Season 3: Chapter 175: Pandora’s Hope (1)
Joseon had won two to zero against the Vikings. Regardless of the process, they had won decisively and this outcome significantly impacted the entire national competition.
“What? Joseon won two to zero?”
“So Joseon will face Persia?”
“I never thought I’d live to see this.”
“This makes no sense...”
Various participants and stakeholders in the national competition thought that reaching the main tournament would be the limit for Korea.
“Underdog upsets usually end in the preliminaries.”
A team could get lucky and break through the preliminaries since they only needed to win one match at a time. Looking at Joseon’s preliminary strategies, they clearly planned and played with a single-win mindset. That was enough to get them through the preliminaries, but the main tournament differed.
“How did they win an entire series with those players?”
The main tournament required winning multiple games in a series with each match requiring at least two to three wins.
Hardly any other variables impacted an entire series besides skills when it came to extended competition that could stretch up to five games.
“Winning a series is a different story...”
“Right. It’s completely different.”
Single games and an entire series could be considered entirely different types of competitions in esports. Analyzing the opponent’s tactics and reorganizing strategies for the next game became possible in a series. This demanded flexibility from the think tank and stamina from the players. The second-string players replacing the exhausted first-string players also played crucial roles.
To meet these demands, teams often needed substantial financial power. The other teams felt shocked at the results because the Korean team had the least resources.
“It seemed like the first-string players kept playing.”
“Joseon’s skill level drops significantly from the second string onward.”
“Could it be due to the map selection?”
“They probably won because it was a two to zero victory. If it had gone to three matches, who knows what would have happened.”
Other teams tried to make sense of the news, citing Joseon’s map selection or their two win streak as the reasons for their success. This showed how difficult it was to understand how threatening Joseon’s progress was.
“Damn, a team we never considered is rising.”
“Ha...”
The reason was simple. It had to do with being prepared and unprepared. If a known strong team performed well, one could imagine how they did it. However, Joseon was a complete newcomer in the tournament.
No one knew how Joseon fought or thought. They wouldn’t have paid much attention if they weren't facing Joseon, so the Vikings’ complete defeat caused confusion. Other teams didn’t know how to respond, especially Persia who would face Joseon next.
“... Joseon?”
Persia’s commander, Elepher, heard the news after the match.
“Joseon advanced?”
He looked visibly shocked compared to when he gave his victory interview full of smiles. Now, his expression went stiff.
“What was the score?”
“It was a two to zero win.”
“...”
Elepher slowly nodded, digesting the score as he grabbed his coat.
“An unexpected obstacle has come up.”
He had thought a lot about the Vikings, but hadn’t prepared much for Joseon. The gap between the round of thirty-two and the round of sixteen was also quite short. R̃АＮȏ฿Ês̩
‘There’s no time to prepare.’
Their preparation for the round of sixteen against the Vikings had been in vain. Elepher had to rethink everything from scratch.
“Extract the key points of the match and send them to me. Convene the think tank meeting. We’re not getting any sleep tonight.”
The rounds of thirty-two and sixteen took place within two days. They only had one day left.
Elepher pulled out his phone to watch the highlights of the match on the national competition live broadcast. This channel broadcasted the Joseon match instead of the Persia match.
Elepher entered the channel without thinking and started watching. He would watch if there were highlights. If not, he would rewind the live broadcast timeline.
However...
“I think we’ll win.”
“Oh... the confidence! Good! But why do you think so?”
“Because you can’t fit an elephant into a capsule.”
‘What is this guy talking about?’
Elepher’s face hardened. The final words, subtitled in English, drove the point home.
“Because their civilization’s elephants play the game better than their players.”
Crack.
Elepher’s calm expression shattered.
***
The ripple effect of Joseon’s victory didn’t just cause more tension in the tournament. That was only the case for those who had to fight them. For the fans, the atmosphere became quite festive. In other words, they grew more excited rather than tensed.
Ju-Hyeok’s computer momentarily slowed down.
“Oh, the lag...”
Too many users had swarmed the community server. Small communities like Embul eventually crashed and even LIL Pro experienced server issues.
Still, Ju-Hyeok managed to get in and gauge the reactions.
[Prediction for the next match against Persia]
[Breaking News: Osaka tickets sold out]
[The devil of interviews is back]
[Ah, if I had known, I would have gone to see it in person!!]
[This was a legendary match]
Then, the screen froze again and stopped scrolling.
“What... it stopped.”
Several of the windows that Ju-Hyeok had opened became unresponsive.
“Hm.”
Nevertheless, Ju-Hyeok didn’t mind much. He just wanted to skim the community reactions for fun.
“It doesn’t matter.”
No matter how mischievous online communities could be, only people who loved the game gathered there and they had experienced a spectacular victory today. No one had anything negative to say.
