Chapter 556: Chapter 556: Meaningless Persistence

Qin Cheng had tried before, and this method could indeed avoid transmission.

Of course, there was another possibility: the two players who completed transactions with Qin Cheng were not infected.

However, in the game, there was no way to verify the identity of the infected.

Before meeting, Qin Cheng deliberately waited until the last moment to open the door to ensure no other patients sent requests.

If other patients also sent requests, the probability of Li Haoqiang not being infected would increase, and Qin Cheng would consider delaying the delivery of medicine to identify the true infected individual.

From the current situation, the probability of Li Haoqiang not being infected was not high, and Qin Cheng could only choose based on the most probable scenario.

He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of the consultation room, and looked thoughtfully at the courtyard outside.

At that moment, a special "beep beep" sound came from the vending machine.

Qin Cheng was stunned for a moment. He went to the vending machine to check and found that someone had sent him a call request, but the interface did not reveal the identity of the requester.

The 10th round of the game was about to begin, and if he accepted the call, Qin Cheng would likely miss the next meeting.

Although "calling" and "monitoring" were different and wouldn’t limit players from opening the door, if he missed the door opening time, he would also be forced to stay in the room.

After considering, Qin Cheng decided to accept the call.

A polite voice came through the phone.

"Hello, Dr. Qin."

"I’m Chen Guangming."

Qin Cheng paused for a moment: "We don’t have much to discuss."

Chen Guangming chuckled: "Why not? In the Walkway, any player can chat; the difference lies in finding the right topic."

It’s evident that Chen Guangming acquired Qin Cheng’s name through some channel.

From the game’s mechanics, it wasn’t necessary to know the exact characters, as long as the area and pronunciation were correct, one could initiate a call.

Qin Cheng wasn’t particularly surprised by this; he quickly thought of several possible scenarios.

Chen Guangming might have learned his name from Zheng Chunhua, or he might have seen it on Qin Cheng’s badge through the floor-to-ceiling window of the courtyard.

Alternatively, a patient who had met him before might have told his name to a VIP patient, and the VIP patient then signaled Chen Guangming through the courtyard’s window.

But this itself wasn’t too big of an issue, as it only allowed for initiating a call.

If Qin Cheng didn’t want to chat, he could hang up at any time, and Chen Guangming would still lose the 1000 medical points required to initiate the call.

Chen Guangming continued: "Although Zheng Chunhua is the Auditor, he’s actually executing your orders, right?

"So, let’s not make him run back and forth as a messenger. It would be more efficient for two smart people like us to communicate directly.

"I assume you are a new player that just entered the New World, correct?

"Because you still clearly have some meaningless idealistic tendencies.

"Of course, having ideals is good, and having beliefs is good too. Although I don’t have them myself, I admire people like you.

"But no matter how steadfast the ideals or beliefs are, it’s always important to consider the reality within the game.

"Take the game’s rules: the prices of O-type and F-type medicines inherently make our match unfair, and you have no chance of winning.

"Because in the end, all the patients will stand on my side.

"M-type medicine is good indeed, but... how many patients do you think can afford it? How many patients can accept destitution to take this medicine?"

Qin Cheng paused for a moment: "You don’t need to sound so alarming.

"Every hour, only one system-selected infected individual will appear, and just three pills can cure them.

"That means that as long as a large-scale transmission event doesn’t occur, the M-type medicines you’ve previously sold in bulk are enough to save all the infected individuals.

"Moreover, from the game’s rules, the Auditor has absolute power.

"The game prohibits violent behavior, and as long as the Auditor refuses to buy any O-type or F-type medicine, none will flow to the patients.

"Even if the patients want to kill the doctor and the Auditor, they can’t do anything.

"Similarly, even if the Auditor gives up, as long as the two doctors agree, they can achieve the same effect.

"You might be able to transmit information to other patients through the courtyard’s window or calls, but there’s no way to transmit medicine.

"So it doesn’t change the game’s outcome."

Chen Guangming sighed and said, "How could there be someone as smart yet naive as you?

"Rules are indeed rigid, but players are dynamic.

"The rules state the Auditor has unlimited power, but does the Auditor truly possess such unrestricted power?

"Patients indeed cannot resort to violence, forcing compliance from the doctor or Auditor, but that doesn’t mean they lack methods to exert pressure.

"I don’t want to waste more time proving this, you’ll find out soon enough that I’m right after a few more games.

"I’m proposing a very fair option for you now:

"As long as you’re willing to let O-type and F-type medicines circulate freely, we can distribute all the profits from these medicines according to a fixed ratio.

"You’re the player who actually controls the entire medicine supply chain, so I’m willing to offer you more profit.

"I’ll take thirty percent of the profit from selling O-type and F-type medicines; you take thirty percent, Zheng Chunhua, the Auditor, takes twenty percent, and the other doctor takes twenty percent.

"Of course, if you’re greedier, we could consume the other doctor’s two percent together, considering only one doctor is needed to sell medicine to all the patients.

"You don’t have to rush to reject me, think it over.

"If you come to a decision, call me or find Zheng Chunhua to buy medicine, either is fine."

After finishing, Chen Guangming ended the call. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Due to the lengthy call with Chen Guangming, Qin Cheng missed the time to meet other players.

So he returned to his seat, silently took out another piece of I-type medicine, waiting for the round to end.

Soon, the pain returned.

Qin Cheng, as before, silently put the pill in his mouth, maintaining his silence.

...

The 8th round of the game, in the B area’s consultation room.

The door to the VIP patient room opened, and Tan Minglei entered.

The doctor frowned in confusion and asked, "Is it you again being selected as infected?"

The game time had entered the 2nd hour, and previously, Tan Minglei had been selected as infected and had purchased medicine from the doctor.

Now, he sent another request to the doctor.

"I’m not the infected, but... he asked me to help buy medicine."

The doctor frowned: "This is nonsense!

"Didn’t I already tell you? Whoever is infected should come pick up the medicine themselves, others shouldn’t interfere to avoid secondary transmission.

"His own room is connected to the consultation room, if he can go to the lounge to ask you to get medicine, can’t he come to the consultation room himself?"

At this point, the doctor suddenly realized something.

He looked at Tan Minglei: "Do you mean you’ve already convinced all the other patients in the lounge, and they’ve agreed to let you represent them to get the medicine?"

Tan Minglei nodded: "Yes."

Both sat on their respective seats, separated by the transaction machine on the table, many things were already understood without words.

Clearly, Tan Minglei most likely convinced the other patients in the lounge to let him be their representative, negotiating with the doctor, and obtaining and redistributing the medicine.

Otherwise, other players would certainly send meeting requests to the doctor.

The doctor sighed: "What do you want to say? Go ahead."

Tan Minglei paused, then asked, "Doctor, you only want to sell us M-type medicine because other medicines have too many side effects...

"Or is it because the profit is too low?"