Season 2: Chapter 101. B-Tier Commander (2)
Almond remained silent and trusted that Kimchi Warrior had everything under control. However, his viewers felt the same unease.
— So BornToB was meant to be B rank? Lol.
— This feels ominous, bro.
— Wouldn’t it be better just to play solo? Lol
— Something about him feels like Bubblegum... something...
— Did Kimchi really get this right? Lol
Even donations like this came in.
Ding.
[EggPlant has donated 1,000 won]
[Kimchi Warrior, it feels like you brought your little brother... Bro.]
— Lol, are you Kimchi?
— How does he not get banned for talking like that? Lol
— If EggPlant doesn't want to die, he should leave.
The commander didn't seem very trustworthy and the viewers agreed.
Almond felt a bit apprehensive and decided to probe.
"You said you got the strategy from Kimchi Warrior..."
He wanted to see if this commander understood the strategy even if he couldn’t entirely grasp it.
"Yes, right. Just doing that should get us a win rate of 80%..."
BornToB scratched his head with a dopey expression.
"Does it really seem like that?"
"It's kind of like taking a chance early on... if we do well?"
— The win rate is supposed to be 80% and you’re saying, 'if we do well?'
— Why does he lack confidence?
— Early on? What, like a 4 drone rush? Lol
A win rate of 80% didn't seem like something that would rely on them maybe doing well, but Almond no longer had a choice.
Ping!
[An opponent has been found.]
[The game will start in 5 seconds.]
The game had already begun.
"Oh, right! I was told to remind you! Only come out when it's the archers!!"
— ...?
— ??
— He says that now? Lol
— What's he talking about?
Almond realized he had no idea how playing as a duo would work.
'Only come out when it’s the archers?'
The commander left him with one final piece of cryptic advice that became etched in Almond's mind.
[Game Start!]
BornToB swallowed nervously.
"Just follow the instructions and it'll be fine."
It had been about two years since he started playing Civil Empire and he had never left B rank. He could never get the character accessories for achieving A rank.
If someone were to ask, "Were you not diligent enough?"
"That's not true. I tried..."
However, that wasn't the case.
In fact, his game count was quite high compared to regular players and even national competition team members.
"Darn it."
Playing a lot didn't necessarily mean success. BornToB was a prime example of this.
Perhaps it was a kind of obsession? He wasn’t a professional gamer, but he always wanted to prove that he could reach A rank too.
Then, he received a very tempting offer from an acquaintance.
"Who would have thought a national team would need a B rank like me?"
The national team preparing for the competition sought a B rank commander. They proposed to teach the B rank commander their strategies and tactics, which would boost him to A+ rank with a win rate of 80%.
For BornToB, the offer couldn't have been better. There was just one condition. He had to play as a duo with another player and that was Almond.
Now, after learning the national team’s strategies, he was playing as a duo with Almond.
"... But will this really work?"
BornToB looked at Almond in front of him with a bit of curiosity.
"From what I heard earlier, this person seems like a newbie."
Apparently, Almond was a famous streamer and hadn’t played the game for long.
"Isn't this strategy a bit too extreme for someone so new..."
At that moment, BornToB recalled the first principle Kimchi Warrior told him.
"Don't think. The more you think, the worse you perform."
BornToB smacked his own head.
"Right. Don't think. Let's just follow what Kimchi bro said."
He emptied his mind and only focused on Kimchi Warrior’s teachings as the game began.
[Game Start!]
***
At the beginning of the game, each side received ten residents who acted as villagers and workers. The game started with collecting resources and assigning how many workers to each resource.
"Let's do this."
BornToB looked tense as he waved his hand in the air. First, he directed five workers to mine gold.
"Gold is the most important. We need to upgrade to the second era to build the archery range."
Unlike the spearman training ground, an archery range could only be built starting from the second era. The second era meant upgrading the entire civilization from the barbarian era to the feudal era, lord era, and so on.
