God's imitator

Chapter 368 Trap Game
Cai Zhiyuan paused slightly before continuing, "The ideas behind 'Spider Solitaire' and 'Jumping Platform' are somewhat similar."

"Spider Solitaire comes in several different difficulty levels. The lower difficulty levels are very simple, but the rewards are minimal."

"After practicing on a lower difficulty level, players will naturally want to try a higher difficulty level."

"But high difficulty inherently carries a high probability of failure, and at this point, players may attribute such failure to luck."

"With the constant cost of trial and error, copycats can easily earn enough time to satisfy their needs."

"The 'jumping platform' strategy is similar, but it's easier in the early stages and more difficult in the mid-to-late stages."

"The game is divided into many different chapters, and the difficulty of each chapter increases gradually, so that players will not feel that the difficulty of a certain chapter suddenly increases."

"Proceeding to the next chapter doubles the reward upon completion, making it easy for players to succumb to the temptation. However, failure halves the original reward, effectively limiting the production of chips."

"And after a player loses, they will most likely still believe that the rules are fair and that they were just unlucky."

"As for 'pinball,' it's even more insidious. If you only look at the single-player mode, it's mostly a luck-based game with a small amount of positive rewards."

"Although only a few marbles can fall directly into specific holes to earn chips, most marbles will fall into the chip pile, but it is still a positive return in the end."

"The biggest problem is that as the marbles accumulate, the stack of chips looks shaky, which encourages more players to play and keep throwing chips in."

"In the end, whether the stack of chips collapses or not, it doesn't make much difference to copycats."

"Because he is likely to make enough profit."

"For the players, only one lucky person can win these chips, and they also have to face the situation of the chips depreciating significantly. The other players can only helplessly become runners-up."

Therefore, these three games, as "trap games," all share similar characteristics:
"They did create some positive-sum game content, but the returns were so low that they weren't enough to cause serious inflation and were able to maintain the relative stability of the room's chip value."

"But unlike games like 'Big or Small' or 'Simple Poker,' they lure players in with an unrealistic expected return, tricking them into playing the game multiple times in the room."

"But by the time players realize this, it's often too late."

Everyone fell silent; clearly, Xu Tong had fallen into such a trap.

She tried all three games. "Spider Solitaire" took the shortest time, "Jumping Platform" took a little longer, and "Pinball" took the longest.

Clearly, towards the end of the game, a large number of players gathered in the "pinball" room, all hoping to win the final, massive stack of chips.

Yang Yuting felt very sad: "Xu Tong... I really don't know what to say, how could she still have such wishful thinking in this life-or-death game..."

Wang Yongxin shook his head silently: "There's nothing we can do. After all, she's in the thick of it, unlike us who are analyzing from a God's-eye view."

"In that kind of frenzied environment, it is actually very easy to be influenced by others, and it is very difficult to remain completely rational."

"Moreover, there is actually a certain coincidence involved."

"When the initial returns are lower than expected, players will face significant survival pressure because they know that even if they manage to collect enough cards, they will likely still die if the returns are at their lowest."

"At this point, players will be even more eager to make a big profit to turn things around. Many players in this lobby probably think the same way."

"What's worse is that there's a high probability that someone in this room is using 'equipment forging' to cut off the trading of invulnerability cards in the entire room, and even further exploiting the profits of other players."

"Due to a combination of factors, although Xu Tong managed to collect all the cards that would grant him immunity from death, he ultimately died because his returns were the lowest."

"The mortality rate in this room must be very high."

In fact, when everyone saw the profit figures on the big screen, they already realized that the safe profit threshold for this game was probably above 65000.

If it falls below this number, it will be very dangerous.

Although players can earn 5 minutes of visa time in the game to produce five cards that grant immunity from death, there may still be some unexpected events and losses in order to turn them into unique cards.

For example, if there are many duplicate cards of a certain type on the market, making it impossible to sell one of your cards, or if there are too few cards of a certain type, you may have to spend extra money to buy them, which may cause significant fluctuations in your profits.

Players who spend a lot of money to buy cards that grant immunity from death may avoid the first instant death penalty, but they cannot avoid the second one.

Xu Tong's death had a large element of luck.

The optimal solution in the hall she was in was obviously "equipment forging", but not being able to see the optimal solution did not mean she would definitely die.

Other weaker players in Community 17, such as Qin Yao, Zheng Jie, and Dai Yifan, also failed to find the optimal solution in the lobby. However, they still achieved good results, either because the game rooms in the lobby were relatively friendly or for some other reason.

Dai Yifan knew very well that he didn't have any special talents, and he would probably lose to other players in games that required thinking. So he simply played in rooms like "Pain Endurance" that purely tested physical ability, and he also gained some decent results.

Yang Yuting's expression was gloomy: "Now that I think about it, the longer I stay in this godforsaken place, the more I can understand Aunt Su's decision back then."

Even if you are lucky enough to survive a life-or-death game, there will always be another one, and the one after that.

"The arcade will constantly pull players in and then kill them in various ways."

"For a vulnerable person like Aunt Su, leaving sooner might be a relief."

Unlike previous death cases, Xu Tong had already safely passed the trial game, whether it was due to the copycat offender's leniency or luck, she made it through.

But even so, it doesn't mean we're safe.

In this place, everyone has a deeper understanding of the saying, "You never know whether tomorrow or an accident will come first."

After a moment of silence, Wang Yongxin asked, "Do you want to view the profiles and gameplay records of other players in this lobby?"

"I suspect that there are likely players from other communities in this game lobby who have taken a large amount of profits from other players through the 'Equipment Forging' room, which has led to the deaths of many players in this room."

“If we are willing to spend the time on the visa application, we can find out.”

　Asking for a monthly ticket~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)