Chapter 384 The Second Game
"Now you understand, right? This is why I did that. If we plant the seeds of suspicion in everyone's heart from the beginning, the slaughter will start soon. It won't be long before many people give up their own personality in exchange for the power to survive. And those who are unwilling to sacrifice their own personality are destined to die here.
I can't let this happen, so I have to establish rules for everyone to follow. No matter what, during the period of time when everyone follows the rules, everyone should still be a normal person. Although I don't know how long it will last, I hope it can last as long as possible. "Su Ming said.
Zhou Xiaoxiao lowered her head in silence for a long while before she came to her senses and asked, "What if there is not enough food?"
"According to the data, there should be enough food and water. People may not be full, but if they are divided equally, everyone should be able to survive. I don't know why this is, but it feels like a satire from this alien dimension.
It is obvious that everyone can survive as long as food is shared equally, but humans kill each other in order to occupy more food, and even give up their status as human beings.
If you think about it carefully... there is really nothing more ironic than this, it really seems like the devil is playing tricks on us."
Su Ming sneered and continued, "In short, if no one follows the rules and people like me allocate resources, most people can survive."
“But you can’t survive for long, and that’s not a normal life.” Zhou Xiaoxiao hit the nail on the head.
Su Ming nodded, acknowledging what the other party said.
This is not a normal life. Even if everyone can survive, they will have to go through that cruel and painful game every once in a while. This pressure is enough to crush a normal person's spirit in a short period of time.
The reason why ordinary people can keep working hard is because they have expectations for the future, but if a person can only see endless pain when looking into the future, then living becomes meaningless. In the normal real world, there are people with depression who commit suicide, not to mention that they are now in the devil's territory.
Su Ming anticipated this, so he did not plan to make the information public. Once the information was made public, many people would go crazy because the instability factor would be too great.
"That's right, so I want to find a way for everyone to survive." Su Ming replied.
Zhou Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, pushed up her glasses, and asked as calmly as possible, "What if I can't find it?"
"Then choose thirteen people to survive." Su Ming said coldly.
Zhou Xiaoxiao stared at Su Ming, then lowered her head and covered her face with her hands. A helpless sigh came from behind her palms: "Why do you tell me this? I don't want to know at all."
"This is the reality we have to accept in the end," said Su Ming.
After these words were spoken, the room fell into a strange silence again. An atmosphere of surprise filled the entire room, and the silence was suffocating.
After a long while, Zhou Xiaoxiao asked, "How do you plan to find that road?"
"Let's start by investigating those alien creatures. Maybe we can get some clues, but maybe not." Su Ming did not exaggerate the success rate. He spoke very realistically.
"What if you fail? You should have thought about what will happen if you fail, right?"
"If there is no other way, let the most worthy of all live."
“You get to decide who has value and who doesn’t?”
"Someone has to do this kind of thing. If no one does it, then in the end thirteen monsters will get out. We can only do our best and strive to ensure that those who leave here alive are real human beings. On this basis... let as many valuable people as possible leave." Su Ming said.
Zhou Xiaoxiao nodded silently and stood up from the chair on his knees, as if the conversation had exhausted all his strength.
He received a normal education since childhood, and society told him that everyone is equal. Although this equality may produce some unreasonable fluctuations due to external factors such as wealth and poverty, nobility and social status, if those external factors are stripped away, then people's lives should indeed be equal... at least relatively equal.
But now, Zhou Xiaoxiao could not deny what Su Ming had just said. When a choice must be made among a large number of lives, the factors that need to be considered will increase greatly, and subtle differences will determine life or death. In such an environment, it is obviously unrealistic to say democratic slogans such as equality for all.
Who decides the standard of measurement?
Zhou Xiaoxiao didn’t know, but he didn’t want to be the person who decided the standard. Since Su Ming was willing to be the standard setter, then let him do it.
…
As the days
But the atmosphere of life is getting worse and worse. Although there is no external crisis, the fact that people don’t have enough to eat is enough to make everyone’s mood become terrible.
Compared to being hungry, entertainment is easier to obtain. Many people have entertainment props at home. Although they cannot use computers, they can still play chess and read books.
Su Ming secretly asked someone to find out what everyone thought. Most people were generally dissatisfied with his management because they did not have enough to eat, but Su Ming still retained a large amount of food and water.
Su Ming also often worked with everyone in person, with the aim of observing and finding those with special abilities hidden among ordinary people.
He found quite a few.
The five people with Maoqiu should all be people with super powers. Then the strong woman who caused trouble last time, the woman named Cao Fengling, is also hanging out with a group of guys who are suspected to be people with super powers. There are quite a few of them, about twenty people. Their specific strength is impossible to judge. The only thing Su Ming can be sure of is that these people pose no threat to him.
In addition, Su Ming also locked onto three people. Those three people with special abilities kept to themselves, never talked to anyone, and worked in an orderly manner. It seemed that they would hide in the crowd for the time being and respond to the situation accordingly.
These people with special abilities are the group that Su Ming needs to pay the most attention to. Any unreasonable behavior of theirs will break this rare peace.
Su Ming has a complicated view on these people with special abilities. From the perspective of maintaining stability, he even wants to get rid of these people directly. But from another perspective, those who are capable of becoming managers and managing and appeasing many ordinary people on his behalf must be those who have power and can resolve special incidents.
Therefore, he must treat them with caution.
…
"Big sister, are we really going to keep listening to him?" a dark-skinned man said to Cao Fengling.
"Can't you survive for the time being? Why don't you listen? Are you unhappy with just chopping a little wood? And what will happen if you don't listen to him? What do you want to do?" Cao Fengling glanced at the black man.
