God's Imitator

Everyone began talking at once.

The discussion didn’t last particularly long. Some candidates were fairly self-evident.

The three current core game players, Lu Bingjun, Lin Sizhi, and Ye Lin, would naturally occupy three of the slots.

Of the remaining players, selecting three more would come down to a combination of their standing in the community and their performance in games.

Qin Cheng was an obvious choice without any debate.

Yao Yuan was also put forward by a number of players. He offered a brief, token refusal but ultimately accepted.

The final slot generated some discussion. He Qinyun, Shen Bowen, and Huang Shengjie were all mentioned, and the newly recruited Zhang Yan was even considered.

In the end, Lu Bingjun made the call, ”Shen Bowen.”

He gave no specific reason or explanation. For the majority of players in the community, the choice was something they could accept without difficulty.

”Going forward, this is the framework we’ll use to manage the medications.”Myself, Lawyer Lin, Ye Lin, Dr Qin, Yao Yuan, and Shen Bowen: these six may retain their restocking quota and are trusted to act on their own conscience.

”Please don’t betray the community’s trust in you.

”As for everyone else who still has a restocking quota, please come up in turn and restock now.

”Dr Qin will then use the community fund to buy up the medications, same as before. They’ll be stored under control.”

During the earlier test of the purchase limit function, everyone had already used up one round of restocking for Class F medication. So the remaining eight players each restocked three bottles of Class 0 and two bottles of Class F.

Each of them spent 1,150 minutes of visa time from their own accounts, and Qin Cheng then used the community fund to buy it all back, effectively returning 2,300 minutes of visa time to each of them.

As Lu Bingjun had said, this arrangement could also be seen as a form of redistribution and support for the players who needed it more. From what could be observed, the vast majority were satisfied with the outcome.

As the players restocked in turn, Qin Cheng continued using the community fund to purchase the medications, carefully counting and confirming the quantities were correct.

Eventually, the vending machine’s medication display returned to zero once more.

[Class 0 Painkiller] [Purchase limit: 0/10]

[Class F Painkiller] [Purchase limit: 0/20]

[Purchase limit depleted. Please restock.]

Lu Bingjun looked around at everyone, ”Alright, we’re about done with the debrief.

”There’s one last thing: please give Zhang Yan a brief introduction. From this point on, we’re all part of the same community, and we should get to know one another.”

Everyone applauded, and Zhang Yan stood to offer his thanks.

”I’m 36. I used to work for a private security company.

”Nothing as glamorous as a personal bodyguard, a step above the average building security guard.

”My physical condition should be a bit better than average, though please don’t assume I’m any kind of fighter. My actual role at the company was mostly administrative.

”I’m very glad to be part of Community 2. I hope to find my footing quickly and stand alongside everyone here.”

Lu Bingjun led the applause, and the atmosphere was warm and genuine.

”Yao Yuan, over the next few days please take some time to help Zhang Yan get familiar with the community, introduce him to the other members, and bring him up to speed on the motions we’ve passed.

”Wen Wan, please arrange a shared meal for this evening, both to welcome Zhang Yan and to celebrate a good result for everyone.

”That’s all for today. Everyone has worked hard. The debrief is over, get some rest.”

Everyone dispersed. Qin Cheng, as always, gathered the newly purchased medications and carried them back to his room for storage.

That evening, after the meal, Lin Sizhi returned to his room.

Out of habit, he glanced at his laptop screen and noticed something new had appeared.

”Hmm?”

Lin Sizhi was mildly surprised. He sat down in front of the computer.

Based on the patterns he had observed, the Gallery opened roughly once a week. A new invitation usually appeared two to three days after the previous game ended, after which Imitators were typically given around three to four days to design and submit.

While the timing varied depending on the game type and other factors, this general rhythm held fairly consistently. Receiving a new invitation on the same evening a game had ended was unusual.

Lin Sizhi read through the contents carefully and found that this was not a conventional ’game invitation’ in the usual sense. It was a ’game type invitation.’

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[You have demonstrated strong performance across several different game types. A number of other outstanding Imitators have done the same.]

[The Gallery now extends a ’game type invitation’ to all Imitators ranked A or above.]

[You may take into account the current state of the Gallery, your personal objectives, and anticipated future trends to design a new type of game.]

[If adopted, this type will become one of the Gallery’s ’standard game types.’ All future game invitations of this type will require all Imitators to design according to the corresponding format.]

[For the first game of this type, the Imitator who proposed the format will not participate in the design. Subsequent invitations will be unaffected.]

Lin Sizhi read it through once more, then sat in thought.

Looking at what currently existed, the Gallery appeared to operate with roughly three initial game types: distribution-type games, selection-type games, and Judgment Games.

Distribution-type games were characterised by low risk and the potential to earn large amounts of visa time.

Selection-type games were not targeted at specific offenders, but carried a degree of mortality risk. The specifics depended on the Imitator’s design.

Judgment Games were primarily aimed at specific offenders.

After those, elimination-type games had also emerged: building on the Judgment Game format, they posed elevated death risks or visa time loss risks to particular groups of players.

As things stood, these four types were the full extent of what existed in the Gallery, with the first three appearing more frequently and elimination-type games less so.

And now, the Gallery was permitting Imitators to define an entirely new game type themselves.

Once adopted, the type would be fixed into place and would begin appearing in future game invitations.

The first game of this type would certainly be a new-format game, but the Imitator who proposed the format would not be able to participate in designing it.

This was presumably to give other Imitators time to study the new format, rather than allowing the proposing Imitator to hold the dual role of rule-setter and competitor.

Different game types produced different outcomes. Distribution-type games were better suited to fostering cooperation, while elimination-type games were more likely to stoke conflict between players.

A new game type genuinely could push the Gallery’s evolution in a specific direction.

But which proposal the Gallery would adopt also depended on its own intentions.

A type that was too favourable to players might conflict with the Gallery’s objectives and be rejected outright.

Lin Sizhi sat with his thoughts for a long time. He opened the desk drawer and took out a fresh planning document.

This one was different from previous ones. It was a completely blank template, meaning the Imitator was responsible for filling in the format themselves, and that format would become the standard going forward.

At the top of the page, Lin Sizhi wrote the game type: ’Role-Play Game.’