God's Imitator

Shen Bowen was a little surprised, but said nothing.

Although the large screen could no longer be used to look up the corresponding game rules, as veteran players, everyone would naturally have a strong impression of the first game they had participated in and could certainly give a rough account of it.

So if they wanted to, the three of them could still compare the similarities and differences between ”Flower Tile Poker,” ”Jigsaw Poker,” and ”Blood Poker,” which might also bring some new information to light for everyone.

But Lu Bingjun seemed to have abandoned that idea.

This was likely because Lu Bingjun was not yet able to fully trust Shen Bowen and Lin Sizhi, and could not be certain that the rules they described were entirely accurate.

If the wording of certain rules came out slightly off, it might actually end up misleading the others.

Moreover, the game experience from the First Stage was not necessarily applicable to this stage.

Lin Sizhi had already asked one question, so Lu Bingjun turned his gaze toward Shen Bowen.

After a brief moment of consideration, Shen Bowen said, ”I’d like to ask how many players in the community were originally in charge of leading the team during games, and who they are.”

Lu Bingjun raised his hand and gestured toward a female player with a high nose bridge, deep-set eyes, and sharply defined facial features, saying, ”The core players for our community’s games are me and Ye Lin.”Lin Sizhi had a vague impression of this Player No. 8, Ye Lin. Her presence was the strongest of all the female players. Even though she had barely spoken throughout the entire gathering, her temperament and appearance were distinctive enough that she still commanded more than enough attention.

She had introduced herself as a blogger, a profession that offered no particular advantage in terms of specialized knowledge for games, but it was clear that becoming a core game player depended far more on individual ability, with knowledge serving only as a supporting factor.

Lu Bingjun added, ”Of course, now that we’ve entered the Second Stage, we may face many new challenges, so the community’s structure will inevitably change as well. It won’t remain fixed.

”If any of you go on to perform exceptionally in future games, we can consider establishing a third core, a fourth core. Everyone has a chance.

”In any case, since we’ve already entered the Second Stage, let’s focus on moving forward and adapting to these changes as best we can.

”Our community is bound to come out on top in the Second Stage as well.”

This statement could be understood as a gesture of reassurance toward the five outsiders, a promise that the division of rewards would be based on in-game performance.

But it was not necessarily an empty promise and could very well be fulfilled.

After all, the community’s player count had increased, and it was entirely reasonable for a third or fourth core player to emerge in actual games.

Huang Shengjie was still looking around at the community’s surroundings. Among the three players entering the New World for the first time, he appeared to be the most curious and restless.

Unlike the slender and soft-spoken Qin Cheng, Huang Shengjie looked at first glance like someone who hadn’t quite woken up, with his disheveled hair, but once he became animated, he seemed like a completely different person, far more in line with the definition of ”an energetic young man.”

”When I scanned my bracelet at the entrance to check in, I saw on the screen that we have to conduct our activities in accordance with community rules and cannot break them.

”Otherwise, we might have visa time deducted or even be expelled.

”What exactly are the rules?”

Lu Bingjun looked toward the large screen and said, ”Pull up the ’Player Code of Conduct.’”

The relevant information quickly appeared on the large screen.

In the previous stage, when players first entered the community, the corresponding guidelines would be read out automatically on the large screen.

After that point, however, new players joining would no longer have the guidelines read aloud to them, and veteran players would handle the introduction instead.

Lin Sizhi read through all the rules from beginning to end and found them almost entirely identical to before.

They were still divided into three sections: ”Basic Living Guidelines,” ”Community Activity Guidelines,” and ”Gallery Judgment Guidelines.”

Lu Bingjun took the opportunity to walk Qin Cheng, Lu Qi, and Huang Shengjie through the specific rules and guidelines in detail, since they were entering the New World for the first time.

However, Lin Sizhi noticed that among the many rules, there was one supplementary rule that had never appeared before.

[A single specific ”Negative Status” exists in this stage.]

[Every three days, three players will be randomly selected from the half of the community’s players with less personal visa time to bear this ”Negative Status.”]

[As the game progresses, the interval, the number of players selected, the selection criteria, and other factors are all subject to change.]

Qin Cheng also noticed this entry and asked, ”What is the ’Negative Status’?”

Lu Bingjun shook his head and said, ”I’m not sure either. This rule didn’t exist before.”

He then looked toward Lin Sizhi and Shen Bowen, and received the same negative answer from both of them.

It was clear that this was a new rule that had only appeared in the Second Stage.

Everyone fell into a brief silence. It was evident that no one had any idea what it entailed, and they all felt that such a vaguely worded rule was not a good sign.

Ye Lin, the community’s other game core, furrowed her brow and said, ”The appearance of this rule may mean we need to consider adjusting the community’s fund proposals.”

She paused briefly, then continued to explain, ”Although we don’t yet know what the ’Negative Status’ specifically is, since the community has explicitly written it into the rules, it is certainly not a negligible or trivial punishment.

”The rules mandate that players will be divided based on their individual visa time. The half with more visa time will be completely unaffected, while the half with less visa time may be randomly selected to receive this ’Negative Status.’

”If a player’s visa time consistently remains low, there’s also a chance they could be selected repeatedly through sheer bad luck, until their visa time climbs back into the upper half.

”But for every person who moves up, someone else gets pushed down. No matter how it shifts, it will always be split half and half.

”We previously allowed players to gain greater voting weight by contributing more to the community fund, but the appearance of this rule may seriously dampen everyone’s motivation to contribute.”

It was evident that Community 2 had also achieved some degree of community building during the previous stage and had established a method for contributing to the community fund.

But based on what Ye Lin described, the contribution method they had settled on previously was clearly not simply a fixed percentage. It was more similar to the ”voluntary extra deposits by stronger players” approach that had emerged in the later period of Community 17.

In other words, stronger players who earned more visa time through games would donate a portion into the community in exchange for greater decision-making power.

So as a result, the individual visa time remaining to each player in Community 2 did not necessarily correspond entirely to their in-game performance.

Some players may have performed very well in games but had little remaining visa time because they had donated heavily.

The emergence of the new rule could potentially cause those who donated the most to find themselves falling into the ”Negative Status” precisely because of their lower personal visa time.

Ye Lin had shown a strong sensitivity to the rules, which was consistent with her role as one of the community’s game cores.

Lu Bingjun, however, did not immediately agree with her assessment or move to consider revising the community fund rules right away.