A woman with black hair and wearing a cap settled into her seat. Around her, people buzzed with excitement.

"Will we win against Rome today?

"Well, if we do, it would be a real jackpot. Honestly, even if we lose, it should be a good fight considering how far we’ve come."

"I believe in us. We're going to the finals!"

The woman in the cap quietly looked down at the field.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The beat of the drums from the cheering squad reached her ears.

She closed her eyes and reminisced. Many things were different back then. They didn’t have the technology to directly transfer spectators into a virtual reality world. It wasn't strange to see reviews from people who had just bought their first capsule. It was a time when everyone felt excited, thrilled, and scared of this new space called virtual reality.

She had stepped forward without any hesitation. When everyone else was half-hearted, she gave it her all. She had no choice. This world was the only place where she could stand on her own without the help of medication. Perhaps that was why she became the best. Not because she had any special abilities, but because she lacked something others took for granted.

"Hey, are you sleeping?"

"..."

At the familiar voice, Sa-Rang quietly opened her eyes.

"No."

"Man, you’re killing the mood here, aren't you? The All-Dive system is really nice. Wish we had this back in our day?"

Thud.

He sat down on the seat as if throwing himself onto it. He was Sa-Rang's old colleague, Popcorn.

Ding~

His chair cushioned him like water despite the way he threw himself down, distorting and bouncing back.

"... What's that?"

"Oh, this is a cash item."

Bang!

Popcorn snapped his fingers and his seat transformed into a luxurious red designer chair.

"!?"

Sa-Rang recognized the chair and her eyes widened.

"Ho? It seems you know a bit about retro stuff?"

Popcorn laughed softly and slightly lifted his hips.

Underneath him was a tiger face that seemed to be embroidered stitch by stitch.

"Is this... an NFT?"

She meant to ask if it was genuine.

"Ah, of course."

Ding!

He displayed the phrase indicating its authenticity. Next to it was a QR code for authentication and a live recognition pattern.

[A chair once used by a legendary streamer who devoured every content industry. Later, he passed down this chair to future streamers. There's a saying in the industry, “Whoever owns this chair will rule YouTube.”] Ṟà

Sa-Rang read the phrase and realized that her thought was correct.

"How do you have that?"

"Why, are you jealous too?"

She had been a fan of that streamer when she was young.

"No. How could someone like you have this!?" Sa-Rang shouted.

Popcorn burst out laughing as if he found it extremely funny.

"Just got lucky and snagged it! If you're jealous, buy it yourself, man."

"..."

It would hurt her pride to buy it from Popcorn.

"Forget it."

She turned her head to watch the match instead. The game was now starting.

[Rome vs Joseon]

This was the biggest match of this group stage. The battle between the solid elite Rome and the underdog Joseon causing a sensation.

"But what's with that hat, really?"

Popcorn flicked Sa-Rang's cap.

"?"

As the game started, her outfit settings changed. Her sophisticated black ball cap disappeared and an almond hat that seemed more suited for children at an amusement park replaced it.

She muttered as discreetly as possible to hide her embarrassment, "I need to wear this so I don't get caught here."

"Ah. It’s camouflage?"

That made sense since quite a few other people wore almond hats around them.

"But is that genuine?"

"... There's no genuine version. It’s fan-made."

"Huh? Doesn’t that person sell merch?"

"Yeah, seems like it."

"Why? They could make some money."

"They must not have the time to worry about it yet."

"That's a shame."

"Change your chair. People are staring."

After the game started, Sa-Rang focused on the game without saying another word. She imagined herself on the field, envisioning a virtual battle in her mind.

"Wowww! Awesome! Go Korea!"

Popcorn had been jumping around and even bought a horn to blow when Joseon first blocked the exit. Now, he lamented when Rome's secret base was revealed.

"Ah, ahhh! Man! Isn't this turning disadvantageous?!"

"It is disadvantageous, but let's watch a bit more."

"What do you mean!?"

"Joseon will soon be in the third era too."

"But Rome is already in the third era!"

"Joseon's third era is different," Sa-Rang said with a certain belief, "It's out."

The production of crossbows had begun.

***

Joseon's crossbow was incredibly powerful and made primarily from buffalo horn. In modern terms, it was a type of recurve bow. While typical bows needed to be large to be powerful, a recurve bow inherently had high tension in the bow itself and didn’t need to be large. This allowed it to maintain a small size, yet shoot over incredible distances. In short, it was almost the perfect form of a bow.

[Crossbow - 100%]

The crossbow finished production and appeared in the Joseon camp.

"The crossbow has finally appeared!"

"It’s Joseon's secret weapon!"

The broadcaster's statement was no exaggeration as the methods and materials for making the crossbow were always highly classified.

"Exactly. Those who know a bit of history will understand. The vast Qing empire was afraid of Joseon making crossbows, so they wouldn’t export buffalo horns to us!"

Even other countries hesitated to supply Joseon with buffalo horns, the main material for making this crossbow. Since buffalos did not inhabit Joseon, it always cost a lot to import buffalo horns. This historical fact remained in

Civil Empire

as a handicap that required gold to overcome.

"Right! But it makes sense why they wouldn't export it! They knew we'd make crossbows and shoot them!"

— LOL

— Why would they help? LOL

— Exactly LOL

— Haha

— The bow that even ancient China acknowledged

"In modern times, the world still watches out for it! China guards against it! Japan trembles at Joseon's crossbow!!"

"Right! If there had been YouTube in the Joseon era, surely such videos would have been posted!"

"Yes!"

— LOL

— Agreed.

— They'd still be posting it today LOL

— Wow~

"But this is really no exaggeration! It's a history we can be proud of!"

