After briefly reassuring all the players in front of the screen, the young man with the round-rimmed glasses began to sing.
It was a soothing and melodious song, and his singing skills were quite good, making even Zheng Jie involuntarily give him an 'Interesting' vote.
"Good, it seems there are still many rational players."
This put Zheng Jie slightly at ease.
Performer No. 2 was a girl who looked like she still had tear stains on her face. While waiting for the young man to finish his performance, her body could be seen trembling slightly.
Zheng Jie noticed a small wet patch on her chest as well, unsure if it was from crying too much or for some other reason.
[Community 12 - Zhao Duo]
Zheng Jie was almost tempted to give her an 'Interesting' vote in advance.
However, the moment the microphone switched to Performer No. 2, a sentence came from the big screen that utterly shocked Zheng Jie.
"Don't believe him, everyone, he's lying!!"
Performer No. 2's cry, tinged with sobs, completely shattered the somewhat stable atmosphere that had just been established.
Zheng Jie was stunned too.
Lying? What did she mean by that?
Didn't this young man just tell everyone to stay calm and exercise restraint the whole time? He also said that the killers' resources weren't unlimited.
This was all the plain truth, where was the lie?
Zheng Jie's attention was completely drawn to the talent show on the big screen.
"Two players are already dead!
"They were both female players with a lot of 'Likes'! Is this a coincidence!
"What does this mean?
"Just as the sister I met with earlier said, many male players have already started to take action!
"As for Performer No. 1 just now, I don't know if you did it on purpose or by accident, but what you said will seriously mislead all female players!
"What do you mean 'the 'Dislikes' in the hands of the killers are limited'?
"The game is still ongoing, we are still having meetings, as long as male players exchange 'Dislikes' with each other, they can still steadily gain 3 'Dislikes' in the next three hours!
"If in the last one or two meetings, these male players who have saved up 5 'Dislikes' commit murder together, it will be enough to kill all the female players, leaving none behind!
"You're listening to his ulterior-motivated words now, staying restrained, staying rational, but no matter how you exchange 'Dislikes' from now on, you won't have as many 'Dislikes' as the male players!
"There will only be one final result, which is the death of all female players! All their visa time will be taken by the male players and copycat killers!
"Even if you've formed a fixed partnership, the other party can completely change their mind during the very last meeting!
"So there's only one thing you can do now, and that is to use the 'Accuse' mechanism to protect yourselves before enough male players have exchanged and collected 5 'Dislikes'!
"This is the only way to get out of this game alive!"
Zheng Jie's brow furrowed into a knot. He had just heard the beginning, and his hand had already subconsciously reached for the 'Boring' button.
"How could she do this!!"
Zheng Jie was furious, because this performer's actions were a blatant incitement of conflict. The harm from such a speech was far greater than killing someone in a meeting.
Because there was a cost for a player to kill. Whether it was consuming 6 'Likes' or 5 'Dislikes', it would be difficult to kill a second time in the short term.
But this performer's speech directly incited hatred among all players. If even a few players believed her, it would immediately lead to several more deaths.
Pressing 'Boring', as long as 20 votes were gathered, could immediately cut off the talent show performance.
But before pressing it, Zheng Jie hesitated for a moment, because according to the rules of Stage 2, cutting off a performance with 'Boring' votes was equivalent to directly killing the performer.
Zheng Jie wasn't fully mentally prepared to kill someone.
After struggling for a few seconds, he gritted his teeth and slapped the button.
"Whatever, my own life is in danger. How can I have the energy to care about all this other stuff!
"If other female players listen to her and want to accuse me, then she's effectively murdering me too. Why can't I fight back?"
However, after he pressed the 'Boring' button, nothing happened.
Even after Performer No. 2 finished speaking and her show ended, and the results appeared on the big screen, still nothing happened.
[Performer No. 1 received a total of 22 'Interesting' votes, gaining an additional 2 'Likes'.]
[Performer No. 2 received a total of 17 'Interesting' votes, gaining an additional 1 'Like'.]
