Half a Spoiler Chapter 185

Monarch’s Strategy Official Game Forum – Off-Topic Section

[What do you guys think about the new character?]

[The new character… that’s the Ninth Princess, Wen Yanran, right?]

[Feels pretty good. Best wishes to players who randomly start with Wen Yanran – you’re definitely in for a completely unprecedented gameplay experience.]

[Got it. So the next meme on the forum is going to be “Sage Monarch Wen Yanran,” huh? Hahaha!]

[Honestly speaking, if you really roll the Wen Yanran starting route, giving up right away is probably the happier choice.]

[If you insist on being stubborn, it doesn’t really change much anyway… After getting the Ninth Princess start randomly, I barely even sat on the dragon throne before I was completely sidelined in the mourning hall, right in front of the coffin.]

[The Seventh Prince route is a dead end. There’s no way to get through it.]

[At the mourning hall, the Ninth Princess only has two choices: either agree to release him so he can come and wail in mourning, or scold the Zheng family. But even if she temporarily refuses to release Wen Jiangong, it only delays things and doesn’t solve the problem fundamentally.]

[Then just release him and see what happens?]

[Absolutely cannot release him. The moment you do, it’s over. The Ninth Princess has no maternal clan backing her, so even as emperor she lacks a core loyal faction. Many ministers are just watching and would very easily side with Wen Jiangong.]

[If you ask Yuan Yanshi for help, Wen Jiangong can also be dealt with.]

[…What’s the fundamental difference between being usurped by Wen Jiangong and being usurped by Yuan Yanshi?]

[The difference is that if you’re sidelined by a loyal minister of Great Zhou, you might still end up like Emperor Zhi. If Wen Jiangong takes power, you’ll quickly lose everything and end up meeting the previous emperor.]

[So it’s an unsolvable problem then?]

[Actually, it can be solved. Before entering the mourning hall, talk more with the inner palace officials. That triggers a side event to recruit loyal guards, giving you a bit more military deterrence. Then, while Wen Jiangong’s faction is still reacting, bring your forces in and eliminate him – you can clear the level that way!]

[OP above is awesome! I tried it – it really works!]

[With this, you can at least barely survive for a year, right?]

[Uh, did the person above forget about the hidden danger in the Imperial Guard… the one with the surname Ji?]

[Isn’t Ji Yue someone who always has rebellious intent but doesn’t choose to rebel at the start?]

[That’s true for Ji Yue in other routes, but if the one who ascends the throne is the Ninth Princess, he immediately rebels without hesitation, marches straight into the palace, wipes out the emperor in one wave, and incidentally clears out most of the main Wen clan’s bloodline, then installs a young collateral relative who’s easier to control.]

[…I’m reloading my save. The Ninth Princess is basically an impossible-to-survive starting point. Even though in Monarch’s Strategy surviving a full year already counts as a milestone victory, not even lasting three months is too much.]

[Time to delete the save and restart. Hopefully I get Wen Jinming’s route next – at least you can sit on the throne for five years before dying.]

[Agreed. The Ninth Princess is basically an official “trap” option – there’s no way to play it.]

[Don’t be so sure. The Imperial Guard rebellion isn’t actually that hard to solve – old players know this. You don’t need me to explain the “borderfolk” issue, right? Find Imperial Guards with borderfolk blood; they’re not aligned with the Ji clan and can help suppress the rebellion. Also, the Tianfu Palace is a friendly faction. They don’t actively help most of the time, but in life-or-death situations they can still step in and heal you a bit.]

[What?! Tianfu Palace is a friendly faction? I’ve always used them as a warning example by executing them to assert authority!]

[…Let’s light a candle for the person above.]

[Thanks for the tip – I finally cleared the Imperial Guard rebellion stage. That difficulty is absurdly inhuman.]

[It’s reasonable to believe Monarch’s Strategy might not even be beatable. The devs only have two goals: 1) watch players get Game Over, 2) watch them struggle desperately and still get creatively Game Over.]

[Cleared it +1. I even took screenshots. Even though the game constantly messes with players emotionally, I have to admit the details are incredibly realistic – it really feels like a living world.]

[Don’t celebrate too early. Surviving the Imperial Guard doesn’t mean you’ll make it to one year – Marquis of Quanling is still waiting outside.]

[…You successfully extinguished my rare moment of joy.]

[My feelings about Wen Jinming are complicated – when I play the Marquis of Quanling start, I’m always overwhelmed, but when I play other characters, the Marquis of Quanling is the one overwhelming me TAT.]

[That’s probably the difference between AI autopilot and actually playing yourself.]

[If the Ninth Princess doesn’t get taken out by the Imperial Guard, she’ll probably just end up as the next victim delivered to the Marquis of Quanling anyway.]

[I have a different opinion – before Wen Jinming even made a move, Xiao Xichi escaped Jianping during the New Year period, triggering unrest in the city. When the young emperor went outside the city to take refuge, she was directly taken out in a single assassination strike.]

[Wen Jinming: “I haven’t even gotten serious yet, and you’ve already fallen.”.jpg]

[Xiao Xichi is basically a ticking time bomb. She has secret contact with the Marquis of Quanling – should we execute her?]

[Just execute her. End of story.]

[If we execute Xiao Xichi, how do we handle the situation in Qingyi?]

