God's Imitator

Qin Cheng added, "In the prison cell, I waited for about 5 or 6 minutes and then got Uncle Zheng to injure me.

"This way, I entered the medical room while he went to the confinement room.

"From the game rules perspective, there’s actually no necessity to stay in the prison cell. Even if our people outside the prison send contraband into the cell, you don’t have to worry too much about it expiring, as long as you leave a minute or two at the end of the round to return to the cell to receive the materials.

"Instead, it’s the medical room and confinement room, if absent, that might become fatal loopholes.

"If prisoners from both communities enter, the one who leaves last can take all the contraband.

"The medical room is free to enter and exit, so the timing of entry doesn’t matter much, but the confinement room is fixed at 20 minutes, so entering late is better.

"Actually, in theory, after obtaining the materials, you could privately open a portion and enter the confinement room, gaining additional information after unsealing materials, but I thought it over and ultimately didn’t adopt this method.

"Because we weren’t clear about the outside situation at the time and weren’t sure when we could get the first batch of materials.

"If contraband can’t be pushed in through the prison window, then it has to wait for the materials transported through formal channels to finish review, at which point it can be brought in, equating to missing out on the whole first round of the game, which renders it meaningless."

Huang Shengjie nodded: "Hmm, so what happened next?"

Shen Bowen chimed in: "After the game officially started, we found that the opposite community also employed similar strategies.

"But the good news is, we were both transporting our own goods, and they didn’t interfere with us."

Huang Shengjie seemed a bit defeated: "Huh? So, two games, four groups of players, only our group realized by the second round that we could get painkillers by unsealing the materials?"

Zhang Yan, the new player just recruited into the community, pondered for a moment and comforted: "I don’t think there’s anything to be disheartened about; realizing that doesn’t necessarily mean higher game skills.

"I feel the community’s attitude towards drugs might also affect the players’ sensitivity to this strategy."

Lu Bingjun nodded approvingly: "Hmm, that makes a lot of sense.

"From the current situations, most communities don’t regulate medication.

"Players in a community who often suffer from pain and form a habit of taking medicine are more sensitive to the keywords ’pain’ and ’medicine’, and indeed are more likely to think of unsealing the materials."

Huang Shengjie thought it seemed reasonable and felt a lot more relieved.

Shen Bowen continued: "In the first round of the game, both sides had decent gains, roughly around 80,000.

"Zhang Yan served as the packer on the opposite side, also smuggling contraband, having a physical advantage, transporting a bit more contraband; whereas I transported as much contraband as possible by moving ahead of time, roughly evening out the difference.

"Throughout this process, we were also in contact with each other, and by the second round, we successfully reached an agreement to stop reviewing each other’s goods, and all contraband was transported by steam train."

Huang Shengjie nodded: "The gains should be quite high then! Probably around 160,000 to 170,000?

"By the third round, we also reached about this number.

"That’s strange, why was your total gain so low then? Did something go wrong in the third round?"

Qin Cheng took over: "Let me explain.

"The key is, the third round was essentially a standard ’Prisoner’s Dilemma’, where both sides chose not to cooperate.

"Actually, just looking at the game rules, it’s very easy to conclude: it’s a game favoring the defensive side and also promotes cooperation.

"If transported via formal channels, the steam train carries goods, you can’t really place too much contraband, because the opponent’s reviewer can randomly check it a few times and decide based on the check results whether to conduct a ’comprehensive review’, potentially causing significant losses to our side.

"While using human transport channels, as long as the other side has a physically fit player, they can block two or even three of our players from transporting contraband.

"This game is a standard zero-sum game, transporting individually is the optimal solution, because even if the opponent is allowed to openly transport contraband, it doesn’t actually incur any loss to us.

"But actually, this game isn’t that simple.

"In the first round, it was hard for the sides to cooperate, especially since the reviewer needs to enter the review room early, thus transporting a large amount of contraband via steam train was unlikely.

"The second round offers the greatest hope for cooperation, and our game was precisely this.

"But during the third round, the situation changed again.

"According to the game rules, the winning side can receive an additional reward of 10,000 gold pounds, and if the opponent’s community income reaches 1.5 times, it can receive a 1.5 times gold pound bonus reward.

"This is quite exaggerated.

"Based on our earnings estimate at the time, the first round earned approximately 80,000 gold pounds, the second round about 160,000 gold pounds, and the other’s situation was not dissimilar.

"If in the third round, both sides do nothing, the earnings should be around 160,000 gold pounds.

"But if one side betrays, then the situation becomes entirely different.

"Firstly, the betraying side will definitely select ’comprehensive review’ in the review room, then all 28 batches of contraband from our side would be completely destroyed.

"Our originally expected net gain of 86,800 gold pounds wouldn’t be obtained, and we’d also lose approximately 14,000 gold pounds in material cost.

"While the opponent can gain 1,000 gold pounds for each contraband found, their total gain would be 28,000 gold pounds.

"In other words, this exchange directly opens up a 130,000 gold pound gap.

"Once the game officially starts, the review room closes after 10 minutes, with no ability to then convey information to the reviewer, so even if aware of a change of heart, it can’t notify the reviewer to conduct a comprehensive review of the opponent’s goods.

"Then the opponent can use some tricks, for instance, arranging players to interfere with our transport of contraband, thereby easily achieving a gold pound count 1.5 times that of ours.

"Thus, the opponent’s actual gain from executing the betrayal strategy is:

"If promises are kept, both sides approximately earn 8+16+16, roughly 400,000 gold pounds, which is quite a decent gain.

"But if the opponent betrays while we don’t, their actual earnings are 8+16+16+2.8 (review income) +1, then multiplying by 1.5, about 660,000 gold pounds.

"Of course, if the opponent allocates manpower to interfere, their human transport gains in the third round may decrease, but even deducting some, they will still earn around 600,000 gold pounds.

"Comparing with previous gains... they earn a whole additional 200,000 gold pounds.

"Which equals 400,000 minutes of visa time.

"Such an amount in the Walkway, even the players within a community may turn against each other, let alone fragile cooperative relationships established between different communities."

Huang Shengjie asked, "So... what did you ultimately choose?"

Qin Cheng truthfully said, "In the end, we opted for ’comprehensive review’ and replaced all transported goods with regular products."

Huang Shengjie was silent for a moment, "And the other side?"

Shen Bowen answered for Qin Cheng, "They did the same."