Season 3: Chapter 251. Rolling Waves (1)
“Tr... Trust us!?” OrangeKing shouted in surprise.
At that moment, a thunderous cheer erupted from the audience.
“Waaaaaah!!”
“Let’s goooo!”
The audience mistook it as a message from the players to the fans. The commentators initially thought the same.
“Aha! They’ve prepared another heartwarming event! That’s truly moving─”
“But wouldn’t it be better to start hunting quickly? Even if it’s an island map, they need to get going to prove whether they can be trusted or not!”
— My heart...
— OrangeKing, are you kidding?
— Are you serious? LOL
“Alright. Apart from the trust us message, there’s no significant movement yet.”
“Yes, that’s correct. This is the usual flow of an island map. There won’t be any real battles until warships are built.”
Both factions focused on advancing to the second era and preparing for the upcoming naval battle.
Soon, Joseon advanced to the second era first.
Boom!
[Joseon — Second Era]
“Wow. No matter what map, they almost always reach the second era first! Joseon!”
“Throughout today’s series! They’ve reached the second era first in four out of five games. The only game they didn’t was due to a first era rush!”
“That’s right. In terms of pure command and operational speed, they’re clearly ahead!”
— Pure skill LOL
— There goes that “pure skill” again
— Winning is all that matters, please win
— Please, just win
— Are they laying the groundwork for the Golden Boot already?
— They looked so shaky in the fourth game
The viewers remained anxious despite Joseon advancing to the second era first. How Joseon lost the third and fourth games had been problematic. They often appeared to stumble over their own feet rather than being outplayed.
“Japan is also advancing to the second era.”
Boom!
[Japan — Second Era]
Japan quickly followed suit and entered the second era.
“Japan’s advancement to the second era is the fastest we’ve seen in this series so far, right?”
“Yes. They already have three more workers than Joseon, don’t they?”
“Ah... This is likely due to their fishing!”
Indeed, Japan consistently outpaced Joseon in food production. They could produce workers faster, leading to more resources being gathered and an ongoing positive feedback loop.
“Joseon needs to break this resource loop quickly. That’s why they attempted a surprise attack with transport ships in the second game!”
“That’s right. They managed to drop an Oppenheimer on the main base and cut off the resource loop!”
“Not just the loop! They completely cut off resources! Japan had zero wood! Zero!”
— LOL, so true
— Wood “0”
— Hahaha, that’s harsh
— The real Oppenheimer
— Can they do it again?
“But are they planning another transport operation this time?” OrangeKing questioned, looking at Joseon’s dock.
“Oh! Indeed, a swift ship has been launched?”
“They should have dominated the sea with warships first, but a swift ship came out...”
Warships were basic combat ships but highly efficient. Since they fired flaming arrows, they synergized well with Joseon’s archery civilization.
“In early warship fights, Joseon has an advantage. They momentarily gave up this advantageous timing for the swift ship. This means they’re investing into this swift ship after reaching the second era first...”
Joseon invested the slight head start from reaching the second era first into the swift ship. This ship needed to accomplish something significant.
“Oh? But there are only workers on the swift ship?”
For some reason, Joseon put only workers on the swift ship that they worked so hard to build.
“There’s one soldier aboard. Pang? Just one?”
Oddly, only Pang boarded the ship.
“Even though Pang is not the leader now, he’s still an important archer. This implies something significant.”
“Meanwhile, Japan is producing fishing ships and Sekibune simultaneously.”
Japan began producing Sekibune, their second era warships. They could do this because their fishing docks and shipyards were separate, allowing them to produce both types of ships simultaneously.
“The number of fishing ships is increasing. This is why Japan is formidable on sea maps. They always lead in numbers.”
“Yes. Although their ships aren’t particularly superior, they’re fast! The combat strength varies depending on who’s onboard, making Japanese ships quite tricky.”
“Meanwhile, Joseon’s second shipyard is completed. Fishing ships and warships are being produced separately... They’re starting warship production. And the swift ship is headed somewhere for a multi-base?”
While the commentators looked away, the swift ship that had taken aboard workers already set sail.
There was something peculiar.
“...?”
OrangeKing couldn’t believe his eyes for a moment.
“What?”
An NPC usually occupied the position at the helm, but not this time.
“No way, is that Pang...?”
Pang was steering the ship. And not just for show. The ship moved wherever he steered.
— ??
— This is romantic
— Is Pang going fishing? LOL
— What is this?
