New Videotape

Cai Zhiyuan dragged his exhausted body into Prison Cell No. 1, and Ding Wenqiang personally shut the iron door behind him.

Click!

After locking it, Ding Wenqiang pressed the button to begin the trial, and the mechanism inside the cell automatically activated.

It was a simply designed mechanism. In the center of the room stood a massive iron pillar connecting the ceiling and floor, covered in rugged, intricate gears.

At a height of a little over one meter, a horizontal bar extended from it. It could be pushed and rotated around the iron pillar.

[The game will begin in 30 seconds. Please push the horizontal bar for 10 minutes.]

[Each full rotation grants 10 minutes of Visa Time. If you stop, you will receive an electric shock punishment.]

Cai Zhiyuan took a deep breath, gripped the bar with both hands, and leaned forward.

As the countdown was about to end, he stepped forward. The mechanism let out a harsh creak as it slowly began to move.

Cai Zhiyuan was not pushing very quickly, but fortunately, the game had no speed requirement. He simply could not stop.

Of course, the pushing speed affected the number of rotations, and the number of rotations affected how much Visa Time he earned.

But considering that each rotation only gave him ten minutes of Visa Time, the meager reward was not worth exhausting his strength.

After all, surviving was what mattered most in this game.

As the Judgment Game in Prison Cell No. 1 neared its end, a prompt appeared on the screen before Lin Sizhi, and the broadcast played the same message.

[Please cast a Fairness Vote on the king's actions.]

The "√" and "×" buttons below began to flash.

The countdown was short, only ten seconds.

Clearly, the question involved a value judgment, but there was no absolutely correct or absolutely incorrect answer.

According to the rules, this Fairness Vote would not bring the audience any benefits, but they had to choose an answer that genuinely reflected their hearts.

If their choice seriously conflicted with their true thoughts and triggered the lie detector, 10,000 minutes of Visa Time would be deducted. That was no small amount.

After considering it for a moment, Lin Sizhi pressed "×."

The countdown ended.

[Vote result: ×√√√×√√√√√]

[Audience Member No. 1 has had 10,000 minutes of Visa Time deducted.]

[Audience Member No. 5 has had 10,000 minutes of Visa Time deducted.]

[Final Fairness Score: 60]

[Thank you for your evaluation!]

Lin Sizhi studied the voting results thoughtfully. "This game's lie detector is pretty accurate."

He had deliberately pressed "×." At the same time, he had repeatedly tried to convince himself of things like Cai Zhiyuan being innocent and undeserving of trial, or Cai Zhiyuan's punishment being too light.

But clearly, such thoughts could not fool the game's lie-detection mechanism.

Although he had lost Visa Time, it was worth it.

Whether the lie detector was accurate would very likely affect the accuracy of the entire vote, which would in turn affect the audience's game strategy.

Now, at the very least, they could be sure that the lie detector was most likely always accurate.

It was worth noting that Audience Member No. 1 had conducted a similar test, just like Lin Sizhi.

That was also why the Fairness Score this time had fallen to sixty.

"In other words, each vote in favor counts as ten points, while each vote against counts as negative ten points. Add them together, and you get the final score.

"Votes that go against your true feelings only deduct Visa Time. They do not alter the voting result."

Lin Sizhi turned his attention back to the arena.

The other four remained silent outside the cell, merely watching Cai Zhiyuan struggle to push the mechanism.

Finally, the ten-minute countdown ended.

Cai Zhiyuan was panting from exhaustion. He lay completely flat on the ground, gulping for air.

[150 minutes of Visa Time have been awarded to the player.]

This really was a game made exclusively for beasts of burden.

Pushing one full rotation took nearly forty seconds at a slow pace, yet it only gave ten minutes of Visa Time. The Visa Time awarded for the entire game was not even as much as a casual tip from an audience member.

Ding Wenqiang looked through the iron bars at Cai Zhiyuan. After confirming that he was not seriously hurt, he immediately continued advancing the game.

When they arrived at Prison Cell No. 3, the game there had also been unlocked.

