Season 2: Chapter 75. Counterattack (3)
The situation on the battlefield reversed in an instant.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud...!
Having joined up with their allied cavalry, Jessie turned her horse around and charged toward the enemy.
The six enemy cavalrymen chasing after Jessie and Almond were taken aback. They should have turned their horses around immediately, but lost their composure, especially the veteran.
“Let’s kill that bastard at least!”
It seemed that Almond really got under their skin. They wanted to kill him at all costs.
Nevertheless, Jessie remained undeterred and charged at them.
"Hold on tight."
She patted her waist, indicating she was about to start charging at them.
"But how did you know I was streaming?"
Almond asked her up close what he was curious about.
"Well, it's obvious. You were muttering to thin air."
She had seen his lips moving even though he switched to his microphone channel.
"Hold on for real now."
Thump!
The horse jolted once like a car changing gears.
"!"
Whoosh!
It leaped through the air as if flying.
"Yeehaw!" Jessie shouted excitedly and charged ahead where the enemy’s horse also made its last leap.
The veteran knight seemed to hold a considerable grudge against Almond.
Thump─
"Hiyaaa! Just die already!"
Jessie's horse crossed paths with his and their swords met in mid-air.
Kiing!
Their blades slid off each other and Jessie's flowed like water to his throat.
Chaaak!
Hot blood sprayed out. The veteran knight's head, lit by the blazing sun, flew off. The head appeared to burn black in the light and shadows, hinting at the enemies’ bleak future.
'Oh...'
For a moment, time seemed to flow slowly. A cheer erupted a beat later.
"Wowwwww!!!"
The resounding cheers could make one's heart sink. It wasn’t from NPCs, but real people filled with excitement and joy.
Thump!
Almond's heart raced.
‘So this is war.'
He had never felt this thrill of large-scale team combat in other games. This type of grandeur could only be felt here where hundreds of users tangled and fought.
— Noona, I'm really dying!
— Damn, that's so cool!
— Wow, I'm amazed!
— Wowwowwow!!
— Is this a duel to the death!?
The viewers felt the same as Almond and didn't spare their admiration.
Thump!
Jessie's horse landed and came to a halt.
"Haah."
Jessie flipped her disheveled red hair and turned around. The enemy's blood had splattered on her face, but she smiled and pointed to the side.
"Grab that horse. It's yours now."
The horse that the veteran knight rode stood in a daze after losing its master.
— So cool!
— My heart is broken!
— Noona!
Almond quickly switched horses before it could turn back.
"Wow..."
The horse resisted at first before slowly adapting, but there wasn't much time.
Soon, the enemy surrendered.
[The enemy commander has surrendered!]
***
Such a phenomenon could also be seen in a soccer match. Dominating the attack for ten minutes, then losing the ball once, only to be counterattacked and defeated. Winning in the process, but losing in the result.
This was exactly how Commander 2_many_moms felt.
‘Does this make any sense?’
He was winning the entire game and clearly overwhelmed the opponent in terms of command capabilities, but he still lost due to one mistake.
His anger knew no bounds.
Thump, thump, thump.
He poured out his fury onto the keyboard.
[2_many_moms: Can't f**king believe it. This one single cheater ruined the entire game??]
[2_many_moms: I'm gonna report this Chinese hacker and the commander also. RIP]
[MyDinner: Me?? why?]
[2_many_moms: cuz you made very good use of that cheater?? you're basically the same cheater to me]
***
"Haah?" MyDinner scoffed and found the accusation ridiculous.
One of his soldiers was a cheater, so he was a cheater too? What kind of logic was that?
"The unbeatable logic king, indeed. Wow."
Since he couldn't prevent the opponent from reporting anyway, he decided to further irritate him with broken English.
Tap tap tap.
[MyDinner: Report me?? it's not gonna work kid, lol. ]
[MyDinner: why don't you go report to your moms? maybe they can solve your problems cuz you got so many.]
The opponent went silent for a moment before responding with this message.
[The opponent has left the game.]
MyDinner shook with exhilaration.
"Uh, uhhahahahaha!"
He felt incredibly satisfied for putting the opponent, who had been racist from the start, in his place.
"I'll report you. Get judged, racist."
He decided to report both the earlier comments about Kimchiman and being Chinese.
"This company's parent company is Chinese, you Yankee. Tsk, tsk," he clicked his tongue and suddenly paused when he recalled something important.
"Ah, right. Before that..."
He remembered something more important than this meaningless act.
"That spearman earlier!"
He decided to record the replay of the spearman's actions and share it in a group chat with other commanders. MyDinner was also curious if it was really hacking or not.
***
The enemy had surrendered.
Babababam!
Fanfare resounded along with a message.
[Victory!]
[Victory Bonus: All gold rewards increased by 20%!]
