Ch.1Chapter 1. Dead Summoning, and Possession

Click, click.

I kept repeating meaningless mouse clicks, changing the number by 1 each time.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Message]

[Alliance / Serpina von Einhart’s Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2558 gold]

[Executing Person / Ruler]

[I understand your intentions, my lord, but it seems you won’t be able to achieve what you desire]

Click.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Message]

[Alliance / Serpina von Einhart’s Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2557 gold]

[Executing Person / Ruler]

[I understand your intentions, my lord, but it seems you won’t be able to achieve what you desire]

Click.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Message]

[Alliance / Serpina von Einhart’s Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2558 gold]

[Executing Person / Ruler]

[I understand your intentions, my lord, but it seems you won’t be able to achieve what you desire]

‘Ugh, seriously!’

I had 2558 gold left in my possession.

Somehow, I needed to use this to form an alliance with Serpina von Einhart’s army, currently the strongest nation.

No, if I couldn’t do it, I would definitely be invaded next turn and face certain game over.

This game, [Garand Eternity Saga], was a classic from over twenty years ago.

By today’s standards, it was an outdated territory conquest game where the goal was to destroy enemy castles and unify the fictional fantasy continent of [Garand].

It was a turn-based combat game without exceptional depth, but not so boring that it was tedious—just an ordinary game.

Still, I had childhood memories with it and quite liked it, so I attempted unification about once every quarter.

There were various rulers on this continent, but my preferred way to play was definitely with a [Randomly Generated Ruler].

I had already played through all the named rulers available in the game once and cleared them all on high difficulty, so I was tired of them.

Of course, since the game wasn’t particularly based on actual history, rulers had slightly different lifespans in each game and received subtly different stat bonuses in various situations, so the same ruler never unified the continent every time. That’s why playing with named rulers still felt like a different game each time, and it was generally accepted that only hardcore players would choose random rulers.

For someone like me who had poured 10,000 hours into this game, I couldn’t feel any fun or joy except when playing with a random ruler.

Anyway, to summarize my current situation—

The random ruler I chose, [RandomRuler5338], had spawned right next to Serpina von Einhart’s army, the most tyrannical and aggressive ruler in the game.

Serpina was a woman who inherited the blood of Jerome von Einhart, the last emperor of the unified empire before the era of war, and she was practically the final boss who unified the continent in six or seven out of ten games.

In this game, CPU invasions begin after one in-game year has passed since the start.

With each turn being 3 months, I had 4 turns to form an alliance with Serpina’s army or I was finished.

Even so, there was no need to give up yet.

After all, this was a classic game over 20 years old, so its lack of depth was actually a weakness I could exploit.

Plus, there was a reason not to give up.

The advisor giving me counsel now, our army’s strategist Ginor, had an intelligence stat of 99.

This was an exceptionally good stat. In fact, it was practically the highest possible.

Characters with 100 intelligence didn’t exist without using cheats, except for the named character [Eleanor] who almost always died young.

In this game, advice from someone with 100 intelligence is 100% accurate.

Advice from someone with 99 intelligence is 99% accurate.

Even at 99%, it was practically 100%, so it was quite trustworthy.

Not only that, but the neighboring countries besides Serpina’s army were quite favorable.

Behind me was the Aeshus army, which starts weak but later explodes with potential as their talent pool develops.

The optimal time to absorb the Aeshus army’s talents was right at the start of the game.

In other words, if I could successfully form an alliance with Serpina’s army and defeat the Aeshus army in war to absorb their talents, I could lead the game so stably that no one would think I was playing with a random ruler.

I might even be able to speedrun with a random ruler start.

Compared to today’s gacha games—

It was like succeeding at rerolling in every aspect except for the starting position.

So I couldn’t give up.

My current situation was that Ginor, with his 99 intelligence, was telling me, “You cannot form an alliance with Serpina’s army.”

So why was I stubbornly repeating this process, changing the tribute amount by 1 gold each time?

Because if I kept grinding like this, eventually he would say [There is a possibility].

In other words, it was a kind of exploit.

How is such an exploit possible? What’s the basis for it?

I have no idea about any of that.

I just saw a tip in an old game guide that said [If you keep repeating, sometimes the advice changes—that’s your chance! Use this when you need to make a difficult proposal].

Since it’s an old game, maybe there’s a programming issue? I don’t really know or care.

What I do know is—

That there exists a [divine moment] when even the most impossible proposal will be accepted once.

3800 gold was our army’s entire fortune.

Of course, Serpina would never agree to an alliance unless offered treasures that boost military power, so forming an alliance with just gold was practically impossible—

But I was confident that if I kept repeating this [exploit], it would definitely work once.

The big data accumulated in my head after 10,000 hours of gameplay was telling me so.

Besides, I was destined to be trampled under Serpina’s army boots anyway, so I had nothing else to try.

‘Come on, please work!’

How many tens of minutes, or even hours, had I been clicking away?

I turned on YouTube on my phone and watched videos while mindlessly continuing to click with my mouse.

