Seeking Self-Preservation

Yang Yuting fell into a long silence, clearly deep in thought.

Regarding the "five-person group," Li Renshu's explanation was that because they didn't want to trouble Ding Wenqiang with public discussions, they had a brief "touch base" privately first. After careful consideration, they would then make the proposal public for everyone to vote and discuss.

While this explanation seemed reasonable enough, among the people in the community, perhaps only Ding Wenqiang and Su Xiucen would believe it without reservation.

The others would believe at most half of it.

What's more, the selection of members for this five-person group was indeed quite strategic.

Wang Yongxin, with his high sensitivity, was the first to realize this. Although Yang Yuting hadn't paid much attention at first, now that it was pointed out, she could belatedly recall certain clues from before.

Yang Yuting looked up at Wang Yongxin. "Why did you choose to discuss these things with me?"

Wang Yongxin appeared sincere. "Because among the remaining people, I think you're intelligent, and the cost of communication might be lower, and you're more likely to share my stance.

"Besides, there are many things I might need your help to accomplish."

Yang Yuting nodded. "You're right, we do tend to be closer in certain ideals.

"And...

"You want to use me to rally the rest of them as much as possible? After all, most of the people here are women."

Wang Yongxin was somewhat surprised, seemingly not expecting Yang Yuting to grasp it so quickly. However, he soon smiled and nodded. "Exactly, it's so much easier to talk to someone smart."

The so-called "closer ideals" would be more accurately described as "closer social strata."

Before entering the New World, Wang Yongxin was the boss of a startup, and Yang Yuting was a senior executive.

In simpler terms, they were both "wealthy," or had both been part of the "decision-making layer" or "management" in their companies.

Therefore, even if the two hadn't interacted much before, they would naturally recognize their shared ideals.

--Just as Ding Wenqiang and Su Xiucen would have a similar natural connection.

Besides the "five-person group," the remaining people were: Jiang He, Wang Yongxin, Qin Yao, Su Xiucen, Xu Tong, Ding Wenqiang, and Yang Yuting.

Since there was only one woman, Li Renshu, in the "five-person group," this meant that among the remaining seven people, women constituted the vast majority.

The only man, Ding Wenqiang, was also at odds with Wang Yongxin.

Therefore, if Wang Yongxin wanted to rally the remaining seven people to some extent, he would have to rely on Yang Yuting to win over the other women.

Especially Xu Tong, Qin Yao, and Jiang He.

It wasn't difficult for Yang Yuting to sort out these issues.

She thought for a moment and then asked, "Then what goal do you want to achieve?

"Overthrow this five-person clique?"

Wang Yongxin repeatedly shook his head. "No, no, no, I'm not trying to cause division. I'm just seeking 'self-preservation.'

"If we seven continue to remain as atomized individuals, we'll be like a knife and meat, with me as the fish.

"If we can reach some consensus early on and organize ourselves to a certain extent, then each of us will be safer.

"At the very least, if we're targeted for robbery, we can unite and resist immediately."

Yang Yuting nodded. "I understand. You mean for me to get closer to others as much as possible, especially Xu Tong, Qin Yao, and Jiang He.

"If we can also form a cohesive small group, then at least on some major issues, we'll have the power to resist and won't have our interests harmed."

Wang Yongxin nodded. "Exactly. In the short term, we can't do anything, nor do we need to.

"However, it's always necessary to prepare for the unexpected."

Yang Yuting asked again, "Why didn't you choose to join that five-person group? With your abilities, you should be able to gain some influence there.

"Even after a while, you might be able to replace some of them, like... Cai Zhiyuan?"

Wang Yongxin shook his head. "It's difficult. This is a rather complex issue.

"The composition of an organization isn't solely based on ability; it also considers division of labor, mutual trust, and seniority.

"From a small company to a large country, are capable people always absorbed into management? Not being absorbed is the more likely scenario.

"There will always be issues of benefit distribution within an organization. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. Many times, people don't want to exclude you, but there are only so many seats at the table. Who are you going to push out? So you end up on the menu.

