Cai Zhiyuan dragged his exhausted body into Cell 1, and Ding Wenqiang personally shut the iron door of the cell.
"Click!"
After the lock engaged, Ding Wenqiang pressed the button to start the trial, and the mechanism inside the cell automatically activated.
It was a very simply designed mechanism, with a huge iron pillar in the center of the room connecting the ceiling and the floor, featuring a crude and complex gear structure.
At a height of about one meter, a horizontal bar extended out, which could be pushed to rotate around the iron pillar.
[The game will begin in 30 seconds, please push the horizontal bar for 10 minutes.]
[Each full circle pushed will grant 10 minutes of visa time. If you stop, you will be punished with an electric shock.]
Cai Zhiyuan took a deep breath, gripped the horizontal bar with both hands, and leaned his body forward.
As the countdown was about to end, he started moving his legs, and the mechanism let out a piercing "creak" as it slowly began to move.
Cai Zhiyuan's pushing speed wasn't fast, but fortunately, the game had no speed requirement, only that he couldn't stop.
Of course, if one had to be specific, the pushing speed would affect the number of circles, and the number of circles would affect the visa time gained.
But considering that one circle only granted a meager 10 minutes of visa time, this small reward wasn't worth overexerting his physical strength.
After all, in this game, survival was the most important thing.
...
As the trial game in Cell 1 was nearing its end, a prompt box appeared on the screen in front of Lin Sizhi, and a notification was simultaneously broadcast.
[Please vote on the fairness of the king's actions.]
The 『√』 and 『×』 buttons below began to flash.
The countdown was very short, only 10 seconds.
Clearly, this question involved a value judgment, but it had no absolutely right or absolutely wrong answer.
According to the rules, this fairness vote would not bring any benefits to the audience, but they had to choose an answer that came from the heart.
If the vote seriously contradicted one's inner thoughts and triggered the lie detector, 10,000 minutes of visa time would be deducted, which was not a small amount.
After a moment of consideration, Lin Sizhi pressed 『×』.
The countdown ended.
[Voting result is ×√√√×√√√√√]
[Audience 1 has been deducted 10000 minutes of visa time.]
[Audience 5 has been deducted 10000 minutes of visa time.]
[Final fairness rating: 60]
[Thank you for your evaluation!]
Lin Sizhi looked at the voting results thoughtfully, "This game's lie detector is quite accurate."
He had intentionally pressed 『×』. While pressing it, he had also been trying to convince himself in his mind, for example, that Cai Zhiyuan was innocent and shouldn't be on trial, or that the trial Cai Zhiyuan received was too light, and so on.
But clearly, such thoughts couldn't deceive the game's lie detection mechanism.
Although visa time was deducted, it was worth it.
Because the accuracy of the lie detection mechanism could very likely affect the accuracy of the entire vote, which in turn would affect the audience's game strategy.
Now, it could at least be confirmed that the lie detector was, in all likelihood, always accurate.
It was worth noting that Audience 1, like Lin Sizhi, had conducted a similar test.
This also caused the fairness rating for this round to drop to 60 points.
"In other words, each 'yes' vote counts as 10 points, and each 'no' vote counts as negative 10 points, and the sum of the two gives the final score.
"Voting against one's conscience only deducts visa time and does not change the voting result."
Lin Sizhi once again turned his gaze to the field.
...
The other four people stood outside the cell without a word, just silently watching Cai Zhiyuan struggle to push the mechanism.
Finally, the 10-minute countdown ended.
Cai Zhiyuan was already panting from exhaustion, lying completely on the ground, gasping for air.
[150 minutes of visa time have been settled for the player.]
This really was a game for beasts of burden.
Pushing one circle with great effort took nearly 40 seconds at a slow pace, only to get 10 minutes of visa time. The visa time given for the entire game was less than a single casual tip from the audience.
Ding Wenqiang looked at Cai Zhiyuan through the iron bars, and after confirming he was mostly fine, he immediately continued to advance the game.
Arriving at Cell 3, the game here had also been unlocked.
