The two players participating in the talent show on the big screen were clearly more panicked than Zheng Jie.
Originally, the talent show was a good opportunity to get extra likes, and everyone wanted to be on it. But unexpectedly, when it was finally their turn, it had turned into a blatant killing game.
What was worse, killing through the talent show was easier than killing through a meeting.
To kill someone in a meeting, you first had to enter the same meeting room with them through matching or an invitation, ensure you had more 'Likes' or 'Dislikes' than them, and then spend additional 'Likes' or 'Dislikes' to launch an attack.
But the talent show was different, as long as 20 players clicked 'Boring', you would die instantly.
Judging from the previous talent shows, getting 20 'Boring' votes was not uncommon.
The talent show had just begun, and Performer No. 1, an honest-looking uncle, was already in tears.
"I don't have any talents, and I don't have much visa time left. I just want to live safely until the end of the game. I'm begging you all, please don't kill me!"
He began to kneel on the ground and kowtow with loud thuds.
According to the game rules, a player's performance in the talent show must last a minimum of 1 minute and a maximum of 5 minutes.
So even if he wanted to end his performance immediately, it was impossible.
Zheng Jie sat in his chair, watching Performer No. 1 kowtow repeatedly, his heart clenching.
Finally, the agonizingly long minute passed. The uncle, with a large red mark on his forehead from the kowtowing, scrambled up from the ground and slammed the button next to the talent show stage.
A prompt sounded, and the audio switched to Performer No. 2.
Only then did the uncle seem to have survived a disaster, repeatedly clasping his hands and bowing to the camera.
Others had used this button to end their performance early before, but none had been as desperate and sincere as the uncle.
Performer No. 2 was also in a panic. She was a woman in her 30s with relatively delicate makeup, a small water stain on the shoulder of her clothes. At this moment, she was also crying her eyes out to the camera, completely disregarding her makeup.
Fortunately, after 1 minute, nothing happened to her either.
[Performer No. 1 received a total of 7 'Interesting' votes, gaining 0 additional 'Likes'.]
[Performer No. 2 received a total of 2 'Interesting' votes, gaining 0 additional 'Likes'.]
Not only did few people vote 'Boring', but the number of people voting 'Interesting' also decreased significantly.
This might be because the players had no time to pay attention to the talent show, as they were all racking their brains for survival strategies;
It could also be because the players simply couldn't use the word 'Interesting' to describe their feelings about watching the talent show;
Or perhaps, they were terrified by the fact that "the talent show could lead to death," so they subconsciously stayed away from any button they could press.
Seeing that the two players in this talent show were safe, Zheng Jie couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
Clearly, although this condition for killing seemed easy, it wasn't something that could be achieved quickly and immediately.
The vast majority of players were not new to the game; they would still think about the rules seriously.
Killing someone through the talent show meant that at least 20 players had to participate together, so the 1/10 of the visa time obtained after killing a player would also have to be split among 20 people.
After such a division, there wouldn't be much left.
Most players still had an instinctive sense of compassion, they would feel sympathy and empathy. It would be difficult for them to truly resolve to execute the performer on the talent show stage, even a stranger, just for this trivial amount of visa time.
Moreover, without being able to determine if the other person was a threat, having more players survive would reduce the probability of encountering a killer in the upcoming meetings.
Therefore, most players were not yet able to press 'Boring' to kill someone without a psychological burden.
Even if some deranged players indiscriminately clicked 'Boring', or if some players held a grudge against the talent show participants, it was unlikely to reach 20 people.
This gave Zheng Jie some relief. It seemed that even if he went on the talent show stage, he wouldn't necessarily die immediately.
Besides, he had already been on stage once, so he was relatively safe now.
According to the current game mechanics, the talent show would prioritize players who had not yet been on stage.
Otherwise, if a player kept getting no likes, wouldn't they be on the talent show forever? That wouldn't be very reasonable.
Not getting any likes before, which led to him being on the talent show stage early, had turned into a good thing for Zheng Jie.
"But... if I remember correctly, Brother Lin and Yang Yuting haven't been on the talent show yet, right?"
Zheng Jie couldn't help but worry about them.
Judging from the talent show mechanics, Lin Sizi and Yang Yuting must have received a lot of likes, which is why they were ranked low in the talent show lineup.
But now, as time went on, being later in the talent show lineup seemed to become more dangerous.
"Damn it, if I had known this earlier, it would have been better to get a few 'Dislikes' than no 'Likes' at all!"
At this moment, Zheng Jie also realized that dislikes were also a resource.
In the first stage, the relevant rules were deliberately hidden, so everyone subconsciously wanted to avoid getting disliked.
As a result, in the second stage, they became the most miserable group: with neither likes nor dislikes, it meant that whether the other party chose to report or murder them, they had no way to fight back.
This was because both the 'Report' and 'Murder' actions had a prerequisite: comparing the number of 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' of both parties. Only by having more than the other party could one execute the killing action.
In other words, the more 'Dislikes' a person had, the more initiative they had.
They could kill whomever they wanted, while others trying to kill them would be completely ineffective.
Just then, a new broadcast message appeared on the big screen.
[Lin Sizi from Community 17 has broadcast a piece of data to all players.]
[In the last round of meetings, the percentage of players who actively sent meeting invitations to players with more likes than themselves was: '15%'.]
Zheng Jie was stunned for a moment, "Huh? What does this mean."
He was very puzzled, as the 15% figure didn't seem to reveal much extra information.
But since it was a piece of data sent by Lin Sizi, Zheng Jie felt it must have some deeper meaning, so he spent some more time thinking about it.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.
"If the data itself doesn't have extra information, doesn't that mean the information is hidden in how the data was filtered?
"The specific number of people who did this isn't important, but the act itself is important!
"In other words, Brother Lin is reminding us that actively meeting with players who have more likes than ourselves can better ensure our safety and increase our survival probability!
"Yes, that's right, that's it!"
The more Zheng Jie thought about it, the more it made sense.
According to the game mechanics, the most dangerous players right now were those who had already accumulated 5 'Dislikes' and were full of resentment.
According to the game mechanics, since players with more likes often had fewer dislikes, matching with players who had more likes would be significantly safer.
Among the players he had already met, who had more likes?
Although he couldn't check, he could roughly guess that the later a player appeared in the talent show, the more likes they had.
Of course, matching with such players was not without risk, as they might also 'Report' him. But since 'Report' required three instances to cause death, it still had some room for error compared to 'Murder'.
Choose the lesser of two evils.
Zheng Jie's spirits lifted again. He hurried to the entrance of the meeting room corridor and, through the small screen, sent a meeting invitation to Zhou Rong from Community 12.
This was the safest meeting partner Zheng Jie could think of at the moment.