God's imitator

Chapter 242 Cao Haichuan's Worries
Wang Yongxin nodded: "That's right."

"So I guess that bringing Wei Yinzhang into the community was actually a very unexpected situation for Li Renshu and Cai Zhiyuan. They are probably also having a headache over this matter at the moment."

"This is a huge problem."

"Just like in the beginning, it was the same reason why Li Renshu and the others insisted on not accepting doctors with older age."

"Now, Wei Yinzhang's involvement has brought this problem to their attention again, and this time, they can't avoid it."

Yang Yuting nodded in realization.

She previously thought that Wei Yinzhang's addition was a good thing for the five-person group, based on the assumption that "the five-person group can kick Fu Chen out at any time".

However, according to Wang Yongxin's analysis, Li Renshu probably doesn't want to kick Fu Chen out, and indeed can't.

That would make Wei Yinzhang's joining the party a complete problem.

Looking back now, Wei Yinzhang's joining was actually the result of the interaction of three forces within the community, and it had a great deal of chance involved.

Jiang He's death reduced the community's population.

Initially, Wang Yongxin's side wanted to use Yang Yuting's victim status and influence to select a female player with a closer relationship to them through professional screening.

Subsequently, Cai Zhiyuan anticipated Wang Yongxin's actions and proposed changing the recruitment method to poaching. He also wanted to concentrate the power of poaching in Li Renshu by binding Li Renshu and Lin Sizhi together and by having Lin Sizhi withdraw voluntarily.

Yang Yuting herself was also taking a step back to move forward. She only agreed that Lin Sizhi had the right to poach people. If everyone couldn't reach an agreement, they would still have to retreat to the regular recruitment path.

But to everyone's surprise, Lin Sizhi actually agreed.

Looking back now, Lin Sizhi agreed to this matter not from either side, but only from his own perspective.

Lin Sizhi is the only one who will absolutely benefit from Wei Yinzhang's joining.

For both Wang Yongxin and Li Renshu, it was a situation where the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

If we really have to distinguish between them, the five-person group might have a bigger headache than Wang Yongxin.

Since Wang Yongxin wasn't originally in the core of power, what essential difference does it make whether he's closer or farther away?
However, the five-person group must reconsider the distribution of power, as a slight misstep could lead to a split and seriously threaten internal stability.

Yang Yuting considered for a moment: "So, Wei Yinzhang's joining us is actually a result that's not so good, but definitely not bad either?"

Wang Yongxin nodded: "Yes, it mainly depends on which perspective we take to look at this issue."

"Assuming our previous plan goes smoothly and we recruit female players who share our ideals, this will certainly strengthen our power, but she will inevitably be excluded from the small group."

"For a small group of five, there is no need to consider personnel changes or the redistribution of power."

"In the current situation, although our strength has not increased, Wei Yinzhang's addition has caused chaos in the core of power, and they must readjust the power structure."

"If they don't do this well, and some players are squeezed out, they will naturally stand on our side."

"All we need to do now is wait patiently and observe how things unfold."

……

……

The next afternoon.

Cao Haichuan was smoking outdoors, while Wei Yinzhang was drinking tea and flipping through documents.

These blank sheets of paper contain Cao Haichuan's analyses of various games, especially his analysis of the motives of copycats who designed these games.

Wei Yinzhang was somewhat surprised: "You figured all of this out yourself?"

Cao Haichuan nodded: "Yeah, there's not much to do in the community, so I can only think about things randomly."

"My guesses might not be right. Some ideas were overturned and then picked up again, and many of them were never written down."

Wei Yinzhang sighed, "No, this is already very impressive. Although I was somewhat prepared before coming to Community 17, thinking it might be a relatively strong community, it seems I still underestimated it."

"This place is far too full of hidden talents."

Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke and asked, "There's a question that's been bothering me for a long time."

Can copycats actually design trial games specifically targeting themselves?

“I know you may not have a definite answer either, but as a copycat, your statement is more convincing to me.”

Everyone knows that Wei Yinzhang has never experienced the trial game.

She did design a B-grade trial game once, but she didn't participate in it herself.

After considering for a moment, Wei Yinzhang gave an affirmative answer: "I think it's 100% possible."

"Because it is currently known that copycats can adjust the rules of the game to 'go easy' on players they know, making it easier for them to pass the trial."

"If you can do this to players, why can't you do it to yourself?"
"The copycats are people who hold privileged status and work for the arcades."

"If we compare the arcade to a company, then copycats are the company's employees, and players are the company's consumers."

"If an employee infringes on the interests of all consumers, then of course they should be dismissed."

"But what if it's a conflict between a single employee and a single consumer? The company will most likely side with its own employee."

"The higher the employee's level, the more weight they carry. Even if some senior executives go against all consumers and cause a great negative impact on the company, they still have to be protected."

"Therefore, I believe that copycats can certainly design their own trial games, which is a perfectly legitimate privilege."

"But even if you're designing a trial game for yourself, you have to follow the rules and not do whatever you want."

"As one of the subjects of trial, copycat offenders will certainly also bear the risk of death, it's just a matter of degree."

She paused slightly, then said, "Officer Cao, I've noticed that you seem to have a peculiar obsession with finding copycats."

Why bother?

"Of course, this may be because we are from different perspectives, but as far as I am concerned, being a copycat is just a special identity, and many things are beyond my control."

Cao Haichuan let out a long sigh: "Actually, more than one person has said these things to me."

"This can also be seen as a consensus in the 17th community, so until now, we have not directly used the method of 'checking visa time' to investigate copycats, which can also be seen as a kind of tacit understanding."

"But completely covering our eyes and plugging our ears, and ignoring the possibility of copycats, is obviously not an option either."

"The identity of a copycat does indeed allow for peaceful coexistence with players; it's not an absolute zero-sum game, and that's fine."

"But a copycat's behavior depends on his true inner thoughts. In other words, he can cause damage whenever he wants to."

"We can certainly assume that all copycats, like you, would choose to coexist peacefully with players as much as possible."

"But what if something unexpected happens?"
"It's certainly not good to immediately bring the conflict to the forefront and make copycats feel extremely insecure, but it's absolutely unacceptable to completely turn a blind eye and allow copycats to do whatever they want."

"Imagine there is a group of people locked up with a tiger."

"This tiger is probably benevolent; it's dozing off and hasn't attacked anyone for a long time."

"It would be foolish to provoke the tiger at this time."

"But it would be equally foolish to assume that tigers are kind and will continue to doze off indefinitely, never jumping out to eat people for any reason."

"You have to think of a way in advance, without provoking the tiger as much as possible."

(End of this chapter)