God's Imitator

Lin Sizhi sat on the sofa in his room, looking at Community 2’s current player list, and fell into thought.

Lu Bingjun had said he would do his best to ensure that Lin Sizhi, Yao Yuan, Qin Cheng, and Wen Wan would form the community’s management layer alongside himself, a group of five who would oversee the majority of the community’s affairs.

Taken at face value, that didn’t sound like particularly valuable information, coming across more as empty promises.

But in fact there was no small amount of substance to it.

Assuming Lu Bingjun’s words were sincere, the list revealed who his true core supporters were, as well as how he understood the distribution of power within the community.

Deng Xiao might originally have had a place on that list, but Deng Xiao was dead.

Yao Yuan had always played something like the role of a strategist, the player Lu Bingjun trusted and relied on most, and his place on the list was only natural.

Among the newcomers, Lu Bingjun had chosen to draw in Lin Sizhi and Qin Cheng, sharing power with them.

Community 2’s original composition had been nine veteran players and five new ones, which meant at least one new player had to be brought into the management layer and given a share of power. Without that, the new players would naturally cluster together, inevitably triggering a split within the community.

Lu Bingjun had clearly been more inclined toward Qin Cheng originally, but had now recognised that he simply could not afford to overlook Lin Sizhi. With neither player expendable, bringing both into the management layer had become an unavoidable choice.And from the way things had played out in the previous meeting, Geng Yuxia, He Qinyun, and Zheng Chunhua all tended to align with Ye Lin, making them figures Lu Bingjun would need to keep in check.

Zhou Wanlin was an unremarkable presence who kept largely to herself.

So the group of five Lu Bingjun envisioned was, in effect, the management layer Community 2 would settle into once it reached a stable state. It would prevent the new players from forming a bloc, and at the same time use those new players, who had no deep roots in the community, to counterbalance Ye Lin’s faction among the veterans.

One detail worth noting, though, was that Wen Wan was also on the list.

From what Lin Sizhi had observed of the community so far, Wen Wan was not a particularly strong player. In terms of both politics and gameplay, she had not demonstrated any standout capability. The only role she had carved out for herself was as the community’s housekeeper, handling miscellaneous tasks like organising shared meals. But that was clearly the kind of work anyone could manage, and the role felt more like something Lu Bingjun had deliberately assigned her to give her a degree of visibility.

Was she someone with a personal connection to him, or was there some other arrangement at play?

Or had that position originally been reserved for Deng Xiao, and after Deng Xiao’s death, Lu Bingjun had had no choice but to pass it to Wen Wan by seniority?

Among the remaining veteran players, were they truly all aligned with Ye Lin, with no double agents working for Lu Bingjun or planted informants among them?

These questions were clearly not ones that could be resolved in a matter of days. After all, Lin Sizhi was still a new member of this community, and a great deal of information would need to be gathered piece by piece.

The following afternoon.

Everyone gathered again in the hall.

Lu Bingjun looked around and said, ”Today we also need to finalise the matter of recruiting a new member.

”Both recruitment methods are currently available.

”We can consider specifying gender, age, and profession to bring in a new player directly, or we can look at poaching a player from another community during the next game.

”Personally, I don’t think there’s necessarily any fundamental difference between the two approaches, because the gap between one player and another is so wide that even filtering by specific criteria offers no guarantee of a satisfying result.

”Ultimately, whichever method we choose, it still comes down to luck.

”That said, this is too important a matter not to put to everyone. Let’s discuss it together and decide together.

”Yao Yuan, start by walking everyone through the approaches you’ve been thinking about, and then we’ll go around and see if anyone has anything to add.”

Yao Yuan nodded, ”Of course, Brother Lu.

”Our community’s occupational composition is fairly healthy at the moment, and reasonably well diversified.

”Among specialist professions, we have a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, and a mechanical engineer.

”By wealth profile, we cover everything from the self-employed to the salaried to the more affluent.

”Age distribution and gender balance are both reasonably sound as well.

”So there’s no single profession we’re urgently lacking that we must fill. The main preference is simply that the new member be male.

”The directions I’ve been considering are roughly as follows.

”The first is a civil servant.”

Wen Wan looked mildly surprised, ”A civil servant? That doesn’t seem like a pressing need.

”The community is only so big, and there isn’t much complex administrative work that requires someone dedicated to it. As for things like drafting and submitting motions, plenty of people here can handle that.

”Brother Lu goes without saying, he’s always done that well, and as a senior company executive he has extensive experience with it.

”Even setting Brother Lu aside, Yao Yuan you’ve always been something of a team lead at your company, Qin Cheng is a product manager, and Wanlin is an administrative director. Between all of you, these things are manageable. Why go to the trouble of recruiting a civil servant specifically?”

Yao Yuan explained, ”Being capable of something and being good at it are still somewhat different.

”It’s true that practically anyone in the community could handle the basics of drafting and submitting motions. These tasks don’t appear to require any particular technical skill on the surface.

”But political ability is a form of specialised skill in its own right. When it comes to resolving a particular issue within the community, two people might produce proposals that look similar on the surface but differ substantially in their effects, and the way those different proposals play out could have a profound impact on the community’s internal dynamics.

”From what we’ve seen so far, Brother Lu has done very well, but he is stretched somewhat thin.

”Having someone to share that workload would not only reduce the risk of mistakes, it would also free up more of Brother Lu’s energy for the games.

”As for myself, I’m quite clear-eyed about where I fall short in this area.

”My political ability is passable by general standards, but nowhere near the top tier.

”Targeting civil servants specifically gives us a better chance of finding a player with high political sensitivity, someone who could contribute meaningfully to the community’s internal governance and decision-making.”

Wen Wan gave a half-understanding nod and said nothing more.

Yao Yuan paused briefly and continued, ”The second direction I’ve been considering is a profession with a strong mathematical focus, such as an actuary, a mathematician, or an algorithm engineer.

”Our community does have a number of players with scientific backgrounds, Zheng Chunhua and Shen Bowen among them, but every field has its own specialisation, and in genuinely niche areas, the gap between disciplines can be significant.

”Players with strong quantitative skills tend to perform better in distribution-type games, helping us secure better returns.

”The third direction is a player with a physical advantage, such as a police officer, a soldier, an athlete, or someone in a similar role.

”This was also the niche Deng Xiao filled in our community.

”Looking at the games we’ve encountered so far, the proportion involving physical ability has been low, and games involving direct confrontation have been almost nonexistent. But from the perspective of maintaining the community’s diversity, this kind of player is still indispensable.

”I’ve considered other professions as well, of course, but taking our community’s current situation into account, I believe these three are the most deserving of priority.”