Season 3: Chapter 74: WANTED (4)
When the game began, all of Spain's forces received a command.
[Monitor all movements of Joseon forces]
It wasn't just simple scouting. The directive was to understand the movements of Korea's troops because if even a few Joseon soldiers infiltrated Spanish lines, they could build watchtowers and hold their positions.
"There! Turn around!"
"Detour!"
Using their superior sight, the Spanish scouts detected the Joseon soldiers first and cautiously took a detour around their paths while documenting their movements. The fluid, natural rotation of their scouting troops while taking turns without crossing into enemy sight made General Nacho think.
'Indeed, they are well-trained.'
The Spanish forces, fitting together like the finely tuned gears of a clock, moved only outside the enemy's line of sight. This satisfactory movement could only be expected from a team of pros. Less coordinated teams couldn't do this.
'They can’t just break through this dense defense.'
The Spanish forces evenly spread out in pairs and had superior sight. This made it impossible for those trying to infiltrate to find any gaps. They were undetectable to the enemy.
'Almost all of them have been spotted.'
Nacho noted that nearly all of Korea’s groups of five scouts had been discovered.
'Thirty-five out of forty...'
Out of forty groups, thirty-five had been detected. Although they all moved toward the Spanish lines, their movements were being tracked.
'If they try to build towers, we can respond immediately.'
With this level of visibility of the enemy's movements, Spain didn’t need to worry about any early rush. And if Korea tried to force their way through with sheer strength?
'We’ll just regroup into five man teams again. That's already planned.'
Although currently operating in pairs, the Spanish troops were prepared to regroup into fives at the first sign of Korea attempting a forceful push.
'If we just race to the third era, we’ll be at a complete advantage.'
Nacho checked the workers in the gold and production areas. Resources for advancing to the second era steadily accumulated. Just a bit more and they could proceed with the era upgrade a few steps faster than Korea without wasting resources on unnecessary defensive structures. However—
[Under attack]
Ting! Ting!
A part of the display turned red, signaling that troops were under attack.
"What?!"
This wasn’t supposed to happen if everything went according to plan.
***
Ssh.
"Everyone gathered?"
Crouching at the center of the bushes, Pang checked the personnel.
"… Almond?"
"Yes."
"Ah, then everyone’s here. That's it."
"…?"
"If you're here, everyone's here."
— The others aren't needed? LOL
— As long as Almond is here, no need to check LOL
— Normally isn’t Almond the one who falls behind? LOL
— LOL
— The concerned soldier
Among the gathered ten were Almond, Spam, Latte, and Carrot... including the usual group of five and another five ace soldiers.
"Right now, as Commander Cookie said, the Spaniards are messing around outside our sight and circling us." Pang went to the edge of the bushes to check on the enemies and muttered as if annoyed, "We need to properly hook them."
"But where are they? Isn’t this futile?"
Latte squeezed next to Pang, rolling his eyes since the enemies were out of sight.
Carrot scoffed as if it was foolish.
"Even if it’s futile, what can you do? This is our team's strategy. And from what I’ve seen, they’re likely nearby. Their footsteps can be seen."
"But what if they saw us coming here?"
"It’s unlikely. Using their sight advantage, they typically check every few seconds."
"And if they saw during those few seconds?"
"Then this squad’s effort is wasted and another squad will have to handle it."
Besides this ten person squad, a few other groups of ten were lying in ambush in other areas. The soldiers didn’t know the full situation, but they simply followed the plan.
"Shh."
Almond had been lying on the ground and signaled everyone to be quiet.
"Are they coming?"
Almond nodded.
All ten of them fell silent.
— Really?
— Oh, they’re coming.
— They must have been really close by. They disappeared and came back
Enemies were approaching. It was a scouting party consisting of three person teams. They seemed to be searching the ground for traces of Joseon soldiers. From their perspective, it seemed like the Joseon soldiers who were slowly moving forward suddenly stopped.
"Wow... they really were there."
Korea saw the true form of the Spanish soldiers for the first time.
"Their vision play is really good. To be pushed to such an extreme…"
Latte shook his head in disbelief and Pang tapped him on the shoulder.
"They're all pros, right? Come on. But? We caught them," he said.
Click.
He grabbed his club, ready to spring into action at any moment.
"They'll see us and run away. It's obvious. Latte and I will go around and block their escape route. You guys start a bit later."
"Yes."
"Count to five and then start."
As soon as the words ended, the command came from Cookie.
[Attack]
Ting!
At that moment, Pang and Latte turned and began to run away.
Carrot started to fold his fingers one by one. When he folded the last finger, everyone began to run.
This had to be handled quietly and swiftly so no one shouted.
Ssshhh...!
Only the sound of the bushes rustling broke the faint silence.
Pop!
A Joseon soldier suddenly burst out of the bushes.
"!"
The Spanish soldiers were startled.
"Aah!"
“Huh?”
Then, they felt startled again.
"Uh oh!?"
The face that burst out from the bushes belonged to Almond.
It felt strange. The Spanish soldiers felt startled by his emergence, but didn’t run away. Instead, they continued to point and shout at him.
"That guy is—"
Boom!
Almond's club collided with another club. After a few exchanges, Almond's club took a miraculous path and struck the enemy's head.
Thump!
[Knocked Out]
The enemy fell unconscious and collapsed. All of this happened in just a few seconds.
Almond quickly turned his head and shouted, "Catch…! Huh?"
