God's Imitator

Qin Yao was already somewhat confused. She asked, ”I don’t quite understand this part.”

Li Renshu explained, ”I can understand what Lawyer Lin means.

”Actually, a specific example would make it easier to understand.

”In real life, we often encounter two types of people:

”The first type frequently follows current events news, can recite major events happening in various countries around the world, and can always express many insightful opinions during casual conversation.

”However, when other residents in their neighborhood unite to express protests and dissatisfaction with property management, they avoid it like the plague, considering it meaningless behavior. Even though this matter affects their personal interests, they still won’t even sign a collective petition.

”The second type doesn’t care about any current events news and shows obvious resistance and rejection when encountering similar topics. They only care about their own lives, and even often engage in seemingly childish behaviors like celebrity worship.

”However, when their personal interests are damaged, they can persistently go door to door knocking, fearlessly voice their opinions as representatives, and express protests.

”They will try to use every loophole and means within the existing system to protect their rights as much as possible, even though sometimes the rights they’re protecting aren’t particularly legitimate and might even harm another group’s interests.

”So between these two types of people, which has stronger political awareness? Stronger political ability?”Qin Yao thought seriously, ”Um... it should be the second type, right?”

Li Renshu nodded, ”Without any doubt, it’s the second type who’s stronger, and by a lot.

”To discuss the strength of political ability, the first thing to achieve is implementing specific actions, not just words.

”One sign of maturity is ’disenchantment.’ Similarly, a sign of political awareness maturity is also ’disenchanting’ politics.

”People who wishfully think everyone has the same goals and works together, like a hive mind selecting the smartest person to decide everything and achieve the optimal solution, are often those with the worst political awareness.

”Because people who don’t care about politics might have zero political awareness, but these people are in the negatives.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”That’s why I said I don’t think the political activities in the community are meaningless small-scale maneuvers.

”If Community 17 didn’t have me or Cai Zhiyuan, only Boss Wang and another player at about the same level as him, you could still use your excellent political abilities to become the leader of Community 17.

”You didn’t give up and surrender just because your gaming abilities were relatively weak. Instead, you used your excellent political abilities to determine the community’s direction.

”For me, a political drama where one policy can decide the survival of tens of millions of people is certainly interesting, but a political drama with only a few actors can be equally exciting.

”I even personally prefer the latter somewhat.”

Qin Yao said thoughtfully, ”Now that you mention it... actually many of our community’s votes had very telling voting patterns.

”It’s just a pity that all those votes were anonymous, and now there’s no way to check the specific results.

”Actually, I was somewhat puzzled after each vote, but my biggest puzzle was still the first vote.

”Who cast that opposing vote? I’m so curious about this!

”I originally thought it might be Boss Wang or someone else who opposed the proposal, but now I think it might have been Cai Zhiyuan.

”Unfortunately, there’s no way to verify it now.”

Li Renshu thought for a moment and finally said frankly, ”It was me who cast it.”

Qin Yao was stunned, ”What?

”Why? That doesn’t make sense. What reason would you have to vote against your own proposal?

”And before the vote, you couldn’t have known the specific voting pattern, right?”

Li Renshu explained, ”The situation at that time was: we discussed and established the basic rules for the ’Community Security Fund.’ All players would contribute 5% of their game earnings, and the fund would provide a minimum living guarantee at the rate of ’80 minutes of visa time per person per day.’

”At the same time, it had an additional benefit. Materials purchased with the fund could bypass the ’prohibition on trading behavior’ rule and optimize resource allocation within the community.

”For the weak players in the community, they were direct beneficiaries and would of course 100% approve this proposal.

”As for the strong players in the community, like Lawyer Lin, Cai Zhiyuan, and Brother Wang, we know afterward that they all actually approved this plan.

”It’s just that at the time, many people couldn’t really confirm the attitudes of Brother Wang, Yang Yuting, and others, so they might have mistakenly thought this vote came from them.

”I decided to vote against because I was certain this proposal wouldn’t result in ’4 or more opposing votes.’ Only two possibilities remained:

”First, one or two other players in the community also voted against. Then my extra vote, about 3 ’opposing’ votes, wouldn’t affect the final result.

”Second, no one in the community voted against. In this case, one opposing vote would have different meaning and value.”

Li Renshu paused slightly and continued, ”My behavior can be understood in two ways:

”If thinking about bad motives, the five-person group had just formed and hadn’t really grasped power in the community yet, nor truly won the recognition of many swing voters.

