Fu Chen furrowed his brow and quickly shook his head: "No, no, no, I think this idea is absolutely off track.

"This game has a layoff feature, but it doesn't mean we have to use it.

"How do you know these virtual employees won't serve some purpose or trigger some hidden mechanism in the future?

"Could this be a trap?

"What if, like the 'King's Game', they throw a Justice vote at us last, and arrange something like hanging us by the lamp post? Wouldn't that be game over?

"In reality, as workhorses, we despise layoffs. Why should it be different in the game?"

Xu Tong picked up the badge hanging on her chest: "But it says here, we are role-playing.

"Role-playing as the president, role-playing as executives. The ultimate goal is to keep the company alive. If the company goes bankrupt, no employee can be saved."

Fu Chen still disagreed: "Role-playing isn't just about imitating a role; we must surpass the role.

"This is a judgment game. How can a judgment game pass without facing any moral questioning?"

Xu Tong felt a bit frustrated, also a bit anxious.

Because she held information that Fu Chen and Li Renshu did not.

The judgment game required her to help Su Xiuqin break free from obsessions, the core point being: knowing how to let go.

Xu Tong suspected layoffs might also be a kind of letting go? Though it's somewhat far-fetched, for now, there's no more fitting action in the game.

In her inability to reveal hidden missions, Xu Tong could only find other ways to convince others to carry out layoffs.

Seeing the two arguing at an impasse, Li Renshu looked at the time and hurriedly said, "Alright, let's put this issue aside for now.

"The matter of layoffs does need to be approached more carefully.

"How about, in the next game round, Xu Tong, you stay with the company. You can study the specific functions these employees have, and whether they might align with some existing game mechanisms.

"Meanwhile, you can draft a layoff plan but not submit it.

"If in the upcoming game, the company faces an unsolvable financial crisis that necessitates layoffs to maintain healthy cash flow, then we'll submit the layoff plan."

Xu Tong nodded: "Okay, I understand."

Li Renshu returned to the computer to check the company's data.

[Company 17 LLC]

[January company account balance: 90,000 minutes visa time]

[February estimated income: 100,000 minutes visa time]

[February estimated expenditure: 81,000 minutes visa time]

"Estimated income has dropped by 20,000... Is it because of the impact of the economic downturn? Meaning every month it decreases by 20,000.

"It won't be long before we might be running a deficit..."

Li Renshu looked grave.

Last month, the income minus expenditure had about 40,000 surplus, so the account balance seemed higher.

Yet this surplus is only temporary; as time goes on and income decreases, this bit of account balance can only keep getting consumed.

Li Renshu and Fu Chen left the company and headed once again to the market research venue.

Since the selection of people to go for research hadn't changed, there was no need to submit an application to the president.

...

Fu Chen and Li Renshu again headed to the field, while Xu Tong stayed in her office, continuing to study what use these virtual employees serve.

"Can't tell which one should be laid off and which shouldn't.

"But this also means there definitely are some that can be laid off."

Xu Tong sighed quietly.

Based on her experience, there must be redundancy among the 20 employees; the only issue is according to game mechanics, if layoffs would trigger company collapse, and if so, what number of layoffs would cause it.

"The safest way is to layoff by proportion.

"By screening employees from different departments and different salary brackets, lay off 20%, which means four people."

Xu Tong carefully selected four virtual people from the list of 20 who appeared to be idlers.

She knew, determining who's an idler based on files alone is quite unreliable.

But given current game conditions, there isn't a better way.

If this task were given to netizens, they'd surely suggest laying off those with high salaries first.

After all, how much do the low-level workhorses earn? Pennies compared to one small supervisor's salary?

Among these 20 employees, the lowest monthly salary is only 1,000 minutes visa time, while the highest is 10,000, a tenfold difference.

Lay off ten of the 1,000s, it's only equivalent to one small supervisor who earns 10,000.

Xu Tong was also curious about why certain virtual employees received such high salaries, consuming 10,000 minutes visa time per game round.

Players toil and risk their lives, only earning two to three tens of thousands in a whole game.

But the issue is, these high-salaried ones could indeed be highly capable and indispensable?

If a key person gets laid off and it leads to a direct company shutdown, wouldn't that be game over?

So after pondering, when unable to determine who indeed is an idler, laying off by proportion while avoiding extremes in salary seemed a more cautious choice.

Just then, Xu Tong suddenly noticed the 'Human Care' page appearing with virtual employee avatars.

She remembered this tab used to be empty before the game begun, this seemed to be a new mechanism emerging with game rounds.

These virtual employees differed from normal ones: they appeared emaciated and worn, and had no salaries, only 'work injury medical expenses'.

Yet these expenses seemed to count towards company expenditure.

Company's current expenditure has moved from 80,000 to 81,000.

"So as time goes on, did work injury employees appear in company operations? Requiring money for treatment??"

Xu Tong hurriedly checked closely.

Currently, there's only one employee, appears to be a young man, his illness column written as 'liver cancer', cure rate column noted as '50%'.

Upon clicking, there are two different treatment options to choose from.

[Conventional treatment: 1,000 minutes visa time/month.]

[Special treatment: 5,000 minutes visa time/month.]

One can also choose to directly [layoff].

When this employee appeared, the system had automatically set conventional treatment.

If one wants to switch to special treatment or directly layoff, it requires executive operation on the page, submitting to the president, upon their approval, only then it takes effect.

"This..."

Xu Tong thought carefully, and decided not to act for the time being.

This operation is likely related to judgment tasks, it's best to wait for Li Renshu and Fu Chen to return and discuss before deciding.

The default conventional treatment costs 1,000 a month, although additional expenditure, it's still within acceptable limits.

Xu Tong switched back to the employee page, at that moment, a pop-up appeared over an employee's avatar.

[An employee reports to you:]

[Among the top 3 provinces in cinema count, average cinema count is: 1,200.]

This pop-up had a 10-second countdown, automatically disappearing after 10 seconds.

Xu Tong paused, wanting to jot it on paper, but there's no paper or pen in the game space.

"That's why paperless office isn't feasible..."

She could only temporarily commit this data to memory.

Simultaneously, she deliberately noted the employee's avatar and name, coincidentally one she hesitated whether to lay off—the 10,000 minutes visa time monthly employee.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.