No one in the Eternal Mecha Online community had ever reached that number.
99%.
For three entire years, that had been the absolute limit accepted by every player.
Hidden bosses had been killed.
Secret maps uncovered.
Underground questlines completed.
Yet the progress bar always stopped at:
99% World Secrets Discovered
The forums had argued about it thousands of times.
The final conclusion was simple.
It was a display bug.
The game didn't have a 100%.
—
Lam Huy Trường used to think so too.
Until tonight.
In a small room lit only by the glow of his computer screen, he leaned back in his chair, hand still resting on the mouse, eyes fixed on the interface that had just appeared.
A notification sound rang out.
Ting.
The progress bar trembled slightly.
Then moved forward one final step.
99% → 100%
No grand animation.
No fireworks.
Only a single line of white text appearing at the center of the screen.
You are the first player to uncover all secrets of the game.
Lam Huy Trường froze for three seconds.
"…Huh?"
His heart began pounding.
Three years.
Three years of digging through nearly every piece of content the game tried to hide.
Nameless quests.
NPCs removed after updates.
Bases locked inside outdated data files.
Even abandoned developer logs buried deep in the system.
He had played purely out of curiosity.
He never expected—
that 100% actually existed.
A cold sense of achievement ran down his spine.
"Holy shit…"
He immediately grabbed his phone.
Only one thought filled his mind.
I need to show this off.
The forums would explode.
Top streamers on the server would lose their minds.
But just as he prepared to take a screenshot—
the game screen suddenly went dark.
An email appeared in the center.
No company logo.
No familiar system interface.
Just a plain white message window.
Congratulations on completely unlocking the secrets of the game.
Another line slowly appeared.
We have a question for you.
Lam Huy Trường frowned.
"…Player survey?"
That wasn't unusual.
Game companies often sent these for market research.
A third line appeared.
Would you like to continue playing the next installment?
He laughed.
"The sequel hasn't even been announced yet."
But the final question was what truly felt strange.
Words appeared one line at a time.
If you could transmigrate into a villain character within the game…
Who would you choose?
Lam Huy Trường rested his chin on his hand, thinking.
At first, he almost closed the window.
But then curiosity won.
After all, he had just achieved something historic.
Answering for fun wouldn't hurt.
The cursor blinked inside the reply box.
There were many famous villains in the game.
Rebel generals.
Rogue AIs.
Alien warlords.
Yet his thoughts stopped at one particular figure.
A character who almost never appeared directly.
Someone who existed only through records and memories.
Lam Huy Trường chuckled softly.
His fingers began typing.
If I had to choose… how about the Mad Professor?
Sounds pretty interesting.
The Mad Professor.
The genius responsible for pushing the protagonist's entire technological tree forward.
Most of the strongest weapons in the game—
originated from his research.
Dark combat frames.
Mutated energy cores.
Technology far ahead of its era.
And precisely because of that—
he became the greatest villain in the story.
The man who created countless enemies destined to oppose the protagonist.
If the main character didn't possess what players jokingly called main character plot armor, almost no one believed he could have won.
The professor's ending was especially tragic.
Killed by his own experiment.
Children.
Failed fusion subjects.
After his death, only fragments of his research remained, fought over by different factions.
Some were abused.
Some were eventually discovered by the protagonist… and used to recreate the professor's legendary mech.
Lam Huy Trường had always felt the character was misunderstood.
The man wasn't truly insane.
He was simply—
too far ahead of his time.
He added one final sentence.
Honestly, if I were him, the game would probably be a lot more fun.
Then he pressed Send.
The mail vanished instantly.
Lam Huy Trường shrugged.
"Probably just an automated bot."
He reopened the achievement screen, preparing to take his screenshot.
That was when—
the lights in his room flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Click.
Every light began fluctuating unnaturally.
"…Power outage?"
He stood and walked toward the window.
Outside, the city looked completely normal.
Streetlights were on.
Cars moved along the road.
Nothing unusual.
He turned back.
The moment his eyes met the computer screen—
white light swallowed the entire room.
Lam Huy Trường didn't even have time to react.
No pain.
No falling sensation.
No sound.
Only the feeling that his consciousness was being violently pulled out of his body.
Then—
darkness.
Three seconds later.
The room returned to normal.
The computer was still running.
The progress bar still displayed 100% World Secrets.
The mouse cursor continued blinking.
As if no one had ever left.
But in the corner of the screen—
the email appeared again.
No one touched it.
It opened by itself.
A new line of text appeared.
Consciousness synchronization complete.
Another line followed slowly.
Correcting character deviation error.
The screen flickered.
One final message appeared.
Warning:
Target timeline has begun collapsing.
The monitor shut off.
Somewhere else.
On a battlefield consumed by flames.
A man wearing a blood-stained lab coat suddenly trembled.
Eyes that had long gone lifeless—
abruptly opened.