Chapter 476: Being Sidelined |
"What's wrong?" Han Mengying could feel that Qi Fan displayed obvious panic and anxiety, and even with a mask blocking it, it was no use.
Qi Fan didn't even sit down in his position. "Not a single 'blood bag' sent me an invitation.
"The invitations I proactively sent to them also received completely no response whatsoever.
"I originally thought that since this plan had just officially begun wrapping up, the coordination between us and the 'blood bags' would be rather chaotic. It would be normal for individual players to happen to be missed and not matched within one or two rounds.
"But thinking again, it felt wrong.
"So I quickly sent you an invitation immediately to report this to you."
Han Mengying nodded silently. "Mm, you did right.
"More than one 'blood bag' normally sent me game invitations. If I hadn't waited for you and you also hadn't proactively come find me, very likely until the game ended, I would have been kept in the dark.
"This is definitely not a coincidence.
Only then did Qi Fan sit down, but Han Mengying's reaction also proved that what he worried about might have truly happened.
This game had just started. He and Han Mengying didn't need to actually play, so as Han Mengying said, their only choice was to use this time to carefully think about where exactly the problem was and whether there was any way to remedy it.
But he also knew that after entering the second stage, the game had theoretically already entered garbage time. Even if something really went wrong, the possibility of remedying it was already minimal.
...
Han Mengying was equally anxious, but she still forced herself to seriously think about the current situation.
"First, there is indeed one possibility: the plan didn't have problems. These 'blood bags' were just players whose level wasn't very good. Perhaps they remembered the roster wrong or sent invitations to the wrong people, causing matching to be misaligned and Qi Fan not being assigned corresponding 'blood bags.'
"If that's the case, then it doesn't matter.
"But in a match of this intensity, the possibility of such low-level errors occurring is minimal.
"People in this situation will naturally develop wishful thinking, unable to accept the consequences caused by another possibility, ultimately choosing to deceive themselves and persist...
"I won't make such a mistake.
"So, only one explanation remains: the 'blood bags' went back on their word.
"They still normally sent me invitations, disguising the appearance that the plan was proceeding normally, but didn't send invitations to Qi Fan—most likely the others in our community are the same.
"If I hadn't deliberately waited until the end but instead directly accepted invitations, then until the game ended, I would only know that others obtained nothing at all...
"The problem now is that the 'blood bags' definitely couldn't have decided to go back on their word by themselves.
"They're all a group of very weak players without any organizational degree or execution ability.
"Their current behavior must have someone pulling strings behind the scenes.
"Is it Lin Sizhi? Lu Xinyi? Or Wang Yongxin, Cai Zhiyuan?
"They might have this capability, but...
"They didn't make a big fuss trying to control Peripheral Community players. Even if they contacted some privately, they couldn't possibly achieve this degree.
"Because the number of game matches is limited. If they had truly extensively executed the same strategy as us, there's no reason to hide it from us.
"Then... the only explanation is Wang Weidong went back on his word.
"In the community's division of labor, our community was mainly used to turn traitors and collect intelligence, while '↓Wheel of Fortune' and '↑The High Priestess' were mainly responsible for controlling these 'blood bags.'
"If Wang Weidong went back on his word, theoretically he indeed could control these blood bags to turn traitor.
"However... Wang Weidong has no reason to go back on his word.
"Because there are a total of 10 'blood bags,' and they can at most consume half. The remaining 'blood bags,' they still have to give to another community.
"If Wang Weidong chooses to betray us, he can only cooperate with Community 17 or Community 3.
"But the problem is that judging from community values and cooperation foundation, Wang Weidong has absolutely no reason to betray us and choose them.
"Community 15, especially Wang Weidong, has always been in an incompatible state with Community 17, and is also very distant from Community 3.
"The possibility that Wang Weidong is scheming against us does exist, but still shouldn't be the main possibility...
"Then there's only one explanation.
"Wang Weidong also doesn't know.
"He's actually already lost control over the community and has been sidelined...
"Although this conclusion is very absurd and I completely can't understand why a player like him would be sidelined, but... after eliminating all other factors, this is the only possibility.
"The only possibility..."
Han Mengying was somewhat shocked by her own conclusion.
Because she very clearly knew what level of player Wang Weidong was, and situations like 'being sidelined' and 'losing control over the community' shouldn't happen to players at this level.
Even if there were too many strong players in the community making integration difficult, it shouldn't explode in such a critical game.
But no matter what, nothing was absolute. If this plan really had some kind of problem causing collapse, then this was the only explanation.
Thinking of this, Han Mengying looked up at Qi Fan. "After this game ends, you still follow the previous plan and continue sending invitations to the blood bags.
"If they subsequently accept, perhaps it really was just a misunderstanding.
"If they don't subsequently accept, match with other players in our community and see if they also encountered the same situation.
"I'll send a matching invitation to '↑The Devil.'"
Qi Fan was stunned for a moment. "But isn't the most likely situation in this match that '↑The Devil' betrayed us?"
Han Mengying explained, "If he doesn't accept my invitation, it means he betrayed us. Perhaps the situation isn't too terrible.
"If he accepts my invitation... then it's the worst situation."
...
...
After entering the second stage, time seemed to pass even faster.
For He Xiaojun, the game strategy of the second stage instead became simpler.
'↓The Hierophant' refused Huang Ming's invitation, so it could basically be confirmed he was the community's traitor.
Huang Ming and '↓The World' took turns matching with He Xiaojun, giving him the maximum amount of Wealth Vouchers, while the remaining person who was off would continue searching for Dr. Shen.
After eliminating '↑The High Priestess,' the wrong option, they successfully found Dr. Shen after two attempts.
This way, the situation became clear.
Three players took turns matching with He Xiaojun, giving him maximum returns.
When one player was giving returns, the other two players would match with each other, equally dividing Wealth Vouchers or roughly redistributing them.
This way, they could both ensure the safety of all community members and allow each player to obtain at least some returns.