Big) Never doubt Daddy Cookie again
Big) Praise the Great General Cookie
Big) Almond: Victory Factor “Fashion”
Instead, users competed to see who could celebrate the victory more stylishly or humorously. If one compared this to a war between trolls and Almond fans, Almond’s air force had already bombed the troll country into rubble. Then, Almond’s ground troops entered and eliminated the remaining resistance for a complete victory.
A brilliant commander would have little interest in a battle they already won. Ju-Hyeok felt the same and wasn’t interested in debating the match results anymore. Such things were better handled by Ji-Ah, who would scrap and edit the entertaining parts. He just wanted to skim for fun reactions out of habit.
‘This is more important.’
Ju-Hyeok’s attention shifted to another window regarding the company’s financial activities.
[Merchandise Sales Trends]
Their merchandise was the only source of self-produced capital for their fledgling company, Mixed Nuts.
Ju-Hyeok considered this the company’s most important business. He began analyzing and noting down the sales trends from the graphs. Then, he visited a famous website to do further research.
Initially, he intended to check the sales figures provided by the website.
‘Oh?’
A headline on the main page caught his eye.
[Hot Topic: “Fake National Team” Their Victory was “Real”]
An article from a major news outlet popped up.
‘Even here?’
It wasn’t just a news report about Korea defeating the Vikings by a certain score. It was legitimately well-written.
The comment count suggested significant interest, so Ju-Hyeok checked its current news ranking on the portal site.
“!?”
He was stunned.
“Number one...?”
The article currently ranked first on the portal site.
“Wow.”
Of course, previous cases existed where unnoticed people or events became hot topics due to well-timed articles. Civil Empire could be one of those cases. A massive influx of traffic and timely articles appeared after Korea secured its first victory in the main tournament.
And...
‘Ah. The dinner party episode!’
Ding.
[Fake National Team Ep.6 Fashion National Team]
The delayed Fake National Team episode had also been uploaded.
***
Buzz.
Sang-Hyeon’s phone vibrated in his pocket.
[Almond Channel Upload Alert]
[Fake National Team Ep.6 Fashion National Team]
He received the notification about the video upload on his channel, but he didn’t check it. He just stared blankly at the person standing at his door.
‘This person... came here?’
It was Song Ha-Na, the doctor researching his and Sa-Rang’s condition. She was more like a researcher than a doctor and her staff also called her director.
What was she doing here despite being busy? Was she here to catch him for missing hospital appointments? That didn’t make sense.
“Sang-Hyeon, did you block me?”
Song Ha-Na smiled, but her eyes looked somewhat fierce.
“Uh... no?”
“Ho. Really? Then my call should be going through right now. Hehe.”
“...”
Sang-Hyeon eventually admitted to blocking her.
“Sigh. At least put on some proper clothes and come out. I think I know why you blocked me. I’ll be waiting in the hotel lobby. I have something to say...”
“Ah...”
Only then did Sang-Hyeon realize that he was half-dressed. He felt so taken aback by seeing someone unexpected that he had forgotten.
“What’s wrong with his clothes?” another voice suddenly chimed in.
‘Huh?’
Someone peeked from the side of the door at a much lower height than Song Ha-Na’s head. It either had to be a very young child or someone sitting in a wheelchair.
After peeking, she quickly covered her eyes with her hand.
“Ah.”
Even though she spread her fingers wide, she could still see everything.
“See you in the lobby.”
She quickly turned and headed to the lobby.
***
After properly dressing, Sang-Hyeon headed to the lobby.
Song Ha-Na and a Western man sat on the sofa in the hotel lobby. Across from them was Choi Sa-Rang.
‘What’s going on?’
Sang-Hyeon wasn’t in the best mood after someone he had been avoiding came to find him, but Choi Sa-Rang’s presence suggested there could be something worth listening to. She was as sensitive to these matters as he was and wouldn’t have come for trivial reasons.
“Hello. It’s nice to properly greet you. Isn’t it nice to see a familiar face in a foreign country? Haha,”Song Ha-Na laughed brightly and introduced the man next to her, “I mentioned that I sent a study to America, right? He’s from that research institute.”
The man awkwardly bowed like a Korean and introduced himself as Nathan.
Sang-Hyeon didn’t understand the rest of his words and just sat next to Choi Sa-Rang, expecting her to explain what was happening. However, she just stared at Song Ha-Na.
“First, I want to apologize.”
Song Ha-Na began with an apology.
Sang-Hyeon’s heart raced with anxiety. Did something go wrong because he missed a few appointments?
“I am... indeed the best in this country for this research, but I’m not a therapist and I don’t know much about mental health or counseling… But of course, I have a medical license. Both in the US and Korea”, she added while scratching her head.
‘What is she talking about?’
Sang-Hyeon stared at her and waited.
“Gulp,” he swallowed dryly in nervousness.
He rarely grew nervous, but this topic made him feel like a shy student singing in front of classmates for the first time.
Sang-Hyeon hated feeling like this. He hated this situation because this type of tension rarely ended well. For him, this trembling wasn’t from excitement but anxiety.