Season 2: Chapter 81. This is the Bow of Joseon (3)
Unaware that one round referred to one match from the commander's point of view, Almond desperately struggled to prove he wasn't a hacker. This struggle naturally spread across the community.
[Current Status of Almond's Room Title lol]
Did you know? Almond is originally a hack nut.
Almond initially received attention due to the title of his stream, which he intentionally chose for attention. His goal was clear. If they were going to wrong him, he might as well convert the views into revenue as a streamer.
— Hack nut?? What's that?
└ Lol, why is this trending?
— It’s not even funny wordplay, but why is it actually true lol?
— A hacker, aren't you? Any complaints?
— Downvoted because it's not true.
— Is this Zombie School Garden?
└ No, stop with the nonsense ^^ This is Almond's Garden.
└ A garden where Almonds grow?
└ Lol, you guys are crazy.
Due to the lack of active communities related to Civil Empire, everyone’s attention was directed toward the community garden that Almond recently trended in. The Zombie School Garden, which was essentially created because of Almond and Bubblegum, still frequently mentioned Almond even after he left the game.
[Summary of Almond's Current Situation.]
[3 rounds to prove it, lol]
[This is going to be hilarious lol]
Many viewers summarized and even streamed Almond's current situation live. While this was welcomed for a streamer, it wasn't always positive to be mentioned. Such was the destiny of a streamer.
[But Almond might really be a hacker lol. Comments on foreign videos think so.]
[Why do you think Almond can't be a hacker?]
[He's being verified because he might be a hacker, lol.]
Posts that made no sense appeared as if they were valid just to stir up controversy.
— Stop talking nonsense lol.
— Then what about what he showed in LIL?
└ That's also because of hacking.
└ What? He developed an LIL hack that's never been found worldwide and used it to win the tournament?
└ Lol, I'm dying of laughter.
└ Lol, if you developed a hack, you should be using it against North Korea, not to win a LIL competition lol.
— Why are there such idiots everywhere? Or is one person just living this hard?
└ It's both.
The public, of course, didn’t buy these posts. The comments under them were extremely negative. However, that didn’t affect the posters. No one wrote such posts to actually be persuasive. They just wanted to stir up chaos and discord, a classic case of muddying the waters.
They either envied Almond's fame or wanted to tarnish his reputation by posting nonsense, thinking it could leave a scratch.
"They really have nothing better to do," Ju-Hyeok scoffed while browsing the community at 6 P.M. after finishing preparations for the fan meeting.
"Tsk tsk. What are these people doing?"
For a productive person like him, he couldn’t comprehend how someone could waste their time trying to tarnish another's reputation. It just wasn’t worth it.
Such people somehow existed. Every time, they acted as a grim reminder in the world. The existence of such individuals also meant a skyrocketing interest in Almond's current situation and new viewers flocked to his stream.
[Almond's First and Second Games Ended Miserably lol]
[How will he manage now lol]
[This is going to be so fun, lol. It's the first time Almond has been so careful about choosing a game.]
Beyond the Zombie School Garden, discussions about him appeared even in LIL Pro and Battle31.
— Almond is on the verge of being proven a hacker lol.
— How can he be so unlucky?
└ Almond has always been incredibly unlucky since the Battle Large days.
└ Right, ever since the days of Bubblegum and the LIL competition, his luck has been cursed.
Ju-Hyeok's lips curled into a smile.
'This familiar feeling. I like it.'
The wave of attention started to pick up.
[Current Viewers: 27,000]
The wall of 25,000 viewers, which they hardly ever surpassed, had been broken.
'The content verifying whether he's a hacker or not... It's getting a great response.'
On the brink of proving whether or not Almond was a hacker, everyone flocked to see the last of the three games. It was the perfect time to watch from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M. Moreover, Almond the hacker sounded so provocative that it attracted people who only vaguely knew Almond.
'He must be blessed by the heavens.'
Even though Almond suffered some bad luck in the game, Ju-Hyeok thought his streaming luck was unparalleled.
Of course, this would have been a disaster instead of luck without Almond's absolute skill.
Ju-Hyeok scratched his head.
"But... will it work out?"
If Almond overcame this, it would be considered good luck. The mere thought of failure felt disheartening.
Almond started the third game with a firm resolution, but immediately faced a disaster. A colossal boulder rolled toward him with a thunderous noise. While everyone else simply threw their weapons to the ground and resigned themselves to the next life, he chose differently.
Almond was determined to survive. He jumped twice in quick succession and managed to leap onto the shoulders of a soldier in front of him.
"What the...!?" the soldier he climbed onto exclaimed.
"Sorry, sorry," Almond hastily apologized and stepped on the soldier's head as well.
