Chapter 4: The Hedge Knight
"Ding!" A notification sounded in Ian's head, jolting him from his slumber.
He raised his head and glanced around in confusion.
It was a rather shabby inn room. The rickety bed, the wooden table darkened by grime, and the long-unwashed curtains all gave it a cheap, rundown feel.
A light drizzle drifted outside the window, bringing little relief but only intensifying the oppressive heat.
Ian felt a sticky, uncomfortable sensation all over his body. He gently lifted the covers, only to find he was drenched in sweat.
For some reason, Ian's mind suddenly raced, and he bit down hard on his forearm. Only when the sharp pain reached his brain did he release it, looking at the teeth marks on his arm with a rueful smile.
This felt so damn real.
Although the organizers were renowned in their field, and he had never doubted their abilities, when he truly appeared in another world in another body, he still felt it was too surreal.
After sitting for several minutes, Ian forced himself to calm down.
It was then that he suddenly realized that he had indeed gained new memories. While these memories lacked specific people or places, they contained a complete narrative matching his backstory.
The most vivid of these were technical knowledge, such as the heraldry of the lesser nobles of the Vale, which Jake hadn't memorized in his previous life (let's call it "before entering the game," since the entire story takes place in the World of Ice and Fire), the entire process of an Andal knight's vigil in the sept, and detailed information on horsemanship and swordsmanship.
As the auxiliary AI had said, possessing these memories would be of great help in his impersonation as a genuine hedge knight.
Also known as hedge knights, their only wealth was their equipment and horse, earning their name from the fact that they often slept under hedges in the wild.
Of course, the hedge knight he'd started as wasn't in such dire straits, otherwise Ian wouldn't have chosen the class.
Taking a deep breath, Ian climbed out of bed and walked to the window.
The sky outside was gloomy, and Ian's blond hair was reflected against the thick, dusty glass. He hurriedly flung open the window, and a massive tower suddenly appeared. Its towering black form still stood out among the imposing castle walls nearby.
However, its summit, reaching toward the heavens, was tilted to one side due to melting and deformation, resembling a giant, half-melted black candle.
"Is that... melted stone? The work of dragonfire? Is this Harrenhal?" The scene before him overlapped with the image in Ian's memory. He licked his chapped lips, his mouth dry.
Ian turned to the table, picked up the pitcher, and poured from it. Instantly, a faint spiciness and the aroma of wheat spread across his tongue.
Damn! This is just my luck!
Although he'd chosen to start in the Riverlands, the Riverlands were vast—why did he have to land in Harrenhal?
Harrenhal was built by Harren the Black, the last King of the Isles and the Rivers, over a period of 40 years, exhausting the wealth and resources of the Riverlands. He considered it "the greatest fortress in Westeros" and constructed it on the shores of the Gods Eye.
Its walls were thicker than Storm's End, and its gates were as large as Highgarden's main keep. Harren the Black declared it an "impregnable fortress."
Yet, like all hubris, the impenetrable walls and towers of Harrenhal fell not to ground forces but to the dragonfire of Balerion the Black Dread, the dragon ridden by Aegon the Conqueror.
Harren the Black was ultimately burned alive in the highest tower along with all his sons, and the half-melted black candle in Ian's sight was thus named the Kingspyre Tower.
Since then, Harrenhal has been shrouded in a curse. Not only have all families granted Harrenhal been extinguished, but anyone who has occupied the castle in any capacity has also met a tragic end.
"What terrible luck!" Ian wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and wondered, "So, when does the game actually begin?"
"Hand of the King Jon Arryn has just died. King Robert Baratheon is preparing for his funeral and plans to travel to Winterfell afterward to invite Eddard Stark to serve as Hand of the King," Annie replied.
Ian nodded in understanding.
At the start of the novel "A Game of Thrones," King Robert was nearly at Winterfell, yet now he was still in King's Landing.
The overland distance from King's Landing to Winterfell is approximately 1,400 miles [Note 1]. Considering that Robert's entourage traveled the Kingsroad, it would take him about two months to reach Winterfell.
This meant that the current time was roughly three months before the start of the novel, around the end of 297 AC.
At this time, there was still more than a full year before the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings.
In other words, Westeros still had more than a year of peace.
This made Ian doubt again. When he signed up, the organizer promised that all the mechanics of this game were designed before the players crossed over. After the competition officially started, the organizer would no longer intervene in the competition in any form (they wouldn't even fix any bugs that were found).
So what kind of mechanism did the developers design in advance to force players to give up peaceful development during peacetime and choose to fight other players?
You had to understand that in this kind of competition, there was no room for error in the early stages. If you were killed, you lost everything. Therefore, players should logically avoid fighting in the early game.
"Okay, AI, now tell me the detailed mechanics of this game," Ian asked his auxiliary AI, curiosity gnawing at him.
"There are three main mechanics in this game," Annie began.
"The first is the kill mechanic: Each kill grants 4 points and inherits all of the victim's unused system resources (including points, attribute points, skill points, and system items). Additional rewards are granted based on the victim's development.
Players who kill their targets personally receive the full reward, while subordinates or other hired agents receive only 50% of the reward."
Note 1: Based on the original novel's "100 leagues (480 kilometers) of the Wall" and the official map, experts have estimated the mapped area of Westeros to be over three and a half million square miles.
Here are two figures to help you understand the size of the world of Ice and Fire: the overland distance from Winterfell to King's Landing is approximately 1,400 miles, roughly the distance from Boston to Miami. The overland distance from Winterfell to Castle Black is approximately 680 miles, roughly the distance from Boston to Cleveland.
(End of Chapter)
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