Zheng Jie scratched his head anxiously, "It’s over, it’s over, isn’t this completely ruined!!"

He hoped that Lin Sizhi would give new hints on the big screen, but unfortunately there were none.

Players like Zheng Jie were the most miserable in the game at this moment.

Because those particularly smart players had definitely figured out ways to protect themselves and formed fixed meeting partnerships with specific players from other communities.

Like Lu Xinyi, Zheng Jie was certain she wouldn’t be troubled by this problem.

And those particularly stupid players either couldn’t perceive the danger or already had many “Dislikes” themselves, so they weren’t that anxious either.

Players like Zheng Jie, caught in the middle, had only one feeling at this moment.

The sky was falling.

...

Another new round of meetings began, and Zheng Jie walked dejectedly into the meeting room.

This time, randomly matched with him was an ordinary-looking girl with some tear stains still on her face.

She had no distinctive features, neither pretty nor particularly ugly.

But Zheng Jie still remembered her because he had seen her on the talent show before. She was the girl who said she was "deducted over 1000 minutes of visa time per hour" and successfully got 3 “Likes” by playing the victim.

[Community 9, Xue Qi].

"Hello."

You could tell she was very nervous.

Zheng Jie raised both hands to signal like he did when he met the panicked middle-aged woman before, then slowly pressed [I’ll Pay].

"Relax, I’m not a bad person. Look, my hands aren’t on the buttons below.

"Let me pay the room fee first, okay?"

Xue Qi also pressed [You Pay], sat down in her seat, and seemed to calm down slightly.

"I know what you’re worried about. Don’t worry, I think most male players can still maintain their bottom line and won’t kill indiscriminately for no reason.

"If possible, can we exchange ‘Likes’?

"Don’t worry, I won’t exchange ‘Dislikes,’ and I have no intention of harming anyone."

Zheng Jie tried to make his tone sound as friendly as possible.

He also knew this exchange proposal was unlikely to get a response, because for both male and female players, “Likes” and “Dislikes” were equally important now.

They would either become weapons to attack enemies or shields to defend against attacks. With both resources being very limited, it would naturally be safer to exchange with the same gender.

But Zheng Jie still had to try.

After all, likes could also provide self-protection and send broadcasts, which were equally important to him.

Getting “Dislikes” would certainly be better, but to avoid arousing the other party’s suspicion, exchanging “Likes” was safer.

Xue Qi kept her head down without responding.

Zheng Jie couldn’t say much more and could only try to find topics every minute or two during the awkward silences, attempting to eliminate the other party’s wariness as much as possible.

Finally, after another awkward silence, the meeting time was up.

Zheng Jie stood up, preparing to leave.

"See, we’re both safe, aren’t we?

"Don’t worry, I won’t harm you.

"Looking at you, you probably haven’t found a fixed partner for matching either, right?

"If you trust me, we can keep matching afterwards, and finally take the 30,000 minutes of visa time together and leave safely."

Zheng Jie didn’t have high hopes, just making a simple final attempt.

But to his surprise, Xue Qi actually looked up and seemed to have made some kind of decision, "Okay, you seem like a good person. I’m willing to exchange ‘Likes’ with you.

"If I can confirm I received your ‘Like,’ I’ll consider continuing to meet with you."

Zheng Jie’s eyes lit up, "Really? Good, then I’ll give you a like right now.

"I clicked it."

Zheng Jie knew the other party couldn’t see what he specifically clicked and couldn’t verify it, but he still slowed down his movements as much as possible to gain the other party’s trust.

Xue Qi also pressed the button, then waved at him, "See you then."

Zheng Jie quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, goodbye! Looking forward to our next meeting!"

...

After leaving the meeting room and entering the corridor, Zheng Jie breathed a sigh of relief.

Phew, that was good!

Although Zhou Rong had rejected his invitation earlier, it didn’t matter now because he had found a new partner, Xue Qi.

Dating was like this, it didn’t matter how many times you failed, as long as you succeeded once.

The game had updated rules in the second phase so that same-gender players could no longer have stable meetings through invitations, only invite opposite genders or randomly match.

But it was precisely because of this rule that female players like Xue Qi couldn’t form fixed matches with other female players either, which is why she entered the random matching mechanism and encountered him.

Now he could temporarily feel at ease and consider how to help other players in the community without worries.

Zheng Jie returned to the waiting room somewhat excitedly, then saw a prominent notification message appear on the big screen.

[Current number of reports: 1]

[Warning! When reported 3 times, you will face instant death penalty.]

...

Zheng Jie’s hands and feet went cold, and he froze in place.

Although he was reluctant to believe it, there was only one explanation at this point: Xue Qi not only didn’t give him a like but also clicked "report."

And since Zheng Jie had given Xue Qi a like, it meant he had also contributed 50% of the effort for this report.

After the shock came uncontainable anger.

"How can she do this!

"Cheating money is one thing, but trying to kill me too!

"No, I was too stupid. I actually made the same mistake again..."

Speaking of being cheated of likes, he had already been cheated once during his meeting with Lu Xinyi.

At that time, he had repeatedly warned himself never to trust others easily.

But in a moment of carelessness, he fell into the same pit again, and even harder.

A terrifying thought flashed through Zheng Jie’s mind.

Kill her!

They had no grievances, so why did she falsely accuse him? Why couldn’t such a rotten person be killed?

But after calming down slightly, Zheng Jie also knew he had no chance.

Because Xue Qi would absolutely never accept his meeting invitation again, and the possibility of the two randomly matching together was virtually zero.

Zheng Jie sat dazedly in his seat until the talent show on the big screen ended.

[Performer No. 1 cumulatively received 11 “Interesting” votes, earning 1 additional “Like.”]

[Performer No. 2 cumulatively received 15 “Interesting” votes, earning 1 additional “Like.”]

Zheng Jie increasingly felt something was wrong.

Although from the talent show results, no one had died, the changes in voting patterns made Zheng Jie realize that the antagonism between male and female players was still intensifying.

These two talent show participants were one male and one female. They didn’t perform any special talents or say inflammatory words like before.

But they both steadily received over ten votes, neither below 10 nor exceeding 20.

There was a terrifying possibility behind this:

Players were starting to vote for same-gender talent show participants for no reason.

The reason was simple: the “Interesting” votes in talent shows would become “Likes” after every 10 were collected, becoming weapons for the enemy.