"That's such a serious mistake, and we're only discovering it now!" The old military officer shot to his feet and slammed the table.
Team Leader Ming said, "Among those who died earlier, a significant proportion were elderly or suffering from illness. Some also couldn't withstand the pressure and took their own lives. The dungeon must have counted them among the reductions, which is why we didn't notice what was really happening right away."
Now that so many young and middle-aged people were dying one after another, the dungeon's real method of killing had naturally become clear.
"This isn't the time to assign blame," the old man at the head of the table said. "Have we figured out why young and middle-aged people are dying in such numbers?"
"It should have to do with the population ratio," Team Leader Ming said. "According to the guidelines issued by the game, people over fifty and under twenty are entitled to social welfare. These two age groups are considered dependents who must be supported; they aren't supposed to work, and should be sustained entirely by the welfare wealth created by young and middle-aged people. The number of people one young or middle-aged person can support varies between sub-districts. The qualifying ratio should be 1:6—that is, the welfare wealth created by one young or middle-aged person should be enough to support six people who don't work."
"But under our country's current conditions, one young or middle-aged person can support at most one person who doesn't work. So after accounting for reductions caused by old age, illness, suicide, and other unexpected circumstances, the number of young and middle-aged people should be about equal to the combined number of people in those two age groups."
"However, we previously sent away the young children and some of the