— Is he really doing it?
— What is this bug?
“Pang is steering the ship!?”
“Yes!? The commander isn’t doing it?”
“Yes! Usually, the commander does this... but there is a mode for emergencies.”
“Is this an emergency?”
“No! That’s why it’s strange!”
OrangeKing felt baffled, but it made sense. This scene would be incomprehensible without context because it was highly inefficient, especially for those well-versed in the game.
“No, this wastes a person on the ship... It’s the final game. Surely they’re not just fooling around...” OrangeKing muttered in confusion.
This issue spread to the chat and the community.
***
[What’s with manual ship control???]
[Has Joseon lost it?]
[Is there any benefit to this?]
Posts rapidly filled the traditional Civil Empire community, Embul. All of them had the same question. What was the point of manual ship control? Answers were slow to come.
— It’s easier on the commander.
The one advantage was that it eased the burden on the commander. On sea maps, commanders had a lot more to control. Using manual mode, they gained much more freedom compared to the opposing commander. Was this enough of an advantage?
└ Best Yi Sun-Sin is super fast with her hands... why would she do this??
└ True.
Best Yi Sun-Shin excelled in combat and tactical control. She had no reason to avoid this fight.
└ Plus, naval battles are super important, so what’s the point of offloading this?
Naval battles were even more critical than land battles. The amount of resources poured into each battle was different.
└ Exactly LOL. Every time a few ships are lost, it’s like losing a whole base. No matter how well you manage things, what can you do without battles?
└ That’s why Joseon won the second game.
Ships were very expensive. Once a naval battle started, it was hard for either side to retreat. The damage from each battle was also significant. Even in the second game, Joseon lost over 70% of their Panokseons.
— So there’s no advantage???
The community concluded that there was no advantage. Then, a counterargument appeared.
[Found the one advantage of manual mode!]
[Roman~ce (Photo)]
The photo showed a man fishing on a boat.
— LOL, exactly
— That’s Pang’s Treevy channel profile picture LOL
└ Really? LOL
└ Yes, true LOL
└ Pang is really going for the romance!
— Then let him sail to Korea on a sailboat LOL
└ LOL
└ WTF LOL
It seemed no advantage existed, so they began criticizing the commander.
[Manual mode is a joke! Are they handling the warships properly?]
[Seriously, bringing in a solo rank warrior and messing around in national games]
[Bring out Cookieee]
“Right now, Pang is steering the ship himself. And... he’s doing quite well!”
Meanwhile, Pang had arrived at his destination in the game.
“He always talked about fishing in the Fake National Team series, didn’t he? It seems he really does sail! Anyway, Pang, I mean, the swift ship has arrived at the island.”
— LOL
— It suits him
— Well done
“This seems like they’re setting up a multi-base, right?”
“That seems likely. Joseon is quickly establishing a multi-base. This shows their intention to produce resources rapidly to not fall behind the island civilization.”
“Ah, I see. Certainly, having a multi-base will help keep the snowball effect rolling later on.”
“But the multi-base location is quite provocative, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Why?”
OrangeKing focused on the location of Joseon’s multi-base.
“Well, it seems close to Joseon, but this island stretches up and down...”
He saw Joseon’s main base at 6 o’clock and Japan’s at 12 o’clock. And to the east of Joseon, a long island stretched vertically. Joseon’s multi-base was located at the very bottom of this island. At first glance, it seemed much closer to Joseon. However, it was actually closer to Japan after comparing the area separated by the sea.
“It’s almost just a few crossings away from Japan’s main base, isn’t it?”
“Huh? But you can’t cross there, can you?”
“That’s true. But the travel time by ship is short. And the surprising thing is how Joseon knew this about the map...”
Surprisingly, Joseon quickly understood this map. With full visibility already, the commentators didn’t know when or how the map was revealed to the teams. The observer showed a replay.
“Oh...!”
It was Joseon’s fishing ships. They weren’t fishing near Joseon’s shores, but had moved further out. In doing so, they roughly revealed the coastline. Additionally, the vice-commander used the hawk scouting ability.
“Oh. Did they use the hawk scouting there? I didn’t realize it. I was just watching Pang’s steering!”
“They gauged the location roughly and used the hawk scouting effectively. Joseon could influence the smaller islands near Japan’s coast through the multi-base...”
“But!?”
“Japan is moving first!?”
Swoosh...
The Sekibune set sail with troops aboard. This time, Japan attacked Joseon first.