outsiders; there had to be deeper entanglements of interest.

The only thing Huang Shengjie hadn’t realized was the deeper layer: even if such an entanglement existed, this forceful promotion of Wen Wan was still an expression of extremely low political intelligence on Lu Bingjun’s part.

For Lu Bingjun, the optimal choice was definitely not to ram Wen Wan into the Five Core Members, but to make her disappear and replace her directly.

Yet Lu Bingjun had never displayed flawless political wisdom; he was always erratic, sometimes sharp, sometimes clumsy. So Huang Shengjie hadn’t sensed how strange this was.

Looking at it now, Wen Wan indeed had deeper interest entanglements with Lu Bingjun, but all he did was verbally agree to her demand to enter the decision‑making layer, while in reality he was plotting something else.

Once Wen Wan was dead, Lu Bingjun could simply reopen the conversation with Qin Cheng or Lin Sizhi about the composition of the Five Core Members, and then very naturally reserve the last seat for Ye Lin.

Realizing this, Huang Shengjie asked in shock, "You’re saying he could use this to force Sister Yelin to bow her head and submit?"

Ye Lin kept her head down and said nothing.

Qin Cheng explained: "When that proposal was passed, the entire Community only produced two dissenting votes. Everyone here should know in their hearts how they voted.

"Ye Lin, along with Zheng Chunhua and He Qinyun, should not have voted against it.

"That’s because, under the circumstances at the time, Ye Lin had already fallen into a completely disadvantaged position.

"The successive deaths of Deng Xiao and Wen Wan saddled her with enormous suspicion; especially Wen Wan’s death in the Trust Marketplace, which left her with no way to defend herself.

"If she had kept on stubbornly opposing that proposal at that moment, it would have given people the feeling that she was ’confessing without being pressed.’

"If Lu Bingjun had seized on that and spun it, the situation would have become extremely unfavorable to her.

"Therefore I believe that Lu Bingjun and Ye Lin must have had private talks and reached a settlement agreement:

"From that point on, Ye Lin admitted defeat and completely abandoned her confrontation with Lu Bingjun; in exchange, Lu Bingjun promised to let her enter the Five Core Members, keep her identity as part of the game’s core, and allow her a certain degree of autonomy.

"Of course, all of this is my inference.

"In any case, after the Trust Marketplace ended and the Community Trial Rules were passed, our Community had already taken shape into the perfect structure planned by Lu Bingjun.

"Lu Bingjun, Yao Yuan, Lawyer Lin, me, and Ye Lin—our five became the Community’s core management layer.

"This is a very solid power structure, essentially gripping every facet of power in the Community, while also allocating enough benefits to each of the Community’s strong players.

"In the process, it’s true that Lu Bingjun lost his two die‑hard supporters, Deng Xiao and Wen Wan, but in exchange he secured a more reliable, more stable configuration.

"Because in this setup, the Five Core Members are absolutely stable; no outside player can challenge them. And within the Five Core itself, a perfect balance of power can be maintained, always ensuring that he holds absolute control.

"Similarly, Wei Changfeng’s death gave Lu Bingjun the opportunity to rise as the Community’s top leader.

"That’s why I said: across all the previous death cases, Lu Bingjun is the one who benefited the most."