Chapter 25: The Difference in Grouping

The moment the countdown hit zero, Lin Sizhi realized he had returned to the main hall of his original community.

Almost simultaneously, the other members of the community appeared as well.

"One, two, three... twelve." Fu Chen immediately conducted a head count. Finding that no one was missing, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Although they had returned to the absolute safety of the "Community," it was evident that many had not yet recovered from the perilous environment of the Corridor and remained shaken.

Many people clearly had things to say.

However, at that moment, the information on the large screen refreshed.

【Announcing the final chip totals for Community 17 in "Blood Poker."】

【No. 1 Fu Chen: 52,000】 【No. 2 Jiang He: 87,500】 【No. 3 Li Renshu: 65,000】 【No. 4 Cao Haichuan: 54,000】 【No. 5 Cai Zhiyuan: 58,000】 【No. 6 Wang Yongxin: 223,500】 【No. 7 Qin Yao: 144,000】 【No. 8 Su Xiucen: 91,000】 【No. 9 Xu Tong: 24,000】 【No. 10 Ding Wenqiang: 15,000】 【No. 11 Yang Yuting: 24,000】 【No. 12 Lin Sizhi: 217,500】

【The above chips will be converted into visa time after 24 hours and credited to each player's visa.】

"What??"

"How much!!"

"Tens, hundreds, thousands... what's with these hundreds of thousands of visa minutes? Even if you add up the chips of all eight people in this game, it's only 160,000!"

Seeing the numbers on the large screen, many people couldn't help but cry out in shock.

Ding Wenqiang was clearly the most stunned. He stared at the numbers on the screen in disbelief, then repeatedly glanced at Wang Yongxin.

As for Wang Yongxin, he was clearly in a great mood, browsing the product list in front of the vending machine.

"Does anyone want anything to drink?"

Receiving no response, he simply ordered a coffee for himself.

Cai Zhiyuan's face was also filled with confusion.

Clearly, as someone skilled in calculation and well-versed in probability, he had a rough estimate of the upper limit of chips obtainable in this game.

Therefore, seeing a figure that exceeded his estimated upper limit by an entire order of magnitude, the shock he felt was even greater than that of someone like Ding Wenqiang, who had been clueless throughout the entire process.

"I think we need to conduct a debrief," Cai Zhiyuan said, looking at Fu Chen.

Fu Chen looked at the group. "Do you all want to rest first, or start the debrief?"

"Let's debrief," the group quickly reached a consensus.

The time in the Corridor was synchronized with the Community. Since they had entered the game at 8:00, it was only just past 9:30 now, so it was still early before mealtime.

Although many were mentally exhausted, the massive disparity in chips piqued their intense curiosity.

Those with few chips immediately wanted to know where the extra chips came from.

Those with many chips didn't mind flaunting their success to everyone in a winner's posture.

"Retrieve the game rules for 'Blood Poker'," Fu Chen said to the large screen.

Soon, the detailed game rules appeared on the screen, identical to what they had seen in the Corridor, but even more comprehensive.

The rules were divided into two sections: the "Chip Exchange Area" and the "Multiplayer Game Area," with very specific descriptions of the various facilities in both areas.

Even the appearance and style of the facilities were briefly described.

A massive amount of text filled the screen, making some people feel dizzy.

Nevertheless, most people patiently read through the rules from beginning to end.

Fu Chen looked at the group, feeling a moment of hesitation. "Where should we begin our debrief..."

Cai Zhiyuan seemed to have already found a thread of logic. Looking at the visa time on the screen, he spoke two words thoughtfully.

"Grouping."

Fu Chen: "Hmm?"

Cai Zhiyuan explained, "Start with the groups. In this kind of multiplayer matchmaking game, everyone's earnings are often strongly positively correlated with their grouping.

"For example, in our group, all earnings are between 50,000 and 60,000. This is because we employed the exact same and most stable strategy."

Fu Chen thought for a moment and quickly grabbed a pen and paper.