They were supposed to catch the ones who ran away. He intended to say that.
Naturally, the Spanish soldiers would run away since their team of three had encountered a larger group. However, it turned out to be the opposite.
"Son of a—"
One Spanish soldier was already fighting the other soldiers and another cursed as he recklessly charged at Almond.
"?"
Almond felt puzzled.
'They aren't running away?'
He couldn’t understand why they weren't running. Weren't they supposed to flee just at the sight of Korean soldiers? Was Carrot's guess wrong? All sorts of thoughts flashed through Almond’s mind.
Whooosh!
A club whizzed by his head.
"Huff."
Even while dazed, Almond managed to dodge.
"This... guy is pretty good!?"
His opponent didn't care and swung the club again, but—
Almond’s team had as many as ten members.
Carrot appeared behind the enemy and quickly knocked him down.
Thwack!
[Knocked Out]
The knocked-out enemy fell down.
"What the...?"
Almond looked down at him as if he was an oddity.
"Why were you charging at me?"
His pondering didn't last long.
Thanks to Almond, things got a lot easier.
"Thanks to you, we cleaned up pretty fast. Catching the ones running away wouldn't have been easy."
— What the heck? lol
— Almond aggro, lol.
— Is there a bounty on him by any chance??
— The Spanish guys are fierce, lol.
— Even the enemies are driven mad by his insane charisma!
"Let's finish this."
Carrot picked up the club and began to hit the unconscious soldiers.
"Wadadadada!"
"These Spaniards. Let’s serve them."
Other soldiers gathered and jokingly started the mauling.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
[Death]
[Death]
[Death]
All three enemies died.
— Using a club to kill isn't easy, lol.
— They really got beaten up, lol.
— Actually, it was the Indians who were demolished by Spain~
"Huh? What? We really caught them all? I thought Cookie gave the wrong order."
Pang and Latte had returned late and looked at the sprawled out enemies in amazement.
"They stayed and fought. Thanks to that, we caught them right here."
"Heh... They got hooked."
Pang scratched his head and gestured toward the next point of advance.
"Now, the enemy has a gap."
The recent attack had created a gap in the Spanish scouting forces.
***
Nacho clearly received the message that they had been attacked.
[Attacked]
It didn't make sense. According to the plan, they couldn’t have been attacked. Moreover, all the soldiers were following the plan.
'Did Tres try to hunt a boar or something?'
Nacho thought an incident had happened while hunting and adjusted some production-related controls before changing the screen. He zoomed in on the area highlighted in red on the map.
"!"
It was gone.
"… What?"
He didn’t see them anymore. The soldiers who were there disappeared and he didn’t know what happened to them.
'They were attacked that fast?'
Nacho felt baffled. It was not easy to catch fleeing soldiers in the first era. And yet, a scouting team had vanished that quickly.
'There's a gap now.'
He didn't know exactly what happened, but it created a gap in the scouting forces. It would be hard to manage even if one or two members were missing from a scouting team in terms of efficiency.
***
A ten person squad continued hiding in the bushes. They had received a certain order.
[Standby for Entry]
They were to wait for something before entering the Spanish camp.
Then, the sound of a galloping horse came from behind.
"Hiryaah!"
Clatter! Clatter!
[Coffee]
It was the deputy commander, Coffee. He was accompanying this operation as the deputy commander and began to give them orders directly.
"Individual infiltration will start soon! Get ready!"
At the same time, he sent up the falcon perched on his shoulder.
[Launch Falcon]
Whoooooosh─!
With a strange cry, their visibility was widely secured. Of course, it was the visibility from the commander-in-chief's perspective.
Now, Cookie would decide how to exploit the gap created in the Spanish scouting forces. He would find routes invisible from the soldiers' perspective.
Ping!
[Infiltration Route]
Soon, an order came from Cookie.
Wooooo...!
A faintly glowing path unfolded before them. All ten members were assigned different paths.
Yes, this operation involved individual infiltration and individual combat. This was intended to maximize their survival probability.
Almond recalled what Cookie had said.
"If even two Joseon soldiers enter the enemy lines in the first era, we will have the advantage."
Cookie's goal was to send in at least two soldiers.
"Let's see who survives!" Pang said as he started running.
Almond also followed the path before him.
Tatatatatatak...!
Among the ten, some would be caught by other scouts and some would pass. Who would it be? No one knew. It was purely a matter of luck.
Almond just ran and followed the route.
"Hah... Hah..."
He didn't know how much time had passed, but at least he hadn't been detected yet. Was he lucky in this operation? Just as he thought this…
"!"
“Heeeeeigh...!”
A horse snorting could be heard. It clearly wasn't Coffee's horse.
Far away, the enemy's deputy commander appeared.
— Ah
— There's someone over there?
— Whoa
The fact that Almond saw him meant that he also saw Almond since the enemy’s vision was one level higher.
— Dread
— Just had to be the deputy commander??
— Doomed
— Ah…
Could it be that Almond was not meant to infiltrate the enemy lines?
"I guess I'm supposed to stall for time."
— Really...
— Goodbye…
— Almond needs to go in
The enemy deputy commander noticed and slowly began to ride his horse toward Almond.
'Uh.'
That face looked familiar.
— Don't come…
— Isn't that the guy from the video?
— He really has a fierce look
— He was the one attracting aggro, lol
— Wow, physiognomy is science...
It was Tres.
"You... You bastard!!!"
His eyes blazed with fury.