Wang Yongxin was silent for a moment and then said with emotion, "This game is indeed very dangerous.

"The danger doesn't entirely lie in the numerous death rules, but in the zero-sum environment it creates among the various player groups.

"On the surface, there seems to be a conflict between 'Hidden Players,' 'Inner Court Players,' and 'Audience,' but in reality, there is also conflict 'within the community players.'

"In the game, as long as you kill the other four players in your community, you can enjoy all the benefits alone.

"Moreover, this kind of murder can be carried out in a very covert way.

"For example, as a core player in the game, if you guess that a certain action might trigger joint liability, you can arrange for specific players to perform this action, likely using game rules to eliminate them.

"Afterwards, you can completely claim that it was an oversight in decision-making. Since there are many actions in this game that might trigger joint liability, it's impossible to prove whether the core player acted unintentionally or deliberately.

"That's why Community 12 ended up with Chen Guangming obtaining all the Gold Coins for the community by himself.

"The design of 'Hidden Players' is also quite insidious.

"Because in previous games, there was no such design. In fact, many players realized as early as the first stage of the auction that there might be human interference in the order of plot openings.

"But most players would only think of 'audience voting' and find it hard to immediately think of the existence of hidden players.

"Regardless of the sequence of plot openings or the order of sinner announcements, it would actually divert some Inner Court players' hatred towards the audience and naturally inflate the price of shelters, extracting Gold Coins from the audience in revenge.

"Thus, cleverly shifting the conflict.

"Even if a few players realize this, they won't publicize it widely.

"On one hand, not publicizing it can bring extra benefits, as Chen Guangming realized this early on and invested heavily in plot auctions, becoming a 'Privileged Community' and gaining the favor of 'Hidden Players';

"On the other hand, publicizing it would bring disaster to your community. Because if the identity of 'Hidden Players' is revealed, they would surely go all out to target the community that spoke the truth.

"Through adjusting the auction sequence of plots and the order of sinner announcements, 'Hidden Players' can directly target the community, leaving them with no time to adopt self-protection strategies and suffering heavy losses.

"Therefore, Officer Cao, although he realized this fairly early, could only remain silent.

"Because once he pointed it out early on, the targeted community might not be Community 7, but our community instead."

Cai Zhiyuan added, "The key is that even if it is pointed out, it can't change the current state of the game.

"Instead, it might make other communities even more eager to send money to the Hidden Players.

"To break this setup, at least three communities with a strong sense of justice need to form an alliance and work together.

"But in this game, aside from our community willing to do this, others are unwilling.

"Community 12 and Community 15 only want the most benefits.

"Community 7 lacks enough wisdom and morality.

"As for Community 9, they are slightly better than Community 7 in terms of morality but are only at a normal person's level, with limited capability, and not especially firm in stance. We can't change much with just our two communities.

"So Officer Cao's decision is correct; in this situation, we can only choose to protect ourselves."

Zheng Jie nodded: "Indeed, putting ourselves in that position, most communities becoming 'Hidden Players' would find it hard to resist that temptation..."

The identity of 'Hidden Players' indeed offers great advantages.

Because it was never mentioned in the game rules, ordinary players have no idea of their existence.

Even if aware of 'Hidden Players,' trying to kill them requires using hidden mechanisms in the game, which could lead to a massive death toll of Inner Court players.

In this situation, 'Hidden Players' might mistakenly believe they are absolutely safe and may choose to take a gamble, betting that even if a few Inner Court players realize their existence, they won't expose them.

In terms of game mechanics, Hidden Players can adjust the Nine-Box Grid open order and sinner announcement order to maximize the survival rate of Inner Court players and persuade them not to sell shelters at high prices, but in reality, Hidden Players likely won't do so.

According to game progression, if not for Cao Haichuan eventually using the hidden mechanism to kill those players, assuming there were five of them, each could get over 70 Gold Coins.

The crucial part is there's no cost at all; they don't need to extract the visa time as Gold Coins.

This also means each of their earnings in the game could reach over 150,000 minutes of visa time, which is a huge temptation that ordinary players find hard to resist.

Li Renshu looked at Wang Yongxin again: "Brother Wang, if you were in the game, how might you break the situation?"

Wang Yongxin thought for a moment and said, "I might choose to forcibly snatch the 'Privileged Community' from Chen Guangming.

"Then form alliances with Community 12 and Community 15 to vote for the weakest Community 7 in the final voting.

"In simple terms, it's 'if you can't beat them, join them.'

"I know doing this might not be right, but if self-preservation is the primary goal, this might be the best approach.

"Moreover, fewer people should die as a result."

Li Renshu nodded, acknowledging that Wang Yongxin was quite candid, reflecting his usual style.

But just then, Wei Yinzhang, who had been silent, spoke up: "But...

"If you do this, I'm afraid you'd fall into the Imitator's trap."

Wang Yongxin was stunned: "Why? From the game mechanics, doing so would only lead to a loss of many Gold Coins, with no further downside."

Wei Yinzhang shook his head and explained, "Has anyone considered why the Imitator went to the trouble of selecting a community to become 'Hidden Players,' allowing them to decide the Nine-Box Grid opening order and sinner file announcement order?

"If it was merely to 'maximize the intensification of conflicts,' they could have achieved this goal through specific rules alone.

"For example, plots open by default in the most densely populated community areas, or sinner files are announced based on the number of crimes committed, from most to least or least to most, etc.

"In this way, the Imitator could better ensure the game process aligns with their expectations.

"What if the 'Hidden Players' and the Imitator have conflicting thoughts about these things?

Yang Yuting pondered momentarily: "Maybe using specific rules or mechanisms would be more troublesome? Unable to adapt flexibly according to the specific situation at the time."

Wei Yinzhang shook his head: "No, I think the real reason is:

"If the rules determine everything, then the main conflict of this game will become between 'players' and 'Imitators.'

"But if everything is decided by Hidden Players as it currently stands, then the main conflict in this game becomes among 'players.'

"That's the effect Imitators truly want to achieve.

"The 'Shelter Game' is not just about physical elimination; it's about psychological destroying as well.

"The impact of mental destruction is not contained within the game but extends outside of it."

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