[No need to handle it. By the time Qingyi becomes a problem, I’ll already be long dead and cold.]

[…I actually listened to you lot and executed Xiao Xichi. Right after that, Marquis of Quanling took advantage of the chaos and entered the city. So just how many hidden agents did she plant in Jianping?!]

[Don’t be discouraged. Marquis of Quanling and Xiao Xichi problem can actually be solved quite easily.]

[Got it – if you can’t beat them, join them. As the emperor, we can just abdicate, right?]

[…Can we pause the meme responses when discussing actual strategy, please?]

[You guys… never mind. I actually found a strategy post – its author started with the Ninth Princess.]

[A pro? How good are we talking?]

[If you can survive one year on Wen Yanran’s route, you’re already a top-tier player, right?]

[That thread is already up to the “Western Tribes rebellion” stage.]

[I’ve also gotten a game-over ending due to the Western Tribes chaos, but that was on Wen Jiangong’s route. A lot of characters in Monarch’s Strategy share similar failure branches.]

[Uh, this time the ending route seems a bit different – the expert appears to be about to subdue the Western Tribes. Link below.]

[…]

[…]

[Mom asked me why I’m kneeling while browsing the forum!]

[It’s just knees, take them!]

[Same starting character, same game – why can others dominate everything while I can only be dominated???]

[So it turns out it’s not Monarch’s Strategy being too hard, it’s just me being bad at the controls?]

[The expert is kind of cold – aside from posting strategy guides, they don’t really say much.]

[Damn, that expert hasn’t even save-scummed (SL) once, they’ve been doing a pure one-life clear the whole time.]

[Looking closer, it seems like someone else is reposting the guides for them.]

[The poster is in anonymous mode; the profile details can’t be opened, only the username is visible.]

[That username is kind of interesting – it’s called “An Ambitious Ruler in the Making.”]

[Alright everyone, bye, I’m going to camp in that thread and watch how many years the expert can survive.]

The game forum had always been full of technical strategy posts, and it wasn’t just players leaving comments – because the game system, in order to better collect data, had also uploaded some of the key post-transmigration events of Wen Yanran in the form of gameplay guides.

Wen Yanran’s high-level play gave observers enormous confidence. About 80% of forum users believed she could survive on the throne for at least three years.

This conclusion also gave the Monarch’s Strategy system itself a great deal of confidence.

[How many years has the story progressed already, and that expert is still surviving!]

[Marquis of Quanling has been dealt with, the Western Tribes have been dealt with, the Eastern regions have been pacified, and the northern regions have already turned into completely loyal “good dogs”… at this point it doesn’t even feel like surviving anymore – this is pure imperial dominance!]

[Tears… after so long since Monarch’s Strategy was released, someone has finally played it like a true emperor.]

[Same here. I almost thought this game should actually be called Guide to Becoming a Tyrant or The Downfall of a Dynasty Strategy.]

[I think I’m starting to understand the Ninth Princess’s advantage – because the attendants around her as a child were all from the southern regions, she has an innate language bonus and knowledge of many obscure subjects. As long as she develops well in the early game, she can greatly accelerate infrastructure development across the regions later on.]

While players were discussing this heatedly, the poster suddenly disappeared, leaving only a strange message: “Energy insufficient, pausing updates.” The original technical thread, lacking new material for discussion, gradually fell silent.

[What did I just see? It’s been months – who bumped this thread back to the front page?]

[Sigh… I wonder when the poster will come back.]

[Has anyone noticed? From the beginning until now, the poster’s username has changed many times. It started as “An Ambitious Ruler in the Making,” then became “A Gradually Wavering Ruler,” then “Repeatedly Stabbed Ruler,” and before the update stopped it became “A Disheartened Ruler.”]

[Planning to try playing according to the guide shared by the OP and see if I can survive until a natural death, passing the burden of dynastic change to the next emperor of Great Zhou.]

[Next emperor: …I have wronged no one.]

[[Image].jpg]

[Wait – was the person who posted the image above actually the OP? Did the OP come back to update the thread?]

[No reply, just dropping an image without a word. That cold, detached attitude – yeah, it really is the OP.]

[The content in this image looks a bit strange: a palace shrouded in mist, a monarch standing inside the hall, and morning sunlight streaming through the window… what does this mean?]

[Maybe it’s a final ending CG. Legend says that if you truly clear the game, you’ll see an image of “the clouds parting and the dawn breaking.”]

[Has the true ending of Monarch’s Strategy become so rare that it’s now treated like a legend?]

[Anyway, I’ve never seen a so-called true ending outside of edited screenshots.]

[Holy crap, could that expert have actually achieved the “benevolent ruler” ending?!]

[The gap between people is really that big? Is this even reasonable?! [screaming].jpg]

[Whether you’re a tyrannical ruler or a benevolent ruler, you’re still a ruler. Hmm… at least everyone has something in common.]

[Huh, the OP’s username changed again – it’s now “Restarting Ruler.”]

[Feels like there’s something hidden here…]

[The anonymous status has also been lifted, but from what I saw, the OP only ever posted this one thread. There’s nothing unusual in the past records either.]

This person is right. In the profile of “Restarting Ruler,” there are only a few simple lines of self-introduction –

“Met the worst collaborator.

“Met the best collaborator.”

(The End)