Chapter 682: An Exchange of Information

That evening.

Lu Bingjun and Lin Sizhi made their way to the third floor and settled into an empty room.

"Have you decided to proceed with the information exchange?"

From Lin Sizhi's perspective, Lu Bingjun's reaction was entirely predictable.

Near the end of the debrief earlier, the reason he had let slip the information about the S-tier Judgment Game was specifically to put a degree of pressure on Lu Bingjun.

Regarding Wei Changfeng's death, the veteran players of Community 2 must have conducted an extremely detailed debrief of their own.

Which meant that the majority of Community 2's veterans probably held no less information than Lu Bingjun himself.

So even if Lu Bingjun refused to share it under any circumstances, some other veteran player would eventually be willing to. Someone like Ye Lin, for instance.

Lin Sizhi's position was one of 'exchange': whoever provided information of sufficient weight first would receive the contents of the S-tier Judgment Game in return.

But this 'exchange' carried an implicit element of exclusivity.

Because repeated information has no value. Only the first player to bring Lin Sizhi this information would receive the S-tier game intelligence in exchange.

Lin Sizhi and Ye Lin had not spoken privately, but Ye Lin was not a fool. She would certainly have guessed that the only piece of information in all of Community 2 that carried enough weight was the game that led to Wei Changfeng's death.

Only that game could be offered in exchange for intelligence on the S-tier Judgment Game.

If Ye Lin truly came to share this information first, Lin Sizhi could indeed choose to share the S-tier game intelligence with her alone.

Lu Bingjun would have had no recourse whatsoever.

So his only option was to come sooner.

Lu Bingjun nodded, "Yes, I've made up my mind.

"That said, I have two different ideas about how the exchange should work, and I'll let you decide which.

"The first option is that we exchange privately between the two of us.

"The second is that we disclose everything about both games to every player in the community at the same time."

Lin Sizhi looked at him thoughtfully, "Which do you lean toward?"

Lu Bingjun was quite candid, "I lean toward the second option, meaning full disclosure to everyone in the community.

"There are two reasons.

"First, I never concealed Wei Changfeng's death out of malice. It was simply that the community was still fragile when we first entered the Second Stage, and we were worried that news like that would destabilise things, so we agreed as a group that the older members would keep it among themselves.

"But as time has passed, Community 2's structure has gradually solidified, and if anything it's the newer players becoming more and more likely to sense that something about Wei Changfeng's death is being kept from them. Letting that fester through speculation could create its own problems.

"So I believe the time is right to tell everyone the truth.

"There's also another benefit: you won't have to worry about whether I'm deceiving you.

"If it's just the two of us exchanging information privately, you have no way to verify the authenticity of certain details. You'd probably have to find other players to cross-check, which is not what I want at all.

"But if everything is disclosed publicly, with Ye Lin and other players who don't fully support me present, you'll have a much easier time confirming whether what I'm telling you is true.

"Second, regarding the S-tier Judgment Game intelligence: I did consider keeping it to myself, but after thinking it over carefully, I believe sharing it openly with everyone is the better choice.

"After all, I currently hold the First Player Identity Card as the effective leader of Community 2. I have the greatest responsibility toward this community, and intelligence like this should be used to strengthen the community's overall capability."

Lin Sizhi considered for a moment, "That's certainly the right approach.

"But you could also have chosen to disclose it openly during today's debrief. I would have agreed to that.

"So why arrange a separate private conversation about it?

"Do you have some other concern?"

Lu Bingjun let out a quiet sigh, "Of course I do.

"I imagine that's not hard for you to guess."

Lin Sizhi nodded, "For you, the greatest concern must be the Imitator who may be hiding within this community.

"If this Imitator is the same person who designed the game that killed Wei Changfeng, and also designed 'A Single Word to Settle a Case' in an attempt to kill you, then making this information public carries real risk.

"Revealing everything about Wei Changfeng to everyone could tip your hand too early, because it would send a clear signal: you intend to reopen the investigation into the Imitator.

"This Imitator would feel threatened and might make some drastic move, triggering consequences that are difficult to control.

"Beyond that, sharing the S-tier Judgment Game's intelligence with every player could actually benefit this Imitator the most.

"Because other players would at most learn some aspects of the Imitator's mindset and make modest improvements in future games. But the Imitator, having absorbed the details of an S-tier Judgment Game, might use that knowledge to design even more dangerous games targeting players within the community."

Lu Bingjun's expression showed genuine uncertainty. This was clearly exactly what was troubling him, and he had not been able to reach a conclusion.

"I also thought of a third option.

"We select a smaller group of trusted players to share the information with, and do our best to exclude the Imitator.

"But that's obviously unreliable too, because right now we have no viable suspect to point to. If we just chose by instinct and accidentally included the Imitator, it would be an embarrassing failure.

"So I wasn't able to make a final decision."

Lin Sizhi didn't take long to think it over, "Share it with everyone.

"Being afraid of the Imitator and pretending not to see them can maintain a false peace for a while, but it's not a sustainable approach.

"Imitators with clear malicious intent tend to have a specific target in mind.

"The longer they're ignored, the more comfortably they can work toward that goal.

"Moving faster may tip them off and create some danger, but it can also disrupt their plans and cause them to make mistakes.

"Whatever the case, the existence of a malicious Imitator is already an enormous threat in itself. Confronting the situation sooner, and doing so within the community, is actually the safer approach.

"Because once it enters a game, it becomes their home ground."

Lu Bingjun nodded slowly, "Yes, there's something to that.

"But I have one more concern, which is about the 'Jury Game' itself.

"Do you think this game was designed by that Imitator?

"If not, things are relatively less dire. An S-tier Imitator appearing in another community is bad, but it probably won't directly affect us in the short term.

"We would still have adequate time to deal with the Imitator within our own community first.

"But if it was them, that's a very different problem.

"This game may have been aimed directly at you."