Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game?

“Eden, get up! It’s time for dawn prayer.”

Ji-won opened her eyes to the familiar wake-up call, as unchanging as an alarm. She sighed in resignation upon seeing a ceiling so different from her own. It had been a month now.

“Damn it. Still here, huh.”

With some effort, she sat up and looked out the window, where early morning stars shone in the dark blue sky—a beautiful sight she’d never see in the city.

Of course, she’d never been up this early back in the city.

“Hurry up!”

Eden looked over at the woman urging her along. Rita, her roommate of a month, was a cute young woman with curly red hair and freckles.

“Yeah, I’m up.”

Reluctantly, Ji-won got up and began preparing for the dawn prayer. She stood in front of the table, half-asleep, gazing into the mirror at the now-familiar face staring back at her.

Pale skin, long brown hair cascading down her back, and those strange hazel-gray eyes. The woman in the mirror, with her sleepy, indifferent gaze, was strikingly beautiful.

Eden Liliart.

That was the name of the woman in the mirror, the new name Ji-won had been given.

“This is bad. I’m starting to feel more used to Eden than my real name.”

Ji-won—no, Eden—picked up the holy scripture sprawled across the table.

She had gotten used to waking up at this ungodly hour for dawn prayers, to her monastic routine of prayer, scripture study, and endless cleaning, to this unfamiliar face, and even to this strange new name.

Even her situation was starting to feel normal.

But there was one thing she just couldn’t accept.

“Hidden character, huh…”

Muttering under her breath, Eden caught Rita glancing back at her.

“Hm? What did you say?”

Eden shook her head.

“…Nothing. Let’s go pray.”

Upon arriving at the cathedral in the chill of dawn, Eden knelt as usual and began the morning prayer.

Dong—dong—

The resonant bell tones filled her with a sense of peace.

As a sacred silence settled over the grand cathedral, Eden cracked one eye open and took a peek around. Rita, her roommate who woke her every morning, was praying earnestly with her eyes closed.

“Hah…”

Sighing inwardly, Eden closed her eyes like the others and reviewed her predicament.

All of this, every bit of it, had begun with that damned game download.

Or perhaps, it all started when she chose that newly unlocked hidden character.

It was a story even she found hard to believe, but Eden was currently trapped inside a game—the strategy game

where she had to select a prince and help him ascend to the throne.

“And on top of that, in the role of a completely worthless novice priest.”

And that was precisely the most infuriating part.

“Just what’s supposed to be ‘hidden’ about this character, damn it!”

Clenching her hands tightly in frustration, Eden recalled the status window that had appeared when she first looked in the mirror after waking up here.

“…”

Unbelievable. The stats were so dismal it felt like a scam.

From what she remembered, the maximum stat was 99, and the characters she’d played before all had stats above 50.

In fact, some characters even exceeded 80 in their top stats, making Eden Liliart’s stats painfully weak in comparison.

The issue was the fact that this character was supposedly “hidden.”

“What kind of hidden character is this, with such pathetic stats?”

Once again, Eden felt the brutal unfairness of this broken game balance.

“No matter what, this is just too much…”

Eden muttered through gritted teeth, aware of some of the other priests glancing at her. Snapping back to attention, she quickly clasped her hands together, donning an expression of piety.

“Oh, may you rid the world of evil, defeat the wicked monsters, and bring peace to the innocent people…”

Moved by her fervent prayer, the suspicious glances softened, and Eden, sneaking a peek, relaxed the aching grip of her hands with a sigh.

At first, she had tried denying it all as a dream, then wondered if she had lost her mind, but after a month, Eden had come to a sort of acceptance.

This was clearly the world “inside the game,” and there was only one way out.

She had to clear this game with its daunting 0% completion rate.

Just then—

Ding. Ding.

A clear chime echoed through the holy silence of the cathedral, and Eden jerked, looking up.

Sure enough, the quest window shimmered into view in the air above her. It was the same impossible alert that appeared every couple of days, pressing her to advance and clear the game.

