Immediately, Ivan recalled what the receptionist had told him before he entered the game:
'This time, we've made the game a full-period competition, meaning players will be plunged into intense competition, even mutual slaughter, from the moment they land. Furthermore, this time we will only provide extremely limited development resources to players. Players must take huge risks to compete for them. In fact, a large number of players may not receive any resources from the auxiliary system throughout the entire game, and may even be exhausted by certain mechanisms.'
The receptionist's words clearly hinted at the outrageous difficulty of the main quest! Otherwise, how could it be said that 'a large number of players will not be able to obtain resources from the system throughout the entire game?' Ivan patted his forehead.
"If we can't earn points by completing quests, then to avoid being drawn into the assassination mechanism due to being at the bottom of the scoreboard, we can only earn points by hunting other players?" Thinking of this, Ivan felt a chill run down his spine.
Feeling immense pressure bearing down on him, Ivan dared not waste another second and quickly continued to scroll down.
He remembered that the quest update notification had sounded twice, meaning the bounty quests had also been updated simultaneously when the game officially began.
"Bounty Quest One: First Blood"
"Quest Objective: Achieve the first kill of a player"
"Quest Reward: 3000 Gold Dragons (2500 provided in the form of gold bars), 3 attribute points, 3 skill points, 2 (within the area) self-selected S-rank NPCs"
"Note: This quest will be announced to other players one day after it is completed."
"???" Ivan's breath hitched as he looked at the outrageous reward amount.
This must be what the receptionist meant by 'extremely limited development resources provided by the system that players must take huge risks to compete for,' right?
Given that the main quest is almost impossible to complete in the early stages, any player who snags the 'First Blood' resource will undoubtedly have a development speed that leaves others in the dust.
Not being able to obtain development resources from the system is very detrimental to players in this kind of game. Unlike single-player Crossing scenarios, where a transmigrator, even without other golden fingers, can thrive simply by relying on their knowledge of the original work and modern insights.
In this 100-player game, all players are intimately familiar with the original work. Any player who suddenly appears in a setting where they didn't originally exist will instantly have their identity exposed by other players who are also monitoring that setting.
Without sufficient strength to back them up, exposing one's identity is almost tantamount to suicide.
For example, presumably every player, when making their plans, considered whether to immediately seek refuge with the Targaryen siblings, who were in their period of decline, thinking that as long as they allied with Dragon Mother, they would be riding the protagonist's coattails for the entire game.
But this is clearly a pipe dream.
Because among 100 players, perhaps more than 50 players are focused on Dragon Mother. Any player who shows up in front of Dragon Mother will immediately expose their identity.
If he isn't already strong enough to not fear the schemes of other players, he probably won't survive to the next chapter.
And even if a player wanted to risk everything for a chance, they wouldn't have the ability.
Because with a player's mediocre starting strength and complete lack of influence, there's no chance of getting close to Dragon Mother.
Why is that?
In the original timeline, Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy were the only two Westeros natives who successfully reached Dragon Mother in the early to mid-stages. Why?
Was it because only they two had this need? No!
After news spread that Khal Drogo was to marry Daenerys, Westeros saw an influx of adventurers, Sellswords, bastards, and even the disgruntled second sons of noble lords, swarming like vultures eyeing a war, hoping to carve out a future for themselves with this wandering prince who had the support of Ma Wang.
But in the original story, none of them appeared. Why?
Undoubtedly, the Targaryen siblings' protector, Illyrio, the Magister of Pentos, blocked these people. He might have worried about assassins among them, or simply thought these people lacked exploitable value. In short, he blocked almost everyone who wanted to pledge allegiance to Viserys.
From beginning to end, only Jorah Mormont, the former Lord of Bear Island, introduced to him by Illyrio's old friend Varys, and the world-renowned former Kingsguard, 'The Bold' Barristan Selmy, were introduced to Dragon Mother by Illyrio.
Without a reliable identity and useful strength, trying to seek refuge with Dragon Mother is utterly wishful thinking.
This is also why Ivan did not choose his starting point directly on the continent of Essos.
"Uh, seems I've strayed a bit?" Ivan shook his head, trying to refocus his thoughts on this First Blood quest. "I have some questions."
"Ask away." The greatest advantage of AI is that messages are always instant replies, much like when Ivan first fell in love.
"First, this is a real world, right?"
"Yes."
"So players won't have a health bar above their heads, and NPCs won't have names above their heads, right?"
"Yes."
"And the organizers even specially prepared reasonable backstories for players and provided them with relevant knowledge-based memories, right?"
"Yes."
"Then how are we supposed to find other players?" Ivan spread his hands. "Not to mention that the hundred of us are randomly scattered across Westeros and even Essos, like a pinch of salt thrown into the ocean. It's hard enough to even encounter someone at the start, and even if we do, who can recognize who is a player?
Admittedly, I can guess which five professions players will favor, and other players might guess too, but this is clearly not very significant for finding targets to hunt in the early stages.
How many mercenary knights are there in all of Westeros? And how many wandering Sellswords? You might be able to guard against them, but to try and hunt them based on that clue alone is pure fantasy!
Therefore, a player will only be discovered as problematic by other players because of their non-existence in the original work after they have developed to an unignorable extent, and by then the game will have at least entered its mid-stage. This doesn't align with your description of 'players will engage in a bloodbath from the start.'
So, what have I overlooked?"
"I cannot answer questions that exceed my Permissions." Annie replied mechanically.
In fact, Ivan hadn't expected Annie to answer the question. He was actually asking himself what that existing method for finding other players was, which he hadn't yet figured out.
The so-called finding other players clearly involves two problems: one is encountering them, and the other is identifying them.
The total area of the continent of Westeros exceeds 10 million square kilometers, and the area of the continent of Essos is several times that of Westeros.
Not to mention the problem of players' landing points being too scattered, even if all 100 players were put into King's Landing, it wouldn't be easy for everyone to meet in a city of 500,000 people.
Unless the players' activity range is further narrowed, for example, everyone enters the same tavern…
"Holy crap! Allies! Those guys who pre-arranged to form alliances agreed on specific meeting points!" Ivan suddenly exclaimed, slapping his thigh.
Because his own allies had already withdrawn from the game, he had initially overlooked the concept of allies when thinking about the problem.
How are players supposed to find other players in the early game?
Under normal circumstances, it's definitely impossible to find them.
But what if you and that player had agreed to form an alliance?