Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 513 - 496: Is this the right amount of resources?

Chapter 513: Chapter 496: Is this the right amount of resources?

"This is like a soul interrogation."

Zhuge Jun wavered slightly but quickly made up his mind.

Just pretend you didn’t see it!

After all, he and Hou Ji were good buddies. Though this was a mechanism allowed in the game, it could still somewhat damage their real-life friendship.

When it comes up later, it would be inappropriate to say it was all for an exclusive ending CG in the game!

Even if they were to do it, it should definitely be agreed upon between good bros.

There’s another very important reason: Zhuge Jun’s surname is Zhuge!

If he were to pull off a stratagem like seizing the throne, he wouldn’t have the face to keep his surname anymore. Maybe changing it to Sima would be more fitting.

So, Zhuge Jun didn’t bother with the pop-up window anymore and continued to diligently do his own thing.

...

But just because he isn’t using the feature, doesn’t mean that other ruling player-officials aren’t.

After all, real-life friends like Zhuge Jun and Hou Ji teaming up to play this game are in the minority.

If it were online, two streamers pairing up for a game might utilize this feature intentionally for show.

If it’s with randomly matched online players, then it’s even less controllable, as it’s easier for friction to occur, leading to personal vendettas.

This feature is the typical case of "guarding against gentlemen but not against scoundrels."

On Li Wenhao’s side, things were developing smoothly.

Especially since all the targets he set were successfully met.

Li Wenhao was puzzled, could it be that this guy really had something up his sleeve?

Keep in mind, Li Wenhao had set the resource production figures based on his own approximate level when he was a ruling player-official.

Initially, Mouth King struggled a bit, and the set goals often faced delays.

But later on, like getting the hang of it, the goals were met very smoothly.

Li Wenhao tried to slightly increase the targets several times, and they were still achieved without a hitch.

It all felt a bit too smooth to be real.

"If the situation continues like this, it seems there’s a good chance to clear the game this time?

"Surely all this is tied to my brilliant leadership."

Li Wenhao proudly continued with his planning.

Solving the problem of intense heat and severe cold did not mean that the game would end peacefully; on the contrary, it would lead to new problems.

When the subterranean space was mostly developed, players had to reinforce Comet’s structure and continue expanding to the surface, as space was running short.

And the surface, whether in extreme cold or heat, would be even harsher than underground, thus requiring higher technology to maintain.

Furthermore, the game had a major pitfall: the "resource trap."

Since it’s just a tiny Comet, the resources available are extremely limited and couldn’t withstand much waste.

If a player doesn’t plan well, they might exhaust all resources without managing to escape the Comet.

That’s falling into a resource trap, with nothing left but to wait for death on the Comet.

Li Wenhao had a wealth of experience with this kind of game. As a leader, he could continually ponder on specific planning without needing to tend to production lines.

And through the later technologies in the tech tree, the problem becomes clear.

"Not only do I need a substantial safety redundancy, but I also have to calculate precisely. It’s indeed quite challenging.

"But it’s also quite fun."

Li Wenhao set the next phase of goals and briefly considered the development policy, then, having nothing else to do, watched Mouth King construct things.

However, after watching for a while, he felt that something seemed off.

"Is this resource output correct?

"At first glance, it seems so.

"But the number of mines and smelters, why do they feel mismatched?"

Li Wenhao was perplexed.

If you just look at the resource output and storage from the panel, these two numbers generally match, with no glaring discrepancies.

Based on the hourly production, minus the hourly consumption, and considering the rough timing, it seemed to roughly match the final storage.

But...

Don’t the number of mines and smelters seem a bit low?

Li Wenhao had also been an executive and could see the production speeds of these mines and smelters.

He felt that the number of these mines and smelters seemed a little low, not enough to support so much production.

Of course, this was just a feeling; he wasn’t sure.

Because in this game, mines, smelters, and even conveyor belts, these buildings or equipment also come in levels, with different levels having different mining, smelting, and transport speeds.

And the lower-level factories couldn’t directly upgrade to higher levels; they had to be demolished and rebuilt, which was costly unless land was especially scarce and then they’d just make do.

Thus, both Primary Mine areas and advanced mine areas exist.

Moreover, Mouth King was also known for his chaotic layouts; districts were not well defined, and many buildings were hidden in nooks and crannies, making them tricky to find.

So initially, Li Wenhao didn’t think anything was amiss.

But now, this nagging feeling intensified, and to quash this suspicion, he decided to check.

