God's imitator

Chapter 539 The Lounge

A little earlier.

Huang Shengjie from Zone C was disappointed when the door to the "consultation room" didn't open. He could only head to the "rest room" with some disappointment.

The lounge was even more simply furnished than a regular patient's room, with only six extremely basic folding chairs casually placed around the room.

There are six different doors on one side of the lounge. The two doors at the far ends are obviously more ornately decorated and are marked "VIP Patients", while the four doors in the middle look very ordinary.

On the wall directly opposite the door is a floor plan of the same room as the patient's room, only larger.

The other two walls were completely empty.

In addition, there are four special devices in the corner of the room, two of each of two different types.

Huang Shengjie immediately stepped forward and took a quick look.

Two of them are vending machines, each containing only one type of item.

Class I analgesics

[Two tablets per bottle.]

Price: 800 Medical Points.

[Each machine is limited to purchasing 2 bottles per round, and each player is limited to purchasing 1 bottle.]

The other type of machine also has two units, each with two screens and two areas for swiping medical cards. The screens display dialog boxes for transaction amounts and other information, which are clearly related to transaction activities.

There was also this machine in the examination room, but Huang Shengjie had never been inside before, so this was the first time he had seen it.

Soon, four players, including Huang Shengjie, entered the lounge one after another.

They maintained a cautious social distance from each other while also checking the functions of both devices from different distances.

No one sat down on the folding chairs in the room for the time being; everyone was deep in thought.

Huang Shengjie knew that they were most likely thinking about the same problem as him:
Should we buy medicine?
"The game rules clearly state that players can buy the same 'basic medicines' as the doctor in the lounge, but at a much higher price than the doctor's."

"Based on the prices in the community, 800 yuan in medical expenses is equivalent to 800 minutes of visa time. The actual purchasing power of 1 minute of visa time is roughly equivalent to 1 yuan. Considering that visa time is equivalent to life, it is actually much more precious than 1 yuan."

"In other words, I'm essentially spending 800 yuan to buy two painkillers, and I can most likely get them from a doctor for a much lower price!"

"If the doctor maliciously raises the price or refuses to sell to me, then I will have no choice but to buy from the break room, and then I may not have any other options."

"But if the doctor is willing to sell it to me at a less outrageous price, I would definitely be losing money by buying it now."

"In addition, the game rules also mention that sharing any device with an 'infected person' may result in infection."

Huang Shengjie's mind raced. Standing in front of the vending machine, he could increasingly feel the burning gazes of the other players.

Just then, a female player went to another vending machine and bought a bottle of painkillers.

Huang Shengjie also made a quick decision, swiping his medical card on his vending machine to buy a bottle of "Class I painkiller".

After that, the two players who were originally behind them also immediately completed their purchases.

The last four bottles in the two vending machines were sold out instantly.

The player who came out of the room last was standing at the very back, so he was unable to buy the medicine.

Huang Shengjie carefully put away the medicine in his hand, while quickly glancing at the name tags worn by the players.

The female player who decided to buy painkillers even earlier than him was [Community 11 - Qian Li].

The two players queuing behind him were a man and a woman, namely [Community 8 - Du Peng] and [Community 23 - Zhou Xiaoying].

The player who couldn't buy the medicine was [Community 14 - Zhang Yuan].

As the only player who failed to buy the medicine, Zhang Yuan looked slightly regretful, but he wasn't too panicked; his mental fortitude was still quite good.

Since violence is prohibited in the game, there's nothing he can do about it, so he might as well accept the situation.

On the bright side, patients have multiple ways to obtain medication. Buying medication directly from the lounge in the first round of the game might give them an advantage, but it could also turn them into complete suckers.

So no one said anything more, they just sat down on the folding chairs, killing time and waiting for the end of this round of the game.

Everyone was looking at the name tags on each other's chests, but it was clear that they came from different communities and did not know each other, so for a moment no one spoke and they maintained a polite social distance.

Some people even instinctively moved their folding chairs back a little. Huang Shengjie looked at the white medicine bottle in his hand, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Fortunately, at least I have a bottle of medicine on hand. Although it's a bit expensive, at least I have a safety net."

"According to the game rules, 'infected' individuals will randomly appear every hour. Similarly, if ordinary pain cannot be effectively relieved over time, it may develop into 'special pain,' which means becoming an 'infected' individual."

"Based on this rule, only the first round of the game can confirm that there are no infected people in the game, so buying medicine is absolutely safe."

"So no matter what, buying medicine now shouldn't be a bad deal."

After a period of silence, one of the players spoke up.

Huang Shengjie looked at the name tag on her chest: [Community 11 - Qian Li].

In Huang Shengjie's memory, she came out of the VIP patient room on the far left, while no one appeared in the VIP patient room on the far right.

She was also the first female player to buy medicine from a vending machine.

"The copycat who designed this game specially arranged such a 'lounge' that all patients could enter, obviously hoping that we would talk about something."

"If no one has any good ideas, let me say a few words first, just to get the ball rolling."

"Veteran players of the arcade know that the game rules directly determine the optimal game strategy."

"Based on these new rules, there are three types of players we must be wary of:"
The first type is "doctor".

"The second type is 'infected persons'."

"The third type is players who did not appear in the lounge during the first one or two rounds of the game."

"The other patients besides these three types of players, who are now meeting in the lounge, are a natural community of interests. Only by sticking together and working together can we find the optimal solution in this game."

Huang Shengjie didn't quite understand and didn't know how Qian Li had come to this conclusion.

He instinctively wanted to ask why, but he held back because no one else spoke.

If he asks a question rashly, he might reveal that he is a new player and doesn't know anything.

So he, like everyone else, simply listened silently.

Qian Li continued, "I don't know if any of you here are new players who just entered the second phase. But I'm a veteran player who went through the entire first phase, so I can guess a bit about the copycat's intentions."

"Let me explain why these three types of players must be wary of and cannot be trusted."

"First of all, the advantageous identities in this game are all bought. In other words, the more visa time you donate before entering, the better your identity will be, and the further back in the room you will be assigned."

"Those who donated the most were undoubtedly salespersons, auditors, and doctors."

"Next are VIP patients, and then regular patients."

"I'm guessing that the visa processing time donated by everyone is between 5000 and 10000 minutes, right?"

The others didn't say anything, but most people's attitude was already tacit agreement.

Qian Li said rather frankly, "I donated 15000 minutes of visa time and was assigned to a VIP patient room."

"That's why I judged that your donation was less than 1."

"Similarly, it can be inferred that doctors, auditors, and salespeople, who have these advantages, will donate even more, possibly 2 or even 3."

She paused slightly, then continued, "One of the rules of the game is that the visa time donated by players before entering the game can only be converted into basic medical points."

"It will disappear directly when the game ends and cannot be converted into visa time."

"Trading activities, such as buying and selling medicines, must be conducted in the game to convert them into special medical points, which can then be exchanged for visa time at a 1:1 ratio at the end of the game."

In other words, all players with "advantageous status" are actually under "performance pressure".

"They must find a way to sell the drugs in order to recoup their losses."

"Suppose a player pays 3 before entering the game, then he must sell at least 3 worth of medicine in the game. If he sells 1 less, he will lose 1 worth of visa time when he leaves the game."

"The question is, where do they get their money from?"

"It can only come from us 'patients'."

(End of this chapter)