Seeking Self-Protection

Yang Yuting fell into a long silence. Clearly, she was thinking.

As for the "group of five," Li Renshu's explanation was that they had not wanted a public discussion to cause Ding Wenqiang any trouble, so they had first had a brief private "meeting." Only after thinking everything through did they make the proposal public for everyone to vote on and discuss.

Though that explanation sounded fairly reasonable, among the people in the community, probably only Ding Wenqiang and Su Xiucen would believe it without reservation.

The others would believe at most half of it.

What was more, the selection of people for this group of five was indeed rather telling.

Wang Yongxin was highly perceptive, so he had noticed it early on. Yang Yuting had not paid much attention at first, but now that it had been pointed out, she was able to recall certain clues from before.

Yang Yuting looked up at Wang Yongxin. "Why did you choose to talk to me about this?"

Wang Yongxin looked sincere. "Because among the people left, I think you're a smart person. Communication might cost less with you, and you're more likely to share my stance.

"And besides, there are many things I may only be able to accomplish with your help."

Yang Yuting nodded. "You're right. We do share some similar ideas.

"And...

"You want to use me to gather the remaining people together as much as possible? After all, most of them are women."

Wang Yongxin was somewhat surprised, seemingly not expecting Yang Yuting to understand so quickly. But he soon smiled and nodded. "That's right. Talking to smart people is convenient."

Rather than "similar ideas," a more accurate description would have been "similar social class."

Before entering the New World, Wang Yongxin had been the owner of a startup company, while Yang Yuting had been one of its senior executives.

Put simply, they had both been "rich people," or at least had both belonged to the company's decision-making or management ranks.

Therefore, even though they had not interacted much before, they naturally assumed that their views were similar.

—Just as Ding Wenqiang and Su Xiucen would naturally feel close in the same way.

Aside from the group of five, the remaining people were Jiang He, Wang Yongxin, Qin Yao, Su Xiucen, Xu Tong, Ding Wenqiang, and Yang Yuting.

Since Li Renshu was the only woman in the group of five, women made up the overwhelming majority of the remaining seven.

The only man, Ding Wenqiang, was also on very bad terms with Wang Yongxin.

So if Wang Yongxin wanted to bring those seven people together to some extent, he had to rely on Yang Yuting to win over the other women.

Especially Xu Tong, Qin Yao, and Jiang He.

It was not difficult for Yang Yuting to sort through these issues.

After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Then what kind of goal are you trying to achieve?

"Overthrow this little group of five?"

Wang Yongxin shook his head repeatedly. "No, no, no. I'm not trying to cause a split. I'm only seeking 'self-protection.'

"If the seven of us continue acting as isolated individuals, then we'll be fish on the chopping block.

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

"At the very least, if we're ever robbed, we can join forces and resist immediately."

Yang Yuting nodded. "I understand. You mean that I should get as close as possible to the others, especially Xu Tong, Qin Yao, and Jiang He.

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

Wang Yongxin nodded. "That's right. In the short term, there's nothing we can do, nor do we need to do anything.

"But it's always necessary to prepare for a rainy day."

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

"Maybe after some time, you could even replace someone in it, such as... Cai Zhiyuan?"

Wang Yongxin shook his head. "That would be difficult. It's a rather complicated issue.

"The makeup of an organization is not based purely on ability. You also have to consider division of labor, mutual trust, and who came first.

"From a small company to an entire country, does every capable person necessarily get absorbed into management? Not being absorbed is far more likely.

"There will always be issues of interest distribution within an organization. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. Often, it's not that people don't want you at the table, but there are only so many seats. Who do you plan to squeeze out? So you can only end up on the menu.

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

"Likewise, the other six people, including you, will never be able to enter that little group.

"Because five people is already its limit."

Yang Yuting lowered her head and thought for a long time again before finally saying, "All right. Then we can reach a preliminary agreement on this matter.

"I'll increase my contact with the others.

"If there's any progress later, we'll discuss it immediately."

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

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

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

"When the Community Security Fund was being voted on, was that dissenting vote yours?"

Wang Yongxin sounded somewhat helpless. "Is the image I've built that solid? No, it wasn't."

Yang Yuting nodded. "It's nothing, I was just asking. There's a troublemaker in the community, and it always makes me feel a little uneasy."

Wang Yongxin did not mind. "Heh, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

"How do you know he's definitely a troublemaker? Maybe he simply didn't like the way that proposal was being pushed through, but was too embarrassed to express it publicly.

"Since the community gives every one of us equal voting rights, then voting against something is naturally every person's freedom.

"This time is one thing, but if next time, and the time after that, every proposal put forward by the group of five passes unanimously... wouldn't that be much more terrifying?"

Lin Sizhi returned to his room and first turned on his Personal Computer to check his remaining Visa Time.

[297 days - 19 hours 25 minutes]

Seeing that number, Lin Sizhi fell silent for a moment.

Because it had increased by more than a month.

Lin Sizhi's original Visa Time had been 117 days, while the Visa Time he had earned from Blood Poker, after deducting the Community Security Fund contribution, was around 143 days.

Together, that came to roughly 260 days.

There was only one explanation for the extra 37 days:

A player had died in Blood Poker, and that player's Visa Time had been transferred by the Gallery to Lin Sizhi, the game's designer.

Blood Poker itself had an extremely low fatality rate, because there was only one way to die: getting so caught up in the gambling that one drew blood until death.

But clearly, no matter how safe a game was, there would always be people who insisted on repeatedly courting death.

Though judging from the Gallery's intentions, this game had been meant to distribute Visa Time and did not encourage excessive casualties, the Gallery would not care about isolated player deaths like this.

Still, it had brought Lin Sizhi's remaining Visa Time to a rather astonishing number.

Of course, Lin Sizhi had already received an S rating and could freely hide the Visa Time he earned through his identity as God's Imitator, so he did not need to worry about being exposed.

But he still needed to earn as much Visa Time as possible in games.

On one hand, as the game's designer, he had long reserved loopholes for himself. Obtaining large amounts of Visa Time through them would allow him to handle other games more easily;

On the other hand, it would also help conceal his identity.

Some people might think that after becoming God's Imitator, one had to stay as low-key as possible and avoid earning too much Visa Time in games.

After all, the more high-profile one was, the more attention one attracted, and the more likely one's identity would be exposed.

But Lin Sizhi did not see it that way.

Because God's Imitator would inevitably kill players during the process of designing games.

And as the games continued, players would accumulate more and more Visa Time, meaning more Visa Time would be gained after killing them.

If he always kept a low profile and never earned much Visa Time in games, then when he spent Visa Time freely in a game to use special strategies, he would instead be more likely to expose himself.

If he never used this hidden Visa Time, that would amount to wasting the advantages of his Imitator identity.

Therefore, creating the impression that "he already has a lot of Visa Time" was also beneficial for concealing his identity.

Moreover, 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 for him to integrate into the core circle.

And better protect himself.

Just like this morning, Lin Sizhi had been the only person invited besides the group of four. That was clearly directly related to his profession and his performance in the game.

He had drunk some red wine during lunch, and Lin Sizhi now felt somewhat drowsy. He lay down on the bed and fell deeply asleep.

More than an hour later, Lin Sizhi woke up.

He drew back the curtains. It was now 3:43 in the afternoon.

When he entered the study, Lin Sizhi found new information displayed on the computer screen.