Chapter 527: Ulterior Motives |
Fitness trainer Deng Xiao also wore a look of bafflement. If his attitude toward Lin Sizhi had clearly carried a degree of hostility before, the look he directed at Qin Cheng was one of pure bewilderment.
"Do you think you'll be able to get into the top seven in terms of visa time that quickly?
"Every single one of the Gallery's games is a matter of life and death. It's not some field where you can freely harvest visa time whenever you please!"
Yao Yuan, who had been taking notes throughout, chose his words with some care and said, "Lawyer Lin, Dr. Qin, let's not get too hasty.
"Deng Xiao has always been blunt. Don't take it too personally.
"Dr. Qin, you may have just arrived in the New World and aren't fully familiar with how things work here yet. As for Lawyer Lin, perhaps every community had a different dynamic before, so naturally the values differ as well.
"But Community 2 has always been a community that emphasizes mutual support and looking out for one another. We have a leader who commands broad respect and considers everyone's interests, and we have members who understand the importance of sacrificing a portion of their personal gains for the greater good. That is exactly how we were able to make it to the end in the previous stage, emerge as the final victors, and retain our core members.
"We firmly believe that this is the way to survive in the New World.
"In this stage, we are indeed facing new challenges, but it goes without saying that we cannot so simply and crudely rule out the possibility of mutual support and cooperation.
Qin Cheng glanced at Lin Sizhi, then addressed everyone present and said, "I'm not certain what Lawyer Lin is thinking, but speaking from my own perspective, I believe mutual support within a community is of course a good thing, and it is right for some people to sacrifice their interests for the greater good.
"But this should be driven by the community's management through a well-developed proposal, one that all players follow voluntarily and of their own accord.
"Consulting each player privately and then synthesizing those opinions into the most suitable plan might actually be more effective at achieving this goal than an open discussion like this one."
Deng Xiao was somewhat dismissive and said, "Consulting each player privately? Fourteen people means fourteen different opinions, and many of them will be completely at odds with each other. How do you bring all of that together into a single proposal?"
Qin Cheng thought for a moment and said, "If no one here has much confidence in that, I can give it a try.
"Though it'll probably take a few hours."
Lu Bingjun clapped his hands together and said, "Alright, alright. Lawyer Lin and Dr. Qin have made their positions very clear.
"Dr. Qin is right. This work does need to be handled with more care.
"In the previous stage, Community 2 was made up entirely of veteran players who knew each other very well and had a solid foundation of mutual trust. So without even realizing it, I skipped some necessary steps during the discussion.
"Now that new players have joined the community, our work should naturally be done with more attention to detail.
"Yao Yuan.
"Shortly, the two of us will speak with the other players separately, listen carefully to everyone's opinions, then compile what we hear and try to come up with a plan that works for as many people as possible."
Yao Yuan nodded and quickly jotted it down, saying, "Understood."
...
The meeting concluded without reaching a decision. After it broke up, no one left the building. Instead, they each went separately to speak privately with Lu Bingjun or Yao Yuan in separate rooms.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Huang Shengjie pulled Qin Cheng aside to another room.
"Why?" Huang Shengjie's face was written all over with confusion. "Wasn't the second option the one that was better for us?"
Qin Cheng turned the question back on him and said, "Why would it be better for us?
"Have you already accepted the reality that you'll always be stuck in the bottom seven?"
Huang Shengjie was a little lost for words and said, "Well...
"Qin Cheng, I know you've always been confident. You were always the top student at school. When it came to working hard, hardly anyone could keep up with you.
"But we're still new players. We're a full stage behind everyone else in terms of accumulated time!
"A lot of them have already saved up hundreds of thousands of minutes of visa time or more. And based on how games typically pay out and how often they come around, we'll most likely only be able to take part in about two games a month at most. Even if we average 50,000 minutes per game, catching up to the others would take at least two months!
"And on top of that, accidents can happen in the meantime, and everyone else will keep earning more time.
"It's possible that the visa time gap built up in the first stage is something we'll never be able to close.
"Besides, we're lucky to be in a community that looks out for the weaker players. Lu is clearly intending to help us. Why on earth would you stand up and oppose that?"
Qin Cheng turned the question back on him again and said, "Are you sure Lu Bingjun is genuinely planning to help us? Shengjie, think it over."
Huang Shengjie was not quite sure what to make of that and said, "What else would it be? Is there some other possibility?"
Qin Cheng looked at him seriously, enunciating each word with care, and said, "Shengjie, you're not reading the situation at all.
"Lu Bingjun said he wanted to do a quick count of how many players were unwilling to share the burden. The tone was casual and offhand, but that was not an insignificant move.
"If no one had said anything, then in terms of the meeting's proceedings, it would have been as good as everyone silently agreeing that they were willing to share the burden for others.
"Which means, without even realizing it, you would have given up your right to refuse.
"After that, if Lu Bingjun puts forward a distribution plan that isn't particularly fair, it might look favorable to us in the short term, but our interests could be seriously harmed down the line. When that happens, are you going to oppose it or go along with it?"
Huang Shengjie was taken aback and said, "Surely it wouldn't come to that? I don't quite follow.
"If Lu actually puts forward some proposal that seriously harms my interests, can't I just raise objections at that point?"
Qin Cheng shook his head and said, "There's a time limit on objections.
"In today's meeting, Lu Bingjun gave you the opportunity to object, and you didn't. That can therefore be treated as tacit consent.
"It means you surrendered your right to refuse and handed it to Lu Bingjun to arrange as he sees fit.
"If you raise objections later, and others ask you, 'So why didn't you say anything at the time,' what are you going to say?
"By that point, in all likelihood, no one will support you anymore. Instead, they'll all be urging you to put the greater good first. Are you sure you'd still be able to hold your ground?
"No one would be foolish enough to put forward a proposal that strips you of everything at once, but every infringement and erosion of rights tends to happen little by little.
"Think about what Lawyer Lin said.
"He said, it's not that he's unwilling to share in the pain under any circumstances. He simply doesn't accept a question framed that broadly, unless a specific proposal is presented.
"Isn't that clear enough?"
Huang Shengjie was stunned and said, "Is that really what it was? I originally thought that since he went through the entire first stage and has confidence in his own abilities, he believed he'd never fall into the bottom seven, and that's why he refused to share the burden.
"Are you saying that maybe because he's a lawyer, he's naturally more sensitive to personal rights, and so he picked up on that kind of probing much earlier than the rest of us?"