My Level Zero System-Chapter 316: Faith’s Move

In the common meeting room, although the Zento Family representative said nothing, his expression was visibly sour.

Seeing this, the Flamed Family representative smirked and spoke towards the Zento Family representative.

"How does it feel? Not very pleasant, right?"

At this, the Zento Family representative's eyes narrowed, giving a sharp glance before turning away, seemingly unwilling to pay attention to the gloating person.

This interaction between the two also caught the attention of the other players.

"The Flamed Family representative, after winning the bid, chose to attack the Zento Family representative in retaliation. Those 18 gold coins were not put into the treasury."

Such a thought flashed through their minds, of course, excluding those who already knew the truth.

But in another aspect, some people subtly glanced at Kain with profound eyes.

Up to this turn, Kain had not wasted a single gold coin; he had accumulated 30 gold coins in his hand.

He was the player holding the highest amount of gold coins among the 10 players.

Currently, the difference is not significant, so no one has moved against him, but once the gap in held gold coins begins to widen further, Kain will have to endure continuous attacks.

At that time, he will have only two choices.

The most costly choice is to continuously win the bid to prevent himself from being attacked.

But even if Kain does not put the gold coins into the treasury but reuses them by retaining half, the erosion of gold coins over each turn is almost unavoidable.

His accumulation strategy would quickly fail once he has to spend money too early.

And even if he uses another method, which is to win one bidding turn, use that turn to attack an opponent and create a defense for himself in the next turn, he wouldn't worry about being attacked in the next turn, and he would only need to continue winning the turn after that.

However, this strategy would also quickly fail once Kain starts having to spend money without getting half the gold coins returned.

Of course, it is not impossible to overcome this. Either Kain continuously wins bids with small amounts of money, or Kain sets a trap that forces the winning bidder to spend too large an amount, making that person unwilling to lose that money just to reduce his 10 gold coins.

But, that is easier said than done.

If his opponent was only one player, it would be easy to talk about, but there are nine other different players.

That is why Faith commented that this is the most foolish winning strategy in this game.

The probability of failure is too high; one slip-up and all efforts are wasted.

Despite that, Kain's attitude on the surface remained like a bottomless well, making it impossible for others to discern whether he was just feigning calm or truly unconcerned.

Finally, the gathering of the ten players was just a period for the parties to probe each other without reaching a common resolution. And after the probing, they dispersed quickly.

The moment he left, Kain's eyes subtly glanced at Faith.

He thought he knew what Faith would do next.

...

"Why did you call us here?"

In a secluded corner of the manor, the representatives of the Acer Family, the Madea Family, and the Nostag Family looked towards the person who had gathered them.

It was Faith.

"Of course, there is a good reason."

Faith smiled calmly, but this very attitude made the three frown. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Evidently, dissatisfaction towards the Sword Family had stemmed from before the game began, due to Cyrus's plan. But before this dissatisfaction could swell and create a practical impact, Faith had acted first.

In turn 1, he immediately spent all his gold coins to bid, instantly turning Faith himself into a weak, worthless target for retaliation when there were many more profitable choices available.

And Faith finally waited for this moment.

In this turn 4, the amount of gold coins in hand for him, the Acer Family representative, the Madea Family representative, and the Nostag Family representative are 30 gold coins, 20 gold coins, 23 gold coins, and 27 gold coins, respectively.

It can be seen that all four of them have suffered different financial losses. The Madea Family representative, in particular, lost 14 gold coins. As for Faith, the player who made the "most foolish" decision in bidding turn 1, he became the player with the least loss, with a loss of only 4 gold coins.

The main point here is that all four of them are now quite "critical" due to wrong decisions that caused them to lose competitiveness. Faith waited for this moment precisely because he was waiting for these players to falter, so that he could propose an alliance with fewer obstacles.

And indeed, although Faith could not accurately predict who would initiate the formation of an alliance among the players first, he had already made predictions about the game's trend from the moment he saw the rules. In fact, Faith himself accelerated this trend to make it happen.

The rules of the game mention one rule: forbidding players from trading gold coins with each other. This is a fairly fatal rule striking at the core of player alliances, because without actual guaranteed value for agreements, agreements are mostly verbal and lack weight. Moreover, adding layers of direct conflict of interest, the possibility of players forming an alliance is significantly reduced.

This is also the intention of the rule creator. The regime of the Akazac empire obviously cannot happily watch the noble families join hands. Similarly, the rule creator cannot happily watch the players join hands.

But "cooperation" is a very broad concept. If the rule only vaguely states "players are forbidden from cooperating with each other," players could completely find a way to loophole the rule. Because it does not clearly state what critical limits count as "cooperation." Is "cooperation" here assessed based on material aspects, meaning only when cooperating players mutually benefit is it counted as cooperation? Or is "cooperation" here assessed based on strategic thinking, meaning cooperating players can share losses, or some benefit while others do not... and it is still counted as cooperation?