A chill ran down Eden’s spine. Asmun Declend was the third prince she had chosen, so naturally, it made sense that she’d be instructed to propose an alliance.

But the ominous phrase “and survive” tacked on at the end…

“…”

Eden recalled Asmun’s character trait.

90% chance of becoming a tyrant.

In other words, her first quest in this game was to propose an alliance to a potential tyrant while surviving as a powerless novice priestess.

Eden sensed it instinctively from the first quest.

“It’s not going to be easy to make it out of here.”

Not that she’d expected much from a game with a 0% clear rate.

Giving up on spending any more time bewildered by her bizarre situation, Eden began planning her next moves.

“Playing this game nine times might have been a blessing in disguise.”

Luckily, thanks to her experience from previous playthroughs as Kyris, Eden had a decent grasp of the game’s world and events, and she knew precisely when she’d have the best opportunity to meet Asmun.

This was the Hesmore Empire, where monstrous forces grew stronger and caused increasingly severe damage each year. The imperial knights, the temple’s priests, and the wizards from the mage tower defended the empire, but they were struggling to contain the escalating threat.

“And despite the presence of three grown princes, none have been officially named the crown prince.”

The princes had each been granted a ducal title and were defending the empire from estates not too far from the capital.

These intricacies were likely meant to add tension to the game’s core premise of becoming the Kingmaker.

This temple, which worshipped a deity named Hamyun, was the largest and most influential in the empire and located at the heart of the capital.

In other words, it was close to the imperial palace.

Eden thought over the quests assigned to her.

She had to increase her Faith and meet Asmun to convince him.

“From the very first quest, the difficulty is insane. This cursed game.”

First of all, it was difficult to meet the prince of the empire with such a poor character as a trainee priest. And even if she did manage to meet him, persuading the cold-hearted Asmun with such a weak character was nearly impossible.

But she had to try. She couldn’t stay trapped in this temple forever, praying to a god who might not even exist every dawn.

And if she didn’t find a way to clear this game, there were only two endings for her.

Either the empire would fall to the rampaging Grand Sorcerer Hegenti, or she would suffer eternally under Asmun, who would become a tyrant.

“I’m going to beat this.”

Eden felt a chill down her spine at the heavy burden on her shoulders.

Dong—dong—

Just then, a grand bell tolled, marking the hour. Rita, who had finished praying, whispered to Eden.

“Eden, it’s over. Let’s go eat.”

“Alright.”

Eden continued to brainstorm as she walked with Rita to breakfast.

Over the past month, her fierce drive for information had finally paid off; she’d deduced the current point in the game’s timeline.

“Rita, the Empire’s Foundation Day is three days away, right?”

“Yes, that’s the tenth time you’ve asked.”

“Thanks for answering me ten times. Love you.”

Eden passed Rita a heartfelt thanks and took a spoonful of potato soup, her eyes gleaming.

The Empire’s Foundation Day.

Eden remembered the date clearly. The imperial banquet was held on that day, and it was then that Asmun would face a minor humiliation, orchestrated by the first prince.

She couldn’t forget it. For seven playthroughs, she had been the one inflicting that humiliation.

“Hey, I had no choice. My first quest was to test Asmun. What else could I do?”

Feeling a twinge of guilt, Eden pushed aside her discomfort and continued her planning.

This episode was from the very beginning of the game, meaning they were still in the prologue.

This was the only information she had gathered so far, but she was already devising a plan based on these slender clues.

A plan to make her presence known to Asmun and complete the first quest to persuade him.

“If I fail, I’ll probably die. I’m a low-level novice priestess right now.”

The grim thought sent a shiver down Eden’s neck.

“What would happen if I died here?”

Maybe that was the way back to her world. But putting faith in such a faint possibility was too risky, especially since she was starting to relish this rare opportunity. She couldn’t bear to imagine giving up without finishing.

Now, more than ever, Eden realized she was far more driven to win than she had been when simply playing on her phone or computer. Being part of this world ignited a competitive fire within her.

So, she had no choice. She had to clear this game, not by running away or cheating death, but by facing it head-on and winning.