Chapter 581: Chapter 580: Community Pharmaceuticals

Lin Sizhi shook his head: "Not that I foresaw this outcome from the start. It was just a choice between two options."

"Because the rules of the game were clear from the beginning, it’s a zero-sum game. As a patient, there’s only one way to gain stable benefits, and that’s by helping higher-status players deceive other patients."

"I didn’t want to do that."

"Once I was sure I could protect myself, the game became lengthy and boring. If I didn’t try to find the Imitator, there really wasn’t anything else to do."

Ye Lin pondered for a moment: "But if I were you, I would at least consider entering the lounge in the first three rounds to observe the specifics of other patient players."

"If so, maybe you would have been able to help Huang Shengjie from the start."

"My role was Sales, and I gave up searching when I confirmed that none of the players around me were from the same Community."

"Your role was VIP player, and you interacted with more players than I did, so you should have observed more before making a decision."

Lin Sizhi did not refute: "Yes, that’s true."

Shen Bowen frowned slightly, disagreeing: "I think everyone has different strategies regarding this matter."

"The first few rounds of the game are crucial."

"To establish a reliable connection with the doctor, it requires more than one round of communication. To gather information on other players, frequent use of monitoring and communication functions is necessary too."

"Furthermore, due to the nature of the game, the Imitator’s plan needs to be laid out and spread from the beginning, so the more monitoring is done early on, the more likely clues are revealed."

"By the middle of the game, the plan is already set, and monitoring at that time may fail to yield much useful information."

"Since Lawyer Lin decided to expend medical points to monitor players and attempt to find the Imitator, he must utilize the early rounds to the fullest."

"So, he didn’t have time to care for the ordinary players in the lounge, nor could he predict the future."

Wen Wan interjected: "But... casually choosing a round of the game to take a look can’t hurt, right?"

"Besides, pointing out the Imitator doesn’t require catching an exact flaw, but rather persuasive logical deduction built on numerous details, right?"

"Even if an exact flaw is caught at the start, it can’t be broadcasted to all players, can it?"

Qin Cheng shook his head: "No."

"Catching flaws and logical deduction are both necessary. In fact, the former is more important."

"Relying solely on logical deduction can still lead to a misjudgment."

"But if an exact flaw is caught, one can aim first then draw the target, extensively investigate this player, and then look for logic consistent with the Imitator, which increases the success rate."

"Therefore, if deciding to find the Imitator from the start, make sure to utilize every round. Entering the lounge and temporarily abandoning monitoring in any round might miss some crucial clues."

"So I think this choice is sound, and the outcome is good."

Lu Bingjun looked thoughtfully at the group discussing and finally said: "Ye Lin, Wen Wan, there’s no need to obsess over this matter."

"Mutual help between Community members is necessary, but it shouldn’t become a dogma."

"Essentially, it views the players from the same Community as irresponsible minors."

"At least in this game, Shengjie not receiving early help isn’t necessarily a bad thing."

"If Lawyer Lin had exposed Qian Li’s trap from the beginning, Shengjie wouldn’t have gained any experience or growth from this game, nor could he attempt analyzing information and find the Imitator himself."

"Now, I believe Shengjie will soon become a player who can hold his own."

Ye Lin nodded and said no more.

Lu Bingjun stood up: "Alright, this concludes the discussion on this game. Everyone worked hard, have a good rest."

Everyone said nothing further, leaving the long table and gathered in groups of twos and threes.

Some seemed obviously relaxed, but some still seemed unsatisfied, arguing about other details in the game.

Shen Bowen sat by the window, opposite Lin Sizhi.

"Was it like this when your Community reviewed games before?"

Lin Sizhi glanced at her: "What do you mean?"

Shen Bowen explained: "A bit too simple. Or not deep enough?"

"I originally thought the review would continue for at least another half-hour, but it ended just like that."

"Our previous Community wasn’t very strong, but the review time was noticeably longer, focusing on analyzing the game’s other strategies and possibilities."

Lin Sizhi nodded: "Yes, mine was too."

Shen Bowen’s thoughts were confirmed, and she said nothing further, just quietly reading.

For other players, perhaps this feeling wasn’t obvious, but for Shen Bowen and Lin Sizhi who came from other Communities, the difference was evident during the game reviewing phase.

This time, the review of the ’Pain Game’ didn’t seem short, but in fact, the truly valuable content was not much.

Of course, this might also be related to the ’Pain Game’s’ characteristic: the game’s mechanism itself doesn’t seem very complex, and after a player’s role is determined, the strategies they can take are just two or three simple options, which were already introduced during the game introduction, so there’s no need to mention them again.

...

At this moment, everyone heard Zhou Wanlin exclaim.

"Hey! Come and look!"

Originally, everyone had already scattered in the hall, but gathered again upon hearing it.

"What’s wrong?" Lu Bingjun came to Zhou Wanlin’s side, looking at the vending machine screen pointed out by her.

Then, many fell into silence.

Huang Shengjie naively came over, glimpsed at the vending machine from the crowd’s gap, then momentarily became stiff.

Two previously unseen items were added to the vending machine entries.

[O-Class Painkillers]

[5 pills per bottle]

[Weekly purchase limit: 10 bottles]

[Price: 500-minute visa time]

[F-Class Painkillers]

[5 pills per bottle] 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[Weekly purchase limit: 10 bottles]

[Price: 400-minute visa time]

Additionally, there are relevant tips on the details page of these two items.

[In the ’Pain Game,’ the two most frequently used special medicines by players will be added to the Community vending machine items]

[Medicine prices will be set according to the average transaction prices of the two types of medicine among players in the game]

[Initial weekly purchase limit is 10 bottles]

[When players participate in any subsequent games, they can pay a certain amount of visa time to ’restock,’ increasing the weekly purchasable amount]

[Required visa time to pay: ’50% of the standard price’]

[When other Community players purchase medicines, the price difference will be directly gained by the ’restocking’ player]

[The visa time spent or earned by the player through ’restocking’ will be hidden by default, unable to be directly queried via the public area’s vending machine]