Huang Shengjie frowned: "But these two images are obviously different, right? Maybe Hu Yingxu changed his mind after watching Fu Yujun’s performance? Deliberately lying?
"There is also a big screen in Uncle Zheng’s actor dressing room, so the actors can most likely see the performances of other actors and adjust based on the previous performance content."
Zhou Wanlin did not agree with this viewpoint: "I don’t think so.
"Maybe this change in image is a part of the script itself?
"What we are seeing is Gong Zheng during his middle school period, but from middle school to university and then to work, a lot might happen during this time.
"People change and become more aware of social cues. Perhaps Gong Zheng realized the importance of relationships after entering university and then made changes?
"Moreover, this is the first act of the performance. When actors initially prepare their performance content, they should be unaware of other people’s scripts.
"The possibility of lying right away isn’t very high, right?"
Huang Shengjie thought for a moment: "But... maybe as ’Special Players,’ they might adopt different strategies?
"Their Setting Book contains specific information, so it’s easier to guess the truth, and they might even know the truth from the beginning.
"Moreover, they can most likely guess which part of the information is missing on other actors’ Setting Books.
"In this situation, lying might create a blackout under the light effect. — Precisely because we instinctively think no one would dare lie in the first act, lying can instead yield the greatest benefits and muddy the waters right away."
Qin Cheng pondered for a moment and said: "Both possibilities exist, and currently, it’s very difficult to make an especially accurate judgment.
"Interrogation and questioning, these two actions are only allowed once throughout the entire event, meaning we can wait to use them in the second or third act.
"By then, we can collect more information and use them more cautiously.
"Communication can be used once between every act. If not used, it’s wasted. Let’s first consider which Community we should communicate with.
"We can confirm that we are in a good guy role, so the current priority is to identify other good guys and establish alliances as much as possible.
"I lean towards... communicating with Community 10 to establish a cooperative relationship."
Zhou Wanlin thought for a moment: "Hmm... Community 12 and Community 17, based on previous game performance, seem like unreliable evil Communities and can be prioritized for exclusion.
"Although this game has good and bad roles, good roles can also deceive — tricking other Communities to prevent them from guessing the truth, thus widening the score gap.
"Community 5’s Zhang Lijuan has a performance score of only 41 points, which is too low. It’s hard to say whether it’s because of poor performance or because incorrect information was conveyed, making them not a good cooperation candidate.
"As for Community 11’s Bai Zilan... also gives an unreliable impression.
"But we haven’t interacted at all with Community 10, so we can’t necessarily say they’re reliable, right?"
Qin Cheng supplemented: "Aside from these factors, there’s one more critical point: the order of performance.
"It’s now the first act, and the likelihood of actors earlier in the performance order making changes in performance details is lower.
"Because the actors’ first goal is to ensure the performance effect. Although they can improvise, the general performance content and lines need to be prepared in advance.
"Making temporary script changes is risky and requires plenty of time.
"Fu Yujun performed right after Uncle Zheng, leaving him insufficient time for changes.
"Moreover, we analyzed that the roles of high school teacher and university professor, which share a similar ecological niche, likely possess some special differences, and Fu Yujun’s performance indeed reflected this difference.
"If his assessment of Gong Zheng is the same as Uncle Zheng’s, that would be suspicious.
"So, my consideration is to first communicate with Community 10 and share information as much as possible to establish a cooperative relationship."
Huang Shengjie nodded in agreement: "Yes, it seems Community 10 is indeed the best choice for us.
"However... theoretically, we should also be able to receive calls, right?
"But currently, there’s no reaction from this machine, meaning that no other Community has initiated a call towards us, is that correct?"
Qin Cheng has already initiated a call to Community 10 on the operating interface: "Check whether Community 10’s call is occupied."
This machine used for ’communication’ has several simple instruction notes on its interface.
[1. When dialing other Communities, you can learn the call status of the target Community.]
[If the opposing Community is currently in a call, it will be displayed as ’In call with another Community’ and a specific busy tone will be played.]
[If the opposing Community is not in a call but another Community dialed first, it will be displayed as ’Waiting to receive another Community’s call.’]
[If the opposing Community is not in a call and our Community dialed first, it will be displayed as ’Waiting to receive our Community’s call.’]
[There will also be prompts for answering or rejecting the call.]
[2. During a call with another Community, the ’actors’ of our Community can also hear the call content but cannot speak to participate in the discussion.]
[3. During a call with another Community, the ’guest audience’ of our Community cannot hear the call content and cannot participate in the discussion.]
Huang Shengjie had a sudden idea: "Could we intentionally dial Community 12 or other Communities to determine their call status with other Communities through the screen information?"
Qin Cheng considered for a moment: "It can be done, but seems pointless.
"Because there is a prompt: once a call is initiated, it cannot be actively canceled.
"If the opponent is not in a call and actually chooses to answer, and if we mutually distrust each other and aren’t willing to provide any information or achieve cooperation, then it equates to wasting a precious opportunity.
"Moreover, no need to guess, other Communities will most likely find a call target, and no Community will waste the call opportunity."
Very quickly, the call request to Community 10 was accepted.
At the same time, a 10-minute countdown appeared on the screen, indicating that even if neither side interrupts the call midway, the conversation can last a maximum of ten minutes.
A deep, raspy female player’s voice emerged from the speaker.
"Hello."
Qin Cheng directly stated: "We are Community 2, not ’Special Players.’ I believe our Community stances align, so are you interested in cooperating?"
The other party seemed to think for a moment: "How do we cooperate?"
Qin Cheng continued: "Information sharing.
"We mutually verify the authenticity of each other’s performances. If certain contents of the Setting Book were not showcased in the performance, then our Communities privately exchange this information.
"If one Community later guesses the truth in advance, they can continue using the communication function to share information with the other Community, thus achieving the purpose of scoring points simultaneously.
"Of course, information sharing is by default exclusive, meaning it cannot be shared with other Communities.
"During the subsequent interlude times, our Communities are bound to only communicate with each other. If one party communicates with other Communities, it will automatically be regarded as the breakdown of cooperation."