"Kill rewards, huh?" Ian nodded thoughtfully. "Sure, it'll push players toward killing each other... but not by much. Four points per kill? Even if you wiped out everyone, you'd barely reach 400 points. That's a far cry from the 10,000 needed to win."
He tapped his fingers on the windowsill.
"And the fact that you only get full points for a kill if you do it yourself? Yeah, that really dampens the appeal. After the early stages, how often can you personally land the finishing blow on another player? What do they think we are, assassins?"
"Keep going, AI," Ian said with a wave of his hand. His gut told him the real twist was still coming.
"Second, the alliance system. After entering the game, players can form alliances through the support system when meeting face-to-face. Each alliance can contain up to four players.
Killing an ally within an official alliance yields no rewards and cannot be used to complete quests."
Ian gave a dry chuckle. "That's for another time. I don't even have any allies."
"Third is the points system," Annie continued. "Points are the most important strategic resource in this game. You can earn them by completing system quests, killing other players, achieving certain milestones, or performing high-profile actions. Every player starts with one point."
"Okay... so what do we do with them?"
"Points serve three functions: purchasing items from the shop, ranking players on the leaderboard, and triggering the final victory condition."
"Leaderboard?" Ian raised an eyebrow. "What's that used for?"
"This game features a monthly leaderboard system, which implements a series of rewards and punishments based on point rankings."
"From the first in-game day onward, points will be tallied monthly.
The top three players will receive valuable rewards, split accordingly if there are ties.
From the second month onward, the bottom three players will face assassination attempts.
The first will be targeted by a Faceless Man from Braavos, the second by a Qarth Sorrowful Men assassin, and the third by a local killer-for-hire.
Ties are resolved randomly, prioritizing the lowest ranks. Once the number of surviving players drops below twenty, the leaderboard is disabled."
"Holy sh*t!" Ian cursed out loud.
He had been wondering why a game that clearly looked like a territory-conquest simulator would be named something like The Killing Game — but now it made perfect sense.
It was basically a deathmatch with escalating consequences. A twisted version of the battle royale shrinking zone.
Except, this was worse than any poisonous circle. No matter how high your points were, someone was always in the bottom three — and they'd be hunted.
There was no escaping it. You either climbed... or died.
"This is a nightmare."
"Anything else?" he asked.
"No further mechanics to explain. You can now close your eyes and access the system interface to get familiar with its functions."
Ian nodded, sat down, and closed his eyes.
Inside his mind, the interface was clean and minimalistic. Eight tabs lined the bottom: Quests, Alliances, Profile, Achievements, Mailbox, Inventory, Shop, and Leaderboard.
He opened the Quests tab first. A small question mark hovered over the interface — he tapped it.
> Quest System: Due to players starting with modest conditions, the system will offer quests to aid development.
Note: Failing a quest carries no penalties.
The quest menu had three sub-tabs: Main Quests, Bounties/Public Quests, and Optional/Triggered Quests.
Since the game hadn't officially started yet, the quest section was completely empty.
Ian exited and moved on to the Alliance tab.
Only one button — Form Alliance (Face-to-Face) — was lit. Everything else was grayed out. Clicking the button brought up a blank screen.
A help icon next to the button explained:
> "Two players must simultaneously activate this function within one meter of each other to view alliance options."
Nothing useful for now.
He skipped over Profile, Achievements, and Mailbox, and opened the Inventory tab.
> Inventory: A personal storage space for instant access.
Initial size: 1 cubic decimeter.
Each upgrade costs 10 points and increases size 4x, up to four times.
A measly cube barely large enough to hold a takeaway drink.
Still... in a world this realistic, even this tiny "space magic" could be practical — like for carrying gold.
Players were expected to roam constantly, often without stable income or territory. Hauling around sacks of coins wasn't exactly subtle. This pouch-sized pocket dimension had its use.
Next up: the Shop.
> **Tier-1 Store:
Large Coin Pouch (300 Silver Stags): 1 point
Medium Coin Pouch (20 Gold Dragons): 5 points
Current Points: 1**
Not amazing, but that silver stash could probably keep a broke player fed for weeks.
As for the 20 gold dragons... definitely a nice lump sum for early-game, but 5 points felt a bit steep.
Ian flipped to the next page.
Instead of more items, a prompt popped up:
> Tier-2 Store: Preview unlocks at 10 points.
"Must be some premium stuff," Ian muttered, unconvinced.
DING! DING!
Two crisp, metallic chimes rang out in his mind, making him jump.
"What now?"
"The task notifications," Annie replied calmly. "The three-hour prep window has ended. The match has officially begun."
"The quests are here?" Ian immediately opened the Quest tab again.
> Main Quest I: The Road to Honor
Description: As a hedge knight, you've strayed far from the path of honor. Gold has clouded your eyes and made you forget your vows. It's time to reclaim your honor.
Objective: Win an official jousting tournament in one of the Five Major Cities.
Reward: 5 points, 3 attribute points, 3 skill points
[ACCEPT] [RE-ROLL]
"A formal joust in one of the five cities?" Ian pulled a face. "They're really not pulling punches with the difficulty."
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