To build an archery range, one needed to be in the second era at least, which was the feudal era. This required a large sum of one hundred gold. That was why BornToB assigned half the workers to mine gold.
Five workers headed to mine gold and BornToB quickly gave separate orders to the other workers.
Next was wood.
"Then, I need to focus on wood. Archers require a lot of wood."
He needed wood to build the archery range and it would be continuously consumed as he recruited more archers.
Three out of the remaining five workers went to gather wood.
"I’ll keep food to a minimum for now."
Both the military and residents required food to be produced. It was the most crucial resource for increasing the number of residents, which also controlled the resource collection rate.
BornToB invested the least in this because he wasn't going to produce more residents, so he didn’t need to focus on food yet.
"Our goal is to quickly produce archers and charge ahead. We're not looking at the mid or late game. Once we reach the second era, we won’t have a problem producing archers even if we assign three of the gold miners to food."
He would readjust the distribution of workers when it was time to produce archers.
"Five on gold, three on wood, and two on food. I’ll put four on food, three on gold, and three on wood once we’re in the second era," BornToB murmured as if he was reciting the alphabet and rapidly moved his hands.
An enemy scout came snooping around, but didn't cause significant trouble.
Shortly afterward...
[Gold: 100]
The amount of gold reached one hundred.
"Okay, let’s upgrade to the second era."
The upgrade to the second era commenced immediately according to BornToB's voice command.
[2nd Era - Feudal Era]
[Upgrading...]
"Now, two of the workers mining gold, switch to food!"
Two of the five workers mining gold moved to food and the rate at which food started to come in accelerated.
Then, the upgrade to the second era finished.
Bam!
[2nd Era]
BornToB immediately checked the time.
[04:31]
He had entered the second era before five minutes even passed in the game.
"Wow. That's quick."
“This is the most basic fast second era strategy in Civil Empire.”
He had succeeded in the strategy that Kimchi Warrior mentioned.
‘It's working for me too.’
Everyone knew a basic tactic like the fast second era strategy, but BornToB had never reached it at the four minute mark before.
As Kimchi Warrior instructed, BornToB pushed aside his thoughts and simply followed the memorized steps. Before he knew it, he managed to enter the second era before five minutes passed in the game.
‘Is thinking really a curse...?’
BornToB briefly wondered, but quickly shook his head.
"Don't think! Hurry to the archery range!"
He picked three workers (one each from wood, food, and gold) to build the archery range.
[Archery Range]
[Building...]
Three workers immediately got to work on the archery range. Naturally, a building would get built faster with more workers.
Clang! Clang!
The cheerful sound of hammers rang out and the archery range appeared within ten seconds.
[Archery Range]
[Completed]
Finally, archers could be recruited.
[04:53]
BornToB lost about five seconds as his thoughts wandered, but he still achieved this before five minutes.
[Recruiting Archer]
[Training...]
He started recruiting the first archer before the five minute mark.
“This is the fast archer rush after the fast second era strategy. If you reach this point before the first five minute mark, you’ve half-succeeded already.”
BornToB could breathe a little easier once he got this far. After all, Kimchi Warrior had told him so.
“The next half... is up to Almond.”
***
"Playing as a duo is a bit boring at first, huh?" Almond remarked, having never teamed up with a specific commander like this before.
He rested his chin in his hand and enjoyed the view of the map from the commander's perspective. A player couldn’t do much early on if the commander didn't recruit any attack units.
— Ah, so this is how it works.
— This is why no one plays as a duo.
— Still, they got to the second era really quickly
"Is this pace considered fast?"
Almond didn’t whether their current progression was fast or slow since he had never played as a commander before.
Just then, the message he had been eagerly awaiting arrived with dramatic flourish.
[Your team is recruiting archers! Would you like to join?]
Recruitment notifications appeared first for the other player in the duo. This meant that Almond would be the first recruited archer.
'Archers...!'
