Season 3: Chapter 283. The Advancing Fortress (2)

No one had made such comments at the start of the game.

[Wait, isn’t China really screwed here?]

No matter how tough things got, China was still China. Their powerful civilization could always come back in the late game. No one could let their guard down against China.

Moreover, the team handling this civilization were some of the country’s top talents and were widely regarded as reaching the peak of their skills. It was unprecedented for such reactions to emerge now, especially as China entered the late game.

[This is looking bad]

[Will their undefeated streak end like this?]

[They blocked the keystone, LOL. This could really change everything.]

[Is this the right moment?!]

These comments didn’t come from casual viewers, but from expert players on forums like Embul with a deep understanding of

Civil Empire

. Joseon was now cornering China, a team that had maintained an undefeated streak throughout the tournament. No one had expected Joseon to rise this far. The weakest team to make it to the main tournament was now pushing back one of the strongest, China.

— Is this really happening?

— It’s getting real.

— Wow, LOL.

Joseon already landed a few hits with their triple strategy and stopped China’s scouting, but no one believed that would be enough to bring China down. Perhaps against another nation, but not China.

Against China, it was like landing two light jabs. However, this time was different. Joseon finally landed a sharp, straight counterpunch.

Bam!

“AAAAHHH!?”

OrangeKing slammed the desk and shot up from his seat, veins bulging in his neck.

“What?! China was about to beautifully complete the Great Wall, but something weird slipped in between!?”

“That’s right!? We thought it was the Great Wall, but it turned out to be Namhansanseong!”

— LOL, Namhansanseong strikes!

— Reverse Three Rivers Crossing, here we come!

— How fitting, LOL

— China is really in trouble now, huh?

China scrambled to rebuild the Great Wall in a different spot and began construction elsewhere.

[Wall - 3%]

[Wall - 8%]

[Wall - 9%]

“China is in a rush right now! If they don’t connect the Great Wall, their defenses will be weaker than the Joseon fortresses in both height and strength!”

The direct path had been blocked, so they tried to go around.

“But look! Joseon is blocking them again!!”

Koom!

Joseon’s wall rose again, forcing China to retreat and build elsewhere. Joseon’s archers, standing atop the newly built wall, already rained down arrows on the Chinese workers.

“Wasn’t China supposed to have the fastest construction speed?”

While the difference was subtle, China did have a slight advantage in construction speed compared to Joseon. Both civilizations were incredibly fast compared to others, but China still held the edge in theory.

“Yes, that’s true! But do you know what kind of nation Joseon is?!”

“?!”

“A nation of military service and digging! Isn’t that Joseon’s identity?!”

“Exactly!”

“In Joseon, even the soldiers can build walls! They can build everything except production buildings!”

“Aaah!”

“So China can’t keep up when they’re building with just workers! China is faster in theory, but only if the numbers are equal! And the numbers will never be equal!!”

Indeed, many Joseon soldiers near the wall had set aside their swords for hammers and shovels instead. Of course, they faced challenges as well.

BOOM!

A Chinese archer with a composite bow, empowered by the Yuan faction, shot an explosive arrow at them.

“Ah! China’s composite bow archers have arrived!”

“This changes things!”

Atop the Chinese wall, the composite bow archers relentlessly fired explosive arrows.

Boom!

Boom!

Despite the bombardment, Joseon’s wall kept rising.

“They’re holding up! They’ve got shields!”

Joseon had sent shield bearers, led by Moggie, to protect the builders. Although their health decreased, the explosions weren’t enough to break through to the inner ranks.

“If this keeps up—!!”

Twang!

Now it was Joseon’s turn with Almond leading the charge. Joseon’s composite bow archers pulled back their bows and fired glowing arrows at the Chinese archers.

Thunk! Thunk!

Within moments, several Chinese archers were hit in the head and fell from the wall.

“Headshots!!”

“And now Joseon is launching a full assault! Siege weapons are coming in too!!”

Whoooosh!

A black hawk flew overhead as the leader’s sword rose toward the sky.

[All units, CHARGE!!]

From the dense forests of the steep mountain, countless soldiers emerged and charged forward. Even the vice commanders dismounted their horses and ran on foot. This was a true all-out assault.

“Cookie! He’s timed this push perfectly after building up the triple economy! They’re just going all-in with no hesitation! And that’s the right call!!”

Thud!

Siege weapons launched massive stones over the mountain.

BOOM!

A part of China’s wall crumbled.

“No matter how they try to connect it, they can’t complete the wall now!!”

The cracks in China’s walls grew larger with several sections on the verge of collapse. Joseon’s frontline archers continued to fire relentlessly from on top of the walls, hitting both enemy workers and archers alike. And the number of arrows steadily increased as more Joseon archers joined the frontlines.

“China’s starting to falter!”

The barrage of arrows from Joseon grew fiercer, nearly turning into a downpour that overwhelmed the area. The Chinese soldiers began to panic, unable to properly respond.

“What should China focus on now!?”

“They’ll need to rely on explosive arrows to hit the clustered Joseon archers! Joseon is packed too close together right now!”

No sooner had OrangeKing spoken did Joseon’s archers suddenly jump down from the walls and scattered in every direction.

“What!? They jumped down and spread out!”

They ascended the Chinese wall and now dispersed to the sides after realizing the danger of the explosive arrows.

“Joseon!!”

OrangeKing’s voice grew louder with excitement.

“They’re so coordinated! And their judgment is so sharp! They’re razor sharp right now!!!”

BOOM!

BAM!

