Chapter 571: The Vanished Third Core

Qin Cheng nodded and said, "Yes. I'm fairly certain this community must originally have had a third core player."Only something unexpected happened before the Second Stage began.

"Either they left the community, or they died."

Qin Cheng paused briefly and continued, "According to the rules, when a player dies in the community, new players can be brought in through recruitment or poaching.

"But recruitment has a cooldown period, and poaching requires finding the right candidate. On top of that, there may have been community reshuffles at the start of the Second Stage, so changes in membership are perfectly normal.

"So at first, I didn't pay much attention to the makeup of the community.

"But thinking back now, something doesn't quite fit.

"Because according to Lu Bingjun, Community 2 entered the Second Stage as a 'winner' in the First Stage, which means they were not broken up.

"And for a community that strong, the efficiency of replacing lost members should be far higher than for most.

"A stronger community loses fewer people, so recruitment isn't triggered as frequently, and the cooldown doesn't accumulate as much. And a community with a strong reputation naturally attracts players from other communities who want to join, which makes replacement easier.

"You and Lu Qi are players 13 and 14. That's perfectly normal, as the community expanded when the Second Stage began.

"But I'm Player 1. And that is strange.

"Because communities fill empty slots in order from the earliest number.

"If, say, Player 1 and Player 5 both had vacancies at the same time, and one new player was recruited, they would fill Player 1's position first.

"Which means the original Player 1 in this community almost certainly died in the final game of the First Stage.

"And there simply wasn't time to recruit a replacement."

Huang Shengjie's expression shifted with something like shock, but after quickly working through the points Qin Cheng had raised, he also arrived at the conclusion.

"In terms of community structure, three cores is the normal configuration.

"Lu Bingjun doesn't seem to command full authority, and the community's apparent stability looks more like a facade.

"Player 1's slot being empty means someone died in the final game of the First Stage.

"The original Community 2 veteran players seem to have kept very quiet about the third core, about the death of that previous player, and about their earlier game experiences. They don't want to bring it up, and have only said things like 'let's look forward.'

"So,

"The community originally had a third core player, and in all likelihood that third core was the original Player 1.

"For most of the First Stage, Community 2 operated under this stable three-core model, which is how they were able to enter the Second Stage as winners and preserve their core group.

"But because the third core died in the final game, the community's structure became unstable.

"Lu Bingjun has been going out of his way to promote you because he wants you to carry more influence, so that the community's structure can stabilise again.

"Thinking back on it now, Lu Bingjun has consistently been trying to raise your profile, whether by emphasising your profession right at the start, or with the praise during the game debrief. It all seems to have served that purpose."

Qin Cheng nodded and said, "Yes. That's exactly what I was getting at.

"Though I think the actual situation may be even worse than that.

"The Player 1 who died was probably not just a core player. They may well have been the community's original leader."

Huang Shengjie paused, "What? The original community leader?"

But the logic clicked into place quickly, "Right, if it had only been a core player who died, there would be no reason to be so tight-lipped about it.

"You could just acknowledge it openly.

"But if it was the original community leader who died, the situation becomes much more complicated.

"Revealing that would make the new players question the stability of the current power structure, which could significantly undermine Lu Bingjun's authority.

"So Lu Bingjun and the veteran players reached a quiet understanding, an unspoken agreement not to bring it up. But many of the veterans are only going along with it on the surface and haven't fully accepted him."

Qin Cheng continued, "There's also a piece of supporting evidence.

"The initial community development fund was around the 600,000-minute threshold, not the 900,000 tier.

"Looking at the contribution records, Lu Bingjun is listed at around 300,000, but since he holds the First Player Identity Card, his contribution is multiplied, so the actual amount he put in is probably closer to 240,000.

"Ye Lin contributed around 200,000. Yao Yuan around 80,000. The other players contributed much smaller amounts, generally somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000.

"At first glance, those numbers seem normal. But the community fund has many expenses, such as purchasing immunity vouchers.

"The community's immunity vouchers had roughly two weeks left on their cooldown when we first arrived, and now there are eight days remaining.

"Adding up the cost of immunity vouchers and all other various expenses, there's still a gap of at least two or three hundred thousand minutes unaccounted for."

Huang Shengjie gave a slow nod, "So the original Player 1 must have donated at least two or three hundred thousand minutes of visa time to the community.

"They were the community's true leader in every meaningful sense, and they held the First Player Identity Card.

"Lu Bingjun and Ye Lin were both core players, and the community had always run on a stable three-core model.

"But at the end of the First Stage, Player 1 died or left under some unexpected circumstances. That created a very awkward situation.

"Community 2 entered the Second Stage with its core group intact, but found itself without a clear leader.

"And the best short-term solution was for Lu Bingjun to step into the leader's role.

"Otherwise, with the new players joining in the Second Stage, things could have become even more chaotic and harder to manage.

"So Ye Lin and those who support her may not be fully on board, but they've had no choice but to put the community's interests first and maintain the appearance of 'Lu Bingjun having always been the clear authority figure' in front of us newcomers.

"Lu Bingjun understands this perfectly, which is why he's been making every effort to consolidate his position.

"Including this time.

"The custodian role comes with a certain degree of community authority in its own right.

"Of course he wanted to take that authority for himself in a natural, uncontroversial way, so his position as leader would be that much more secure.

"But Ye Lin and those who support her obviously didn't want that to happen.

"So Lu Bingjun ultimately settled for giving the role to you as a compromise.

"From Ye Lin's side, however reluctantly, there was no legitimate public objection they could raise.

"And from Lu Bingjun's perspective, while this may have sharpened the tension somewhat and produced a noticeably divided vote, the benefit far outweighed the risk. He had no choice but to do it."