First Blood and Alliances

Ian then remembered what the event organizer's receptionist had told him before he entered the game:

"This time, competition will run throughout the entire game. In other words, from the moment players land, they will be thrown into intense competition, even mutual slaughter. Moreover, we will provide players with extremely limited development resources this time. Players must take enormous risks to compete for them. In fact, a large portion of players may receive not a single resource from the Auxiliary System throughout the entire game and instead be run ragged by certain mechanics."

The receptionist had clearly hinted at the absurd difficulty of the main quest! Otherwise, why would he say that "a large portion of players would be unable to obtain resources from the system throughout the game"? Ian slapped his forehead.

"If we can't earn points by completing quests, then the only way to avoid being selected by the assassination mechanic for ranking at the bottom of the leaderboard is to earn points by hunting other players?" At that thought, Ian felt a chill run down his spine.

Feeling immense pressure bearing down on him, Ian dared not waste another second and hurriedly scrolled down.

He remembered hearing the quest update notification twice just now. That meant the bounty quests had also updated when the competition officially began.

Bounty Quest One: First Blood

Quest Objective: Achieve the first player kill.

Quest Rewards: 3,000 Gold Dragons (2,500 of which would be provided as gold bars), 3 Attribute Points, 3 Skill Points, 2 S-Class NPCs of the player's choice within the region.

Note: Once this quest is completed, it will be announced to the other players after a one-day delay.

"???" Ian's breath caught when he saw the outrageous rewards.

So this was the "extremely limited development resource provided by the system that players had to risk their lives to compete for" the receptionist had mentioned?

With the main quest practically impossible to complete in the early stages, whichever player seized this First Blood resource would inevitably develop at a pace far beyond everyone else.

Being unable to obtain development resources from the system was devastating for players in this kind of competition. Unlike those solo transmigration scenarios, where transmigrators could thrive on their knowledge of the original work and modern knowledge alone even without any other cheat abilities.

In this hundred-player match, every player was intimately familiar with the original work. The moment any player suddenly appeared somewhere they had never existed in the original story, other players watching that situation would immediately see through their identity.

Without enough strength to support them, having one's identity exposed was practically no different from suicide.

For example, every player had surely considered whether to seek out the Targaryen siblings at the start while they were still down on their luck. As long as they latched onto Dragon Mother, they could ride the protagonist's plot armor all the way through the match.

But that was clearly just wishful thinking.

Because out of a hundred players, perhaps more than fifty had their eyes on Dragon Mother. The instant any player showed their face before her, their identity would be exposed.

Unless they were already strong enough to fear no schemes from other players, they probably would not live to see the next chapter.

And even if a player wanted to risk their life for a chance, they did not have the ability.

With the mediocre strength and complete lack of influence players started with, they had no chance of approaching Dragon Mother at all.

Why was that?

In the original timeline, Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy were the only two Westerosi men who successfully made it to Dragon Mother's side in the early and middle stages. Why?

Was it because only the two of them had that need? No!

After news spread that Khal Drogo was going to marry Daenerys, Westeros was flooded with adventurers, mercenaries, bastards, and even the second sons of unsuccessful noble lords. Like vultures descending upon a war, they swarmed in, hoping to gamble on a future with this wandering prince backed by the Khal.

Yet in the original story, not a single one of them appeared. Why?

Without a doubt, Illyrio, the Targaryen siblings' protector and the Magister of Pentos, had turned them away. Perhaps he feared that assassins might be among them, or perhaps he simply considered them worthless. In any case, he blocked nearly everyone who wanted to seek refuge with Viserys.

From beginning to end, only Jorah Mormont, the former Lord of Bear Island introduced by Illyrio's old friend Varys, and the famed former Kingsguard Barristan Selmy, "the Bold," were brought before Dragon Mother by Illyrio.

Without a trustworthy identity and useful strength, wanting to seek refuge with Dragon Mother was pure fantasy.

That was also why Ian had not chosen Essos as his starting location.

"Uh, I seem to have gone off on a tangent?" Ian shook his head and refocused on the First Blood Mission. "I have a few questions."

"Go ahead." The greatest advantage of AI was that its replies were always instant, much like when Ian had fallen in love for the first time.

"First of all, this is a real world, right?"

"Yes."

"So players won't have health bars over their heads, and NPCs won't have names floating above them either, right?"

"Yes."

"And the organizers specifically prepared plausible background stories for the players and gave them the relevant knowledge memories, right?"

"Yes."

"Then how are we supposed to find other players?" Ian spread his hands. "Not to mention that all one hundred of us have been randomly scattered across Westeros and even Essos, like throwing a handful of salt into the sea. Whether we can even run into one another at the start is uncertain. And even if we do, who can recognize who is a player?

Sure, I can guess that the five popular choices are those professions, and other players may be able to guess that too, but that clearly means little when searching for targets to hunt in the early stage.

How many Sellsword Knights are there in all of Westeros? How many Wandering Mercenaries? Guarding against them is one thing, but trying to hunt them based on that clue is pure fantasy!

Therefore, only after a player develops to a level that cannot be ignored will other players notice something is wrong because no such person existed in the original work. By then, the game will have entered at least the middle stage. That doesn't match your description that 'players will fight bloody battles from the very beginning.'

So what have I overlooked?"

"I will not answer questions beyond my authority." Annie replied mechanically.

In truth, Ian had not expected Annie to answer that question. He was really asking himself: what was the method of finding other players that existed, but which he had not yet figured out?

Finding other players clearly involved two issues. The first was encountering them, and the second was seeing through them.

Westeros alone covered more than ten million square kilometers, while Essos was several times larger still.

Leaving aside how scattered the players' landing points were, even if all one hundred players were placed in King's Landing, it would not be easy for them to encounter one another in a city with a population of five hundred thousand.

Unless the players' range of activity was narrowed further, such as having them all enter the same tavern.

"Holy shit! Allies! Those guys who arranged alliances beforehand would have agreed on specific meeting places!" Ian suddenly exclaimed, slapping his thigh hard.

Because his own ally had already withdrawn from the competition, he had actually overlooked the concept of allies when he began thinking through the problem.

How could players find other players in the early stages?

Under normal circumstances, they definitely could not.

But what if you had agreed to form an alliance with that player?