God's Imitator

Seeing that both sides were at an impasse, Zhou Xiaoying tentatively asked, "Do you really have to block me?

"I have a suggestion, how about we both transport our own goods?

"That way, we can both make extra profits by shipping contraband.

"You must be carrying more contraband than I am. Isn’t that better than us being stuck here, unable to move?"

Huang Shengjie was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

"No.

"If we transport separately, it means we’ll be at opposite ends of the field, unable to see each other across the prison’s main building.

"If you pull any tricks, I wouldn’t be able to notice.

"I can’t think of any specific problems right now, but it just feels unsettling.

"Neither of us transporting contraband is fair.

"Even if I’m physically better, trading one for one with you might seem like a loss, but I can totally accept that."

Zhou Xiaoying felt a bit discouraged, "You...

"Alright, then let’s just stay here and not move."

Her gaze drifted past Huang Shengjie, reluctantly looking at the iron bars on the wall of the prison’s main building in the distance, but in the end, she chose to give up.

Huang Shengjie was silent for a moment, then seriously asked, "Actually, blocking you here wasn’t just because of the game’s matter.

"I want to ask you a question.

"After you returned to the Community... how’s your drug addiction going?"

Zhou Xiaoying’s expression changed, "Aren’t you asking the obvious?

"You should know this yourself, right?"

Huang Shengjie, somewhat unsure, probed, "Are you saying that, like me, you’re also trying to quit?"

Zhou Xiaoying widened her eyes in surprise, "Quit? Are you joking, is that even possible?

"When you wake up at night in unbearable pain, with drugs right by your side, can you resist?

"Even if you’re Iron Man, with strong willpower, there must be limits!"

Huang Shengjie’s suspicion was confirmed.

He looked at Zhou Xiaoying and said seriously, "It seems there’s indeed a significant difference between our two communities.

"I’m more certain that talking to you about these matters is the right thing to do.

"In your Community 23, there’s absolutely no control over these drugs, so you’re still taking them, right?

"But the situation in our Community 2 is completely different.

"Want to hear about it?"

Zhou Xiaoying looked at Huang Shengjie incredulously and then nodded slightly.

...

Earlier, at the entrance of the raw material warehouse in Community 2.

Zhou Wanlin quickly operated on the display screen, finally completing all the procedures for the mini train before ’loading time’ ended.

She exhaled gently.

"Phew...

"This should be it, right?

"This game seems to mainly test resource management skills and the speed of operating equipment, which is barely my forte."

She reexamined the entire freight system of the steam train.

The raw materials purchased in the warehouse with gold pounds are transported via conveyor belt to the platform, awaiting loading.

First, there’s a specialized sorting device that sorts according to the material ratio set by Zhou Wanlin.

If Zhou Wanlin sets the ratio of ’food,’ ’drugs,’ and ’miscellaneous’ materials as 3:3:1, the sorting device will strictly arrange these materials in the order of 3 parts food, 3 parts drugs, and 1 part miscellaneous.

Of course, Zhou Wanlin can also manually adjust their order.

Though the materials are heavy, taking one at a time is no problem.

These materials are then repackaged to ensure that the inspector on the other end cannot determine the specific type of the material from its appearance.

Finally, the fixed steam crane moves these materials onto the train’s cargo boxes, neatly stacking them tight.

The steam locomotive puffed out steam, carrying the cargo boxes numbered ’1’ and ’2’, clattering along the tracks towards the Review Room in Community 23.

The train moved slowly, according to the game rules; its speed matched that of the slowest cargo box, requiring 2 minutes to reach the connecting point at the opposing review room platform.

After waiting a while, the steam train reached the review room platform, unloaded box number 2, and clattered back.

Returning with only the cargo box number 1, the speed was much faster, taking just 1 minute to arrive.

Zhou Wanlin, still a bit uneasy, re-calculated the program on the screen: "Hmm, I guess this is the optimal solution to the ’flashlight crossing the bridge’ problem.

"This problem isn’t too difficult. Even if one hasn’t heard of the principle, spending a little time to sort it out themselves should make it clear.

"The preparation time is really tight, and it needs sorting and operation on the screen. I wonder what kind of player is responsible for shipping on the other side, and whether they can come up with the correct answer.

"Anyway, in any case, my arrangement should be reliable, as long as I’m not holding everyone back."

...

Upon seeing the rules description, Zhou Wanlin realized its prototype was a logic puzzle: the flashlight bridge problem.

This question isn’t complicated and sometimes appears in some companies’ written tests.

This game’s goal is to transport all five cargo boxes to the opposite side in the shortest possible time.

If you can’t transport all five cargo boxes in the limited time, the system will only send odd-numbered materials for inspection, while even-numbered materials will be returned, effectively only shipping half.

Among these rules, one is crucial: the train cannot run empty.

This means all cargo boxes must be filled, and the train must carry at least one cargo box when running.

If it runs empty, the train will stall directly, rendering the entire round useless.

To transfer all the cargo boxes, there must always be a cargo box tied to the locomotive on return.

And the speed of this box determines the speed of the locomotive’s return; the slower the box, the longer the return trip, resulting in more wasted time.

So according to general instinct, one would always let the ’1’ cargo box return to minimize the return time.

But to transport all ’1, 2, 6, 7, 12’ boxes to the other side would require 2+1+6+1+7+1+12=30 minutes.

Although a round is exactly 30 minutes, the first 2 minutes are ’loading time,’ and the last 2 minutes are ’review time.’

The actual ’transportation time’ is only 26 minutes, so it’s not enough.

To shorten time, you need to ’package’ slow, high-capacity boxes as much as possible and avoid taking two trips while using faster ones for ’bridging.’

After brief calculations before the game, Zhou Wanlin quickly figured out the optimal process:

Send over cargo boxes ’1’ and ’2’;

Return with cargo box ’1’;

Send over cargo boxes ’7’ and ’12’;

Return with cargo box ’2’;

Send over cargo boxes ’6’ and ’1’;

Return with cargo box ’1’;

Send over cargo boxes ’1’ and ’2’.

This way, it takes a total of 2+1+12+2+6+1+2=26 minutes.

All five cargo boxes are delivered, and all 28 batches of materials can enter the review process, doubling the transported materials compared to other imperfect situations.

Zhou Wanlin felt this wasn’t a hard problem. Even if the other player couldn’t think of it due to insufficient time in the first round, they would definitely figure it out and adjust in later game time.

If the other side also thought of it and made corresponding operations before the first round, both sides would most likely end in a draw.