God's Imitator

Yang Yuting’s brows furrowed slightly. She looked at Cai Zhiyuan and suddenly felt that Cai Zhiyuan was much more complex than she had originally imagined.

Originally, Yang Yuting had only regarded Cai Zhiyuan as someone who relied on Li Renshu and suppressed Wang Yongxin. But it now appeared that Cai Zhiyuan had always had his own ideas and wasn’t simply offering advice or executing Li Renshu’s decisions.

After thinking for a moment, she asked, ”So... this matter should also have additional benefits for you personally, right?

”It can’t purely be for the purpose of ’maintaining the community’s ecological stability.’”

Cai Zhiyuan nodded, ”Of course. I’m not that selfless.

”But this is also normal, right? Among the slightly smarter people in this community, who doesn’t have their own little calculations?”

After thinking briefly, Yang Yuting nodded, ”Mm, maintaining the current state is indeed the most cost-effective choice for you. That’s a sufficient reason.

”Come to think of it, it’s somewhat interesting. When many players are racking their brains trying to increase their voice, you’re troubled by having too much voice.”

Cai Zhiyuan shook his head slightly, ”There’s no helping it. The community’s power further concentrating toward the five-person group is an unavoidable trend.

”As a member of this group, I can neither directly stand up to stop this trend nor give up a portion of power internally.”So I can only use this method to try to restore balance.”

Yang Yuting thought seriously for a moment, ”Mm... that’s indeed the case.”

She could indeed clearly feel this trend of power concentration, especially after Wang Yongxin entered the five-person group.

Recent motions proposed were becoming increasingly coercive. Opposing voices in community discussions were also becoming fewer and fewer. Even the special items newly activated in the community were all encouraging power concentration.

This was both an inevitability of community evolution and the result of intentional promotion by Li Renshu and Wang Yongxin.

Cai Zhiyuan seemingly didn’t like this trend, but his positioning was advisor after all, only providing suggestions. Directly standing up to oppose was obviously inappropriate.

And if he gave up a portion of power within the five-person group, this portion of power would most likely be taken by Wang Yongxin and wouldn’t be distributed outside.

So Cai Zhiyuan planned to find a solution outside the five-person group.

Yang Yuting thought about it, ”Speaking of this... actually with this new motion, although the five-person group gave up benefits through dividends, overall, they’re still the greater beneficiaries, right?

”Ordinary players appear to have choices on the surface, but in reality they don’t.”

Cai Zhiyuan nodded, ”Yes.

”It’s good that you thought of this point. This shows you indeed already possess the basic qualities to become the ’opposition.’”

Cai Zhiyuan didn’t explain much about this, but after entering the community, Yang Yuting’s political acumen had also been continuously improving, so she could understand.

The motion pushed through this time superficially let ordinary players choose first: either become the side that transfers voice and enjoys dividends, or become the side that gains voice and backstops dividends.

But in reality, ordinary players had no choice at all.

Because even if the vast majority of ordinary players were willing to backstop dividends, it would still be difficult to obtain substantial voice.

Because the ’five-person group’ has a higher level of priority on the issue of voice. When conflicts arise between the two types of voice, the ’five-person group’s’ voice would definitely still dominate.

Suppose players like Zheng Jie and Zhou Guifen really had a moment of rashness and chose to backstop dividends for the sake of voice. Then on some unimportant issues, their opinions might be considered. But on some core, key issues, if their opinions conflicted with the five-person group’s, their voice would still infinitely approach zero.

Of course, players like Wei Yinzhang were exceptions.

She could actively backstop dividends and gain voice because she herself had special status and had the most basic voice.

But for other ordinary players, if they chose to backstop dividends, they would most likely end up with neither voice nor dividends.

So ultimately, although dividends were ’those holding voice making further concessions,’ it was still a plan more cost-effective for the five-person group.

Cai Zhiyuan continued, ”Besides this, I believe that compared to Wang Yongxin, you’re a better cooperation partner.

”The conditions Wang Yongxin can offer, I can most likely offer as well.

”But you as the opposition, compared to Wang Yongxin as the opposition, would have real tangible benefits for me.

”And for you, you can freely consider choosing the side with better conditions. There’s nothing bad about that, is there?”

Yang Yuting fell into contemplation.

Cai Zhiyuan’s words were very straightforward: this was poaching.

According to Wang Yongxin’s plan, after entering the five-person group, he would do more dirty work and hard labor, trying as much as possible to establish an image of a ’leader who dares to take responsibility.’

Once the community’s environment changed in the future, such as the five-person group experiencing casualties or the community’s survival environment becoming harsh, he would have hope of replacing Li Renshu based on this image.

If this situation really happened, Wang Yongxin would definitely place Yang Yuting in Cai Zhiyuan’s current position.

So Wang Yongxin had always hoped Yang Yuting could deeply bind her interests with his own and had made many promises but obviously, Cai Zhiyuan wasn’t blind. He could also guess what Wang Yongxin was thinking.

And for Cai Zhiyuan, if he wanted to eliminate Wang Yongxin’s threat as much as possible, the best method was to strike at the root and directly poach Yang Yuting.

Although at this time Yang Yuting was obviously closer to Wang Yongxin and had more foundation for cooperation, Cai Zhiyuan wasn’t without advantages either.

His advantage was that he could give Yang Yuting real benefits.

What Wang Yongxin currently gave Yang Yuting were actually just some empty promises. Although a position like ’core advisor’ looked very tempting, who knew when Wang Yongxin could replace Li Renshu and rise to power.

And besides empty promises, Wang Yongxin actually couldn’t give anything else either, because he himself hadn’t yet gained a firm foothold in the five-person group. With insufficient voice obtained, naturally he could hardly distribute any to Yang Yuting.

But Cai Zhiyuan was willing to help Yang Yuting become the new opposition within the community.

In this process, Yang Yuting could not only legitimately oppose certain motions and protect her own interests, but could also repeatedly build goodwill and presence among ordinary players outside the five-person group.

Yang Yuting asked again, ”Your reasons are indeed very sufficient, but why are you so certain I’ll agree?

”This matter can indeed bring me some visible benefits, but these benefits don’t seem so great that I must do it.

”Entering a judgment game means bearing clear death risks.”

Cai Zhiyuan said matter-of-factly, ”I guessed.”