Cai Zhiyuan explained, "The phrases ’you are acting’ and ’you are only acting’ express completely different meanings.
"If it’s ’you are only acting,’ then it’s saying not to become overly immersed in the acting.
"But ’you are acting’ doesn’t have that implication.
"I believe this phrase emphasizes ’acting’ itself, meaning ’you should role-play the character you ideally want to become,’ which is to encourage players to complete ’perfect acting.’"
After everyone had digested this for a moment, Cai Zhiyuan continued, "What does perfect acting mean?
"From the perspective of an ordinary worker, what should a good CEO be like?
"They should meet the basic requirements of a real-world CEO, run the company well, avoid bankruptcy during economic downturns, yet also transcend ordinary heartless bosses in reality by showing consideration for subordinates and taking on social responsibilities.
"That is perfect acting.
"If you, as a worker, are dissatisfied with your boss’s salary cuts and layoffs, but then make exactly the same choices when you become the boss yourself, that’s not perfect acting at all, just poor imitation.
"As for the second hint, you also realized it at the end, which was the scenery in the corridor.
"The number of unemployed people in the scenery was directly related to the number of layoffs by the two companies.
"The God’s Imitator who designed this game was worried you wouldn’t realize the role of virtual employees, so they specifically visualized the ’unemployed workers,’ showing their miserable living conditions very intuitively through the corridor.
"You should have realized this earlier."
At this point, Lin Sizhi, who had been contemplating the rules, asked, "If we analyze it this way, the focus of this game actually isn’t market research at all?
"Even without any knowledge of market research, it wouldn’t affect clearing the game.
"As long as both companies win one round each, they can both obtain the stable income of 50,000."
Qin Yao also agreed, "Yes, so what’s the point of market research then?"
After considering for a moment, Cai Zhiyuan answered, "Mutual cooperation between the two companies is indeed the optimal solution, and there was indeed no betrayal in this game, but this isn’t absolute.
"Because the company that goes bankrupt later will definitely win, this kind of cooperation isn’t stable. How to reach an agreement with the other party and honor the commitment is also part of the test.
"If one party breaks the agreement, the game’s direction might become completely different.
"If both sides cannot establish mutual trust, then they would still need to determine victory through market research.
"Of course, besides this, I think the market research questions are also a kind of hint.
"Haven’t you noticed? The market research questions are all highly related to economics and people’s livelihoods, all very down-to-earth data from reality.
"Many questions require direct estimation of prices, population numbers, or the profits of grassroots workers.
"This itself is also a hint: economics, markets, and people’s livelihoods are fundamentally related to people.
"Markets are supported by individual people, economies are revitalized by individual people.
"So, to end the economic winter, it naturally also relates to specific people.
"You are players and don’t belong to this game, so who are the ’specific people’ in this game? They can only be those virtual employees you overlooked.
"From the name, ’Financial Sources Game’ has two meanings.
"First is to expand financial resources, whether completing market research or reaching cooperation with the opposing company to split profits equally both count as success.
"Second is to properly manage the company and control costs, finding the correct method of layoffs. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel·fıre·net
"But the correct method of layoffs is definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach of laying off all employees."
Wang Yongxin reminded them, "But in this game, most rules related to virtual employees are hidden rules, including the specific mechanism of virtual employees reporting data."
Cai Zhiyuan nodded, "Indeed they are hidden rules. But as long as you stand from the perspective of workers, or from the perspective of ’what’s most beneficial to society as a whole,’ even without doing any tests, just adjusting the employee structure based on instinct can achieve the optimal solution in the game."
Everyone looked toward the big screen.
At this moment, they could see all the rules in the game, so those hidden rules were also completely visible.
[Rules related to employees voluntarily reporting data:]
[1. During market research activities, virtual employees may report data, ranging from 0 to 6 pieces.]
[2. The amount of data employees report is positively correlated with the number of employees and total employee compensation. When the number of employees reaches 30, the probability defaults to maximum.]
[3. Data pop-ups will prioritize appearing from high-salary employees.]
[4. When the company lacks high-salary employees, low-salary employees who have worked in the company for more than 3 months will play an equivalent role.]
Li Renshu said thoughtfully, "So, the optimal solution should be: fire all high-salary employees and replace them all with low-salary employees from the market, filling all 30 positions.
"Then, cut everyone’s salary by 30% and maintain it that way."
Xu Tong somewhat disagreed, "But high-salary employees should be more capable! Why can low-salary employees play an equivalent role after just 3 months?"
Cai Zhiyuan asked in return, "Then what are you executives for?
"Training low-salary employees and fully utilizing their abilities, isn’t that one of the jobs of executives?"
Wang Yongxin also disagreed, "Wait, if we fire high-salary employees, aren’t we worried about how miserable they’ll be after unemployment? Don’t we need to consider social responsibility at this point?"
Cai Zhiyuan explained, "If we want to survive the economic winter, who has stronger risk resistance after unemployment, high-salary employees or low-salary employees?
"If we stand from the perspective of workers, do you think layoffs should prioritize firing the bottom-tier workers earning 3,000 per month, or first fire executives earning millions per month?
"With the same money, does hiring one executive earning millions per month help social stability more, or hiring three hundred workers earning 3,000 per month help social stability more?
"Of course, in reality, many executives are very capable and indispensable to companies. But in this game, the players are the real executives."
Xu Tong’s expression became even more dejected.
In the game, because they couldn’t reach a consensus, Xu Tong ultimately failed to verify the exact relationship between employees and data reporting frequency.
She only roughly confirmed that the higher the total compensation, the more data there would be.
Only now, seeing the rules, did she realize that every rule could find a corresponding counterpart in reality.