Some female players gave him a cold shoulder right away when they saw he only brought a bottle of mineral water, and there was no further communication.

Some female players passed the first round of screening, thanked him after receiving the mineral water, but soon after they were exposed.

When Zheng Jie suggested they exchange a like before passing them the coupon, he was immediately met with sarcasm.

"What do you mean by having to exchange likes first? Are you saying you don't trust me?"

"Ha, and where's your sincerity?"

"Do you really think a lousy coupon is a family heirloom? If you won't give it, someone else will. Keep it for yourself and see if it's any use in the end."

Zheng Jie heard several comments like this.

Moreover, as the game progressed, Zheng Jie could clearly feel that the female players he was matched with increasingly hinted at wanting a coupon through various methods.

Zheng Jie hesitated but ultimately didn't fall for the trap.

Because he was poor.

As a player new to the New World, he didn't have much visa time, so how could he easily give away a coupon worth ten thousand minutes recklessly.

Many meetings ended unhappily, and he collected three more dislikes.

Zheng Jie also "disliked" those female players who treated him poorly, but he wasn't sure what consequences would arise from it.

Of course, there was one piece of good news; Zheng Jie still received two likes.

One he earned from a talent show.

The other was given by another female player.

Judging by the attitudes of two other female players during the same hour, it was easy to identify the one who liked him:

Zhou Rong from Community 12.

Zhou Rong seemed like a cute, small girl, very polite and considerate of Zheng Jie's feelings throughout the meeting.

As for the other two he met in the same hour...let's not mention them; they were worse than Lu Xinyi.

Lu Xinyi only tricked Zheng Jie and didn't like him, which initially upset Zheng Jie, but in comparison, he found Lu Xinyi wasn't that bad.

At least Lu Xinyi split the room fee with him right away.

As for the other female players, if they had a terrible attitude in the meeting room, it was impossible for them to give him a like.

Therefore, it naturally became clear to Zheng Jie that the one who liked him was Zhou Rong.

That was quite good already; if even one of the other two female players behaved insincerely and tricked him into getting a like, Zheng Jie wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

But what to do next? Zheng Jie fell into contemplation once again.

According to the prior agreement, once Zhou Rong exchanged a like with him, he would invite her for another meeting and give her a ten-thousand-minute visa coupon.

That was essentially the deposit.

Once set, during the final meeting, he would invite Zhou Rong again for the "Final Selection," where they would like each other and each receive a thirty-thousand-minute visa.

Yet now Zheng Jie was worried about what would happen if Zhou Rong took the coupon and then refused his invitation in the final round?

Could Zhou Rong be a trickster?

A player from Community 9 had shouted that a female player from Community 12 had tricked him. Could it have been Zhou Rong?

But each community had two to four female players participating, and they couldn't contact each other. Just because one female player tricked someone doesn't mean Zhou Rong would too.

From the current perspective, if not Zhou Rong, Zheng Jie had no other choice.

After twelve meetings, Zheng Jie roughly figured out the game's matching mechanism:

The game avoids matching players from the same community, which is why he hadn't met any players from Community 17 yet.

Meeting players from the same community would make it easier to build trust, as any liar would be socially condemned back in the community, which is quite restrictive.

But without the possibility to communicate, he was clueless about the other three's status.

The probability of matching same-gender versus opposite-gender players was about 1:3 or 1:4, meaning a low chance of meeting same-gender players.

Liking same-gender players is pointless since there's no extra benefit;

liking opposite-gender players yields no response either.

For Zheng Jie, this game was as challenging as climbing to the sky, and he could hardly play at all.

With few likes, Zheng Jie managed to get onto a talent show.

He mustered everything he had and sang his best song, barely earning twelve "Interesting" points, which gave him a precious "like."

That was quite decent.

Many male players on stage were voted "Boring" within two minutes and forced off the stage.

So far, only the handsome guy in the talent show managed to get three likes.

Yet, his approach relied heavily on appearances, which was very demanding.

Besides, some didn't perform at all.

Once, during a talent show, the stage was empty after it started. It was clear that for those who knew they had no skills or looks, getting on stage was just humiliating. Since they couldn't earn likes, why bother embarrassing themselves?

In such cases, they quickly received enough "Boring" votes and were forced off.

Now, a new round of the talent show was on the big screen.

A crying girl appeared on the left side of the screen.

[Community 9 - Xue Qi]

She wasn't particularly remarkable, neither attractive nor ugly. Judging from the order in which she joined the talent show, her likes shouldn't be many.

"Sorry everyone, I don't have any talents and nothing to perform. Can you give me two minutes to finish speaking?"

"I don't know why, maybe I'm just unlucky, but after entering this game, the system randomly deducts over a thousand minutes of visa time every hour. I've already lost nearly four thousand minutes..."

"I don't know what to do. Can anyone give me a free like? Thank you!"

Zheng Jie was stunned; could it deduct that much?

The rules indeed stated that all female players would lose a random amount of visa time, but Zheng Jie thought it would be small.

He didn't expect the girl to be this unlucky, losing over a thousand per hour.

Is it real?

Zheng Jie was a bit skeptical but then thought, clicking "Interesting" or "Boring" had no cost, so why not click?

He clicked "Interesting," though it felt odd to describe his mood as such right then.

The 2nd performer she was competing against was a guy from Community 8 with decent singing. Though not forced off, the gap in likes between them was obvious.

Zheng Jie also clicked "Interesting" for him.

[Performer 1 has received 31 "Interesting" points and 3 additional likes.]

[Performer 2 has received 15 "Interesting" points and 1 additional like.]

"Thank you! Thank you, everyone!"

Although the screen no longer had sound, Zheng Jie easily guessed what Xue Qi was mouthing.

Seeing the result, Zheng Jie felt both regret and speechlessness.

Where was the talent performance?

Being pitiful earned her three likes, making others singing seriously seem foolish!

If he had known she would get so many likes, he wouldn't have clicked.

Yet, he realized his "Interesting" click didn't affect the result. Whatever; it was done.

Zheng Jie stood before the small screen at the meeting room's corridor entrance, considering inviting Zhou Rong again.

But just then, new information appeared on the big screen.

[The game will now enter the second phase, lasting 4 hours.]

[The following new rules will be implemented in the second phase:]

[1. Reporting and Murder]

[Two new function buttons will be activated on the meeting room's control panel: "Report" and "Murder."]

[Press "Report" when your likes exceed the opponent's, allowing you to spend 2 likes to complete the report.]

[A player reported three times will suffer instant death 10 seconds later.]

[Press "Murder" when your dislikes exceed the opponent's, allowing you to spend 5 dislikes to complete the murder.]

[A murdered player will suffer instant death 10 seconds later.]

[Killing other players through any game rule will grant 1/10 of that player's remaining visa time as a personal reward.]

[If multiple players are involved in a player's death, the above reward is evenly divided.]

[2. Data Query]

[All data queries using likes can now also be done using dislikes.]

[3. Matching Rules]

[From now on, same-gender meeting invitations are prohibited. Players can still be randomly matched with same-gender players but only through the system's random matching.]

[4. Additional Penalties]

[After the last meeting ends, if players have any unspent likes or dislikes, each will result in an additional deduction of ten thousand minutes from their visa time.]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.