Season 3: Chapter 278. Triple Down (2)

After the Japan match, Joseon’s team skyrocketed in popularity. The growing interest in the team had been steadily rising and exploded after their close victory over Japan. Thanks to this, they received numerous sponsorship offers. The team’s resources grew abundant and even the players who streamed while competing began to gain attention.

KimchiWarrior, the leader of their think tank, didn’t directly play but still saw his viewership increase significantly. Among them, Almond had already been quite famous and shot up into stardom. There was no better way to describe it.

Articles about Almond flooded the media and he became a national sports hero partly due to his background. He had been a rising star in the archery world, who many expected to save the faltering men's archery team. If it hadn’t been for a certain accident, he would have become a sports hero much earlier.

After losing everything in that accident, he made a comeback in virtual esports and regained what he had lost in real life. People couldn’t help but be captivated by his story. Becoming a star seemed destined. Some rumors even stated that Almond had a year’s worth of advertisements and variety show appearances lined up after the tournament.

Before the competition even finished, he already began participating in some sponsorship shoots and a few interviews. Because of this, some critics claimed that the Joseon team was celebrating too early.

Some harsh articles criticized them for beginning external activities as if they had already won even though the tournament hadn’t ended yet. It could be seen that way. However, this was all part of Hui-Chul’s plan.

"I think it would be better if you engage in external activities during this time."

While doing these activities, Almond skipped several practice sessions. He only participated in key scrimmages, conserving his energy by skipping smaller matches. This wasn’t out of negligence. It was Hui-Chul’s deliberate decision.

While external shoots could be tiring, Almond felt far less exhausted than shooting arrows in virtual reality.

However...

"Just be in charge of training our archery squad."

Hui-Chul gave him full control over training the archery unit. Almond led every session and the expressions on the archery squad members looked less than thrilled.

‘He’s going to run us to death, isn’t he?’

‘Oh no, not again?’

‘Oh God, help us...!’

***

Tap tap tap tap!

"Huff... Huff...!"

Latte and Carrot ran through the forest while recalling those times. On that day, they ended up running all day long after letting go of their bowstrings too sharply during curve shot training.

‘Hit the target! Hit it!’

Their minds now focused solely on hitting their targets. They ran with all their might.

[Intercept]

They sprinted toward the point where the commander had issued the intercept order.

"Push forward!!!"

"Charge!!!"

At the designated point, the enemy spearmen clashed with the barbarian soldiers.

[Watch]

However, a watch order placed them much farther back behind the spearmen.

"What's going on? There's nothing here. Should I just shoot the spearmen?"

Sometimes, the locations could be slightly off when commanders placed orders from an aerial view. Latte thought this was one of those cases and prepared to shoot the spearmen, but—

Tug.

Carrot grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"It's both an intercept and a watch order. The command is split into two. The positioning isn’t wrong."

Cookie had deliberately issued two separate commands to prevent any confusion. The spearmen were to be intercepted while the area behind them was to be watched.

"Also, the watch order takes priority."

Orders were usually color-coded by priority. The watch order was red, meaning it was the highest priority. With two separate commands in different colors, there was clearly no mistake.

"They’re coming."

Carrot anticipated that something would likely come from beyond the forest.

"What is?"

Click.

At that moment, they heard a loading sound from the forest. Without needing to say a word, both archers immediately scattered and looked at where the repeating crossbowmen would likely appear.

"Huff... Huff..."

Latte confirmed that Carrot had moved deeper into the forest and Carrot did the same with Latte.

‘They’re coming.’

Both archers drew their bows.

[Focus]

A glowing light of focus gathered around them. The first shot was crucial.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

The Chinese spearmen began to pull back. Their retreat seemed awkward because Chinese soldiers were known for their impeccable coordination. They usually formed tight formations like a well-choreographed dance to pressure the opponent.

They rarely made mistakes in their formations. Now, they clumsily staggered and tripped over each other as they withdrew. Because of this, Joseon’s soldiers pursued them and sensed victory.

Cookie wasn’t the type to micromanage every move. He ordered soldiers to either charge forward or retreat based on intuition. Joseon’s soldiers chased in earnest, believing they had the upper hand. This allowed China to confidently reveal the repeating crossbowmen. There were four of them.

‘There!’

Both Carrot and Latte spotted the crossbowmen. Carrot gave a hand signal, pointing to her target with her drawn bow. Latte did the same, signaling at his own target. However, trees blocked the paths to those targets.

"Haah."

Carrot took a deep breath.

‘I have to hit them with a curve shot.’

Joseon’s barbarian soldiers charged forward and chased the spearmen. The crossbowmen were entirely focused on the barbarian soldiers. They didn’t notice Carrot and Latte.

‘I’ll have to shoot around two trees.’

Still, the duo was heavily outnumbered. Even if they had equal numbers, regular archers were always at a disadvantage against crossbowmen in direct combat. If their position was revealed, they would be done for.

‘I have to hit them. In one shot.’

Carrot repeatedly reminded herself. If she missed the first shot, everything would go wrong. This was her first time freely using a curve shot in live combat. She had to calculate the angle on her own.

Thunk.

The repeating crossbowmen stepped forward. Their weapons had recoil, so they needed a stable stance. They rested their crossbows on their knees and prepared to fire.

Thump thump.

