God's Imitator

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying furrowed her brow. She hadn’t expected ’Owl’s’ appetite to be much larger than she had imagined.

She and ’Sheep’ had originally considered using 50 Contract Vouchers from ’Hummingbird’ Luo Wei to buy off all the ‘Fool Players’. That way, the Sages could still take half of the final total prize pool internally.

The two small groups ’Sika Deer’ and ’Owl’ were more difficult to deal with, so giving them 20 vouchers each would be about right but ’Owl’ actually said he wanted 35 vouchers, which had completely exceeded the price range of the original plan.

However, Han Mengying wouldn’t compromise so easily. She naturally still had to try other methods.

”Fine, Mr. ’Owl’s’ appetite is indeed quite large, but I wonder if the others can resist temptation like you?”

Han Mengying looked toward the other ‘Fool Players’ gathered around ’Owl.’

”Anyone who brings their ’Fool Card’ to find me, I will immediately give them two Contract Vouchers worth a total of over 20,000, plus an additional 10,000 chips.

”You can secretly come find me in private, first come first served, no waiting after the opportunity passes.”

She looked at ’Gray Wolf,’ who seemed somewhat moved, and directly took out some chips and held them in her hand, ”How about it?”

But ’Gray Wolf’ looked at her and still silently retreated to the side.Seeing no one respond, ’Rabbit’ Han Mengying could only say, ”Anyone interested can come find me privately at any time. My offer remains valid long-term.”

She turned to leave.

’Owl’ said, ”If no one goes to find you, I hope you’ll bring some proper sincerity next time you come.

”First of all, we don’t agree to let ’Hummingbird’ become the final winner. She must be the person with the least remaining visa time among your ‘Sage Players’.

”You must provide at least three ‘Sage Player’ options who can become the final winner, and let us choose for ourselves.

”After making the selection, we’ll discuss the specific content of the ’Contract Vouchers.’ Moreover, our bottom line is 35 vouchers, not one less.

”Also, send someone else to negotiate next time. I don’t like people who play petty tricks.”

The time for the second round of Guess the Number was also approaching.

After watching ’Rabbit’ walk away, Lin Sizhi said to the others, ”Use up all the ‘Fool Cards’ in your hands. This time we’re guessing ’15.’”

Naturally, no one had any questions about this answer.

’Woodpecker’ Zheng Jie did have another question he wanted to ask, ”I can also create ’Contract Vouchers,’ so why don’t we do it ourselves?”

’Owl’ Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”That’s an alternative, but not the optimal plan.

”The group that creates Contract Vouchers isn’t necessarily the group that gains the most benefits.

”Moreover, if we let ’Rabbit’s’ side create the Contract Vouchers, our cooperation with ’Sika Deer’ will be stable. If we create the Contract Vouchers, ’Sika Deer,’ as the wavering party, will actually have more initiative, which isn’t cost-effective.

”Of course, there are other reasons besides this.

”But I still need some time to verify them.”

’Woodpecker’ Zheng Jie and ’Peacock’ Qin Yao each nodded. Although they didn’t quite understand, it felt like it should be a very solid approach.

’Owl’ Lin Sizhi added, ”In a bit, I may need you to cooperate in bringing someone into the community.”

’Peacock’ Qin Yao was somewhat surprised, ”Huh? Have you already found a suitable candidate? Even though everyone is wearing masks, can you tell if they’re reliable?”

’Owl’ Lin Sizhi nodded, ”I think they should be a good choice, but I still need to confirm some details.

”Of course, it also depends on whether the other party is willing.”

...

A broadcast sounded in the hall.

[The correct answer for the second round of ’Guess the Number’ game is: ’13.’]

[Among the 50% of players with larger deviations from the standard answer, the 5 people with the lowest chips have been eliminated.]

[Everyone can check the specific list of eliminated players through the voting machine next to the lounge.]

[Please submit chips promptly to repay debts, otherwise at the end of the game, double visa time will be forcibly deducted.]

[For players eliminated in the next round of ’Guess the Number’ activity, the debt will increase to 40,000 points.]

More players let out wails. The continuous increase in debt also made the elimination in ’Guess the Number’ increasingly brutal.

At the same time, more players chose to pay off their debts in the previous round of the game and withdraw from the ’Guess the Number’ activity.

On the ‘Sage Players’’ side, ’Sheep’ and ’Rabbit’ Han Mengying and others had roughly guessed this number correctly, but their expressions remained grave.

This number wasn’t actually difficult to guess, because in this round, both ’Sika Deer’ and ’Owl’ would inevitably choose to use up the ‘Fool Cards’ in their hands.

The result of the first round of Guess the Number, minus about 60, would roughly be the correct answer.

The results of these two rounds were actually ’Sika Deer’ and ’Owl’ demonstrating the cohesion and execution of their small groups, telling all players:

Within the small teams, however many of the 30 ‘Fool Cards’ they wanted to destroy, they would destroy. All ‘Fool Players’ would execute their decisions.

Starting from the next round of the game, this number wouldn’t be so easy to predict.

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying looked at ’Sheep’, ”How’s the situation on your end? What card set does ’Sika Deer’ have? What’s the asking price?”

’Sheep’ replied, ”’Fool Card,’ asking price 35 vouchers.”

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying said somewhat gravely, ”’Sika Deer’ also has a Fool Card. That’s good news. But why do they both want 35 vouchers? Could these two have already communicated with each other?”

’Sheep’ considered for a moment, ”That possibility can’t be ruled out. But it’s also possible that they’re both clever people, and this result was reverse-calculated from the distribution of benefits from the 100 vouchers.

”But in any case, 35 vouchers is the result of their precise calculations. Most likely they won’t budge.

”If we want to buy these people off, we must offer this many vouchers. Otherwise, we can’t possibly enter the final vote of ’Guess the Number,’ and can only pay off debts as soon as possible and give up.

”At that time, they should go cooperate with the remaining independent Sages.

”The possibility that ’they’ve already prepared their own Sage’ can’t be ruled out either.

”We have no way to prevent this. Although there are only ten ‘Sage Players’, trying to unite them all is much harder than uniting a dozen or so ‘Fool Players’. It’s almost impossible to achieve.”

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying could only sigh silently. That was indeed the logic.

’Rabbit’ Han Mengying and ’Sheep’ had already tried using the prisoner’s dilemma method to break up the small groups of ’Owl’ and ’Sika Deer.’

But so far, not a single ‘Fool Player’ belonging to these two small groups had proactively come to them.

This meant that the cohesion of both small groups was extremely strong. They could be said to be solid as iron, impossible to pry apart.

On ’Owl’ Lin Sizhi’s side, it was because he had deliberately screened through oxygen consumption and then established sufficient trust in subsequent games.

As for ’Sika Deer,’ it was because there were enough players who entered from the same community.

Of course, ’Rabbit’ Han Mengying found it difficult to fully figure out the ins and outs here. She only knew that from the results, using the prisoner’s dilemma to poach people was completely unworkable.

If they continued to maintain the current offer, at most they could only gather some independent players who were already at their wit’s end.

With the two small groups unmoved, at least 60 ‘Fool Cards’’ destinations couldn’t be determined, which meant they absolutely couldn’t ensure persisting until the final round of ’Guess the Number.’