The matching time was faster than Huang Shengjie expected, it seems there are still some players on the ’Visa Time Provider’ side.
Quickly, the screen ahead was divided into two parts. The lower part represented Huang Shengjie himself, showing a ’calm and indifferent’ expression, labeled as ’Gold Sand Provider’.
While the upper part represented his trading counterpart, with a ’serious and earnest’ expression, labeled as ’Visa Time Provider’.
This happened to be the expression Huang Shengjie most wanted to trade with, which he had determined earlier.
Huang Shengjie felt a bit surprised, because strictly speaking, this was his most favorable expression, also the one he selected as the ’most desired for trading’.
[Current trade ratio: ’2400:2000’]
[Please submit ’2400 gold sand’ and ’2000 minutes of visa time’ respectively as trade items.]
There was a special trading platform at the bottom of the screen. Huang Shengjie opened his suitcase, randomly grabbed a handful of gold sand and placed it on the platform, the screen information automatically updated.
[Trade item provided: 1342 gold sand]
Huang Shengjie carefully adjusted the quantity, finally fixing the amount of gold sand at 2400.
He had a total of 17250 gold sand, and accurately separating out 2400 was indeed somewhat challenging.
The counterpart’s information box also displayed ’2000 minutes of visa time’.
Both parties presented the agreed quantity of trade items.
[Trade items locked.]
The screen displayed two different buttons: ’Trade’ and ’Seize’.
Their appearance was like two cards, ’Trade’ with a green background and ’Seize’ with a red background, quite eye-catching.
Huang Shengjie pressed the ’Trade’ button.
The cover on the trade platform closed and then reopened, the gold sand on top disappeared.
After both parties completed their choices, the screen slowly revealed the results.
On Huang Shengjie’s side, the card flipped, revealing the word ’Trade’ with a green background.
And on the counterpart’s side, the card also flipped to show ’Trade’.
[Both parties chose ’Trade’, transaction completed.]
[Trade items automatically exchanged, you have obtained 2000 minutes of visa time.]
[Gold sand used for trading has been converted to legal Gold Coins.]
"Trade was successful, at least the other party didn’t choose ’Seize’ the first time."
This was good news for Huang Shengjie, though he wasn’t too quick to be overjoyed.
According to the game rules, both parties have to trade three times. The probability of choosing ’Seize’ in the first two times is actually not high because if the other party chooses ’Seize’ the first time, both parties will end up choosing ’Seize’ the second and third times, resulting in losses for both.
So the key lies in the third time.
"I can only use 2400 gold sand to exchange for 2000 minutes of visa time, the actual exchange rate is 1.2:1, this data is likely automatically decided by the system, meaning there aren’t many players on the ’Visa Time Provider’ side."
"So, they can profit from this price difference."
"If this player ratio can remain constant, some players may earn a little visa time even if they only trade visa time in the trading area."
"But if the number of people on the other side increases, this ratio might decrease."
"I can’t afford to wait indefinitely, after all, I also have to consider the cost of time."
"As long as these gold sands can be quickly and securely exchanged and kept safe, that’s good enough."
In the second trade, Huang Shengjie still placed 2400 gold sand on the trade platform.
[Both parties chose ’Trade’, transaction completed.]
[Trade items automatically exchanged, you have obtained 2000 minutes of visa time.]
[Gold sand used for trading has been converted to legal Gold Coins.]
Finally came the third trade, with the exact same trading process.
However, this time the results on the screen changed.
The counterpart’s card flipped, showing not ’Trade’, but ’Seize’, with a red background looking quite glaring.
Huang Shengjie’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, silently sighed.
Yet, when his card flipped, it also showed the red background word ’Seize’.
[Both parties chose ’Seize’, transaction failed.]
[Both parties will bear a 30% loss and retrieve the trade items, and ’illegal gold sand cannot be converted to legal Gold Coins’.]
The trade platform cover in front of Huang Shengjie opened again, the gold sand was returned, but evidently less than before.
[3 trades have been completed, do you wish to continue with 2 more trades?]
Seeing the pop-up information on the screen, Huang Shengjie pressed ’No’.
[Trade ended.]
Once any party presses ’No’, the trade terminates, the counterpart most likely also made the same choice.
The information on the screen disappeared, returning to the state before the initial matching of trading counterparts.
Huang Shengjie checked his earnings, he brought 17250 gold sand, succeeding in the first two trades, each used 2400 gold sand to exchange for 2000 visa time, third failed with a 30% loss.
Thus, he earned 4000 visa time, with 11730 gold sand remaining in hand.
"Seems washing all these illegal gold sand is more difficult than imagined."
Huang Shengjie did not immediately start matching another trading counterpart, instead, he reflected first.
In the first two trades, the counterpart invested 4000 minutes of visa time to receive 4800 Gold Coins, netting 800 Gold Coins.
In the third trade, the counterpart’s 2000 minutes of visa time suffered a 30% loss, i.e., 600 minutes of visa time.
Overall, they still profited by 200.
And if Huang Shengjie continued to choose ’Trade’ in the third time, the counterpart would directly gain 2000 minutes of visa time + 2400 Gold Coins, effectively netting 5200 Gold Coins.
This is quite an exaggerated profit, after all, he doesn’t need to do anything throughout, just click a few buttons, the whole process only takes five minutes.
This truly makes it hard not to be tempted.
Precisely for this reason, Huang Shengjie also chose ’Seize’ in the third time out of self-preservation.
"According to the ’Prison Factory’ discussions, this situation is almost unsolvable. Because even if I’m benevolent and the other party is too, during the third trade both will always choose ’Seize’, the possibility of choosing ’Trade’ is negligible."
"At this point in time, there can’t possibly be any clueless novice players left, right?"
"Of course, even so, it’s still acceptable to me, just that the depletion is substantial, essentially each time I can only trade 5520 gold sand for 4000 minutes of visa time."
"It’s still early on, most players should choose the strategy of ’Trade-Trade-Seize’. "
"But... if more trades are conducted and everyone realizes this, what happens if the situation changes?"
"Suppose I know the counterpart’s strategy is likely ’Trade-Trade-Seize’, then for me, the best strategy turns into ’Seize-Seize-Seize’. "
"Because this way, at least in the first trade I can earn 2000 minutes of visa time for free, enough to cover the loss of 1440 gold sand in the latter two trades."
"But if the counterpart figures this out too, then troubles multiply."
"In this spiral of suspicion, trading turns into a purely loss-making act, not only suffering 30% loss each time, but unable to convert any illegal gold sand into legal Gold Coins."
"Trading becomes utterly impossible, unless the number of trades increases, losses multiply."
"Damn it!"
"To break this deadlock, the only way is to confirm the counterpart’s identity. As long as two people trust each other, they can trade consecutively five times."
"But the problem is, how do you verify the counterpart’s identity?"
"The trade ratio is set by the system, neither party sees any information about the other. Even if a secret code is agreed upon, it can’t be conveyed."
"Agreeing on what kind of expression each selects? But given the number of players, with only four expressions, many players will likely choose the same expression, rendering identification impossible."