The broadcaster emphasized this to prevent any misunderstanding with the exaggerated YouTube history stories about the crossbow. After all, the power of the crossbow was more real than any other weapon.

"Of course! They really trembled! I saw it myself!"

OrangeKing claimed to be an eyewitness.

— ??? My lord! He saw it with his own eyes!

— Born in 1798, Kim OrangeKing

— LOL how did he see it?

— Haha

"So, anyway! Who receives this weapon first? That's kind of important, right~?" OrangeKing threw in a playful joke with a chuckle.

"Ah, yes! Right!? It’s a matter of pride! Who is the ace of aces! Something like that, right!?"

"Exactly. I've been a pro player, you know. There's a lot of pressure on your shoulders!"

"Pang has always received it first, right?"

"Right."

OrangeKing spoke of the pressure on their shoulders, revealing the identity of the first recipient of the crossbow.

A white light highlighted the player.

[Pang]

[Crossbowman]

As usual, Pang received the new weapon first.

"Ah. Of course, it's Pang."

"That’s right. He’s been the leader of the national competition archery team and performed well in the last two matches. Cookie’s trusted archer, Pang!"

Pang's unit also transformed and became the first to be equipped with third era weapons. Following him, Almond and Latte also received crossbows.

"So! Anyway! Joseon finally got the crossbows? Now we need a comeback!"

Finally, Joseon had armed themselves with crossbows. This happened for the first time in the national competition.

— Korea’s secret weapon appears

— Everyone's done for

— But the situation is still not great

However, the situation was not favorable.

"If Cookie and Joseon can't show something clever here, they'll just get swallowed up by the game’s current momentum!"

Joseon needed to spark a counterattack here. This was essentially the most important time in the game for them.

"While you're saying that, the Roman army has already arrived at Joseon's six o'clock base!"

Rome's remaining troops with third era equipment had invaded Joseon's six o'clock base. No forces were defending the six o'clock base.

"Isn't any support coming?"

"If they go... perhaps it’ll be the ones who received the crossbows, right? About ten of them have received crossbows now."

A total of ten crossbowmen had been formed. Finally, they received their orders. However—

[Worker Annihilation]

The command they received was not to defend. It was to attack.

***

"Alright! Let's go!"

This time, Pang took the lead.

Ping...! Ping...!

Pings appeared on the map at two o'clock at Rome's base and not Joseon's. They would embark on an offensive operation and not a defensive one.

"What's happening? Why are we moving suddenly? Shouldn't we be applying more pressure?!" the archers following Almond asked.

They hadn't been monitoring the situation from above and couldn’t imagine for a moment that Rome would have another base.

"I thought we would win by wiping them out when they came out!?"

They oddly directed their questions at Almond probably because Pang was at the very front and Almond was immediately behind him with the other archers.

— Do you think asking him would help? LOL

— Why are they asking Almond? LOL

— Does he even answer?

— Is it just because Almond is the most famous? LOL

"Ah, that's..."

Maybe it would've gone unnoticed if Almond hadn’t responded, but he hesitated as if trying to come up with an answer.

The viewers thought he knew nothing and tensed up.

— ??

— Don't say anything.

— No, not that.

— Why is he answering?

A brief hope arose that Almond actually understood the situation enough. Then, Almond wore a serious expression and tapped Carrot who was running next to him.

"Carrot. Brief me."

— ??? He hasn’t grown at all...

— Following exactly like how he learned from the masters. Please delete the script~

— LOL

— LOL This is right

Almond asking Carrot was the correct decision. She was the only one who truly understood the situation.

"We’re heading to a Roman base right now."

"A base!?"

Pang, leading ahead, turned around in surprise.

"What? There's another base!? What the hell? Is that what you meant when you said we were screwed?"

"Yeah, we got totally baited. Rome had workers stashed away from the start even during the scouting."

A silence fell among the ten runners. They all felt shocked and spat out harsh swear words.

"... Crazy."

"Shit... damn..."

They understood that having workers stashed away already changed this game beyond a normal one.

"Is this for real? We've been completely played?"

In other words, they had been completely tricked.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Almond muttered vaguely in response, "Wow. Crazy."

Carrot chuckled and asked, "Bro, you didn’t know, did you?"

"... Ahem."

— ??

— What's with that acting tone? LOL

— The nut dude LOL doesn't even try to pretend, it's infuriating LOL

— (Just agree with whatever I say, don’t ask)

— No way LOL Act properly LOL

— Immediately busted LOL

Still, Pang came to Almond’s defense.

"Why are you asking a kid that?"

— LOL

— Friendship sealed with chicken

— Is this really helping? LOL

Of course, Almond was aware of the critical situation now.

"I know. If we don’t deal damage to their hidden base now, we’ll be at a huge loss. That’s why we’re heading there."

His intuitive understanding reached the same conclusion. If their group of ten didn't inflict worker damage at the two o'clock base, the game would completely go south.

"Wow...!"

The other members behind admired him.

Carrot, who had high standards, shook her head disapprovingly.

"You got the gist of it right, at least."

Pang and other colleagues like Spam readily acknowledged Almond.

"Wow, Almond has grown a lot! He's become a big fish now!"

"Almond~ now also has a walnut brain~"

Regardless, Almond was evolving.

Shortly afterward, the archers arrived in front of the secret two o'clock base.

'Impressive...'

Once up close, the towering high walls seemed impossibly large. However, Almond didn’t feel intimidated. He had practiced a lot. More importantly, what he held in his hand gave him confidence.

'With this...'

Ping.

He lightly plucked the string of his crossbow with confidence shining in his eyes.

"Of all the things from our country, this crossbow is definitely something to be proud of."

When his old coach had taken out the treasured crossbow to show him, pride sparkled in his eyes. Perhaps his current expression resembled that look.