Chapter 78: An Intelligence Test

"..." Nio thinks carefully about what to say, deciding to be unpredictable, she places her hand on her forehead and tosses her hair back.

"Let’s play a board game? I’m kind of bored so I’m really restless, how about we play?" Nio’s proposal makes Typhon react differently.

"...Sure, we can play a game, what do you want?" Nio looks at Nioh, who uses her powers to create a large board that covers the table. The board has 8 large kingdom-like structures, as well as mountains surrounding the place.

"Oh, and what game will we play?" Typhon looks at the board while Nio decides to use Typhon to make important decisions she was uncertain about. Nio sits on Typhon’s lap again since that was the only place Typhon left for her.

"Okay, how do we play this game?" Typhon just accepts, curious about Nio’s attitude.

"Simple, we have eight kingdoms, 6 of them are at war in teams. Nioh will own two, I own 3 of them and you own 3 of them. We’ll try to conquer each other’s kingdoms, each one has 40 thousand inhabitants." Nio simplifies and scrambles on the board the structure of the Theocracy, Empire, and Ortyr Kingdom so she can gain advice using Typhon without Typhon being able to know what she’s talking about.

"Hmmm... so who—"

"I’m going to attack Typhon’s kingdom number 1 with 3 thousand soldiers," Nio interrupts Typhon, already making the first move.

"I—"

"I-I’m going to support Nio with 1,500 soldiers..." Nioh also interrupts Typhon, though with fear and hesitation about doing it.

"...Can I play too?"

"Of course, what will you do?" Typhon looks at the map.

"Why do I know what moves you can make?" She asks Nio, who did this so Typhon couldn’t know she was referring to real kingdoms.

"Because it’s a board game."

"...I’ll just defend myself..."

"I attack Typhon’s kingdom two with 10 thousand soldiers, and I attack Typhon’s kingdom three using 15 thousand soldiers, using troops from the 3 kingdoms I lead." Nio uses this as a reference to the current combat situation.

Adventurers heading to her palace, the Empire sending letters to the Theocracy, the Empire attacking a small kingdom, the war between the Empire and the Ortyr Kingdom, and the Theocracy’s situation regarding the war.

With abstract numbers, Typhon doesn’t know what she’s referring to. Everything just looks like a simple combat game.

"..." Typhon stares at the game, realizing it’s not just a game because of the numbers of troops that were sent.

"..." For the first time, Typhon hesitates to play. Although she’s a skilled strategist, Nio is also strategically brilliant.

"Not going to play?" Nio plays on the possibility of competition. If Typhon refuses, she’ll lose without having done anything, which discredits her powerful image, weakening her manipulation, and if she plays, she’ll possibly give Nio useful things.

"I’ll play..." She chooses to play, because her manipulation is worth more than entering Nio’s game and handing over uncertain information.

"I decide to unify my 3 kingdoms. That gives me 120 thousand people. Considering the average conversion rate of people into soldiers, then I have at least 35 thousand soldiers to defend my kingdom, and another 15 thousand in reserves."

’Oh!! That... that’s interesting...’ In Nio’s interpretation of the game, what Typhon did is exactly the world unification plan that Nioh proposed, which would be to unify all the kingdoms and the continent, followed by the world, into something that belongs to Nio.

’Intuitively, Typhon did the same thing...’

"I maintain the attack..."

"I-I retreat 500 soldiers and increase the defenses of my kingdoms," Nioh says, leaving Typhon uncertain. Nio sees Typhon’s expression as she tries to understand what exactly she’s playing, but since it’s two against one, with uncertain numbers and wrong data, her planning is quite evasive.

"I... send 5 thousand soldiers to attack Nioh’s kingdom." Typhon makes another move that matches reality.

’This fits with the current situation of my palace...’ Nio thinks about her next move while analyzing the game. At this moment, the board copies Nio’s current reality. All the pieces are placed in a manner similar to the situation of the Theocracy, Empire, Ortyr Kingdom, adventurers, and Nio’s palace.

It means that any move now could give Nio strategic ideas about the future, exactly what she needs most.

’It seems good... it’s just a game, it doesn’t reflect 100% of reality, and there’s no way to predict the decisions of certain people in the future, but this will give me good ideas...’ Nio chooses her option.

"I send all my soldiers against Typhon!!" Nio chooses the most aggressive option.

"I give all my support to Nio." And Nioh follows her.

"..." Typhon gives up trying to be passive to figure out what the game was supposed to mean.

