"Joseon! No! Is South Korea going to the tournament!?"

"No, I thought they would take some time to gather resources after taking the highlands, but they're going straight in! Straight away!"

"The mounted archers are wreaking havoc in the enemy’s main base! All the enemy workers are being wiped out!

Ahhh!"

"And now..."

For a moment, the commentators fell silent. Even the chat slowed down as time seemed to move slower.

[Surrender]

The enemy had declared a surrender.

"Waaaaaa!!!"

The players, without exception, ran into each other's arms and hugged each other tightly. Some collapsed onto the ground.

Bang!

Both commentators stood up simultaneously and shouted at the top of their lungs, "Geeee Geeeee!!!"

OrangeKing shouted while throwing uppercuts into the air, "After getting cut down by Gojoseon! Now it's North Korea's turn to cut them down!"

"When will they finally come to South Korea!! Spain!!?"

"Even if they lose this game! North Korea is considered the weakest among our Joseon provinces! But they won!"

— Haha

— When will they finally come to South Korea? Haha

— Seriously haha

— They’re saying anything haha

— Joseon provinces haha

— The Eight Lords haha

— LOL

The excited caster spat and shouted, "That's right! Spain! In the end, they have never truly dominated even against the weakest of the Joseon provinces! It's hard to believe that they are a strong team!"

"It feels like a complete mismatch! And now... Oh, wait! What's happening with the finals? This..."

The two paused to check their messages in

This World

. They were waiting for a signal from the production team.

"Has the result come out?"

The calculations were complicated enough that they couldn't immediately declare the results. As commentators, they had to be cautious.

— Please, please

— Come on, confirm it

— I think it’s confirmed

— Isn’t it a sure thing?

— Not absolutely sure??

— So nervous

This time of caution felt like an eternity to some viewers.

"Ah..."

The caster spoke after what seemed like an eternity, "We have just heard." He took a deep breath and shouted, "Joseon! South Korea! Advances to the tournament! It’s confirmed!!!"

With the news confirmed, OrangeKing jumped and spread his arms.

"Joseon! Advances to the tournament!!!"

— LOL

— Wow

— North Korea won, but why is Joseon advancing? I really don’t get it.

— OMG amazing

Another explosive cheer erupted from the audience after the confirmation.

"Waaaaa!"

"South Korea!"

The cheers resonated with the drums.

A huge white Taegeukgi was hoisted and fluttered in Spain’s main base.

— OMG

— Wow, we advanced

— Unbelievable

— This is crazy

— Amazing

— Seriously insane

— Congratulations

— Wow

***

The euphoria of advancing to the finals didn't fade easily. Not only because it was their first time in years, but also because this match had been a complete comeback victory.

"Ah... My heart won't stop racing! The highlights of the match are now being shown!"

"From just watching, it’s hard to tell if these are Spain’s highlights or Korea’s?!"

The highlight reel showed the moment when all eight siege towers had been captured.

— LOL

— Just from this, it looks like a Spanish victory

— Spain did well too

"A conversion like that is really not easy to pull off..."

"Right? Unless the other side cooperates perfectly..."

— Lol

— Exactly like a trick

— Right lol

"Who would’ve thought they were faking it? Soldiers panicked and ran out of the siege vehicles! Who would think this was staged?"

— Lol seriously

— Nacho couldn’t have avoided it

— The transport upgrade was a stroke of genius.

"Yeah, Nacho was counting everything and trying to convert them... Spain must have seen the number of soldiers running out and thought that was it."

"Exactly."

The next scene showed Malatang's desperate charge to the castle gate.

"Oh, we were so frantic that we didn’t mention it much, but Malatang’s contribution was significant too."

"Right. Without this scene, Cookie’s strategy would have meant nothing."

Only a limited number of soldiers could enter the siege towers. Those soldiers couldn't even do anything sometimes, but they did it this time. They inflicted considerable damage on the enemy and opened the gate.

"Now, the mounted archers..."

The next scene showed the mounted archers storming in.

"Even in the replay, they’re so fast that it looks like a bug when they passed through the gate."

Then came the splendid archery skills of the mounted archers and the duel between Almond and Tres.

"Ohhh! This is another legendary scene!"

"Yes, without this, the match wouldn’t have ended so early!"

— True

— It felt like watching a movie

— I didn’t even know what happened the first time I saw it lol

— Have to watch at 0.2x speed to understand the fight

— This clip will circulate everywhere

In the video, Almond and Tres charged at each other and exchanged attacks. Then, in an instant, Tres got knocked down and died. In slow motion, it was far from an instant.

"I think this is similar to that old match where JeonJaPa faced off in a Flashy Blade duel?"

"Oh! Right, it’s similar, isn’t it?"

"This clip will circulate just like that! Tres will die all day long watching this!"

— LOL

— Three years later, Tres is still suffering...

— Eternal chikicha prison...

— Oh, that video...haha

"Now! The MVP voting has been completed!"

"Oh, they said it was particularly tough today."

"Yes! Let's take a look!"

***

The reporter beamed with joy today. Was it because South Korea made it to the finals? That was part of it.

The reporter would claim that, but everyone on the filming crew knew the real reason.

[MVP: Cookie]

"Woooooah!"

When Cookie was selected as the MVP, she jumped higher than when South Korea secured their spot in the finals.

"Cookie! It's such an honor and... um, a relief to be interviewing you today! It’s an infinite honor!"

