Chapter 616: A New Invitation

Ye Lin's position was firm, "I understand, but I still hold to this view.

"Our community currently has quite a number of new players. The good news is that Dr. Qin and Huang Shengjie have real talent and have adapted quickly, but Lu Qi is still a new player who needs time to grow and support. If we bring in even more new players, the moment several of them end up selected for a game at the same time, things could easily fall apart and result in serious casualties.

"Keeping this vacancy open and looking for a veteran player with some proven ability is the better choice.

"There's no rush to use community recruitment until a second vacancy opens up."

Yao Yuan glanced at Lu Bingjun.

Lu Bingjun had been thinking carefully throughout, and finally gave a nod, "Yes, Ye Lin makes a fair point.

"Let's do this: we'll see how the next game plays out.

"Since entering the Second Stage, we've been through one selection-type game and one Judgment Game.

"Going by the Gallery's general patterns, the next game is likely to be a relatively safe distribution-type game, which also happens to be the most suitable type for poaching players.

"So let's hold that vacancy open until the next game.

"If the next game is indeed a distribution-type game and we find a suitable player, we'll poach them into the community. If for whatever reason we don't manage to find anyone suitable, then after that game ends we can't keep the slot empty indefinitely, and we'll simply use community recruitment.

"What does everyone think?"

Most players nodded in agreement.

Ye Lin thought it over and also accepted the approach, "That works."

Lu Bingjun looked around once more, "Alright, let's wrap up here for now.

"Several of today's topics didn't reach a definitive conclusion, but I believe the discussions themselves have been worthwhile.

"Everyone has worked hard. Take this time to rest properly."

One day later, in the evening.

Lin Sizhi returned to his room and found that a new invitation had already appeared on his computer screen.

[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]

[After two games, both players and Imitators should have developed a deeper understanding of the Second Stage's new rules.]

[The Gallery now extends a new design invitation to you.]

[Please design a game with the theme of 'enhanced visa time redistribution' and 'community versus community.']

[This distribution-type game does not require mandatory full participation. As the designer, you may use specific rules to filter which players are selected.]

[Please note: staying as close as possible to the current stage's style and theme will significantly improve your game's score and likelihood of selection.]

[This invitation does not include a bidding phase. All Imitators will have an equal opportunity to compete.]

[The game planning document is in your desk drawer.]

[The deadline is 8:00 PM three days from now. You have 72 hours to complete your game design.]

[The Gallery will evaluate all submitted planning documents and select the highest-scoring proposal to arrange the game venue.]

[Please make your choice.]

What surprised Lin Sizhi somewhat was that this game invitation had no bidding phase, meaning Imitators were finally no longer required to spend their own visa time to compete for the opportunity.

Though on reflection, this made sense.

Looking at the current situation, the Gallery appeared to apply different rules around bidding depending on the type of game.

For selection-type games, the Gallery's approach was to let Imitators bid freely, with the highest bidder winning, but permitting more extreme methods within the game to extract visa time from players, ensuring the high investment could be recouped.

For Judgment Games, the Gallery's approach was more like encouraging Imitators to settle personal scores and exact revenge, with killing the player as the ultimate goal. As long as that aim was achieved, spending visa time to participate was considered worthwhile.

For distribution-type games, the Gallery's approach was to leave Imitators a channel through which they could earn on the strength of their designs alone. A well-designed game could still stand out and allow visa time to accumulate, preventing Imitators from being permanently locked out of bidding simply because they had never earned their first significant sum.

Under the First Stage rules, setting aside the option of spending 1,000,000 minutes of visa time to eliminate a specific player, the visa time an Imitator carried had functioned more as a burden than an asset.

There was nowhere to spend it, and it risked exposing them.

But that had clearly been by design, a deliberate loosening of the rules in the early period to allow Imitators to develop. Many Imitators could sustain themselves just fine by doing very little and earning a modest amount of visa time from time to time.

In the Second Stage, however, the pressure on Imitators to earn visa time had increased sharply, and the gap between stronger and weaker Imitators would be driven further apart under these rules.

Looking at the content of the game invitation, this one placed almost no restrictions at all and offered a great deal of creative freedom.

Even a less capable Imitator could produce a reasonable design simply by playing to the expected theme.

For a more capable Imitator, of course, the more open-ended an invitation was, the more opportunity it offered to use the game design to achieve specific goals.

Lin Sizhi tapped the desk lightly with his fingers and fell into thought.

He had already spent his free time going back over Wei Yinzhang's draft fragments many times. Most of them were not especially complete designs, and their main points of interest were concentrated in certain specific item concepts.

If the right opportunity arose, some of those elements could be woven flexibly into a game.

After some thought, Lin Sizhi wrote four characters on the planning document, 'Prison Factory.'

Four days later, in the morning.

During that period, some community players had still been randomly selected to endure pain, though most had managed to adapt as best they could and were sharing the burden through rotation where possible.

As for Huang Shengjie, the withdrawal pain still surfaced from time to time, but the worst of it had passed.

A broadcast notification appeared in the community hall, announcing that a game was opening.

[Good morning, players!]

[The Gallery will open in 1 hour.]

[The name of this game is 'Prison Factory,' with the objectives of 'enhanced visa time redistribution' and 'community versus community.']

[This game will compulsorily select 10 players from the community to participate, split into two games of 5 players each.]

[Selection criteria are as follows:]

[1. Fewer games participated in during the Second Stage.]

[2. Less visa time earned during the Second Stage.]

[3. Less participation in community discussions during the Second Stage.]

[Players meeting the above criteria will be prioritised for selection.]

[The players from this community who are compulsorily selected are: Qin Cheng, Yao Yuan, Wen Wan, Geng Yuxia, He Qinyun, Shen Bowen, Zheng Chunhua, Zhou Wanlin, Lu Qi, and Huang Shengjie.]

[The above players may freely form groups of 5 to participate in the game.]

[Please make your preparations.]

Seeing the content on the large screen, the players could not help but break into an uproar.

Huang Shengjie stared at the list on the screen with a dazed expression, confirming it again, "Wait, this is literally removing all three of our community's core game players!"