Became a Strategist With an Intelligence of 100 and an Accuracy Rate of 100%

7 – Episode 7. Building the Foundation (4)

*

“…huff, huff.”

Exhausted, I leaned against a building near the city and sat down.

To cut to the chase, I was able to finish the exploration mission of one month somehow.

“It’s so tough, seriously.”

The reason I volunteered for exploration was nothing special.

Just because there were subordinates in this game who had nothing else to do, I tied them up and made them go on explorations.

If lucky, they could meet new talents, and there was a very low chance of finding items.

Unless I was extremely unlucky, the [Exploration] command was the way for me to touch money a little.

However.

No matter how much it was a world inside a game- to me, who had been in this place, this place was reality.

What do you do to explore?

You had to run around here and there like crazy.

And the only thing that made me move was my two legs.

“Phew.”

That didn’t mean it was completely fruitless.

First of all, I was able to earn some money.

It wasn’t anything special- as I roamed around the village, I could see the villagers asking for help.

If I helped them, I received a small reward.

It was a way to earn a small amount of money through daily chores.

In the game, when I ran the exploration, I would just pick up money from somewhere, so I thought it was like that… and I quickly understood that it was set to work like this internally.

So, the gold I collected was 75 gold.

It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was better than having none at all.

The second.

The public safety in this area was not that great.

Considering how gloomy the village looked, it was unlikely that the public safety would be good, but- there was something strange about it.

“When Luna-nim came to pick me up, she came alone, and she even walked here… “

It wouldn’t be strange even if she encountered bandits on the way.

So, my exploration activities ended with me wandering around the territory inside the city walls.

I didn’t want to go out for no reason and risk encountering bandits. It was obvious that someone weak like me would be in danger.

And yet, she came to meet me on foot several times.

I haven’t stayed close to her for a long time, but still, vaguely, I could easily tell that she wasn’t a foolish person.

She wasn’t someone who acted thoughtlessly.

In this game, there was an event where you randomly encounter bandits when traveling between cities and territories.

To prevent this, you had to spend money to hire two or three escorts or pay attention in some other way.

At first, I was annoyed that I had to spend money, and later, I was annoyed by the system that required me to press buttons one by one.

However, there was a way to avoid these ‘random encounters’.

First, you had to have a rare item called the ‘[Lantern of the Dead]’.

If you had this lantern, bandits wouldn’t appear.

Second, your strength had to be over 90.

With high strength, the bandit lackeys wouldn’t provoke you.

“…. The only thing I can think of is strength.”

Luna-nim’s strength… Is it really at a much higher level than I remember?

Luna was quite strong, but I don’t think it was above 90.

But in this game, there was that damn thing called ‘adjustment value’, so I couldn’t judge her exact strength in this world based solely on the information from the game I played.

Damn, it would have been nice to have a status window or something, I was a little annoyed that they didn’t even show that because it was an old-fashioned game.

Come to think of it, even though it was not that far of a distance, it didn’t seem difficult at all to walk up and down the hilly path for a whole day, and she didn’t even offer to carry him, even though he was an adult man.

“Does Luna Lien Ien have some kind of anomaly in her stats?”

Well, it’s true that the prediction itself that “Luna Lien Ien will unify the continent” is an anomaly.

If only I had a few more certain pieces of information, I could be more confident…

“Okay. What should I do now?”

But as I kept thinking about unnecessary things, I felt a little more energized.

Having a character with low strength is really, really inconvenient.

Is this how I have to live from now on…?

I wish there was a way to increase my stats through training.

It’s not like there’s no way to increase my stats, but it’s such a difficult method that I couldn’t muster up the courage to attempt it.

I stood up from my seat and headed into the castle for the meeting.

*

“Oh, you’re here…no, you’ve arrived.”

“This way!”

When I entered the castle, Luna and Tifa greeted me.

However, there was one person whose face I couldn’t see.

“Where is Cain Gong?”

Luna answered the question.

“Cain stepped out for a moment. He said he had something to do.”

I nodded lightly.

“Well, anyway, now that the bookstore owner has arrived, shall we open this?”

As Tifa said that, she tapped something on the table.

“What is this?”

“Oh, this? One of the stalls of a market merchant collapsed, so I helped them dig the ground to rebuild it. But then, this just popped out.”

“What? You…you haven’t been involved in anything related to commerce, have you?”

“How would I know that! I was just building a house and came here. Oh, right, assign me a commerce-related mission next. I haven’t finished the previous one.”

It seemed like she couldn’t produce satisfactory results.

However…if the Prophecy of Intelligence 100 commanded her to engage in commerce.

If there was something hidden, it would surely be inside that box.

“So, what is it?”

“I was going to open it anyway. It’s really heavy, so there must be something inside…but no matter how much strength I use, it won’t open. There’s a gap, though.”

“You said you didn’t know the merchant who owned the stall?”

Luna’s casual tone when asking Tifa was unexpectedly refreshing.

She speaks so comfortably to her childhood friend.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen them before. They were thankful for my help and said I could take it with me.”

“In that case…”

After briefly scanning the surroundings, I brought out a lever-shaped stick.

