Chapter 649: A New Control Strategy

Zhou Wanlin looked over the item description on the vending machine again, "There's one thing I keep coming back to. The 'increase purchase limit' function.

"The initial purchase limit for both medications is ten bottles, correct?

"And the rules also say players can spend visa time either to 'restock' or to 'increase the purchase limit.'

"What exactly is increasing the purchase limit for?"

Lu Bingjun appeared to have already thought about this, and offered his guess quickly, "It's probably a rule designed to prevent any one player from monopolising the community's medication supply.

"There's a scenario where a player has a large restocking quota and also has time on their hands, so they keep hovering over the vending machine. The moment any medication runs out, they immediately restock it. That could effectively amount to a private monopoly.

"Because once they've restocked to the ten-bottle cap, no other player can restock, and everyone who buys will naturally end up buying from their stock.

"Medications could end up monopolised by whoever in the community happens to have the most free time, or else everyone crowds around the vending machine waiting for restocks and gets nothing else done. That's probably not something the Gallery wants to see.

"So the 'increase purchase limit' function exists to address this. If some players find that the limit is so low they can never get a turn to restock, they can simply raise their own cap from ten bottles to thirty, fifty, or more.

"That makes things fairer, at least in principle."

Zhou Wanlin added, "What does actually increasing the purchase limit cost? If it can also consume restocking quota while using relatively less visa time, it might serve as another outlet for spending that quota."

Lu Bingjun considered it, "My guess is that the cost is similar to normal restocking. That said, we haven't actually tested it yet. Let's try."

He worked through the vending machine operations again.

"Pretty much as expected.

"Spending half the standard sale price raises the purchase limit for one medication by one bottle, which is the same price as a standard restock.

"Everyone might want to try it yourselves. Just increase the limit on Class F medication for now, and let's see if the price changes after multiple purchases."

Since Class F medication was cheaper, each restock or limit increase only cost 200 minutes of visa time, so most players didn't mind the small expense, and they each took a turn.

By the time it was Huang Shengjie's turn, the Class F purchase limit had reached 20 bottles.

He looked slightly surprised, "Wait, it changed.

"If we keep raising the limit, Class F jumps to 400 minutes per increase.

"So it's gone from 50% of the standard price to 100%."

Lu Bingjun nodded, "Let's stop there. We have the numbers we need. The cost goes up every ten bottles.

"No need to keep testing.

"In short, using the limit increase function to burn through restocking quota isn't cost-efficient. You'd end up spending more visa time overall.

"This feature is mainly useful for communities that don't control their medications. It doesn't serve our purposes.

"Let's think of other approaches instead."

Everyone returned to the long table and lowered their heads in thought.

Huang Shengjie glanced at Wen Wan. She had said nothing this time, sitting quietly with her head down.

In the two previous discussions, Wen Wan had generally been against extreme control measures on the special medications.

But this time she hadn't raised the point again, and hadn't suggested simply putting it to a vote either. She just kept her silence.

There were two possible explanations.

Either the experience of this game had genuinely shown her the damage that uncontrolled medications could cause within a community, and she had changed her mind.

Or she had recognised that with Zhang Yan now in the community, controlling the medications had become a consensus and a firm position for the majority of Community 2's players. Raising an objection would accomplish nothing and might only bring her trouble.

Huang Shengjie couldn't determine which it was, but on the surface at least, every player was still doing their best to think through ways to maintain medication control.

After a moment's thought, Yao Yuan seemed to have arrived at a clear idea, "Since each new batch of restocking quota is divided equally among the players who participated in that game, players who enter games more frequently will accumulate more quota over time.

"Players in our community who function as core game players may enter games frequently and could build up dozens or even hundreds of bottles' worth of restocking quota. Buying all of that is obviously unrealistic, and we generally trust those players more anyway, so there's less need to worry about them secretly restocking.

"So I'm thinking we could simply set up an exemption list. Players on the list are allowed to retain their restocking quota and are trusted to use their own judgment. No mandatory requirements.

"For everyone else, since they enter fewer games and have a smaller restocking quota, we can use the original approach: restock all at once and then have everything bought up and controlled.

"My thinking is that we designate around five or six players for the exemption list.

"For any other player who accumulates restocking quota, they restock in full and the community buys it all up. They do earn a small price differential from this, but since these are generally the players in the community who need more support, treating it as a form of community benefit is entirely reasonable.

"If medication does end up leaking into the community, we then focus our investigation on the exemption list."

Huang Shengjie looked puzzled, "But how would we actually investigate a leak?"

Yao Yuan explained, "There is a way, though it costs something.

"Even though each player's restocking page is invisible to others, we can calculate any player's theoretical restocking quota based on which games they've participated in.

"For example, my current restocking quota is six bottles. Suppose the next game adds 80 bottles of total quota and four players participate, including me. Each player gains 20 more bottles.

"My total would become 26 bottles.

"If I'm on the exemption list and people suspect me of leaking medications, we can require me to restock in front of everyone as a witness.

"If I can restock 26 bottles, I'm in the clear. If I can't, that means I've already restocked in secret.

"Of course, Dr Qin would still need to use the community fund to buy up whatever gets restocked in that process.

"But compared to just buying everything blindly, this approach saves a great deal of community fund, because it only needs to be invoked in the rare case where one of our trusted players turns out to be the problem.

"If I've been falsely accused, the price differential from the restock can be treated as compensation.

"And if I haven't been falsely accused, then we discuss what consequences are appropriate."

Ye Lin considered this, then gave a slight nod, "In theory, that could work.

"The problem is how to determine who the suspect is."

Yao Yuan explained, "We can only go by whatever clues appear within the community.

"For instance, if someone notices the vending machine is no longer showing zero for either medication. Or if an empty pill bottle turns up in the community. Or if a particular player is observed showing physiological signs associated with medication use.

"Any of these could serve as grounds for suspicion.

"Of course, we're not encouraging people to report each other without clear evidence."

Huang Shengjie asked, "But what if the person who restocked and bought the medication is careful enough that no one ever finds out or reports it?"

Yao Yuan spread his hands with a resigned look, "Then there's nothing we can do.

"In practice, this situation is similar to trying to catch an Imitator within the community. Under the current rules, if an Imitator hides well enough, they simply cannot be found.

"These are the Gallery's underlying rules, and this is as far as we can go.

"But that doesn't mean an undetected case makes the whole system meaningless. Having this mechanism in place creates pressure within the community, forcing anyone acting in bad faith to spend more effort concealing their behaviour. That still has some deterrent effect.

"Ultimately, we will never be able to buy out every single medication going forward. We can only control part of it. So this is a practical compromise."

Everyone looked at each other, then gave slow nods.

"It's workable. We can't think of anything better for now."

Lu Bingjun looked at Ye Lin and Lin Sizhi, got a nod from each of them, and moved the discussion forward.

"Then let's establish the exemption list.

"The core game players who are already exempted from the pain rotation are certainly on it.

"We also need to select another three or four people from the remaining players.

"Being on this list confers no special benefits or privileges. It simply reflects the community's trust in those individuals.

"If anything, the players not on this list can consistently earn a small benefit through the restocking process."