When Almond had interpreted the tattoo of Swift’s name, he thought Swift had to be an important person to him or that he was possibly Swift himself.

KILL SWIFT

He never considered at all that this body held a grudge against Swift.

‘Looking back, it seems a bit obvious.’

Indeed, it was rather obvious after knowing the outcome. Due to the prejudice that Swift was the protagonist, he hadn't thought of other possibilities.

— OMG~

— !!!

— My head is spinning!

— Newbies are cute, lol.

— Lol newcomers get smacked in the back of the head, right?

— Wow! It was to kill Swift!!

"I actually didn't expect it. Let's see what the story is."

Almond tried to view the memory by putting his hand on the phrase, “Kill Swift,” but there was no reaction.

‘No memory appeared this time.’

This time, no memory emerged.

— ??

— What do we do now?

— No more memories I guess...

Without the ability to view the memory, Almond had to take the written words at face value.

"If I can’t view any more memories... we really have to take killing him at face value."

It said to kill Swift, so it simply meant to kill him. There was no room for other interpretations.

— For real.

— Just kill, lol!

— He already killed him in the beginning, lol.

— Oh, he must feel refreshing, haha.

"I wonder if we should really do as this tattoo says."

Although there were no differing interpretations, whether to follow the tattoo's command remained a question. It was best to continue deciphering the runes.

"Let's look at another sentence."

He completed another sentence with the newly discovered alphabet.

MUST FIND LUNA

This phrase contrasted with the first one.

"Must find Luna... well, this one is deciphered now."

— Luna was on our side after all...

— Luna was the real one!

— Almost everything should be deciphered now, right?

"Looking at these words, Luna seems to be our ally and Swift is an enemy."

Almond began to compare the letters with other runes.

"It seems almost everything can be deciphered. No, we can decipher everything."

By deciphering all the runes obtained while hunting with Swift, the tattoo's phrases could all be deciphered. It seemed like the person who created these phrases tried to construct the sentences using the least number of letters possible. Thus, Almond easily filled in all the gaps.

FIND A RED HOUSE

DON'T TRUST THE BIRDS

YOU WILL SEE THE BOXES

DRINK THE POTION UNTIL YOU PASS OUT

‘What is this?’

It was hard to understand even after translating them.

‘Um... Should we arrange them differently?’

Almond rearranged them in a different order and wrote down the alphabet on the floor again.

Memories keep fading

Find a red house

You will see the boxes

Drink the potion until you pass out

This formed one group.

Must find Luna

Kill Swift

Don't trust the birds

This formed another group.

Zoom...!

Then, all the sentences began to glow.

‘The order mattered?’

Apparently, the order of the phrases seemed quite important or maybe it was their placement.

Ding!

[Memory (★★) Clear!]

[Attention! Since the last floor (★) has not been completed, recognition cannot be obtained yet!]

Finally, he achieved a two star clear.

— His choices snowballed to this on the first try, haha.

— He achieved it before the last floor!

— Lol, sometimes this happens.

— Congrats, congrats, congrats!!

— The 3 star clear is getting closer!

Almond had achieved a two star clear before a one star clear. This was certainly not typical. However, it was not that surprising.

Since Almond rejected Luna's offer and survived, he was doomed to not follow the usual route from then on.

Ding.

The notifications didn’t stop there.

'Again?'

[Viewing memory.]

After completing all the sentences, he could view memories again.

Another notification popped up.

Ding.

[Walnut: The scrim is starting. Come out quickly.]

‘Eh.’

This was different from before.

'Ah. It's already this time.'

— ???

— Huh?

— Is this also an event?

— Walnut, lol.

— Was Walnut really controlling it?!

— What... scrim??

— Almond's avatar Walnut...!

[Pause]

Almond paused the game. It was almost time to end the first part of the stream.

"It’s 2036. This year is different! As I mentioned, the streams will be divided into two parts."

— ??

— ?

— Crazy..

— Hey Almond, are you cutting us off?

— ???

Question marks filled the chat.

Eager viewers who wanted to watch more of the story mode felt disappointed, but a promise was a promise!

Almond continued undeterred.

"Part one was

LIL

's story mode and part two will be

Civil Empire

, but today is a private scrimmage."

Almond reminded them as he moved on to part two of the stream. However, he couldn’t stream the second part because a private scrimmage had been scheduled.

— ???

— WTF.

— Crazy..

— What's with the private scrimmage?

— So, is he basically ending the stream now??

[ASerialKillerQuestionMark has donated 10,000 won.]

[Um... Sir. Does “This year is different” mean only doing half the stream?]

A donation hit the nail on the head.

"No, Mr. Serial. Since there are two parts, the stream is doubled. Thank you for the donation."

— Mr. Serial, lol.

— Lol.

— What an incredible calculation

— Lol What a stretch lol!

Ding!

Another donation came in. It was more of an argument than a donation.

[ConfusionLost has donated 10,000 won.]

[Dividing something in half usually means it's split in half, right? Instead of being doubled…?]

