'Owl' paused briefly and continued:

"Among you, someone should have opened that wooden box in the first stage.

"Or maybe it wasn't opened at all.

"But regardless, your oxygen consumption is very low, which indicates that you all didn't engage in a lot of thinking during the first stage and just treated this game as purely a game of luck.

"This also means that you lack both the motivation and the ability to deceive, so this is truly a 'safety statement.'

"I studied the specific oxygen consumption closely. If you empty your mind and stop thinking, it takes about an hour to consume one canister of oxygen.

"But if you keep thinking and constantly focus on the opponent's moves while seriously considering strategies, it will take about 30 minutes or even less to consume a canister.

"This is different from the real world's situation and is clearly a deliberate setup by the game's Imitator.

"This large disparity is clearly displayed on this screen.

"Of course, nothing is absolute, but the probability of anomalies under this mechanism is very low, so I dared to provide you with insurance."

Hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.

"Ah? So that's how it is!"

'Gray Wolf' He Xiaojun also completely understood: "So the suggestion left by the Imitator in that wooden box actually has two layers of meaning?

"The first layer teaches us to play Random Card, eliminating psychological interference, using this defensive strategy to reduce losses and aim for expected positive returns.

"The second layer suggests reducing our thinking and oxygen consumption to establish a kind of 'safety statement,' making it easier to find trustworthy people in the second stage of the game?

"I felt a bit regretful for smashing it in advance before!

"Now it seems that Foolish Players should have smashed it right away.

"The reason this suggestion mainly works in the first stage is that the low oxygen consumption is the 'safety statement.'

"Using this strategy in the second stage cannot establish a 'safety statement,' so it has little significance."

'Owl' nodded: "Indeed."

Apparently, this wooden box is a form of directional filtering.

Its reward mechanism is based on the total visa time of players.

The more total visa time, the more chips you get automatically when it opens after 1 hour.

Therefore, the richer and smarter players, who care more about these chips, are not interested in the strategies inside the box and are more inclined to wait.

However, for players with limited remaining visa time, even if they wait for it to open automatically, they will not get many chips. It's better to open it immediately to see what the suggestion inside is.

'Gray Wolf' He Xiaojun was such a player.

If he hadn't smashed the wooden box and taken the advice, and instead chose to ponder aimlessly on his own, the oxygen consumption would have significantly increased, and 'Owl' would not have brought him into the team.

In the eyes of the game's Imitator, if a Foolish Player can't come up with strategies but is greedy for a tiny amount of chips and lacks the courage to smash open the wooden box in advance, instead wasting energy pondering aimlessly... then he can't be called a 'wise fool' and deserves to be filtered out by this game.

Confirmation of this made everyone look at each other with newfound familiarity, the low oxygen consumption data appearing quite pleasing.

"Great, shall we get started?"

They each went to the 'Battle Stage' to prepare to start the one-on-one battles.

'Owl' reminded: "Remember, only use Paper and Scissors, do not use the 'Fool Card (Rock).' If anyone doesn't follow my instructions, I will immediately kick them out of this group and will not share subsequent strategies."

Although they didn't understand why, everyone chose to comply.

They took turns using Scissors to beat the opponent's Paper, and each gained an extra net profit of 1000 chips.

After seeing everyone complete their battles, 'Owl' continued: "For this round of Guess the Number, input '65.'

'Gray Wolf' He Xiaojun was startled: "Huh, that high? Didn't the game rules say that player actions might reduce that number? Most players would conservatively guess a number around 50, right?"

'Owl' did not answer and just tapped the display on his oxygen mask again.

The meaning was very clear: you all better give up thinking, don't create unnecessary oxygen consumption for yourselves.

'Gray Wolf' immediately understood; he nodded and didn't ask further questions.

He just returned to the entrance of his resting room with the others and entered the numbers into the device and confirmed.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall.

Han Mengying quickly found the other 6 'Wise Players.'

There were only a total of 10 Wise Players in the entire venue, not a large number and not easy to find, but they clearly differed significantly from the general 'Foolish Players.'

They neither rushed to the Battle Stage to start playing nor sat gloomily in the corner wallowing in self-pity.

Most of them displayed a composed demeanor.

Additionally, Han Mengying had already figured out why so many players kept their distance from her.

Because of 'oxygen consumption.'

So far, she has refilled oxygen twice, and the current tank of oxygen is rapidly depleting due to continuous thinking.

Whether it's the number or the remaining oxygen, it's quite striking.

Any player who realizes that 'the more oxygen consumed, the more dangerous' would definitely not choose to play cards with her unless she offered particularly exaggerated odds.

Having figured this out, Han Mengying decided to stop playing cards, as it was no longer worthwhile to forcefully play with high odds.

The main goal of the game had shifted.

She turned to trying to find players from the same community, building a team, and shifted her thinking focus to 'Guess the Number.'

After deducing the 'Wise Player' identity from various factors, Han Mengying only needed to approach them with some probing, and a mutual display of the two 'Wise Man' cards was enough to confirm identities.

'Rabbit' Han Mengying looked at the 8-person team she had assembled.

Including herself, there were 7 Wise Players and 1 Foolish Player, 'Sea Turtle.'

The reason for including this Foolish Player 'Sea Turtle' was that Han Mengying confirmed that he was also a member of Community 4.

Apart from Han Mengying and this Foolish Player, two more Wise Players from Community 4 were also part of the team.

In the process of forming the team, Han Mengying only needed to exchange a code phrase known solely to Community 4 players to confirm mutual identities.

This time, a total of 4 players from Community 4 entered, using the same 3-to-1 setup as the previous 'Wealthy Dynasty,' with 3 relatively smart players including 'Rabbit' Han Mengying, 'Hummingbird,' and 'Mole,' successfully securing the 'Wise One' identities.

Among them, 'Hummingbird' was Luo Wei, who had just joined Community 4 recently.

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