Thud...!

Chi-Seung had watched the entire game while standing and finally collapsed into his seat.

"... Is this real?"

He had already calculated the possibilities of advancing to the main tournament.

[Victory]

The moment this word appeared in front of him, Chi-Seung knew for certain that Korea had advanced. He couldn't help but repeat it.

"Are we really going to the tournament?"

He still doubted whether it could happen in reality. Despite wishing for it so much and trying so hard, a part of him thought it could never happen. It was a contradiction and the truth at the same time. The more he tried, the more that thought that settled in him proved itself.

He believed his spear could pierce through anything and continued to thrust, believing that someday it would break through. However, the shield remained firm no matter what stance he took or how many times he repeated it. The more he thrust, the more it only proved the shield’s performance.

The contradiction was too great. A battle between a spear that could pierce anything and a shield that could block anything.

His spear was not that great and others could easily break through that shield. A not-so-great spear versus a not-so-great shield. That was Chi-Seung's fight.

Thud!

Every time the shield’s impact rang out, laughter came with it.

— Sigh. As expected of the Korean team lol.

— Get rid of the seed rights dammit, Korea sucks at Civil Empire

— Ha, please.

— We should be grateful to even enter the preliminaries, lol.

— Seeding rights should honestly be given out of respect for being the birthplace of esports, obviously.

How laughable did it seem? A world where one could always see a battle between the world's best spear and the world's best shield. Watching Chi-Seung's fight to determine who was more crude would naturally bring ridicule.

Chi-Seung now acknowledged their laughter. He thought maybe what he was doing was indeed trivial.

Then, the shield broke one day.

Boom!

It was astonishing. Something that had been so firm gave way so easily when it broke. Had there been invisible cracks for some time? Or was there a way to break it all at once?

Anyway, it broke. It shattered into pieces and became unrecognizable.

The countless laughs and mockeries also disappeared. Even if they still existed, he couldn't hear them anymore.

“Daehan Minguk!!”

“Waaah!”

Cheers rang out so loud that mockery couldn't dare intrude.

“Waaah!”

The support from the crowd surged like waves.

He swallowed hard to hold back his tears, but couldn’t stop what had already started.

"Ah, damn..."

Chi-Seung frowned deeply. He didn't want to be like this. Tears streamed endlessly from his eyes. Once it started, it couldn't be stopped.

His legs gave out and he couldn't get up or move to another seat. He knew it looked pitiful.

"Whuaa... Ah..."

A grown man crying so loudly. The whole world would mock him. However, he felt that he wouldn't be able to move if he didn't let it out.

His whole body was burning up and trembling. What was this…? What kind of emotion was this?

Chi-Seung didn't know. He was experiencing this whirlpool of emotions for the first time in his life.

He could only guess. Was it pity for the past? Or sorrow? Anger?

'I hated it so much...'

No. He had hated, been angry, and depressed. Those who ignored him looked down on him and never acknowledged him… Those guys… Now, he could finally get revenge!

Where had all those feelings gone? Had they been washed away by the fierce waves? No. The pain was still there. It couldn't have disappeared.

Those feelings had been firmly embedded like stones, forever remaining there, yet he couldn't feel the anger and sorrow from that time.

"Every, everything... had meaning..."

He finally saw clearly after achieving his goal.

Whoosh...

Looking back at the path after the waves receded, he had walked on those firmly embedded stones. The path he walked on was never in vain. Every moment of doubt and agony had meaning. Everything had been an important moment.

"This was it... everything, all of it..."

That was how he could keep going forward. Even if he stumbled, he could do it again. Even if someone gave up and left the team, Chi-Seung continued. Because everything had meaning, even stumbling only made this moment shine brighter.

Now, he could keep going forever. He wasn't afraid anymore. No defeat, neglect, or despair scared him.

The last thing to crawl out of Pandora's box…

"It was all hope."

This dazzlingly bright feeling was hope.

***

Everyone felt shocked after the confirmation of Korea's advancement to the finals. This was shocking news for Spain and France, who had been eliminated, and Rome, who had advanced with them. And to the teams that would face Korea in the finals.

Most of all, the Korean users supporting them felt the most shocked.

[Is it true? Not a bug?]

[Traffic is crazy]

[It's going to crash again...]

[Wow, crazy...]

[Cookie’s interview, seriously, you have to see Cookie from his rookie days to understand this]

On Embul, the most famous community related to

Civil Empire

, an absurd amount of posts started pouring in.

[Bang. Sorry. Restoring...]

As a result, the server crashed again.

[Didn't they say they expanded it? Still refugees]

[Does Embul even work?]

[Row the Civil Empire Korea boat]

Server expansion wasn't something that could be done in a short period. Users eventually moved to the shelter provided by LIL Pro.

[Applying for refugee status~]

[Everyone is on LIL Pro, lol, crazy]

[Got the highlights from today's match]

After the decline of the LIL World Cup, more than half the users began talking about

Civil Empire

. No matter how much others tried to stop the discussions and kick people out, they couldn't stop the public flow.

[Since when did we talk about LIL on LIL Pro, lol]

[Seriously, roasting players all day, lol]

[Wasn't talking about LIL on LIL Pro a ban?]

