Looking at Fang Wencong's mineral water, Zheng Jie asked, "Buddy, it looks like you bought this water for yourself, not for your dating partner?"

Fang Wencong instinctively moved the mineral water closer to his hand: "Oh, this one.

"This bottle is for me, but I'm considering whether I should buy some for the female player I'm meeting."

Zheng Jie looked at the mineral water in his hand: "Do you really have to buy it? Doesn't that mean you need to spend an extra 50 minutes of visa time for every meeting?

"And with the room fee, that's 250 in total. After 20 meetings, that's 5,000 minutes of visa time!"

Zheng Jie was also thirsty and wanted to drink water.

Fang Wencong sighed: "The way you say it, what else can you do? It's hard to imagine you'd ask such questions after playing 'Blood Poker.'

"In multiplayer games, you have to actively participate to get more benefits, or else your gains will be at the bottom.

"Everyone else is giving, and if you don't, you can forget about getting any approval; you're out.

"Even though the game hasn't said what approvals are used for, they're surely something good, right? Even if they can't directly exchange for visa time, there's probably an indirect way to convert them.

"If they can be exchanged for just a bit, spending these 50 minutes of visa time is worth it.

"Plus, if you can find a suitable female player and you mutually approve of each other during the last meeting, you can get an additional 30,000 minutes of visa time.

"You can't just suddenly try to fix things in the last meeting, right? You have to find the right person in advance and develop a rapport."

Zheng Jie nodded: "Yeah, you're right. I actually understand this logic, but I always feel a bit reluctant."

Fang Wencong shifted into a more comfortable position on the chair: "Being reluctant won't help; these are the rules of the game!

"By the way, I don't know about the female players you've met, but the two I've encountered had really bad tempers. I just asked if we could split the cost, and they wanted to give me a thumbs down.

"I had to sweet-talk them to make peace, and I don't even know if they gave me a thumbs up in the end.

"So, I'm being smart about it. It's just a game, not worth arguing with women. Just let them have their way; we'll end up earning more than they do."

...

The ten minutes passed quickly, and Zheng Jie still felt the conversation was unfinished.

Especially since the two of them privately vented about the weird female players they'd encountered, and it somehow felt quite refreshing.

Zheng Jie said candidly, "Bro, thanks for telling me all this, but I don't have a mutual approval to give anymore; I've already given it to someone else before."

Fang Wencong waved it off nonchalantly: "It's no big deal.

"Besides, don't bother exchanging approvals with another guy."

Zheng Jie was a bit puzzled: "If two guys trust each other, isn't it safer to exchange approvals?"

Fang Wencong was a bit helpless: "It's indeed safer, but what's the point? During the last meeting, mutual approval between guys doesn't give any extra visa time!

"You definitely need to exchange approvals with female players in advance and build trust and goodwill.

"If you exchange all your approvals with guys, even if you want to exchange with a female player in the last round, they won't trust you."

Zheng Jie suddenly realized: "Oh, that makes sense. Alright then, see you later, bro."

...

Back in the waiting room, Zheng Jie had just sat down in the lounge area when he saw images appear on the big screen.

The talent show had started.

The huge screen was split in half, one side showing a slightly chubby girl who looked a bit nervous, and the other a disheveled, dark-skinned middle-aged man.

From the scene around them, they seemed to be in exactly the same waiting room as Zheng Jie, standing in an open area with extra lighting.

At this moment, all the lights came on, and it really had a bit of a stage feeling.

The screen showed the chubby girl's name: [Community 1 - Zhong Yuanyuan].

"Hello everyone, I, I will sing a song for you..."

The slightly chubby girl began to sing, of course, it was a cappella without any accompaniment, and her voice wasn't particularly beautiful, but her gentle voice still made people feel cheerful.

Zheng Jie listened while continuing to think about the game's rules.

The slightly chubby girl sang for about three minutes, then shyly bowed to the camera and pressed the button to end her performance.

Each player can perform for up to five minutes but can also end early.

The big screen's audio system switched to the other side, and the disheveled middle-aged man began his performance.

[Community 8 - Jiao Hongtao].

He didn't have any special talents either, just singing.

Zheng Jie noticed that next to the seats with the best view of the big screen, there were also two sets of buttons, each set with 'Interesting' and 'Boring,' corresponding to the two people participating in the talent show on the big screen.

There was also a note next to it reiterating: [The choices in the talent show won't consume any existing resources regardless of how you choose.]

In other words, for each talent show, these two buttons could be pressed freely without any limitations.

But for the performance of the same person, you can only choose 'Interesting' or 'Boring.'

"Such a cute girl, just a little plumper, and she didn't get any approval?

"This game is a bit too realistic."

Zheng Jie didn't think much and directly pressed 'Interesting' for the slightly chubby girl who had just finished her performance.

According to the rules, anyone who goes on the talent show stage is among those with the fewest approvals.

If that's the case, giving a thumbs up casually doesn't hurt.

As for this skinny guy in his thirties...

His singing was really hard to listen to. Zheng Jie wanted to mute the big screen, but unfortunately, there was no such option.

Zheng Jie hesitated a bit. Logically speaking, this guy was also pitiable for having no approvals, and giving him a thumbs up was an easy thing to do, but...

Just as he hesitated, the big screen's audio system was cut off, and although the image was still there, new information appeared at the top.

[Performer 2 received more than 20 'Boring' votes, forcing an end to the performance.]

[Performer 1 received 31 'Interesting' votes, gaining an additional 3 'Approvals.']

[Performer 2 received 2 'Interesting' votes, gaining an additional 0 'Approvals.']

On the screen, the slightly chubby girl Zhong Yuanyuan hurriedly thanked the audience in front of the screen. Though no sound could be heard, her body movements conveyed her delight.

The talent show screen was cut off from the big screen, returning to the basic rules of the game as a reminder.

Zheng Jie sighed a bit. Although both players gained a chance at the talent show, their results were worlds apart.

Suddenly, he remembered something and went to the query machine again.

An hour had passed, and finally, he could check the specifics of the approvals and disapprovals he had received.

[Community 17 - Zheng Jie]

[Current 'Approvals' in possession: 1]

[Current 'Disapprovals' in possession: 2]

[Current numbers of 'Approvals' received: 0]

[Current numbers of 'Disapprovals' received: 0]

"This..."

Although Zheng Jie had somewhat prepared himself mentally, seeing the result was still very disappointing.

As a new hour had come, the game once again issued him an 'Approval' and a 'Disapproval.'

But the approvals and disapprovals other players gave him were both zero.

Meaning...

Lu Xinyi hadn't given him an approval.

"I'm so foolish, what was I expecting..."

Zheng Jie only wanted to slap himself; he had been fantasizing that someone like Lu Xinyi would keep her promise and exchange an approval with him.

Clearly, Lu Xinyi made a false motion of pressing the button but didn't actually give an approval.

Initially hitting the AA button, then gradually making Zheng Jie lower his guard during the conversation, finishing with a seemingly smooth fake button press before leaving, she had completely fooled Zheng Jie.

Zheng Jie had held a bit of hopeful thinking, considering that since Lu Xinyi knew he was from Community 17, maybe she'd consider Lawyer Lin's standing?

With the game yet unclear, would they exchange approvals to form a good rapport? Did she really need to deceive him from the start?

Now it seemed he was on the second level, while Lu Xinyi was on the third.

For Lu Xinyi, this might be the easiest approval to deceive in the whole game.

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