The next morning, Huang Shengjie got up very late.

He felt sore all over, and his stomach was growling with hunger.

The withdrawal pain last night, although far less severe than the acute pain inside the Community, had still tortured him badly, and it was very late when he finally fell back asleep.

And he didn’t know if it was an illusion, but Huang Shengjie kept feeling that this withdrawal pain was like a malignant tumor clinging to his bones, an elusive sensation that seemed to linger at all times.

It couldn’t exactly be called pain, nor could he say there was any other specific discomfort, but he just felt that something was off everywhere in his body.

When he came into the lobby, Huang Shengjie found he was the last one to get up.

Most of the players had already finished breakfast and were gathered in small groups, reading or busy with their own things.

Qin Cheng was alone in a corner of the lounge area, reading a book.

Huang Shengjie took his breakfast and sat down opposite Qin Cheng.

"The players who suffered acute pain last night were Yao Yuan, Deng Xiao, and Geng Yuxia." Qin Cheng shared the information with Huang Shengjie immediately.

Huang Shengjie froze for a moment. "Deng Xiao? A second time? His luck is pretty bad."

Qin Cheng nodded. "Right, so Lu Bingjun is discussing with the others about moving Deng Xiao forward in the rotation."

Huang Shengjie glanced over at Yao Yuan and Geng Yuxia again.

They didn’t seem to have as big a reaction as Wen Wan had before; they looked not much different from their previous state.

They were probably both players with reasonably good pain tolerance.

Qin Cheng seemed to pick up on what Huang Shengjie was thinking and explained, "Psychological factors also have a huge impact.

"The first time, because there was no preparation at all and no medication, that completely unanticipated acute pain increased the psychological burden.

"The second time, Wen Wan developed fear in advance; she kept praying that this pain wouldn’t fall on her, and that psychological burden actually intensified the pain.

"This is already the third time; many players have done their mental preparation, so the outcome is relatively better.

"Also, these three players this time should all count as having relatively good pain tolerance.

"So from the perspective of the game rules, this kind of pain cannot be eliminated; you can only accept long-term co-existence with it.

"The good news is that the current situation is still relatively optimistic.

"Even relying only on the most basic drugs in the Community, everyone can persist in the long term, just like many cancer patients in hospitals who fight pain for years."

Huang Shengjie hesitated for a moment. "But... Qin Cheng, I have some bad news.

"The withdrawal pain from the game hasn’t disappeared. It’s still here!

"Last night I was woken up by the pain again, and it lasted much longer than it did in the game—subjectively it must have been over half an hour."

Qin Cheng was taken aback, and then his expression grew serious.

He pondered for a moment, then warned, "Shengjie, don’t tell anyone about this for now."

Huang Shengjie was stunned. "Huh? Why?

"If everyone knows that the addictive harm of O-type and F-type drugs continues into the Community, they’ll be even more wary of these two drugs. Isn’t that a good thing?"

Qin Cheng shook his head. "This might be more complicated than you think."

He glanced at the others and lowered his voice slightly. "Let’s consider this from the perspective of those players with weaker pain tolerance who have always wanted to try O-type or F-type drugs.

"For example, from Wen Wan’s perspective, she’s very likely to think this way:

"When you first make this public, she will indeed feel worried and afraid, just as you said, and become even more reluctant to try O-type and F-type drugs.

"But as time goes on, your withdrawal pain will lessen. And you’re not going to be in obvious pain all the time in daily life; in most cases, you’ll look nowhere near as bad as that, just like now.

"So with time, Wen Wan is very likely to feel that this so-called withdrawal pain doesn’t seem that terrible, and she’ll start thinking about taking drugs for pain relief again.

"Because people can’t truly empathize; there’s no way you can completely convey this suffering to someone else through words alone.

"Beyond that, what worries me more is that this one point—’withdrawal pain will continue in the Community’—will influence the decisions of certain players in the Community’s decision-making level.

"I’m worried they’ll change the previous motion to ’seal the two drugs,’ relax the controls, and profit from it themselves."

Huang Shengjie was a bit confused. "What do you mean?"

Qin Cheng explained, "From the standpoint of the Community’s actual managers, do you think more benefits come from opening up the drugs, or from sealing them?

"In practice, there are more benefits to opening them up.

"According to the game rules, players who participate in the game can restock supplies, and the strong ones and the management in the Community participate in the game more often and can make more profit from it.

"They can use the drugs to extract visa time from other players. In this way, the Community’s Wealth structure becomes permanently fixed.

"Not only that, once more and more players in the Community fall into drug addiction and develop withdrawal pain, the players who actually hold these drugs will in effect gain even greater power.

"Because they can use these drugs to control the players’ behavior."

Huang Shengjie was still somewhat puzzled. "You mean, the strong in the Community can realize dual control over the weak, economically and physiologically?

"But...

"From what we’ve seen, didn’t Lu Bingjun, Ye Lin, and Lawyer Lin all support sealing these two special drugs?

"How could they possibly risk universal condemnation by putting these two drugs back into circulation to profit for themselves?"

Qin Cheng shook his head. "It’s not as solid as you think.

"The reason we were able to pass that motion smoothly was based on two premises:

"First, at the time we believed the side effects in the game wouldn’t extend into the Community, which meant the players in the Community were all ’healthy people.’ Since they’re healthy, these drugs should of course be controlled.

"Second, this new Community has only recently been formed; most of the strong still need to care about their image—in plain terms, they still ’care about saving face.’

"But once it’s discovered that the side effects extend into the Community, we will inevitably have to comprehensively record and study those side effects.

"And as our Community’s research into ’addictive side effects of drugs’ and ’withdrawal reactions’ goes deeper and we grasp more details, many people’s attitudes will instead start to loosen.

"If addiction is strong, it means the attitude of the strong will loosen; if addiction is weak, then the attitude of the weak will loosen.

"There’s an even worse possibility: both the strong and the weak loosen their attitudes together.

"And as long as there is anyone in the Community plagued by this withdrawal pain, bringing it up again and again, this risk will always exist—and will only grow stronger.

"So I think the best approach is secrecy.

"Seal all the drugs, and at the same time utterly refrain from talking about them or investigating them. Paradoxically, that’s the safest way."

Huang Shengjie frowned tightly. "Hmm... maybe. What you’re saying does make a lot of sense.

"But what about me? I seem to be the only player in the Community experiencing withdrawal pain..."

Qin Cheng tried to reassure him. "Don’t worry, you still have me.

"I’m a doctor; I’ll be monitoring your condition at all times.

"Judging by common medical reasoning, this withdrawal pain should largely ease within one to two weeks; by then most of the pain will be gone.

"There might be some long-term effects—aches, mild discomfort, sleep disturbances, or low mood—that may last for a few months.

"But those symptoms generally won’t interfere much with daily life.

"According to standard medical recommendations, the best approach would actually be to taper the dosage gradually, or use other drugs as substitutes for treatment.

"But in the Community, neither of those options is likely to work.

"So you’ll have to grit your teeth and endure it for now.

"If your condition worsens later, or if other unexpected situations arise, we’ll adapt as we go."