Character Creation

"Auxiliary System activated successfully. Welcome to Ice and Fire: Survival Game. Hello, Mr. Xia Ze. Your AI assistant Annie is at your service."

"Uh, hello."

"First, we will create your game character. You have a total of three hours for this stage. Please do not rush and take your time to study the options."

"Three hours?" Xia Ze felt that this time limit naturally carried a grave air. It was far too long for creating a game character, yet far too short for someone risking their life.

Annie did not answer. Xia Ze could only look solemnly at the text that had appeared on the screen.

What is your bloodline?

Andal: Strength +1, unlocks the profession 'Sellsword Knight'

First Men: Strength +1

Rhoynar: Agility +1

Ironborn: Strength +2, unlocks the profession 'Wrecked Pirate', gains the trait 'Seafaring Acclimation'

Braavosi: Agility +2, Trade Skill +1, unlocks the profession 'Wandering Assassin'

Valyrian Freehold Survivor: Trade Skill +1

Dothraki: Agility +2, Riding Skill +1

YiTish: Willpower +3

Ibbenese: Strength +3

Note: 1. Players may choose one primary bloodline and one secondary bloodline. The character's appearance will mainly reflect the former, while the latter only provides bonuses.

2. Bloodlines will affect the player in every aspect throughout the game.

3. Players will gain the spoken language skill corresponding to the region where their primary bloodline lives.

"Uh..." Xia Ze fell into thought as he looked at the screen.

"Reminder: all choices can be changed before the character creation is finally confirmed," Annie reminded him at the right moment. "Therefore, you may make your choices after reviewing all the options."

Xia Ze nodded and directly clicked to the next page.

Who is your father?

A returning veteran:

A farmer:

A.

Who is your mother?

Where and when were you born?

What did you do during childhood?

What did you do during adolescence?

Later, you became a?

In the end, you arrived at?

After roughly reviewing the options for each question, Xia Ze began trying to lock in certain choices in order to find the optimal combination.

He quickly discovered a pattern: once he locked in an answer to one question, some options in the other questions would automatically disappear.

For example, once he chose Ironborn as his race, the farmer profession later on would vanish. After all, we do not sow.

When he chose craftsman as his final profession, then either his childhood or adolescent experience had to be that of a craftsman's apprentice.

It was a common setup, meant to ensure that the player character's background remained logically consistent.

He then spent nearly an hour reviewing less than a third of the options, because the system offered far too many choices.

Take his parents' identities, for example. Other than nobles, nearly every identity that could exist in a real world had been included, and not even eunuchs or Silent Sisters had been spared.

Xia Ze therefore had to change his strategy and lock in his choices from back to front, first examining the current professions that had the greatest impact on the three major factors of "stats, funds, and equipment."

Before long, Xia Ze identified the five professions he believed to be the most competitive: Sellsword Knight, Wandering Mercenary, Wrecked Pirate, Brotherhood Hunter, and Traveling Merchant.

Among them, the Sellsword Knight and Traveling Merchant had the greatest advantages.

Although the Sellsword Knight's stats were slightly worse than those of the other three combat professions—Xia Ze had no idea why it was designed that way, perhaps for balance—it came with a Trained Horse and a complete set of armor, including a nasal helm, gorget, old chainmail, chainmail gloves, and greaves.

Compared to minor differences in stats, Xia Ze believed a full set of armor would provide a much greater early-game advantage.

After all, "the greatest swordsman in the world," Syrio Forel, had been killed by that blockhead Kingsguard, Meryn Trant, who was "so weak any random whore could beat three of him," simply because Meryn wore "that damned armor."

The Traveling Merchant, meanwhile, began with a staggering one hundred Gold Dragons. They also started with four servants with almost no combat ability, four old Packhorses, two wagons, and seven mules.

This was undoubtedly the best starting choice for a behind-the-scenes playstyle. If the Traveling Merchant's average attributes had not been below five, Xia Ze might have chosen it immediately.

These two professions were T0.

