God's Imitator

After another period of silence, Li Renshu summarized, ”Through this game, I believe there are two points that need special emphasis.

”First, we should be more proactive in participating in games going forward. For those games where participation is optional, as long as they’re not too dangerous, we should participate as much as possible.

”This is because God’s Imitators may still use ’number of game participations’ as a screening criterion to select specific players, and such games could actually be more dangerous.

”Evasion is useless.

”Second, we still need to continue advancing the community’s development and allocate more visa time to the community fund.

”In this game, the ’Death Exemption Ticket’ provided not just one chance to avoid death, but also gave us tremendous strategic freedom. Its actual value far exceeded the visa time spent to purchase it.

”Moreover, we can’t rule out that future God’s Imitators will have similar designs, forcibly distributing participating players’ visa time through ’gold coins.’ Hoarding too much visa time on ourselves doesn’t have much significance.”

Everyone nodded one after another, ”Agreed.”

Li Renshu let out a long breath, ”Alright, today’s review ends here. Everyone has worked hard, so go back and rest well.”

…Evening.

Lin Sizhi sat on an outdoor sofa, gazing at the sunset glow in the distance.

Li Renshu walked over and sat down beside him.

She noticed an already-lit cigarette on the coffee table.

”Is this for Officer Cao?” Li Renshu asked.

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Mm.”

Li Renshu also felt somewhat sentimental, but after a moment of silence, she still said, ”There’s something I’d like to consult your opinion on.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Please speak freely.”

Li Renshu hesitated slightly, ”I want to arrange for all community members to publicly check their remaining visa time once.

”So before doing that, I wanted to ask for your thoughts privately first.

”If you don’t want to check, then we won’t check.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Then let’s check. I have no objection.”

This actually surprised Li Renshu somewhat, but she didn’t say much more, only nodding, ”Alright, then let’s wait until tomorrow. I’ll choose an appropriate time to tell everyone.”

Clearly, Li Renshu was still worried that rashly checking for God’s Imitators might cause unrest in the community, which was why she asked privately first.

If Lin Sizhi had said not to check, then it could almost certainly confirm that Lin Sizhi was definitely a God’s Imitator. Li Renshu definitely wouldn’t make it public, but at least she would have an idea.

But since Lin Sizhi agreed, checking would also have its benefits, as it could make the other players in the community feel more at ease.

In fact, most of the clever players in the community had long thought of the method to check visa time.

The reason for bringing up this old matter now was because Cao Haichuan’s death had brought about some chain reactions.

The players in the community inevitably developed greater distrust and fear toward those unknown God’s Imitators, and they needed to be given a clear explanation.

And such behavior was certainly not limited to Community 17 alone.

In other communities, the same thing was most likely happening as well.

…

The next morning.

All the players came to the vending machine in the hall, preparing to check their remaining visa time.

Everyone formed a circle, ensuring that most people could clearly see the specific numbers displayed.

When Li Renshu said she wanted to check specific visa time, many players were obviously somewhat surprised.

Clearly, she hadn’t consulted with all the players privately beforehand. However, everyone still raised no objections and agreed quite readily.

Everyone checked in order according to their player numbers in the community.

Fu Chen: 132478

Wei Yinzhang: 258472

Li Renshu: 168472

Cai Zhiyuan: 81726

Wang Yongxin: 248727

Qin Yao: 249762

Zhou Guifen: 87975

Xu Tong: 217283

Zheng Jie: 134689

Yang Yuting: 157823

Lin Sizhi: 341298

As the players checked their visa time one by one, the others were naturally also roughly calculating whether these times added up correctly.

Cai Zhiyuan was somewhat surprised, ”Huh, without realizing it, my visa time has become the lowest in the entire community?

”Looks like I need to find a way to earn more visa time in the next game.”

Some players’ data was still somewhat surprising, such as Qin Yao and Xu Tong, whose remaining visa time was clearly more than many people had expected but upon careful thought, one would find that this data was normal.

