God's Imitator

Huang Shengjie thought it over, head lowered. ”Based on how we’ve talked about the groupings before, Wei Changfeng, Lu Bingjun, and Ye Lin each had their own two loyal followers.

”And Wen Wan, Zhou Wanlin, and Auntie Geng were more like the ones who just go along with whichever group suits the moment.

”But overall, Wen Wan has always seemed noticeably closer to Lu Bingjun. Logically, when she ran into trouble, her first instinct should have been to turn to him.

”I remember, when we were deciding the pain exemption slots, Lu Bingjun pushed through that extra ’Special Exemption Slot’ decided by vote. Wen Wan seemed to really want that slot too, kept glancing over at him.

”But in the end, it went to you.

”Maybe that’s it. Wen Wan originally leaned toward Lu Bingjun, but he let her down one too many times, so she gave up on him and turned to Ye Lin instead.

”Ye Lin is a veteran player too, after all, with some baseline trust already established, and they’re both women.”

Qin Cheng gave a slight shake of his head. ”That might have some influence, but on its own it seems unlikely to push her toward a decision this impulsive in a life-or-death game.

”Let me tell you something else.

”Lu Bingjun once approached me privately, trying to bring me into his circle, and promised to build the community around a core group of five people.

”Guess who those five were.”

Huang Shengjie thought about it. ”Well, if he approached you, you’d obviously be one of them. So that’s Lu Bingjun, Yao Yuan, Lawyer Lin, and you, four confirmed.

”Who’s the fifth?

”Ye Lin? Shen Bowen? That’s genuinely hard to guess.

”It’s not me, is it?”

Qin Cheng was quiet for a moment. ”None of them. It was Wen Wan.”

Huang Shengjie didn’t quite follow. ”Wait, what does that mean?”

Qin Cheng didn’t answer directly. ”Lu Bingjun must have had his reasons for arranging it that way, and it’s hard to guess exactly what they were. But one thing we can say for certain: the relationship between Wen Wan and Lu Bingjun isn’t nearly as simple as it appears on the surface within the community.

”In fact, during earlier motion discussions, Wen Wan directly backed Lu Bingjun or set things up for him on more than one occasion. You could say she was one of his loyal supporters too, which makes it unlikely she’d have turned against him purely over something as small as an exemption slot.

”Even accounting for how genuinely afraid of pain she is.

”And in fact, after that slot was decided, Wen Wan still spoke up in Lu Bingjun’s defence more than once, which suggests the problem probably isn’t rooted there.”

Huang Shengjie frowned in thought. ”If Ye Lin really is the Imitator, then eliminating Wen Wan would effectively cut out a key piece of Lu Bingjun’s power structure. From that angle, doesn’t it make Ye Lin look even more suspicious?

”But that still doesn’t explain why Wen Wan would voluntarily choose her.

”The only explanation left is that something happened between Wen Wan and Lu Bingjun, something serious enough that she suddenly stopped trusting him entirely.

”And by extension, stopped trusting anyone in the community who seemed closely aligned with him.

”Choosing instead to turn to Ye Lin for help.

”From where I stand, Lawyer Lin is a completely independent figure, someone Lu Bingjun could never control.

”But Wen Wan might not see it that way at all.

”Putting myself in her position, the relationship between Lawyer Lin and Lu Bingjun could be summed up by a few specific events. In A Single Word to Settle a Case, Yao Yuan gave up his spot in the game to Lawyer Lin, who then entered as an audience member and managed to save Lu Bingjun, but couldn’t save Deng Xiao.

”After that, Lu Bingjun almost certainly engaged in private discussions or exchanges with Lawyer Lin.

”For instance, the information about the King’s Trial being shared openly with everyone was almost certainly the result of exactly that kind of private arrangement.

”And beyond that, Lu Bingjun surely compensated Lawyer Lin with some form of information, or made certain promises tied to shared interests.

”That’s just what’s visible on the surface. Who knows how much more happened behind closed doors.

”So from Wen Wan’s perspective, Lawyer Lin is very likely already deeply entangled with Lu Bingjun’s interests.

”Whether it was Lawyer Lin or Lu Bingjun himself entering that game, there might have seemed to be no meaningful difference to her.

”If someone isn’t going to genuinely help her, or might even work against her, then their strength doesn’t matter at all.”

As he reached this point, Huang Shengjie’s expression began to clear. ”That would actually make sense.

”If Wen Wan’s selection criterion was to exclude anyone too closely tied to Lu Bingjun, this is exactly the outcome you’d get.

”Because Lawyer Lin, Yao Yuan, and you were all, in her eyes, likely closely bound up with Lu Bingjun, and by extension, not to be trusted either.

”Whereas Ye Lin, maybe slightly weaker than Lawyer Lin in raw ability, but in Wen Wan’s eyes, someone who could absolutely never be controlled by Lu Bingjun.

”At the very start, nobody could have anticipated this would turn into an S-tier game. The Jury Game had only just earned that rating. The odds of two S-tier games in a row felt basically nonexistent, judging from everything we learned in the first stage.

”For an ordinary B-tier or A-tier game, Ye Lin should have been more than capable of handling it.

”As for the other players, He Qinyun and Uncle Zheng haven’t really shown themselves to be especially strong, and they’re Ye Lin’s loyal supporters anyway, so going to them instead of Ye Lin directly wouldn’t make much sense.

”And Shen Bowen is a newer player. She hasn’t shown any clear ties of interest to Lu Bingjun, but she does often seem to be looking out mainly for herself, and Wen Wan probably doesn’t have much of a trust foundation with her.

”So, for Regular Audience Members, she chose Ye Lin and me.

”But why did she pick Lu Qi as Audience Representative instead of Zhou Wanlin?

”The only explanation is that Wen Wan doesn’t fully trust Zhou Wanlin either.

”There must be something only Wen Wan knew that led her to that particular decision.”

Qin Cheng gave a nod. ”That’s exactly what I wanted to point out too.

”Looking at Wen Wan’s choices, she seems to believe Lu Bingjun poses a danger to her, and that Ye Lin is the person in the community most likely to save her.

”That belief might be right, or it might be wrong.

”Maybe Lu Bingjun genuinely did something that frightened her. Or maybe she was manipulated and misled by Ye Lin into forming a mistaken judgment about him.

”But whatever the case, this is almost certainly what she genuinely believed.”

Huang Shengjie arrived at another conclusion that unsettled him just as much. ”So, could Lu Bingjun actually be the Imitator?”

Qin Cheng thought it over. ”Hard to say. But I lean toward thinking the Imitator has to be either Lu Bingjun or Ye Lin, or someone actually under one of their control.

”Which means the Imitator has already taken root within our community’s political structure.

”So, to root them out, we’d inevitably have to strike at the community’s political structure itself. It would take a decision as drastic as cutting off one’s own arm to survive.”

Huang Shengjie’s brow furrowed. ”But if the Imitator really is Lu Bingjun, and he’s also the one holding the power to authorise killings in the community, doesn’t that make this completely unsolvable?”

Qin Cheng didn’t answer directly, only saying, ”I don’t believe any arrangement of power is ever truly flawless or unbeatable. And power never has a permanent owner.”

Both fell into a long silence.

Qin Cheng let out a breath. ”Of course, you don’t have to weigh all of this either.

”If you genuinely can’t make up your mind, just follow your own instincts.”

Huang Shengjie was quiet for a long moment, then nodded. ”Okay.”

Qin Cheng stood up. ”It’s getting late. Head back and get some rest.”