God's Imitator

”The question for this market research was: at 7 AM, purchasing 10 jin of spinach at a prime location stall in a rural farmers market, what’s the minimum amount that would be spent.

”Aunt Su, you should know the answer, right? How much do you think it should be?” Li Renshu asked.

Su Xiucen was stunned for a moment, then said matter-of-factly, ”Ten yuan! Or maybe even lower, six or seven yuan is also possible.”

Although Li Renshu had somewhat expected this psychologically, guessing that the price might be lower than she had imagined, hearing this number from Su Xiucen’s mouth was still somewhat shocking.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise, ”Aunt Su, are you sure? Spinach costs less than one yuan per jin?

”Moreover, this is at 7 AM, at a prime location stall in a rural farmers market. Shouldn’t the price be marked up a bit more?”

Su Xiucen waved her hands repeatedly, ”No way!

”Vegetables are cheaper in the early morning and evening. As for location, it has nothing to do with vegetable prices at all.”

Li Renshu was even more puzzled, ”I understand that vegetable prices are cheap in the evening, after all, stalls need to close and the vegetables aren’t fresh anymore. But vegetables in the early morning are just picked, why would they be cheaper?”

Su Xiucen explained, ”Because in the morning farmers market, many farmers come to sell fruits and vegetables they grow at home!”Many households grow spinach, and when they can’t finish eating it themselves, they go to the farmers market to sell it. Many rural farmers markets don’t even have the concept of fixed stalls. Whoever gets there early gets the spot.

”These people usually close their stalls by 8 AM because they still need to go back to their own fields to do farm work. Whatever vegetables they can’t sell, they sell cheap.

”As for location and such, it doesn’t affect vegetable prices. The entire farmers market has the same prices.

”Because there are only so many people who come to buy vegetables every day, and there are about the same number of people selling vegetables. In the end, everyone can sell everything. If you sell cheaper, at most you just close your stall earlier, it doesn’t prevent others from making money, so everyone charges the same price.

”I love rushing to buy vegetables in the morning. Many are grown by the farmers themselves, fresh, cheap, and no pesticides used.”

Li Renshu felt somewhat regretful, ”It would have been great if you were there at the time, Aunt Su.”

Su Xiucen asked, ”What, are all the questions like this? But I can’t go out now either. Otherwise, should I tell you all the vegetable prices now so you can remember them?”

Li Renshu shook her head, ”No need, Aunt Su.

”According to the game rules, we take turns choosing questions, and there are four different fields: [Science], [Society], [Arts], [Livelihood].

”Next time it’ll be our turn to choose.

”We can choose Society or Arts, which are fields we’re better at. As long as we don’t choose Livelihood, we won’t have to answer these types of questions.

”Don’t worry.”

Su Xiucen nodded, ”Ah, good, then you arrange it as you see fit. If you encounter this type of question again, come ask me.”

...

Leaving the CEO’s office, Li Renshu returned to the office area again.

”Fu Chen, Xu Tong.

”I just asked Aunt Su. The correct answer is within 10 yuan.”

Both Fu Chen and Xu Tong were very surprised, ”Ah? But that’s ten jin of spinach!”

Li Renshu sighed quietly and found a random seat to sit down, ”Yes, in rural farmers markets, spinach grown by farmers themselves is indeed this cheap.

”What a pity. If Aunt Su had gone, she definitely could have answered correctly.”

Fu Chen also felt very troubled, ”Now this is a bit problematic.

”Market research has questions from four different fields in total. If nothing unexpected happens, all livelihood-related questions should be similar to this one.

”If Aunt Su were there, she should be able to answer them all correctly, but the three of us...

”Can only answer questions from other fields.

”I thought about it, and I can probably answer questions from the [Arts] field. I’m quite familiar with songs, movies, novels, and that kind of content.”

Li Renshu nodded, ”Mm, I should be relatively good at [Society] type questions.

”What about you, Xu Tong?”

Xu Tong thought for a moment, ”I’ll also do [Arts] type questions, I guess? However, for simple science questions, perhaps I could also barely guess. After all, I studied science in university.”

Fu Chen was somewhat surprised, ”Huh? Shouldn’t Human Resources Management be a liberal arts major?”

Xu Tong shook her head, ”Not necessarily. Both liberal arts and science students can study it. I studied science.”

Fu Chen felt pleasantly surprised, ”That’s great! You go to the next market research. No matter what, since you’re a science student, having you answer [Science] type questions would definitely be more reliable than me, a pure liberal arts student.”

Li Renshu thought for a moment, ”There’s no rush for the next market research, because next time it’s our turn to choose.

”I think choosing either [Society] or [Arts] would be fine, as those are areas we’re relatively good at.

”As for Xu Tong, she can go the time after that. I think Tian Fan from Community 8 might choose the [Science] field.”

Xu Tong nodded, ”I’m fine with anything, I’ll follow your arrangements.

”By the way, while you were at market research, I also studied the company management system in this game.

”I have an idea, which is...

”Can we lay off those employees with high salaries?”

Fu Chen was momentarily speechless, ”...You’re having an occupational disease flare-up, aren’t you? First day at the company and you’re already thinking about layoffs.”

Xu Tong hurriedly explained, ”No, no, no, it’s not that I’m full of thoughts about layoffs, but from this game’s mechanics, isn’t it encouraging us to lay people off?

”Or rather, layoffs are originally a very important part of this game’s content, right?

”Look, the victory goal of this game is to survive the economic winter and ensure the company still has a surplus during the final settlement.

”Surplus, surplus, it’s nothing more than increasing income and reducing expenses, earning more and spending less.

”For the earning money part, we complete it through answering questions in market research, so naturally there’s nothing more to say.

”But what about spending money? In this game, there are no expenses like rent or utility bills. There’s only one place where money is spent, which is employee salaries.

”Every activity in the game is calculated in units of ’months,’ which means when we go out to conduct market research once, it’s equivalent to a month passing, and 80,000 minutes of visa time will be automatically deducted as compensation paid to employees.

”This is way too much!

”Suppose we lay off some employees with high salaries who don’t work, saving 10,000 minutes of visa time. After ten activities, wouldn’t we have 100,000 minutes of visa time?

”By then, each person could get an extra 20,000 or so.

”Besides, according to the game rules, affected by the economic winter, the later it gets, the less money our company will make. There might even be situations where the money earned is less than the salaries.

”When that time comes, to prevent the company from going bankrupt, we’ll still have to lay people off.

”Since we’ll have to lay people off sooner or later, shouldn’t we prepare in advance?”

Li Renshu and Fu Chen looked at each other and fell into silence.

Li Renshu looked thoughtful, ”So the game name really does have a pun meaning? Financial Sources Game. Is it hinting that in the process of company operations, we must lay off those unnecessary people?”