God's Imitator

Huang Shengjie hadn’t taken a particularly hard stance while canvassing, since he certainly wasn’t the person in this community who least wanted the motion to pass. If anything, even if the motion did end up passing, he felt he could live with that outcome, so there was no reason to throw everything into fighting it.

And besides, he didn’t think he had any real gift for persuasion that could flip votes. As long as he could act with a clear conscience overall, that was enough.

It had to be said, canvassing like this turned out to be even more exhausting than playing an actual game. By around three in the afternoon, Huang Shengjie already felt thoroughly worn out, not physically, but from a dry throat and mental fatigue.

He went back to his room to lie down for a while, only returning as the vote was about to begin.

Lu Bingjun had also returned to the hall and addressed the group. ”As decided earlier: Lawyer Lin, Ye Lin, and Shengjie, the three of you go first and submit the first two motions in turn.”

None of the three hesitated, taking their motions and queuing to enter the Community Management Office one by one, while the others waited quietly outside.

Soon it was Huang Shengjie’s turn.

Under everyone’s watchful gaze, he felt an odd flicker of nervousness, even though this was about as simple a task as they came.

The Community Management Office was a standalone structure in the outdoor area, plain in construction, essentially a single room with no function beyond submitting motions and casting votes.

Huang Shengjie had been inside before, for voting, but this was his first time actually submitting a motion.

The door behind him closed automatically and locked from the inside.

The display on the wall began a 15-minute countdown.

For motion submissions, the default time was 15 minutes, with the option to leave earlier. If the time ran out, he’d have to leave and re-enter.

Overall, though, there weren’t many mechanical restrictions on the act of submitting a motion itself.

Huang Shengjie pressed the ”Submit Motion” button beneath the large screen, and a prompt appeared indicating that players could submit motions through voice, typing, or feeding in a handwritten page, among other methods.

He held the motion Lu Bingjun had handed out earlier, gave it one more careful read to confirm nothing was wrong, then drew a breath and read it aloud from start to finish.

The content was quickly transcribed onto the large screen. Huang Shengjie could review it a second time and adjust or edit any details.

Once he confirmed everything was correct, he pressed ”Confirm Submission.”

But almost immediately, a message appeared on the screen.

[This motion conflicts with the community’s foundational rules and cannot be approved.]

There was no detailed explanation of which specific rule it violated, only that it couldn’t pass.

Huang Shengjie took out the second motion and tried submitting that one instead.

The same message appeared. Rejected.

Exactly as expected: the community would not confirm an Imitator’s true identity under any circumstances, not even after that player had died.

He let out a long breath. Though the outcome left him a little disappointed, it at least confirmed that no one could have manipulated this stage behind the scenes. The third motion really was the only option left. Players could only decide whether to pass it, with essentially no room left to refine its contents further.

”Given that, it all comes down to the final vote.”

Huang Shengjie left the office and shook his head at the players waiting outside.

”No good. Both of the first two motions conflict with the community’s foundational rules and have been rejected.”

Lin Sizhi and Ye Lin had already given the same answer.

No one said anything more. They simply watched Lu Bingjun enter the office.

A moment later, a broadcast rang out across the community.

[A player has submitted a motion. The community has reviewed and approved it.]

[Over the next hour, all members are asked to enter the Community Management Office or use their personal computer to cast an anonymous vote.]

[If the motion receives support from more than half the members, it will be adopted as a foundational rule.]

[Motion content: New ’Community Trial Rules.’]

Everyone compared this text carefully against the version they’d already been given, and found no differences whatsoever. Identical in every word.

Lu Bingjun clearly wasn’t the type to play cheap games with the wording. There would have been no point to it.

Huang Shengjie’s feelings grew even more conflicted.

”So it really did pass review.”

He’d been hoping for a more optimistic outcome, that the community’s foundational rules would simply prohibit players from stripping another player’s life through a vote, and that this motion would be rejected on those grounds too.

But it seemed he’d been overthinking it.

The community’s foundational rules did prohibit players from committing acts like murder, kidnapping, coercion, or poisoning against one another, but those clearly fell under the category of private violence, vigilante action outside proper process.

As long as players passed a formal Trial Rules motion and carried out a legitimate community-sanctioned process to kill someone, it wouldn’t conflict with the foundational rules at all.

Since the matter had already been thoroughly discussed and considered, players moved through the hour-long voting window without much hesitation, entering the office one by one to cast their votes.

Huang Shengjie went in early and cast his opposing vote, then returned to the hall to wait quietly for the final results.

[Voting complete.]

[The results of the anonymous vote are now announced.]

[In favour: 11 votes]

[Against: 3 votes]

[The Community Trial Rules have been established.]

When the results were read out, Huang Shengjie was visibly stunned, momentarily wondering if he’d heard it wrong.

But the same result appeared on the large screen at the same time.

He looked closely, and it really was accurate. Only 3 votes against.

And a full 11 votes in favour.

Even setting aside the doubled influence of Lu Bingjun holding the First Player Identity Card, the actual voter count still came out 10 to 3, with the In Favour side winning by an overwhelming margin.

And the number of opposing votes was even lower than the number of people Huang Shengjie had personally canvassed and asked.

”That’s my one vote in there, which means, aside from me, only two other people voted against.

”Ye Lin, He Qinyun, Uncle Zheng, Zhang Yan, Zhou Wanlin, Lu Qi, Shen Bowen.

”Which two of them could it be?

”But almost all of them told me they were leaning toward voting against!

”Did someone lie to me? Or did someone catch up with them during the break right before the vote and talk them into changing their minds?”

Huang Shengjie’s mind went blank. He couldn’t make any sense of what had happened, staring at everything around him with a dazed sort of confusion.

Suddenly the whole hall felt strangely unfamiliar, as though he’d never really understood this place at all.

Lu Bingjun’s expression showed little visible joy. It looked more like the relief of dust finally settling after everything had been decided.

”Whatever else can be said, this is the final result of a full community vote, a step that the majority has accepted and one we had no choice but to take.

”But no one needs to worry too much. As the motion itself states, this is a rule that could only ever take effect under the most extreme and specific circumstances. Its main purpose is to serve as a deterrent to the Imitator, and it’s entirely possible it never actually gets triggered before this second stage comes to an end.

”All it really gives us is one more weapon to use against the Imitator, in a genuine emergency.”