Then came the Wandering Mercenary. Their equipment was somewhat shabby, consisting only of a Short Sword and Leather Armor, but their stats ranked first and their combat power was extremely impressive.

The Wrecked Pirate had decent stats and an initial fund of ten Gold Dragons, making it a well-rounded profession. Its only flaw was that it was restricted to Ironborn. Considering the Ironborn's reputation throughout the world of Ice and Fire, anyone choosing it had better make Ironborn their secondary bloodline, or they would be treated like a rat in the street everywhere they went.

Compared to the others, the Brotherhood Hunter did not have any especially outstanding qualities. However, as the only available ranged profession, it would always attract some loyal archery enthusiasts. Besides, shooting people with hidden arrows fit the players' style rather well.

These three professions were T1.

T2 included, but was not limited to, professions such as Ascetic Cleric, Wandering Red Monk, Wandering Assassin, and Rhoyne River Pirate. They had no obvious advantages, but they were still passable.

As for the last category—things like Dispossessed Farmer, pickpocket, newly escaped slave, beggar from Flea Bottom, or bankrupt inn duck—Xia Ze suspected the designers were insulting the players' intelligence.

They were going to another world to risk their lives! What idiot would choose to mess around at a time like this?

After completing his analysis of the professions, Xia Ze began trying to lock in choices from back to front. Before long, he came up with several excellent combinations.

For example, he could choose Andal and Dothraki bloodlines, have a mercenary father and a maid mother from a knight's manor, serve as his master's sparring partner in childhood, be sent to a castle as a knight's squire in adolescence, earn a knighthood through military merit in adulthood, and finally set out into the world as a Sellsword Knight.

He would start as a skilled mounted fighter with excellent equipment and attributes, and considerable combat power.

Another option was choosing Ironborn and Ibbenese bloodlines, with a pirate father and a salt wife mother taken from the Ibbenese, helping out aboard ship as a child, going to sea with pirates as a teenager, becoming an official pirate as an adult, and finally coming ashore after his ship ran aground.

He would start as a berserker with Strength exceeding thirty.

However, Xia Ze had one question about that. Weren't the Ibbenese reproductively isolated from other races? How had this guy even been born?

After weighing everything, Xia Ze ultimately decided to consider both the early and late game. Having chosen Andal to unlock the Sellsword Knight profession, he selected First Men as his secondary bloodline.

One note in the bloodline selection stated that "bloodlines will affect the player in every aspect throughout the game." Xia Ze guessed that eligibility to learn magic should be one of those aspects.

Based on Xia Ze's many years of experience as a game designer, in a game set in a world with magic, players would inevitably learn magic sooner or later.

So, what kinds of magic existed in the world of Ice and Fire?

The most famous was undoubtedly R'hllor's resurrection magic. However, it was unlikely that players could personally possess such bug-level magic. It was more likely that they would have to find a way to recruit Thoros of Myr and Melisandre. As for R'hllor's other magic, it was rather underwhelming: either the casting time was absurdly long and it was not very useful, or the cost was too great to accept.

Aside from R'hllor's magic, the most famous was clearly the Greenseer Magic of the First Men. Leaving aside the Three-Eyed Crow's bug-level ability to see through the past and future, Skinchanging—transferring one's consciousness into an animal—and Warg Dreams were both extremely practical minor magics.

Combat, scouting, and danger prediction—everything was covered, and their side effects were far smaller than those of other magic.

More importantly, R'hllor's magic might not have bloodline restrictions, but Greenseer Magic most likely required First Men blood.

As for the dragon-riding ability players most eagerly desired, that required a pure Valyrian Dragonlord bloodline. A little mixed blood might work as well, but the people of the Free Cities calling themselves "Valyrian survivors" was more or less just flattering themselves. Therefore, Xia Ze did not include Valyrian Freehold Survivor in his considerations.

In the end, Xia Ze chose First Men as his secondary bloodline, so that he would not find himself in the future without the qualifications to learn Greenseer Magic.