Unlike the three new players, Qin Cheng, Huang Shengjie, and Lu Qi, Shen Bowen, as an experienced player, has also completely gone through the previous phase, so he is very clear about the meanings behind many of the rules.

The total amount of funds paid by a community can be viewed as the construction achievement of the community, which is basically linked to the community’s comprehensive strength. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Because the more funds are paid, on one hand, it means the players of that community are strong enough to stably earn visa time from the game; on the other hand, it also means the integration level of the community is higher, whether players donated voluntarily or were forced to, donating the funds further proves that everyone can work towards a common goal.

Furthermore, special items can also further enhance the overall strength of the community.

From Shen Bowen’s description, her previous community should have been a ’Middle-tier Community’, not too weak, at least after knowing the existence of items like the ’Immunity Coupon’, they could gather enough basic visa time to activate the item.

But it wasn’t strong enough either, the level of organization was mediocre, so it was disbanded and reorganized after the first phase ended.

At this time, Community 2 should qualify as a ’Main Community’.

The community retained its original 9 members, with Lu Bingjun and Ye Lin, these two core players, donating a lot of visa time, and the community fund was activated up to the 600,000 level.

Overall, it wasn’t as strong as the original Community 17, but this is normal because Community 17 was an exception.

Looking back, the overall strength of Community 17 was exceptionally strong during the first phase; the destructive power from internal strife was greater than any external threat.

So, being weaker than Community 17 is not something strange.

However, up until now, Lin Sizhi has realized that the current ecosystem of Community 2 actually has some doubts, and it is not a stable structure.

From aspects like community rules, fund amounts, and core game settings, some clues can be seen: it seems that something is missing.

New players like Huang Shengjie might not feel it deeply, but for Lin Sizhi, it’s almost a blatant issue.

However, he doesn’t plan to do anything for the time being. In this community, his primary role remains as an ’Observer’.

...

After the dinner gathering, everyone returned to their rooms.

Compared to Community 17’s original gatherings, Community 2’s dinner seemed to have more of a company team-building nature.

Lu Bingjun, as the community leader, gave more opening remarks and pleasantries, while players like Yao Yuan, Wen Wan, Zheng Chunhua, and Zhou Wanlin also stood up in a specific order to offer toasts and well-wishes.

Although there was no mandatory requirement, many players still ended up drinking a few more glasses under the atmosphere.

Lin Sizhi politely expressed that he does not drink, and the others didn’t say much about it.

The other new member who didn’t drink was the medical student Qin Cheng.

Other players drank to varying degrees, including another new player, Lu Qi, who felt obliged to drink two small glasses of sweet fruit wine, which quickly reddened her cheeks.

The one who drank the most was probably Huang Shengjie. He seemed very satisfied with the food and drinks of this gathering, indulged heartily, and blended in well.

After everyone had their fill, they chatted a bit more before dispersing to rest.

Players scattered into the lobby, outdoor areas, and some directly returned to their rooms to rest.

...

Lin Sizhi returned to his room, opened his computer, and found new messages appearing.

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[Welcome to the second phase of the Walkway.]

[Now, the Walkway issues a new game design invitation to all Imitators, with this theme being ’Pain’.]

[The game types are limited to ’Allocation-based’, ’Selection-based’, and ’Elimination-based’.]

[This game invitation will be obtained by competitive bidding among all Imitators in the New World during the current phase, and upon ’approval’, the plan that ’offers the most visa time’ will be selected.]

[The deadline is 8 PM three days later, and you have 72 hours to complete the game design.]

[All players will be forced to participate.]

Lin Sizhi pondered, realizing that this game invitation obviously concealed certain information.

After considering several possible guesses, he opened the drawer and took out the game planning book for this round.

The item list restrictions are quite loose, almost as if there are no restrictions.

After all, this game invitation is to be ’obtained through bidding’, and there should be no shortage of Imitators with tens of thousands of minutes of visa time. After spending such a large amount of visa time, the rules of the Walkway will inevitably be relaxed.

However, within the item list, there is one piece of information worth noting.

[6. Pain relievers of different compositions and effects: up to 5 types.]

Lin Sizhi considered for a moment, put the planning book aside, and intended to think it over and start designing the next day.

After all, there is still 72 hours, plenty of time.

...

In the early morning.

In room 14, Huang Shengjie awoke from a nightmare.

He drank a lot at the evening dinner, but after all, he was young with a good tolerance and fitness, so he quickly fell into a stable sleep after returning to his room.

But in the midst of his hazy sleep, Huang Shengjie suddenly felt a surge of intense pain!

This intense pain was originally just in his head, like a drill brutally boring into his brain from the back of his head, scrambling his brain matter everywhere.

But quickly, the intense pain spread rapidly, to his spine, heart, back, and it felt like every bone in his body was shattered and ground to dust, every pore seemed to be pierced by thick steel needles!

Huang Shengjie couldn’t help but let out a scream and almost jumped straight out of the bed, tumbling in agony on the ground.

His forehead hit the edge of the bedside table, but he was completely unaware in the midst of the intense pain.

Huang Shengjie couldn’t figure out what was going on, or rather the severe pain completely occupied his brain, leaving him unable to think about anything, only relying on instinct to fight this extreme pain.

Huang Shengjie couldn’t tell how long the severe pain lasted. By the time he came to his senses, his pajamas were completely soaked, like he had just been fished out of a pool.

The room was also in complete disarray.

Huang Shengjie slumped by the bedside, gasping heavily, and it was a long time before he finally regained his composure.

Then, he suddenly felt a surge in his stomach, stumbling toward the bathroom to vomit into the toilet.

After a long while, Huang Shengjie pressed the flush button on the toilet, washed his face with cold water at the sink, and looked at himself in the mirror.

Only now did he finally regain his senses.

The spot on his forehead where he collided already had a noticeable bruise, but this minor injury was no longer important to him.

"What on earth is going on, what the hell is happening..."