However, correspondingly, once Ivan saw through Gou's conspiracy, this information instantly became his biggest trump card.
Now, Ivan's next plan became very clear—he wanted to change his initial characteristics and then stake out other players at the most likely meeting point for allies.
He was currently in Harrenhal, so the closest meeting point that other players might choose was obviously the Crossroads Inn, located at the intersection of the north-south King's Road and the east-west Riverlands Road and Valley Road.
As a junction for the North, Riverlands, Vale, and Crownlands, Ivan believed that many players would appear there, whether they had agreed to form an alliance there or were just passing through.
The next problem was, how to disguise himself? And after successfully hiding himself and finding other players, how to defeat them?
Both problems were not easy to solve.
First was the change of initial characteristics; this idea was good, but it was not easy to implement.
Because none of the equipment on Ivan, which served as his most obvious characteristic, was superfluous.
Whether it was weapons, armor, or a horse, these things were Ivan's core equipment at the moment; in fact, the reason he chose to start as a mercenary knight was precisely for this set of equipment.
With only 200 silver deer on him, he couldn't afford better armor, which meant that if he wanted to change his image, he could only choose to switch to worse equipment, which would undoubtedly greatly reduce his combat effectiveness.
At that time, it was very likely that even if he found other players and tried to trick or ambush them, he still wouldn't be able to defeat them.
Unlike his previous life, where he was a civil servant and his combat power relied entirely on his stats, many of the other players attracted by this huge prize were martial arts champions or cold weapon combat masters in their previous lives.
With their rich combat experience and skills, they could undoubtedly display strength far beyond what their stats indicated.
Unless his average attribute was no more than 5?
"Traveling Merchant!" Ivan suddenly thought of this profession.
If it were a Traveling Merchant, even putting the soul of the Mountain or the Hanging God Sword into his body would be useless, right? After all, he couldn't even pick up their weapons.
It's like Arya before her Faceless Men training, trying to kill the Hound with her Needle; the Hound could stand there motionless and let her stab, and she still wouldn't be able to penetrate him.
So... was it possible for him to hunt a Traveling Merchant?
As soon as this idea popped into Ivan's mind, clues began to frantically connect in his thoughts.
First, it was certainly true that Traveling Merchant was a popular starting choice, and the number of players who chose it must be considerable.
Second, driven by the 'First Blood' quest, a defenseless Traveling Merchant would definitely not dare to meet with agreed-upon allies, because they had neither the capital to kill other players nor dared to trust their agreed-upon allies.
Unless they recruited Sellswords, yet Sellswords were precisely a popular starting choice with the least obvious characteristics; recruiting Sellswords was a very risky thing for them, and they even needed to avoid places where Sellswords frequently appeared.
Therefore, Traveling Merchants in the early game were indeed good hunting targets for Ivan; they had neither allies nor Sellswords.
But Traveling Merchants not daring to meet with allies also brought up a problem, which was that Ivan had no clues to find them.
"No," Ivan immediately shook his head, "there are still clues."
In a situation where they couldn't gain points by killing other players, the Traveling Merchant's only hope for points lay in the main quest.
So what was the Traveling Merchant's main quest?
Perhaps Ivan couldn't guess what the main quests for other professions were designed to be, but for Traveling Merchants, no matter how their quests were designed, they would always involve trade and making money.
Moreover, the Traveling Merchant starting choice had a huge natural advantage: unlike mercenary knights and others who had almost no money, they started with a full 100 gold dragons!
For Ivan, a quest like 'earn 1000 gold dragons' was almost a fantasy, but for Traveling Merchants, if they operated properly, it wasn't entirely impossible to achieve.
Therefore, those merchants would most likely choose to engage in trade after starting.
If it was trade, then the Riverlands, where Ivan was currently, was a good place.
The Riverlands was well-connected, and it hadn't yet become a chaotic mess like after the Five Kings War; on the contrary, under the rule of the Tully Family, the public order here was considered exemplary throughout Westeros, with very few bandits and highwaymen.
Trading nearby was clearly a good idea.
The question was, what goods would be best to trade?
Furs from the North? That's good, collecting furs at low prices in Northern villages and selling them in Southern cities.
This was a perfect trade route, because the price of furs from the North could double in the large cities of the South (and even higher if smuggled without paying customs duties).
But there was a time issue; Westeros was too large, and even starting in the North, transporting goods to the South would take at least two months, and if starting in the South, it would take even longer.
For players who would be subject to an assassin lottery two months later, the fur trade probably had little appeal.
If furs weren't an option, then what about iron ore from the Westerlands?
This stuff also had high profits, and the trade route was shorter; the distance from the Westerlands to ideal selling points in the Riverlands or Reach was less than a third of the Northern trade route.
Unfortunately, with a system backpack of only 1 cubic decimeter, to carry ore, one could only transport it via mules and wagons, and if the quantity was too small, the profit seemed unable to be raised.
And iron ore might even be a state-controlled commodity—no, according to the feudal system of Westeros, it was almost impossible for any commodity to be state-controlled. Wait… state-controlled?!
"Salt!" Ivan immediately became excited.
Salt and iron were always state-controlled in ancient Great China, but in Westeros, due to the feudal system, the administrative power of various territories was dispersed among hundreds of thousands of lords, and the royal family had no way to monopolize the salt and iron trade, instead allowing lords and merchants to trade freely.
Smuggling salt was a capital offense in ancient Great China, yet it still couldn't stop people from flocking to it; the profits involved were imaginable.
One must ask, any merchant player who started in the Riverlands or near the Riverlands, who could refuse the temptation of salt?
"If they were to engage in salt trade," Ivan mentally reviewed the map of Westeros, which he had long since memorized.