Season 2: Chapter 123: Distraction Influence (5)
[AK47: I'll finish this before my back cools down.]
When AK47 left this message and entered the game, members of the chat predicted his overwhelming victory.
[ExtrovertedMan: Honestly, if you stream snipe and can't win, you should hand back your A+ rank LOL]
[VeryVeryCastle: LOL, the question is how many minutes it’ll take him to win?]
[Brr: If you lose this, you can't complain even if your mom slaps you LOL]
Considering they knew what the opponent would do and that the opponent's actual skill was around B rank, they thought it was unthinkable to lose after stream sniping. Initially, everything went as they expected. The game started and AK47 pressed the opponent with overwhelming speed.
AK47 used the despised Nalbil strategy. There could have been some internal division about this choice since they gathered in the first place because they hated the Nalbil strategy. Surprisingly, everyone responded positively.
[VeryVeryCastle: Wow LOL, so refreshing!]
[Brr: That’s a great build! Am I right!?]
[BoySchool: It feels so refreshing~~~]
Even someone nicknamed CheesyAttackJudge tolerated AK47's tactics.
[CheesyAttackJudge: You drew your cursed sword to exterminate evil... Darkness is usually dispelled by an even deeper darkness...]
However, this was short-lived as AK47 made an unbelievable mistake.
[VeryVeryCastle: Workers! What are you doing?]
[Brr: 10 workers just died like that...]
[BoySchool: Where are you going? What are they doing???]
Almond massacred ten workers. Then, AK47 even lost the defense towers.
[VeryVeryCastle:...? What's this? They just got killed like that?]
From here, AK47’s defeat was almost confirmed.
[CheesyAttackJudge: If you draw the cursed sword and still can't kill the enemy, the one who dies is you... AK47...]
[VeryVeryCastle: Seems like your mother didn't spank you properly~~LOL]
[BoySchool: Is this even the time to laugh!]
[CheesyAttackJudge: Don't worry, AK47 is the weakest among us anyway.]
'... The weakest.'
Looking at their messages, Chi-Seung had a hard time holding back his laughter. It was ridiculous to see their continuous rationalizations and self-consolation from a third party perspective.
OrangeKing asked, "Kimchi, what's so funny?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just felt like sneezing for a moment."
"Kimchi, you just said BornToB's chance of winning is now 60%! It's the first time you’ve assessed the game as favorable to them! Did taking over the towers make that much difference?"
"Of course, they’ve gained twice the benefits from taking over the enemy's towers. Now they can use those towers to protect their own resources and secure a route for advancement. They gained a huge advantage."
"Ah...! And AK47's spearmen squad have wasted a lot of time looking around for archers, right?"
BornToB and Almond gained the geographical advantage and the enemy troops wasted their time.
"What...? Why is AK47's spearmen squad running toward the 7 o'clock gold mine!?"
For some reason, the enemy's spearmen squad started running toward the 7 o'clock gold mine where Almond had taken over the defense tower.
"Don't they know!? Do they still think it's their tower!?"
"Ah. The commander should know, but the soldiers probably don't. Isn't there a lack of communication?"
They saw the workers mining at 7 o'clock and shouted while pointing at them.
“Over there! They went back there!”
“What? There’s no one in the tower?”
“What a foolish commander.”
"Ah... it seems they don't know after listening to them."
A spearman with fierce eyes charged at the workers.
"Ah, looking at their reactions, it seems they’re obsessed with workers because there's a mission that gives bonus gold for catching workers."
"Ah...!"
A mission had been assigned to them that awarded them bonus gold for catching workers.
Greed could sometimes be a good motivator, but it could also turn into poison when excessive. Arrows flew from the defense tower, piercing the leading spearman’s head.
Thwack!
The spearman, with a gleeful expression, abruptly stopped and fell backward.
The other soldiers went silent and wondered why arrows from their defense tower had shot at them. It took one more casualty for them to realize the situation.
Thwack!
Another soldier fell to the ground as arrows continued to fly at them.
“What, what's this!”
“What!?”
“Damn it! The defense tower has been taken!”
The remaining spearmen scattered left and right in shock, trying to hide behind rocks and bushes. However, the arrows from high above made hiding almost impossible.
“Ah! It's too late even if they realize it now!”
Thud! Thunk!
Almond's arrows never missed their mark, hitting the soldiers' backs.
“Argh!”
“Damn it!”
It was utter chaos. The enemy’s chain of command collapsed and suspicion reigned. Some soldiers, out of desperation, attempted to charge at the tower with torches only for a barrage of arrows to strike them down.
“Run! Retreat!”
Only a few surviving spearmen managed to return to their base, fleeing for their lives.
“This turns the tables in BornToB's favor, right?”
“Yes, it's almost a 70% chance for them to win the game now.”
OrangeKing's words were accurate. BornToB's win rate, previously estimated at around 60%, now soared close to 70%.
“But you don’t seem too happy?”
“Ah… surely mistakes will be made. We never know.”
Kimchi Warrior already predicted BornToB to make mistakes from this point forward. Obviously, BornToB wouldn't have been stuck in B rank if he could smoothly win this without making any mistakes.
BornToB became greedy. He wanted to quickly wrap up the game. The enemy had lost half their spearmen squad. Almond successfully stopped the tower rush and eliminated several workers. He thought the right moment finally presented itself.
“BornToB is sending over a squad of archers with Almond at the forefront!?”
He gathered his archers and sent them with Almond into enemy territory without even properly scouting.
“Ah, sending them in without properly scouting is a bit risky!”
Even with Almond's exceptional archery skills, pushing forward without knowing the enemy's tower and worker positions would be challenging.
