God's Imitator

Wang Yongxin nodded, ”Exactly.

”So I suspect that bringing Wei Yinzhang into the community is actually a situation that also greatly surprised Li Renshu and Cai Zhiyuan. Right now, they’re probably also getting headaches over this matter.

”This is a huge dilemma.

”Just like at the very beginning, when Li Renshu and the others insisted on not recruiting the older doctor, it’s the same principle.

”Now, Wei Yinzhang’s addition has put this problem right in front of them again, and this time, they can’t avoid it even if they want to.”

Yang Yuting nodded in realization.

She had previously thought that Wei Yinzhang’s addition would be good for the five-person group, which was based on the assumption that ’the five-person group could kick out Fu Chen at any time.’

But after Wang Yongxin’s analysis, Li Renshu very likely didn’t want to kick out Fu Chen, and indeed couldn’t kick out Fu Chen.

In that case, Wei Yinzhang’s addition was entirely problematic.

Thinking about it now, Wei Yinzhang’s addition was actually the result of three forces within the community interacting with each other, with great coincidence.Jiang He’s death had brought attrition to the community.

Initially, Wang Yongxin’s side wanted to use Yang Yuting’s victim status and voice, and through occupational screening, recruit a female player with closer ties to them.

Later, Cai Zhiyuan predicted Wang Yongxin’s behavior and proposed changing the recruitment method to poaching. He wanted to concentrate the power of recruitment into Li Renshu’s hands by bundling Li Renshu and Lin Sizhi together, through Lin Sizhi’s voluntary withdrawal.

Yang Yuting herself also advanced by retreating, only agreeing to give Lin Sizhi the power to recruit. This way, if everyone couldn’t reach consensus, they would still fall back to the path of regular recruitment but what no one expected was that Lin Sizhi actually agreed.

Thinking about it now, Lin Sizhi agreeing to this matter didn’t take any side’s position, but only stood from his own perspective.

With Wei Yinzhang’s addition, only Lin Sizhi himself absolutely benefited.

For both Wang Yongxin and Li Renshu, it was something where the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

Even if forced to distinguish clearly, the five-person group might have a bigger headache than Wang Yongxin.

Because Wang Yongxin wasn’t in the power core to begin with. What essential difference was there between being a bit closer or a bit farther?

But the five-person group had to reconsider the issue of power distribution. Any carelessness could cause division, seriously threatening internal stability.

Yang Yuting considered for a moment, ”So, for us, Wei Yinzhang’s addition is actually a result that isn’t great, but definitely not bad either?”

Wang Yongxin nodded, ”Right, this mainly depends on what angle we view this problem from.

”Suppose our previous plan had gone smoothly and we recruited a female player with similar ideals to ours. This would naturally strengthen our forces, but she would also inevitably be excluded from the small group.

”For the five-person group, they also wouldn’t need to consider personnel changes or power redistribution.

”But in the current situation, although our strength hasn’t increased, Wei Yinzhang’s addition has triggered chaos in the power core, and they must readjust the power structure.

”If they don’t do this well and certain players are squeezed out, they would naturally stand on our side instead.

”We just need to wait patiently and observe the changes now.”

...

The next afternoon.

Cao Haichuan was smoking outside, while Wei Yinzhang was drinking tea and reviewing materials.

On these white papers were analyses of some games written by Cao Haichuan, especially analyses of the motives of the God’s Imitators who designed these games.

Wei Yinzhang was somewhat surprised, ”Did you research all of these yourself?”

Cao Haichuan nodded, ”Yes, there’s nothing else to do in the community, so I can only ponder randomly.

”My guesses aren’t necessarily correct. Some ideas I’ve overturned and picked back up, picked back up and overturned again. Many I haven’t written down on paper.”

Wei Yinzhang sighed with some emotion, ”No, this is already very impressive.

”Although before coming to Community 17, I was already somewhat mentally prepared, thinking this might be a relatively strong community, looking at it now, I still underestimated.

”There are too many hidden dragons and crouching tigers here.”

Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke and asked, ”There’s a question that has troubled me for a long time.

”Can God’s Imitators design judgment games targeting themselves?

”I know you probably don’t have a definite answer either, but as a God’s Imitator, your statement would be more persuasive to me.”

Wei Yinzhang hadn’t experienced a judgment game, which everyone knew.

She had designed a B-level judgment game once, but hadn’t participated herself.

After considering for a moment, Wei Yinzhang gave an affirmative reply, ”I believe 100% yes.

”Because it’s currently known that God’s Imitators can adjust game rules and ’show mercy’ to players they know, making it easier for them to pass judgment games.

”Since they can do this to players, why can’t they do this to themselves?

”God’s Imitator is an identity holding special privileges, people who work for the Gallery.

”If we compare the Gallery to a company, then God’s Imitators are this company’s employees, and players are this company’s consumers.

”If a certain employee violates the interests of all consumers, of course they should be fired.

”But what if it’s a conflict between an individual employee and an individual consumer? The company will very likely stand on its own employee’s side.

”The higher an employee’s level, the more weight they carry. Even if some executives go against all consumers and cause great negative impact to the company, they still have to be protected.

”So I believe God’s Imitators can definitely design judgment games for themselves. This is a well-deserved privilege.

”But even when designing judgment games for themselves, they must follow the rules and can’t act arbitrarily.

”God’s Imitators as objects of judgment must also bear death risks, just a question of greater or lesser.”

She paused slightly, then said, ”Officer Cao, I’ve noticed you seem to have a special obsession with ’finding God’s Imitators.’

”Why is this necessary?

”Of course, this might be because we stand from different perspectives, but for me, God’s Imitator is just a special identity. Many things are also beyond one’s control.”

Cao Haichuan let out a long breath, ”Actually, more than one person has said these words to me.

”This can also be seen as Community 17’s consensus, so until now, we also haven’t directly used the method of ’checking visa time’ to find God’s Imitators. This can also be seen as some kind of tacit understanding.

”But completely covering your eyes, plugging your ears, and turning a deaf ear to potentially existing God’s Imitators, obviously also won’t work.

”The God’s Imitator identity indeed has the possibility of coexisting peacefully with players. It’s not an absolute zero-sum game. That’s fine.

”But a God’s Imitator’s behavior depends on their true inner thoughts. In other words, whenever they want to cause destruction, they definitely can.

”We can of course assume that all God’s Imitators are like you and will try their best to choose peaceful coexistence with players.

”But what if an unexpected situation occurs?

”Bringing the conflict out in the open at once and making the God’s Imitator feel extremely insecure is certainly not good. But completely pretending not to see and letting the God’s Imitator act arbitrarily is also absolutely not acceptable.

”Suppose now there’s a group of people locked together with a tiger.

”This tiger might be kind. It’s dozing, and for a long time hasn’t attacked anyone.

”Provoking the tiger at this time is of course foolish.

”But wishfully believing that the tiger is kind, will keep dozing like this, and will never jump out to eat people for various reasons, that is equally foolish.

”You still have to think of methods in advance on the premise of provoking the tiger as little as possible.”