Season 2: Chapter 103. Instruction Manual for Almond (2)
The Embul community, known for its exceptionally skilled members, was quite insular. Most of them had heard Almond's name once or twice, if at all, and showed little interest. This wasn’t too surprising considering even people living under the same roof could exist in different worlds these days. This was especially true for a closed community like Embul, where users couldn’t even post without logging in.
In such an exclusive community, Almond first became known for the hacking controversy. His name appeared in a few posts since such controversies weren’t common domestically. However, as usual, the attention didn’t last very long. After a day or two, Almond’s controversy became buried under their main concern: the national team competition.
Embul started paying proper attention to Almond this time thanks to the provocative title of a post.
[Breaking News: A B rank player has been selected for the national team]
Given their sensitivity to the national team selections, how could they not be interested after hearing a B rank player had been chosen? A barrage of negative comments began pouring in, specifically targeting Kimchi Warrior's Embul profile.
— Did you catch the commander's disease? Haha
— This is not right, haha
— Is this a fixed match?
Kimchi Warrior clasped his hands in prayer, desperately hoping for Almond to prove himself.
"It'll be chaos if they mess up..."
Unlike other gaming communities, Embul had real-world influence. This meant if public opinion regarding Almond's selection grew too negative, it could disrupt the national competition.
Almond needed to perform well, but a bolt from the blue appeared.
"Damn it... Why would they be prepared for this?!"
The opposing commander had prepared for the fast archer rush.
"Does this even make sense?! Who prepares for this nowadays...? Ugh."
Such complaints were pointless because the opponent was only B rank. How could one know what they were thinking? According to Kimchi Warrior's calculations, Almond would still break through even if the opponent was prepared. However, his anxiety remained because...
"No, it'll work. This will work, I swear! BornToB, don't do anything!"
Fortunately, Kimchi Warrior's worries were unwarranted. BornToB heeded his advice to not think and refrained from acting. The decision-making was left to Almond, who promptly drew his bow and fired three more arrows that simultaneously struck three foreheads.
"Shit!"
Kimchi Warrior still felt shocked despite already having witnessed Almond’s skills before. He quickly regained his composure and headed to the Embul community.
"What’s the public opinion? Public opinion."
Had it improved?
"...!"
He saw the first post upon entering.
[What's with this guy? Killing three at once???]
Public opinion was buzzing about Almond on Embul.
"Nice," Kimchi Warrior smirked.
— What's that?
— ??
— Did they pick a physical one-trick?
— Isn't this that guy... the one involved in the hacking controversy recently...
When Almond was first selected for the national team, nine voted against the selection and one felt uncertain. However, opinions gradually shifted to seven against the selection and three in favor thanks to Almond’s primary weapon, the bow. His secondary weapon, his looks, also made an impact.
Kimchi Warrior felt so elated that he even clapped.
"Good! Good! Just a little more!"
The excitement needed to rise even further.
"Let's win. Keep up this momentum!"
Although the feat of killing three enemies at once was impressive, the real battle was just beginning and the outcome had yet to be decided.
***
Meanwhile, Almond took a moment to glance at his bow after simultaneously killing three enemies.
"Was it a good thing that I brought the Joseon Horn Bow?"
The enemies didn't even react and just died. They would usually shoot back randomly in desperation, but simply died quietly this time due to the difference in bows. The enemies were out of range, but Almond's arrows reached them first. They hadn’t expected him to shoot yet and effortlessly died after being caught off guard.
Three enemies helplessly fell.
"This... how could this be?"
"So easily?"
"A sorcerer?!"
As one soldier said, it almost seemed like magic.
When such a feat occurred, the morale of one's troops would naturally skyrocket. Indeed, the four archers who came with Almond grew inspired by their leader's skill and charged.
"We can win! We have a sorcerer on our side!"
"Wow!"
Although charging archers didn’t seem very effective against spearmen or cavalry, the momentum of the moment was more important than minor tactical advantages in war.
"Shoot!"
They began shooting arrows while running. The enemies, taken aback, retreated and counterattacked. Thanks to this, the friendly troops had better positioning.
"Take cover and shoot!"
"Kill them!"
Arrows flew across the sky and echoed out as they pierced through bushes and flesh.
Puff! Thump! Thud!
"Keep shooting! This is where the game ends!"
It was highly likely that whichever side got pushed back here would lose the game. This could be the first and last battle. Hence, the battle was quite fierce.
After a while...
Silence fell over one side of the battlefield while cheers erupted from the other.
"Wow!"
Almond's side had emerged victorious. They had annihilated the enemy and only lost two men.
***
On the other hand, the opposing commander Letgo was shaking. He couldn't believe it.
"Unbelievable..."
"What is this...?"
Letgo was on the verge of being promoted to A rank and lost his composure at the unbelievable turnaround.
"I knew they were coming with a fast archer rush."
Players did not commonly use the fast archer rush strategy these days. Honestly, it would have gone unnoticed if he had not been paying attention.
However, he had meticulously scouted and confirmed that the enemy would attack with a fast archer rush and prepared his troops accordingly. He even gathered significantly more troops than the enemy, but just five archers killed ten of his own.
The enemy had only lost two archers.
"This damn luck-based game!"
