My Level Zero System-Chapter 305: Cyrus’ Proposal

Seeing Cyrus's proposal was not unreasonable, the others did not raise any objections.

All ten representatives went to the large reception room in the manor, located right next to the central hall. In this somewhat ancient space, there was a long oval wooden table, with exactly ten chairs casually placed around it.

None of the players spoke to each other, simply choosing a chair at random and sitting down.

Seeing that everyone was seated, Cyrus cleared his throat, drew everyone's attention, and then spoke.

"As you can all see, the rules of the game are quite complex, but I have found a very simple winning formula."

"Oh, and what might that be, old man?" A young man, seemingly the heir of the Zento Family, replied sarcastically, even chuckling. Clearly, seeing the Bethel Family's contingency plan was just a man who was clearly older than everyone else here and appeared quite weak, this person looked down on him.

Although the other heirs did not express themselves as openly as the Zento Family heir, they also held Cyrus in low regard.

Only Uris, the hired representative of the Don Family, showed no expression. Instead, he gave Cyrus a look of sympathy. Standing among a group composed entirely of powerful noble descendants, he couldn't help but feel pressured, and that pressure translated into an urgency to seek allies, even if false.

However, both Kain and Faith, who had, in two different ways, uncovered the true identity of the mastermind, shared a common thought.

"This man named Cyrus is pretending to be weak."

As for Cyrus, he continued to play his role perfectly. Even when being mocked, he merely scratched his head and smiled, then continued.

"My intention is, what if we all bid 10 gold coins in every turn? According to the rules, if the bid is tied, the entire bid amount will be equally distributed into the treasury of all players."

"That way, we don't need to win the bid to put gold coins into the treasury. We can still easily put the maximum possible amount of gold coins into the treasury."

"What do you all think?"

After speaking, Cyrus pulled out a handkerchief from an unknown place and gently wiped the sweat off his forehead, as if deliberately concealing his nervousness.

All the players fell into contemplation, and Kain was no exception.

Cyrus's proposal was not without merit for consideration.

The Resource Distribution Game.

The name itself revealed its nature, and although the rules didn't specify how resources would be distributed, it was easy to deduce from the rule that the result would be settled based on the amount of gold coins successfully put into the players' treasuries—meaning resources would be distributed based on the corresponding gold coin ratio.

For example, the maximum amount of gold coins each player can receive after 50 turns is 500 gold coins. But if the treasuries of all players equally contain 500 gold coins, the resources will be divided equally as well.

Similarly, even if ten players only manage to put 1 gold coin each into their treasuries, the divided resources will still be distributed equally.

In general, the essence of this game is not "to put the most gold coins into the treasury," but rather "to maintain the largest possible ratio of gold coins in one's own treasury compared to the total 100%."

And the method proposed by Cyrus is aimed at this goal of balance.

However, this is only the result of not losing and not winning.

And if someone wants to "win"...

To increase the ratio of gold coins in their treasury, players must put as many gold coins into the treasury as possible. However, the limit on the amount of gold coins produced each turn severely restricts this path.

Therefore, to win, it is imperative to also reduce the gold coins going into the opponents' treasuries.

And there are many ways to do that.

For example, what if everyone outwardly agrees to bid 10 gold coins in that round, but then someone bids zero?

Remember, the amount of gold coins used for bidding is discretionary, meaning even 0 gold coins is an option.

When this happens, that player doesn't need to spend a single coin yet immediately gains 9 gold coins into their treasury because the pooled bid money is collected and divided evenly when two or more players offer the same highest bid amount. Meanwhile, this player gains a net advantage of 10 more gold coins to expand their advantage for the next round.

If this person bids 11 gold coins in the next round, they are guaranteed to win the bid. Because the maximum amount of gold coins the other players have is only 10 gold coins.

Furthermore, this winning player can continue to profit from the evenly distributed failed bid gold coins.

Of course, this is just a simplification of the complexity. The actual situation with ten factions all calculating their moves would be much more complex.

But no matter what, just by gaining an advantage in the first round, the round where everyone's gold coins are truly equal, an extremely large opportunity opens up for the subsequent rounds.

"But... is that really the case?" Kain thought, his eyes scanning the other players.

Some leaned back, some rested their chin on their hand, some lightly stroked their forehead, some intertwined their hands and rested their chin on them, some crossed their arms...

All sorts of contemplative postures.

Because the rules are clear, it is not difficult to think as Kain did above.

"So this is why this man proactively made the suggestion and deliberately portrayed a weak, easily deceived appearance."

It's true that anyone can think like that—directly bidding 0 gold coins to gain the largest benefit. But what if everyone thought that way?

If everyone bids 0 gold coins, then all Cyrus needs to do is bid 1 gold coin, and he wins at the minimum cost.

What a brilliant calculation.

Kain slightly narrowed his eyes, then he glanced around again, paying a little attention to Faith.

Faith was also in a contemplative posture, but generally, he still looked very relaxed and comfortable.