[Community 9’s Xue Qi broadcasts data to all players.]

[As of current time, the proportion of players who actively brought items into the meeting room is: ’55%’.]

As expected, this data had risen again.

[Community 12’s Zhao Duo broadcasts data to all players.]

[In the last meeting, the proportion of male players who did not press the ’I’ll Pay’ button is: ’20%’.]

Zheng Jie was surprised there were still guys as stubborn as him, though not many remained.

[Community 9’s Zhang Shichao broadcasts data to all players.]

[As of current time, the proportion of male players who actively pressed ’I’ll Pay’ in the same meeting but did not receive a thumbs-up from their counterpart is: ’75%’.]

Finally, a counter-broadcast from a male player appeared.

But it seemed to have minimal effect so far.

In this mechanism, female players more easily obtained ’likes,’ and sending broadcasts could promote this positive cycle, so with the first broadcast being free, they were very enthusiastic.

Male players weren’t easily able to obtain ’Likes’ to begin with, and even if they used their first free opportunity to broadcast, it was hard to have any effect.

Take Zhang Shichao’s data for example. Even knowing that "male players actively paying room fees probably won’t get thumbs-ups," what could you do about it?

Likes were already very scarce. If you stopped paying room fees because of this, then even the small possibility of originally getting likes would be completely gone.

...

With a little time left before the next meeting, Zheng Jie went to the vending machine again to re-examine the exchange voucher items.

"Although I don’t want to engage in this meaningless rat race, for the sake of visa time, I have no choice but to compete. Exchange vouchers... meaning I spend 1,200 minutes of visa time to buy vouchers, then give them to the other party, and they can exchange them for 1,000 minutes of visa time at the vending machine? This achieves visa time transfer, just with a 20% handling fee taken by the Gallery. Hmm..."

Zheng Jie fell into internal conflict.

He instinctively resisted this behavior, but thinking calmly, what the long-haired woman said did make sense.

This ’Blind Dating Game’ had 20 men and 20 women.

Although numerically it was a 1:1 match ratio, theoretically everyone should be able to get that final 30,000 minutes of visa time from pairing up.

But that was only in theory.

In the actual game process, the number of meetings was limited, and there could be same-sex meetings or repeated meetings.

If certain players had already formed fixed partnerships and kept choosing to continue meeting, other players might be forced to match with players they’d already met or had intense arguments with.

In such situations, it was very possible that the ’Final Selection Vote’ wouldn’t reach consensus. As long as one party was unwilling to give a thumbs-up, neither would get visa time.

This probability wasn’t high, but what if? That would be a huge loss.

If he wanted to ensure he could reliably find a female player willing to exchange thumbs-ups with him in the end, then early concessions could indeed greatly improve his competitiveness.

After all, the 30,000 minutes of visa time obtained when leaving was something every male player got, clearly written in the game rules.

Being completely stingy would probably make it hard to leave a good impression on female players.

The broadcasts constantly scrolling on the big screen were continuously raising the standards for male players to obtain ’Likes.’

Since Zheng Jie couldn’t play those strategies that relied heavily on appearance, he could only honestly submit to being fleeced.

After a brief internal struggle, he made up his mind and only bought a bottle of water from the vending machine, not purchasing exchange vouchers.

"I’ll use mineral water first as a simple test. If the other party is like that long-haired woman, rolling their eyes at me when they see mineral water, then without thinking, I can directly pass on that type. If the other party is happy after receiving the water and shows basic gratitude, then I can try chatting deeper to see if we can exchange thumbs-ups. If the thumbs-up exchange succeeds, that means the other party is relatively trustworthy. Next meeting, I’ll use a 10,000-minute visa time exchange voucher to arrange mutual thumbs-ups for the final meeting."

Zheng Jie didn’t know if this plan was stable enough, but with his wisdom, he couldn’t think of a better strategy for the moment.

...

While Zheng Jie was continuously conducting meetings, other players were also starting their different meetings.

Ten minutes ago.

Lin Sizhi’s third meeting.

He came to the table empty-handed and sat down.

"Hello."

An inquiring voice came from across the table. A somewhat thin female player with a slight smile on her face entered and sat in the opposite seat.

[Community 12 - Zhao Duo].

She looked Lin Sizhi up and down, but after discovering he was empty-handed without bringing anything, her brow unconsciously furrowed.

Only seeing that Lin Sizhi’s appearance was decent did she refrain from erupting on the spot.

However, the next second, Lin Sizhi politely raised his hand and pointed to the payment buttons on the table.

"Hello, to show your sincerity, could you please pay the room fee first?"

Zhao Duo was shocked and even doubted whether she had heard correctly.

"What did you say? I should pay?? You really made me laugh with anger. You look like a decent person, how can you say something so shameless? What do you mean ’to show my sincerity’? Where’s your sincerity then?"

Obviously, Zhao Duo had already encountered those "more polite" male players in her previous two meetings, so she had begun to take things like actively paying room fees and bringing drinks and snacks for granted.

She was already somewhat unhappy seeing Lin Sizhi hadn’t brought anything, and now he was actually asking her to pay, which was completely upside down.

However, Lin Sizhi didn’t get angry. He simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick stack of exchange vouchers.

"My sincerity is here."

Seeing the thick stack of exchange vouchers in Lin Sizhi’s hand, Zhao Duo was stunned.

There were three different denominations of exchange vouchers: 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 minutes. These three types were easily distinguishable by appearance.

What Lin Sizhi held were single 1,000-minute exchange vouchers. Although the face value of each wasn’t particularly high, such a thick stack conservatively had over ten vouchers and still had significant visual impact.

Zhao Duo tentatively asked, "These are... for me?"

Lin Sizhi shook his head, "They could be, or they might not be. As I said, this depends on your sincerity."

Zhao Duo frowned, "You want to trick me into paying the room fee with a bunch of empty promises?"

Lin Sizhi put away the exchange vouchers again, "You should know, it’s clearly written on the vending machine that these exchange vouchers have special usage rules. The purchaser cannot convert them back into visa time. They can only be transferred to others. I’m definitely going to give out these exchange vouchers, it’s impossible to use them as empty promises to deceive people. But I also can’t give them to just anyone. I’ll only give them to people I trust, and naturally expect to exchange them for some ’Likes.’ So, for this meeting, I need you to pay the room fee to show sincerity. After that, I’ll give you a 1,000-minute visa time exchange voucher in exchange for one of your thumbs-ups."

Zhao Duo looked at Lin Sizhi, hesitated for a moment, then her expression relaxed as she pressed [I’ll Pay].

Lin Sizhi also pressed [You Pay], "Good, you’re a smart person. Why aren’t you worried I’ll deceive you?"

Zhao Duo shook her head, "Your willingness to exchange so many non-recoverable vouchers at once shows you’re not lacking in visa time. There’s no need to deceive me over a mere 200 minutes in room fees."