Season 3: Chapter 110: Rough Mountain (3)
A lone soldier with a club ran across the field.
“Haah. Haah...”
It was Almond.
‘Why me?’
Even though Almond was used to carrying out orders without much thought, he couldn’t help but feel a bit flustered when Cookie first pointed him out.
[Standby Reconnaissance]
All the Joseon soldiers had returned to the main base, but he alone remained on standby for reconnaissance. Such a situation often occurred when controlling many troops quickly. Commanders sometimes gave individual orders, but that was rare.
Cookie decided to leave one soldier behind while pulling back the other two hundred. He didn’t even need to deliberate over who to leave behind.
The remaining soldier only had to perform a very simple task. Stay still if no enemies came and scout until death if they did. That was the meaning of the [Standby Reconnaissance] order.
Almond knew this well.
If Cookie needed Almond again, Cookie would re-recruit him after he died. Dying was not a problem, but...
‘I have to scout until I die.’
The order implied that he had to provide his team with enemy information until his dying breath. He would inevitably die by himself with enemies swarming. Scouting until death was the natural course.
Almond had resolved to do just that.
“How!? How is he still alive!?”
This led to the commentators’ current screams.
“Not only is he alive! He’s actually advancing into the enemy base!”
Pew!
Arrows fired from the defensive towers kept flying behind Almond. Normally, he would have been hit running this fast along the path.
“Gasp!”
With miraculous footwork, Almond narrowly avoided the arrows.
“What the hell!? Get him!” the Spanish soldiers shouted.
— Lol he dodged all that
— Our champion, “Survival Challenge Winner” Almond
— The shooter must be bad too lol
The Spanish soldiers wanted to catch him, but struggled. Since neither Spain nor Joseon had produced any weapons until the third era, they only had clubs.
Some musketeers started to appear in the Spanish base, but none had been deployed to the highlands.
“The only thing that can catch Almond now is the defensive towers! But the towers aren’t doing well!”
Only the defensive towers that Spain built on the highland had a chance to catch Almond. They had three that weren’t the shabby wooden towers of the first era, but advanced stone sniper towers equipped with crossbows. This suggested the performance of the crossbows installed in them. However, the Spanish soldiers had no talent for shooting arrows.
“Shoot properly!”
“I am shooting properly!”
Peww!
An arrow flew majestically through the air, hitting nothing but thin air. At best, it only struck Almond’s shadow. Even a seasoned shooter would struggle to hit the slippery Almond. Blind arrows had no way of hitting him.
“Does Nacho even know about this!?”
The bigger problem was that Nacho didn’t know about the lone slippery soldier. If Nacho knew, he would have deployed troops to corral Almond like a shepherd, but such commands were impossible now.
“The Spanish soldiers are terrible with bows! They don’t have proper archers!”
“Exactly! If they had musketeers here, it would be different!”
Almond continued to penetrate deeper into enemy territory. The enemies followed to pressure him, but they could only follow from behind.
Almond had already made it out of the towers’ range and they had no way to catch him. He had already passed the highland and entered the mountainous path.
“He’s entered the mountainous area! And the mountain tribe trait activates!”
“Now they can’t catch him!?”
“The speed difference is apparent! They would need Sonic to catch him!”
— Wow
— Mountain club lol
— Sonic lol
The distance kept increasing.
‘I survived.’
The enemies seemed to have given up completely. They could no longer be seen, but the problem persisted.
‘I’m completely alone.’
Almond had never been so alone in Civil Empire on this dark, densely forested path. Finding the enemy base in such a forest seemed impossible. Reading directions in such a forest was also difficult. Some veterans like Pang could find their way alone, but it was too much for a beginner like Almond.
At that moment…
Wheeing!
[Scout]
A blue beam of light shot down from a distance. An order from the commander came in.
‘Oh. Cookie.’
Cookie had figured out Almond’s situation.
Swish, swish...!
A path appeared along the beam of light that led to the Spanish main base.
Almond started running.
“Ah! Cookie noticed that Almond survived as a scout! If so...!”
Almond relentlessly advanced into the Spanish base. Unlike the well-defended highland, the base had nothing special guarding it. However, that was only for now.
“Musketeers are starting to come out!”
Clack!
Musketeers began to appear one by one.
‘I need to see as much as possible.’
Almond ran toward the musketeers to gather as much information as possible before dying. The musketeers hesitated momentarily, seeing someone running toward them to die.
“Did you see that!? He saw a lot of missionaries!”
Although Almond didn’t realize it, he saw the missionaries in his line of sight.
“Almond with a super play! This is a super play! This is what a super play is!”
“Can Cookie deduce Spain’s strategy from the number of missionaries!”
“He has to!”
Almond ventured deeper, revealing almost all the missionaries.
Bang!
Gunfire rang out.
Almond had no way of returning alive anyway.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Having delivered more than enough information, he died with a smile.
Ta-da~!
[Joseon - Third Era]
At that moment, Joseon advanced to the third era.
***
Booong.
When a soldier died, they floated up as a spirit and saw the battlefield from a perspective similar to the commander’s. For soldiers, being dead helped them to understand the battlefield’s flow.
‘... Hmm.’
That wasn’t the case for Almond though.
‘Are they following the plan?’
Seeing Cookie produce siege vehicles, Almond thought the destroy strategy was being implemented.
— Almond is confused~
— Lol, being a ghost is useless, huh?
— But that dribbling was awesome
— Didn’t expect him to live that long lol
[Recruitment - 3%]
Almond was being summoned back to the field. Cookie had pressed the recruit button.