"It's not about chopping wood! Why do you think he orders us around like this? Maybe he eats a lot more than us and is very well fed every day."
"That stuff originally belonged to him. It's already good enough that he can share it with us."
"I think he's afraid of being attacked by other superpowers, so he did this. Why don't we just go and grab all his food and water!"
Cao Fengling frowned, stared at the dark-skinned man meaningfully, and said slowly: "It's useless to rob or steal food."
The man licked his lips, looked around furtively, then approached Cao Fengling and whispered, "But as long as you make the other party make a verbal promise when you rob them, it will be fine!"
Cao Fengling's pupils suddenly contracted, and she stretched out her hand and grabbed the other person's neck, with her five fingers tightening like iron clamps.
"Hey! Did you steal someone else's food? Haven't I told you before? People like that are what I hate the most!"
"Ah! Crack!" The man made a strange sound from his throat, opened his eyes wide and struggled desperately.
Cao Fengling let go of her hand: "Give it back, or I will tell others what you did."
"Hu-Hu-Big Sister... I... I have already returned it. I was just doing an experiment and scared a woman. But after eating her food, I gave her my food. I knew you wouldn't like me to do that kind of thing, so I didn't take advantage of her." The man said while panting.
"What is your purpose in doing that?" Cao Fengling asked.
"I'm thinking, life like this won't last long. What if there's really not enough food? Will we all starve to death together?"
Cao Fengling was silent. Even though she hated the idea of taking food from others, if she really encountered a situation where she had to plunder other people's food to survive, she would have to do so... because she had to survive.
…
Eighteen days have passed since we entered the devil's land, and food resources are about to run out.
On this day, Su Ming gathered everyone together.
"Team leaders, please count the number of people." Su Ming said to the people standing in the garden while standing on the terrace.
During these eighteen days, for the convenience of management, Su Ming divided the group into groups according to the number of people, selected group leaders to take roll calls regularly, and distributed food and water to the group leaders to improve the efficiency of resource allocation.
In a few minutes, the head count was completed and everyone was present.
"Very good, the next thing is the most crucial thing that determines whether we can survive in this hellhole. Now I want to tell you." Su Ming said loudly.
“The food and water will soon run out, and the next competition may come soon. By then, I hope everyone will act according to the best strategy, just like the first self-abuse competition. If no one hurts themselves, then all the food will be divided equally, and no one will be hurt.
Likewise, I hope that in the next competition, everyone in our big family can trust each other and work together to get all the food at the lowest cost."
Just as Su Ming finished speaking, screams were heard from the direction of the manor gate, followed by chaos. A group of people made way for a path, and a strange-looking monster appeared in front of everyone. This monster had smooth skin all over its body, and its body shape was similar to that of a human, but it did not have a human head, and its facial features that resembled humans were located on its chest.
Su Ming frowned slightly and said loudly: "Don't worry, according to observation, these monsters are just the announcers of the rules. As long as we don't take the initiative to attack them, they will not attack us."
Su Ming's soothing words did not have any effect, so he turned around and went downstairs, came to the center of the crowd, and walked up to the monster.
"If you can kill that monster, then... all of these will be given to you." The monster spoke in a distorted voice, and just like last time, small mountains of food and water appeared around it.
"Which monster?"
"This...Aaaaaah——!" The monster opened the huge mouth on its chest, and the black smoke coming out of its mouth outlined an image in the air. The creature in the image was a bit like a giant lizard man, but somewhat different from the lizards in the novel. Its shape was very similar to a Western dragon, with wings attached to the forearms of its forelimbs.
"Kill it and all the food will be yours. Rules: split into two groups, one group will be responsible for fighting, and the other group will be responsible for bearing the damage suffered by the fighters. The more damage you cause to the monster, the more food you will get in the end." The human-faced monster said, "Three days... three days later, it will pass by here."
After saying these words, the alien creature with a terrifying appearance turned around and walked out of the manor. Su Ming looked solemnly at the monster's back, as if he was thinking about something.
The rules this time are very dangerous. This game rule will have a fatal impact on the trust relationship among everyone. If possible, Su Ming wants to directly kill the monster in front of him, forcibly seize the food, and skip this cruel game.
But now the rules have been announced, killing this monster will not directly obtain food, and the competition will not proceed, so he can't do anything.
"Hey! What on earth did that thing say?" The people at the back did not hear the rules explained by the human-faced monster directly, and asked loudly, while the people at the front all had solemn expressions and avoided looking.
No one wants to participate in this battle, especially ordinary people, because this battle is too dangerous for them.
As an ordinary person, I have no power to resist the weirdness.
"Everyone has heard it, right? This time we are going to fight," said Su Ming.
"Me! Let me fight! Make a contribution to everyone!" A burly man stood up and said.
Su Ming glanced at the other person calmly and asked, "What is your ability?"
"I... I don't have any special powers, but, but I'm good at fighting!" The man patted his chest hard, trying to show his martial arts to Su Ming.
Su Ming glanced at the other party, shook his head, and said coldly: "No, people like you will increase casualties if they participate in the battle. The rules this time are very complicated. I must study it carefully with everyone to come up with a reasonable plan. There are still three days left, so we must hurry up."
After saying that, he pushed through the crowd and walked straight into the mansion.
As soon as Su Ming left, the nearly a thousand people present suddenly became excited like a boiling pot. The voices of men and women overlapped, and quarrels and crying were mixed together. In the crowd, Cao Fengling stood silently with an expressionless face. She looked at the chaotic scene in front of her and let out a slight sigh.
"I didn't expect that this utopia would be unsustainable so soon."