"Then, if we work backward from the chip amounts to deduce the groups...

"Group One: You, me, Officer Cao, and Sister Li.

"Group Two should be... Xu Tong, Uncle Ding, Yang Yuting, and..."

Wang Yongxin raised his hand while sipping his coffee. "And me."

"Oh?" Fu Chen was somewhat surprised.

Because the chips of the first three were so low, it was easy to see they were a group, but Wang Yongxin's chip count was ten times higher.

If Wang Yongxin hadn't volunteered, Fu Chen would have found it very difficult to realize he belonged to that group.

"Then Group Three is Jiang He, Qin Yao, Auntie Su, and Lawyer Lin.

"It makes sense. Individual earnings have a direct relationship with grouping, with a few exceptions."

Without needing much explanation, the group quickly understood what was happening.

This game was essentially a team-based multiplayer game.

An individual's decisions were highly likely to be influenced by the other three members. Ultimately, the four people would tend to use similar strategies.

If their collective strategy was good, everyone's earnings would be high; conversely, if the collective strategy was poor, everyone's earnings would decrease.

Looking at the list, Group One should have had the strongest overall strength—all four were smart people—yet their chip count was not the highest.

Clearly, this was the influence of collective strategy.

Fu Chen continued, "Let's do this: I'll briefly explain our group's strategy first, and then we'll see the specific differences between the three groups.

"At the start, the four of us defaulted to exchanging 20,000 chips and then met in the Multiplayer Game Area.

"After discussing for about ten minutes, we reached an agreement with our opponents—the players from Community 9. We decided to complete the multiplayer game by taking turns as the dealer to win the ante, thereby avoiding the deduction of visa time upon leaving.

"Afterward, we returned to the Chip Exchange Area and drew an additional 400ML of blood.

"In the multiplayer game, everyone followed the agreement, but because ten rounds of play could not be divided equally, two people were randomly selected to act as the dealer one extra time, earning an additional 7,000.

"We sat in alternating seats, so Sister Li and one player from Community 9 each acted as the dealer one extra time, ensuring maximum fairness."

Hearing this, Jiang He let out an "Eh?"

Clearly, this strategy was almost identical to her own idea.

Yang Yuting also said with some surprise, "Hmm? Xu Tong thought the same way, and we basically executed it that way too.

"I thought it was some incredibly ingenious solution... turns out everyone thought of it?"

Xu Tong said with some frustration, "So... the key difference lies in the amount of blood drawn.

"Each of you drew an extra 400ML of blood, so you exchanged nearly 40,000 more in chips."

Fu Chen nodded. "Yes. Actually, at the very beginning, we only drew the default minimum of 200ML. The idea to draw more blood was proposed by Cai Zhiyuan during our discussion."

Cai Zhiyuan explained, "Drawing 400ML of blood is a normal blood donation amount; it won't have much impact on the body.

"600ML will make you feel weak, and over 800ML will cause health damage.

"The four of us are very healthy. Using an extra 400ML of blood to exchange for 40,000 minutes of visa time is an incredibly worthwhile deal."

If measured by the prices in the vending machines, 40,000 minutes of visa time was roughly equivalent to 40,000 yuan, and it could allow a player to survive in the New World for nearly an extra month.

Regardless of which metric was used to measure its value, this exchange was absolutely profitable.

Ding Wenqiang lowered his head in regret. He couldn't understand why, during an hour and a half of gameplay, he had failed to realize this.

Li Renshu looked at Yang Yuting. "Your group, Yuting, must have only used the initial 20,000 chips, right?

"But... why is there such a huge difference in the final chip totals?"

The chip amounts of the other three could be explained—they only drew 200ML of blood, so they could have at most 20,000 chips.

But why did Wang Yongxin have 200,000? They were clearly in the same game.

Yang Yuting looked at Wang Yongxin and Ding Wenqiang with some embarrassment. "Because... there was a little bit of conflict in our group. You could call it... infighting."