And finally.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Message]

[Alliance / Serpina von Einhart’s Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2556 gold]

[Executing Person / Ruler]

[As you’re personally visiting to show sincerity, I believe Serpina’s army will be moved as well]

‘There it is!’

Since I was watching YouTube while repeating this task, I almost missed it and nearly clicked again, but I managed to stop myself.

I got it!

Ginor’s intelligence was 99.

That meant his advice was 99% accurate in this world.

99%! Not 90%, but a whopping 99%! In this game, that’s practically 100%, isn’t it?

‘Great. Now I’ll form an alliance with Serpina’s army, then eliminate the nearby Aeshus army, make Yurie a general to secure our rear, and place soldiers at the border with Serpina’s army to somehow hold out.’

36 months.

Twelve precious turns.

In this game where you can do quite a lot in one turn, this was time worth its weight in gold.

I pressed the [Send Envoy] button while carefully thinking about my next plan.

And then.

[RandomRuler5338’s Envoy / RandomRuler5338]

[Today I’ve come personally to speak with Lady Serpina]

[Please form a 36-month alliance with our army]

[Condition: 2556 gold]

[Serpina’s Army Advisor / Jenna]

[My lord, you must not fall for such sweet talk]

[Serpina’s Army Ruler / Serpina von Einhart]

[There’s a limit to how much you can treat someone like a fool]

‘What? Why?’

Why doesn’t it work?

Why won’t she form an alliance?

Ginor’s intelligence is 99. What he says is 99% accurate.

But… there was one cold, harsh fact that I always tended to overlook.

99 is not 100.

‘Ah, damn it.’

1%!

The number that tripped me up, just 1%!

With a 1% probability, I failed at forming an alliance and got rejected.

[RandomRuler5338’s Envoy / RandomRuler5338]

[I don’t need your power anyway]

Nothing I can do.

I’ll have to abandon the castle and flee to another region—Plan B.

Of course, I would suffer enormous losses in the process… but I didn’t want to end this game with my advisor who had 99 intelligence.

However.

Even that small hope of mine would soon turn to nothing as the situation began to unfold.

[Serpina’s Army Ruler / Serpina von Einhart]

[Hey there, is anyone there?]

[Throw this person in the underground dungeon]

‘???’

What?

She’s taking my envoy prisoner?

Yes, this game had such a function.

But imprisoning an envoy who came for diplomacy rather than war would cause your reputation with other rulers to plummet, resulting in major diplomatic disadvantages—a penalty that usually prevented such actions.

But who was Serpina?

Wasn’t she the greatest tyrant this game had ever produced?

‘Sigh…’

Well…

Even if I’m imprisoned in the dungeon… there must be… some way out?

If I could somehow escape before the invasion force reaches our territory…

BEEP!!!

As I was burning through my last circuit of happiness, an unpleasant 8-bit sound reached my ears.

[Serpina von Einhart of Serpina’s Army has beheaded RandomRuler5338, ruler of RandomRuler5338’s army]

[RandomRuler5338, ruler of RandomRuler5338’s army… closes his eyes here]

[Ginor will inherit RandomRuler5338’s army]

[GAME OVER]

‘…Ha.’

I died.

Apparently, after Serpina imprisoned me, she just went ahead and executed me right away.

Just imprisoning someone causes enough penalty to make diplomacy impossible, but executing an envoy would make proper dialogue impossible with any neighboring country.

But I guess she doesn’t care.

That’s just the kind of woman she is!

‘That bastard Ginor!’

And what? Ginor inherits my army?

I know it’s just a game, but the situation was too perfect.

That bastard, did he deliberately send me to my death so he could swallow up the country?

‘This is why intelligence 99 doesn’t cut it. It needs to be at least 100.’

It was my fault for trusting intelligence 99 in the first place.

I should have just restarted the game earlier.

I sighed deeply and clicked the mouse to move past the [GAME OVER] screen.

I was planning to start over, this time far away from Serpina’s army.

But.

No matter how many times I clicked the mouse… it wouldn’t advance to the next screen.

‘?’

What’s this? Did it freeze?

After clicking the mouse several times—

A screen I had never seen before in my 10,000 hours of playing this game appeared.

[Advisor Ginor / Oracle]

[Do you think intelligence 99 is easy to come by?]

‘???’

What?

What is this saying?

No matter how many times I clicked, it wouldn’t advance to the next screen.

There was only one button I could press.

The button at the bottom that said [It’s nothing. Intelligence should be at least 100].

Beyond not understanding this situation—

As if the phrase was speaking directly to my thoughts, I pressed the button as if entranced.

[??? / Answer]

[It’s nothing. Intelligence should be at least 100]

[Advisor Ginor / Oracle]

[Is that so]

And at that moment.

The world began to ripple.

‘Wait, is this…!’

I know this development.

Getting sucked into the game?

I remember seeing this kind of possession scenario dozens of times.

But… why?

Why am I the one being pulled into some outdated classic game world!!!

I’d prefer to be pulled into a novel where beautiful girls become obsessed with me or some sophisticated gacha game!!!!!!!!

[Advisor Ginor / Oracle]

[Well then, I wish you the best of luck]

With those words, I lost consciousness.