Chapter 26: Reward Calculation (Part 2)
"If that's the case, wouldn't it be pretty pathetic for my performance today to only rate a D-Grade Highlight?" Ian complained. He didn't understand—he'd actually secured the first kill!
"The final rating for a Highlight Play is determined by multiplying the base score by the Highlight Coefficient. Your current Highlight Coefficient is too low, so you can only achieve the minimum D-Grade standard."
"Highlight Coefficient?"
"Positive engagement from observers regarding a particular action, as well as viewer ratings and audience participation metrics during that action, will increase your Highlight Coefficient. Similarly, negative feedback regarding poor decisions will decrease your Highlight Coefficient."
"Oh, I see." Ian seemed to grasp Annie's meaning and continued scrolling.
[Day 1 Report: Current Number of Remaining Players: 98]
Only two deaths on the first day, both courtesy of Ian. It seemed that, as Ian had predicted, none of the players who'd agreed to form alliances had managed to meet up within a single day.
After checking his messages, Ian opened the quest log again.
Clearly, he'd already met the requirements for completing the first main quest, "The Golden Road."
So he clicked "Accept" under "The Golden Road."
Immediately, a new message arrived in his inbox.
[Main Quest 1 'The Golden Road' Complete: Earned 5 points, 3 attribute points, and 3 skill points.]
After claiming the rewards, Ian opened his character sheet.
[Ian: Strength 23, Agility 19, Spirit 2. Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Common Tongue (Reading/Writing), Intermediate Swordsmanship, Intermediate Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance.
Attribute Points: 6. Skill Points: 6. Points: 14.]
"Annie, how should I optimally allocate these points?" Ian was still uncertain about the attribute system in this world. At least, he hadn't seen any clear explanation in the initial tutorial.
"I cannot answer questions beyond my designated parameters."
Hmm, it seemed asking Annie to recommend point allocation raised concerns about the "organizers" interfering with competitive balance.
"Then please explain the point allocation system," Ian rephrased his question.
"The rule for attribute points is one point per attribute increase."
"Wow, truly revolutionary game design," Ian said dryly.
"Skills are divided into seven tiers: Basic, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, and Legendary. One skill point advances from Basic to Beginner, two from Beginner to Intermediate, three from Intermediate to Advanced, and so on."
"What about going from zero to one? What does it take to learn a completely new skill? Zero skill points?" Ian asked.
"New skills require players to learn them through practice or obtain special learning items. These items may appear in the Points Store, or have a chance to appear as quest rewards." Annie answered according to her programming.
Hearing this, Ian began allocating points on his character sheet.
He distributed six attribute points evenly between Strength and Agility, then upgraded both Swordsmanship and Horsemanship from Intermediate to Advanced.
What about Lance, you ask?
Since time immemorial, lancers have had shit luck. Ian didn't want to tempt fate, and he no longer planned to participate personally in jousting tournaments. He doubted he'd ever use the skill seriously.
After allocating points, Ian's new character sheet appeared:
[Ian: Strength 26, Agility 22, Spirit 2. Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Common Tongue (Reading/Writing), Advanced Swordsmanship, Advanced Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance.
Attribute Points: 0. Skill Points: 0. Points: 14.]
After completing the allocation, Ian felt a wave of disorientation as a flood of new training memories—swordsmanship drills and horsemanship practice—flooded into his mind. That's right, just training memories.
This deepened Ian's understanding of the data displayed on screen.
While the strength and agility shown were almost instantaneous—or at most took a few days to adapt to—skills required considerably longer practice to truly internalize.
Therefore, hoping to rapidly increase combat effectiveness through point allocation alone was wishful thinking.
After two minutes of recovery, Ian clicked on the companion NPC interface to gain a more comprehensive understanding of his forces.
[Rolf: Strength 34, Agility 32, Spirit 4. Skills: Sword Expert, Advanced Horsemanship, Advanced Lance, Advanced Teaching, Basic Common Tongue (Reading/Writing), Intermediate Valyrian (Volantene Dialect, Reading/Writing)]
"Is this what an S-rank card looks like? He can fight, coach, and serve as a Valyrian tutor," Ian couldn't help but marvel. "Shouldn't I be paying him three salaries? Oh wait, he's my religious devotee. I don't need to pay him at all."
Ian smiled, shook his head at his own absurd thoughts, then eagerly opened Kevan's profile.
[Kevan: Strength 46, Agility 38, Spirit 2. Skills: Sword Expert, Advanced Horsemanship, Lance Master, Greataxe Master, Basic Common Tongue (Spoken), Basic Valyrian (Spoken)]
Clearly, if Rolf was a versatile utility NPC, Kevan was a classic combat monster. His strength and agility stats far exceeded Rolf's, and he'd even mastered multiple weapon disciplines.
His performance in actual combat had been even more impressive. Kevan had faced three mounted sellswords alone, dispatching two with single strikes and making it look effortless.
"But here's the thing—Rolf and Kevan are clearly the same class. Is it really normal for such massive differences in individual attributes?" Ian asked Annie mentally. "Kevan's Strength is twelve points higher than Rolf's."
"The higher the rank, the greater the potential variance in stats. A difference of fifteen points or less in individual attributes for an S-rank class is considered normal," Annie explained. "Of course, differences exceeding fifteen points are possible."
"So, for example, if someone drew from the Kingsguard pool, a lucky bastard could pull Arthur Dayne—the Sword of the Morning who could carve through the rest of the Kingsguard while taking a piss—while some unlucky schmuck could only get Meryn Trant, who 'any boy whore with a sword could beat three of'?" Ian offered as a half-joking example.
However, the emotionless AI Annie remained as impassive as ever, ignoring Ian's commentary on matters unrelated to system functions.
Feeling slightly foolish, Ian shrugged and switched to the quest interface.
What surprised him was that although main quest line 1 showed as completed, main quest line 2 hadn't updated immediately.
Similarly, the bounty quest 2 interface remained blank.
"Annie, is there a bug in the system? Why haven't the quests updated?" Ian asked immediately.
"After each main quest is completed, there is a one-week cooldown period before the next stage releases. Bounty quests will be released according to the timeline originally programmed by the designers."
Ian nodded and logged out of the system.
Opening his eyes, he found they'd made good progress toward the Crossroads Inn. The sun had fully set now, and the Kingsroad stretched before them in the gathering darkness.
"How much farther?" Ian called to Rolf.
"Less than an hour, my lord. We should arrive well before midnight."
Ian settled back into his saddle, mind already working through possibilities. The Crossroads Inn. A convergence point for travelers from all directions. A perfect hunting ground, if he chose to use it that way.
But was that the smartest play? Or was he thinking too small?
Two players dead on day one. Ninety-eight remained. The game had barely begun, and already the body count was climbing.
How many will be left in a week? A month? A year?
Ian pushed the thought aside. Speculation was pointless. What mattered was positioning himself to survive—no, to thrive—while others fell by the wayside.
He had resources now. Two elite knights. Substantial funds. The first kill under his belt. He needed to leverage these advantages into something more permanent, more sustainable.
The trade routes beckoned. So did the political machinations of the great houses. And always, lurking in the background, the knowledge that winter was coming—and with it, threats that made player-versus-player conflict seem almost quaint by comparison.
But that was thinking too far ahead. First things first: a hot meal, a proper bed, and a chance to scout the situation at the Crossroads Inn.
After that? Well, he'd see what opportunities presented themselves.
The game was just beginning.
(End of Chapter)
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