Click. Click.
I kept clicking the mouse repeatedly, changing the amount by increments of 1—an utterly meaningless action.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Report]
[Alliance / Serpina Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2558 gold]
[Action / Ruler]
[My lord, I understand your intent, but it seems unlikely you will achieve what you desire.]

Click.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Report]
[Alliance / Serpina Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2557 gold]
[Action / Ruler]
[My lord, I understand your intent, but it seems unlikely you will achieve what you desire.]

Click.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Report]
[Alliance / Serpina Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2558 gold]
[Action / Ruler]
[My lord, I understand your intent, but it seems unlikely you will achieve what you desire.]

“Ah, for fuck’s sake!”

I only had 2558 gold left.
No matter what, I had to use it to secure an alliance with the most powerful army in the game—Serpina’s forces.
If I failed, there was no doubt that I’d be invaded and wiped out by the next turn. Game over.

This game, Garland Eternity Saga, was a classic that came out over twenty years ago.
By today’s standards, it was an outdated territory-conquering strategy game where the goal was to defeat enemy castles and unify the fictional Garland Continent.
It was turn-based—not particularly deep, but not boring enough to drive you away either. It was just... average.

Still, I liked it.
It brought back childhood memories, so I made a habit of attempting a unification run every few months.

The continent was filled with various rulers, but my favorite playstyle was to use the [Random Generated Ruler] option.
I’d already played through all the named rulers in the game, even clearing them on the highest difficulty. They’d gotten old.

Sure, this game wasn’t based on real history, and each ruler’s lifespan and circumstances changed slightly every playthrough.
It wasn’t like the same ruler unified the continent every time, so playing as a named ruler still felt somewhat fresh.
That’s why most players stuck to the named rulers instead of bothering with random ones.

But for someone like me—who’d poured over 10,000 hours into this game—random rulers were the only way to keep it interesting.

So, to sum up my situation—
I’d rolled [Random Ruler 5338], and my forces had spawned right next to Serpina’s army—the most aggressive, bloodthirsty faction in the game.

Serpina was the descendant of Jerome von Eingart, the last emperor of the unified empire before the age of chaos.
If you played this game ten times, six or seven of those times, Serpina would end up unifying the continent. She was practically the final boss.

In this game, CPU armies only start invading after the first in-game year.
With each turn representing three months, that meant I had four turns to form an alliance with Serpina.

I wasn’t giving up yet, though.
This was a twenty-year-old game—depth wasn’t exactly its strong suit.

And besides, I had a reason not to give up.

My advisor, Ginor—
He had an Intelligence stat of 99.
That was insanely high. Almost the max.

Only one character in the game, [Eleanor], had a perfect 100 Intelligence stat, but she always died young.
Outside of cheats, a 100 Intelligence character didn’t exist.

In this game, Intelligence 100 meant 100% accuracy in predictions.
Intelligence 99? 99% accuracy.
Which was basically 100%.

I could trust Ginor.

On top of that, the other nations surrounding me weren’t too bad either.

Behind me was the Aesheus Army—weak in the early game but a powerhouse later thanks to their talented officers.
Absorbing those officers as soon as possible was the optimal move.

In other words, if I secured an alliance with Serpina and conquered Aesheus to absorb their talent pool, I’d be in a stable position—practically set up for a speedrun.

To put it in modern terms—
It was like a gacha game, and I’d hit the jackpot in everything except my starting location.

So there was no way I was giving up.

Right now, Ginor—my genius advisor—was telling me, “You can’t form an alliance with Serpina.”
So why was I stubbornly fiddling with the tribute amount, changing it by increments of 1?

Because.

Sometimes, if you kept grinding like this, Ginor would eventually say—

“There is a chance.”

It was a glitch exploit.

How did it work? What was the logic?
I had no fucking idea.

I’d just read about it in some old forum post.

“Keep repeating it. Sometimes the advisor’s prediction changes. That’s your chance!”

Maybe it was bad programming. Maybe it was divine intervention. Who cared?

All I knew was—

Even the most ridiculous offers had a “miracle moment” where they got accepted.

I only had 3800 gold left—my entire treasury.

Under normal circumstances, Serpina would never agree to an alliance without a tribute of treasure or artifacts that boosted her power.
Offering just gold was hopeless.

But this exploit...

I’d played this game for 10,000 hours. My instincts screamed that it would work.

If it didn’t, I was dead anyway—crushed under Serpina’s army.
This was my only shot.

“Come on. Just work. Please!”

I clicked.
Again. And again. For tens of minutes.
No—hours.

With YouTube playing on my phone, I kept clicking absentmindedly—
Until finally.

