Some might think that the minimap was cheating, but that was not the case.
But that was not actually the case. Strictly speaking, according to the theory of this world, the minimap that the Players brought with them was a part of the God of Games' divine grace, a reward for their faith in Xi Wei.
If the minimap was considered cheating, then the believers of the Temple of Glory would be forbidden from using combat aura, the monks of the Brilliant White Church would not be allowed to use holy water, and the believers of Markelo, the God of Harvest would be left with nothing to eat, since the food they brought with them was made from crops blessed by the God of Harvest. The yield of such crops was much higher than normal crops, and none other than the believers of the God of Harvest could grow them, which was why the food harvested from such crops was also a part of the divine grace …
Be that as it may, the Players' performance differed from Xi Wei's expectations even with the minimap as a convenient tool.
First and foremost, the Players displayed superior map strategy skills.
That was probably thanks to the fact that they had been clearing dungeons all the time. Even some of the Players who did not fit in with the group did not waste their time, and were instead adventuring everywhere to train themselves. Although they were a class below the elite Players in terms of strategy, their reaction speed and ability to respond to unexpected situations were superior to the average Player!
It should also be mentioned that the casual Players and lazy Players who did not reach the required level had gone off to sell sweet potatoes with the newbies, and did not participate in the tournament …
Less than a day after the preliminaries of the maze island began, ninety percent of the maze island that was larger than most cities had been explored, with eighty percent of them being explored by the Players with superior mobility.
The Players who had Clerics or Holy Lancers as their party members were much bolder in their exploration, since they could be saved even if they were flattened, cut into pieces, or shot into a sieve.
That was why some of the more reckless Players had used their brains to carve out a path of blood in the truest sense of the word. If it weren't for the fact that the Players' blood, flesh, and organs would disappear after a period of time, the other contestants who passed by those places would have suspected that the labyrinth was inhabited by a bunch of cruel and terrifying ogres …
Still, they would lose EXP even if they could be revived, and after some time, even the most reckless Players would become cautious.
Of course, such 'caution' depended on who they were compared to. Compared to the other contestants who had suffered from the various traps and monsters of the maze island, the Players' gait was as if they did not care about their own kin.
Just like that, his speed in exploring the maze was naturally much faster than the other participants who were like elderly people, who would only dare to move forward after making sure that there were no traps on the ground after every few steps.
As for the monsters on the maze island, there was nothing more to say. Isn't it just fighting monsters? We players are afraid of everything, but fighting monsters is not!
One could say that the Players' mobility had exceeded his expectations, and he had the misconception that he had groomed a bunch of incredible monsters …
Even so, there were still some problems with the players, which resulted in a significant loss of members in the process.
The reason was simple: it was Xi Wei's deliberate guidance. Although the Players would go berserk when they fought monsters, forcing the Bosses who saw them to do a sanity check to see if they would lose HP, they were actually quite friendly apart from those times.
After all, most of the Players had lived as refugees in disaster zones and lived a relatively prosperous life as Players. Moreover, as Xi Wei helped others with quests such as fighting monsters, running errands, and clearing toilets, their personalities naturally became more like the friendlier earthlings or Chinese.
That was why some of the Players who had collected enough tokens would always try to help other contestants who were in trouble.
Considering the number of traps and monsters in the maze island, the number of contestants who were not in trouble was actually fewer, which led to many Players saving one or more believers of other churches.
Regrettably, not everyone knew how to repay a debt of gratitude.
More than half of the Players were backstabbed by the people they saved, and were hence eliminated.
The backstabbing naturally didn't refer to those who attacked on their own — although there were such people, they were few in number. Instead, it referred to those who would directly push the Players out to block their blades when they encountered danger, seizing the chance to escape and reap the rewards.
About thirty percent of the Players chose not to betray the Players and simply ran away, with less than twenty percent of believers of other churches choosing to work together with the Players against new threats.
It was fortunate that the Players were not isolated individuals. After a Player was set up, they would be eliminated and returned to Lancaster, exposing the culprit through the Player forums so that the Players who were still in the tournament would be more vigilant and find a chance to avenge them.
At the same time, many Players finally realized that outsiders were unreliable, and the only ones they could rely on were the idiotic Players who only knew how to bicker with them over items and dance when they had nothing better to do.
Even the Players who weren't participating in the tournament were watching the live broadcast in the square and the various posts denouncing the believers of other churches on the forums, invisibly strengthening the bond between the Players.
That was something Xi Wei never expected at all, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad situation.
Still, if he thought about it carefully, he probably preferred the other side more. After all, things weren't quite right in the divine realm at the moment, and there was no telling when a new divine war would erupt. When that happened, the Prime Material Plane wouldn't be spared either, and even if the gods didn't descend through various means to stir things up, the believers of various churches would definitely clash.
Instead of being backstabbed or paying a terrible price for being too friendly and trusting when the time comes, it was better to pay the tuition fee in a tournament that wasn't all that important, so that the Players would personally understand that they could only trust their own people.
Moreover, Xi Wei had edited many of the nasty deeds of the contestants who backstabbed the Players in their eagerness to win and kept showing them in the magic mirror projection over the square, making the citizens subconsciously believe that the believers of those churches couldn't be trusted, and that their gods were probably no good either …
Neither the contestants nor the audience expected the first round of the Twin City Cup to be so brutal.
Although Mayor Corinth had said that twenty percent of the contestants would pass, there were too many unexpected occurrences. Moreover, most of the markers on the corpses were dropped in places that were difficult to find or retrieve, which meant that less than ten percent of the contestants made it through. There were a total of one hundred and thirty-three contestants, with twenty-nine of them being Players — a very high ratio.
While the brutality of the tournament wasn't good for the contestants, it was immeasurably exciting for the audience, which made them look forward to the second round even more.
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Chapter 289:
The First Round Has Ended
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