China’s explosive arrows rained down just as the Joseon players scattered. The damage was minimal with only a handful of casualties.

“Explosive arrows have a limited number of uses, don’t they!?”

The gunpowder arrows couldn’t be replenished once used. They were a one time special attack and most of them had missed.

“This is it...! Joseon’s ground forces are moving in!!”

“Wooooaaaaahhh!”

The ground forces that charged down from the mountain began entering through the breaches in the crumbled walls.

"It’s like sand slipping through your fingers. Joseon’s forces are just pouring in! The Great Wall’s reputation is in tatters right now!"

— The Great Wall (or what could have been)

— ???

— LOL

— Wow

— Well, it's not the Great Wall anymore!

"Joseon's archers are also taking control of China’s walls one by one while their own walls are still advancing!"

The construction of Joseon’s walls hadn’t stopped.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The walls kept rising, seemingly toward China’s main base.

"Now, all Joseon has to do is climb these walls and charge in! They’ve basically turned these walls into a highway leading straight to the enemy base!"

It was as if a highway had been paved from the mountaintop straight to China’s main base.

"What can China do to overcome this?"

The walls kept advancing, ground forces flooded through the breaches, formations collapsed, and morale plummeted. China began trembling just like their walls.

"This is probably even more disorienting for them as a nation that has maintained an undefeated streak!"

"Yeah! They’re probably starting to realize what's happening!"

Although careful with their words, the commentators couldn’t hide the feeling in the air.

‘... Damn.’

China’s looming defeat was evident from the screen and even on Liu Bei’s face.

"Woooooooaaaahhhh!!!"

The cheers from the Korean audience shook the stadium while Joseon’s walls kept advancing. China had no means of stopping it. Their siege weapons weren’t ready.

"Does China have no siege weapons?! They need to bring siege towers or something!"

"They don’t have any! China was relying on the walls for defense and had no need for siege weapons. They’re only just starting to produce them in a panic!"

From the beginning, China had planned to defend in the third era. Siege weapons would just be deadweight in a defensive strategy. Shooting massive boulders at infantry was like swinging a butcher’s knife at mosquitoes. It only made things more dangerous for them. A misplaced shot could even damage their own buildings.

‘As expected, they don’t have any.’

Cookie had precisely targeted this weakness. An overlooked element in China’s defense was their lack of siege weapons.

‘They weren’t going to waste money on siege weapons.’

Some civilizations would’ve prepared siege weapons just in case they needed them for defense, but others like China completely excluded such things from their strategy. This exclusion was, in fact, often the right choice. Siege weapons were meant for sieges, so what use would they be in defense?

"They couldn’t have known! That it wasn’t soldiers attacking, but walls!!"

— LOL, walls are the attackers now

— It’s like a cloaked unit snuck through without detection

— Is China really losing?

— Whoa, no siege engines?

— Whoa

"Yeah, who would have thought? Walls are advancing and Joseon is taking advantage of the fact that their enemy doesn’t have any siege weapons! Nobody could have imagined this!"

"This is like when you forget to build a detection unit and get wrecked by invisible units in other RTS games! Honestly, there’s no solution!!"

Even the commentators couldn’t find a way to spin China’s situation positively. On the minimap, the blue dots representing Joseon forces pushed back the red dots representing China’s troops.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Joseon’s swordsmen cut through the Yuan infantry as they surged forward.

"Joseon! They’re winning even in direct combat now! What’s happening!? Have the players gotten that much better!?"

"This isn’t the same Joseon from before! It feels like they’ve become a completely different team after the match against Japan and it’s only been a week!!"

Whether it was due to momentum or something else, the Yuan infantry couldn’t even deal a decent blow on the Joseon soldiers before falling. As a result, Joseon steadily advanced like a tidal wave. It didn’t matter even if a few Joseon soldiers died.

"Right now, reinforcements from the mountaintop are joining at an insane speed! They’re just running down the walls!"

"Exactly! To someone watching, it probably looks like they’re sliding down a waterpark slide! The path is completely connected all the way downhill!"

— LOL, waterpark slide

— Joseon just opened a waterpark in China, LOL

— Wow, it’s like a rapid supply route

— Soldiers are just pouring in infinitely

The forge, barracks, and training grounds built on the mountaintop continued producing soldiers. Those soldiers ran down the fortresses and quickly reached China’s main base.

"AAAGH! The walls have reached China’s main base! China can’t defend properly. It’s not working no matter how many arrows they shoot at the walls!"

Even China’s famed explosive arrows were ineffective against buildings. Shooting from the ground at the walls was also incredibly difficult. Most shots missed their mark.

Building guard towers at this point wouldn’t help because the Yuan dynasty’s towers were inferior to other civilizations. They were like toys against Joseon’s solid and tall fortress walls. They had no way to stop Joseon.

It was absurd, but a solution to this problem didn’t exist anymore. The time to fix things had already passed.

"I never thought I’d be saying this so early in the game!"

"What’s that!?"

"China’s undefeated streak!! It’s going to──"

Doom!

Finally, the sound of surrender echoed across the battlefield.

[Surrender]

"── end!!!"

— LOL

— Cut

— The land of endings, LOL

— Amazing

— LOL, wow

— Is this real??

— Undefeated streak, over

— Whoa, LOL

The cheers from the Korean audience drowned out the audio.

"Woooooooaaaaaahhhhh!!!"

[Translator’s Notes]

I keep up with professional League of Legends. Sometimes, but not often, some upsets happen from the underdog. Every time this happens, it’s the most exciting moment for everyone involved.