Season 3: Chapter 315. The Bigger Picture (2)

Anto had grown up on a ranch. The ranch was home to white, woolly sheep flocks and a couple of shepherd dogs. Those dogs were a Border Collie breed and remarkably intelligent creatures. Anto always observed them closely, fascinated by how the dogs herded the sheep.

The Border Collies darted around with boundless energy while barking incessantly. This barking drove the sheep in the opposite direction. It was a peculiar sight. Why were the sheep so afraid of dogs they had never encountered before? Why did they bunch together into tight clusters at the sight of these creatures?

After years of observation, Anto concluded that it was fear. Dogs descended from wolves. Particularly breeds like Border Collies, which still carried remnants of their lupine ancestry, unlike the cute Maltese or Poodles. Border Collies, like Huskies or Jindos, resembled wolves, the natural predators of sheep.

These dogs appeared cute and harmless to humans, but not to sheep. To sheep, these dogs were terrifying and close relatives to their greatest threat. Despite the absence of any actual attacks, the barking alone was enough to paralyze the sheep. Frightened, the sheep simply bleated and moved away from the barking dogs.

Their only hope was running away to save themselves from being eaten. It was a foolish hope as their sluggish pace would never outmatch a predator. Still, they ran and clutched at the faint possibility of safety. Anto thought the sheep were fools, but he soon realized that humans were often no different from these sheep.

People who overexerted their strength, those who raised their voices unnecessarily, and those who stumbled into greater troubles. They were just as foolish. And the source of their foolishness? Fear. Humans, too, were no different from sheep.

They believed themselves superior to animals, but Anto’s observations proved otherwise. Humans had their own shepherds, but these shepherds were not tangible creatures. They were harder to identify and resided deep in the psyche at the edges of one’s fears.

Anto always sought to uncover these fears. Now, as the second game unfolded, Anto saw it. He understood what Cookie wanted to do and the strategy Joseon would employ.

‘What would he fear the most?’

Cookie’s shepherd had become apparent to Anto.

‘The terrain.’

When faced with advantageous terrain, commanders feared nothing more than failing to utilize it effectively. Cookie would undoubtedly aim to exploit the mountainous terrain for maximum gain. His scouts would move aggressively, but this meant his soldiers would disperse into smaller groups and become vulnerable to Roman forces. How would Cookie mitigate this risk?

[Retreat on Contact]

An order to flee would be Cookie’s strategy for success. And now, it had become Anto’s strategy.

[Move]

[Move]

[Move]

Anto maintained a large formation while scattering a few soldiers here and there. He ignored both hunting and scouting. Fear crept up. Fear that he would fall behind in resources again, but Anto knew this fear was necessary to win.

‘It’s over anyway if I can’t gain an advantage on this map right from the start.’

So he made a decision. He fully utilized his specialty: masterfully leveraging the opponent’s blind spots. Anto dispersed his Roman soldiers as though there were dozens of them, moving them strategically.

They would chase without hesitation when they encountered Joseon’s troops. And naturally, Joseon’s soldiers would flee. Another group of Roman soldiers would be waiting down the paths where they fled. When Joseon’s forces ran into those forces, they would flee again and choose yet another path. Joseon believed that they were choosing their own routes, but they weren’t.

Subtle placement angles, precise timing, and the psychological terror of blind spots. The optimal escape route in such a situation was already imprinted in their minds. Moreover, Joseon’s soldiers followed the same pattern like sheep programmed by fear.

[Retreat on Contact]

This command was deeply embedded in them. Anto grew even more certain after observing Joseon’s reactions under that directive. He began designing even more elaborate traps and gathered twenty to thirty soldiers at a time to corner Joseon’s forces.

“Woof! Woof!”

The Roman soldiers barked, and Joseon’s troops fled.

“Baa~ Baa~”

The bleating of sheep could almost be heard. And then, Rome revealed its true predator instincts.

[Ambush]

They weren’t mere shepherd dogs. They were wolves disguised as dogs.

[Attack]

“What!? Joseon’s forces have been wiped out!!?”

“They ran right into it!”

Kugugugu...!

In an instant, Roman soldiers surrounded and annihilated six Joseon troops.

“Oh, Rome has turned this risk into a reward, haven’t they?”

“It was a high-risk, low-reward gamble but they succeeded. It’s pure profit now since the risk didn’t materialize, isn’t it?”

To outsiders, it seemed like a reckless gamble. However, no risk existed at all from the start. Even commentators who could see the entire map couldn’t anticipate Anto’s moves, yet he orchestrated them with only a small portion of the map visible. He didn’t need to know every path. He just needed to ensure the enemy took the paths he knew.

“What? Again!? Another scouting mistake!?”

A mistake by the opponent? No. Joseon was only guilty of doing too well. Their only crime was choosing the optimal escape route and they died because of that. Good decisions could be read and bad decisions were punished. This irony would gradually eat away at Cookie.

‘Got them.’

Anto was satisfied, but not because of the two large-scale annihilations. Taking out some early scouting troops only bought Rome a little more time. The bigger gain was something else. Joseon could no longer advance.

