Wang Yongxin was stunned. He suddenly felt that the Ding Wenqiang before him was a bit of a stranger.
Cell 3 was still open.
Even without smashing his own finger, conducting one game in Cell 3 would only require a deduction of 18,000 minutes of visa time.
Even if it were doubled, it would only be 36,000.
The tips Ding Wenqiang received from the audience were enough to cover this number.
Even if he didn't want to undergo a second trial, using 18,000 minutes of visa time to share one trial wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?
Ding Wenqiang showed an annoyed expression, glaring at Wang Yongxin, "Why are you looking at me with that expression?
"Isn't this what you people have been doing all along?
"As a rich person, how many poor people can you feed with just a little bit that leaks from between your fingers?
"A bottle of red wine you open could be a delivery driver's living expenses for several years.
"If you paid an extra hundred yuan in social security for each delivery driver, many people who get into traffic accidents might be saved!
"Did you rich people ever give such a trivial favor, a drop in the ocean?
"Why is it that when it's my turn, I have to share the burden for you?
"I am the King. I earned the title of King with my own abilities, one step at a time!
"On what grounds should I enter a cell and face the same trial as you?
"Whether it's ten thousand minutes of visa time or a hundred minutes, I earned it all myself. So what if it was easy to earn? Why should I give it away to save others?
"If you were the King instead, could you be so noble, so selfless as to share the trial games for the other prisoners?
"I don't believe it. If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have been pulled into this game by the Gallery!"
Wang Yongxin opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was speechless.
He was about to subconsciously answer "I would," but Ding Wenqiang's last sentence forced him to swallow the words back down.
Indeed, it seemed he had no standing to demand any sacrifice from Ding Wenqiang.
Even if it was just a mere 18,000 minutes of visa time.
[Audience 1 has tipped Ding Wenqiang 3000 minutes of visa time, with the message: Well said!]
[Audience 7 has tipped Ding Wenqiang 2000 minutes of visa time, with the message: Agreed.]
Ding Wenqiang seemed to have made some sort of decision. At this point, he was the only free person left in the arena; the other four prisoners were all locked in their respective cells.
Ding Wenqiang walked over to Cell 5, where Zhang Peng was, and with a blank expression, started the trial game again.
...
Lin Sizhi leaned back in his chair and sighed silently.
He had already done his best to get to this point.
The designer of this game was relatively merciful, leaving a way for everyone to survive, and this method wasn't particularly difficult to achieve.
Of course, it might not be the designer's mercy, but rather a form of survivorship bias: games with no path to survival couldn't pass the Gallery's review, let alone be selected.
But regardless, this path to survival existed, and Lin Sizhi had already pointed it out clearly.
The fate of these four people ultimately rested in Ding Wenqiang's hands.
As an audience member, Lin Sizhi couldn't personally participate and could only do so much.
Audience 1 was indeed a very troublesome opponent.
If Lin Sizhi had done nothing, Audience 1 would have likely succeeded in getting Ding Wenqiang to conduct a third trial game on Gao Zhankui and kill him.
And after killing Gao Zhankui, Ding Wenqiang would have fallen down an even greater slippery slope.
At that point, Audience 1 could then reveal Zhang Peng's secret, and by piling on the guilt of killing Gao Zhankui, could easily manipulate Ding Wenqiang into killing Zhang Peng as well.
Step by step, they would push the King to kill more prisoners, maximizing the benefits for the King's side of the audience.
Of course, Lin Sizhi wasn't sure if Audience 1 had seen the hidden information in Zhang Peng's videotape, but based on Audience 1's previous performance, he was a smart and dangerous opponent, and such a risk could not be taken.
Once it reached that stage, the prisoner's side was doomed to lose.
Zhang Peng's hidden information was a chess piece that both the King's side and the prisoner's side could use, just at different times.
Lin Sizhi could only preemptively push Zhang Peng forward, on one hand to disrupt Audience 1's planned rhythm, and on the other hand to buy time to persuade Ding Wenqiang to enter a cell.
If that happened, all five of them could survive.
But unfortunately, Lin Sizhi was not a god, nor could he control Ding Wenqiang's thoughts.
[Please vote on the fairness of the King's actions.]
[Voting result is ×√×√××√√××]
[Final fairness rating: -20]
[Thank you for your evaluation!]
The audience's fairness rating had dropped further.
Obviously, for those audience members who genuinely felt Zhang Peng was a scumbag, initiating a second trial was fair.
But some also believed that, considering the danger of this game was far higher than the previous ones, it was unfair to subject Zhang Peng to a second trial now, especially since Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Yongxin's game punishments were lighter, yet they only underwent one trial game.
What's more, Ding Wenqiang himself hadn't entered a cell.
...
In Cell 5, Zhang Peng's wails could still be heard from time to time.
With a dark face, Ding Wenqiang chose not to look at him anymore.
This yellow-haired guy always made a big fuss. It was just a few nails, yet he screamed louder than a pig being slaughtered.
After a while, it finally stopped.
Ding Wenqiang turned his head to look, only to be surprised to find that the trial game was not over yet.
The nail gun was still firing with "kachunk," "kachunk" sounds, driving nails one by one into the target or Zhang Peng's body.
It was just that one nail had landed squarely on Zhang Peng's forehead, and the yellow-haired young man was already silent.
Ding Wenqiang's mind went blank in an instant.
Zhang Peng was dead.
He hadn't expected Zhang Peng to die so easily, because in all the previous trial games, one could at least play safely twice.
Gao Zhankui had rolled out of the iron maiden the second time, practically turned into a blood-soaked man, and was still alive now.
It was obvious that the game in Cell 5 was different from the others; it was a game that relied heavily on luck.
Theoretically, these games would only become life-threatening on the third playthrough.
But if a nail happened to hit the forehead, then all probabilities and numbers of attempts became meaningless.
[Audience 1 has tipped Ding Wenqiang 4000 minutes of visa time, with the message: He deserved to die.]
[Audience 7 has tipped Ding Wenqiang 3000 minutes of visa time, with the message: You did nothing wrong.]
[Audience 2 has tipped Ding Wenqiang 5000 minutes of visa time, with the message: He was unlucky.]
Ding Wenqiang looked at the record on the screen.
[Trials Completed: 6/10]
He had a strange feeling in his heart. Zhang Peng's death didn't seem to affect him much; instead, he felt much calmer.
"Four more times."
Ding Wenqiang numbly walked to Cell 4 and looked at Gao Zhankui, who was still lying on the ground, covered in blood.
A moment later, he arrived in front of Cells 1 and 2.
There was now an obvious problem: with 4 trials left, Gao Zhankui would most likely die after one more game, which would still leave 3 trial games to be completed.
In other words, no matter what, Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Yongxin would each have to play at least one more game.
"I'm sorry."
Ding Wenqiang initiated the trial games in Cell 1 and Cell 2 one after another.
He ultimately decided to save the hardest problem for last: first complete the second trials for Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Yongxin, and as for the final two trials, he would then make a two-out-of-three choice among the three people.
Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Yongxin said nothing, simply bracing themselves once more.