Carrot’s heart raced as if it would burst.

"Haah."

Was she nervous? She couldn’t release the arrow immediately. She drew the bow again into a full draw. With the bowstring fully drawn, she gathered her focus.

‘Think of practice.’

Strangely, her heartbeat slowed.

‘It couldn’t be worse than missing in practice.’

Missing in practice led to hell. In fact, missing in practice was almost worse than missing in real combat. That thought alone made her nerves fade.

‘Now.’

Her eyes widened and she released the arrow.

Fwooosh!

At that exact moment, Latte released his arrow as well.

"!?"

Boom!

Two flashes of white light burst out simultaneously.

‘Hit!’

Two crossbowmen fell and the remaining two stood up in shock. As expected, the crossbowmen reacted slowly. They had no choice. It was nearly impossible to quickly turn while holding such heavy weapons.

"Seven o'clock!!"

Even when they desperately tried to turn toward where the arrows came from...

"!? What? There’s nothing there!"

All they could see were dense pine trees. Only after another round of arrows struck their heads did they realize—

"Curve—"

Boom!

Another crossbowman collapsed helplessly from Carrot’s shot.

"Dammit!"

Boom!

The last remaining crossbowman fell from Latte’s shot.

‘It’s done...!’

The two archers exchanged glances in midair. Then, as if on cue, they dashed forward and rained down arrows on the spearmen.

***

"YAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The audience erupted with a massive roar.

— Whoa whoa whoa

— This is crazy

— What is this?

— Wow

— Insane

— Was that really Latte and Carrot???

The chat window scrolled rapidly.

"W-What just happened!? I thought it was Almond, but it wasn’t!?"

Even the caster felt shocked and had to double-check. In this forest terrain, no one in Joseon other than Almond had ever freely used curve shots like this. In fact, it was rare to find anyone in the world who could. Only a few players such as Persia’s three archers and Mongolia’s elite archers came close.

"It wasn’t Almond! We’ve confirmed that Almond is still up in the watchtower! It was Latte and Carrot! Both of them executed perfect curve shots and landed clean headshots on the crossbowmen in the forest!"

With this performance, Joseon could add two more names to the list alongside Persia’s three archers and Mongolia’s elite archers.

"Look at the replay! Carrot and Latte were just like Almond! Incredible!"

— Just like Almond, LOL

— ??? "You were just like Kenin!"

— Wow

— High praise!

"This makes it impossible for China to scout freely now, right? Those repeating crossbowmen units are expensive!"

"Exactly! They look costly! No matter how much China is pumping resources with their tax officers, this is still a loss! And don’t forget, Joseon is running a triple!"

"Oh. China is really pulling back now!"

***

"What the...!? Where are the crossbowmen?"

The Chinese players looked around in confusion.

One of them shouted, "Nine o’clock!"

Boom!

Another arrow flew and struck down a spearman this time.

"It’s a curve shot!"

One of the Chinese players realized what was happening.

"Isn’t only one person supposed to be good at that?"

"Yeah, but that one person is here! It’s Almond!"

"Okay!"

The Chinese team didn’t panic as much as expected. Instead, they seemed content knowing that Almond was nearby.

[Retreat]

Their commander Liu Bei had been observing the situation.

‘Got it.’

Liu Bei nodded calmly as he signaled another group to infiltrate. They had no reason to engage if Almond was stationed there. Even though losing the crossbowmen was unfortunate, knowing where Almond was gave them an advantage.

Liu Bei understood that in a forest terrain like this, no other archers besides Almond would be effective. Without their archers, Joseon’s power would be greatly diminished. This forest was densely packed with trees, making it difficult for any archer to shoot effectively. To counter that, one would need to be proficient at shooting curve shots in such terrain.

They could manage if Almond was the only threat. None of Joseon’s other archers posed a real danger. With this in mind, Liu Bei confidently sent his secondary unit to infiltrate.

[Infiltrate]

Red markers began to move on the map. These soldiers specifically countered archers. Now that they had identified Almond’s location, stopping them would be difficult.

‘We need to see what they’re hiding.’

Joseon had not made an offensive move yet. A few possible reasons existed for this, but Liu Bei needed to confirm them.

‘It looks like they’re running a double build...’

Liu Bei had already narrowed down Joseon’s strategy to a double build. He didn’t think they would be running a triple. The triple build was an extremely niche strategy, something at the far end of the strategic spectrum.

Most players didn’t consider it worth focusing on. Despite this, Liu Bei hadn’t ruled out the possibility entirely. The lack of archers stationed on the mountaintop, considering the structures Joseon had built, seemed too suspicious.

China could have possibly just attacked a spot where few archers had been placed. He needed to verify it.

‘As long as it’s not an extreme triple build, our chances of winning are over 90%.’

Judging by China’s current progress, they would have overwhelmingly high odds of winning if Joseon hadn’t committed to an extreme resource-gathering strategy. On the flip side, Joseon’s only chance of winning would be through some kind of extreme play.

Liu Bei sent out the infiltration unit for this reason. If they could confirm what Joseon was up to, the game would tip in their favor. They employed diversion tactics and sent out scouts to draw attention while executing a separate plan.

Ding!

Almond, still stationed in the watchtower, finally received a command.

[Move]

Almond began running toward the area where China attempted to infiltrate.