Almond recalled BornToB's instruction to enter the game during the archer recruitments. Even if BornToB hadn't said so, Almond felt bored enough to accept.
[Accept]
— Finally..!
— The legend of Almond begins!
— Let’s go!
Almond's character swiftly descended and appeared on the field with a swoosh.
***
"... Oh."
Almond momentarily looked around, disoriented by the sensation of suddenly dropping from the sky. As expected, he found himself in the archery range and took a moment to examine his attire.
"Uh..."
He discovered something unexpected that took him by surprise.
"This shouldn't be here."
[Joseon Horn Bow]
— He brought the horn bow, LOL
— If he dies, he loses everything!
— LOL the Horn Bow
— Hell yeah
— The enemy team is screwed!
He had mistakenly brought the Joseon Horn Bow, a weapon he invested all his fortune into. Considering the cost and benefits, it didn't make sense to carry such a weapon into every game.
A voice suddenly echoed out, “Almond, can you hear me?”
It was BornToB.
“Oh, just slightly tap your left ear while speaking if you want to respond.”
‘Huh?’
Could he actually respond like that? Almond curiously tried it and slightly tapped his left ear to speak.
“Can you hear me?”
“Whew, that's a relief. Yes, I can hear you! This is the two-way communication system for duos. It's only available when you're in a duo.”
The commander and Almond could directly communicate back and forth like this.
‘This is quite convenient,’ Almond thought.
Despite various inconveniences, the ability to quickly share strategies through voice communication seemed like a significant advantage for duo play. They immediately took advantage of this.
“Almond, we will now execute a fast archer rush in the second era. Get moving!”
— Out of nowhere?
— ??
— Almond! I choose you!
— What are you saying!?
— LOL
“Right now?”
“Yes!”
— Yes!
— Why does he sound so cheerful? LOL
— Yes! Go!
Almond received a ping from the commander.
[Advance]
Almond had no choice but to start running toward the indicated location. A few archers who had been recruited along with him followed. BornToB continued to recruit archers and already had three in total.
"Ah, it's a fast archer rush. Do people still use this tactic?"
"Isn't the commander a B rank? What can you expect?"
"Well, at least the game ends quickly, which is good."
Listening to them, the fast archer rush sounded somewhat outdated compared to the latest strategies.
Almond thought, ‘There must be a reason for this tactic.’
He tried to remain optimistic even though Civil Empire inherently made players distrust commanders.
“Ah, Almond. When you arrive, there probably won't be many enemy soldiers! Just pick off the workers!”
If they trusted such words and charged in only to find enemy archers waiting, distrust in the commander would only soar.
The archers behind Almond lamented.
"Hey? What's this? There are soldiers there? Isn't this supposed to be a fast rush?"
"It's supposed to be just us here."
Something felt off.
“Uh. This isn't right,” the commander sounded flustered as well.
The viewers' distrust and worries also grew.
— This feels off...
— What kind of strategy is this?
— Is BornToB really up to the task?
— He doesn't deserve to use the Kimchi name.
— The opposing commander has a good record... Will this work?
All these concerns were unnecessary. The viewers still didn't fully understand that the key to this strategy was ultimately Almond.
BornToB’s job simply had to do with how fast he could recruit Almond. He had essentially finished doing his part after recruiting Almond within five minutes. Distrusting him now made no sense because he no longer played a role in this game.
Everything now hinged on Almond.
Almond contemplated, ‘Is there any point in retreating?’
The fast archer rush he heard about seemed to be an all-in strategy early on akin to the four drone rush in StarCraft. This win-or-lose gamble depended on whether or not they could breach the enemy defenses.
They didn’t have a backup plan even if they pulled back now. Some highly skilled players could recover from a failed rush early on, but BornToB didn't seem like that type of commander.
Thus, Almond made his decision.
“We're not discovered yet. I'm going in.”
He would proceed regardless of enemy soldiers. He couldn't start their ranked matches with a defeat, especially with the Joseon Horn Bow equipped.