Huang Shengjie said, "I’ve thought of two solutions.
"First, a spy can only act with a heart and without a heart, because when you can’t predict someone watching you, you won’t have the awareness to deliberately hide information. Many times, you will unwittingly slow down the gameplay, giving the opponent more opportunities to observe.
"So, as long as each round ends quickly, or adopts a fixed strategy, moving directly into the buying phase before the opponent can see clearly, that’s good enough.
"We can form a fixed game partnership, where one person plays while the other stands nearby to block the view with their body, thus preventing too much information leakage.
"Secondly, we can also directly have our own people serve on the Anti-Smuggling Team.
"Tang Qing’s asking price is 5000 Gold Coins, which is inflated. That’s because he himself needs to buy spies from the gold diggers and share profits with them, so he has to raise the price; otherwise, the whole system can’t be maintained.
"Moreover, this should also be to leave room for negotiation: If you really fell for his trick and are willing to cooperate, you might negotiate this price down to around 3000 Gold Coins. You’d think you benefited, but in reality, 3000 might be Tang Qing’s psychological bottom line.
"But in any case, having our own people become part of the Anti-Smuggling Team to internally distribute profits is certainly more cost-effective than paying tribute to Tang Qing."
Huang Shengjie continued, "So the urgent need now is not to continue gold mining, but to find a way to organize people first!
"After organizing, occupy the gold panning machines and rotate for stable revenue, then find a way for our Anti-Smuggling Team to escort the gold sand for realization; this is the correct strategy.
"I’ll go find players from Community 23, you go find players from Community 2.
"Players from the same community can’t communicate or share the same machine rotation, but players from different communities aren’t subject to such restrictions.
"Each of our two communities has 6 players in this game. Assuming we each find 3 people, totaling 8 players, we can form 4 groups.
"Three groups occupy the gold panning machines for rotation and earning revenue, while another group becomes the Anti-Smuggling Team for protection."
Zhou Xiaoying pondered on this; such a strategy was indeed much better than blindly mining for gold herself.
But she soon realized a new problem: "However... according to the rules, if multiple Anti-Smuggling Team players simultaneously initiate a check on a single gold digger, the one with fewer prior checks has priority.
"Which means, if the Anti-Smuggling Team really targets us, our own team can only protect us once, and not a second time."
Huang Shengjie said, "For this point, I haven’t thought of a better strategy yet. We can only say that we should transport more the first time to ensure profit, and subsequent transports will depend on luck.
"As long as we protect our information well, even if we are checked, it might not be guessed correctly."
Zhou Xiaoying nodded: "Alright, then let’s exchange the names and traits of the other players in our communities and go find them separately."
In this game, the name badges don’t show the player’s community number, so exact names and general characteristics must be known for quick and precise identification of players.
Huang Shengjie shook his head, "You only need to tell me the player information from Community 23, and I’ll find them myself. After finding Peng Xinyuan, I can let him help find the others from Community 2.
"The reason for doing this is primarily to keep a low profile, since both of us simultaneously making a big show of finding people is more likely to draw the attention of other players.
"Of course, even if I search by myself, I might be noticed by some keen players, but let’s minimize the impact as much as possible.
"Secondly, you holding my briefcase here should queue for an idle gold panning machine; at least occupy one, then we can alternate using it.
"Moreover, my briefcase contains gold sand, and walking around the rest area might get it confiscated by the Anti-Smuggling Team. Going to the trading area for conversion wastes too much time now."
Zhou Xiaoying hesitated a bit: "But, handing it to me..."
Huang Shengjie said firmly: "It’s okay. I trust you; this gold sand is essentially our cooperation’s ’deposit.’
"After you exchange it for Gold Coins, you can return it to me."
Zhou Xiaoying nodded: "Alright."
...
Huang Shengjie began to bustle about.
He first found Peng Xinyuan, told him about his plan with Zhou Xiaoying, then entrusted Peng Xinyuan to search for other Community 2 players.
Afterward, Huang Shengjie continued to look for other Community 23 players.
Ten minutes later, Huang Shengjie had preliminarily built a decent framework.
The players found from Community 2 were Zhang Yan, He Qinyun, Geng Yuxia, and the players from Community 23 were Peng Xinyuan, Li Mao, Zhang Jing.
Among them, Peng Xinyuan and Li Mao had both participated in the ’Prison Factory.’ Although Li Mao had never appeared in front of Huang Shengjie throughout, Huang Shengjie had a certain impression of this ’fence sitter player’ during reviews.
As for Zhang Jing, she was a female player without much presence, seen neither in other games before.
However, according to Zhou Xiaoying, she was a veteran in Community 23 and should be competent.
All these players cautiously kept their distance because, according to the game rules, players from the same community were not allowed to communicate in any form, or have other players from the same community present when talking, so everyone was very careful.
Huang Shengjie simply allocated personnel, then, with Peng Xinyuan, separately communicated with people from the opposite community to finalize the plan.
Players paired up into game partners; they were Huang Shengjie-Peng Xinyuan, Zhou Xiaoying-Geng Yuxia, Zhang Yan-Li Mao, He Qinyun-Zhang Jing.
Among them, He Qinyun was in Zone C coincidentally using a gold panning machine, so Huang Shengjie directly had Zhang Jing find her, and the two alternated to prevent the machine from being snatched by others.
Zhou Xiaoying was in Zone A; although it was still unclear if she managed to get an idle gold panning machine, Huang Shengjie still instructed, through Peng Xinyuan, Geng Yuxia to go to Zone A to form a pair.
The last group, Zhang Yan and Li Mao, had no idle machines temporarily and similarly chose to stay in Zone C waiting for new idle machines to appear.
Although, from the current situation, Zone B seemed to have relatively fewer gold diggers, Huang Shengjie, after consideration, still attempted to concentrate personnel in Zones A and C as much as possible.
Because he and Peng Xinyuan were to serve as the Anti-Smuggling Team, which was a crucial part of the plan.
They had to escort others, and in the future, they might bear other responsibilities, such as intercepting gold diggers from other communities, or passing messages, so there was a certain physical requirement.
Once they became part of the Anti-Smuggling Team, Huang Shengjie and Peng Xinyuan couldn’t enter the Gold Panning Area or Trading Area anymore, and could only wait at the gate for support, so at most, each person could handle one area.
Zone B was farther away and had no extra personnel for support, so spreading current personnel in Zones A and C was the best choice.
After ensuring these players roughly paired up, Huang Shengjie and Peng Xinyuan returned to the rest area to find Anti-Smuggling Team device stations, becoming Anti-Smuggling Team players.