God's Imitator

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Mm, not a bad analysis.”

Although praised again, this time Qin Yao frowned and wasn’t particularly happy. Instead, she had more questions.

”But...

”Even if this analysis can explain the motive for ’Cai Zhiyuan voluntarily giving up the third game core position,’ the benefits aren’t that high, right?

”Because to achieve this goal, he’d have to coordinate with many people privately, right? For example, he privately coordinated with Zheng Jie, Dai Yifan, and Auntie Zhou, ensuring these three voted for Yang Yuting.

”But after the voting results come out, won’t these three people find it strange?

”Also, people like Brother Wang and Li Renshu, although they might not know about this, would be somewhat suspicious after seeing the vote distribution, right?”

Lin Sizhi considered for a moment, ”Not necessarily.

”It mainly depends on my reaction.”

Qin Yao was stunned, ”Huh? I don’t quite understand. Do you mean only you can see through this?”Lin Sizhi shook her head, ”Of course not. If we’re just talking about this matter itself, the principle isn’t complex. Players like Wang Yongxin and Li Renshu could figure it out quickly in a situation ’without key unknown variables.’

”But for them, this matter has a ’key unknown variable.’

”Namely, the point of ’who exactly did Lin Sizhi vote for.’

”For me, this is a known variable. I’m very clear I voted for Cai Zhiyuan, so ’3 votes’ is very strange.

”But if this is an unknown variable, other people don’t know whether I voted for Cai Zhiyuan or Yang Yuting. Going further, if they suspect you and I might have coordinated votes, they also don’t know whether your vote went to Cai Zhiyuan or Yang Yuting.

”Then ’3 votes’ becomes information that can’t be analyzed.

”Because they also won’t come ask me privately who I voted for, and even if I told them, they wouldn’t necessarily believe it.

”Similarly, assuming they went to ask Auntie Zhou who she voted for, they wouldn’t necessarily believe Auntie Zhou would tell 100% the truth, so most likely they wouldn’t ask, because such behavior doesn’t mean much.

”So in a situation where ’I don’t speak up,’ this matter is enough to fool Li Renshu and Wang Yongxin.”

Qin Yao suddenly understood, ”Oh! I get it!

”Trying to stand in Wang Yongxin’s perspective, he doesn’t know who you voted for, Lawyer Lin. So to him, this 6:3 vote distribution is reasonable.

”The 3 votes could be Cai Zhiyuan himself, Li Renshu, and one of Zheng Jie, Auntie Zhou, or Dai Yifan.

”And among the remaining 6 votes are 2 votes from you and me.

”When Li Renshu sees this vote distribution, she’d have the same thought.

”And the key point is, this vote distribution looks more reasonable than the actual vote distribution.

”Because Lawyer Lin, you’ve never shown obvious preference, so it wouldn’t be strange no matter who you voted for. That’s why you became the ’key unknown variable.’

”But... as long as you voluntarily expose this, it would be revealed, right?”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes, but clearly, Cai Zhiyuan judged that I most likely wouldn’t voluntarily expose him.

”And he guessed right.”

Qin Yao wasn’t surprised by this, because this was Lin Sizhi’s consistent attitude.

Among these community players, Lin Sizhi was more like a somewhat neutral observer who would appreciate clever strategies in the community but wouldn’t do anything unnecessary.

”But doesn’t this amount to calculating you into it as well?

”If it were someone else, the fact of being calculated like this would already be sufficient motive to expose him, right?

”There’s also a very key question. Cai Zhiyuan didn’t consult with us two, so how could he be sure we’d vote for him? What if the two of us really voted for Yang Yuting?

”In that case, Cai Zhiyuan would only get 1 vote, and this 1 vote came from Li Renshu. Wouldn’t that be too strange?

”Even if you didn’t actively expose it then, it would already be revealed!”

Lin Sizhi shook her head, ”This is naturally a risk that could exist, but there’s a very key issue:

”Even if the situation you mentioned occurred and Cai Zhiyuan only got 1 vote, Li Renshu wouldn’t publicly expose Cai Zhiyuan, since the two of them are a community of interests.

”Li Renshu is someone very mature politically. She wouldn’t engage in this kind of infighting in public.

”That would amount to Li Renshu tacitly accepting that this vote was Cai Zhiyuan voting for himself, taking the fall for Cai Zhiyuan.

”As for in private, actually Cai Zhiyuan could explain it to Li Renshu any way he wanted. Even if he explained this matter purely from selfish motives, Li Renshu could accept it.

”Taking ten thousand steps back, even if this matter was made public, Cai Zhiyuan could say it was because Yang Yuting mentioning the risks game cores would bear when actively entering judgment games made him retreat at the last moment, and for his own safety, he voted for Yang Yuting.

”Everyone would at most think he’s somewhat cowardly about death, which is also human nature. They wouldn’t think there was any more complex purpose.

”Of course, his strategy actually amounts to exploiting my special situation in the community, but I naturally wouldn’t get angry about this, much less expose him because of it.

”Because this matter has absolutely no benefits for me whatsoever. There’s no reason or motive to do it.

”Instead, I think he’s quite thoughtful. Aside from sharing with you, I’ve decided to keep it secret for now.”

Qin Yao thought about it, ”But I still feel his actions seem very unnecessary. I can’t see any particularly great benefits.

”Lawyer Lin, do you think Cai Zhiyuan has some other special purpose?”

Lin Sizhi smiled and didn’t say more, ”Who knows?”

...

The next morning.

After everyone had breakfast, they gathered in twos and threes in the hall.

This period was the most relaxed. The last game had just ended not long ago, many community affairs had been roughly handled, and there was still some time before the next game started.

So everyone appeared relatively relaxed.

Since they were still within the ’discount coupon’ validity period, everyone’s breakfast was also somewhat more extravagant.

Just then, Yang Yuting clapped her hands and said to everyone, ”Excuse me for interrupting!

”I have a proposal. Does everyone want to hear it?”

Li Renshu was reading a book and looked up, asking, ”Mm? What proposal?”

Yang Yuting explained, ”Actually, I’ve been thinking about how to better help everyone improve their gaming skills and better face future challenges.

”Although we’ve been reviewing after every game, reviewing always feels somewhat like Monday morning quarterbacking. Analyzing from a God’s perspective seems very logical, and it looks like everyone understands, but every time we’re in a game facing completely new rules, we’re still clueless.

”This is the difference between ’theory’ and ’practice,’ right?

”So I was thinking, could we also design some small puzzles to help everyone do some simple training in daily life?

”Actually, Yinzhang also has this ability, but since she’s a God’s Imitator, such behavior might inadvertently leak questions or trigger Gallery punishment. There’s still a certain risk.

”I’m just an ordinary player. No matter what kind of puzzles I design, it should be fine.

”As for other strong players, they might be good at solving puzzles but not necessarily good at creating puzzles or teaching.

”So I plan to seriously study and prepare some small puzzles to share with everyone in daily life. It can be seen as practice or as entertainment.

”Actually, this was prepared beforehand. I would share it with everyone regardless of whether I became game core, but now that I really have become game core, I need to work even harder.”