Soon, the three parties began bidding.

With the experience from the first round of the game, the players had a certain psychological expectation, and this time the bidding speed was also faster.

Jin Cheng from Community 7 raised the bid to 30 Gold Coins and then gave up; for her, this was the limit she could accept.

Although withdrawing midway would deduct a 5 Gold Coin handling fee, it also meant being able to cut losses in time.

Community 15 and Community 17 could still offer higher prices to compete for the 'First Developer', which is the first move in Tic-Tac-Toe.

Li Renshu said, "It's meaningless for us to continue bidding little by little, because it's just the two of us now.

"Increasing by 5 Gold Coins each time, neither side will be willing to give up easily, and the sunk cost will only become higher.

"If you directly bid 45 Gold Coins, we will give up on bidding."

Wang Weidong shook his head, "We'll bid up to 40 Gold Coins."

Li Renshu said, "Then we will bid 41 Gold Coins to continue, and this way, little by little, we'll end up both paying a higher cost."

Wang Weidong thought for a moment, "42 Gold Coins, and we'll take the 'First Developer' position."

Li Renshu nodded, "Deal."

In the end, Community 15, where Wang Weidong was, bid 42 Gold Coins to secure the 'First Developer', while Li Renshu bid 31 Gold Coins to take the 'Second Developer'.

Both parties started selecting land plots.

Wang Weidong still prioritized choosing the top-left corner plot D1 of the Nine-Box Grid.

Fu Chen first chose the center plot E2, and then after Wang Weidong picked the bottom-right corner plot F3, Fu Chen took F2.

Then, they each took D2, D3, F1, and E1 plots.

In the end, neither side was able to connect three plots in a straight line.

Community 15, as the 'First Developer', acquired 5 plots, while Community 17, as the 'Second Developer', got 4 plots.

...

The players from the same community gathered again to discuss the strategies ahead.

Obviously, after the first two rounds of the game, the basic rules for bidding on the Nine-Box Grid are now completely clear.

Firstly, the psychological price point for most communities to bid on the Nine-Box Grid is around 30 to 40 Gold Coins, accounting for a quarter of the community's total Gold Coins.

When it comes to specific plots, it's about 8 Gold Coins per plot.

This is clearly not a result of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but has been estimated after basic calculations.

Although the specific probability and rules of shelter immunity are not yet clear, no community will be satisfied after acquiring 5 plots.

Because any extra shelters built can be sold to other players, especially the 'Audience'.

Gold Coins earned from selling to the audience can also provide tangible benefits when the game ends.

In the game, there are a total of 9 Nine-Box Grids, 5 communities, and apart from their chosen target Nine-Box Grid (Priority Development Area), each community has to snatch at least one more Nine-Box Grid to make it worthwhile.

Although each community has a total of 150 Gold Coins, at this time, it's only the first stage, and in the second stage, there might be many other areas where Gold Coins need to be spent.

Moreover, most communities can't make the quick decision to spend all their 150 Gold Coins in this game, as it's all they have.

So around 40 Gold Coins is the current upper limit for many communities' psychological expectations.

If the 'Second Developer' doesn't know how to play, then the 'First Developer' who has the first-move advantage can take up to 6 plots, which is very cost-effective.

But if both parties understand the Tic-Tac-Toe mechanism, then the plots in the Nine-Box Grid will inevitably be divided 5 to 4.

At this point, paying a high price to grab the 'First Developer' position isn't really worth it.

...

The third round of the game begins.

[The developable plots in this round are: D7 Nine-Box Grid.]

[Because no community has selected this Nine-Box Grid as the 'Priority Development Area', both the 'First Developer' and the 'Second Developer' are obtained through bidding.]

[Community 9, Community 12, and Community 15 can participate in the bidding.]

[Bidding starts now, limited to 3 minutes.]

Once again, three communities are involved in the bidding, but this time the bidding has become more intense.

Fan Zehui from Community 12 is clearly determined to win, displaying a generous hand, increasing the bid by 10, or even 15 Gold Coins each time.

And Community 9 has no intention of giving up at all, though it didn't forcefully follow Community 12's bids, it always pressured Community 15.

When the price reached 40 Gold Coins, Wang Weidong from Community 15 decided to give up.

After all, for Community 15, their current situation is very good, having already acquired 10 plots.

While Community 9 and Community 12 haven't acquired any plots yet.

Community 15's extended visa time means the cost per Gold Coin is higher, and fighting to the end with those two communities makes no sense.

In the end, Fan Zehui from Community 12 won the 'First Developer' with 55 Gold Coins, and Zhang Shichao from Community 9 took the 'Second Developer' with 45 Gold Coins.

Witnessing this, Jin Cheng from Community 7 was visibly a bit regretful.

She regretted that her previous strategy was somewhat conservative, and if she had initially raised her psychological price to around 50 Gold Coins, she could have secured the 'Second Developer' status of the D1 Nine-Box Grid.

But now it was too late to regret; she could only spend more Gold Coins in subsequent plot auctions.

Fan Zehui and Zhang Shichao had obviously understood the 'First Move Must Win' mechanism; they eventually divided the plots in this Nine-Box Grid in a 5:4 ratio.

The cost per plot in the auction has been raised to around 11 Gold Coins.

...

The fourth round of the game starts.

[The developable plots in this round are: G4 Nine-Box Grid.]

[Because no community has selected this Nine-Box Grid as the 'Priority Development Area', both the 'First Developer' and the 'Second Developer' are obtained through bidding.]

[Community 12 and Community 17 can participate in the bidding.]

[Bidding starts now, limited to 3 minutes.]

Fan Zehui from Community 12 had obviously noticed the situation on Community 17's side, but said nothing and proceeded with the bidding in an orderly manner.

Since Community 15 is situated over at Community 7 and Community 9's side, the situation of the G4 Nine-Box Grid is rather special, meaning only Community 12 and Community 17 can bid.

This means that by bidding just the minimum of 5 Gold Coins, one can secure the 'Second Developer' qualification, which is quite a profitable deal.

Just as Li Renshu was considering whether to bid a little more to snatch the 'First Developer' position, Fan Zehui quickly completed the bid.

[Community 12 bid: 25 Gold Coins.]

This bid surprised everyone since Community 12 had already spent 55 Gold Coins in the third round of bidding.

If you add this 25, they have already spent 80 Gold Coins, which is more than half of the community's total Gold Coins.

With only Community 12 and Community 17 bidding, bidding just 5 Gold Coins can ensure becoming the 'Second Developer', at least securing 4 plots.

Community 12 spending 20 more Gold Coins to grab 'First Developer' was admittedly a bit excessive, and can even be considered as irrational.

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