He slammed his keyboard in frustration. It was understandable since he had been ahead strategically and still lost.
It felt like successfully anticipating the opponent would play rock and playing paper to counter, but the opponent suddenly punched him in the face to claim victory. It felt unfair.
Letgo blamed his soldiers. A commander couldn’t see every battle, so he missed the scene where Almond took down three of his soldiers in one go.
"These useless idiots. I was unlucky to end up with such soldiers." He simply gave his archers the lowest rating. "Let's hope for some better ones this time..."
[Recruit Archers]
He started recruiting archers again after suffering significant damage, but his workers were still alive.
If they fought around the watchtower and town hall, they could somehow manage the final defense.
***
Commander BornToB cheered while the opposing commander was furious, "Wow! That was amazing!"
The friendly forces at a numerical disadvantage had overwhelmingly won the battle solely with their combat power. It felt exhilarating.
Even BornToBe, who had been in B rank forever, wasn't foolish enough to miss this opportunity.
"Almond, it seems like we've almost won this!" He wanted to solidify this victory. "We have a lot more archers now! I'll keep sending more, so try to conserve them and head toward the workers!"
BornToBe had gone all-in with the archer rush and prepared almost a dozen more archers for reinforcement.
The numerical difference was now overwhelming. One by one, the reinforcements started joining Almond's troops.
"Is it already over?"
"Looks like they didn't anticipate the fast archer rush!"
The archers who arrived later commented after seeing only two or three newly spawned archers in the enemy lines.
The veterans who fought alongside Almond spoke up in anger.
"What?! You clueless guys! It wasn't easy at all. There were ten of them, but Almond here shot through all of them!"
"Yeah! He shot them good!"
They all united to rebuke the smug newcomers.
"Hey, hey... calm down..."
The newly arrived soldiers were reprimanded without understanding the situation.
Almond didn’t argue with them much and directed them toward the workers.
"Let's go hunt the workers."
"Workers? What about those archers? It'll be a headache if they fight around the watchtower," a new soldier asked.
"They... can probably be lured away."
"...?"
***
As long as there was money, soldiers could keep coming. For this reason, the key in this game was to dry up the resource line so the money itself could not be earned. The most effective way to accomplish that was to kill the workers.
"Oh, they're coming."
The enemy commander Letgo noticed that the other side finally came to kill the workers and cut off their lifeline. He immediately moved the workers chopping wood to the back.
However─
"What? Only one came?"
After all that movement, only one archer showed up.
"... What is this?"
Letgo couldn’t decide whether or not to evacuate just because of one person. Then...
Thunk!
Two workers suddenly collapsed.
"!?"
If he wasn't mistaken, it looked like the archer had shot two arrows simultaneously.
"... Huh?"
This didn't bode well.
[Evacuate]
He quickly resumed the evacuation he hesitated on and the workers ran toward the nearby defense tower.
However, the enemy archer was adept at shooting while running. He charged forward and fired another volley, killing two more workers. Four had now died.
"Shooting while running... and they all hit? Is that a three hundred gold weapon? No..."
The archer didn't stop running and charged in, killing three more workers. Seven had now died.
While fleeing, almost half of the workers chopping wood had been killed. Letgo judged that this wasn't just a matter of skills.
"He has to be a hacker, probably Chinese with that black hair."
That archer seemed to be using hacks, but Letgo still had a chance because the archer had come too far forward in his eagerness to kill the workers. He was within the range of the defense tower.
"Damn annoying guy. Now die..."
However, the archer dodged all the arrows from the defense tower.
"Was that dodgeable?" Letgo recalled his days playing as a mercenary and tilted his head in confusion.
Meanwhile, the archer already disappeared beyond the range of the defense tower.
Letgo sent his workers back to their workplaces.
[Resume Work]
He knew that if he did so, Almond would come back like a ghost to skewer the workers. It was a hit and run tactic, but the hit was a bit too strong.
"Ah..."
This archer felt as irritating as a mosquito in the summer. Letgo trembled with rage and sent out his archers.
'I should have waited to gather more before sending all at once.'
Without enough soldiers, going out now would be like lining up for execution. However, he had to make such foolish decisions with fire at his feet.
'Let's just catch that one since he's operating separately from the rest.'
The moment Letgo’s archers approached, rustling could be heard from the bushes behind. As if waiting for this moment, around a dozen ambushers sprung up from the bushes.
"Ah..."
He had fallen for a trap.
"A trap!?"
The attack on the workers hadn’t been the enemy’s real intention, but simply a provocation to lure out Letgo's hidden troops.
Wham! Wham!
Both sides exchanged arrows and Letgo's archers quickly fell one by one as the enemy precisely struck their vital spots.
The opposing commander exacerbated the situation with a provocation.
[BornToB: E──Z]
Letgo's patience was wearing thin.
"This... this..."
This game was his last promotion match to advance to A rank. He had failed in his promotion.
"I knew it all along! Why am I losing?!" he screamed, but no one could hear him.
Bang!
[Surrender]
Letgo violently smashed the keyboard and declared his surrender. Then he cursed the opposing commander and quickly went to the report window.
[Unauthorized Program Use]
He filed a report claiming the archer from earlier had been using hacks and attached a video as evidence.
A response from the development team came back in just a few minutes.