"You lunatic! You're stepping on me again after apologizing?!" the soldier cried out.
Amid the chaos, Almond leaped off the soldier's head and kicked against the side of the wall for another jump. The rolling boulder crushed those under Almond, their hopes of survival crushed along with them. Almond landed safely not far from their corpses. He overflowed with the will to live and his determination paid off. He had survived.
The other soldiers looked down at him in amazement from the ramparts.
"Who’s that guy...?"
"Is he a gymnast or something?"
"Wow... he must be a real pro."
In truth, Almond wasn’t particularly known for his jumping ability or speed. It was purely his will to survive that set him apart.
"This is my last chance," he firmly believed it would all be over if he died.
In reality, continuing to fight on the same battleground even after dying was still considered one round.
"Looks like it's not going to be easy from the start. Let's head up now," Almond said and stepped over his fallen comrades to climb the ramparts.
Then, he witnessed the battlefield for the first time.
"Charge! Break through!"
"Attack!"
The ongoing fervor could be mistaken for thousands of soldiers. It looked like a scene from a medieval war movie with the loaded catapults, the massive battering rams, and the siege towers.
"Hold positions! Push the ladders!"
Almond became engrossed in the realistic battle scene. However, he quickly snapped back to reality and started moving.
"That's my spot."
He had been assigned to intercept enemies from the west side of the wall. The commander never specified any particular targets.
"The bonus reward is for workers, but..."
Normally, players would follow the bonus reward as a guide when choosing their targets. The commander had set the bonus reward as two gold per worker killed, a generous offer if it was true. However, they wouldn’t encounter any enemy workers in such a siege battle. This was like offering snowstorm insurance in an African country. It was certainly a shallow tactic.
"Anyway, I need to win."
Regardless, Almond took out his bow and loosened his wrists.
"What should I shoot?"
He would’ve usually shot without much thought, but now he was very serious. Every movement, even his breathing, was directed toward one goal: to perform on the battlefield and win.
"Over there."
Something caught his eye amid the chaos.
"Hey, shoot quickly! Even if you shoot nonstop, it's not enough right now!" a fellow archer thought Almond was in a daze and chided him.
Almond simply lifted his bow without retorting. Memories came flooding back to him as he felt the bow’s unique grip.
"Oh, that’s right..."
He briefly forgot because of the boulder incident, but this was the Joseon horn bow that cost fifty gold.
"It's definitely different."
The bow in his hand felt distinct. The enormous tension when drawing the bowstring was on a different level compared to drawing a bow that only cost one gold.
"Can you even handle that bow?" the archer who rushed him looked at him with dubious eyes.
A high-tension bow was akin to a gun with heavy recoil. It required more strength to pull and more know-how to handle.
Almond took out an arrow without responding and the archer's eyes widened in disbelief.
"X-crash?"
These axe-tip arrows were named for resembling axe blades attached to arrowheads. Almond had bought them along with the bow. The bladed area of these arrows was larger than that of regular arrows. While they had lower penetrating power against armor, they caused much more destructive damage when hitting flesh.
They were designed to tear as many blood vessels and muscles as possible in actual combat. Cavalry or lightly armored infantry usually shot them, but a serious problem existed.
"They’re heavy and hard to aim."
Drawing the powerful bowstring of a horn bow was hard enough, but X-crash arrows were also heavier than standard arrows. Consequently, it caused one’s aim to waver into a natural sideways eight figure due to breathing. Moreover, these arrows seemed useless in a siege battle where most enemies were fully armored.
The archer was about to offer Almond some advice when he noticed something.
"Wait... What's that stance?"
As Almond drew the bowstring, even his motion seemed to exert pressure.
It was a remarkable phenomenon. The archer was momentarily mesmerized, but quickly returned to reality as Almond released the arrow.
The arrow flew beautifully. Even the archer couldn't help but follow its flight with his eyes, only to be astonished at its destination.
A moment of silence followed.
Then, the archer spoke, "Did nobody die?"
It was to be expected. He thought Almond had impressive form, but was a novice at heart. The archer was about to chide him again when Almond swiftly released another arrow. And then another.
The rapid firing shocked the archer. Almond was using practical archery skills. Was his background Egyptian, Turkish, or perhaps Oriental? It wasn’t clear.
Regardless, any veteran player had dabbled in real combat archery. However, this method was new.
Still, no one was falling. Another arrow flew, and another, but no enemy soldier seemed to be hit by them.
"Hey, what are you doing? Are you bragging that you have infinite arrows? Why are you wasting them on a catapult? Do you think the catapult will break if you keep shooting it?"
Something unexpected happened as the archer grumbled and prepared to shoot the enemies. The huge catapult suddenly crumbled into pieces.
"And... it worked."
The archer became speechless.