God's Imitator

After the player from Community 28 entered the ’Reflection Room’, there were only four spokespersons left on the stage.

The two with lower popularity were illuminated by a red spotlight, and the display screens on their forearms showed red warning messages as a reminder.

Meanwhile, the other two spokespersons, including the player from Community 15, were cast in colorful spotlights, causing another burst of cheers from the audience.

The two eliminated spokespersons left the stage somewhat dejectedly; they had lost a lot.

Because they had already deducted 30,000 minutes of visa time to become a spokesperson, but only gained less than 5,000 in return.

Moreover, they could no longer become a spokesperson.

Becoming a spokesperson carries risks, and only those who manage to hold on till the end without elimination can gain extra benefits.

As the two spokespersons left the stage, another round of applause and cheering erupted from the audience, even louder than any previous one.

The crowd looked to the stage to see that the player from Community 15 had already removed his mask, his long flowing hair dancing in the air, and his distinctive, outstanding features were vividly displayed on the large screen.

Furthermore, his name was displayed on the big screen.

[Community 15 - Jiang Chenyan].

In a setting where all the audience wore masks and identical outfits, the ’unmasking’ made him an instant center of attention.

The other surviving spokesperson didn’t have such luck; his looks were average and unremarkable, so no one paid attention to him.

Then, new information appeared on the big screen.

[The four large screens have finished auctioning, players awarded the ’Media Representative’ identity should immediately enter the ’Media Room’ behind one of the large screens.]

[From now on, ’Agents’ can place ads on these four screens.]

[The second round of the game begins!]

[The endorsed product for this game round is the luxury goods in the community.]

[If the spokesperson for this product is not eliminated in the final round of the game, and achieves the highest popularity among all spokespersons, the ’luxury goods in the community will receive a special enhancement’.]

[Players interested in becoming a ’Luxury Goods Spokesperson’ should take to the stage within 5 minutes.]

[The four large screens that are flashing will enter ’auction mode’, please use the touchscreen on your arm to bid, and the player with the highest bid will become the ’Media Representative’ for that screen.]

More audience members began to step onto the stage one after another.

Lu Qi couldn’t help but sigh to herself: "Everyone is so enthusiastic!

"However, Jiang Chenyan’s rewards indeed make people envious."

According to the game rules, players must first deduct 30,000 minutes of visa time to become a spokesperson, and Jiang Chenyan in the first round earned back 17,000.

In each subsequent round, as long as he isn’t eliminated, he can continue earning more visa time.

Even if his popularity gets diluted by other spokespersons later on, it should still be around 10,000 until the game ends, which will add up to quite an impressive number.

More importantly, Jiang Chenyan’s staunch supporters are surely the players from Community 15, who have closely followed him and contributed popularity points since the first round of the game, so by the end of the game, they will undoubtedly be among the top ten who awarded Jiang Chenyan popularity points.

Thus, they can each receive 30,000 minutes of visa time.

Moreover, as the ’Community that persevered to the end as a spokesperson’, they can also share visa time from other communities.

All these combined will make the visa time acquired by the entire Community 15 in this game extremely substantial, making it difficult for other communities not to be envious.

Lu Qi quickly glanced at the display screen on her forearm.

The final auction prices for the previous four large screens were around 20,000 minutes of visa time each.

Four audience members approached these four large screens and entered the ’Media Room’ behind the screens through a special entrance below, which also meant they could no longer return to the main venue during the entire game, nor communicate with other players except ’Media Representatives’.

"Is this price considered high or low?"

Lu Qi was a bit confused.

She instinctively felt it wasn’t very worthwhile because, based on the obvious rules, these large screens didn’t have much practical use.

Each game round, each large screen could only display a pure text message of no more than 10 words.

This wasn’t a game of judgment or elimination, there were no special game tips, and the messages would be seen by all the audience.

The only use Lu Qi could think of was: showing her own spokesperson’s name and slogan to gain more popularity.

But the question is, can merely displaying these things really gain more popularity?

Will there truly be audience members who, just because of ads on the big screen, express support for unfamiliar players from other communities?

If not, or if there are very few people, then the adverts are just a loss.

Furthermore, media representatives can’t freely post advertisements; they can only choose from the ad content sent to them by ’Agents’.

If it’s their community’s ’Agent’, then they are essentially funding it themselves, with no extra gain;

If it’s an ’Agent’ from another community, although they can make some advertising fees, it’s definitely advertising for other communities’ spokespersons, and those ad fees may not even cover the cost.

So Lu Qi’s psychological price point was roughly below 10,000, anything higher seemed very unprofitable.

Of course, she also vaguely realized that there might be special ways to use the mechanisms present in the game, and those players willing to spend more than 20,000 visa times to buy the large screens must have different strategies.

She just couldn’t think of what those strategies might specifically be at the moment.

Lu Qi didn’t dwell on this for too long, since Qin Cheng and Yao Yuan were the players leading this time.

If the large screens were that important, Qin Cheng and Yao Yuan should have arranged to bid for them.

...

The spokespersons for the second round of the game have also each taken the stage, just like the previous round, totaling 5 people.

This brought the total number of spokespersons on stage to 7 people.

Lu Qi was a bit surprised; she originally thought there would be very few players taking the stage this time, like 2 or 3 people.

Because compared to ’Luxury Goods’ and ’Alcohol’, there didn’t seem to be much advantage.

After all, most communities organize gatherings for team building, and during these gatherings, drinking is inevitable.

Champagne even symbolizes victory.

And Luxury Goods? There are probably few communities that organize players to buy luxury goods in large quantities, making it less significant compared to alcohol.

"Perhaps because... according to the game rules, spokespersons are eliminated based on ’product categories’?"

In this game, since there’s no talking or communication allowed, and Qin Cheng and Yao Yuan didn’t assign tasks, Lu Qi could spend more time thinking about the game rules herself.

Lu Qi continued to ponder with a furrowed brow: "Because elimination is based on ’product categories’, so if spokesperson A for the product has 4 people, and spokesperson B for the product has 6 people, and all of A’s popularity values are higher than any of B’s.

"If elimination is based on the top 50% of total popularity value, then only 5 would be eliminated from product B’s spokespersons.

"But the rules state elimination by product category, meaning 2 from product A, 3 from product B will be eliminated.

"Moreover, the rules also state that the first of each category won’t be eliminated.

"So... different product endorsements inherently belong to different tracks, but as long as you can achieve first place in any track, it’s still worth it.

"And maybe these people are particularly optimistic about the ’Luxury Goods’ category?"