Chapter 289 End of the First Round
It was possible that some would hold the opinion that having the minimap was cheating.
That, however, was not strictly true. In the logic that applies to this world, the minimap that the Players have partially belongs to the divine grace which Xi Wei, the G.o.d of Games bestowed upon them, a reward for their belief in him.
Therefore, if the minimap was a cheat that upsets the balance of the tourney, the believers of the Temple of Glory must be forbidden from using their combat auras, the Brilliant White Church’s monks must be banned from using holy water while the believers of the Marcolo, G.o.d of Harvest must be prevented from eating at all. The latter case was because the food they brought along were made from crops blessed by the G.o.d of Harvest, which delivers higher yield but wouldn’t stay alive unless cared for by believers of Marcolo, and therefore counted as a divine grace…
Be that as it may, having a convenient tool like the minimap meant the Players’ performance were more or less of what Xi Wei expected.
First, it was the Players’ outstanding ability for map exploration.
That was perhaps thanks to the Players making a habit of consistent dungeon clearing. Even Players who did not work well in teams wouldn’t squander their time and would go on adventurers over the continent to train themselves, and though such Players might prove less formidable than elite Players, their reaction speed and countermeasures against unexpected situations were better than most normal Players!
One should mention here that the lazier Players and casual Players whose level were subpar were off selling potatoes with the newbies instead of partic.i.p.ating in the tourney.
Either way, in less than a day since the first round of the Twin City Cup began, ninety percent of the ma.s.sive maze island which was vaster than ordinary cities was explored, eighty percent of which was unraveled by the highly mobile Players.
Parties with Clerics or Holy Lancers were especially bold and unconstrained as well, since they could save anyone crushed, quartered, or reduced to dartboards.
Therefore, some of the most reckless of Players pretty much paved a blood-path in the truest sense of the word. If the Players’ blood and organs didn’t vanish after a while, the other contestants who arrived later would be suspecting that some horrific maneater demon was lucking around the maze…
Still, resurrection here still meant losing EXP, and even the more reckless Players became prudent after going Leroy Jenkins for a while.
Naturally, the ‘prudence’ mentioned here was relative. Compared to the contestants who had survived the traps and monsters in the maze, these Players were actually still strutting around. In terms of speed, they were absolutely faster than the other contestants who were walking no different than elderly people, fumbling around the walls every few steps and only proceeding after ensuring that there were no traps.
It was even less necessary to talk about the monsters in the maze.
Isn’t that just farming? Us Players fear many things, but not farming monsters!
One might even say that the Players mobility had truly exceeded Xi Wei’s expectations, prompting the feeling that he had nurtured a group of wonderful monsters…
Nonetheless, the Players did run into certain troubles and lost some of their own.
The reason was simple, however: Xi Wei’s deliberate guidance molded the Players to become frenzied when it came to farming monsters to the point that even Bosses have to check their own sanity.
That said, the Players were quite friendly aside from such occasions.
Since most of them had suffered previously as refugees, and later lived in relative affluence as Players and were discreetly guided by Xi Wei by farming monsters, daily quests, and even clearing clogged toilets, their personality naturally resembled friendly Earthlings.
Therefore, some of the Players who had collected enough marked cards would try to help other stumped contestants.
Considering the numbers of traps and monsters on the maze island, one might say that the contestants having no trouble were in the minority, which led to many Players attempting to save believers of other churches.
Even so, not everyone paid their debts.
More than half of the Players were backstabbed by the people they had saved and hence eliminated.
To be fair, those backstabbing did not refer to deliberate harm—there were those who did that, but there were too few of them. Instead, their backstabbing involved pushing the Players into harm’s way and seizing the chance to run away or reap the rewards.
In fact, there were only thirty percent of those saved contestants who had only fled without betraying the Players, while less than twenty percent believers of other churches would work together with the Players to handle the new threat.
Still, it was fortunate that Players were not isolated. After some of them had been backstabbed, they would immediately expose the culprits on the forums after being disqualified and teleported back to Lancaster, so that the other Players still in the game would be wary and even try to avenge them.
At the same time, however, most of the Players also finally realized that the outsiders weren’t reliable. The only ones dependable in their opinion were other players, whom they’ve always bantered with, fought for items against, and sparred with from time to time.Even Players who didn’t join the tourney and were merely watching the live broadcast at Lancaster Square or joining the discussion of believers from other churches on the forums, inadvertently strengthening the cohesion between all Players.
Not even Xi Wei expected that, and he was uncertain if that was good or bad.
That said, it would mostly likely lean towards good when he thought about it. After all, things were awkward in the divine realm with a new divine war possibly erupting at any given moment. Not even the Prime Material Plane would be spared when the time comes, and even if the G.o.ds didn’t descend upon it to stir trouble, there would a.s.suredly be conflict between the believers of various churches.
Therefore, as opposed to paying a terrible price of being backstabbed in the future due to their friendly and trusting nature, it was better for the Players to pay their dues and learn their lesson in a compet.i.tion which wasn’t that important, so that they would personally experience that the only people they could trust were themselves.
Moreover, the vile contestants who were desperate to win and didn’t hold back from backstabbing Players were singled out by Xi Wei and shown repeatedly in the magic mirrors broadcasting the tourney over Lancaster Square. Now, the citizens all subconsciously realized that those believers couldn’t be trusted at all, and their G.o.ds were most likely nothing good either…
Indeed, none of the contestants or the viewers were expecting the first round of the Twin City Cup to be so horrific.
Although Mayor Corinth had mentioned that twenty percent of the contestants would clear the first round, too many unexpected circ.u.mstances had taken place, just as the marked cards of many corpses had been dropped in places where it was irretrievable. As such, only less than ten percent of the contestants—133 of them, in fact-made it through, which was a relatively high ratio in that regard.
While the horrific tourney wasn’t kind for the contestants, there was nothing more exciting for the viewers, which in turn grew their antic.i.p.ation for the second round.