Although Qin Yao had participated in games relatively few times, she had teamed up with Lin Sizhi in both distribution-type games, so she obtained very generous returns.

Xu Tong and Yang Yuting teamed up with Wang Yongxin in ’Conglomerate Nation,’ and Xu Tong also gained an extra 80,000-plus visa time in the ’Fortune Source Game’ because of Aunt Su, which was the main source of the difference between her and Yang Yuting’s visa time.

Cai Zhiyuan had the least visa time because his earnings in ’Blood Poker’ and ’King’s Judgment’ were both low, and he had additionally donated 50,000.

As for Wei Yinzhang, her visa time was naturally incorrect but as an openly declared God’s Imitator, the extra earnings naturally all came from the ’Fool’s Game,’ a point she had mentioned long ago.

Li Renshu came to a somewhat unexpected conclusion, ”So, aside from Yinzhang, everyone’s visa time is normal.

”Our community indeed has no other God’s Imitators.

”Or, even if God’s Imitators exist, they haven’t earned large amounts of visa time through games.”

The others also fell into their own silence. Clearly, this conclusion was somewhat beyond everyone’s expectations but with the facts laid out before them, everyone could only accept this conclusion.

Li Renshu let out a long breath, ”In any case, this is good news. Everyone can stop worrying. Our community is very safe.”

Everyone said nothing more and simply dispersed.

…

In the afternoon, Li Renshu once again found Lin Sizhi and called him to a secluded small room.

Lin Sizhi looked around and discovered that Cai Zhiyuan and Fu Chen were already there.

He roughly guessed what would be discussed next.

After everyone sat down, Li Renshu didn’t keep them in suspense anymore and said directly, ”There’s now an issue we need to discuss with everyone.

”That is... who should fill the vacancy left by Officer Cao’s position.

”Actually, strictly speaking, there are only two candidates at present: Wang Yongxin or Wei Yinzhang.”

Although the community would still accept new members, it was of course impossible for new members to directly enter the core circle.

As for the other players, they clearly carried far less weight.

So in the end, there were only these two options.

Fu Chen was somewhat helpless, ”I think this matter really doesn’t need further discussion. I’ll just exit directly and bring both Brother Wang and Wei Yinzhang in together, and this problem will be solved.”

Li Renshu shook her head, ”No.

”I’m inclined toward keeping the number of people in this small circle unchanged, and without special reasons, absolutely no one can be kicked out or voluntarily withdraw.

”When a vacancy appears, it should be filled based on two factors:

”First is contribution to the community, and second is the order of joining the community, that is, seniority.”

Cai Zhiyuan said, ”Why don’t we take a preliminary vote first, and after voting, we can have a deeper discussion.

”No matter which of these two people we choose, there are corresponding reasons.”

After thinking for a moment, Fu Chen said, ”It’s a bit hard to choose, but if I must choose one, I’ll still vote for Brother Wang.

”I quite appreciate Yinzhang’s philosophy, but Brother Wang has indeed made more contributions to the community.”

Cai Zhiyuan looked at Lin Sizhi again, ”Lawyer Lin, what’s your opinion?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”I abstain. Either of these two people being selected is acceptable to me.”

After considering for a moment, Cai Zhiyuan said, ”Then I’ll vote for Wei Yinzhang.”

He looked at Li Renshu again, ”It’s ultimately up to your vote to make the decision.”

Li Renshu hesitated for a long time and finally said, ”I still lean more toward Brother Wang.

”As for Yinzhang, of course I’ll value her opinions as much as possible and can respect her voice on some topics, but Brother Wang’s priority still needs to come before hers.”

Cai Zhiyuan nodded, ”Alright, then let’s briefly discuss and see if anyone changes their mind.

”If no one changes their mind, we’ll bring Wang Yongxin in, with Wei Yinzhang as the backup for next time.”