“The enemy has too many defense towers near the workers! AK47 already knew an archer rush was coming because of numerous scoutings!”
AK47's commanding skills overwhelmingly surpassed BornToB's. He had skillfully placed defense towers in the necessary positions and was ready to confront them.
“The resistance is fierce!”
Workers manning the defense towers shot down arrows. Almond couldn't intercept the AI workers hiding in the towers.
“We lost quite a bit of troops?”
BornToB's archers started falling and Almond got injured too. Their endeavor wasn't entirely fruitless though.
“We managed to kill four workers. Almond killed two of them, but…”
They eliminated four enemy workers, but lost seventeen of their own archers. The disastrous exchange left everyone in awe.
— What an incredible exchange!
— How could this happen?
— Wow, BornToB, really...
Eventually, BornToB shifted his focus back to managing the mid-game. He started to build structures to advance to the third era.
"BornToB should refocus on internal affairs rather than taking risks right now," someone observed.
"Yes, a wise choice. It's a bit late though..."
Internal affairs involved gathering resources, placing buildings, and upgrading units. Such tasks relied entirely on the commander's abilities. AK47 was undoubtedly superior to BornToB in this area.
"If things keep going like this, AK47 will catch up. BornToB only has an advantage in direct battles," Kimchi Warrior pointed out.
BornToB often achieved good results in battles with Almond, but he always found himself at a disadvantage when it came to internal affairs. This was a given considering he was a B rank commander facing an A+ rank opponent stream sniping them.
Kimchi Warrior glanced at the messages in the group chat and chewed his lip.
— This is what A rank looks like!
— BornToB really gave away a game he almost won. What a legend.
— As expected, history judges the cheesy builds.
The chat members rationalizing and making excuses earlier now giggled and laughed. The thought of having to keep watching this made Kimchi Warrior's head hurt.
‘I hope they win.’
Kimchi Warrior still hoped BornToB and Almond could win somehow. He initially regarded it as just a practice match, but the situation had changed and he wanted them to win now.
"BornToB enters the third era first!"
Some good news finally appeared. BornToB had progressed to the third era first.
[BornToB has entered the third era!]
BornToB didn't stop commanding even after entering the third era. He gradually amassed more forces. Archers from the second era and cavalry from the third era started joining his army.
Around twelve minutes into the game…
AK47 also progressed to the third era.
[AK47 has entered the third era!]
"AK47 is about three minutes behind in era advancement, but his resource score is closing the gap!?"
AK47 steadily narrowed the gap in their resource score despite advancing later.
AK47 and BornToB continued to focus on growing their forces.
A few moments later, around fifteen minutes into the game…
"It seems like it’s about time."
Troops filled both camps and their resources had dried up. The empty mining sites and ravaged forests were proof of that.
"Now there are no more resources. They have to venture to new lands and wreak havoc!"
— The map is utterly devastated.
— ???: This is a clash of kings, you pathetic tree bastards!
— Haha!
"Oh! Finally, the two environmental destroyers are marching out to clash!"
Red represented AK47 and blue represented BornToB. Their colors almost simultaneously swarmed the minimap.
"First off, BornToB has one hundred sixty-seven soldiers!"
A staggering one hundred sixty-seven soldiers poured out of BornToB’s blue territory.
"That's a lot considering the maximum is two hundred!"
"Yes. And AK47 has slightly less at one hundred fifty-five soldiers!"
AK47 responded by sending out all of his troops.
"Kimchi, does such a difference in troops matter?"
"Hmm. At this point, how quickly they can send in reinforcements will be crucial."
"Oh, so the supply line is more important?"
"If we compare it to a real war, yes. Surprisingly, AK47's per minute resource rate is higher now."
— Ah...
— Oh...
— BornToB, really...
As the two forces stood on the brink of a large scale clash, a definite difference in troop numbers existed. It wasn't significant enough to sway the overall outcome.
OrangeKing cautiously asked, "Does BornToB still have the advantage?"
Kimchi Warrior shook his head, "No, I'd say it's fifty-fifty now."
— Almond must be frustrated...
— No, he seemed rather pleased.
— The mission gold is pouring in!
OrangeKing's prediction was slightly off. Almond's personal chat showed that he wasn't feeling too bad. In fact, he was rather content with how everything turned out.
“Almond, is this how you planned the mid to late game? It felt like we should've won after that push earlier…”
Almond had suggested retreating during the archer harassment earlier.
“Yes, I think this was the right move.”
— Yeah, right...
— So shameless, lol.
— The main character wearing a steel mask can't be beaten, right?
They could have inflicted more damage and destabilized the game if they risked more lives to kill more workers. However, Almond chose to retreat to preserve his own life and continue the mission. The longer the game went, the more mission money he'd earn.
[Current Mission Earnings: 230,000 won]
He already accumulated a substantial 230,000 won.
"I won't reach a million won, but I'll try to make it to 700,000 won with this battle."
— Let's go for a 50 minute game!
— Thought he was Doraemon, turns out he was a fat cat, lol.
— So ruthless, still going for the mission?
Almond firmly set his goal on 700,000 won instead of a million.
Ding!
[ShyNapoleon has donated 1,000 won.]
[Why are you doing this to me…?]
The donor who placed the mission lamented, but to no avail.
"Thank you for your 1,000 won donation, ShyNapoleon."
Almond didn't relent. Then...
Ping!
BornToB finally gave the order to march.
[Advance]
The troops started to move in formation, but something about their movements looked a bit odd.
'What's this?'
As Almond wondered…
“Almond, I thought we might lose if we just fought normally. So I had this idea…”
As expected, BornToB suggested a peculiar strategy.