‘They didn’t get a proper look at the main base.’

In this game, Anto’s most significant advantage lay in obscuring the geography of his main base.

***

“What? If that’s the case...”

Watching the match, Chi-Seung shot up from his seat. Despite the map being favorable, Joseon’s situation looked bleak.

“Anto doesn’t know everything. He’s herding them where he wants.”

“Isn’t this a bit of a loss for Joseon? Oh, they’re retreating, aren’t they?”

“Well, to be fair, it’s not that big of a deal for Joseon. Their hunting situation is still great...”

No. Chi-Seung shook his head instinctively. The commentators didn’t understand why this was a major issue. It meant Joseon couldn’t see inside.

“We can’t get into the base? How did it come to this? Does Anto have a map hack or something?” SharpSphere muttered in disbelief.

His words barely sounded coherent. The entire Joseon think tank fell into disarray.

“If we can’t get inside, how are we supposed to position for the priest assassination!?”

Their winning strategy hinged on scouting the terrain inside the enemy’s main base.

‘I didn’t expect this roadblock.’

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

They hadn’t anticipated such an obstacle. Like most RTS games,

Civil Empire

allowed players to scout enemy main bases in the early game. Unless it was a rare case of the Ancient Walls map, it was usually possible. And this was mountainous terrain, after all.

So why? How did it come to this?

“This...”

Chi-Seung had a hunch. Unlike Cookie, he could see the whole situation. And unlike OrangeKing, he was privy to Cookie’s strategy. When these two factors intersected, only one conclusion emerged.

“Anto knows.”

Anto knew Joseon’s strategy.

“What...?”

“He knows we want to scout the base terrain...”

How Anto had predicted such a thing was a mystery, but it was happening. As frustrating as it was, Chi-Seung had to state the obvious.

“Look at his movements.”

The other think tank members focused on Anto’s forces. He was herding Joseon’s troops like sheep while paying special attention to one area.

“He’s eating them all up near the main base, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

The locations where Anto cornered and eliminated Joseon’s forces were always near Rome’s main base. He didn’t overcommit even when opportunities arose elsewhere. He only took such bold actions near the main base.

“We’ll have to abandon the plan if we keep moving forward without knowing the layout.”

“Do you think Cookie knows...?” Water Dumpling worriedly asked from behind.

Chi-Seung shook his head.

“No. Not yet.”

Based on Cookie’s perspective, the two recent incidents wouldn’t be enough to make such a judgment.

“And...”

Even if Cookie did know, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

“He wouldn’t stop.”

The strategy hadn’t been completely stopped yet. Changing strategies at the slightest hint of something unusual would only lead to confusion. Cookie wouldn’t make such a decision.

Anto also knew that Cookie wouldn’t stop. He intentionally steered things so that Cookie would press on with the plan, taking advantage of the situation just enough without overdoing it.

“He’s a relentless opponent... But we haven’t revealed all our cards either.”

“What do we have left? We can’t get in if we can’t see inside!”

Chi-Seung gritted his teeth.

“Falcon scouting.”

“Huh?”

“We haven’t used it once yet. We can use it twice. That should give us the vision we need.”

Cookie had held off on using the falcon scouting and likely sensed something off.

***

Neither the commentators nor the audience were aware of the strategy in play.

Dun-dun!

[Joseon - 2nd Era]

Joseon advanced to the second era.

“Joseon is moving to the second era slightly ahead of time! Despite losing scouting units twice earlier, they’re remarkably fast. They’re actually faster than before, aren’t they?”

“Exactly. Well, it’s partly because Rome had one fewer worker in the early game, which carried over into the second era. Still, Joseon is back on track.”

While they said this, the time gap for reaching the second era was noticeably shorter compared to the first game. Cookie’s screen revealed a tense expression. After all, their predetermined strategy would begin in the second era.

‘But we’re flying blind.’

They needed to enter the opponent’s base in the second era to secure advantageous positions, but they didn’t know where the advantageous positions were. Nor could they locate the exact position of the priests, yet that wasn’t a good enough reason to abandon the strategy.

‘We’ll never succeed if we can’t pull this off on this map.’

The Rugged Mountains map made Chi-Seung’s priest assassination plan exceptionally viable. If this attempt succeeded, the subsequent games would also yield significant advantages. If Rome lost this game, they’d continue to fall behind. They would’ve lost their priests early in both games. By the third game, Rome would be forced to handle priests extremely cautiously, which would further increase Joseon’s chances of winning.

‘It’s a gamble we have to take.’

Of course, it felt nerve-wracking. The opaque blind spots in their vision were intimidating. Chi-Seung’s gaze naturally shifted to the two falcons flying above the vice commanders.

[Falcon Scouting x 2]

They still had two falcons. While it was common to use one early to reset its long cooldown, they had saved both for this exact scenario. And—

[Almond]

Almond received the first shortbow.

[Leader]

This designated him as the leader.

‘Two falcons, one Almond...’

Cookie nodded faintly. It was worth a shot.

[Infiltrate]

He marked a route toward Rome’s main base.