[Comeback Victory Bonus: All gold rewards increased by 50%!]
Chrrrrrr...!
Golden coins poured from the sky and covered the entire screen in gold.
Before he knew it, Almond was back on the streets of a strange medieval city. Then, this message appeared.
[56 Gold Acquired!]
He had earned an impressive fifty-six gold. This was a considerable reward considering the original contract amount.
Of course, this amount of gold would be spent quickly given the game's system where players lost all their equipment every time they died.
It was too early to be disappointed. The rewards didn't end with just gold.
[Rank Points: +15]
[Hero of Victory Bonus: Rank Points doubled!]
The rank points he needed to advance from C to B rank also increased. The Hero of Victory bonus meant he would also receive double the rank points.
[Rank Points: +30]
His rank points saw a significant increase. He needed one hundred points to advance to the next rank and already surpassed thirty in his first game.
The rewards didn't end there. The most important one had yet to arrive.
Bababam!
[Mission ‘Win Without Dying’ Success!]
[ShyNapoleon has donated 500,000 won!]
"Thank you, ShyNapoleon. I'll use it well."
— :(((
— ShyNapoleon :( lol
— All thanks to Jessie
— Can't believe he pulled it off
Almond had received all his rewards with the 500,000 won mission reward from ShyNapoleon.
Just then, a fairy popped up from somewhere as if waiting for this moment.
"Wow! Mr. Wandering Mercenary! You were amazing!"
It was Peeeanuuuut. Some time had passed since Almond last saw her.
— Where did this peanut jerk go and now she shows up? lol
— Hiding the moment he met the cavalry lol
— What a coward
Almond glared at Peeeanuuuut, who seemed a bit flustered by the attention.
"Why are you looking at me like that?! I'm a fragile fairy~~~! I can't do much in war!"
"I didn't say anything."
When Almond let it slide, Peeeanuuuut naturally changed the subject.
"Now that you've got quite a bit of money! How about some shopping?"
"Hm. That sounds good."
"Really? Then..."
Peeeanuuuut fumbled through her pocket and pretended to pull out a shopping list, but it was just an act.
"Ah. Civil Empire. It was my first time today. I had a lot of fun."
Almond decided to end his stream.
— :O
— Nuthead ending the stream so suddenly
— End of the world!
— Ending the stream lol
— Bye bye
Maybe it was because he left too quickly, but a donation rang out.
[NoonaJessie has donated 10,000 won!]
[Won't you accept Jessie's friend request!?]
A lonely donation echoed.
— lol
— Poor guy after ShyNapoleon lol
— Donated in vain lol
— Poor guy lol
The 10,000 won was lost and that viewer never got an answer to their question. At least it entertained the rest of the viewers.
***
Sssrrrrk.
Sang-Hyeon crawled out of the capsule and stretched his body here and there. He felt sore all over as if he'd been beaten up. He had never experienced this sensation before.
‘... I haven’t completely recovered yet.’
Even the best custom capsule wasn't absolute. It prevented him from sweating like in the past, but couldn't eliminate the fatigue that his body accumulated.
He recalled the doctor's words that it would only worsen over time.
‘Another limit, after all.’
If this fatigue kept accumulating, he would eventually hit a limit again no matter how often he changed capsules.
"Honestly..."
Sang-Hyeon looked in resignation at his trembling right hand. It was shaking a lot. Just changing capsules wouldn't make the problem disappear as if nothing ever happened, right?
"The game's more complicated than I thought."
Why was Civil Empire more tiring than LIL? Probably because it had more interactions. Simply put, it involved dealing with more users.
Civil Empire, upon reflection, required facing more users than any other game he ever played. LIL seemed complex, but hunting minions actually took up almost half the game. Civil Empire appeared simple, but he constantly fought other players almost eighty percent of the time.
The clash of complex human thoughts and interactions stacked upon each other into a tremendous mental load. It was similar to professional Go players collapsing after a grueling game.
Predicting and reading the opponent’s moves, psychological warfare, and dealing with their strategies felt mentally exhausting.
In Civil Empire, this happened on the grand scale of armies.
‘Can I play again tomorrow?’
Sang-Hyeon was worried about the next day.
He found Civil Empire quite enjoyable and wanted to play more, but what if his body reacted like today again? Should he still continue?
"I don't know~"
He felt too lazy to think any further and flopped onto his bed.
He went to YouTube out of habit on his phone. He planned to look up more videos about Civil Empire, as there was still so much to learn about the game.
‘There's really no Korean content, huh.’
Content about the game was mostly in English or Spanish with hardly any Korean content exceeding 10,000 views. He stumbled upon something while searching for a decent video.
‘This...’
[Chinese cheater just crossed the line]
A video titled as such caught his eye.
‘Isn't that me?’
The problem was that the avatar in the thumbnail looked exactly like Almond.