Chapter 553: Cutting Off Doctor from Patient

Huang Shengjie looked between Lin Sizhi and Qian Li with a baffled expression. It was plain that Qian Li was a completely different person when talking to Lin Sizhi than she had been before.

All the sharp confidence and cleverness she had shown previously seemed to have disappeared entirely, replaced by unconditional yielding.

Why?

On top of that, there were still so many unanswered questions about this game, so Huang Shengjie was more confused than ever.

Lin Sizhi seemed to have guessed what he was thinking and explained, "The reason you still can't make sense of so many things is simply because of the information gap between veteran and new players.

"You've probably formed some conclusions already, but there are blind spots blocking your thinking, so you can't extend those conclusions any further."

Huang Shengjie was still confused, "Information gap? Blind spots?"

He looked at Lin Sizhi and found that the other man seemed to have already developed a complete picture of everything that had happened in the Lounge.

And he had done so based only on Huang Shengjie's brief account, despite never having appeared in the Lounge at all.

Lin Sizhi glanced at Qian Li, then at Zhang Yuan, "Simple enough. These two are old acquaintances. They've known each other all along.

"Qian Li, I recall that at some point during a question-and-answer session, one of your community's players was asked: what was the surname of Player No. 1 in the 1st Community?

"The answer was Zhang.

"I don't suppose that happens to be this gentleman right here?"

Qian Li deflated slightly and spread her hands without saying anything.

Clearly, the tactics that had been enough to run rings around a new player like Huang Shengjie were, in Lin Sizhi's eyes, nothing more than a trick he could see through at a glance. There was nothing to argue and nothing to struggle against.

Zhang Yuan gave a somewhat resigned greeting, "Lawyer Lin. I've heard a great deal about you.

"In the community, I'd only heard things about you secondhand, never actually met you.

"I did wonder whether it was all somewhat exaggerated. Looking at you now, it seems not in the slightest."

Huang Shengjie's eyes went wide, "Wait.

"So you two knew each other from the start? You were in the same community during the First Stage!

"You just ended up in different communities when the Second Stage began and the communities were reshuffled.

"You deliberately pretended not to recognise each other after meeting, and then played out this act of being at odds with each other. The whole thing was a performance?

"The three of us thought we could stay neutral and play you off against each other, choosing whichever side benefited us more. But in reality, from the very beginning, it was all a trap aimed at the three of us bystanders?"

Zhang Yuan let out a quiet sigh, "Yes."

With Lin Sizhi having already seen through everything, there was no point in keeping up the act, and the only option was to do as Lin Sizhi had said and enter the confessions.

Zhou Xiaoying's expression was equally stunned.

"So the two of you were deliberately undermining each other and playing opposing sides, but it was all just a performance for our benefit?

"You had the roles divided from the start.

"Qian Li, you played the softer part, coming across as relatively friendlier. Zhang Yuan played the harder part, showing more obvious hostility.

"Even the medications were divided up deliberately. One selling Type O, one selling Type F.

"So no matter which of you we chose, we were always inside your trap?

"But there are still so many things I don't understand.

"Why would the Doctor only meet with the two of you and never with us? And at the very start, Zhang Yuan was the Infected player without any medication, so why did his symptoms look lighter than Qian Li's? And..."

Huang Shengjie cut in and said, "I think I've more or less worked it out.

"Qian Li, you secretly passed medication to Zhang Yuan, didn't you?

"Right at the end of the first round, when the two of you brushed past each other and bumped into each other.

"So at the point of that first meeting, neither of you knew the other was in the game, but once you saw each other, you instantly came to an understanding, pretending not to know each other and playing against each other.

"After returning to your rooms, you could make a call directly to work out the finer details of the strategy."

Qian Li looked at Lin Sizhi, then quietly let out a sigh.

"Alright. Let me explain it myself. It'll save time.

"During the First Stage, Zhang Yuan and I were in the same community.

"We weren't the strongest community, but when it came to running operations like this, we had discussed, researched, and prepared a great deal.

"We had worked out many different plans and frameworks in advance. After meeting, all it took was a simple expression or gesture to signal each other, and we would both roughly know which type of strategy to adopt.

"In the First Stage games, these preparations hadn't really come in useful.

"After all, when other players could see that we were from the same community, they would naturally assume we knew each other and stay on guard.

"What we hadn't expected was that the Second Stage would give all of this another opportunity to work.

"Because we had been reshuffled into different communities, with different community numbers on our badges, it was much harder for anyone to realise we had known each other all along.

"The moment I finished listening to all the rules at the start of the game, I realised this was a standard negative-sum game.

"Because the game itself produces no visa time. All the Medical Points and visa time simply flow between players, and when players spend visa time in-game to purchase Medical Points, there's a severe loss in the conversion, only possible at a 2:1 or even 4:1 ratio.

"In other words, the only way to profit from this game is to extract it from other players.

"Sales, Reviewer, and Doctor are all Advantage Identities, because they naturally control the medication supply chain.

"As an ordinary patient, if you want to profit in the same way, you have to break into the medication supply chain and find a place for yourself within it.

"So from the very first round, I was already trying to cut off the connection between you and the Doctor.

"Which is why the Doctor never met any of you throughout the entire game."

Zhou Xiaoying looked slightly disbelieving, "But, how exactly did that work? The bribe I offered the Doctor reached 5,000 Medical Points at one point. Were you really able to offer a higher price every single round?

"That doesn't seem possible at all."

Qian Li explained, "In the first round, I gave 2,000 Medical Points directly.

"That was certainly the highest of the three of us.

"Because according to the game rules, the earliest the Doctor can receive Special Medication is the second round, and it can't reach patients until the third round at the earliest.

"So the vast majority of players wouldn't offer that much right from the start."

The 'three' Qian Li was referring to were herself, Zhou Xiaoying, and Du Peng, all three of whom were in the left half of Zone C and facing the same Doctor. The other half, Huang Shengjie, Zhang Yuan, and Lin Sizhi, faced the other Doctor.

Zhou Xiaoying nodded as realisation dawned, "Right, I offered 500 in the first round and had it returned.

"But wait, didn't the Doctor also not meet with you?

"I always thought the Doctor had gone to see the Reviewer."

Qian Li shook her head, "The Doctor accepted my request. But I didn't open the door."