The Scheming Mind of That Damn Designer

Since they had agreed to form alliances, they must have arranged meeting places before entering the game.

For example, Ian and his two former allies had agreed to meet at Saint Baelor's Great Cathedral in King's Landing.

But because his allies had withdrawn from the competition, he had changed his starting location to The Riverlands.

Now that his allies were gone, the other players were different. They would definitely follow their original plans and gather at landmark buildings like Crossroads Inn or Sattaya's Tavern!

Driven by this First Blood Mission, wouldn't those prearranged allies become ready-made hunting targets?

Granted, some players would become wary after seeing this mission and refuse to show up, but humanity would never lack adventurers.

If something offered twenty percent profit, people would be tempted; at fifty percent profit, they would take desperate risks; for one hundred percent profit, they would trample every law under heaven; and for three hundred percent profit, they would commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged.

And what kind of profit did this mission offer?

Setting aside Attribute Points and Skill Points, the money alone amounted to a full three thousand Gold Dragons. With that money and two S-Class NPCs, a player could easily assemble a small army of over a hundred men.

In this game, where the vast majority of players could not obtain resources from the system, what did getting such a massive amount of resources first mean?

It meant he might be impossible to surpass for the next several years. He might even escape the threat of the leaderboard assassination mechanic for good and develop freely however he wanted.

The players had no reason not to take this risk.

"But... the second problem still hasn't been solved!" Ian quickly forced himself to calm down again. "How would players identify other players through their disguises?

First, let's assume two allies who arranged to meet beforehand encountered each other at their designated location. But with the First Blood Mission hanging over them, they couldn't possibly recklessly use their prearranged code words to reveal their identities, could they?

They would definitely hide themselves cautiously while trying to test the others.

But how could a wary player be so easily tested? They were all elite competitors who had fought their way through so many preliminary rounds. Why would they easily expose a flaw?

From the designer's perspective, since he had designed things this far, it meant that he believed players would definitely be able to identify one another. In other words, there had to be some flaw that none of us knew about, or had overlooked."

Ian suddenly thought of the background story. According to Annie, the purpose of the background story was to help players disguise themselves.

But clearly, the designer did not want the players to disguise themselves well. On the contrary, he wanted them to identify one another and start fighting.

That made the designer's actions contradictory.

Unless there was something wrong with the background story?

Ian quickly closed his eyes, opened the Auxiliary System, entered the information tab, and carefully read through his background story again.

Very soon, he really did find a small problem.

He had no surname.

As a commoner from the Vale, he indeed had no surname at first. But later in his story, he had been knighted, which meant he had gained the right to take a surname.

Yet he still had no surname. That was highly unusual.

However, it was only a minor issue. It hardly counted as a flaw that could expose him, and it was probably unique to players who started as Sellsword Knights. It was not a problem shared by all players.

"Right, all players. For this to reliably identify people, the flaw should be shared by every player, or at least the overwhelming majority. In other words, what common trait do we all share that could be a flaw?"

What did players have in common that was obvious enough to become a flaw allowing most people to identify them?

It couldn't possibly be that they liked hopping when they walked, could it? This was a real world! Who would hop around for fun? Wouldn't that be exhausting?

Ian paced back and forth around the room as he pondered the question.

Then his gaze suddenly fell on the set of equipment piled in the corner.

A Hand-and-a-half Sword, a nasal helm, a gorget, an old chainmail shirt, a pair of chainmail gloves, and a pair of greaves.

In a daze, the preview image from the final character creation screen surfaced before his eyes once more.

"Fuck! Starting Gear! It's the Starting Gear!"

The Starting Gear for every class was identical, and over ninety percent of players had probably chosen one of the five starting classes Ian had listed.

That meant that, aside from their faces, the players' appearances were exactly the same as the preview images on the final character creation screen!

Traveling Merchants were the most obvious. Their four servants, four old Packhorses, two carts, and seven mules practically gave them away at a glance. Of course, they would surely realize they were easy to expose and make changes accordingly.

Next were Sellsword Knights, because they unusually possessed a full set of equipment normally available only to landed knights, yet did not even have a single squire.

Of course, stranded Sailors and Brotherhood Hunters were not much better. Those two classes were relatively uncommon to begin with, and one used Throwing Axes while the other used a Yew Longbow. Those were also traits that made them easy to identify.

As for concealment, only Wandering Mercenaries were probably somewhat better off. After all, taverns large and small throughout Westeros were packed with mercenaries, and the old Leather Armor, Short Sword, and dagger they started with were practically no different from the natives' equipment.

But aside from Wandering Mercenaries, once the other classes appeared at meeting places the players had arranged among themselves, they would probably recognize it the moment they met—Haven't I seen this guy somewhere before?

This was the true reason the designer had created background stories for the players!

He had deliberately made the character creation options so complicated in order to give every player numerous differences and make them overlook the similarities brought by their final class choices.

He had deliberately made the AI explain that the background stories existed to "give players background memories so they could disguise themselves better," all to mislead them and plant the impression that they would not be easily identified in their current appearances!

When the human brain received information about something, the first viewpoint it accepted usually had a greater influence, even preventing people from actively considering possibilities that ran contrary to it.

Even Ian himself had initially overlooked such an obvious flaw as the Starting Gear!

Since the organizers would be unable to interfere with the progress of the competition by any means after it began, the designer had chosen to lay out his trap in advance this way, quickly triggering slaughter among the players and making the competition more exciting!

Damn it! He had never expected that in this hundred-player game, the first enemy the players faced would not be one another, but a trap the damn designer had prepared in advance!