[Prison Cell No. 3: Punishment and Redemption]

[For every finger the criminal smashes with the mechanism, any game in any cell can be completed immediately. During each trial, at least one finger must be smashed. Otherwise, Visa Time will be deducted at a rate of 30 minutes per second.]

[During repeated games, the rate of Visa Time deduction will double.]

When Wang Yongxin saw the description for Prison Cell No. 3, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

Although Prison Cells No. 1 and No. 2 carried a risk of death after repeated games, they were relatively safe at the beginning.

Prison Cell No. 3, on the other hand, required someone to smash a finger from the very start.

Leaving aside whether the community even had medicine that could treat fractures, the sheer agony of breaking a finger was probably not something most people would willingly endure.

Of course, Prison Cell No. 3 did have one advantage: it offered the possibility of paying to avoid disaster.

If they did not smash a finger, Visa Time would be deducted at a rate of thirty minutes per second. For a ten-minute round, that came to 18,000 minutes of Visa Time.

As long as they were willing to spend Visa Time, this cell instead became the safest one in the game.

Of course, the next round would cost 36,000, and the one after that would cost 72,000... It was a bottomless pit. The Visa Time deducted far exceeded what could be earned from this game.

Ding Wenqiang could not make a decision immediately either. After thinking for a moment, he returned to the center of the arena and decided to take out another Videotape to watch.

According to the game rules, he could now view the videotapes of two more people.

After some consideration, Ding Wenqiang still chose Wang Yongxin's and Zhang Peng's videotapes first.

After the static on the big screen faded away, an image appeared.

It was still from a first-person perspective, but compared with that narrow, cramped cargo-van cab, this place was clearly much more spacious and brightly lit.

It was an office, easily more than fifty square meters in size.

The owner of the footage was seated behind a desk, flipping through the documents in his hands.

[As the CEO of a publicly listed company, you are seen by everyone as a successful person.]

[You claim to work more than ten hours every day, maintaining an unwavering schedule: getting up at six in the morning and returning home to sleep at ten at night. You use this to lecture your employees, telling them that they must work diligently and that, as long as they work hard, they too can one day become as successful as you.]

[But in reality, after getting up at six, you arrive at the golf course before seven to hit your first ball. Then you catch up on sleep in your luxury car until arriving at the office at ten.]

[You begin getting massages at eleven-thirty, start lunch at one, get another massage at four in the afternoon, play cards with business partners at six-thirty, and finally attend a dinner banquet before returning home before ten at night.]

[This is what you call "working more than ten hours every day."]

[When the crowdsourced delivery riders at your company die suddenly from overwork, you have just undergone a comprehensive medical examination, and every health indicator is excellent. You attribute this to your abundant energy, healthy routine, and never-say-die spirit of perseverance.]

[You never worry that you might see those delivery riders who died from overwork when you wake from dreams in the dead of night, because you have never seen their faces, and they were never qualified to appear in your dreams.]

Then Wang Yongxin's file appeared on the big screen.

[Wang Yongxin, male, 36 years old.]

[Occupation: CEO of "Speedy Delivery."]

[Used big-data algorithms to harshly exploit crowdsourced delivery riders, resulting in several serious traffic accidents and three cases of delivery riders dying suddenly from overwork.]

[Judgment result: Not tried.]

Facing the looks from everyone else, Wang Yongxin appeared quite composed.

He spread his hands. "Fine, I admit that I'm somewhat hypocritical. I'm not hardworking at all, much less possessed of any never-say-die fighting spirit.

"That was all a lie, a carefully crafted public image.

"From the very beginning, I was a profiteer who liked exploiting loopholes.

"I accept any moral judgment, but I must clarify one thing: I have never committed any act that violated the law.

"Isn't it a little too much to make me die over that alone?"

Ding Wenqiang fell silent for a moment. "You never violated the law? What about labor law?"

Wang Yongxin was briefly at a loss for words. "...Other than that."

After a pause, he continued, "Fine, if I have to enter a cell, then I choose Prison Cell No. 3."

Ding Wenqiang did not agree immediately. Instead, he inserted Zhang Peng's Videotape into the VCR once more.