[Cell 3: Punishment and Redemption]
[For every finger the criminal breaks using the mechanism, any game in any cell can be completed instantly. In each trial, at least one finger must be broken, otherwise visa time will be deducted at a rate of 30 minutes of visa time/second.]
[During multiple games, the rate of visa time deduction will double.]
Seeing the game description for Cell 3, the corner of Wang Yongxin's mouth twitched involuntarily.
Although Cells 1 and 2 both carried a risk of death after multiple games, they were relatively safe at the very beginning.
In contrast, the game in Cell 3 required breaking a finger right from the start.
Not to mention whether there was any medicine in the community that could treat fractures, just the excruciating pain of a broken finger was probably not something an ordinary person would be willing to endure.
Of course, Cell 3 had one good point, which was the possibility of "spending money to avoid disaster."
If you didn't break a finger, you would lose visa time at a rate of 30 minutes/second. For a 10-minute round, that would be 18,000 minutes of visa time.
As long as one was willing to spend the visa time, this cell would instead become the safest in the game.
Of course, the next round would become 36,000, and the round after that 72,000... It was a bottomless pit, and the visa time deducted would far exceed any potential gains from this game.
Ding Wenqiang couldn't make a decision right away either. After a moment of consideration, he returned to the center of the field, deciding to take out another new videotape to watch.
According to the game rules, he could now view the videotapes of two more people.
After some thought, Ding Wenqiang chose to view the videotapes of Wang Yongxin and Zhang Peng first.
After the static on the large screen disappeared, an image appeared.
It was still a first-person perspective, but compared to the narrow and cramped driver's cabin of the box truck, this place was clearly much more spacious and bright.
This was an office, estimated to be over 50 square meters.
The owner of the perspective was sitting behind a desk, flipping through documents.
[As the CEO of a publicly listed company, you are a successful person in everyone's eyes.]
[You claim to work more than ten hours a day, with a fixed routine: waking up at 6 a.m., and going home to sleep at 10 p.m. You use this to educate your employees that they must work hard, and that as long as they strive, they too can be as successful as you one day.]
[But in reality, after waking up at 6 a.m., you rush to the golf course to hit your first shot before 7 a.m., then take a nap in your luxury car until you arrive at the office at 10 a.m.]
[You start your massage at 11:30 a.m., begin lunch at 1 p.m., have another massage at 4 p.m., start playing cards with business partners at 6:30 p.m., and finally attend a dinner banquet, returning home before 10 p.m.]
[This is what you call 'working more than ten hours a day'.]
[When a crowdsourced delivery driver from your company died from overwork, you had just undergone a comprehensive physical examination, and all your health indicators were excellent. You attribute this to your abundant energy, healthy routine, and never-say-die spirit of struggle.]
[You never worry about seeing those delivery drivers who died from overwork in your dreams at midnight, because you have never seen their faces, and they are not qualified to appear in your dreams.]
Then, Wang Yongxin's file appeared on the big screen.
[Wang Yongxin, male, 36 years old.]
[Occupation: CEO of 'Jisu Delivery'.]
[Through harsh big data algorithms, severely exploited crowdsourced delivery drivers, leading to several serious traffic accidents and three incidents of delivery drivers dying from overwork.]
[Verdict: Not tried.]
Facing the gazes from the crowd, Wang Yongxin appeared very calm.
He spread his hands, "Alright, I admit I'm a bit of a hypocrite, not diligent at all, let alone having any never-say-die spirit of struggle.
"That's all a lie, a carefully crafted persona.
"From the very beginning, I've been a profiteer who likes to exploit loopholes.
"I accept any moral judgment, but I must also clarify one point: I have never committed any act that violates the law.
"If I'm to die just for this, isn't that a bit too much?"
Ding Wenqiang was silent for a moment, "No act that violates the law? What about labor laws?"
Wang Yongxin was at a loss for words for a moment, "...Except for that."
He paused, then continued, "Alright, if you insist on putting me in a cell, then I choose Cell 3."
Ding Wenqiang did not agree to his request immediately, but instead inserted Zhang Peng's videotape into the VCR again.