One week later.
Xu Tong had just come down from the second floor, preparing to order breakfast at the vending machine, when she saw new prompts appear on the big screen.
[Good morning, players!]
[The ’Gallery’ will open in 5 minutes.]
[This game is called ’Financial Sources Game,’ with the objective of ’Judging Sinners.’]
[Mandatory participants from this community are: Su Xiucen, Xu Tong.]
[In addition, this community has 2 voluntary participation slots, which will be prioritized from community players who voluntarily register.]
[When voluntary registrants are fewer than 2, random selection will be made within the community.]
[Please prepare, players.]
Xu Tong nearly lost her footing. Her face turned pale as she stared at the big screen in shock, "Ah?? Judgment game? I’m included too??"Being selected by the Gallery twice in a row made her feel somewhat devastated.
The lobby immediately erupted into chaos.
Actually, after a week had passed, most people had some expectation of the Gallery opening again, but seeing the four words ’Judgment Game’ still instinctively caused panic.
Since it was a judgment game, there was only a short 5-minute countdown, with no time for thorough advance preparation.
Jiang He looked around the lobby and found that Su Xiucen wasn’t there.
She seemed to have already finished breakfast and returned to her room.
Li Renshu looked at the game’s name and fell into thought.
"Financial Sources Game? Will this be a business-related game?"
She looked at Wang Yongxin, but obviously, Wang Yongxin had absolutely no desire to participate in this game.
He already had conflicts with Su Xiucen, so how could he actively enter such a dangerous judgment game to help?
Even if it really was his area of expertise in business, there was no reason to participate.
After serious consideration, Li Renshu also raised her hand.
"I also volunteer to participate."
Xu Tong’s panicked state calmed down slightly, "That’s great, Renshu. With you there I can feel more at ease. We..."
Before she could finish her words, she had already disappeared from the lobby.
...
"Beep—"
A sharp buzzing sound rang out, and Xu Tong suddenly woke up.
Although this was already the third game she was participating in, arriving in an unfamiliar game environment still gave her a feeling of palpitations.
Moreover, entering games twice in a row was indeed breaking through her psychological defenses.
Considering that this game’s nature was a ’Judgment Game,’ which might involve extremely high death risks, she was even more anxious.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed her emotions slightly.
Xu Tong looked around. She was currently in an office, not particularly spacious but definitely not cramped either, estimated to be over 20 square meters.
The office had some common furnishings, including office desks and chairs, office computers, bookcases, reception sofas, green plants, and so on.
Xu Tong was currently sitting on the reception sofa, and in the center of the large redwood coffee table in front of her, there was a solitary audio player that was immediately visible and quite conspicuous.
Xu Tong first tried to open the door, but it was locked.
There was also a 5-minute countdown nearby.
In the entire space, there was no big screen, nor did game rules suddenly start playing.
Everything else looked like ordinary set pieces. After checking the computer and finding it temporarily unable to boot up, Xu Tong’s gaze turned to the audio player on the coffee table.
At this moment, the player automatically began playing specific content.
[Hello, Xu Tong.]
[In this judgment game, you have two objectives:]
[1. Achieve team victory conditions at any company.]
[2. Complete a special hidden task: ’Help sinner Su Xiucen break free from her obsession.’]
[Su Xiucen, female, 52 years old.]
[Occupation: Retired worker.]
[To cure her husband’s lung cancer contracted during his time as a miner, despite knowing there was no hope of cure, she still sought medical treatment everywhere and prayed to gods and buddhas. Despite repeated dissuasion, she remained obstinate, ultimately losing both her family and fortune. The donated money became operating funds for fraud groups, causing more innocent people to lose their homes and fortunes.]
[Stubborn people always don’t know how to abandon and let go.]
[But the lifeline grasped in desperation might also be a deadly hook. Blind kindness sometimes brings more harm to others than pure evil.]
[As for how to break her obsession, as a player who has lived together in the same community for some time, you need to find the answer yourself.]
[You must complete this task through covert means and cannot let anyone know of the task’s existence.]
[If there is suspicion of deliberate disclosure, you will be warned or even suffer instant death punishment.]
[When the economic winter ends, if any of the above objectives are not achieved, the game’s judgment mechanism will be activated, and Su Xiucen will suffer instant death punishment.]
[Learning to think from others’ perspectives will be key to completing your hidden task.]
[Good luck!]
After hearing this information, Xu Tong was initially panicked but soon felt somewhat relieved.
"So this judgment game isn’t judging me? Could the God’s Imitator who designed this game please not make such jokes? My heart can’t take it...
"I was forced to participate because I need to help Aunt Su break free from her obsession.
"I should have no death risk, at most I’ll have visa time deducted.
"How exactly should I do this?"
Xu Tong had no immediate clues. Obviously, successfully completing this task would require long-term planning.
She could only carefully put the player in her pocket and store it safely.
When the 5-minute countdown ended, there was a "click" sound from the door.
Xu Tong tried turning the door handle again. This time, the door opened easily.
Outside the office was a space resembling an office hall that looked much more spacious, with rows of employee workstations.
The workstations had special indicator lights with "Working" written on them.
Xu Tong roughly counted and found there were 30 workstations total, but only 20 had their indicator lights on, all others were off.
Around this spacious office area, there were five doors in total.
In the direction that all workstations faced away from was the largest double door, which seemed to lead to the outside world.
In the direction all workstations faced, on the front wall was only one door, obviously larger than the other single doors, positioned in the company’s prime location.
Next to the door was a prominent nameplate: ’CEO Office.’
On the walls to the left and right of the workstations were three more doors, one on the left and two on the right, which were three different ’Executive Offices.’
Next to the executive office on the left side of the workstations, there was also an open meeting area that, together with these offices, roughly formed a standard square on the building floor plan.
Xu Tong had walked out from one of the executive offices on the right side.
The other three players also emerged from different rooms.