‘Is the attack starting?’
Joseon seemed to be preparing for a full assault.
[Recruitment - 99%]
Almond’s vision turned white and he rapidly descended back inside the barracks. Pulling aside the barrack tent, he saw familiar faces.
“Hey, Private Ryan. You finally died?”
Pang stood there with crossed arms, watching the siege vehicles pouring out from the siege workshop.
In Civil Empire, siege vehicles carried the battering rams, a primitive siege weapon that inflicted damage on enemy buildings. It was one of the cheapest siege weapons.
“Wow. They’re producing so many.”
Pang was impressed that four siege vehicles had already been produced.
Latte stepped in and asked, “Pang, does this mean we’re going with the destroy strategy?”
“We’re producing siege vehicles, so it seems like it.”
Siege weapons had slightly different stats for each civilization. Joseon’s greatest strength was the honored catapult that threw many stones from a distance.
Siege vehicles were not Joseon’s strength at all. The fact that they were producing siege vehicles indicated they were preparing for the pre-discussed destroy strategy.
“But why aren’t they practicing? They should align their timing in-game.”
“Hmm? That’s true.”
Pang’s words puzzled Almond too.
When thinking about the destroy strategy, Almond had one vivid impression of it.
“Board! Disembark! Board! Disembark!”
These repeated commands were used to precisely synchronize the boarding and disembarking timing.
“When the command is given! Move immediately with the call and response! Otherwise, the siege vehicles will stutter and do nothing! They’ll all become beehives!”
Siege vehicles had a feature allowing soldiers to board them. This feature was so rarely used that some beginners didn’t even know it existed.
‘What’s the point of boarding a siege vehicle? It’s slower than soldiers walking…’
And they were right. This feature was hardly ever used.
“Disembark! Board! Disembark! Board!”
In the destroy strategy… no, tactic, this feature was quite important. It was a tactic designed to counter Spain’s third era, which relied heavily on long range attacks.
The principle was simple. Siege vehicles were considered buildings, so they took almost no damage from long range attacks like arrows or guns. If soldiers quickly boarded these siege vehicles when the enemy fired arrows or bullets, the siege vehicles took the damage instead of the soldiers. In other words, they would use them as moving barricades.
And these moving barricades had siege capabilities. It was called the destroy tactic because soldiers hid inside and the vehicles had siege functions like a Trojan Horse.
“They must have coordinated well enough to not need practice,” Latte chimed in nonchalantly.
Pang was quite meticulous about such things.
“Because of the in-game lag, they have to practice. They don’t use this in ranked games for a reason. If the timing is off, the siege vehicles just break down!”
“Then, should I ask Coffee or Bread about it?”
The assistant commanders had the authority.
Latte was about to ask them, but...
Thunk!
“No need.”
Carrot grabbed him by the back of the head and returned him to his original position.
“They probably won’t use that tactic,” she said and pointed at something.
“… Huh?”
It was the soldiers. More specifically, the weapons they held were swords called Joseon Hwandos.
“Why Hwandos…?”
“It’s not just the sword unit. Almost all the units have Hwandos or crescent blades. There aren’t any bows.”
“Is it urgent?”
Even in a mountainous terrain, equipping only melee weapons seemed excessive.
“It’s probably for production efficiency. The perfect timing is now.”
“So it’s urgent, right?”
“…”
Carrot didn’t acknowledge Latte’s words, but he was right.
The Gakgung (a type of Korean traditional bow) was powerful, but required significant production time and cost along with a special workshop.
In contrast, Joseon’s melee weapons had relatively short production times. For a rush, melee weapons were ideal.
She turned to Almond.
“Almond oppa, did you see anything while scouting?”
“Oh. While scouting… I was on the highland…”
Almond explained the situation.
“They came back? To the highland?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why. Spain got greedy. Joseon is trying to seize this timing.”
Did they produce fast and cheap weapons for a rush?
Pang still didn’t understand.
“No matter how small their numbers are, it’s still Spain’s third era. They’ll all have guns. What are we going to do with just swords!?”
At that moment, someone smacked Pang on the back.
Thunk!
“Wow. Pang! We’re on the starting team this time. Haha! Still jobless here?”
The man with a broad build and a big laugh wielded a giant crescent blade.
“Hey there, Malatang.”
He was Malatang, the leader of the sword unit. He often teased Pang as they were around the same age.
“You still got a red card here! Haha!”
“...”
Pang nodded briefly and asked everyone around, “Do you know his real name?”
Was he talking about Malatang’s real name?
“It’s Lee Wan-Yong (Lee Wan-Yong was a former pro-Japanese prime minister).”
A moment of silence followed. Did they hear it right?
“Not Won-Yung, but Wan-Yong. I almost called him a traitor… but it’s the same name.”
— Lolololol
— WTF Wan-Yong lolol
— Lee Wan-Yong lol
— How can someone be named Wan-Yong? lol
— How did Wan-Yong get to be Joseon’s starter?
The chuckling soldiers burst into laughter.
Malatang’s face turned red.
“Hey, why did you say that!?”
“You need some publicity too~ It’s good for your Malatang restaurant.”
“... Really?” Malatang muttered and turned around.
It seemed he liked the idea of promoting his restaurant.
“Anyway. Just rest this time. Haha!”
— Lolol, he’s crazy
— Must be the owner of a Malatang restaurant lol
— Is he going to sign a treaty? lol
— Name is Japanese, nationality is Korean, ID is Chinese…
— During the Korea-Japan match, he has to prove his loyalty...
— So funny, what’s the deal? lol