God's Imitator-Chapter 422: Consumption

Li Renshu finally summarized, "Alright, then this matter is settled.

"For the two recruitment choices, one is Shen Xing. We'll keep a spot open in the community and bring her over as soon as possible when we encounter her in the next game.

"As for the other male player, after entering the next game, the three game cores will make on-the-spot judgments to recruit someone."

This also meant that the community still couldn't get new player supplements in the short term. They could only wait until the next game to search for and recruit a suitable male player.

As for when they could encounter Shen Xing again in a game, that was hard to say, but this spot couldn't not be reserved.

Li Renshu continued, "Although we can't do anything about recruitment temporarily, looking on the bright side, we can repurchase immunity passes now.

"Our original plan was to purchase together with the discount coupon. Has anyone changed their mind now?"

According to previous discussions, between 'only purchasing immunity passes and immunity pass cooldown reduction' and 'buying the discount coupon package,' everyone had voted for the second option.

The downside was spending an extra 100,000 minutes of visa time, but the advantage was being able to additionally purchase 'First Player Identity Card Privileges 1 and 2 cooldown reduction' and a 'discount coupon,' with 20% off all purchases within a week.

So although they had donated a lot of visa time before, they hadn't made any large purchases.

Qin Yao said with some regret, "Speaking of which, everyone originally considered having a good feast together after this game ended, taking advantage of the discount coupon.

"As a result, there are now two vacant positions in the community instead."

Wang Yongxin proposed, "Let's still go with what we decided before.

"If we purchase now, the discount coupon will last until 2 days after the next game ends, so we can still enjoy the corresponding discount.

"If there really are new members then, we can make it even grander."

Zheng Jie thought about it, "If you put it that way, there isn't really much difference between a few days earlier or later, right? Could we also choose to purchase the day before the next game starts? That would cover more time afterward."

Yang Yuting was silent for a moment, "You mean after the next game, we party every night during the 'discount coupon' period?"

Wang Yongxin considered for a moment, "We've been in the New World for so long. Relaxing for a week isn't a big deal. After all, compared to these sky-high special items, as long as we don't buy particularly expensive food during gatherings, eating for several days in a row won't cost much.

"But the only problem with this plan is, if you have to enter a new game the next day, will you still be in the mood to eat and shop?"

Zheng Jie was stunned, "...That's true too."

Everyone chatted briefly and finally reached a consensus. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Li Renshu finally said, "Alright, then that's decided. Let's purchase directly now."

Everyone came to the vending machine. First they purchased the 'discount coupon,' then consecutively purchased the three major items: 'immunity pass,' 'immunity pass cooldown reduction,' and 'First Player Identity Card Privileges 1 and 2 cooldown reduction.'

Total cost: 524,000 minutes of visa time.

The original luxury fund was 1.78 million. The three players who participated in the 'Supporting Game' deposited their excess visa time according to the original rules, totaling about 220,000. Adding some miscellaneous expenses, the luxury fund now had 1.45 million remaining.

Having reacquired the immunity passes, everyone felt much more at ease.

Li Renshu looked at everyone, "Alright, shopping time has arrived. Everyone make a list of what you want to buy, we'll compile it later as a formality. If there are no major issues, we'll make a collective purchase!"

Everyone busied themselves.

...

Evening.

Although people kept repeatedly emphasizing 'don't fall into the consumption trap,' under the effect of the discount coupon, it was very difficult for people to resist the instinct of impulsive consumption.

Actually, everyone had regularly used the 'luxury fund' to purchase certain specific items before, but this time, the shopping lists almost everyone provided were at least three to four times higher in total price than before.

On average, each person's consumption reached about 20,000, which meant nearly another 200,000 of the luxury fund was spent.

1.25 million remaining.

Li Renshu didn't say anything about this and simply accepted all the lists.

Clearly, this situation arose from multiple factors.

First was the 20% discount across the board. The more expensive items were, the more cost-effective buying them became. The next time they could purchase a discount coupon was unknown, so everyone had the idea of stocking up a bit.

Second, after implementing the proposal to mandate depositing visa time, although theoretically this deposited visa time could earn dividends, it wasn't directly controlled by themselves, so naturally they spent more freely.

Finally, after confirming there was a way to leave the New World, many players also became more open-minded. Whether it was death or departure, since this visa time couldn't be taken away, naturally there was no need to be so frugal.

With various factors stacking up, only spending this much was already the result of resisting the consumption trap as much as possible.

Logically speaking, such behavior wasn't great for the community.

Because to activate the next item, they needed to raise the total fund to 2.1 million, which seemed far away now.

But Li Renshu naturally also understood this was a reasonable demand and necessary expense.

So after the procurement was completed, everyone arranged another gathering meal.

Although the scale wasn't very large, as everyone wanted to save a bigger celebration for welcoming possibly arriving new members next week, it was still quite sumptuous.

...

After dinner, Qin Yao was about to return to her room to rest when she encountered Lin Sizhi again at the stairwell corner.

"Don't you have any questions you want to ask me this time?" Lin Sizhi's words clearly had some subtext.

Qin Yao was stunned, "Huh? No, I don't think so?"

She thought about it, "Oh, I did have some doubts about the voting at first, but I've already figured it out myself!"

Lin Sizhi looked at her meaningfully, "Is that so? Then tell me. I'd really like to know if you've truly figured it out."

Qin Yao nodded, "Okay!"

The two came again to the small room on the third floor.

Qin Yao naturally quickly thought of what specifically Lin Sizhi wanted to discuss. After all, the most important matter in the community recently was the vote for the third game core.

"At first, I also thought Cai Zhiyuan had a big chance of winning. When the results came out, I was also a bit surprised.

"But thinking carefully, actually this result appearing is quite reasonable, right?

"The two people's speeches during the campaign—this should count as a campaign, right—really had too big a gap.

"Cai Zhiyuan probably thought his chances of winning were high, so he was too relaxed. Yang Yuting's speech was clearly carefully prepared. She came prepared.

"Overall, Yang Yuting did a good job emphasizing her advantages and hit Cai Zhiyuan's weak points."