God's Imitator

Fu Yujun paused slightly, observed the expressions of the other players, and continued, ”This bidding rule clearly has a trap. If we don’t discuss and cooperate beforehand but each bid separately, in the end everyone will definitely suffer additional losses.

”Because it’s a blind auction, there’s no way to determine other players’ bids, and there’s no method to ’ensure you obtain a specific ranking.’ So if we all keep raising prices to compete for better car pens, in the end we’ll most likely all raise to the maximum price of 30,000.

”According to the game rules, the ownership of items will be determined by the duration of enduring electric shock.

”In the most extreme case, some players might spend large amounts of funds, endure electric shock, and still fail to obtain good items.

”Theoretically, it would be most advantageous if everyone only gave the minimum price of ’1 minute of visa time.’

”Although we’d still need to determine vehicle ownership through the duration of enduring electric shock, it would genuinely save everyone 30,000 minutes of visa time.

”But obviously, this strategy is too idealistic and cannot be executed.

”So here’s what I’m thinking:

”We fix the bids at 6 different tiers: 30,000, 24,000, 18,000, 12,000, 6,000, and 1.

”Those who want better vehicles will bid more funds. If you’re unwilling to spend this money bidding, you can at least save funds and later improve the item’s performance through ’modification.’”Because the game rules aren’t yet clear, some people obtaining better-performing items while others save funds are both acceptable outcomes for everyone.

”Of course, these numbers aren’t set in stone. After everyone determines their respective tiers, if you’re worried about being outbid by others, you can add a little extra on top of this.

”This way, any player wanting to compete for the tier above would have to spend at least 6,000 more in funds.

”Although we still can’t ensure everyone will definitely obtain their expected car pen, compared to everyone bidding blindly like headless flies, it can at least save everyone some funds overall.

”As the person proposing this plan, I can accept choosing my tier last.”

Everyone looked at each other.

Liu Mingxin from Community 13 nodded, ”Yes, this is a good plan.”

She was the youngest-looking among these players, well-dressed with distinguished bearing. Although her age could still be seen from the fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, she was clearly well-maintained.

Obviously, there was one key point to Fu Yujun’s proposed plan: from the currently known rules, there was no absolutely correct way to play.

Using funds to bid for better vehicles or using funds to modify inferior vehicles, these two approaches were difficult to judge in terms of clear advantages or disadvantages.

If all players bid 30,000, then everyone would spend money together and get shocked together. Except for the player who persisted through electric shock the longest, all other players would lose out.

The last place would lose the most.

But players couldn’t possibly know in advance what the electric shock intensity would be or how long they could persist.

So this was a very clear involution trap.

Fu Yujun’s plan was to allow players who obtained inferior vehicles to retain more funds. This distribution method was relatively acceptable to all players.

Wu Xiaomei from Community 4 was the first to speak, ”Then I’ll choose the highest at 30,000, the sports car.”

She wore glasses, was slightly plump, and appeared to be aged between Zhou Guifen and Liu Mingxin. Her gestures gave off a somewhat stubborn feeling.

Jiao Hongtao frowned, ”Wait, since when bids are the same, the person who can persist longest under electric shock wins, then of course those with better physical condition should have priority.

”I also want the 30,000 sports car.”

Wu Xiaomei had no intention of yielding, ”Doesn’t matter, then we’ll just compete on who persists longer.”

Fu Yujun was silent for a moment, then said, ”Generally speaking, females have poorer tolerance for electric current. Under the same conditions, females have more difficulty persisting.”

Wu Xiaomei still had no intention of yielding.

Jiao Hongtao considered for a moment and ultimately didn’t persist in competing for the 30,000 tier, choosing to yield, ”Fine, then I’ll choose the second tier, the 24,000 sedan.”

Zhou Guifen and Jiao Hongtao had met once during the previous ’Matchmaking Game,’ but they weren’t familiar with each other, so she couldn’t strike up a conversation at this time.

She hurriedly said, ”Then I’ll choose the third tier, 18,000, the SUV.”

Peng Hong chose the fourth tier’s 12,000 pickup truck.

Compared to Fu Yujun, who appeared refined in appearance, his build was somewhat portly with an obvious beer belly, and he naturally spoke with a bit of an accent.

Liu Mingxin chose the fifth tier’s 6,000 small cargo truck.

As the plan’s proposer, Fu Yujun chose the lowest tier, the van.

Everyone said nothing more, just waiting for the bidding to officially begin.

Although the different tiers and vehicle ownership had been roughly determined, when actually bidding, they might not completely adhere to it.

Players in higher tiers and players in lower tiers could both potentially change their bids from the current prices.

For instance, Liu Mingxin was originally set to bid 6,000 minutes of visa time, but she might only bid 2 minutes of visa time.

If Fu Yujun still bid 1 minute of visa time, Liu Mingxin could still obtain the 5th tier small cargo truck but save 5,998 minutes of visa time compared to the original bid.

But Fu Yujun might also think of this. If he bid 3 minutes of visa time, the two people’s situations would completely reverse.

Therefore, this plan could only constrain all players’ bids to a certain extent but had no binding force. Players could still freely change their bids.

But it was still much better than the initial completely self-interested bidding.

The 5-minute countdown quickly ended, and the bidding officially began.

But at the same time, new information appeared on the large screen.

[Now announcing the team pairings between ’outer field players’ and ’inner field players.’]

[Community 4, Wu Xiaomei, Community 12, Chen Ran]

[Community 8, Jiao Hongtao, Community 2, Jiao Hai]

[Community 10, Fu Yujun, Community 17, Fu Chen]

[Community 11, Peng Hong, Community 9, Peng Xinyuan]

[Community 13, Liu Mingxin, Community 6, Liu Jie]

[Community 17, Zhou Guifen, Community 5, Shen Xing]

[Please reconsider your bidding strategies and make your final decisions.]

[Bidding officially begins.]

The large screen showed footage of the inner field players. Six players including Fu Chen were each pulling on chains, clearly having become somewhat strained.

Wu Xiaomei visibly panicked, but after brief consideration, she still tried to tell the other players, ”Calm down. No matter who the players in the hidden venue are, it doesn’t change our strategy, does it?

”Even if the items are slightly inferior, the saved funds can still be used for modifications.”

Peng Hong’s expression wasn’t good, ”Are you treating us like idiots by saying this now? If you really think it’s the same, then let’s switch.”

Wu Xiaomei’s tone suddenly rose, ”Why should we! We already agreed!”

Peng Hong couldn’t be bothered with her. He just approached his control panel with a stern face, preparing to input numbers to bid.

Fu Yujun looked at Fu Chen on the screen with a complex expression.

Obviously, the God’s Imitator who designed this game had played a somewhat cruel joke on all of them.

Fu Yujun’s strategy was indeed very good, but it was destined to be impossible to implement in this game.

The bidding strategy was forced back to square one.