Zheng Jie scratched his head in frustration, "It's over, it's over, isn't this all over!!"
He hoped Lin Si'zhi would provide a new hint on the big screen, but unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Players like Zheng Jie were the most miserable in the game at this moment.
Because the particularly smart players had surely already figured out ways to protect themselves, forming fixed meeting partnerships with specific players from other communities.
For example, Lu Xinyi. Zheng Jie was very certain that she definitely wouldn't be troubled by this problem.
And those particularly foolish players either didn't realize the danger or already had a lot of 'Downvotes', so they weren't as anxious.
For a player like Zheng Jie, caught in the middle, there was only one feeling at this moment.
The sky was falling.
...
Another new round of meetings began. Zheng Jie walked into the meeting room, dejected.
This time, he was randomly matched with a very ordinary-looking girl, with faint tear stains still on her face.
She had no distinguishing features, neither pretty nor particularly ugly.
But Zheng Jie still had an impression of her, because he had seen her during the talent show before: this was the girl who said her "visa time was being deducted by over 1000 minutes per hour," successfully getting 3 'Upvotes' by playing the victim.
[Community 9 - Xue Qi].
"Hello."
It was clear she was very nervous.
Just like when he met that panicked auntie before, Zheng Jie raised his hands to show he meant no harm, then slowly pressed [I'll Pay].
"Relax, I'm not a bad person. See, my hands aren't on the buttons below.
"I'll pay the room fee first, okay?"
Xue Qi also pressed [You Pay] and sat down, her emotions seeming to calm down a bit.
"I know what you're worried about. Don't worry, I think most male players can maintain a bottom line and won't kill people without reason or indiscriminately.
"If it's okay, can we exchange 'Upvotes'?
"Don't worry, not 'Downvotes'. I have no intention of harming anyone."
Zheng Jie tried his best to make his tone sound as friendly as possible.
He also knew that this kind of exchange proposal was unlikely to be accepted, because for male and female players, 'Upvotes' were now as important as 'Downvotes'.
They could either be weapons to attack enemies or shields to defend against attacks. With both resources being very limited, it was inevitably safer to exchange with someone of the same gender.
But Zheng Jie still had to try.
After all, Upvotes could also be used for self-preservation and for sending broadcasts, so they were equally important to him.
Getting a 'Downvote' would be even better, but to avoid arousing the other person's suspicion, exchanging 'Upvotes' was safer.
Xue Qi kept her head down and didn't respond.
Zheng Jie couldn't say much more. He could only try to find topics to talk about every one or two minutes of awkward silence, doing his best to eliminate the other person's wariness.
Finally, after another bout of awkward silence, the meeting time was up.
Zheng Jie stood up, ready to leave.
"See, we're both safe, aren't we?
"Don't worry, I won't harm you.
"Looking at you, you probably haven't found a fixed partner for matching yet, right?
"If you trust me, we can keep matching from now on, get the 30,000 minutes of visa time together in the end, and then leave safely."
Zheng Jie didn't have high hopes, just making a simple final attempt.
But to his surprise, Xue Qi actually looked up, seemingly having made some kind of decision, "Okay, you seem like a good person. I'm willing to exchange 'Upvotes' with you.
"If I can confirm that I've received your 'Upvote', then I'll consider meeting with you from now on."
Zheng Jie's eyes lit up, "Really? Okay, I'll give you an Upvote right now.
"I've pressed it."
Zheng Jie knew the other person couldn't see what he specifically pressed, nor could they verify it, but he still slowed down his movements as much as possible to gain their trust.
Xue Qi also pressed a button, then waved at him, "See you then."
Zheng Jie quickly nodded, "Yeah, yeah, see you! Looking forward to our next meeting!"
...
Leaving the meeting room and entering the corridor, Zheng Jie let out a long sigh of relief.
Phew, that was close!
Although Zhou Rong had rejected his invitation before, it didn't matter now, because he had found a new partner, Xue Qi.
Blind dating is like that. It doesn't matter how many times you fail, as long as you succeed once.
The game had updated its rules in the second stage. Players of the same gender could no longer have stable meetings through invitations; they could only invite the opposite gender or get randomly matched.
But it was precisely because of this rule that female players like Xue Qi couldn't have fixed matches with other female players, which was why she entered the random matching pool and was met by him.
Now he could relax for the time being and consider how to help the other players in his community without any worries.
Zheng Jie returned to the waiting room, somewhat elated, and then saw a conspicuous notification message appear on the big screen.
[Current Accusation Count: 1]
[Please note! When you are accused 3 times, you will suffer an instant death penalty.]
...
Zheng Jie's hands and feet went cold, and his whole body froze on the spot.
Although he was very unwilling to believe it, at this point there was only one explanation: not only did Xue Qi not give him an Upvote, but she had instead pressed 'Accuse'.
And since Zheng Jie had given Xue Qi an Upvote, it meant that for this accusation, Zheng Jie himself had contributed 50% of the effort.
After the shock came an uncontrollable rage.
"How could she do this!
"Scamming me for money is one thing, but does she have to take my life too!
"No, I'm too stupid. I actually made the same mistake again..."
Speaking of being scammed for an Upvote, he had already been scammed once before when meeting with Lu Xinyi.
At that time, he had repeatedly warned himself not to trust others easily.
In the end, he let his guard down for a moment and fell into the same pit again, and this time the fall was even harder.
A terrifying thought flashed through Zheng Jie's mind.
Kill her!
We have no grudge, so why did she falsely accuse me? Why can't I kill a rotten person like that?
But after calming down a bit, Zheng Jie also knew he had no chance.
Because Xue Qi would absolutely never accept his meeting invitation again, and the probability of the two of them being matched together next was minuscule.
Zheng Jie sat dazedly in his seat until the talent show on the big screen ended.
[Performer No. 1 received a total of 11 'Interesting', earning an extra 1 'Upvote'.]
[Performer No. 2 received a total of 15 'Interesting', earning an extra 1 'Upvote'.]
Zheng Jie felt an increasing sense of dread.
Although no one died based on the talent show results, the change in the voting patterns made Zheng Jie realize that the opposition between male and female players was still intensifying.
These two performers, one male and one female, didn't perform any special talents, nor did they say anything highly inflammatory like before.
But they both steadily received over ten votes, not less than 10, and not more than 20.
There was a very frightening possibility behind this:
Players were starting to vote for talent show performers of the same gender without reason.
The reason was also very simple, because for every 10 'Interesting' votes cast in the talent show, they would also turn into an 'Upvote', becoming a weapon for the enemy.