— Haha relief?

— What's with the reporter's excitement? haha

— The reporter who escaped the interview demon haha

— LOL

"Cookie! You must be thrilled about making it to the finals! Could you briefly introduce yourself to the viewers?"

"Ah... Hello, I'm Cookie. This is my first interview this year."

Cookie started the interview with a shy smile.

The reporter, still smiling, began with some light questions.

"From what I know, it's rare for a commander to be chosen as MVP. What do you think might be the reason that you were chosen this time?"

Cookie nodded as if he had a good idea.

"Ah, yes. I think they chose me because there are a lot of things people want to ask me."

— LOL so humble

— But seriously, we’re curious about the strategy haha

— Indeed haha

The reporter nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"Such a humble response! Given today's impressive strategy, it's no wonder you were chosen as MVP! There are probably a lot of questions!"

She held up a sheet of questions and smiled.

"I received an unprecedented number of questions. I'd appreciate it if you could answer them as comfortably as possible!"

"Ah, yes..."

People felt especially curious about one thing.

"You seemed to have anticipated the conversion missionaries from the start! Did you really know from the beginning? The conversion upgrade itself isn't that common, right?"

Cookie shook his head with a laugh.

"Ah... I originally planned to use siege towers. I didn't predict the conversion missionaries."

"Really? So it was an improvisation once you got inside?"

"Yes. Almond survived quite a long time during reconnaissance, which I didn't expect. I'm sure the enemy didn't expect that either."

When Almond's name came up, the reporter slightly flinched.

"Ah, Almond... uh, what made you predict the conversion then?"

— PTSD haha

— Just hearing Almond's name makes them tremble haha

— Is he Voldemort? LOL

— Don't say the name!

— Voldnut is insane haha

"There were too many missionaries. More than usual for missionaries and moving in large groups was also strange."

Cookie had observed Almond's reconnaissance.

"Considering that ambush conversions work well in mountainous terrain, I thought they might choose a conversion strategy."

"Oh? So you weren't certain?"

"That's right. I had to think of a way to counter the conversion while sticking to the original strategy. Then I came up with the fun strategy you saw."

— OMG haha

— Yeah, it's hard to be 100% sure just from that

— Is that why they came up with the Trojan Horse? Insane

— Incredible adaptability

"Oh... So that's why you kept using the siege towers? The commentators were puzzled, thinking you hadn't noticed the conversion."

"Yes. They're good decoys. Siege weapons are slow and don't consume the population. Plus, they're expensive and useful compared to soldiers."

— Wow

— Incredible

— Decoys

— Turning what you originally planned into decoys, amazing

— This was an improvised decision? Insane

The viewers felt surprised at how many tactical decisions had been made.

"While gathering the siege towers, there was another event that made me more certain."

"Oh, what was it?"

The reporter tried to recall any significant events, but couldn't think of any. To ordinary people, nothing special had happened.

"They were building a castle in a position easily scouted by hawks."

However, the decision to build a castle was significant to a commander.

"... Oh! That confirmed your suspicion?"

The reporter found it increasingly difficult to follow. For an ordinary person, fully understanding these strategic battles in one explanation was impossible no matter how simply Cookie explained it.

"Yes. In a typical third era Spanish strategy, it would be advantageous to make aggressive moves if they had that many missionaries. They would pressure us because missionaries and musketeers specialize in that."

"Oh..."

"But building a castle? That's a taunt to come over. It made me think that they were preparing something else"

"Ah... I see..."

The reporter's mind was going blank.

— ??? Really?

— OMG this is another kind of torture haha

— The devil of strategy... so strong!

"At that point, I was about eighty percent sure that it was a conversion strategy. Therefore, I went with a siege tower rush. As expected, they were planning a conversion and we followed the plan I hinted to Malatang at the start."

"Oh, what was the hint?"

"I told them not to come out until I gave the signal."

"Oh! Did you explain the situation? The players might have been confused."

"No. There was no time for that. I just had to get the result."

"Even so, Malatang executed it perfectly."

"Yes, he probably had a rough idea. There were unnecessary transport expansions to deceive Nacho..."

The rest of the story went mostly as the viewers witnessed.

However, the reporter still had to listen to the endless principles of strategic rock-paper-scissors.

"... Finally!"

She had to cut the interview short due to time.

"Please share your thoughts on advancing to the finals and your future goals!"

"Ah, yes."

Cookie smiled at the camera.

"I'm happy not just for us, but also for making the enemy fleetless."

"!?"

The reporter's face turned pale. This felt like déjà vu…

— LOL

— OMG haha

— Why beat the corpse?

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

— Isn't this a crime!?

— Almond said he learned it from Cookie in a stream and it was true haha

"I can't bring myself to watch the documentary, but I've heard that quite a few of our team members have become unemployed. So..."

Cookie uncharacteristically raised his voice at the end.

"Please continue to support us! We'll do our best until the end! Thank you!"

— So touching

— Let's go!

— So moving

— Let's go all the way!

***

That day, even media unrelated to esports reported on Korea's advancement to the finals.

[The "Underdog" Korea, predicted by everyone to fail, secures advancement after loss against Italy]

[Korea "Advances to Finals" - What’s different about this year?]

[Civil Empire National Tournament, "Finals Secured" - First stage in Osaka, Japan]

Interest from non-gamers began to grow.