As for how to check?

Actually, it was fairly straightforward; all that needed to be done was to tally up the number of mines at each level.

How much each mine could extract per hour, and the difference between low-level and high-level mines—if one truly buckled down to calculate, a precise number could be ascertained.

Li Wenhao simply took out a calculator from beside him.

"Reset, reset, reset, reset, reset!"

After a flurry of button pressing: "Equals, 38,954."

"Eh? That’s not right.

"This calculated number is a bit low, isn’t it?

"Not just a bit low, it’s very low.

"I had set a production target of fifty thousand for the last period, and the display panel is showing a current output of 52,000.

"How does this not match up at all?"

Li Wenhao was stunned. He hadn’t thought too much about it at first, just bored and wanted to verify the data; he hadn’t expected that there would indeed be a discrepancy.

In theory, it was absurd. Who would have thought that even the data panels in the game could deceive people?

"Wait a minute, could it be that he secretly hid some mines somewhere?"

Mouth King’s building placement was quite haphazard, so this possibility could not be entirely ruled out.

Li Wenhao searched the map for a long while, but only found one Primary Mine. Even after adding this mine, the output was still far from the displayed number.

"What’s going on here?

"Moreover, if the output is incorrect, then the reserves should be wrong as well, right?"

Li Wenhao quickly opened each warehouse on the map to calculate the actual reserves of various resources.

But after the calculation, he realized that this was roughly correct.

Although the two numbers did not match exactly, his method of tallying was rather rough, so some errors were acceptable and within an acceptable range.

But then the problem arose; if the output was low, why hadn’t the reserves changed? What was going on?

The only explanation was that the consumption was also low.

Li Wenhao suddenly realized, no wonder he felt that the pace of technological research had been slow lately!

The technological research in this game wasn’t completed all at once but conducted slowly according to the current amount of resources.

Each technology had a circular progress bar. It wouldn’t deplete all resources in the warehouse in one go but would slowly research based on resource output and reserves.

It wouldn’t even display the specific speed of research, so it was very hard to discern with the naked eye whether it was faster or slower.

Combining all the information he had, Li Wenhao came to a quite outrageous conclusion.

The production numbers he was seeing were inflated;

The resource consumption numbers were also inflated!

And these two inflated numbers together achieved a sort of bizarre balance, making the resource reserves differ only slightly from normal data.

As for whether they differed only slightly or were exactly the same, that was unclear because these numbers changed often, and it was almost impossible for Li Wenhao to calculate by himself.

Scientific research in the game did not display specific rates, instead adjusting the progress slowly according to actual output, so it was almost impossible to discern by eye.

Even Li Wenhao couldn’t be sure when this discrepancy had started.

"Is there something wrong with the game data?

"That can’t be?

"Or could it be that the game is deliberately deceiving me?"

Li Wenhao was thoroughly confused; he couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on.

He was certain he hadn’t miscalculated, as he had already checked; there also seemed to be no hidden mechanics in the game he was unaware of; there were no buildings or technologies on the map that could change the output.

It was utterly baffling.

It wasn’t that Li Wenhao was stupid, it was mainly that he hadn’t expected Nitiandang to be so shameless as to allow another player to tamper with the data.

Such a setting in a strategy management game was simply too outrageous. Li Wenhao was in a blind spot in his thinking and couldn’t react for a moment.

He intended to ask Mouth King if he noticed anything wrong with the data, but he deleted the half-typed message.

On one hand, he had an instinctive wariness of Mouth King; on the other hand, he felt that even if he did tell Mouth King, the latter probably wouldn’t take it seriously. It would be like speaking to the wind.

"What to do now?

"In a simulation management game, incorrect data is a serious problem. As a sovereign player setting policies, Li Wenhao couldn’t even play properly.

"Hmm, wait a minute.

"The government policy tech tree, I’ve never paid much attention to it before..."

Li Wenhao suddenly found that the tech tree actually included government policy options.

This gave him an idea.

"Why are there government policy tech tree options available?

"The only explanation is that these government types also have an important impact on game mechanics.

"But what kind of impact?"

Li Wenhao carefully reviewed the tech tree options.

He hadn’t looked closely before, because those options were meant to be unlocked mid-game.

Moreover, unlocking the government policy tech tree required resources, and resources were quite tight in the early stages. When he couldn’t even construct proper production buildings, how could he afford such superfluous things?

But now, Li Wenhao probably understood what the government policy tech tree was for.

It turned out to be a PVP tech tree!

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