"Just as I said before, in each summoning round, we only need to send out two people to submit red and blue talismans respectively."
"Everyone else can submit multicolored talismans to maximize their prize money."
"However, someone just raised an objection: the two people submitting red and blue talismans won't get any prize money, and nobody wants to be that kind of sucker."
Lin Jie paused. "Everyone, you need to take the long view."
"What I described was just one summoning round. But this game has a full nine summoning rounds!"
"So all we need to do is add one more step to that plan-"
"Take turns."
Take turns?
Everyone fell silent, turning Lin Jie's words over in their minds.
"Since none of us are willing to sacrifice our own interests for humanity, then..."
"We simply need to divide that sacrifice equally among every single person."
"Everyone has to be the one submitting red and blue talismans. That makes it fair."
"In other words, the two people submitting red and blue votes each summoning round won't stay the same. They'll rotate."
At this point, everyone's expressions finally softened somewhat.
Chen Li nodded as well. "If that's how it works, I accept."
Throughout history, the concern with wealth had never been scarcity, but unequal distribution.
Human nature was greedy, and always had been.
Yu Ze asked, "Then how exactly should we take turns?"
Lin Jie continued his methodical explanation:
"In each round, two people have to submit red and blue talismans, while everyone else earns prize money."
"So in the next round, two different people take over submitting red and blue talismans."
"Let me give you an example. Suppose we submit talismans in this order: Lin Jie, Lin Zhi, Xia Qu, Chen Li, Zhao Tian, and Yu Ze."
"Round one: Lin Jie and Lin Zhi submit red and blue votes. Everyone else submits multicolored votes. At that point,"
"Xia Qu, Chen Li, Zhao Tian, and Yu Ze-the four of you each get one million yuan in cash."
"In round two, since Lin Jie and Lin Zhi submitted red and blue votes last round, we move two people down the submission order."
"It becomes Xia Qu and Chen Li's turn to submit red and blue votes respectively."
"The other four submit multicolored votes."
"At that point, Lin Jie, Lin Zhi, Xia Qu, and Chen Li have each earned a total of one million yuan in prize money."
"Zhao Tian and Yu Ze, you each have two million yuan in prize money."
"In round three, we move down another two people. Finally, it's Zhao Tian and Yu Ze's turn to submit red and blue votes, while everyone else submits multicolored votes."
"At that point, everyone has earned two million yuan in prize money."
"No one has more, and no one has less."
"After three rounds like this, everyone has taken a turn, and everyone has submitted multicolored votes the same number of times: twice."
"Everyone has also earned the same amount of prize money: two million yuan."
"We keep doing this until we've completed nine voting rounds. After nine rounds, everyone will have submitted multicolored talismans six times, and everyone will receive six million yuan!"
"Not only that, humanity will have perfectly thwarted the summoning ritual, and-"
"Everyone will be tied for the highest prize money, so everyone will receive the doubled lifespan reward!"
"This is the plan for humanity's total victory!"
Lin Jie's analysis was clear, well organized, and full of force.
Everyone fell silent, pondering his words.
After a long while, Chen Li looked up. "Fucking brilliant!"
Zhao Tian praised him too. "Damn, no wonder you're the rookie king!"
Xia Qu nodded as well. "This plan really does seem to be the optimal solution."
Yu Ze also murmured his agreement. "It even solves the problem we discussed earlier about who should submit the red and blue talismans."
Now everyone accepted Lin Jie's plan.
Lin Jie's plan could be summed up in one sentence:
Take turns sending out two people each round to submit red and blue talismans respectively, ensuring the summoning failed.
Everyone else would submit multicolored votes whenever possible, maximizing their prize money.
That way, after nine rounds, all the humans would be Human Heroes.
A perfect plan, the ultimate optimal solution.
A strategy for humanity's total victory.
The plan was flawless. As long as they successfully carried it through to the end, all the humans would gain the maximum benefit.
Smiles filled everyone's faces.
Only Lin Zhi looked at Lin Jie with worry.
She could also see that as long as the plan went smoothly, humanity would indeed achieve total victory.
But why had her brother proposed this plan?
His role was clearly...
The imp, wasn't it?
Zhao Tian suddenly cried out again. "Something's wrong!"
The others looked at him. "What's wrong now?"
Zhao Tian rubbed his buzz cut. "There's an imp among the six of us, isn't there?"
"This is a plan for the humans. Why would the imp obediently cooperate with us?"
Yet Lin Jie remained unhurried. "Remember how I said at the start that it didn't matter who the imp was?"
"Because the imp has no choice but to cooperate with us!"
"The crucial point of this plan is that we settle everything at the very beginning: who should cast which vote, and when."
"Everyone just needs to follow the plan obediently."
"Because this plan is the Optimal Plan that lets all the humans earn the most prize money,"
"Anyone who dares not to follow it must be the imp!"
"Once the imp is exposed, he's as good as dead."
"He can only obediently cooperate and carry out this plan."
"That's why I said it doesn't matter who the imp is."
Only now did everyone finally understand what it meant to leave nothing unaccounted for.
Yu Ze was now completely won over by Lin Jie's intelligence:
"I finally understand why you're the rookie king."
"Even the imp's actions are part of your calculations."
Chen Li clapped happily as well. "Haha!"
"The imp can only watch helplessly as we humans win!"
"We've even mapped out exactly how he'll vote!"
"I bet he won't dare make a peep even by the time the game ends!"
Zhao Tian raised a question at just that moment:
"Since nobody has any objections, shouldn't we decide our order?"
Everyone fell silent again.
Even if this plan would be absolutely fair once fully carried out,
There would still be temporary unfairness along the way.
For example, the order in which they took turns.
Those who submitted talismans first would have to submit red and blue talismans first.
After that first round, there would be a temporary gap in everyone's prize money.
Moreover, since the bonfire was completely transparent, those who submitted their talismans first would have no opportunity to pull any tricks.
Those who submitted later, however, could clearly see what the people ahead of them submitted, and could respond and adjust at any time if something unexpected happened.
Seeing that no one answered, Zhao Tian grew bolder and continued on his own:
"How about this? Since Lin Jie proposed the plan, let's have him submit his talisman first. What do you think?"
"Everyone, what do you think of the order I'm about to suggest?"