"Thank you Mr. Lost for the 10,000 won. Since it goes from one stream to two streams, isn't that double?"

— Brilliant, Sensei!

— Lol.

— Mitochondria-style math, lol.

— Mr. Lost, LMAO.

— Mr. Lost, hahaha.

With that said, another donation followed.

Ding!

[Solomon has donated 2,000 won.]

[Nutty Solomon's reincarnation, huh? If you split a kid in two, does it become two kids?!]

— Lol.

— Lol!

— For real, hahaha.

"Mr. Solo, thank you for the 2,000 won donation."

— Mr. Solo, haha.

— Solomon ended up being solo, lol.

— ??? If you split solo in two, it becomes a couple~!

— Is it mitochondria??

— Lol.

"Calm down, everyone."

Despite more resistance, nothing could be done to change Almond. He had already promised the

Civil Empire

team, plus it was announced beforehand.

"I wanted to finish Flashy Blade’s story mode, but it took more time because of the puzzle element. I’ll continue it next time. Then..."

Almond bowed.

"Bye!"

The stream ended like that.

— Treevy Bye!

— Goodbye~

— Sob sob..

— Noooooo, bye…

— See ya!

As always, viewers cheerfully bid farewell when it was actually time to leave.

[The stream has ended.]

Shortly after the stream ended, all the viewers left and Almond felt odd being alone in the capsule.

‘... Hmm, it feels quite empty.’

Ding!

Then, a message came.

[Walnut: Aren't you coming??]

[Almond: Oh. I’m coming soon.]

It seemed like he was out of time. Almond quickly started the game.

[Civil Empire]

[Connecting...]

***

Upon entering the game, he wasn't too late. Many people were there, but some empty spots remained.

"Hey. Mr. Almond, you've arrived,” someone greeted him warmly.

"Ah. Hello."

"Do you remember me?"

He seemed like a gentle young man. Almond couldn't quite remember him though. Maybe they fought in the same squad before?

"Uh..."

Almond didn’t respond, but the guy cheerfully continued.

"I was right beside you during the hill battle last time."

He pointed to his ID above his head.

[Latté]

He had an unusual nickname for his age. Did he choose it to have a café-like ID?

"Ah... Mr. Latté."

"Yes! You do remember me!?"

No, Almond just read his ID because the guy pointed at it. Of course, Almond didn't tell him that. There was no need to tell the truth when the guy was so happy.

"That battle was really something!"

Chuck.

He gave Almond a thumbs-up and smiled. He was probably talking about the battle against the English shieldmen on the hill.

"Ah. Thank you, but we still lost."

"It wasn't Mr. Almond's fault."

It was the Korean civilization's fault.

"England has always been a tough opponent," Latté said with a laugh.

Almond felt a bit relieved to meet someone he knew. Waiting in the lobby last time made him feel like the unwelcomed new kid in school.

"Oh. They've arrived."

Three commanders appeared on the stage.

Cookie came forward first and briefly surveyed the lobby.

"Does Mr. Cookie think of Mr. Almond as a main focus?"

"...?"

Almond was expecting the opposite.

"They're being cautious because many players are jealous of Mr. Almond even though you weren’t officially recognized. Ah, I’m also another player, right?”

Almond blankly stared at the startled Latté.

"

Ahaha.

Me!? You think I'm jealous of you right now?!"

"No. I didn't say that—"

"No way! After all, I'm also an archer. Respect comes first, you know? Real recognizes real, something like that?! Mr. Almond is a legend with the bow even in real life!"

Cookie spoke before Latté could finish explaining, "Seems like everyone is here."

The commander's microphone channel made his voice loud and clear without him having to raise it much.

"Today's scrim, as everyone was informed, is against quite a strong country again."

Murmurs.

Everyone started a brief commotion and discussed today's opponent with their teammates.

The opponent appeared on the scoreboard.

[Korea vs Rome]

The opponent was Rome, which was known as a powerful civilization in world history. However, Korea had to have some advantages to maintain a balance during the match. After all, this was a game.

Today was a private scrim, so they could test unique strategies to exploit specific weaknesses and hope for a victory.

"Regardless, it’s a scrim. Don't dwell on winning or losing. Think of it as a chance to maximize our capabilities for the real battle."

“Yes~!”

The players responded in unison.

Cookie nodded and the lobby's light changed, revealing the opposing camp.

Swoosh!

The Roman players appeared with a blue light. They had their characteristic big noses and the deep-set features of Italians.

"&*(&@*($"

"#(&^#"

They muttered something in Italian to each other.

[The game will start in 30 seconds.]

Korea and Rome's team silently stared at each other for thirty seconds. No one bothered to avert their gaze. The game had essentially started already.

If the opponent's momentum overpowered them, they wouldn’t be able to properly fight.

[10]

[9]

The ten second countdown began.

"Let's gooooo!"

"Warrrrr!"

The Korean team shouted their battle cries. Rome’s team also shouted something. A skin-tingling tension was in the air.

Large-scale team games definitely had a different flavor than solo games.

[2]

[1]

Beep.

[Game start]