”So I needed to use this opposing vote to better unite people.

”Because this was a lenient proposal that took care of the weak, and the five-person group proposing this plan was looking after the weak and swing players in the community. They realized there were opponents in the community. This ’imagined enemy’ would make them more quickly and firmly stand on the five-person group’s side. I would thus naturally consolidate power through this method.

”If thinking about good motives, because this was the first vote, I didn’t want to see a ’unanimous approval’ situation.

”I hoped all players in the community could confidently express their opposing opinions, rather than being constantly swept along by others’ opinions, maintaining the illusion of community unity with ’unanimous approval,’ continuously accumulating resentment without daring to express it, and ultimately erupting in even greater conflicts.

”So casting an ’opposing’ vote in the first vote would break this possibility and set an example for other players, letting them vote against in the future without hesitation.

”As for which component was actually greater in my true thoughts, you can only judge that for yourselves.”

Qin Yao felt somewhat at a loss, ”Is that so...

”Well, okay. Thank you. This final confession session has answered another question I’ve had for a long time.”

...

The countdown on the large screen had only two hours left.

Li Renshu, Qin Yao, and Zheng Jie were all prepared.

They had already decided to leave. The reason they stayed until now was only to keep Lin Sizhi company for as long as possible.

Lin Sizhi was reading a book by the floor-to-ceiling window in the hall. Wei Yinzhang sat down across from him.

”I... ultimately decided to leave after all.

”I really didn’t expect that I would be the person in this community who considered this question the longest.” Wei Yinzhang said with some emotion.

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”This isn’t strange. In my view, you’re someone who habitually underestimates yourself, so your true strength should be somewhat higher than your own perception.

”Moreover, the possibility of further improvement and evolution in future games can’t be ruled out.

”From this perspective, it’s very normal for you to have the idea of ’staying.’”

He paused slightly and said, ”Some people’s potential being fully activated might just lack a crucial trigger.

”For example, ’King’s Judgment’ was such a trigger for Cai Zhiyuan.

”Once realizing ’so I can actually do this,’ a person’s psychology and behavior might rapidly change.

”Of course, you and Cai Zhiyuan have fundamentally different personalities. You definitely wouldn’t become another Cai Zhiyuan, but I think perhaps you could become a completely different Wei Yinzhang.”

Wei Yinzhang was silent for a moment and said, ”But the wisest choice should be to reject this possibility from the start.

”Although I’m curious about my file and crimes, and curious about the judgment game I might encounter, but...

”This curiosity hasn’t reached the point where I’d risk my life.

”I still think I should always think about problems like a ’wise fool,’ so the final conclusion is still to leave.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”Yes, a wise fool, and also a true sage.”

Wei Yinzhang was silent for a while. Afterward, she took out a stack of white paper.

It was densely filled with many rules and original drawings of various props used in games.

Although sketched without color, they were still quite exquisite and clear.

”This is the plan I used for ’predicting questions’ before. I designed several different games, but it seems they won’t be needed now.

”These rules might have many loopholes in your view or might not be outstanding, but I put a lot of effort into the designs of these props and settings.

”Of course, as a God’s Imitator, you never need to predict questions, and naturally don’t need other people’s plans.

”So if you think there are usable parts in them, then use them. If not, just consider it a keepsake.”

Lin Sizhi reached out to receive them, ”Thank you. I’ll keep them safe.

”If there’s an opportunity, I’ll try to let them play their value in the Gallery.”

Qin Yao and Zheng Jie looked like they still had some things to say, but Lin Sizhi spoke first, ”We don’t have to finish saying everything at this moment.

”Who knows, maybe in a few months, I’ll also leave here and return to the real world.”

Wei Yinzhang nodded, ”Yes, with Lawyer Lin’s abilities, he’s staying here only to find the answers he wants.

”Unlike us, when he wants to leave, he should be able to find an opportunity anytime.”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”No need to wait until the last moment.

”Go ahead. Let me stay alone quietly for a while.”

Everyone came to the community entrance and swiped their visa bracelets one by one.

Qin Yao turned back at the last moment and said, ”Lawyer Lin! Keep our contact information. We’ll be silently cheering for you! We hope you can come back soon too!”

Lin Sizhi nodded, ”I will.”

After watching everyone leave the community, Lin Sizhi stood silently for a while, then finally returned to the hall and sat down at the long table in the position directly facing the large screen.

Until the countdown above finally reached zero.

(End of Volume One.)