God's imitator

Chapter 340 Dividends
After listening to Lin Sizhi's analysis, Cheng Wen suddenly realized the truth.

His original idea was actually correct, but he overlooked one crucial aspect.

The game explicitly states that it has a function of "screening copycats," and many people have guessed that this screening is mostly done by "how much visa time copycats earn from players."

Cheng Wen initially only considered the first level:
Because there is competition among copycats, in order to earn visa time, the first thing to do is to ensure that players come in to play. A smart copycat will definitely set the commission and transaction tax very low.

Some extreme copycats might even completely abolish the commission and set the transaction tax at 10%, which would be a rather extreme scenario.

But there is actually a second layer:

This kind of involution is risky. What if everyone sets the transaction tax at 10%?
If you fail to attract players and the transaction tax rate drops, you won't earn enough visa time, and then it's all over.

Therefore, some copycats chose another path.

While maintaining the same revenue share and transaction tax, the system allows players to more consistently and easily obtain room-wide bonuses, and may even provide additional benefits.

The rules of the game also state that copycats may receive additional benefits.

Clearly, the copycats of "Minesweeper" are trying to attract players in this way.

According to Lin Sizhi's method, any player can reliably earn chips in the "Minesweeper at Sea" room.

There are 20 players in the lobby. If each player wins 10 times, there will be 200 games played. During this period, the commission or transaction tax generated will be considerable.

Furthermore, according to the game rules, playing more games will increase the "room bonus".

In addition, there is another advantage to doing this: if a copycat of "Minesweeper" encounters their own game, they can immediately use this "sure-win method" to withdraw their winnings.

However, judging from the current situation, this copycat has most likely been assigned to another hall.

That's why Lin Sizhi was able to take advantage of the situation.

Cheng Wen felt more and more that following Lin Sizhi into this room was absolutely the right choice, so he quickly clicked the screen faster to catch up with Lin Sizhi's pace as much as possible.

Soon, the two of them had each finished 10 games.

Each person received 3 chips in this room.

After a quick count, Lin Sizhi put everything into her pocket.

These chips look similar to regular chips, only slightly larger. Aside from different colors, shapes, and numbers, the biggest difference is that there is a small rectangular area in the center with the words "Minesweeping at Sea" written on it.

This means it's a special chip for "Minesweeper" and can only be used to play games or exchange for "room dividends" in this room; it cannot be used in other rooms.

Then, Lin Sizhi went to the chip exchange counter at the door of the room and waited patiently.

Cheng Wen checked the time; 27 minutes had passed without him realizing it. He would be able to start the first "room bonus" in a little while.

The two of them played 10 games each in the room. Although they tried to tap the screen as quickly as possible, each game still took more than two minutes.

Soon, a broadcast message began playing in the hall.

[In 3 minutes, the 'profit sharing' will take place in each room. Please be prepared.]

Players who were playing in other rooms heard the announcement and quickly got to work, with many arriving early at the chip exchange counter outside the room to wait.

Cheng Wen also quickly checked the detailed rules for room profit sharing.

[1. Every 30 minutes, the game room will distribute profits.]

2. The more games you play in a game room, the higher your share of the rewards. (Longer games will unlock more rewards.)

[3. Players will receive a share of the profits based on the ratio of their held chips to the total chips in the room.] [4. Important Note: Every 100 chips can only be redeemed for a maximum of 100 minutes of visa time; no more can be redeemed.]

The current room's bonus amount is: 42000 minutes of visa time.

The current chip exchange rate in this room is: Chips: Visa Time = 100:68

The rules for profit sharing are relatively clear, but there are some details worth noting.

Cheng Wen discovered that although the rules stated that the more games played, the higher the bonus would be, potentially ranging from 3 to 15, there seemed to be slight differences in the standards for each room.

Some rooms have a game that lasts 2 minutes, while others have a game that lasts 30 seconds. Therefore, the former will unlock a higher dividend per game.

This is a reasonable rule. Without this restriction, many copycats would design games with 10-second rounds, which would create complete chaos.

Cheng Wen quickly did a calculation in his mind.

There are currently 62000 chips in the "Minesweeper" room. Cheng Wen and Lin Sizhi each have 31000 chips, and the others have no chips.

The room's profit sharing amount is 42000 minutes of visa time, of which 2000 minutes of visa time were used by Lin Sizhi and Cheng Wen to purchase chips, and were also included in the room's profit sharing.

They played a total of 20 single-player games in the room, and this number can be used to roughly estimate the amount of bonuses activated in each game.

Cheng Wen thought for a moment: "20 games = 4 minutes of dividends, which means that each game can unlock an additional 2000 minutes of dividends?"

"Wait, not necessarily."

"The game rules say that the minimum profit sharing for a room is 3, or it may start from 3 and activate an additional 1. In that case, each game can unlock 500 minutes of profit sharing."

Cheng Wen wasn't quite sure which situation it was, but the latter was clearly more likely.

Because the profit sharing is based on a default of 3 to 15 minutes of visa time, this is clearly stated in the game rules.

Based on the exchange rate, Cheng Wen and Lin Sizhi can split these dividends equally, meaning each person will receive 21000 minutes of visa time.

Of course, according to the rules, Cheng Wen could also choose not to redeem it.

In that case, Lin Sizhi would still get 21000 minutes of visa time, Cheng Wen could keep his chips, and the remaining 21000 minutes of visa time in the room would continue to accumulate until the next dividend, calculated again according to 'total number of chips / total number of dividends'.

Thinking of this, Cheng Wen felt a little embarrassed.

"Sorry, if I hadn't played, wouldn't you have gotten all 30,000 minutes of visa time all to yourself? I think I made you lose 10,000 minutes..."

If Cheng Wen doesn't play, although the reduced number of games will prevent the game from increasing the profit-sharing cap, the minimum value for each room is still 3 minutes of visa time.

Lin Sizhi happens to have 31000 chips, which can be exchanged at a maximum ratio of 1:1, allowing him to keep all 3.

Cheng Wen also played the game. Although he increased his share of the bonus from 3 to 4, he earned the same amount of chips as Lin Sizhi, and thus took half of the bonus.

Lin Sizhi didn't care: "It doesn't matter, this is just an appetizer. We're partners now, aren't we?"

He chose to invest all his chips, exchanging them for 21000 minutes of visa time.

At the same time, two heavy physical cards popped out from under the chip exchange table with a "snap".

Lin Sizhi took a look. The two cards had simple designs, but different borders and colors. The embossed pattern in the center of the cards confirmed that one was a 'helmet' and the other was a 'boot'.

Each of them has a 20% chance of negating the instant death penalty.

(End of this chapter)