[Advisor / Ginor’s Report]
[Alliance / Serpina Army / 36 months / Tribute: 2556 gold]
[Action / Ruler]
[Your personal visit and sincerity are likely to sway Serpina.]

“It worked!”

I almost missed it, distracted by YouTube.
But I caught it in time.

99% accuracy.
Ginor’s Intelligence stat guaranteed it.

“Alright. Now I just need to ally with Serpina, crush Aesheus, recruit Yuri as a general, and secure my borders.”

Thirty-six months.

Twelve precious turns.

In this game, where each turn was packed with possibilities, that was an eternity.

I finalized my plan and clicked the [Send Envoy] button.

[RandomRuler5338’s Envoy / RandomRuler5338]
“Today, I have come to speak with Lady Serpina personally.”
“Please form an alliance with us for 36 months.”
“Condition: 2556 gold.”

[Serpina Army’s Advisor / Jena]
[My lady, you must not fall for sweet words.]

[Serpina Army’s Ruler / Serpina]
[There’s a limit to how stupid you can treat someone.]

“Wait, what?!”

Why?
Why won’t she agree to the alliance?

Ginor’s Intelligence stat is 99.
His predictions are 99% accurate.

But...

There’s one cold, hard truth that’s easy to overlook.

99 isn’t 100.

“Goddamn it!”

One percent!
That cursed 1% chance just came back to bite me in the ass!

[RandomRuler5338’s Envoy / RandomRuler5338]
[I have no need for your pitiful strength.]

No choice.
I had to go with Plan B—abandon the castle and flee to another region.

Sure, I’d take a massive loss in the process...
But I wasn’t ready to throw away this run—not when I had a 99 Intelligence advisor.

Or so I thought.

That faint glimmer of hope was snuffed out in the most spectacular way possible.

[Serpina Army’s Ruler / Serpina]
[Guards, is anyone there?]
[Throw this envoy into the dungeon.]

“???”

What the fuck?
She’s taking the envoy prisoner?

I mean, sure—technically, the game allowed this.
But throwing an envoy in prison instead of just rejecting them?

Even the CPU rarely pulled that shit, because imprisoning envoys destroyed your diplomatic reputation.
It made future negotiations nearly impossible.

But this was Serpina.
The biggest tyrant in the game.

“Ha…”

Still...

Even if I was locked in the dungeon...
There had to be a way out, right?

If I could break out before her army invaded...

Beep-beep-beep!!!

A horrible 8-bit sound stabbed through my ears.

[Serpina Army’s Serpina has beheaded RandomRuler5338 of RandomRuler5338 Army.]
[RandomRuler5338 closes his eyes for the last time.]
[Ginor inherits RandomRuler5338’s legacy.]

[GAME OVER]

“...Ha.”

I was dead.

It looked like Serpina threw me in jail just to execute me right after.

Hell, imprisoning me alone would’ve tanked her reputation—
But executing an envoy?

She’d be totally isolated diplomatically.
Not that she’d care.

That bitch was always like this!

“Ginor, you bastard!”

And what’s this about Ginor inheriting my army?!

I knew it was just a game, but the timing was way too perfect.

Did that bastard send me to my death on purpose?

“This is why 99 Intelligence isn’t enough! It has to be 100!”

It was my fault for trusting a 99 Intelligence advisor.
I should’ve restarted ages ago.

I let out a long sigh and clicked past the [GAME OVER] screen.

I was ready to start a new game—this time far away from Serpina’s army.

But.

No matter how many times I clicked—

The screen wouldn’t move.

“?”

Did the game freeze?

I clicked several more times—

And then.

For the first time in 10,000 hours of playtime, I saw a screen I’d never seen before.

[Advisor Ginor / Report]
[Do you think 99 Intelligence is a joke?]

“???”

What the fuck?
What’s this supposed to mean?

No matter how many times I clicked, it wouldn’t proceed.

There was only one button I could press.

[Yes. 99 Intelligence is a joke. It should’ve been 100.]

The text made no sense.

But somehow...
It felt like it captured my exact thoughts.

Without thinking, I clicked it.

[??? / Answer]
[Yes. 99 Intelligence is a joke. It should’ve been 100.]

[Advisor Ginor / Report]
[I see.]

And at that moment—

The world began to twist.

“Wait... no way...”

I knew this.

I’d seen this setup in stories dozens of times.

Getting sucked into the game world.

But why?

Why the hell was I being pulled into a shitty old game like this?!

If I was going to get reincarnated, why couldn’t it be in some sleek gacha game or a novel full of clingy heroines?!

[Advisor Ginor / Report]
[Let’s see how you handle this.]

The moment I read those words—

My vision went black.