God's Imitator

Gao Jialiang was stunned, ”If I really knew the relevant professional knowledge, I could also deliberately say a wrong conclusion to deceive you. Wouldn’t that success rate be even higher?”

Xu Zhao chuckled, ”Of course it’s because the previous question set such a good precedent. If you really said a bunch of professional knowledge, we could instead obtain additional information through your expression and details.

”But by pretending you completely don’t know, we can’t obtain any information. In a situation where we can’t see any difference among the three options, we’d be more likely to choose the answer you advocated.

”From a ’deception’ perspective, this is obviously a more sophisticated method.”

Gao Jialiang spread his hands, ”You’re purely suffering from persecution complex.

”I really haven’t studied any linguistics. Believe it or not.”

Xu Zhao stopped dwelling on it. He looked at the other players, ”Fine, regardless of whether the player representative deceived us or not, we really need to take a longer view.

”If we keep playing like this, when will we be able to figure out the specific reward and punishment standards?

”This is still only the first phase of the game. If we still can’t figure out the specific reward and punishment rules by the fifth question, then when we reach the second phase, our room might fall into a huge disadvantage.

”At that point we’ll all suffer losses together.”No matter what, let’s at least successfully cooperate once, okay?”

Cai Zhiyuan considered for a moment and suggested, ”Yes, I agree.

”The correct answers for the first two questions were C and B. If we still can’t see an obvious correct answer for the next question, let’s all choose A.”

The others looked at him with expressions full of doubt, but ultimately each nodded, ”Fine.”

...

The free discussion time ended, and the third question appeared on the large screen.

[The core difference between Ricardo’s and Adam Smith’s economic thought lies in ( )]

[A. Whether to acknowledge the ”invisible hand”]

[B. The definition of the ”source of value”]

[C. Whether to advocate laissez-faire policies]

With a ”click”, the mechanism on Yang Hui from Community 8’s face opened. This time it was her turn to serve as the ’player representative’.

Cai Zhiyuan knew very clearly that her profession was actuary. She could 100% answer this question correctly.

And this made Xu Zhao’s gaze toward Gao Jialiang even more unfriendly.

After brief consideration, Yang Hui said, ”Without a doubt, this is a gimme question. Choose B.

”These are both liberal economists. Laissez-faire market economy policies are their common characteristic.

”Only option B can be considered a difference.

”Although a player previously proposed the suggestion to ’all choose option A together’, this question basically has no doubt.

”So, everyone should choose option B together.”

After Yang Hui finished speaking, 2 more minutes passed, and the results from the ’uninvolved players’ answers also came out.

[A. Whether to acknowledge the ”invisible hand”, 11.2%]

[B. The definition of the ”source of value”, 74.1%]

[C. Whether to advocate laissez-faire policies, 14.7%]

Obviously, this question was much simpler than the previous two, so most players could answer it.

Cai Zhiyuan clicked on option C and submitted his answer.

[The correct answer to this question is: B. The definition of the ”source of value”.]

[The net earnings of the five players in this room are: -17000 minutes of visa time.]

[The question setter will receive 17000 minutes of visa time earnings.]

On Cai Zhiyuan’s screen, his earnings for this round of the game were also displayed: 3000 minutes of visa time.

This time the light effects changed to red, green, gray.

Everyone’s facial mechanisms unlocked again. This time, no one spoke first.

Gao Jialiang’s expression was somewhat incredulous. He tried thinking it through himself, but didn’t seem to be able to figure out the answer for the moment.

”Why... was more visa time deducted instead...

”The answer to the third question was clearly very certain.”

The expressions of the other players also all looked somewhat defeated, though it was unclear whether this was real or an act.

But in any case, the current situation indeed warranted feeling defeated.

After finishing three questions, not only had the five people failed to achieve cooperation even once, but the visa time deducted kept increasing.

Most players probably also hadn’t figured out the specific reward and punishment rules at all.

Or perhaps, some people had already guessed, but they deliberately weren’t saying.

...

In everyone’s silence, the 5-minute countdown passed second by second.

After some thought, Yang Hui sighed, ”This can’t continue. Everyone stop pretending. You should have all noticed, right? Choosing the correct answer doesn’t ensure you’ll definitely have positive earnings.

”We can now confirm that whether the chosen answer is the majority or minority must also be one of the reward and punishment conditions.

”Moreover, the punishment for choosing the majority answer is greater than the reward for choosing the correct answer.

”It’s precisely because of this that our total earnings have always been negative.

”Players who realized this deliberately didn’t say anything, wanting to exploit this information gap and keep choosing minority answers to obtain stable earnings.

”But in this question, I’m guessing two players who wanted to deliberately choose wrong answers to become the minority collided with each other, causing the answers to be distributed in a 2-2-1 structure, which instead resulted in the biggest loss so far.”

Gao Jialiang was somewhat puzzled, ”Then why would you say it? Wouldn’t it be better to continue maintaining this information gap?”

Yang Hui shook her head, ”There should now be three players who clearly know this. If I don’t say it, the situation will only become more chaotic.

”I also have no way to profit from this information gap, because there’s still a high probability I’ll collide with other players who also want to choose the minority option.

”Moreover, if I don’t say it, by the time everyone gradually realizes this, it will be even harder for us to achieve cooperation.

”If I lay my cards on the table now, after everyone knows this rule, the situation will instead become fair again.”

Xu Zhao said somewhat irritably, ”What’s the use? We already have no foundation for cooperation whatsoever.

”There’s clearly not a single honest person in this room, not a single person willing to cooperate. Each and every one of you has great acting skills and lots of tricks. Being assigned to this room, I’m truly out of luck.”

The others ignored Xu Zhao’s complaints.

No one suggested that others choose a specific option anymore either, because they had all realized such suggestions had no meaning.

Cai Zhiyuan looked at the earnings he had obtained so far.

A total of 17000 minutes of visa time.

Most likely also the person with the highest earnings in this room.

Obviously, this wasn’t luck, but the result of careful calculation after grasping the information gap.

...

This game hid the specific reward and punishment mechanism. Obviously it was to make players guess other players’ options, and through their own earnings and the total earnings of the five players, deduce it themselves.

The earlier one guessed the possible reward and punishment mechanism, the more it could guide their subsequent answering strategy, thus further expanding their advantage.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t really a question-answering game, but rather a game of ’guessing the rules from the designer’s perspective and grasping the information gap’.