God's Imitator

Wang Yongxin nodded, ”Alright.

”This issue is quite complex. I’ll try to simplify it into two points.

”First is the historical legacy problem.

”At the very beginning, all 12 of us entered the community together. Fu Chen was Player No. 1 and spoke first. Moreover, as a streamer, he had decent eloquence and was quite personable, naturally leading the meeting process.

”Of course, looking back, this might have just been a coincidence. There were many people among the 12 in the community who possessed this ability.

”But Fu Chen’s performance on the first day caused some politically conscious people to spontaneously gather around him.

”And professions like civil servants, lawyers, and police officers are naturally similar in ideology. So they were also naturally absorbed into the group.

”At the very beginning, I focused my energy mainly on studying game rules. By the time I clearly realized this power core existed, it had already closed.

”I could certainly exert some influence on it, but it was already impossible to integrate into it.

”Second is the issue of community and Gallery rule characteristics.”You might mistakenly think that under the heavy pressure of life-and-death games, the community would become a militarily managed place, or form strict hierarchies and rigid superior-subordinate relationships.

”But the interesting point is that the pressure brought by the New World’s life-and-death games to players isn’t that urgent yet.

”So far we’ve conducted four different games and only two people have died, one of whom was an elderly lady who actively sought death because she lost the will to survive.

”As for the other deceased, the original Player No. 10, the judgment game he encountered was indeed the most oppressive game, but that kind of game has only appeared once.

”So while the ability to crack games is certainly important, it can’t directly translate into power within the community.

”Moreover, I made a very serious mistake.

”The first game after entering the community was ’Blood Poker,’ which was a distribution-type game with almost no mortality rate.

”Lawyer Lin and I were the only two people in the community who discovered the game’s backdoor, but Lawyer Lin chose to share it with his teammates, while I, for various reasons, didn’t share it.

”Looking back, this was a very serious mistake. I missed an excellent opportunity to enhance my speaking power.

”But at that time, having just entered the community, everyone’s relationships weren’t much different from strangers. I couldn’t think that far ahead.”

Luo Wei frowned tightly, ”I understand how this structure was formed, but I still think the people in this community lack urgency.

”Two deaths in four games, that mortality rate isn’t low either, right?

”If I were leading the community, I would try to adopt military-style management as much as possible, giving the strong more speaking power, even privileges.”

Wang Yongxin smiled, ”Your idea is quite good, but it’s unrealistic.

”Because people don’t shed tears until they see the coffin.

”For many people, compared to the vague mortality rate and the rights violations that are clearly displayed now, the latter is more unacceptable.

”On this point, Li Renshu is much smarter and more realistic than you, so she would never attempt to push motions to expand power.

”Now, in Community 17, whoever dares to propose such motions would immediately be viewed by most people as an ’ambitious person’ or ’imitator.’ Not only would they fail to advance the motion, but they’d bring trouble upon themselves.

”Because the initiator would inevitably occupy an absolutely dominant position in this new structure, being the biggest beneficiary.”

Luo Wei disagreed even more, ”But someone has to do this.

”Otherwise, what happens when we encounter communities with higher organization in future games?

”’Blood Poker’ was a game from long ago, after all. At that time, most players had just entered communities not long before, most communities were like scattered sand with no organization, so they could only tend toward cooperation in multiplayer games.

”But so much time has passed, many communities might have already formed tight organizations internally.

”Community 17 encountering such situations would very likely become powerless to fight back.”

Wang Yongxin was silent for a moment, then shrugged, ”Do you want to hear the optimistic version or the pessimistic version?

”The optimistic version is that our community actually has quite a few smart people.

”The pessimistic version is, what can be done about it?

”The current ecology of Community 17 doesn’t depend on me, or even on the 5-person core.

”This is the collective choice of everyone in the community.

”Unless particularly tragic casualties suddenly appear in some game, perhaps only then would this sense of urgency stimulate everyone to actively change the community’s ecology.

”But before that ’particularly tragic casualty’ happens, no one can change it, not even Lawyer Lin.”

Luo Wei considered for a moment and asked, ”So what do you do now? Wait to die?”

Wang Yongxin waved his hand, ”Hey, that’s being a bit too direct. It’s not about waiting to die.

”Don’t think players from other communities are all that impressive either. From the current situation, most are ordinary people, even stupid people.

”Many times in games, you don’t need to be the smartest, you just need to not be the stupidest.

”On this point, I’m still quite confident.

”As long as I can live longer than others, I’ll always be able to wait for a turning point.

”Besides, although I can’t possess power now, it doesn’t mean I have completely no speaking power or self-protection ability.

”The worst aspect of Community 17’s current ecology is also its best aspect:

”If you want to do something big, you indeed can’t do it. But you also don’t need to worry about others suddenly jumping out to do something big that would seriously damage your interests.”

Wang Yongxin paused slightly, leaning forward a bit, ”How about it? Want to join forces with me?

”Our philosophies should be quite similar, and we’re both relatively marginalized figures in the community, which would provide a good foundation for cooperation.”

Luo Wei didn’t immediately give a clear response.

”Let me think about it.”

...

That evening, Lin Sizhi returned to his room.

Opening his computer, sure enough, a new invitation had appeared.

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[Now, the Gallery extends a new design invitation to you:]

[Please design a game for ’all players’ with the themes of ’visa time redistribution’ and ’community confrontation.’]

[The game planning document is in your desk drawer.]

[The deadline is 8 PM tomorrow evening. You have 24 hours to complete the game design.]

[The ’Gallery’ will evaluate all submitted planning documents and adopt the highest-scoring proposal to set up the game venue.]

[All players will be forced to participate.]

[Now, the 24-hour countdown begins. Please make your choice.]

Regarding Lin Sizhi’s probing behavior, the Gallery gave no evaluation.

No approval, no opposition.

”This also means that such behavior is tacitly permitted, but not worth advocating.

”It’s like... certain gray areas that can’t be explicitly mentioned.

”When you haven’t touched upon it, no one will actively bring it up to you, but when you do touch upon it, you won’t face severe prohibition either.”