My Level Zero System-Chapter 313: Blind Spots

There are about 20 minutes left until the deadline for turn 3 bidding. Kain has returned to his room, lying on his back on the bed, deep in thought.

After a while, he closed his eyes, but not to rest.

In Kain's imagination, the large meeting room with all the opponents appeared. He was standing at a higher viewpoint, looking down upon the entire sequence of events.

"Alright, I need to review the situation one more time."

For some reason, even though his previous deduction about the Zento Family player's behavior was tentatively conclusive, this answer was clearly not enough to satisfy Kain. He analyzed rationally, but also did not exclude his intuition.

After all, intuition is essentially a summary of things lying beneath the rational surface—the subconscious, a perfect blend of prediction, memory links, and experience. And although intuition is not 100% correct because Kain does not highly value relying solely on experience, it is still something worth considering.

He felt he had missed something.

Thinking endlessly about what he might have missed could very likely lead him astray again, or Kain might miss a different overarching picture. Therefore, he wanted to systematize the entire game from the beginning, even before it started, to ensure his next moves were precise.

Before the game began, Cyrus had executed a series of moves to gain as much advantage as possible. Ultimately, he entered the game as the reserve representative of the Bethel Family.

Meanwhile, except for Kain of the Egretta Family and Uris of the Don Family, all the hired representatives of the other families had perished in the mass assassination. And it seemed that because they couldn't find better alternatives, the seven heirs of these families entered the fray themselves.

And in turn 1, after hearing the game rules from the referee, Cyrus proactively gathered everyone and proposed to balance everyone's resources by having everyone bid 10 gold coins so that the gold coins would be evenly distributed into the treasuries of all factions.

At that time, Cyrus appeared very weak...

Thinking of this, Kain suddenly realized he had missed a detail.

This detail was not about how Cyrus faked weakness, or how he misjudged Cyrus's true strategy.

It was about perspective.

His perspective on Cyrus.

The other players' perspective on Cyrus.

Kain didn't think his own reasoning would lead him into a blind spot in his thinking.

Because he had previously recognized Cyrus as a rather dangerous intellectual enemy, but that very judgment framed his thinking regarding what Cyrus truly wanted to do in this game, not just in turn 1.

From the perspective of the other players, Cyrus seemed like a fool. Although strictly speaking, those heirs and Cyrus were all secondary choices, compared to Cyrus, those heirs all harbored an inherent pride in their own capabilities.

Cyrus leveraged this trait, completely positioning himself as the easiest target to deceive and read in this game. Kain did not believe Cyrus did this just for a few fleeting turns, but for something else.

Kain did have evidence for this, which was the bidding in turn 1.

There, Kain deduced Cyrus's true purpose, and also deduced how Faith would act. But he missed another thing, or more precisely, at that moment, Kain temporarily interrupted his train of thought.

Suppose Faith hadn't acted, what would Cyrus have done next? With everything he had intentionally set up?

What would Cyrus do with the 10 gold coins he won in the bid?

Combining Cyrus's behavior and plan since the start of the game, Kain thought he knew what Cyrus would do.

The crux of Cyrus faking weakness in turn 1 was not just gestures or behavior, but Cyrus was deliberately showing himself to be someone who indeed grasped and understood the rules of the game, but played in a shallow and superficial way.

Just like the proposal to divide the gold coins evenly into the treasury would benefit everyone, but it was ultimately a legally correct yet shallow consideration.

So, upon winning the bid, Cyrus would put those precious gold coins into his treasury, just like a novice player would do.

He thought that the rule that "the actions of the winning bidder will be kept secret" could protect the gold coins in his treasury, intentionally appearing composed not to let the other players know, but in reality, everyone would have already seen through it.

However, no one would expose this until the appropriate time, because for them, killing the goose that lays the golden egg in the early turns is also foolish when the owner of this treasury is nothing more than a novice. Eventually, the ten-faction battle would turn into a battle between nine wolves and one sheep in the middle, where the sheep would be gradually fattened up over the turns while the wolves would fight among themselves first to increase their chances of eating as much mutton as possible when the time was ripe.

And that is everything that would happen in the anticipation of "the other players," within Cyrus's strategic plan.

Because in reality, Cyrus's winning gold coins would not be put into the treasury.

In fact, as the treasury gradually fills up from sharing failed bid gold coins, Cyrus would even have to withdraw every single gold coin from the treasury to hold the money in hand.

In other words, Cyrus's strategy was to accumulate gold coins in hand to crash the final bids. But it was modified so that the probability of being discovered was almost zero.

Kain had to admit, compared to normal players, Cyrus had the right to look down on the crowd.

Although this strategy was delayed by Faith, a person with a single goal contrary to the nine players here, and who dared to act against the norm, Cyrus's danger is not something to be underestimated.

But... Faith's action in turn 2 is also noteworthy.

Immediately after stopping the progression of Cyrus's plan, Faith bluntly announced that he would drag Cyrus into bidding 0 gold coins as well. The key here is dragging Cyrus along.

If he cannot win the bid, Cyrus cannot "put money into the treasury," and his own plan cannot be set in motion. And to prevent Cyrus from participating in the bid, Faith made a proposal that Cyrus could not refuse.