God's imitator

Chapter 127 Reflection

the next morning.

Lee In-sook was drinking coffee by the window, lost in thought.

Xu Tong quietly sat down beside her, wanting to say something, but hesitated.

"Renshu, I have something I'm not sure if I should show it to you..."

Lee In-sook paused for a moment: "What is it? Since you're hesitating, just give it to me. I'm not that fragile."

Xu Tong nodded and took out a folded piece of paper from her pocket: "I found this at the door of Aunt Su's room."

Lee In-sook paused for a moment, then took the note and unfolded it.

There are only two simple sentences above.

"This is not heaven, and I do not belong here."

So, there's no need to be sad for me.

Li Renshu read the two sentences over and over again in surprise, and asked in confusion, "Found it at Aunt Su's door?"

Xu Tong explained, "Yes, the entrances on the second floor are quite complicated, and the rooms with adjacent numbers aren't necessarily next to each other. So, the doors of my and Jiang He's rooms just happen to be close to Aunt Su's room."

“Aunt Su has been staying in her room a lot lately, so Jiang He and I have both tried to find her a few times.”

"This morning, I was walking around thinking about something when I found a small note not far from the door of Aunt Su's room."

"I initially thought it was trash that someone had carelessly thrown on the ground, but then I realized something was off because it was folded very neatly, and we don't usually litter near doors."

"I picked it up and found... it seemed to be a message left by Aunt Su."

"I also find it strange. Logically speaking, after a player is deported, shouldn't everything except the bracelet disappear? So what's with this note?"

"Could it be a prank by someone in the community? But the handwriting does look like Aunt Su's."

Li Renshu thought for a moment and said, "This should be what Aunt Su left behind."

"Although things directly related to the player will disappear after the player is deported, things indirectly related to them will not. Otherwise, the tableware that Aunt Su and Uncle Ding left in the kitchen should also have disappeared."

"I think the same applies to this note."

"This was written by Aunt Su and placed at the door before she entered the trial game."

"The paper and pens were taken from the public area and left outside the door, so they won't be cleaned up by the community."

"Players can leave their last words in the community in this way."

Xu Tong's expression darkened further: "That means Officer Cao's guess during the debriefing was correct."

"Aunt Su had already planned to leave before entering this trial game."

Lee In-sook sighed silently: "Now it seems that's how it is."

"Aunt Su has probably lost the will to live long ago."

"You and Jiang He were the two people in the community who conveyed the most kindness to her, so she wanted to use her death to give us more time for visa processing."

"Although none of us are satisfied with the outcome of this game, perhaps this is the result that Aunt Su wanted..."

She looked at the note in her hand again.

"Can I keep it for you?"

Xu Tong nodded: "Yes, of course."

Lee In-sook carefully put the note away, looked at the scene outside, and fell into deep thought again.

……

night.

In the dim light, Cao Haichuan smoked a cigarette, the embers flickering. Li Renshu sat beside him, neither of them speaking.

Cai Zhiyuan walked over and sat down in a spot a little further away.

"Although the community has not yet issued a notice for recruitment, we need to prepare in advance."

"What criteria will be used to select the next new member?"
"If we keep our previous promise and recruit a female player this time, then the main selection criteria will be age and occupation."

"Or should we consider trying to continue recruiting male players? We could also try to push it forward by creating a sense of crisis, but that would be riskier."

Li Renshu looked at Cao Haichuan: "Female player, right? Of course we have to keep our promise."

"Officer Cao, what do you think?"

Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke: "Agreed."

Cai Zhiyuan nodded: "Yes, I also tend to keep my promise. I just wanted to confirm your opinions."

"What about age and occupation?"
"If it were to be discussed publicly, I think there would definitely be people who would favor the younger chef or nurse."

"Of course, we can also consider recruiting a female player with high intelligence, such as limiting her profession to actuary, detective, professor, scholar, etc."

"Although it may pose some risks to community stability, it can further improve our community's survival rate in the game."

"Of course, we must also consider the possibility that the scarcity of these professions and the narrow selection range may lead to a large deviation in the results."

Cao Haichuan thought for a moment and said, "I think we should rule out the chef for now. Although it would save time on the visa process, it doesn't feel right to have someone cook for 11 people for free."

Cai Zhiyuan shook his head: "It can also be paid, that's easy to solve."

“We could certainly draft a bill to use a portion of the saved visa time as remuneration.”

"If I could earn a little bit of visa time every day in this safe way, I think I would gladly accept it as a chef."

He looked at Lee In-sook: "This matter is mainly up to you to decide."

Li Renshu hesitated for a moment before saying, "My previous idea was to recruit a new actuary who is similar to Yang Hui."

“It seems that our community has a slightly higher proportion of liberal arts students.”

“Actuaries can complement our knowledge structure and are quite intelligent, so they should be able to enhance our ability to crack games.”

"However, I thought about it for a long time today and suddenly a new idea came to me."

"Should we hire someone from an older, ordinary profession?"

Cai Zhiyuan was taken aback: "Why? To remember Aunt Su?"
"If you want to remember someone, just think about it in your heart. You can't bring that kind of emotion into managing the community."

Lee In-sook shook her head: "Of course not."

"I just suddenly realized that the issue of 'diversity' may be more important than we think."

"As you said in your previous debriefing, many of the setbacks we encountered in the game were mainly due to my arrogance."

"I've thought about it for a long time, and you're right."

"As a civil servant, I have always been very confident in my abilities."

"But in this game, I never expected that the way to end the economic winter would be to hire employees, which is the worst thing I could have done."

"After reflecting on it, I realized that I have always lived in the city. My parents are highly educated, and from my school days to passing the civil service exam, everything has gone smoothly for me. I have hardly experienced any setbacks."

"Moreover, the starting point for landing was very high, without any experience in grassroots research."

"If I were truly a qualified civil servant, I should be able to answer questions about prices and people's livelihoods."

"Perhaps the foreshadowing was already laid here."

(End of this chapter)