God's Imitator

Huang Shengjie was mildly surprised. He’d already roughly expected Zhang Yan to vote against, but hadn’t expected her to sound quite this resolute about it.

Zhang Yan explained, in a matter-of-fact tone, ”I know the Imitator is dangerous, and given how things stand now, there’s almost certainly one in this community, quite possibly even one or two S-tier ones.

”Even so, I don’t want the community to pass a motion like this.

”Call me a coward if you want, call it self-deception, whatever. Either way, I’d rather be killed by the Imitator in some game than die from a fear we brought on ourselves.”

Huang Shengjie found himself even more surprised. ”Sister Zhang, you’re far more resolute about this than I expected.”

Zhang Yan waved a hand. ”It’s not really about resolve or lack of it.

”I’ve just made my peace with it.

”In this godforsaken place, most of us are going to die eventually. Sooner or later, that’s the only real question.

”Do you honestly think fewer people get killed by fellow players scheming against them than by Imitators? I don’t think that’s true at all.

”Look at Community 23, the one you all encountered in that game. Zhao Heng did far more harm to other players than any Imitator did.

”Given that, I don’t see any real difference between dying at another player’s hand and dying at an Imitator’s.

”So unless I’m shown evidence that’s genuinely impossible to argue against, I’ll lean toward keeping things as they are and not changing anything.”

Huang Shengjie couldn’t help feeling a stir of genuine admiration. He didn’t fully agree with everything Zhang Yan had said, but he found himself moved all the same.

A player with this kind of unwavering conviction, regardless of their actual strength, regardless of whether they were even right, still carried a certain kind of personal magnetism in a place like this.

Huang Shengjie nodded. ”I’ll be voting against too, then.”

Zhang Yan didn’t seem to care much either way. ”Vote however you want. I don’t care how anyone else votes, and I don’t care what the final outcome ends up being. I’m only voting according to what I genuinely believe.”

Huang Shengjie asked, ”Has anyone else come to talk to you about this already?”

Zhang Yan nodded. ”More than one person. My answer’s been the same every time.”

Huang Shengjie didn’t press further, since Zhang Yan’s position was already clearly settled.

That resolve might be genuine, or it might not be, but Huang Shengjie had no real way to tell the difference, and either way, he felt he had no ability to change her mind. Better, then, to spend his time on someone else.

He made another loop around the community and found Zhou Wanlin in the kitchen.

Some of Community 2’s players did cook occasionally, though day to day, most simply bought meals from the vending machine, since the food there tasted decent and saved time and effort. Cooking your own ingredients would have saved some visa time, sure, but as veteran players, none of them were inclined to nickel-and-dime over that small an amount.

That didn’t mean the kitchen went entirely unused, though. Zhou Wanlin, for instance, often used it for simple baking, sharing cookies or cakes with the group afterward.

”Sister Zhou, have you decided how you’re going to vote?”

Huang Shengjie asked while trying to lend a hand with the baking.

Zhou Wanlin seemed genuinely torn. ”Ah, honestly, I haven’t quite decided yet.

”I did have some thoughts on it originally, but more than one person’s come to talk to me about this, and everyone seems to make a lot of sense, so now I’m even less sure than before.

”Right now, I think I’m leaning toward voting against?

”I can’t really point to a great reason. I feel like both sides have made a convincing case to me, but my gut tells me that if I’m still hesitating this much, it probably means deep down I don’t actually want it to pass.

”So I’ll go with against for now.”

That was good news for Huang Shengjie, though he pressed further anyway. ”But Brother Lu also said, if this doesn’t pass this time, we won’t revisit it for two months.

”What if the Imitator escalates and starts killing more aggressively in the meantime?”

Zhou Wanlin seemed caught off guard by the question. She thought it over. ”What else could we do, really? We’ll just deal with it when it happens.

”I don’t think what Lu Bingjun said is set in stone either. If everyone in the community suddenly agreed we needed to push this motion through again, could he really refuse?

”I don’t think so.

”So this isn’t really a one-shot opportunity that vanishes forever if we miss it. What he said is more just a way of framing things for now. I don’t think it’s worth taking too literally.”

Huang Shengjie nodded. ”Yeah, I think the same thing. Seems like we’re pretty much on the same page.

”Sister Zhou, do you have any sense of how anyone else is leaning? Auntie Geng, for instance?”

Zhou Wanlin shook her head. ”No idea, honestly. Haven’t talked to her about it. I think she can vote however she wants, either way wouldn’t be strange.

”Honestly, players like us, on the margins, don’t have much influence on a motion like this anyway. Whatever happens, good or bad, it’s unlikely to land on us specifically.

”I think going with your first instinct is probably fine.”

Huang Shengjie nodded quietly. ”Yeah, that’s true. Thanks, Sister Zhou. I’ll go ask around some more.”

They chatted a little longer before Huang Shengjie left the kitchen.

Zhang Yan and Zhou Wanlin’s positions had put his mind considerably more at ease. Neither of them was necessarily telling him the full truth, and either could still shift before the final vote, but regardless, it felt like a solid start.

He then found Lu Qi in the reading area, looking somewhat at a loss for what to do with herself.

”Have you decided how you’re going to vote?” Huang Shengjie asked.

Lu Qi looked surprised. ”Me? I don’t know. Isn’t everyone voting in favour? I guess I’ll vote in favour too.

”I figure, with all the smart, senior players in this community, if they want to push this motion through to catch the Imitator, they must have thought it through carefully, and it has to pass before they can actually act on it.

”I don’t really understand any of this. I don’t want to be the one who votes against just to get in their way, right?”

Huang Shengjie perked up immediately.

Clearly, there was someone in the community even greener and more on the margins than himself: Lu Qi.

Everything Huang Shengjie had spent so long working through privately could finally be put to use.

”This isn’t nearly as simple as it might seem.

”Let me walk you through it. You don’t have to end up agreeing with me, but at least understand the full picture first, and then follow whatever you genuinely believe.”

With no one else around in the reading area, Huang Shengjie began explaining things to her, plainly and simply.

Lu Qi listened with only partial understanding, but seemed genuinely interested, nodding along attentively.

That day stretched on longer than any day before it.

After lunch, most players retreated to their rooms to rest. Huang Shengjie had spent a long stretch of the morning talking with Lu Qi and felt fairly worn out himself. After his own rest, he went and had brief conversations with Zheng Chunhua, Geng Yuxia, and Shen Bowen as well.

On the whole, most players seemed genuinely split on whether this motion would pass. Very few expressed a position as clearly opposed as Zhang Yan’s.

But almost no one expressed a position as clearly in favour, either.