From the beginning, saying that only

LIL

stories could be discussed on LIL Pro was a rather weak argument. The community had been around for a long time. A variety of people gathered and generated stories on various topics. Gaining support to block only

Civil Empire

stories was hard. Ultimately, LIL Pro decided to go with the flow instead of blocking them.

[Civil Empire Pro]

They created a place where only

Civil Empire

stories could be discussed.

[Wow, victory!!!]

[They're making a category, crazy lol]

[I can't believe a day like this came for Civil Empire!!!]

[Have the newbies in Civil Empire increased too? lol]

[Wow, the finals are really amazing... wow...]

[Mounted archer entry scene.gif]

With Embul crashing, LIL Pro started gaining great momentum. This was good news for

Civil Empire

users as well. Within the huge community of LIL Pro,

Civil Empire

stories were officially categorized and continuously reproduced. This clearly had an enormous promotional effect. Not only was the game promoted, but everyone related to it benefited.

[Related streamers of Civil Empire]

[If you're curious about skill streams for Civil Empire, here it is]

[Rules related to promoting streams]

The promotional effect for streamers related to

Civil Empire

, if such a thing still existed in Korea, was significant.

“What the...? Why are my viewers like this?”

— lol surprised

— Is this the dumpling?

— Hilarious lol

— When will Dumpling become Kimchi Dumpling?

— Dating Chi-Seung?

Water Dumpling had never had such a big increase in viewers after the Fake National Team series came out. She wasn't mentioned as a think tank member and only appeared in a supporting role.

Many people recognized her stream as a skill stream and started flocking in.

[Current Viewers: 2.1k]

Water Dumpling’s stream, which only used to be watched by a few dozen people, now had two thousand viewers. The rise in Chi-Seung's popularity, who was virtually the main character of the Fake National Team series, would be even greater.

“... Wow. So many people have come?”

Chi-Seung became speechless for a while after seeing his number of viewers. He occasionally streamed at night and the most viewers he'd get was in the hundreds despite having a certain level of fame in the industry.

After the Fake National Team series, the numbers gradually increased.

[Current Viewers: 5.9k]

A whopping five thousand people came to watch. Of course, it was a temporary phenomenon. How he handled this could determine his future path. Still, the water for rowing had come, which was undoubtedly favorable.

“Did you come to congratulate me on advancing to the finals? I can't stream for long... Ah, well, I got fired from my part-time job, so I can... Oh! Thank you for the 100,000 won donation!? Quit my part-time job?! That's a bit...”

Chi-Seung grew flustered by the sudden surge of chat and donations.

— lol adorable

— Wow, didn't know he was this good before Civil Empire

— The think tank guys are really good

— Kimchi! Kimchi! Kimchi!

— How good are the actual players if he's this good?

— Quit your part-time job, Chi-Seung~

Anyway, having so many viewers on his stream made him quite happy. It felt nice not to stare at a stagnant chat window all day and not to feel like he was talking to a wall. Everything was going good.

“Ah. If you want to hear more about the finals… Actually, besides me, there's Pang hyung and...”

He mentioned Pang’s stream and other unnoticed players from the Fake National Team who quit their jobs for the finals. It didn't take long to mention all of them because a few members from the Fake National Team consistently streamed.

Meanwhile, the newly unemployed Pang casually entered his capsule to start today's stream...

“Huh?”

He blinked his weary eyes and stared at the number of viewers.

“Is this a bug...?”

— lol

— Is this Pang's stream?

— Wow, so many people

— Can I join the unemployed fleet too!?

— Hello

— Hyung, please do the red card once

— Caught a big fish~

[Current Viewers: 4.3k]

Pang's stream struggled to get even dozens of viewers, let alone hundreds. His streaming schedule was highly irregular and commander streams were more popular, making it hard for player streams to gain traction.

“Wait, this 4.3k… does that mean 4,300?”

— Yes

— Yep

— What else would it be?

— lol

— Yes

“... Wow,” he let out a low exclamation. “Quitting my job was the right choice!” he said excitedly and immediately started the game.

Quickly accepting things seemed to be his calling.

***

Meanwhile, Almond was already a well-established mid-tier streamer. He was undoubtedly the main character of the Fake National Team series as the owner of the channel where it was uploaded. He was also the biggest star player on the team, so he experienced a massive viewer increase even without the finals boost.

He turned on his stream for the day.

Ding.

[Almond has started streaming.]

[Re-summoning the demon of interviews]

Judging by the title, it was a communication stream sharing behind-the-scenes stories about advancing to the finals.

— AlHa

— AlHa hi

— Wow, how long has it been since Almond's solo stream

— Looks like all the Civil Empire members are taking a break today lol

— Wow

— I missed you!!

As soon as news of his stream spread, a huge number of viewers flooded in. Not only those who usually watched Treevy, but also users from other media platforms.

“Oh...”

Even Almond, who rarely mentioned viewer numbers, hesitated momentarily after seeing the number displayed at the bottom.

‘I was just going to chat.’

He thought about playing a game, given the numbers.

“Um. Well... today's just a chat stream talking about behind-the-scenes stories.”

He wanted to ask them if that was okay.

— Even better, lol

— Why are you asking? lol

— He’s asking because there are so many viewers lol

— Translation: Leave if you're going to leave

— Summoning the demon of interviews? Even better

So many viewers had gathered that even Almond, who usually didn't ask, felt the need to ask.