God's Imitator

This machine was right next to the vending machine, with a very simple interface divided into two sections: [Basic Data Query] and [Special Data Query].

After clicking on the Basic Data Query interface, it looked like this:

[Community 17 - Zheng Jie]

[Current ’Thumbs-ups’ owned: *]

[Current ’Thumbs-downs’ owned: *]

[Current ’Likes’ received: *]

[Current ’Dislikes’ received: *]

’Thumbs-ups’ and ’Likes’ were different, with clear explanations on this machine:

The ’thumbs-ups’ and ’thumbs-downs’ automatically received each hour could only be used to operate the corresponding buttons in the meeting room to rate others, and couldn’t be used for other purposes.

Only the likes or dislikes that others gave to oneself might be related to certain unactivated game mechanisms.Zheng Jie’s first instinct was to check whether Lu Xinyi had actually given him a thumbs-up, or if she was really that bad, saying they’d exchange thumbs-ups but secretly giving him a thumbs-down instead.

However, the query interface only showed one sentence.

[Query results refresh once per hour.]

Zheng Jie felt somewhat deflated. He hadn’t expected this query function wasn’t real-time.

That meant he had to wait until after an hour, when all three meetings were completely finished, before he could check how many ‘Likes’ or ‘Dislikes’ he had actually received.

Zheng Jie then clicked on the [Special Data Query] page.

[Players can freely query all ’proportion’-related data within the game through voice commands.]

[Each query costs 1 ’Like.’ (First query is free)]

[Queried data can be broadcast on the big screen at any time. (Same data can be broadcast at most 2 times, with intervals greater than 10 minutes.)]

[After accumulating 5 queries and broadcasts, you can cut in line for a talent show and freely designate any player as your talent show opponent.]

[Note: Data related to individual player ’Like’ and ’Dislike’ number changes cannot be queried.]

Zheng Jie was stunned, ”What’s the use of this? It even costs ’Likes.’ Are the hard-earned ’Likes’ only useful for this? Querying data? Cutting in line for a second talent show seems somewhat useful, but the prerequisite is spending 5 likes to query data. The talent show definitely can’t earn back 5 likes, so it’s still a loss.”

He was somewhat puzzled and could only close the page, returning to the sofa in the rest area to think.

”No matter what, likes are definitely the most important resource in this game. The ’Final Selection Vote’ is also completed through mutual thumbs-ups. So does that mean giving thumbs-ups to people you like, thumbs-downs to people you dislike, and trying to perform well yourself to get likes from others? Is this a game that tests personal charisma? Considering there’s a ’Final Selection Vote’ at the end, this game is indeed very similar to real blind dating, meeting until you find the most trustworthy person to marry.”

...

During Zheng Jie’s internal struggle, the second meeting began.

He came to the meeting room. This time sitting across from him was a woman with exquisite makeup, though from her figure management and fine lines around her eyes, it was clear she was no longer young.

She wore a pair of large gold-rimmed glasses and was already sitting upright in her seat, arms crossed as she looked Zheng Jie up and down.

Looking at the nameplate: [Community 12 - Liu Lin].

Zheng Jie also sat down and said casually without thinking much, ”Let’s split the room fee Split?”

Liu Lin’s eyes widened in shock, her voice suddenly rising, ”What did you say? Split? How can you, a grown man, have the nerve?”

Zheng Jie was stunned for a moment, but then reacted and asked back, ”What does this have to do with gender? This isn’t a real blind date, and I’m not taking advantage of you in any way. It’s just a meeting. According to the game rules, isn’t it normal to split the room fee?”

Liu Lin questioned, ”Ah, so you do know the game rules? Then let me ask you, don’t the game rules also state that all male players can unconditionally receive 30,000 minutes of visa time after leaving the game! What about female players? Not only do we not get this visa time reward, but we also have visa time deducted over time! The game rules are already unfair. You’re going to get 30,000 minutes of visa time, but you want to split these 200 minutes of room fee with me? Do you hear yourself speaking like a human being?”

Liu Lin’s words really stumped Zheng Jie. Thinking it over, the game rules did seem to mention this.

Male players unconditionally receive 30,000 minutes of visa time after the game ends, while female players not only don’t get any, but also have visa time continuously randomly deducted.

As for exactly how much would be deducted, the game rules didn’t specify.

”Alright, then I’ll pay.”

Zheng Jie instinctively still felt somewhat reluctant, but seeing her attitude, if he refused he’d probably get a thumbs-down.

Although he could also give her a thumbs-down, but...

After thinking it over, he finally pressed the [I’ll Pay] button.

Liu Lin also pressed the [You Pay] button, ”You should have paid anyway!”

[Zheng Jie has been deducted 200 minutes of visa time.]

[Room usage fee has been paid in full. We wish you both a pleasant meeting!]

Zheng Jie sighed quietly. A pleasant meeting was unlikely. The atmosphere in the meeting room had been off from the start.

”So, shall we chat casually?” Zheng Jie wasn’t very happy, but still tried to continue according to normal procedure.

Liu Lin nodded, ”Fine.”

...

After this meeting ended, Zheng Jie felt somewhat dejected.

Throughout the entire time, he had been trying hard to find topics to discuss, but he wasn’t a particularly humorous or witty person, so her reactions were also cold. There were several awkward silences lasting over a minute.

If they had phones, they definitely would have been playing with their phones.

But without phones, these silences seemed even more awkward.

At the end, Zheng Jie was somewhat worried whether she might suggest they exchange thumbs-ups, since he had no thumbs-ups left.

But she apparently didn’t have this idea either. She didn’t even place her hands near the buttons and got up to leave.

Zheng Jie thought about it but didn’t feel it necessary to give her a thumbs-down over this. After all, you only get one thumbs-down per hour, and she wasn’t bad enough to warrant that.

So, nothing happened.

”Looking on the bright side, at least she didn’t give me a thumbs-down either.”

Although he couldn’t see what she specifically pressed, whether she pressed anything was easy to tell.

Returning to the rest room, Zheng Jie looked at the big screen. There were no new notifications, nor any talent show screens.

Because according to the game rules, the talent show would officially begin after 1 hour into the game, equivalent to after the third meeting.

Zheng Jie waited somewhat boredly on the sofa.

Just then, new information appeared on the big screen.

[Community 1’s Qian Li broadcasts data to all players.]

[As of current time, the proportion of players who actively brought items into the meeting room is: ’35%’.]

Zheng Jie was stunned, ”Huh?”

He hadn’t expected that someone would use the broadcast function during just the second meeting.

Although the first query was free, the second query would cost a ’Like.’ Didn’t they consider carefully before broadcasting?

Even free opportunities should be cherished, right?

Zheng Jie couldn’t understand, but after waiting a while, another broadcast appeared on the big screen.

[Community 3’s Lu Xinyi broadcasts data to all players.]

[As of current time, among all male players, the proportion of male players who have pressed the ’I’ll Pay’ button is: ’75%’.]

Zheng Jie stared at these two broadcasts on the big screen for a while, then suddenly had an epiphany.

”Ah? So this is how broadcasts are supposed to be used?”

These two pieces of data, one at 75% and one at 35%, appeared to be one high and one low, but actually had the same intent.

To put it crudely, they were urging male players to spend more gold.