As the only female player who exchanged likes with him, the two had a verbal agreement before. Once Zheng Jie confirmed the like, he would give Zhou Rong a voucher for ten thousand minutes of visa time, and Zhou Rong agreed to meet him one last time and exchange likes.

Now the first step of exchanging likes has been completed. Zheng Jie thought, if the other party accepts the invitation, he would immediately fulfill his promise to buy a voucher and hand it to Zhou Rong at their next meeting to further build mutual trust.

If everything goes smoothly, the two of them might even keep matching until the game ends.

This way, neither of them would need to match with strangers, and both would be safe.

However, shortly after sending the invitation, a rejection message popped up.

"Ah..."

Zheng Jie's hope sank again.

It was clear that Zhou Rong was the safest meeting partner for him, but not vice versa.

Among the many male players inviting her, Zhou Rong would surely choose those with more 'likes', which was the same safety strategy.

"Sigh."

Zheng Jie lowered his head in frustration. Although this outcome disappointed him, he felt that he wasn't entirely wronged.

The exchange of likes had long been completed, and he could have invited Zhou Rong before the second phase's murder rules were updated.

But Zheng Jie hesitated and didn't send the invitation at the first opportunity.

Now, with the second phase updating the murder rules, everyone's on edge. Sending a meeting invitation now also seems a bit late and somewhat ulterior.

It was normal for Zhou Rong to be wary of him.

Perhaps she had already found someone more trustworthy to match with?

Zheng Jie had no choice but to accept random matching again.

However, just as he was about to open the door and enter the meeting room, a broadcast message appeared on the big screen.

[Fang Wencong from Community 1 is broadcasting a piece of data to all players.]

[In the meeting room, the percentage of female players agreeing when a male player proposes a split bill (AA) is 7%.]

Zheng Jie was taken aback. Fang Wencong, he remembered him.

He was the guy Zheng Jie met on his third meeting.

Not handsome, but he was pretty friendly to Zheng Jie.

At this critical moment, still fussing over splitting the room cost, doesn't he get the situation?

[Players, please enter the meeting room immediately. Delays will result in instant death penalties.]

Zheng Jie didn't bother with such nonsensical data and quickly opened the door to the meeting room.

Seeing the other party's gender, Zheng Jie instinctively tensed up.

It was a man.

[Jiao Hongtao from Community 8]

He was a disheveled, miserable-looking middle-aged man. Zheng Jie had some impression of him. It seemed like he was the first to go on the talent show and immediately got cut off after accumulating 20 'boring' votes.

Moreover, he seemed to have made provocative broadcasts.

This guy must have a lot of 'dislikes', and Zheng Jie couldn't help but worry.

Jiao Hongtao plopped down on the chair opposite and hurriedly pressed the [I Pay] button.

"This meeting's on me. When you leave, give me a 'dislike'."

Jiao Hongtao's voice was low and deep.

Zheng Jie had a bad premonition and tentatively asked, "What do you want a dislike for?"

Jiao Hongtao suddenly looked up, glaring at Zheng Jie, "Why the hell do you have so many questions?

"Give me a 'dislike', or I'll kill you right now!"

Zheng Jie quickly raised his hands to signal for calm, "Okay, alright! I'll give you a 'dislike' right away.

"Okay, I've already pressed the 'dislike' button."

Only then did Jiao Hongtao, with a blank expression, drop his head again, staring into the void of the meeting room, "I've been cheated out of twenty thousand minutes of visa time, twenty thousand minutes!

"Those bastards promised faithfully, said they'd fulfill their promises, but they wouldn't accept my invitation the next time we met!

"And so many people gave me dislikes...

"Since they were unkind, can't blame me for being unjust.

"I'm going to use these 'dislikes' they gave me to reclaim the visa time I was cheated out of!"

Zheng Jie opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but eventually swallowed it back down.

He could see that Jiao Hongtao was mentally unstable, and the first four hours of the game seemed to have taken a toll on him.

As for how to reclaim the cheated visa time...

Clearly, it was impossible to meet those women who cheated him again.

Those who reported him would definitely not accept his meeting invitation again, and the chance of being randomly matched together was also very low.

What Jiao Hongtao would likely do next is indiscriminate killing.

Killing the unlucky female player who matches with him next.

Zheng Jie wanted to persuade him, but he knew his advice would probably have no effect and might even put himself in danger.

The two of them ended the meeting in silence.

Upon leaving the meeting room, Zheng Jie let out a long sigh of relief.

Of course, he hadn't given Jiao Hongtao a dislike, just pretended to press the button like Lu Xinyi had done before.

But it didn't matter much, because Zheng Jie knew that Jiao Hongtao likely already had enough 'dislikes'.

Whether or not he gave him a dislike only affected if he would kill the second player, unable to prevent him from killing the first.

He possibly couldn't even prevent the second.

Because according to the updated rules of the second phase, if players had unused 'likes' or 'dislikes' at the end of the game, each would result in an extra deduction of ten thousand minutes of visa time.

If he didn't give Jiao Hongtao a dislike, some other male player eventually would.

"This is bad..."

Jeng Jie walked back to his resting room with a troubled heart.

Just as he opened the door, he saw two names slowly being crossed out in bright red on the big screen.

This meant that two players had been killed during the last meeting.

Zheng Jie swallowed nervously, carefully examining those two names.

[Zeng Siya from Community 9]

[Liu Lin from Community 12]

"Liu Lin..."

Zheng Jie didn't know Zeng Siya, having never matched with her, and it seemed she hadn't participated in the talent show either.

But Liu Lin he remembered, as they had matched before and it had been somewhat unpleasant.

He didn't expect that the next time he heard this name, it would be as cold, crossed-out text on the big screen.

"Strange, Jiao Hongtao just met with me, didn't he not have time to make a move?

"Could it be... there are already two other players starting to kill as well?"

Reluctant as he was to believe it, the facts were right there, forcing Zheng Jie to acknowledge them.

He anxiously looked at the big screen as the next round of the talent show began.

Unlike the two teary-eyed participants last time, there were some changes to the talent show this time.

Performer No. 1 was a young man with round glasses. Although he wasn't handsome, he wore a smile and seemed to be an optimistic type.

Before officially starting his performance, he made a point of cheering on all the players.

"I know everyone might be in a panic right now, and I'm the same, but I want to say:

"This game doesn't have a mechanism that forces us to kill other players. In the end, it's instigating hatred and greed among us to drive us to kill each other.

"I hope everyone can calm down and try to remain rational and restrained. The 'likes' and 'dislikes' in the hands of the killers aren't unlimited. As long as the majority of us stay rational, we can all survive this game."

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