Zheng Jie grew even more anxious.
"What on earth is Lawyer Lin thinking? Looking up all this data, he must have almost used up all his 'Likes', right?
"It looks like he's searching for someone. Is he looking for the culprit who incited players to kill each other?
"But so many people have made broadcasts. How is this any different from finding a needle in a haystack?
"Could the person he's looking for be Gao Jialiang and Fang Wencong from Community 1? Otherwise, why did he look up three pieces of information on Gao Jialiang?
"But this doesn't reveal anything.
"Even if it really is Gao Jialiang or Fang Wencong, what then? We most likely can't kill those two anyway.
"Those two must have already found a fixed matching partner in the game through some method.
"And once such a fixed pairing occurs, no one else can be matched with them. Even with 'Likes' or 'Dislikes', it's impossible to kill them.
"In the final round, they can just kill their fixed partner to earn visa time. Isn't this an unbeatable situation?"
Zheng Jie scratched his head in frustration. He felt that with his level of intelligence, he was no longer qualified to analyze the current situation.
He could only do his best to keep himself alive.
[Player, please enter the meeting room immediately. Exceeding the time limit will result in an instant death penalty.]
Zheng Jie opened the door and quickly walked through the corridor towards the meeting room.
...
"Stop! Stay right there!
"My hand is on the murder button. One more step and I'll kill you."
The other person was startled by Zheng Jie's voice the moment they entered the room.
It was a woman he hadn't seen before, but it didn't matter to Zheng Jie. Whether he knew them or not, man or woman, he couldn't trust anyone now.
"Face the wall with your back to me, hands on your head.
"I don't want to kill you. As long as you wait quietly for ten minutes, we'll both be fine."
Zheng Jie lowered his voice, making himself sound fierce and dangerous.
In reality, his body was trembling slightly.
The woman quickly stood facing the corner, hands on her head, "I understand! I'll do as you say, don't be rash!"
Zheng Jie nodded, "Very good.
"Let me tell you, before the game ends, I will give you one 'Dislike'. You don't need to give me anything, and you cannot approach the control console."
The woman's panicked voice came from the other side of the room, "Okay, okay, as long as you don't kill me, I'll do whatever you say.
"What about the room fee?"
Zheng Jie: "Just let it deduct the money."
The woman hurriedly said, "I can pay for it all."
Zheng Jie shook his head, "No need! It's the same whether you pay for it all or we each get deducted 200 for timing out."
The woman didn't insist, "Okay, alright."
...
After the meeting ended, Zheng Jie returned to the lounge once more.
Seeing that the number of times he had been reported was still 2, unchanged, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
He had survived another round.
It proved that this method was indeed feasible.
According to the game mechanics, the 'Murder' action takes effect within 10 seconds. In other words, if a player has enough 'Dislikes' or 'Likes', they can counterattack within the 10 seconds of being 'Murdered', right before they die.
Although on the surface this seemed like a rule encouraging mutual destruction, on a practical level, it actually increased the strategic space for players.
If pressing the 'Murder' button caused the other person to die instantly, then it would become a pure game of reaction speed, where whoever pressed it faster would survive.
There would be no room for mutual trust between players.
But leaving a full 10 seconds meant that if one party really pressed 'Murder', the other party would have ample time to counter-kill, which in turn made both sides more rational.
With Zheng Jie having already seized control of the 'Murder' button, as long as he didn't actually press it, the other party would most likely not risk provoking him. This way, both could leave safely.
And Zheng Jie could also use this opportunity to spend his 'Likes' and 'Dislikes', preventing too much visa time from being deducted when he left the game.
Giving 'Likes' to male players and 'Dislikes' to female players, relatively speaking, wouldn't cause too much harm to the current situation.
Zheng Jie felt his back was soaked in cold sweat, and his legs were a bit weak.
Such a bluff seemed simple, but it carried immense psychological pressure in practice, more exhausting than a physical fight.
However, just as Zheng Jie sat down, he saw three more names on the leaderboard being slowly crossed out by red lines.
1 from Community 9, 2 from Community 12, and judging by their names, they were all male.
35 players remaining alive.
Zheng Jie found it a bit difficult to breathe, and just then, a new broadcast appeared.
[Jiao Hongtao from Community 8 has broadcast a piece of data to all players.]
[Among the currently deceased players, the proportion of players who died from being reported by female players is: '60%'.]
It's finally starting.
Zheng Jie had already guessed it before. When those two female players died, it wasn't that the male players had no risk of death, but simply that many hadn't accumulated three reports yet.
Now, 6 hours had passed in the game, and after the update to the killing rules, 6 meetings had already taken place.
Deaths caused by 'Reporting' were beginning to appear in clusters.
This data was devastating for those male players who had already been reported and also had enough 'Dislikes'.
Actually, if they adopted Zheng Jie's 'bluff' strategy, they could effectively increase their survival rate.
But the problem was, players couldn't communicate. Even if such a strategy existed, it couldn't be shared.
As for broadcasts, they could only broadcast proportional data, nothing else.
Lawyer Lin's data did manage to alert Zheng Jie, but that was because they both belonged to Community 17 and had a certain level of mutual trust and understanding.
Other players, as long as they hadn't heard of the concept of "bluffing" beforehand, or were a bit slow on the uptake, wouldn't understand it at all.
Of course, if one absolutely had to inform other male players of this 'deterrence' method, there were two ways, though they were rather difficult.
The first way was to inform the player you meet after a random match, and then have them pass it on to other players, slowly spreading the information this way.
But the problem was, the player you meet might not help pass it on, and the efficiency was too low. There simply wasn't enough time.
The second way was the talent show, to inform all players on the talent show stage.
But the problem was, the talent shows in this game started from the 2nd hour, with 3 shows per hour, for a total of only 21 shows.
With 2 people per show, the vast majority of players could only get on stage once.
And Zheng Jie had already been on stage, so it was unlikely he would be chosen again.
Among the remaining players, those who would participate in the talent show could only be the ones with a relatively high number of likes.
In Community 17, that would be Lin Sizhi and Yang Yuting.
They both received many likes at the very beginning, so they still hadn't participated in a talent show yet.
"All I can hope for now is that when Brother Lin is on the talent show, he can spread this method as much as possible and save more people..."
...
...
Soon, the last meeting of the 6th hour ended.
Zheng Jie watched the other person walk out of the meeting room and let out a long sigh.
Next, as long as he didn't run into a lunatic, he would most likely be safe until the final meeting.
Returning to the lounge, Zheng Jie sat back down in his seat with mixed feelings. There were still two hours left until the end of the game, with 6 meetings remaining.
He glanced at the big screen, and his heart sank again.
Another three names were crossed out.
[Community 1 - Fang Wencong]
[Community 9 - Xiao Zhiyu]
[Community 12 - Zhao Duo]
Not long after.
[Zhang Shichao from Community 9 has broadcast a piece of data to all players.]
[Among all male players, the proportion who have already been 'Reported' is: '65%'.]