"I maintain my defensive situation. If Nioh decided to give all her support to Nio, her defenses have decreased. My 5 thousand soldiers should be able to cause enough problems, taking one of Nio’s kingdoms out of play, while my troops should be more or less evenly matched with Nio’s." With this move, Nio freezes.

’...She... she’s good...’ Nio gets nervous, realizing how quickly Typhon adapted to a game whose rules weren’t even specified, showing that Nioh wasn’t joking when she mentioned how clever Typhon was.

"I..." Nio thinks cautiously, realizing that an aggressive action isn’t the best option.

’Nioh, let’s scratch off the list the plan to crush the Ortyr Kingdom and the Empire at the same time in one go... considering the National Ranks, if we did that we’d end up stuck and we might have to retreat due to lack of information.’ Nio looks at Nioh, giving a nod.

Of course reality is different from the game. The strength of Nio and the inhabitants of her palace is immense, but this strategy wouldn’t be an absolute domination in seconds. It would take weeks to months, meaning they’d end up like in this board game—stuck and with no room to maneuver.

"I want to go back on my decisions," Nio says, retracting the decision she made.

"What do you mean?" Typhon questions Nio with an almost satisfied expression.

"I have the right to reverse one choice, so the board goes back to this moment... I want to go back to the move where you sent 5 thousand soldiers to Nioh’s kingdom, and I choose... I choose to send defensive troops to Nioh’s kingdom and pull back a few steps, bringing my troops back to defend myself while I distribute—"

"Then I can go back too, can’t I?"

"Huh?... Ah... well yes... you can—"

"Then I go back to the first move, and considering that when you went back you gave orders, then whoever goes back is the one who keeps the game. So I decide to gather all my kingdoms into a single kingdom of 120 thousand again."

"I send all my soldiers to attack your 3 kingdoms in sequence, and I use 40 thousand civilians as shield troops and bomb troops armed with explosives to blow up your defenses."

"W-Wait, I—"

"I also poison the water wells of your kingdom, and considering the mountainous setting, I attack from the rear of your kingdoms with 1,000 soldiers each to cause chaos."

"I—"

"Just as I also send 20 thousand children armed with anything that can kill or hurt against Nioh’s kingdom. She’ll choose whether to massacre those children or not." Typhon takes advantage of the rules to give multiple orders upon seeing that Nio didn’t limit how many orders can come in sequence.

"..." Nio analyzes the board, and the only consequence is simple: absolute mutual destruction of everything. Nio’s kingdom will be completely obliterated, although it manages to kill all of Typhon’s soldiers. Nioh’s kingdom would be morally destabilized and weakened to the point of leaving the war if it were a realistic scenario, and she wouldn’t even be able to go help Nio.

And Typhon’s kingdom literally has no more defenses and has a ruler who sent everyone to their deaths, something that shows Typhon’s perverse mind, who only cares about Nio and chooses to destroy everything if she can obtain her.

"..." Nio, who wanted to take advantage of Typhon’s intelligence, had her plans scrambled and her theories crushed by Typhon’s chaotic and abnormal gameplay.

"...I lost, I don’t want to play anymore." Nio gives up. Typhon’s plan put into reality would literally be Nio using her palace, the Theocracy, the Empire, and all living beings she could control, making them fight each other and destroying everyone while only she ends up fine.

A plan that goes completely against her logic of defending her palace. Nio realizes there’s no way to get anything useful out of Typhon, because Typhon will always think of scenarios where only she benefits.

Nio lost in every sense. She deliberately never stated rules so she could say Typhon couldn’t do something if she didn’t like Typhon’s move.

But Typhon was conservative. She only gave orders based on the orders Nio gave. She waited, watched Nio using things that she couldn’t then say weren’t allowed if Typhon used them.

For the game to teach Nio, it needed to have few rules because it reflected reality, but putting something like Typhon in a game without rules is creating a scenario where anything goes, and that was the flaw in Nio’s plan. It was good, but used against someone who respects no rules or conventional objectives.

That’s why Nio simply gave up. She understood she lost the moment Typhon did nothing but follow what she saw Nio doing, adapted to her own plans. Any other game they played after this one would be the same thing.

"What a shame, I liked the game, it was fun. You’re good at this," Typhon says, wrapping her arms around Nio’s waist and pulling her closer. Typhon is blushing and genuinely excited about the game they played together—a couple’s moment in her view.

For Nio, however, it’s like having a serpent coiling around her body, threatening to squeeze and break her bones before devouring her.