Chapter 956: The Strategy Is to Lie Low from the Start
After assigning the tasks, everyone gathered at the entrance of Wudang.
The architecture of the entire Wudang Sect was not overly complex. At the gate, one could receive a horse and ride quickly to various locations.
All the Wudang disciples made no special moves; they simply mounted their horses and headed off in different directions.
Zou Zhuo also mounted a horse, chose a direction no one else was taking, and while secretly observing where the other Wudang disciples were going, chatted with Old Qin.
"How's it going, Old Qin? Any tasks over at Shaolin?"
Old Qin: "Three scriptures were stolen from the Sutra Depository. They want us to retrieve them, saying that if we do, they'll teach us advanced mental cultivation techniques."
"Pretty much the same for us. We need to find medicinal herbs for the sect leader," Zou Zhuo said as he rode. "Should we meet up first and discuss a strategy?"
Old Qin hesitated for a moment. "Alright. North of the midpoint between Wudang and Shaolin is Luoyang City. Let's each go in and find a room at an inn."
With that decided, the two rode separately toward Luoyang City.
As Zou Zhuo rode, he kept looking back, afraid someone might be following him.
In theory, as fellow Wudang disciples, they should cooperate. Zou Zhuo's first instinct was to find other Wudang disciples to team up with. But as he watched everyone mount up and leave, he suddenly understood a truth.
That is... teaming up with fellow sect members right away might not be a good strategy.
Among these nine Wudang disciples, only one was a real player. Moreover, whether player or NPC, fellow disciples were still competitors, no different from disciples of other righteous sects!
Teaming up with another Wudang disciple would have the same effect as teaming up with a Shaolin or Huashan disciple.
Because in the end, there could only be one Martial Alliance Leader. Teaming up with another Wudang disciple would lead to problems like:
How would they split the good loot? For example, if they found a martial arts manual, only one person could learn it.
What if they disagreed? For instance, if they encountered an evil sect member, one might want to fight while the other thought it best to avoid trouble.
What if he got something good—would that guy stab him in the back?
Besides, this was a two-player team mode. Zou Zhuo already had Old Qin as his Shaolin teammate. The other Wudang disciple likely had a teammate from another sect too. What if the two of them ambushed Zou Zhuo and took him out?
Thinking it through, in this situation where "you can't voice chat with other players," the chain of suspicion between people would be infinitely magnified. Cooperating with strangers had sharply diminishing returns and high risks. For Zou Zhuo, the person he trusted most was his teammate Old Qin; everyone else could be a traitor.
Moreover, actively seeking out teammates and forming a large group would make them more conspicuous, drawing the attention of other players. They might get backstabbed and die without even knowing how.
So, when the situation was unclear, most players' first reaction was to immediately leave these strangers and regroup with their real-life teammates.
It was precisely for this reason that Zou Zhuo and Old Qin's meeting became very cautious.
A Shaolin disciple and a Wudang disciple walking together would easily be recognized as two players. While NPCs occasionally did this, players were far more likely to, so it carried high risk.
Entering Luoyang City, Zou Zhuo headed straight for the inn.
Even the horse-riding controls were automatically adjusted. Zou Zhuo could only ride on the main roads and couldn't bump into pedestrians. This was mainly to prevent certain actions from exposing the players.
Of course, if you insisted on being reckless, the system wouldn't stop you.
Entering the inn's first floor, Zou Zhuo scanned the area. Seeing no martial artists in sect uniforms, he followed the waiter directly to the second floor and met Old Qin.
The moment he saw Old Qin, Zou Zhuo almost burst out laughing.
A young, handsome little monk, draped in a kasaya, with a gleaming bald head, and a long staff as his weapon.
Old Qin squinted. "What are you looking at? You'd better not laugh out loud, or next time you randomly get assigned to the Moving Flower Palace, I'll laugh you to death!"
Zou Zhuo coughed twice. "Alright, I won't laugh. Let's first figure out what we should do. It feels like time is pretty tight."
Although both of them were still in the dark, they had already gained a bit of understanding of the game's initial mechanics.
The core rule was actually quite simple: complete various tasks, gather encounters, improve your strength, seize the position of Martial Alliance Leader, then defeat the evil sects and become the ultimate victor.
Under this core rule, you were free to ambush, scheme, or cooperate with others. Every choice had its pros and cons.
Zou Zhuo scratched his head. "We only have two hours. Thinking about forming alliances and plotting strategies—isn't that overthinking it?"
Old Qin nodded. "Clearly, this game doesn't encourage cooperation between strangers. That's only something to consider when ambushing a powerful enemy. Since time is tight, the map is large, and most are NPCs, the most cost-effective move for us is to go scavenge for resources first."
Both had played "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," so they quickly understood this point.
On a large map similar in size to PUBG's, resources were scattered everywhere. Although there were over a hundred disciples from various sects, only 24 of them were players. This meant that in the early stages, players would rarely encounter each other, unless everyone flocked to popular spots.
Given that, the best choice was to gather resources and improve strength first, just like in PUBG—four people searching three or four rooms was far less efficient than one person looting alone.
With that decided, the two agreed to first check out Dukang Village outside Luoyang City.
In truth, they had many better options, like going to Tianshan to find herbs for the Wudang Sect Leader, or searching Hangzhou for the stolen Shaolin scriptures. But after discussing it, Zou Zhuo and Old Qin figured that places like those were probably like Pochinki or the Military Base in PUBG—everyone would be fighting over them, and they might not come out ahead.
After all, PUBG was an FPS game. If you were skilled, you could clear out the entire Military Base. But with "Jianghu's" combat system, getting caught in a chaotic brawl didn't guarantee survival...
The two split up and rode out of Luoyang City, then headed one after the other toward Dukang Village.
Luoyang City had too many people and prying eyes, so they needed to be a bit discreet. But out in the wilderness, there was less to worry about. If they stayed completely separated the whole time, they might get into trouble if they ran into a crowd.
Just as they were on the road, a message refreshed in the upper right corner of their field of view.
[Wudang disciple Zhuo Feifan has brutally murdered a fellow junior brother and is currently on the run. All chivalrous heroes are requested to help Wudang cleanse its ranks!]
At the same time, the number 108 jumped to 107.
[Current survivors: 107]
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