Differences Between Groups

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

The others from the community appeared almost at the same time.

"One, two, three... twelve." Fu Chen immediately counted heads and relaxed slightly after confirming that no one was missing.

Although they had returned to the absolutely safe "community," quite a few people clearly had yet to adjust from the dangerous environment of the promenade and were still shaken.

Many of them obviously had something to say.

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

[The final chip earnings of Community No. 17 in "Blood Poker" will now be announced.]

[No. 1 Fu Chen: 52000]

[No. 2 Jiang He: 87500]

[No. 3 Li Renshu: 65000]

[No. 4 Cao Haichuan: 54000]

[No. 5 Cai Zhiyuan: 58000]

[No. 6 Wang Yongxin: 223500]

[No. 7 Qin Yao: 144000]

[No. 8 Su Xiucen: 91000]

[No. 9 Xu Tong: 24000]

[No. 10 Ding Wenqiang: 15000]

[No. 11 Yang Yuting: 24000]

[No. 12 Lin Sizhi: 217500]

[The above chips will be converted into Visa Time after 24 hours and credited to each player's visa.]

"What??"

"How much?!"

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands... What is this, over a hundred thousand or even two hundred thousand in Visa Time? Didn't the eight players in this game only have a total of a hundred and sixty thousand chips?"

Seeing the numbers on the large screen, many people cried out in shock.

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

As for Wang Yongxin, he was evidently in an excellent mood and was browsing the product list in front of the Vending Machine.

"Anyone want something to drink?"

No one answered, so he ordered himself a coffee.

Cai Zhiyuan's face was also full of confusion.

Clearly, as someone skilled at calculations and highly familiar with probability, he had formed a rough estimate of the upper limit of chips this game could yield.

So when he saw a figure that exceeded his estimated ceiling by an entire order of magnitude, the shock he felt was even greater than Ding Wenqiang's, who had been confused throughout the whole game.

"I think we need to review what happened." Cai Zhiyuan looked at Fu Chen.

Fu Chen looked around at everyone. "Do you want to rest first, or review things first?"

"Let's review it." Everyone quickly reached a consensus.

The time in the promenade matched the time in the community. They had entered the game at eight, and it was only just past nine-thirty now, still far from mealtime.

Although many people felt mentally exhausted, the enormous disparity in chip earnings had sparked intense curiosity.

Those with fewer chips immediately wanted to know where all those extra chips had come from.

And those with more chips did not mind showing off their success to everyone with the bearing of winners.

"Retrieve the rules for Blood Poker." Fu Chen spoke to the large screen.

Very quickly, the detailed game rules appeared on the screen. They were exactly the same as the rules everyone had seen in the promenade earlier, only more detailed.

The rules were divided into two sections: the "Chip Exchange Area" and the "Multiplayer Game Area." They also gave highly specific descriptions of the various facilities in both areas.

There were even brief descriptions of the facilities' appearances and styles.

The massive amount of text filled the entire screen, making everyone's heads spin.

Still, most of them patiently read through the rules from beginning to end once more.

Fu Chen looked around at the group and hesitated for a moment. "Where should we begin our review...?"

Cai Zhiyuan seemed to have already found a line of thought. Looking at the Visa Time on the large screen, he thoughtfully said two words.

"Group assignments."

Fu Chen said, "Hm?"

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

"For example, everyone in our group earned between fifty and sixty thousand. That was because we used the exact same, safest strategy."

Fu Chen seemed to realize something and quickly grabbed a pen and paper.

"Then, if we work backward from the chip totals to infer 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 a hand as he drank his coffee. "And me."

"Oh?" Fu Chen was a little surprised.

The first three had so few chips that it was easy to see they belonged together, but Wang Yongxin's chip total was directly ten times higher.

If Wang Yongxin had not admitted it himself, Fu Chen really would not have immediately guessed that he was in that group.

"Then group three was Jiang He, Qin Yao, Aunt Su, and Lawyer Lin.

"Sure enough, individual earnings were directly tied to group assignment. Except for special cases."

They did not need much explanation. Everyone quickly understood what was going on.

This game had essentially been a multiplayer team game.

Each person's decisions would very likely be influenced by the other three. In the end, the four of them would tend to adopt similar strategies.

If their group strategy was good, everyone would earn a lot. Conversely, if the group strategy was poor, everyone's earnings would decline.

Judging from the roster, group one should have had the strongest overall capability. All four were intelligent people, yet their chip totals were not the highest.

Clearly, that was the effect of their group strategy.

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

"At the start, the four of us exchanged the default twenty thousand chips, then met up in the Multiplayer Game Area.

"After discussing it for around ten minutes, we reached an agreement with our opponents, the players from Community No. 9. We decided to take turns being the dealer and win the antes, completing the multiplayer game that way to avoid having Visa Time deducted when we left.

"After that, we returned to the Chip Exchange Area and drew another 400ML of blood.

"During the multiplayer game, everyone honored the agreement. However, because ten rounds could not be divided evenly, two randomly chosen people got to be dealer one extra time and earned an additional seven thousand.

"We seated ourselves in an alternating pattern, so Sister Li and a player from Community No. 9 each got to be dealer one additional time, ensuring fairness to the greatest extent possible."

Hearing this, Jiang He let out a surprised sound.

Clearly, this strategy was almost exactly the same as what she had thought of.

Yang Yuting also said in surprise, "Hm? Xu Tong thought of the same thing. That was basically how we carried it out too.

"I thought it was some incredibly ingenious solution... Did everyone think of it?"

Xu Tong looked rather annoyed. "So... the key difference was how much blood we drew.

"Each of you drew an extra 400ML of blood, so you exchanged it for nearly forty thousand more chips."

Fu Chen nodded. "That's right. At first, we only drew the default minimum of 200ML as well. Cai Zhiyuan suggested drawing more blood during our discussion."

Cai Zhiyuan explained, "Drawing 400ML is a normal blood donation amount. It will not have any effect on the body.

"At 600ML, you would become fairly weak. Above 800ML, it would damage your health.

"The four of us are all healthy. Trading an extra 400ML of blood for forty thousand minutes of Visa Time was an exceptionally worthwhile deal."

Forty thousand minutes of Visa Time, judging by the prices in the Vending Machine, was roughly equivalent to forty thousand yuan. It could also let a player survive in the New World for nearly another month.

No matter how its value was measured, this exchange was absolutely worthwhile.

Ding Wenqiang lowered his head regretfully. He could not understand why, over the course of the hour-and-a-half-long game, he had never once considered this issue.

Li Renshu looked at Yang Yuting. "Your group should have only used the initial twenty thousand chips, right?

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

The other three people's chip totals could be explained. They had only drawn 200ML of blood, so they could have had at most twenty thousand chips.

But why did Wang Yongxin have two hundred thousand chips? They had clearly been in the same game.

Yang Yuting awkwardly looked at Wang Yongxin and Ding Wenqiang. "Because... there was a small conflict within our group. Or rather, we had internal strife."