God's imitator

Chapter 304 The Role of Rules

Qian Li was somewhat annoyed: "This game's design is flawed!"

"Does this mean that two players in different rooms must be tested on question 4, one against their conscience and the other against their conscience, and then share the information to determine the truth?"
"These conditions are far too harsh! I can't communicate with Gao Jialiang, so how can I be sure whether he will test my conscience or not?"
"No, wait, it doesn't seem like that either."

"Actually, it could also be determined by the total reward of question 4, but I overlooked that..."

In fact, even if players choose the option that goes against their conscience in question 4, they can still realize that there is no reward for choosing the option that doesn't go against their conscience.

Qian Li suddenly realized that the total profit of the five players in the room during question 4 was actually much lower than expected.

She didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

After the first three questions, many players have realized that "minority options have extra rewards," so even though the options for the fourth question are very clear, some players will deliberately choose the minority option.

When players with this idea collide on the same option, it may become the majority option, causing additional losses.

Even if the total revenue is negative, it is difficult to determine whether it is because too many players triggered the penalty against their conscience, or because players chose the majority option, causing a collision.

Qian Li's calculation ability was limited, and she couldn't guess the other players' choices, so she didn't think about it more deeply.

But looking back now, I suddenly realize that the clause "the total reward for the fourth question is lower than expected" was already a reminder to players that "there is no extra reward if you don't act against your conscience."

It's just that there are too many distractions, so the average player might not realize it.

This is the difference between Qian Li and players like Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Weidong.

A small oversight can create a fatal information gap, leading to completely different judgments from players about the game.

At this moment, Qian Li finally understood why the 15th and 17th communities had agreed so readily not to take over the '4-person room' from the owner.

They are certainly not working with Community 1.

In fact, both Cai Zhiyuan and Wang Weidong realized that the "4-person room" was problematic and could not possibly be used to run a shady business.

You can throw any free agent in and make sure they get enough benefits.

Therefore, they are eager for Community 1 to become the host of the "4-person room" and fall into this trap willingly, so that they can take advantage of the situation.

Community 15 originally planned to bring in a "free agent" at the end, but Community 17 beat them to it.

There is no point in bringing in another free agent after there is already one, because they will automatically lose their free agent status. Therefore, the 15th community naturally gave up.

……

New questions have appeared on the big screen.

Since Zheng Jie did not win consecutively, this question was set by another female player from Community 1.

What is the surname of Player #1 in Community #1?

[A. Liu]

【B. Zhang】

【C. Li】

Clearly, this female player also realized the seriousness of the problem, so she created a question that only players in the first community knew the correct answer to try it out.

But Qian Li knew very well that such a question was meaningless.

She could only submit her answer as late as possible, taking up more time.

The correct answer to this question is: 'B. Zhang'.

The net gain for the three players in this room is 26000 minutes of visa time.

The person who set the questions will compensate you with 26000 minutes of visa processing time.

[Players are voting on whether to change the question setter.]

The question setter will be changed.

Clearly, even though only the two respondents from Community 1 were able to answer this question correctly, Zheng Jie still didn't lose out.

This means he will automatically become a "minority answer" and will also receive additional benefits.

He earned 6000 minutes of visa time from this question, which isn't a lot, but it's still a positive gain.

……

It was Qian Li's turn to set the questions.

What are your distinctive physical characteristics?

A. I'm very handsome.

B. I have long hair.

C. I'm not very handsome.

This question isn't considered a violation, because it only requires that the question has a unique correct answer for each player, a problem that has already appeared in the first stage. Therefore, this kind of "carrot hole" problem, which targets three players separately, although it essentially forces three people to choose different options, is not considered a violation.

The other two players were clearly also deliberately stalling, and after another five minutes of answering time, the correct answer was announced.

The correct answer to this question is: Choose the option that best reflects your physical appearance.

The net gain for the three players in this room is 12000 minutes of visa time.

The person who set the questions will compensate you with 12000 minutes of visa processing time.

[Players are voting on whether to change the question setter.]

The question setter will be changed.

For Qian Li, this was already a pretty good result.

In a 4-player room, there is a special case where all three players choose different options, resulting in a 1:1:1 ratio. In this case, neither the minority reward nor the majority penalty will be triggered.

Therefore, each of the three players only received 4000.

Although Qian Li, as the homeowner, lost a lot of visa time, 8000 of that was transferred within her own company, and she only lost 4000, which can be considered as mitigating the losses.

Moreover, Zheng Jie really couldn't choose any other options, as that would trigger a penalty for acting against his conscience and cause additional losses.

But that's about it.

Because questions that have already been asked cannot be asked again, and must be fundamentally different, questions like this one that ask you to find differences in physical characteristics can only be asked once.

Moreover, Zheng Jie was the third person to enter the room. Qian Li and the other female player had no impression of him, and Gao Jialiang was also unaware of Zheng Jie's information and details.

In this situation, if the question setter cannot accurately distinguish the three respondents in a 1:1:1 ratio, the question may be considered illegal.

For example, if Zheng Jie fits the descriptions of two options, or if he doesn't fit the descriptions of any of the three options, then the question will be considered illegal.

The person who sets the questions will have their visa time immediately deducted and the time will be divided equally among the respondents, which would actually cause a greater loss.

Therefore, unable to continue with the "carrot hole problem," they can only resort to the "information gap problem" or other problems, and are forced to bear more losses.

When answering these types of questions, Zheng Jie can choose freely. Whether he becomes the minority or happens to trigger the "unanimous" reward, he can gain extra benefits.

……

After a round of responses, all the players in the room began to realize that the '4-person room' had fallen into a vicious cycle.

In the rounds when Zheng Jie doesn't ask questions, he can answer any question he wants as a "free agent," and he will gain positive benefits no matter how he answers.

It's simply a matter of more or less.

As long as he's not foolish enough to deliberately choose an option against his conscience, that's fine.

When Zheng Jie himself was the one setting the questions, he could simply combine the characteristics of the players in the first community and create a question that required "one person to act against their will if everyone wanted to agree," thus losing a little visa time and avoiding winning the game again.

Occasionally making a mistake is okay; under the current rules, Zheng Jie has a high enough margin for error.

At the end of the game, Zheng Jie will definitely have a positive return, and will at least meet the minimum return requirement for a free agent.

These visa periods will be deducted from the three players in Community 1.

……

Qian Li was very anxious. She knew that perhaps only she could break this situation.

Because she is the owner of this room.

If a rule can be set to restrict Zheng Jie as much as possible, there might still be a chance to stop the losses or even turn the tide.

The problem is that she has absolutely no idea what specific rules to set to restrict it.

The homeowner's controllable screen displays the corresponding rules.

The host can set a rule that forces players answering questions in the room to continuously send a specific type of suggestion. However, this rule will only take effect if agreed upon by half of the players in the room.

Qian Li probably thought of several different types of rules.

The first method is to force the sending of a specific option, such as allowing only options A, B, or C to be sent.

The second method is to force the sending of either the first or the last received suggestion.

The third option is to force the sending of either the most or the least received suggestions.

The fourth type is to forcefully send suggestions that don't go against one's conscience, or other random and nonsensical suggestions.

The problem is that no matter which screening method is used, it is meaningless for the current situation of a '4-person room'.

This rule is primarily intended to 'restrain hostile players who are not free members of other communities within the room'.

(End of this chapter)