God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun’s expression grew somewhat grave. He looked around at everyone and said, ”Let’s all go back to our seats. Dr. Qin is right, this does need some further discussion.”

Everyone returned to their places at the long table. The sharper players had already worked out where the problem lay.

The initial stock of both medications had been ten bottles each. All twenty bottles from that first batch had been purchased using the community fund and were being kept in Qin Cheng’s room for safekeeping.

They could have chosen to destroy them instead, for instance by flushing the tablets down the drain, but in the end no one had done that.

Because there was no telling whether some future development might change things. The medications might still have other uses, such as being brought into a game and sold to players from other communities, or perhaps some item might emerge that could eliminate the medications’ side effects.

After all, real visa time had been spent to acquire them, and destroying them outright seemed excessive. As long as they remained secure and properly stored without any risk of leaking out, keeping them for the time being posed no real problem.

But now that everyone had confirmed how many bottles could be restocked in this first batch, the original plan was no longer quite workable.

Lu Bingjun looked around at everyone and explained, ”Our original decision to buy up all the medications was made without knowing how many could be restocked afterward.

”If each restock is only twenty bottles, that amounts to spending roughly 10,000 from the community fund every week as a fixed ongoing cost in exchange for everyone’s safety.

”That is an acceptable price.”Under those circumstances, every time a player returned from a game, all the restocking quota could be used up under the supervision of the other players, and Qin Cheng could then buy up everything using the community fund.

”With the entire process under collective oversight, drug distribution could be controlled completely.

”But the current situation is a bit difficult.

”Between myself and Lawyer Lin, we can restock forty bottles in total, double what it was before, which comes to 18,000 minutes of visa time.

”We can still cover that with the community fund this time, but next time, and the time after that, that becomes harder to say.

”Dr. Qin outlined two possible scenarios: one where the restocking quota increases by forty bottles after each game, and another where every surviving player can restock twenty bottles individually.

”But under either scenario, the restocking quantity will very likely keep climbing over time, eventually reaching a point the community fund simply cannot bear.

”Under the first scenario, three months from now the restocking quota would be as high as 240 bottles. Under the second, the moment we go through a distribution-type game with full community participation, the quota would spike to 140 bottles overnight.

”And that’s before accounting for the worst-case possibility: a doubling increase in restocking numbers.

”The point I want to make is not about the specific quantities. It’s about a particular expectation.

”If there comes a game after which the medications can no longer all be bought up and controlled, everything we spent buying them before will have been meaningless. It would become an enormous sunk cost dragging down the entire community.

”So let’s talk it through again.

”Do we keep pushing forward, or do we let it go now?”

Wen Wan was quick to respond, ”I think we should let it go. Stopping now at least cuts our losses in time.

”The first purchase only cost us just under 10,000 anyway, which is acceptable.

”And everyone has seen how important the community fund is. If we had been able to build it up to 900,000 sooner and unlocked that cooldown reduction earlier, Deng Xiao wouldn’t have died.

”That might look like a coincidence, but the more community fund we accumulate, the more special items we unlock, and the stronger our community becomes.

”Looked at the other way, if we keep spending the community fund to buy up these medications and lock them away, where does it end? Isn’t that effectively weakening the community over time?”

Ye Lin thought for a moment and said, ”There’s also a worse possibility worth considering.

”I’ll be clear that personally I still lean toward controlling these medications. I’m only raising this as a hypothetical.

”Could there be communities out there that make no attempt to control the medications at all, and even encourage all their players to use them and compete for restocking opportunities?

”If so, most of that community might end up in a state of drug dependence, which could weaken the players’ health, but might also make them considerably more aggressive in games, and their community would accumulate visa time and build its fund at a noticeably faster rate.

”With that kind of trade-off, a community like ours could end up growing weaker and weaker by comparison.

”Yes, our players would certainly be healthier than theirs. But once we’re actually inside a game, that doesn’t mean we’d necessarily win.”

Zheng Chunhua said somewhat hesitantly, ”What if we just... rely on everyone’s personal discipline?

”As long as every player who’s been in a game refrains from restocking, keeping the machine perpetually out of stock, that would still work.

”And even if the occasional player did restock, Qin Cheng could buy up the stock immediately and lock it away, so it wouldn’t cause too much damage.”

Qin Cheng shook his head, ”No, that clearly won’t work.

”Because players who restock can earn a real profit from the price difference.

”If things go on that way, players acting in bad faith would keep benefiting while players following the rules would keep losing out. A lot of people would feel that was unfair, and a plan that relies on wishful thinking like that can’t hold together.”

Lu Bingjun asked, ”So what’s your view, Dr. Qin?”

Qin Cheng thought for a moment and said, ”I’m afraid this situation doesn’t have a middle option. There are only two choices.

”Either we commit fully, buying up and controlling these medications no matter what it costs, with every player in the community sharing that burden together.

”Or we abandon the effort right now.

”Speaking as a doctor, I still personally lean toward the former. But we do have to consider the community’s actual circumstances.

”Any course of action, even an absolutely correct one, has to be abandoned when the cost of maintaining it far exceeds what can realistically be borne.”

Wen Wan looked at Lu Bingjun, ”If it really comes to it, we could just put it to a vote.”

Yao Yuan thought carefully and said, ”I don’t think we need to rush. This is too important to decide quickly.

”The players with restocking eligibility right now are Brother Lu and Lawyer Lin, and both of them can be trusted completely.

”We still have plenty of time to think it through before the next game ends.

”After the next game, once we know how many players have restocking eligibility and exactly how many bottles that means, we can make our decision then.”

Lu Bingjun nodded, ”Yes, that’s what I was thinking too.

”Let’s set this aside for now. Everyone take the time to think it over and see if there’s a better approach.

”That’s all for today. Everyone has worked hard.”

The discussion had ended without a conclusion, and a number of players wore slightly disappointed expressions, but everyone understood that this was genuinely too important a matter to rush, and no amount of caution was excessive. So they let it go and each went their own way.

Lu Bingjun glanced at Yao Yuan, ”The question of recruiting a new member, I’d appreciate you giving it some thought as well.

”Come up with a rough direction first, and we’ll find a time to discuss it tomorrow or the day after.”

Yao Yuan nodded, ”Understood.”