Chapter 712: Helping Out

Qin Cheng gave an approving nod, "I agree with what Uncle Zheng said. I think we can use two criteria, wealth and profession, to narrow down the possible candidates for the Imitator.

"They're certainly not poor, and not someone of low social standing, and definitely not someone of limited intelligence.

"That's the baseline.

"But exactly where their actual wealth, social status, and profession sit above that baseline is harder to judge."

Huang Shengjie frowned, "So we'd need the full list of players from Lawyer Lin's original community to take the reasoning any further.

"But Lawyer Lin hasn't mentioned the other members of his community at all. I'm wondering whether that means we can rule out that possibility entirely.

"In other words, the Imitator has to be either among the players who participated in the game from the same community, or from a different community entirely, and not among the same-community players who didn't participate."

Qin Cheng was briefly at a loss for words and looked at Huang Shengjie with a mildly pained expression, "You're supposed to be analysing the game, not analysing Lawyer Lin.

"You have a habit of making these sudden sideways leaps in the strangest moments.

"If your reasoning is wrong, you've only managed to mislead yourself. And if it happens to be right, that's even more of a problem, because you've arrived at the answer through a shortcut that teaches you nothing."

Huang Shengjie looked a little embarrassed, "I was just saying whatever came to mind.

"Though I do genuinely feel that way: the Imitator is either completely unconnected to everyone in this game, or very deeply connected."

Lu Qi, looking thoughtful, said, "Doesn't that end up being the exact opposite of Sister Ye Lin's conclusion?"

Her turn to speak had come around again, but she clearly didn't have much of substance left to say, and had already filled her time earlier, so she kept it brief.

"I think we'll have to see how things develop. If this is someone skilled at manipulating people, there should be signs of that in the community or in other games.

"Maybe that's an angle worth looking at."

Last to speak was Yao Yuan, seated to Lu Bingjun's left.

"The game this Imitator designed is exceptional, and I mean that in a completely objective and neutral sense, as an assessment of the game itself.

"Unlike many games where you can find clear redundancies or weaknesses when you look closely, this one gives the impression that it could never have been any other way. It feels inevitable.

"Even so, I have a feeling this Imitator didn't end up well."

Huang Shengjie looked mildly surprised, "Why? An S-tier Imitator has to be among the strongest players in the Gallery. As a top-tier player with the additional information advantage that comes with being the Imitator, it's hard to imagine how someone like that could ever lose their footing."

Yao Yuan gave a noncommittal look, "Just a feeling."

Every player had now spoken at least once, though with varying results. Players like Geng Yuxia, Wen Wan, and Lu Qi, worried their time wouldn't be long enough, had padded their contributions well past the one-minute mark through repetition and deliberate pacing. Others paid less attention to the timing and simply spoke at their usual rhythm.

With everyone having spoken once, the remaining time naturally returned to open discussion.

But it seemed people had largely run out of things to say, and the hall fell into a brief, somewhat awkward silence.

Lu Bingjun looked around the room with a mildly resigned expression, "Is an S-tier Judgment Game really this difficult? Is this as far as everyone gets?

"This is supposed to be a debrief, not an appreciation event for the Imitator. So far it's been mostly praise for the Imitator and the game itself.

"The substantive analysis has been fairly thin.

"Yao Yuan, Ye Lin, both of you are usually so sharp in debriefs. Why were your contributions so brief today?"

Ye Lin said, "Perhaps because the structure of this game is very clear, and Lawyer Lin's account of it was well presented. That might actually be why there's less to discuss.

"Or perhaps the Imitator designed it well enough that they left very few obvious openings.

"There's a sense that there are things worth saying, but none of them feel fully formed or substantial enough yet."

Yao Yuan gave a nod of agreement.

Lu Bingjun thought for a moment and didn't push further, "Yes, that's probably right.

"It may also be that without knowing the player roster from the original community, it's difficult to find a clear angle of entry.

"But as we said before, understanding this game properly may take some time. And working your way to the answer yourself is where the real growth comes from.

"In any case, today has been a productive day for the community.

"We passed the Community Speaking Rule, and we worked through an S-tier Judgment Game.

"Everyone did well. The rest of the time is yours to process things at your own pace.

"We're still under the shadow of the Imitator's threat, but there's no need to be too pessimistic. As long as we keep improving and stay united, I genuinely believe we'll come out on top.

"Alright, that's everything for today. Thank you all for the effort, and go get some rest."

Yao Yuan stood and walked over to the vending machine to check.

"It deducts automatically. Quite a smart system."

It was clear that Yao Yuan had deliberately kept his contributions brief during the discussion to test whether the motion would be enforced automatically. After all, the motion itself hadn't specified whether the one-minute threshold would be measured by the community's systems or by the players themselves, and hadn't made clear whether the 500-minute fine would be deducted automatically or self-reported.

As it turned out, once a motion was passed, the community enforced these rules on its own.

Nothing more was said. Everyone drifted off in their own directions.

The group discussion hadn't run especially long today, so the evening was still early.

Zhang Yan went back to his room, changed into workout clothes, and made his way to the community gym for his usual training.

He had kept up this habit since well before joining Community 2, though today he noticed a slightly larger number of players had turned up to exercise.

The importance of physical fitness was something many players had recognised as early as the first stage, since games requiring stamina had appeared across various regions.

The difficulty was that maintaining a training habit was hard. After a long stretch of games without any physical component, the routine was easy to let slide, and the players who had kept it up consistently were relatively few.

After the ‘Prison Factory’, some players had picked the habit back up. After today's debrief of the ‘King’s Judgment’, that motivation seemed to have been reinforced a little further.

Zhang Yan had no objection to this. They were all members of the same community, which meant allies in any game they entered. In games with a physical component, the stronger your teammates, the better.

He had barely finished his warm-up, though, when he heard a soft, somewhat coquettish voice from behind him, "Brother Zhang, do you have time to train with me?"

He turned, slightly surprised, and found Wen Wan standing there in a simple workout vest and yoga pants, looking at him with a hopeful expression.