[After the game starts, each round a Nine-Box Grid will be converted into a 'developable state', and the ownership of plots within that grid will be decided based on the following rules:]

[1. If the Nine-Box Grid is a 'Priority Development Area' of a certain community, then that community automatically becomes the 'First Developer' of the plot.]

[All other communities in neighboring Nine-Box Grids bid with Gold Coins, and the highest bidder becomes the 'Second Developer'.]

[2. If the Nine-Box Grid is not a 'Priority Development Area' of any community, then all communities in neighboring Nine-Box Grids bid with Gold Coins. The highest and second-highest bidders become the 'First Developer' and 'Second Developer', respectively.]

[You may directly forfeit bidding, or participate in bidding and choose to withdraw halfway.]

[However, withdrawing halfway requires a payment of '5 Gold Coins' as a handling fee.]

[3. After selecting the 'First Developer' and 'Second Developer', both parties will take turns choosing plots within the Nine-Box Grid until all plots within the grid have been divided.]

[When a community aligns three plots in a row within the Nine-Box Grid (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), all remaining plots within that grid become the property of that community.]

[4. If only one community qualifies to bid in the Nine-Box Grid, they automatically acquire all plots within that grid.]

[At the end of the first phase of the game, the number of plots occupied by each community will be tallied.]

[The community occupying the most plots will become the 'Privileged Community', receiving an extra advantage: they can participate in bidding for all remaining Nine-Box Grids regardless of distance.]

Upon hearing this, Fu Chen said with some surprise, "Huh, isn't this Tic-Tac-Toe?"

Li Renshu nodded, "Yes, it is Tic-Tac-Toe."

Fu Chen was delighted, "That's great, I've just studied Tic-Tac-Toe."

Tic-Tac-Toe originated from abroad, and is a game played on a 3×3 grid, known for its connection-based gameplay. It is named after the lattice pattern that resembles the appearance of a '井' (well character) because the board typically lacks frames.

It's not very popular domestically because its rules are quite simple, similar to Gomoku, but with inferior gameplay, thus lacking appeal.

Most people might have heard of it, but haven't necessarily played or studied it in depth.

Players who have played might already be considering Tic-Tac-Toe strategies because this directly determines how many plots they can acquire after becoming the 'First Developer' or 'Second Developer'.

The rules explanation on the big screen continued.

[Now, please exchange your Gold Coins, and proceed to the console in front of the square to select the 'Priority Development Area' for your community.]

[Please note: The central D4 Nine-Box Grid cannot be chosen as a 'Priority Development Area'.]

[The selection order of each community is: Community 12, Community 7, Community 9, Community 17, and Community 15.]

[This order is sorted according to the 'total visa time of internal players in each community from least to most'.]

[The game will officially start in 10 minutes.]

[Please prepare yourselves!]

Li Renshu looked at players from the other communities, quickly recalling the situations of these communities in her mind.

Community 12 is where Zhou Guifen originally belonged, and this community is basically the weakest type, with high mortality and low profitability, usually at the bottom in most games.

This time, they are again the first to choose a Nine-Box Grid, which indicates that the players from Community 12 in this game have the least visa time.

Community 7 was previously encountered in the 'Fertility Game', where the spousal murderer Fei Xiong was from, but the skill levels of other players in the community remain unclear.

Community 9 was encountered in both 'Blood Poker' and the 'Matchmaking Game', forming some cooperation. Overall, it's not a very strong community, but relatively friendly, and worth considering for cooperation.

There seems to be no prior encounters with Community 15, so their strength is unknown.

However, because they select regions after Community 17, this means their total visa time of players is more, making them formidable foes not to be underestimated.

Everyone first went to the rest area to exchange Gold Coins at the vending machine.

Possibly due to the long game time, the vending machines still had food and water, but no special commodities.

Each player can exchange Gold Coins, with the first 10 coins being free, and every coin thereafter costing 5% of their visa time.

After thinking it over, Cao Haichuan concluded, "According to these rules, communities with more visa time are clearly at a disadvantage.

"The visa time required for each player to exchange Gold Coins varies, but in this game, it is valued as the same currency."

Zheng Jie asked, "Then how many Gold Coins should we exchange?"

Li Renshu thought for a moment and said, "Just using the free Gold Coins surely won't be enough, and we need to see if there are differences between free coins and exchanged coins.

"Let's each first exchange 15 coins, and adjust if necessary afterwards."

Everyone exchanged 15 Gold Coins individually and compared them; these coins looked exactly the same.

Clearly, this is bad news for communities with more visa time.

If a player only has 10,000 minutes of visa time left, exchanging 1 Gold Coin requires only 500 minutes of visa time, but if 100,000 minutes are left, it requires 5,000 minutes.

Yet the exchanged coins perform the same role within the game.

After pondering, Li Renshu added, "The worse news is that our remaining visa times are about the same, with no specific player having significantly less time."

If there were a player with significantly less visa time, they could easily exchange up to 30 coins first.

After returning to the community post-game, plans could be made to redistribute the game proceeds or compensate through a community fund.

But for Community 17, the five players entering the game don't have a large difference in visa times, neither too much nor too little, so such a strategy can't be employed.

Everyone held onto their Gold Coins, continuing to discuss the strategy for selecting a Nine-Box Grid.

Li Renshu thought about it, "Selecting the central Nine-Box Grid is out, so shouldn't we just consider two questions?

"First, staying as far away as possible from other communities, and second, whether to choose a central Nine-Box Grid or one in a corner."

Cao Haichuan thought for a moment, "I think we should choose a corner Nine-Box Grid."

Zheng Jie was puzzled, "Why? Choosing a central Nine-Box Grid gives a larger coverage range, doesn't it?

"According to the game rules, the premise for bidding for a Nine-Box Grid is that the Nine-Box Grid we choose must be adjacent to the one being bid on.

"If we choose a central Nine-Box Grid, like D1, we can bid on A1, G1, A4, D4, and G4, five grids.

"But if we choose a corner Nine-Box Grid, like G1, we can only bid on D1, D4, and G4, three grids.

"Doesn't that reduce the range we can bid on?"

Cao Haichuan shook his head, explaining, "Ideally, that's true, but don't forget, bidding costs Gold Coins.

"We can't possibly bid on all available grids.

"There are 9 grids and 5 communities competing. As we have more remaining visa time, spending more Gold Coins isn't cost-effective; we're at a financial disadvantage.

"More available grids for bidding also means more other communities will compete.

"In simple terms, imagine four communities respectively choosing D1, A4, D7, and G4, four central grids, leading to two communities vying for the respective grids during bidding.

"But if four communities choose A1, G1, A7, and G7, four corners, when bidding, no community contests, and they can be monopolized.

"Monopolies are obviously more advantageous."

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