"Overall, I'm not suited for that place, and they don't welcome me. Otherwise, no one would have extended an olive branch to me.

"Similarly, none of the other six, including you, can enter that small group anymore.

"Because five people is its limit."

Yang Yuting lowered her head and pondered for a long time, finally saying, "Okay, then we can preliminarily reach an agreement on this matter.

"I will increase my contact with others.

"If there are any developments later, we'll discuss them immediately."

Wang Yongxin stood up and opened the door, looking outside.

"You should go back first. I'll wait a few more minutes to stagger our departure."

Just as Yang Yuting was about to leave, she suddenly thought of something and asked, "One last question.

"During the vote for the Community Security Fund earlier, was it you who cast the dissenting vote?"

Wang Yongxin said helplessly, "Is my persona so stable? No."

Yang Yuting nodded, "It's fine, I was just asking casually. There's a troublemaker in the community who always makes me feel uneasy."

Wang Yongxin didn't care, "Heh, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.

'How do you know he's definitely a troublemaker? Maybe he simply dislikes the process of this plan being pushed forward and is too embarrassed to express it publicly.

'Since the community grants each of us equal voting rights, voting against it is naturally everyone's freedom.

'Let's just let this one slide. If next time, and the time after that, every proposal put forth by the five-person group passes unanimously... that would be even more terrifying, wouldn't it?'"

Lin Sizhi returned to his room and first opened his personal computer to check his remaining visa time.

[297 days - 19 hours 25 minutes]

Seeing this, Lin Sizhi was silent for a moment.

Because the time had increased by more than a month.

Lin Sizhi's initial visa time was 117 days, and the visa time earned from "Blood Poker" this time, after deducting the Community Security Fund, was approximately 143 days.

Adding them together gave around 260 days.

There was only one explanation for the extra 37 days:

A player had died in the "Blood Poker" game, and their visa time had been transferred by the Gallery to Lin Sizhi, the game designer.

The "Blood Poker" game itself had an extremely low death rate, as the only way to die was to gamble until you bled yourself to death.

But obviously, no matter how safe a game was, it couldn't withstand people who repeatedly courted death.

Although the Gallery's intention this time was to complete the distribution of visa time and not to encourage excessive casualties, they wouldn't care about the casualties of individual players like this.

However, this also brought Lin Sizhi's remaining visa time to a rather exaggerated number.

Of course, Lin Sizhi had already received an S rating and could freely hide the visa time he earned through his "God's Imitator" identity, so he didn't need to worry about exposure.

But he still had to earn as much visa time as possible in the game.

On one hand, as the game designer, he had long ago created loopholes for himself to acquire a large amount of visa time, which would allow him to be more prepared when facing other games.

On the other hand, this could also effectively hide his identity.

Some people might think that after becoming "God's Imitator," one must maintain a low profile as much as possible and not earn too much visa time in the game.

After all, the higher the profile, the more attention one receives, and the more likely one's identity is to be exposed.

But Lin Sizhi didn't think so.

Because "God's Imitator" would inevitably kill players during the game design process.

As the game progressed, players would accumulate more visa time, and the visa time gained from killing players would also increase.

If he always kept a low profile and never earned too much visa time in the game, then when he spent visa time lavishly using special strategies, it would be easier to expose himself.

If he never used this hidden visa time, it would be a waste of the advantages of his "Imitator" identity.

Therefore, creating the impression that "he already had a lot of visa time" would also be beneficial for hiding his identity.

In addition, the more visa time Lin Sizhi earned, the stronger his presence and higher his status would be within this small community group, making it easier to integrate into the core group.

And more conducive to protecting himself.

Just like this morning, Lin Sizhi was the only one invited besides the small group of four, which was clearly directly related to his profession and performance in the game.

He had drunk some red wine during the midday meal and now felt a bit drowsy, so he lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

A little over an hour later, Lin Sizhi woke up.

He pulled open the curtains; the time was now 3:43 PM.

He went to the study and found new information appearing on his computer screen.