Ch.BONUSAfterword ~ A Defense of Intelligence 100, and Greetings

Hello. I am 2L.

2L means LimeLight. I would appreciate if you remember that.

I Became a 100% Accurate Strategist with Intelligence 100—

Finally, the novel that I simply call “100-100 Strategist” has reached its conclusion with 426 chapters including the epilogue.

Since I started serializing it on October 13, 2023, during the preliminary round of the 2023 Universe Supreme Contest, I’ve been writing for 476 days.

When calculated this way, I’ve posted one chapter every day except for 50 days. I wish I could have posted daily… I’m sorry that I couldn’t manage that.

Now I can tell you!

“100-100 Strategist” didn’t actually start with any plan or intricate structure.

How could I submit such a hastily created novel to the 2023 contest preliminaries? Well, the truth is, this wasn’t the novel I originally submitted to the contest.

I had a novel that I had prepared for quite a long time, but it didn’t receive good feedback, so I abandoned it. Not wanting to waste the contest period, I used one of the ideas I’d always had in mind (wouldn’t it be fun to write about possessing a strategist with Intelligence 100 who always gets everything right?), and that became this work.

Actually… I think this was the problem.

I didn’t sufficiently explain the concept of “Intelligence 100” abilities at the beginning of the novel.

I should have included at least two chapters explaining in detail that having Intelligence 100 doesn’t mean the character becomes super intelligent, but rather becomes a “correct answer machine.”

Many readers expected “an orthodox strategist story with an incredibly smart character showcasing amazing tactics and strategies” (I understand this expectation given the title), and quite a few readers were disappointed with how the story progressed and dropped it.

I should have taken more time at the beginning to convince readers that “Intelligence 100 isn’t about becoming smarter but about producing invariably correct answers, which is a system of the game the protagonist possessed”…

As I mentioned earlier, since this work didn’t start with any deep structure or plan, I failed to include that process.

I regretted this throughout the serialization.

I considered modifying the early parts, but the story was already flowing according to its structure, and the readers who stayed with me had already accepted these aspects. I wasn’t sure if they would want the content to change, so I ultimately didn’t make any revisions.

The reason I incorporated the “Intelligence 100” element wasn’t for any profound reason.

I believe that characters’ intelligence can’t exceed the author’s intelligence. And, without bragging, I knew through strong self-awareness that I didn’t have the ability to create impressive strategies and tactics that would amaze readers and incorporate them well into a novel.

But with “a kind of cheat ability”—could I write a plausible military drama featuring a strategist?

That’s how I came up with the concept of Intelligence 100 that “always gives the correct answer.” Yes, it was inspired by that game series some of you might know.

That’s why this novel doesn’t have tags like “strategist,” “strategy,” “war,” or “politics” that similar genre novels have.

I deliberately didn’t add them. Those weren’t the aspects I wanted to or could show in the novel.

Anyway, that’s enough about the Intelligence 100 keyword—

Next would be my motivation for writing this novel.

I love character-driven novels.

What I learned from my previous work “Juksalhadaejip” was that I really enjoyed writing chapters that showcase a heroine’s charm.

That’s why I added character-driven tags like “obsession,” “misunderstanding,” and “harem.”

This time, I wanted to try character-driven heroines in a fantasy setting, which I’ve written the most.

My previous work was set in modern times, and due to character design issues, I couldn’t create intense catfights. So this time, let’s make massive catfights on a national scale!

That’s why I added the “catfight” tag. I considered this keyword to be the core of the novel.

First, the protagonist somehow grows distant from the first ruler.

Then, while wandering, he meets various rulers and eventually meets a ruler I designated as the heroine, creating a catfight with the previous ruler!

If I add a scene at the end where someone says “You thieving cat!”, it would be a predictable but delicious scene, right? Hehehe!

—The entire story so far is essentially just these three lines stretched very, very, veeeery long.

That’s also why I included Serpina instead of Lunarian in the prologue.

Actually, Serpina was the first heroine character I created.

She was the one I planned to have possessed (in whatever form), appear in the prologue, and despite appearing only a few times, she was prominently featured in the cover art to give readers the impression that “Ah, she must be at least a heroine-level important character.”

After creating Serpina, Lunarian was completed. From the very beginning, I planned for Lunarian to start with the protagonist but eventually become corrupted by her obsession with Swen. I wanted to see a heroine who throws everything away and runs only for the protagonist.

Serpina, Lunarian, and the protagonist Swen.

The story that started with these three people—very suddenly meets another heroine.

Irene Juliette.

Actually, the biggest reason Irene could appear was because of Lynn.

As I mentioned above, I created a framework where “the protagonist wanders around~”. So I needed to make him travel around, right?

But I wanted the protagonist to gain something during that process.

