Chapter 554: The Only Variable

Huang Shengjie paused, then understood, "Both sides reach an agreement and the door unlocks."But the game rules say a player can only open one door in their room.

"So there might be a gap in the mechanics like this: the Doctor accepts the request, the door unlocks, but you deliberately go and open the Lounge door instead.

"That way, your Medical Points still go to the Doctor as normal, but the Doctor also can't go and meet with anyone else."

Qian Li nodded and said, "Exactly.

"The Treatment Room has a special structure. It only works one way: patients enter the Doctor's room. The Doctor can't actively open the door to enter a patient's room.

"With no other patients' doors unlocked, the Doctor naturally couldn't meet with anyone else.

"Once I was in the Lounge, I deliberately used certain tactics to isolate anyone who hadn't shown up there.

"And I specifically emphasised the concept of the first three rounds as a time frame.

"That made all of you worried that if you didn't appear in the Lounge in the next round, you would inevitably be isolated by me.

"On top of that, by the second round the Doctor still hadn't obtained Special Medication, which weakened your desire to meet with them and reduced the bribes you were willing to offer.

"In short, that was how I blocked you from meeting the Doctor at the very start of the game.

"Of course, from the Doctor's perspective, it wasn't a loss either. Even though I didn't come to meet him, the bribe for opening the door still went to him in full.

"And as it happened, the moment I entered the Lounge in the first round, I immediately recognised Zhang Yuan.

"The two of us instantly realised this was a very good opportunity.

"We used this information gap with complete unspoken coordination, manufacturing a deception in which we each played a role, one as the opinion leader in the Lounge and the other as the opposition.

"When we brushed past each other on the way out, I slipped him a tablet under the cover of that bump.

"That kind of transaction without using the trading machine counts as a violation, but it only results in a 10% deduction from earnings upon leaving the game. For us, that was entirely acceptable.

"And the reason for passing the tablet was to make the subsequent deception easier.

"Once back in my room, I immediately called him and we worked out the finer details of the plan."

Qian Li paused briefly and continued, "According to the rules, an Infected player appears randomly among players in a zone each hour.

"Either of us could be selected, or it could be someone else.

"We had prepared responses for each possible situation.

"If neither of us was selected, we would continue the double act, with one person isolating and excluding the Infected player and the other showing sympathy toward them, to further divide you.

"But if one of us became the Infected player, what actually happened would unfold.

"Zhang Yuan, as the actual Infected player, would endure the pain with only ordinary medication and act as if nothing were wrong.

"While I would deliberately fake being Infected, not taking any medication and enduring the Standard Pain, rubbing my eyes red, washing my face and leaving just enough moisture on my temples.

"In short, using these methods to allow the real Infected player, Zhang Yuan, to pass the Special Pain to you.

"Then in the following round, both of us offered 5,000 Medical Points to guarantee meetings with the Doctor.

"You had suddenly been Infected and were caught off guard. You were torn between coming to the Lounge to figure out what had happened and confronting Zhang Yuan face to face, and going to see the Doctor, which made it hard to commit quickly enough to offering a sufficient number of Medical Points.

"We were the ones with the plan while you were improvising. We could roughly anticipate your mental price point, which was more than enough to secure those crucial meeting opportunities."

Zhou Xiaoying frowned and said, "But in the very next round, I offered 4,000 Medical Points myself!

"You're saying you offered even more than 4,000 in that round?

"Where did you get that many points?"

Qian Li shook her head and said, "No. After that round, neither of us offered any more Medical Points.

"Because in that round, Zhang Yuan and I convinced the Doctors to join our plan.

"Simply put, we made them believe that working with us was certain to drain every last bit of visa time from you.

"Compared to collecting bribes and meeting you individually, this was a more effortless option with higher returns."

Zhou Xiaoying still looked confused, "But..."

Zhang Yuan added, "In the first three rounds, both Doctors came to recognise two things.

"First, that Zhang Yuan and I were operating at a higher level than you, and that the deception was essentially complete, enough to drain all your visa time.

"Second, that Zhang Yuan and I were more generous than you, and would distribute enough Medical Points to them as agreed.

"So the arrangement we offered the Doctors was this: we would each monopolise Type O and Type F respectively and sell them to you, while the Doctors only needed to stock up and count the money.

"For them, it was the most effortless option available.

"Of course, if our plan failed and we couldn't deliver enough Medical Points to them, they could also choose to break the arrangement at any time and meet with you instead."

Huang Shengjie felt everything click into place.

He had tried offering 5,000 Medical Points, and the Doctor had still not opened the door.

It was not because someone else had offered more. It was because the Doctor had already reached a cooperative arrangement with Qian Li and Zhang Yuan, so they wanted to avoid unnecessary complications. If the Doctor had met with Huang Shengjie, he might have asked which medications were available, what the differences were, or who the Doctor had previously been meeting with.

Doctors were not necessarily skilled liars. If a crack appeared in the story, it would not only make it difficult to keep deceiving Huang Shengjie, it could also risk unravelling Qian Li and Zhang Yuan's entire scheme.

From the Doctor's perspective, those 5,000 Medical Points Huang Shengjie had sent would sooner or later end up in their pocket anyway, so there was simply no incentive to care.

Huang Shengjie suddenly thought of something, and his mouth twitched slightly, "The two Doctors in our Zone C really are completely money-driven.

"No wonder that player's accusation said the Sales player called Chen Guangming opened up our Zone C so quickly.

"Because our Reviewer and Doctors never had any intention of resisting. It was just a mutual meeting of minds."

It was clear that Zone C's rapid collapse had been a two-way process.

Chen Guangming had convinced the Reviewer at their very first meeting, and the Reviewer had quickly won over the Doctors, along with help from Qian Li and Zhang Yuan.

None of them had encountered any friction. They had simply woven the scheme together between them.

It was not that Chen Guangming was particularly formidable. He simply had not met with any resistance at all.

Before long, Huang Shengjie had another question.

"But...

"When exactly did you get Type M medication from the Doctor, Lawyer Lin?"

Lin Sizhi explained, "In the first round, I met with the Doctor and bought a fair amount of Type I from them.

"These two Doctors are certainly not players of high moral character, but being purely motivated by money also tends to mean they tailor their behaviour to whoever they're dealing with."

Huang Shengjie paused and said, "That's it? It's really that simple?"

Lin Sizhi nodded and said, "It really is that simple."