Lu Bingjun lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said, "Hmm, what you said makes a lot of sense.

"However, I think we should refrain from modifying the community fund rules for the time being.

"The exact nature of the ’negative state’ is still unclear, and changing the community fund rules could trigger a series of unforeseen complex consequences.

"Let’s wait until the ’negative state’ is thoroughly clarified before we discuss it in detail and make a decision."

Ye Lin didn’t insist further, and the others didn’t express any opinions.

Lu Bingjun stood up: "Alright, let’s conclude this discussion for now!

"A new stage, a new beginning, we have new members joining us, and our community has grown stronger. While we will face unknown challenges, I believe Community 17 will surely be able to work together and thrive!

"We will have a gathering tonight.

"Wen Wan."

He looked to his left at a female player with delicate makeup and curly hair draped over her shoulders: "You will arrange this gathering as usual."

...

Leaving the long table, everyone got busy with their own tasks.

Player No. 2, Yao Yuan, didn’t speak during the previous meeting and didn’t stand out much. His profession was an ordinary company employee, and even in the New World, he still carried a faint air of ’office culture.’

He was the first to find Qin Cheng and Huang Shengjie, the two new players, to familiarize them with the community environment and understand the relevant rules.

Meanwhile, the other new player, Lu Qi, was taken under Ye Lin’s wing.

Wen Wan introduced herself as working in e-commerce, and it seemed clear that her role in the community was somewhat akin to a ’housekeeper,’ as she usually arranged the gatherings.

She found fitness coach Deng Xiao, Aunt Geng Yuxia, and administrative supervisor Zhou Wanlin to start arranging the evening gathering, including confirming the menu and purchasing the necessary supplies from the vending machine.

Due to the established division of labor within Community 17’s original team, Lin Sizhi and Shen Bowen, the ’outsiders’ from other communities, didn’t have much to contribute.

Lin Sizhi requested the community’s paper proposals from Lu Bingjun up to the present to review the community fund rules.

A moment later, Shen Bowen approached from the library area with a few books.

She noticed Lin Sizhi reading the community proposals and sat across from him, asking, "Can you let me see it after you’re done?"

Lin Sizhi nodded, passing over the sections he had finished reading.

Shen Bowen also carefully read it from beginning to end.

Community 17 had only one type of community fund, called the ’Community Development Fund.’

It had two different payment methods:

The first was mandatory, where each player had to unconditionally contribute 30% of the visa time acquired in the game to the fund;

The second was voluntary, allowing each player to contribute any excess visa time to the fund, with no limit on the amount.

Voluntarily contributing to the community fund didn’t offer any explicit additional benefits, but the precise numbers contributed by each player were recorded and ranked.

Contributed community funds were not free to withdraw.

Players could only take an ’interest-free loan’ of 30,000 minutes of visa time once in an ’emergency’ and must repay it within a month.

Furthermore, two rules were explicitly stated in the rules.

[1. In the event of conflicts and disagreements among players within the community, everyone must consider the ’player’s contribution ranking to the community fund’ to determine the final compromise outcome.]

[2. The community leader’s (limited to one person) community fund contribution will be counted as ’130%.’ (Only affects ranking, does not change the actual amount.)]

Lin Sizhi went to the vending machine to check the current amounts contributed to the community fund by all players and their rankings.

As the core of the game, Lu Bingjun and Ye Lin had contributed the most to the community fund.

Moreover, due to the rule ’leader counted as 130%,’ the amounts in the ranking were evidently categorized into three different tiers.

Lu Bingjun’s contribution was about 300,000, Ye Lin’s was about 200,000, while the others’ contributions hovered around several tens of thousands.

A few players contributed less than 30,000, probably because they have never contributed voluntarily and only included the mandatory contributions.

However, Lu Bingjun’s actual contribution should be about 240,000, and due to being the community leader, his amount was weighted to display as 300,000 in the rankings.

The community possessed ’Immunity Coupons,’ which would cool down in about two weeks, and the ’First Player Identity Card,’ but there was no ’rotation usage’ rule in the community rules, so it was directly held by Lu Bingjun.

Currently, the rewards activated by the community fund were approximately in the 600,000 bracket, not reaching 900,000 or higher, thus not activating the functions like the ’Immunity Coupon and First Player Identity Card cool-down reduction,’ ’Identity Card Fourth Privilege (gaining 2000 minutes of visa time per day),’ ’Discount Coupon,’ etc.

This was somewhat similar to the degree of community development Community 17 reached after the ’Simple Q&A.’

After reviewing the rules, Shen Bowen seemed contemplative: "When conflicts and disagreements arise among players within the community, the ’player’s contribution ranking to the community fund’ must be considered to determine the final compromise result?

"This rule seems a bit... "

Unable to find a better way to say it at first, after considering for a moment, she said: "At first glance, it seems like the rule categorically places players into hierarchies, determining that those who contribute more to the fund naturally have more say.

"But this rule isn’t mandatory; it’s only relied upon players in the community to voluntarily comply, expecting those who contribute less to retreat voluntarily.

"But what if the other party doesn’t retreat? This rule is then just a piece of scrap paper."

Lin Sizhi said, "As long as the rule is explicitly written, even if it doesn’t have exceptionally strong enforceability and constraint, it will still have some binding effect.

"Every community will explore the rules that best fit it, and these things aren’t static.

"In the previous community you were part of, to what extent were the items activated by the community fund?"

Shen Bowen thought for a moment and said, "Only the Immunity Coupon was activated.

"Most players in our community were very resistant to donating to the community, so there wasn’t much cooperation or community construction. Everyone was more like neighbors living under the same roof.

"And yours?"

Lin Sizhi replied honestly, "We donated a lot."

Shen Bowen asked again, "Did you surpass 600,000? Or 900,000?"

Lin Sizhi nodded, "Surpassed."

Shen Bowen showed a very surprised expression: "Then how did your community not retain the core team? Or were you just unlucky, unable to stay within the core team?"

Lin Sizhi smiled wryly, "There are always unexpected situations."

Shen Bowen didn’t ask further. She looked again at the current community’s proposal content and continued to frown, pondering.