Differences in Grouping

The moment the countdown hit zero, Lin Sizhi realized they had returned to the lobby of their original community.

The others from the community also appeared almost simultaneously.

"One, two, three... twelve." Fu Chen was the first to count, and after confirming no one was missing, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Although they were back in the "community," an absolutely safe place, it was clear that many hadn't yet recovered from the dangerous environment of the promenade and were still shaken.

Many also clearly had things they wanted to say.

But just then, the information on the big screen refreshed.

[Now announcing Community No. 17's final chip acquisition 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 added to each player's visa.]

"What??"

"How much!!"

"Tens, hundreds, thousands... How is it possible to have over a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand visa time? Didn't the chips of the eight people in the game add up to only 160,000?"

Seeing the numbers on the big screen, many people couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Ding Wenqiang was clearly the most shocked. He looked at the numbers on the big screen in disbelief, then repeatedly looked at Wang Yongxin.

As for Wang Yongxin, he was clearly in a good mood at the moment, browsing the product list at the vending machine.

"Does anyone want anything to drink?"

No one responded, so he ordered a cup of coffee for himself.

Cai Zhiyuan's face was also filled with confusion.

Clearly, as someone adept at calculations and probability, he had a rough estimate of the upper limit of chips that could be obtained in this game.

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

"I think we need to debrief," Cai Zhiyuan said to Fu Chen.

Fu Chen looked at everyone, "Do you guys want to rest first, or debrief first?"

"Let's debrief," everyone quickly reached a consensus.

The time in the promenade was consistent with the time in the community, so everyone entered the game at 8 o'clock, and it was just past 9:30 now, still a while before mealtime.

Although many felt mentally exhausted, the huge disparity in chips sparked their intense curiosity.

Those with fewer chips immediately wanted to know where the larger amounts came from.

And those with more chips didn't mind showing off their victory to everyone.

"Display the game rules for 'Blood Poker'," Fu Chen said to the big screen.

Soon, the big screen displayed detailed game rules, exactly the same as what everyone had seen in the promenade, and even more detailed.

These rules were divided into two sections: "Chip Exchange Zone" and "Multiplayer Game Zone," and also provided very specific descriptions of the various facilities in both areas.

There were even simple descriptions of the appearance and style of the facilities.

A large amount of text filled the big screen, making everyone feel a bit dizzy.

But most people patiently read through the rules from beginning to end again.

Fu Chen looked at everyone, hesitating for a moment, "Where should we start our debriefing..."

Cai Zhiyuan seemed to have found some direction. He looked at the visa time on the big screen and thoughtfully uttered two words.

"Grouping."

Fu Chen: "Hmm?"

Cai Zhiyuan explained, "Starting with the grouping. For games like this multiplayer matchmaking, everyone's earnings are often strongly positively correlated with their group.

"Take our group, for example. Our earnings are all between 50,000 and 60,000 because we used the exact same and most secure strategy."

Fu Chen, lost in thought, quickly grabbed a pen and paper.

"So, if we deduce the groupings from the chip amounts..."

"Group 1: You, me, Officer Cao, and Sister Li.

"Group 2 should be... Xu Tong, Uncle Ding, Yang Yuting, and..."

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

"Oh?" Fu Chen looked surprised.

The chip amounts for the first three were so low, it was obvious they were one group. But Wang Yongxin's chip amount was ten times higher.

If Wang Yongxin hadn't admitted it himself, Fu Chen would have had a hard time guessing he was in this group.

"Then Group 3 is Jiang He, Qin Yao, Aunt Su, and Lawyer Lin.

"Indeed, an individual's profit is directly related to their group's situation. With a few exceptions."

Without much explanation, everyone quickly understood what was going on.

This game was a team-based, multiplayer game.

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

If their group strategy was good, everyone would profit a lot; conversely, if the group strategy was poor, everyone's profits would decrease.

Looking at the list, Group 1 should have had the strongest overall strength, with four intelligent people, but their chip amounts weren't the highest.

It was clear this was the influence of group strategy.

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

"At the start, the four of us defaulted to exchanging 20,000 chips, then met in the multiplayer game area.

"After about ten minutes of discussion, we reached an agreement with our opponents, the players from Community No. 9, to take turns being the dealer and winning the ante to complete the multiplayer game, thus avoiding the visa time deduction upon exit.

"Afterward, we returned to the chip exchange area and drew an additional 400ML of blood.

"In the multiplayer game, everyone adhered to the agreement, but since the ten rounds couldn't be split evenly, two randomly selected people played the dealer role one extra time, earning an additional 7,000.

"We sat in an alternating pattern, so Sister Li and one player from Community No. 9 each played the dealer role one extra time, ensuring maximum fairness."

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

Clearly, this strategy was almost identical to what she had in mind.

Yang Yuting also said in surprise, "Huh? Xu Tong was thinking the same thing, and we basically executed it that way too.

"I thought it was a very clever solution... Did everyone think of it?"

Xu Tong said with some annoyance, "So... the key difference was the amount of blood drawn.

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

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

Cai Zhiyuan explained, "Drawing 400ML of blood is a normal donation amount and won't cause any harm to the body.

"600ML would make you quite weak, and 800ML or more would damage your health.

"The four of us are all very healthy. Exchanging an extra 400ML of blood for 40,000 minutes of visa time is an extremely worthwhile deal."

40,000 minutes of visa time, measured by the prices in the vending machine, was about 40,000 yuan, and it could also allow players to survive in the New World for nearly a month longer.

Regardless of how its value was measured, this exchange was absolutely worthwhile.

Ding Wenqiang lowered his head in regret. He couldn't understand why, during the hour and a half of game time, he hadn't thought of this problem at all.

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

"But... why is there such a big difference in the final chip count?"

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

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

Yang Yuting looked awkwardly at Wang Yongxin and Ding Wenqiang, "Because... our group had a small conflict. You could also call it an internal dispute."