God's Imitator

Qin Cheng nodded and said, ”Although Lawyer Lin is a veteran player, he’s also a new member of this community and has no political footing here. Being the first to openly express opposition puts him at risk of making enemies within the community.

”As a veteran player, would he really not understand these basic unspoken rules and social dynamics?

”So there must be a reason behind such an out-of-character move.”

Huang Shengjie thought it over and said, ”I assumed earlier that even though he and Shen Bowen are veteran players, since their original community was dissolved and restructured, it probably wasn’t very strong, so they might not be all that capable.”

Qin Cheng shook his head and said, ”The reality is very likely the exact opposite.

”Think about it carefully. Is it easier to survive in a united community with many strong players, or in a community that’s a loose mess of sand with weak overall strength?

”Lawyer Lin and Shen Bowen are definitely not simple players.

”In fact, some of the original Community 2 players may have little real ability of their own and have survived this long only by sheltering under the protection of the stronger ones.”

Huang Shengjie furrowed his brow and said, ”So... Lu Bingjun appears to be advancing the discussion normally, but he actually had a probing, calculating intent behind it from the start.

”As the one leading the meeting, he chose to address this issue openly in a public setting and didn’t leave adequate time for discussion. He was trying to use the fact that others would feel too awkward to openly voice opposition in a public setting, to steer the meeting in a direction more favorable to himself.”In Lawyer Lin’s eyes, that was a blatant infringement on his personal rights, so he pushed back firmly right away to prevent Lu Bingjun from getting the impression that everyone is a soft target he can knead however he pleases.”

Huang Shengjie seemed to have worked some of it out, but still couldn’t fully accept the conclusion.

”But Lu is clearly looking out for us... If no one objected, wouldn’t he himself also be among those ’sharing the burden’?”

Qin Cheng was quiet for a moment, then said, ”If the plan Lu Bingjun ultimately puts forward has him rotating into the bottom seven as well, sharing in the probability of pain on our behalf, then I’ll acknowledge him as a community manager with no selfish agenda.

”But I think the far more likely outcome is this: in the final plan, he will find a way to exempt himself. Perhaps he’ll use reasons that sound perfectly reasonable, but the result will inevitably be what I said.

”Of course, it may not be entirely unacceptable for a community leader to enjoy certain privileges, but I’ll still be naturally wary of someone like that.

”I can only hope I’m just being cynical and thinking too poorly of others.”

Huang Shengjie fell silent. He still felt Qin Cheng might be overthinking things, but in a few hours, that hypothesis would be put to the test.

All it would take was seeing what specific proposal Lu Bingjun actually put forward.

...

Before long, Lu Bingjun and Yao Yuan had each finished their conversations with the other players and gathered an initial summary of opinions.

The conversations Lu Bingjun had with Lin Sizhi and Qin Cheng had noticeably taken longer than the others.

Afterward, the two of them brought Ye Lin in to finalize the contents of the proposal.

Everyone took their seats around the long table again.

Lu Bingjun let out a long breath and said, ”Thank you all for your patience.

”We’ve listened carefully to everyone’s input and put together a first draft of a proposal.

”There are indeed some players in the community who are unwilling to share in the pain under any circumstances. And in order to maintain the community’s vitality and competitiveness, players who contribute more to the community should rightfully receive some form of encouragement and preferential treatment.

”So after our discussion, we’ve arrived at the following preliminary plan.

”Among the community’s 14 players, we will select 4 players through ’a certain method’ who are most deserving of incentives, ensuring they can remain consistently among the ’7 players with more visa time’ and will not need to share in the pain penalty.

”The remaining 10 players will adjust their individually held visa time through ’establishing a new fund,’ doing our best to ensure that all pain penalties are distributed among those 10 players.

”According to the rules, there is a degree of randomness in selecting which player bears the pain. So when a player is selected consecutively, their visa time will be adjusted to move them into the top seven, allowing them to avoid it going forward.”

Yao Yuan added, ”In essence, it builds on the original rules by having 3 of the ’top seven players’ share in the pain, while the other 4 remain unchanged.”

Lu Bingjun nodded and said, ”So what needs to be discussed and decided now is whether 4 exemption slots is the right number, whether it should be more or fewer, and what specific criteria should be used to select these ’exempt players.’”

Everyone looked at one another, then began to share their views.

Fitness trainer Deng Xiao nodded and said, ”I think 4 exemption slots isn’t too many. I can accept that.”

No one else raised any clear objections either.

The number ”4” fell roughly in the middle of the range of 1 through 7.

If only one or two players could enjoy exemption, most players would simply assume by default that it would be Lu Bingjun or Ye Lin, and since they wouldn’t feel they had any chance of obtaining that exemption themselves, it would naturally fail to serve as any kind of incentive.

If it were 5 or 6 players enjoying exemption, it would feel little different from the original rules, and the players in the bottom seven wouldn’t feel that the proposal was doing anything for them.

So when that number was put forward, it met with no opposition.

Lu Bingjun continued, ”Then let’s move on to discussing exactly how these four slots should be determined.”

Yao Yuan picked up the thread and said, ”I think we should first be upfront about something. The reason we’re establishing, or rather preserving, these four ’pain penalty exemption’ slots is not to create a privileged class, but to protect the community’s overall strength.

”Players will always vary in strength, and the stronger ones can lead everyone in earning more visa time from games and help keep everyone safe.

”Pain can scatter focus and impair thinking, so we need to do our best to ensure that a small number of strong players always have clear minds. That’s the only way to avoid poor decisions that would bring greater losses to the community.

”I am also among the seven players with more visa time, but I am fully aware that I’m not important enough to warrant that kind of protection, so I’m voluntarily placing myself among those who will share the pain.”

Huang Shengjie was visibly taken aback. Yao Yuan’s statement genuinely surprised him.

Even though he had only known him for a day, Huang Shengjie could already sense that Yao Yuan’s role in the community was that of a ”dedicated middle-rank member,” someone who contributed meaningfully to both community proposals and the community fund.

Huang Shengjie had thought Yao Yuan was probably someone who enjoyed giving, but he hadn’t expected him to be willing to go as far as voluntarily sharing in the pain.

From another angle, though, by proactively stating his willingness to share in the pain, those who had contributed less than him would naturally find it even harder to stand up and refuse outright.