Chapter 2963: The Difficulty of the Instance
"Such a serious mistake, and we only discovered it now!" Inside the meeting room, the elderly man from the military district slammed the table as he stood up.
Team Leader Ming said, "Among those who died earlier, a significant portion were elderly or those suffering from illnesses, including some who committed suicide due to the pressure. The instance must have counted these people as part of the attrition, which is why we didn't notice the real situation at first."
Now that so many young and middle-aged people were dying one after another, the instance's true method of killing was naturally exposed.
"Now is not the time to dwell on this," the elderly man at the head of the table spoke up. "Has the reason for the concentrated deaths among the young and middle-aged been analyzed?"
"It should be related to population ratios," Team Leader Ming said. "According to the guidelines issued by the game, people over fifty and under twenty should enjoy social welfare. These two age groups are dependents who must be supported and cared for. They should not participate in social work and are entirely sustained by the welfare wealth created by the young and middle-aged. The number of dependents a single young or middle-aged person can support varies across different zones, but the qualified ratio should be 1:6—meaning one young or middle-aged person's created welfare wealth can support six non-working individuals."
"However, in our current situation, the welfare wealth created by one young or middle-aged person can at most support only one non-working individual. Therefore, after attrition from old age, illness, suicide, and other accidental deaths, the number of young and middle-aged people should be roughly equal to the number of people in these two age groups."
"But earlier, we sent away the young children and some teenagers. And given the situation in Zone 014, pregnant women also require special consideration. So after the numbers in these two age groups decreased, the required number of young and middle-aged people also dropped."
"Wait a moment," the elderly man from the military district frowned. "Are you saying the population ratio is still 1:1? Shouldn't the qualified ratio be 1:6? The instance didn't raise the requirements like in other zones, but maintained the original ratio?"
"That's how it currently stands," Team Leader Ming said, closing the data screen.
"Then would it work to send away some more young and middle-aged people?" Minister Ji asked.
"The evacuation work has been suspended for now," Team Leader Ming said. "After a batch of young and middle-aged people died, the numbers of young and middle-aged people and those in other age groups have basically leveled out."
"Has the suffocation death stopped?" Minister Ji pressed further.
"It hasn't stopped, but it has returned to the previous frequency, without the sudden outbreak like the mass deaths among the young and middle-aged group."
"We tried selecting different age groups according to the previous method and configured the evacuation at a 1:1 ratio, but after attempting it, we found that this still leads to population imbalance. Whether it's because Jing City's population structure was originally unbalanced, or because we didn't fully grasp the true situation of the population structure during the evacuation, it's clear that young and middle-aged people are the center of the social structure. They cannot be evacuated arbitrarily."
The meeting room fell silent. If the elderly and children were sent away, a batch of young and middle-aged people would die. If the young and middle-aged were sent away, a batch of elderly and children would die. Sending them together would lose the pattern and turn into random deaths... And young and middle-aged people couldn't be evacuated arbitrarily. How exactly was this instance supposed to be allocated to meet the standard?
"It might be because players are also part of the young and middle-aged structure," Nie Xuan said. "Given the conditions in Zone 014, the population ratio absolutely cannot compare to other zones. And other zones don't have the need to distinguish between players and non-players. We can't think that way."
Team Leader Ming looked at him. "That is indeed a line of thought. Perhaps the imbalance caused by evacuating according to the ratio is due to this. I'll immediately arrange for people to count the number of players."
This was another difficult task. Under the current circumstances, counting the specific number of players was much harder than counting players in general. Many players would wear special items to avoid detection by instruments. During this chaotic period, players were coming and going, and there were so many people who weren't players from Zone 014. Should these people be counted as well?
Moreover, these outer zone players themselves were the source of the population imbalance. Would they cooperate?
Additionally, even if they speculated that clearing the instance involved population configuration issues, they couldn't just announce it casually. There were plenty of people who loved to watch the world burn. Announcing it might trigger a new wave of chaos.
And as part of the young and middle-aged group, players couldn't be arbitrarily reduced either. Otherwise, more people over fifty and under twenty might suffocate to death.
Just thinking about it gave them a headache.
"The only fortunate thing is that there haven't been any cases of players suffocating to death yet," Team Leader Ming said slowly, laying out his speculation. "I'm worried that once Jing City's population drops sharply, players, as part of the social population structure, will also start to die."
And this was a random, hopeless death!
"So you're saying that the current state is actually the best possible scenario," the elderly man from the military district said, furrowing his brows.
"Before a major imbalance occurs, the pattern of suffocation deaths can still be traced," Team Leader Ming said. "It just requires sacrificing a very small number of people."
He emphasized the word "very." In fact, before they found a way to clear the instance, this was the only way to buy time. What they should really be grateful for was that Jing City had sent out a large number of players after the fusion began. If players could support far more than six people, then the first to die would likely be the players.
"Go ahead and do it," the elderly man in the head seat said. "All we can do now is find a way to clear the instance as quickly as possible."
"Let's send everyone else away first," Minister Ji suddenly proposed at this moment.
The meeting room fell quiet again. No one spoke, and all eyes focused on the elderly man at the head of the table.
After looking around at everyone, the old man smiled. "What if government personnel have a different proportion in the population structure, or if the government itself is a necessary part of the social structure? If we leave, wouldn't Jing City face the risk of collapse?"
He raised his hand to stop those who wanted to persuade him, and faced everyone solemnly. "In the game world, anyone can die. If some of us die, those who remain need not grieve or shed tears. We are the pioneers facing the game world. As long as you carry on this spirit, we are not truly dead."
The meeting ended, and everyone rushed to their own battlefields.
Xu Huo rested for two hours. Once his injuries improved, he left the room.
Although he hadn't participated in the meeting, he basically knew all the information the Special Defense Department had gathered. Earlier, when the situation was unclear, they had selectively sent away a batch of people. Now they wanted to send more but didn't dare to, and the clearance process had stalled.
People had been keeping watch near his room. When they saw him appear, the Xiang siblings immediately came over. "Mr. Xu, how is your physical condition? Would you like to rest a bit longer?"
Xu Huo was wearing a mask, so his complexion couldn't be judged, but since he could move and walk, there probably wasn't a major problem.
"I'm going out for a walk," he said. "You don't need to follow."
The Xiang siblings looked a bit troubled and roughly explained the situation in the instance, mainly reminding him that players could also suffocate to death at any time.
"Don't look at players from an ordinary person's perspective. Try looking at ordinary people from a player's perspective," Xu Huo said before leaving the safe zone.