Since it’s a character-driven harem novel, adding another heroine would be good!

Serpina was already a ruler-turned-heroine, and there was no point in making a ruler of a country the protagonist would eventually leave into a heroine.

So I decided to create a character who could fill what the protagonist Swen couldn’t provide.

That’s how Irene was born.

Personally, Irene is a very precious character to me. The point when the novel gained its greatest popularity and received the hottest response was during the Irene-related episode (the Northern Fortress episode).

This novel “100-100 Strategist” was honored to receive an Encouragement Award at the 2023 Universe Supreme Contest, and while it’s certainly thanks to the Novelpia judges and the readers who made this novel catch their eyes—I think Irene is half responsible for bringing me this award.

If I had to pick one character among all of them, I would choose Irene. Though all characters are precious ones born from my hands.

Anyway, thanks to the love from many readers, I achieved the maximum goal possible in the contest.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Since I met Irene in Brans, I needed to meet someone in Aeshus (which was also just a process to reach Serpina’s country)—

That’s how Reika was born last.

Although her creation reason was the vaguest, she served as a kind of “joker card” for this novel. Whenever the plot got stuck, her magic felt like real magic to me. It was like breaking through a huge boulder blocking my path.

After meeting all the heroines—

At the point where “I think readers will understand if I proceed with an ensemble drama rather than focusing on the protagonist,” I reintroduced Lunarian’s country.

Lunarian’s country was a very important force, so I had to keep allocating content to it, but due to the nature of the work, the protagonist couldn’t belong to Lunarian’s country until the conclusion. In other words, Swen doesn’t appear at all in the Lunarian country storyline.

Since Luna valued Swen highly, he did make brief appearances through flashbacks and other descriptions—but Swen was under Serpina, and Luna had a mountain of things to do after starting her military campaign.

I did worry about “whether it’s okay to use this much content without the protagonist in a web novel where episodic completion is paramount,” but I was really happy that readers enjoyed Luna’s story more than expected. I also felt proud that I managed to complete Lunarian as a character.

After that, I just followed the framework I had set up.

“Wander around, meet a ruler who becomes a heroine, [???], and have a catfight with the previous ruler.”

The middle part of the story was filling in those three question marks.

Since the beginning and end were quite clear, writing the middle part was probably the most difficult. I guess that’s how it feels with all long-form serialized stories.

There was a lot I had to write to naturally depict Serpina’s army becoming Swen’s army.

Personally, I think I included everything I possibly could.

I’m especially glad that there’s no “I regret not being able to write this content.”

I resolved all the important foreshadowing like “meeting each other in dreams,” and I was able to show everything this novel could offer—what can be achieved with Intelligence 100 and its limitations, the thrilling moments of breaking through those limitations, and various scenes I wanted to write throughout the entire serialization.

Since this was what I felt was most lacking in my previous work, it’s personally very rewarding. (Perhaps because of that, my previous work had quite lengthy side stories)

Anyway—the main story has concluded like this.

Many people have mentioned side stories… but honestly, I don’t think there’s enough material for proper side stories. I’ve already shown everything I could show.

However, I will probably upload a few epilogue chapters.

It’s difficult right now for various reasons… but having accumulated over 400 chapters, I want to write more chapters where the heroines and the protagonist share their love together harmoniously.

I plan to write epilogues about how characters who made brief appearances are doing, what daily life is like for Swen who became the prime minister… just that kind of aftermath.

The volume won’t be much since the main story was already long, but as I deeply care about this novel, I will make sure to write them.

I intended to keep this short, but talking about a novel I love so much has already taken me over 3,000 characters.

It would be strange to ramble on too long, so I’ll wrap up this afterword here.

Dear readers,

This novel received an Encouragement Award at the 2023 Universe Supreme Contest, exceeded 2 million views, and was written for over 400 chapters all because you are reading this novel and this afterword.

A novel becomes a novel only when it has readers. Before you give it your warm gaze, it’s merely a long collection of text.

You have brought Swen, Serpina, Lunarian, Irene, Reika, and all the beings in this world to life by reading about them.

I would be truly happy to see you in my other works as well, not just this one.

…Actually, I’ve been writing another work. I’ve been running two or more projects for quite a long time.

I’m writing a novel called “The World I Supported Was Real,” so if you’re interested… please give it a click. I’m doing my best to make sure you won’t regret your choice.

Dear readers,

Thank you for breathing life into my novel.

For a year and three months, I spent truly happy times with you readers.

Every day of posting “100-100 Strategist” was a really joyful and happy time for me.

I will never forget this love you’ve sent me and this experience of running together with you throughout my writing career. I will keep it in my heart and run to the end.

Thank you for making me a writer, dear readers.

Be happy and stay healthy.

2L