But correspondingly, when Ethan saw through conspiracy, that information instantly became the biggest card in his hand.
Now, Ethan's next plan had become clear he would change his initial characteristics and then lie in wait for other players at locations most likely to be regarded as ally meeting points.
The place he was currently at was Harrenhal, so the closest such meeting point likely to be chosen by other players was obviously the Crossroads Inn at the intersection of the north south Kingsroad and the east west River Road and Valley Road.
It was the intersection of the North, the Riverlands, the Vale, and the Crownlands. Ethan believed many players would definitely appear there whether they had agreed to meet up to form alliances or were just passing by.
The next question was: how to disguise himself? And after successfully hiding and discovering other players, how would he defeat them?
Neither problem was easy to solve.
First, changing his initial characteristics sounded good in theory, but was difficult in practice.
None of Ethan's current gear his weapons, armor, or horse was redundant. These were his core equipment. In fact, the reason he chose to start as a hedge knight in the first place was precisely because of this set of gear.
With only 200 silver stags on him, he couldn't afford better armor. In other words, if he wanted to change his image, he'd have no choice but to downgrade his equipment which would undoubtedly reduce his combat effectiveness.
At that point, even if he discovered other players and tried to ambush or deceive them, he might not be able to defeat them.
Unlike Ethan, who had been a civil servant in his previous life and relied solely on system support for combat power, many of the other players attracted by the huge bonuses were martial arts champions or cold weapon combat experts in real life.
With their real world experience and skills, they could undoubtedly fight far beyond what their stats on paper suggested.
Unless their average attribute was no more than 5?
"Traveling merchant!" Ethan suddenly thought of this profession.
If someone played as a traveling merchant, even if the soul of Ser Gregor Clegane or Arthur Dayne possessed them, it wouldn't help, right? After all, they wouldn't even be able to lift those characters' weapons.
Just like before Arya Stark passed the Faceless Men's training she had her needle and tried to stab the Hound. The Hound stood still and let her try, but she couldn't even pierce him.
So could Ethan hunt a traveling merchant?
As soon as the idea popped into his mind, connections sparked wildly.
First of all, it was clear that Traveling Merchant was a popular starting choice there must be many players who picked it.
Secondly, driven by the "First Blood" mission, these powerless traveling merchants wouldn't dare show up at agreed meeting points. They neither had the strength to kill other players nor dared to trust any supposed allies.
Unless they hired mercenaries which was the most common but least distinct opening hiring mercenaries would be extremely risky for them, especially since they'd have to loiter around places where mercenaries gathered.
Therefore, traveling merchants were excellent targets for Ethan. They had neither allies nor mercenary backup.
However, if traveling merchants dared not meet up with allies, that also raised a problem Ethan wouldn't be able to find clues about their whereabouts.
"No," Ethan shook his head. "There are still clues."
Since they couldn't gain points by killing other players, the traveling merchants' only hope of earning points was the main mission.
So what was the traveling merchant's main quest?
Ethan couldn't guess what the other professions' missions looked like, but for traveling merchants, regardless of the design, the tasks had to revolve around business and profit making.
Moreover, traveling merchants had a huge early game advantage: unlike hedge knights or mercenaries who started out broke, they began with a full 100 gold dragons!
For Ethan, a mission like "Earn 1,000 gold dragons" sounded like a fantasy. But for traveling merchants, with good planning, it wasn't impossible.
So, it was highly likely those merchants would start conducting business right after entering the game.
And in terms of business, the Riverlands where Ethan currently was was an excellent place.
The Riverlands were connected in all directions. Unlike the chaos that followed the War of the Five Kings, the region was now under the orderly rule of House Tully. Public safety here was exemplary in all of Westeros, with very few bandits or raiders.
It was clearly a good region for trade.
The question was, what product was best to trade?
Northern furs? That could work. One could collect pelts cheaply from northern villages and sell them in southern cities.
It was a perfect trade route. The price of furs in the north could easily double maybe more in the south, especially if smuggled to avoid tariffs.
But there was a problem with timing. Westeros was huge. Even starting in the north, it would take at least two months to transport goods south. Starting in the south and trying to go north would take even longer.
For players who might be assassinated within two months, the fur trade might not be attractive.
If fur didn't work, then what about iron ore from the Westerlands?
Also highly profitable. The trade route was shorter too the distance from the Westerlands to ideal drop off points in the Riverlands or the Reach was less than a third of the northern route.
Unfortunately, with the system backpack limited to 1 cubic decimeter, ore had to be hauled using mules or wagons. The volume was too small to yield big profits.
Moreover, iron ore might still be under government control. According to Westeros's feudal system, few commodities were state controlled. Wait... state controlled?
"Salt!" Ethan immediately lit up.
In ancient China, salt and iron were always state run. But in Westeros, thanks to its feudal system, trade rights were fragmented among hundreds of lords. The royal family had no ability to monopolize these commodities. Salt and iron were left for merchants and nobles to handle independently.
In ancient China, making salt privately could get you beheaded but that didn't stop people. The profit margin was just too high.
Now tell me among all the merchant players who start in or near the Riverlands who could resist the lure of salt?
"If they want to trade salt…" Ethan flipped through the map of Westeros, long etched into his mind.
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