“Here. Let’s try opening it once.”

“Ah! This should work. Thank you! You’re really smart!”

Although I received praise for this, I’m not particularly happy…

Tifa took the stick from me and roughly inserted it into the gap, then started to lift it with force.

“Hu-up! Huuuhhh!”

Once, twice, and then three times.

No matter how many times she hit it, the box didn’t budge.

“Ah, why won’t it open? It’s not even locked with a padlock or anything!”

“….Tifa, should I give it a try?”

Upon Luna’s suggestion, who had been watching the scene, Tifa nodded her head.

“Sure. Maybe you should try.”

Luna took the stick from me.

“Huuhhh…!!!”

Once, with a strong force.

Thump!

“It opened!”

The box, which Tifa failed to open no matter how much force she applied, finally opened with a loud noise.

“…!”

One fact I discovered from this scene.

Luna is stronger than Tifa.

Although Luna may appear delicate compared to Tifa, and Tifa may be muscular, the game’s abilities determine everything.

If Luna and Tifa were to face each other one-on-one, Luna would probably win.

And secondly.

Tifa’s strength is in the upper 80s to low 90s.

Even with adjustments, ability scores other than the ruler’s don’t jump that high.

That brings forth a dazzling fact.

Luna’s strength is in the mid-90s or higher.

“Luna, you’re really strong.”

“This is…!”

“…Unbelievable.”

Luna and Tifa, who opened the box, gasped at its contents.

Curiosity piqued, I approached closer and checked the contents.

And then.

I immediately realized why they were so surprised.

“……Gold, right?”

Inside the box, there were piles of dusty gold coins.

Who would have expected something like this in an old and rusty box?

“Wow! How much is all of this! Wait a moment!”

Tifa excitedly poured out all the gold coins from the box and quickly counted them.

Her speed in counting money was remarkable.

“Hey! The total is 6833 gold! Incredible, right?”

“!!!”

Luna was surprised too, but naturally, I was even more shocked.

Was there an event that gave thousands of gold coins for completing a commercial order?

I’ve played this game for 10,000 hours. I would’ve seen every single event.

Therefore, I can assert.

There was no event as good and lucrative as this.

And only now did I understand why a brain with an intelligence of 100 had to do business with Tifa.

If you can earn that much money at once, of course, you should go for it.

“…..Tifa, where did you find this box?”

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you? I found it while laying the foundation to rebuild my house.”

Usually, when you go to do business, you would just take care of the market or something. It’s unimaginable that you would rebuild a merchant’s house.

This box was literally something that Tifa could obtain because she personally went to find it.

‘As expected.’

I was already confident, but with this incident, I could be 100% sure.

My intelligence is 100.

Only a value of 100 can explain such a massive stroke of luck.

Now, there is no need for doubt.

“What should we do with this? Maybe recruiting more soldiers is the best choice? What do you think, Book?”

And coincidentally, Tifa asked me the perfect question.

‘What should I do with the money I’ve saved?’

And the answer is–

“Um, I have a request for everyone.”

“?”

Suddenly, Luna interrupted the conversation and spoke with a very serious face.

“I want to distribute this money… to the people in this village.”

“???”

Tifa reacted immediately to those words.

“Hey, what are you talking about! We don’t even have enough funds for our activities! Aren’t you recruiting soldiers? We only have a total of two thousand soldiers who can properly fight for our army! Are you just going to watch while the enemy attacks us?”

“But… there was a recent typhoon and the people in the village are struggling. This is the land we govern… and this treasure box came from the village’s land in the first place.”

“Hey! This is our territory! It belongs to all of us! Everything here is basically ours! That’s common sense!”

“I know that but…”

“Sigh.”

Tifa roughed up her own hair.

Honestly, her actions and way of speaking were a bit vulgar, but if she kept her mouth shut, she actually looked quite s*xy.

“Luna, I understand your intentions. I know that you’ve taken on the responsibility of helping those in need. But, rather than distributing this money immediately, we can use it to build a foundation and help even more people. Even someone like me, who has never stepped foot in the Academy, knows that. You’re smart, so you should know it even better.”

“Well… I guess.”

After hearing Tifa’s words, Luna nodded her head as if it was easy to understand.

Indeed, I knew that the current state of the village wasn’t something that could be solved with just this money. I’ve spent a month exploring and I know that fact very well.

Luna seemed to have noticed that as well.

But as the leader, it must be frustrating for her to feel like she can’t do anything.

“Hey, Bookworm. Say something to Luna too. You’re smart, so you can convince her in a more sophisticated way than I can, right?”

Convince, huh.

Actually, I had thought about it too.

I knew that idealistic theories didn’t put food on the table.

But…

“It would be best to follow the Lord’s will in this situation.”

“Wait, what did you say?”

My words surprised Luna and Tifa.

They probably didn’t expect that.

“I understand. I didn’t expect it either. But what can we do?

“What should I do with the money I’ve saved?”

And the answer is –

“[Help the impoverished in the territory.]”

As someone with an intelligence stat of 100, I think it’s best to distribute this money to the villagers.