Seeing this result, Zheng Jie's shoulders slumped.
He understood now. Even if he pressed the 'Boring' button, it was meaningless because there was no way to gather 20 votes.
The players who voted 'Interesting' couldn't, and definitely wouldn't, take the initiative to vote 'Boring'.
There were a total of 40 players in this game, 20 male and 20 female.
If all the male players voted 'Boring', they could certainly reach 20 votes, but that possibility was very low, because some among them would inevitably hesitate or not vote in time.
Judging from the 17 'Interesting' votes, it was even possible that some male players had voted 'Interesting' for Zhao Duo.
Because the two players who had died so far were both female, and including the performer herself who was currently on the show, the female players could at most cast 17 votes.
Among them, there must have been some female players who didn't agree or didn't want to vote 'Interesting', so the only explanation was that some male players had also voted 'Interesting'.
In any case, Zhao Duo had completely finished her series of inflammatory remarks, and had an irreversible impact on the entire game's progress.
After calming down, Zheng Jie realized that from the perspective of the female players, her words were truly devastating and extremely inflammatory.
By now, almost all players understood the basic rules of the game.
According to the matching mechanism, once every three or four matches would be a same-sex pairing.
Unlike matching with the opposite sex, which could easily lead to friction, same-sex pairings were generally amicable and easy to negotiate.
And behaviors like exchanging 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' between same-sex players might be rare in the first 4 hours, but would increase significantly in the latter 4 hours.
This meant that it was indeed possible for male players to exchange 'Dislikes' on a large scale.
As long as these male players had three or four 'Dislikes' beforehand, it was very likely they could accumulate five in the subsequent 'Dislike' exchange sessions.
And the female players? They had many 'Likes', but 'Likes' couldn't offset 'Dislikes', nor could they prevent them from being killed.
They could kill through accusation, but an accusation had to be accumulated three times.
In other words, if the female players did nothing, then by the final meeting, the worst-case scenario would be:
The male players would first agree to exchange 'Likes' to ensure they get an extra 30,000 minutes of visa time, then press 'Murder' in the last second before the meeting ends, using up their final 5 'Dislikes'.
At this point, the female players would be completely powerless to resist. A single accusation as a counterattack would be trivial.
The only way was to act first, before most male players had exchanged and saved up 5 'Dislikes', by consuming 'Likes' to accumulate three accusations and kill the male players in advance.
But this was precisely the problem:
If this line of thinking was followed to its logical conclusion, then both sides would fall into a spiral of mutual harm:
Female players indiscriminately accuse male players, and male players, after being accused, indiscriminately murder female players.
The final result would be a river of blood.
Due to the game's special mechanism, players were matched in pairs. Even if everyone was restrained by their conscience in the early stages, by the final meeting, as long as a catastrophic collapse occurred, it was entirely possible for a large number of deaths to happen.
Was there a way to protect oneself using 'Likes' or 'Dislikes'?
It existed, but the conditions were very harsh, and the cost-effectiveness was extremely low.
To avoid being killed by male players, female players had to exchange 'Dislikes' among themselves as much as possible. As long as their 'Dislike' count was higher than the male player trying to kill them, they would be safe.
But the problem was, most female players had few 'Dislikes' to begin with. Even if they exchanged, they would still die if they encountered a male player with a lot of 'Dislikes'.
Moreover, whether exchanging 'Likes' or 'Dislikes', they could only choose one per meeting.
And same-sex meetings only happened once every three or four times.
Compared to exchanging 'Dislikes', exchanging 'Likes' was clearly more cost-effective for female players, because 2 'Likes' could be used for one 'Accusation'.
Although it wouldn't cause immediate death, if enough female players were accusing at the same time, the killing speed wouldn't necessarily be slow.
The same was true for male players. Although they could protect themselves by exchanging 'Likes', exchanging 'Dislikes' was clearly more cost-effective.
In short, up to this point.
The 'Dating Game' had turned into a 'Killing Competition'.