Season 3: Chapter 334. Fire (5)

The reason Anto hadn’t specifically prepared against Best Yi Sun-Shin was simple. He barely felt the need to.

From his perspective of always filtering events down to core patterns, Best Yi Sun-Shin’s strategy was ultimately one-dimensional. Not only was Joseon’s overall plan heavily built around Almond’s ability to execute, but Best Yi Sun-Shin always used that ability for one thing: a base assault.

Surprisingly, this was true. She charged forward like a boxer obsessed with knockouts, aiming only for one side of the jaw. And yet her opponents still couldn’t stop her and collapsed.

The reasons? First, that punch was blindingly fast and precise. Second, she pretended to hit everywhere else before landing that final blow. But in the end, her strike always targeted the most lethal pressure point.

This was most clearly seen in her rush tactics against Japan. She had even drawn her sword and personally led a rush. Such a move would be suicide for any other leader, yet she dove in.

So Anto felt confident again this time. If he could steer the game toward that familiar pattern, she would strike as soon as a window appeared. A rush for the leader would happen.

‘As expected.’

The result turned out exactly as he hoped. She continued attacking the main base even with her dwindling archer force and succeeded. Anto had been focused on defending his expansion, leaving the main base briefly unguarded.

The Joseon archers wiped out or chased away all the workers. Resource gathering in the main base completely collapsed. Despite being militia, the archers broke through the town hall’s arrow defenses and made it inside. Pulling off such a feat as militia was incredible.

However, they didn’t know that Anto had acknowledged Best Yi Sun-Shin’s strengths and prepared accordingly. The place they had reached... wasn’t the main base.

"A rush that can’t lose," Toby, the head of Rome’s think tank, murmured and nodded to himself.

"Anto used to say things like this sometimes. Wouldn’t it be fun to pull off something like this?"

A rush tactic that couldn’t lose. A rush battle was a high-stakes game of chicken, so how could someone guarantee a win?

Anto had conceived this plan long ago. The key was that only the opponent was truly in a rush. He wasn’t. As long as the enemy committed to it, his victory was assured.

Few would agree to such extreme engagements. And yet, one person did in this finals match.

"She’ll regret switching in."

Toby gave his verdict. There was nothing more to see. Best Yi Sun-Shin had already committed to a rush tactic, but couldn’t win. Rome would win this game and go on to secure the series in the fifth game.

***

"W-What is this!? Rome!!"

It looked as if OrangeKing’s eyes would pop out. So did the caster beside him.

"N-No way... why is no one there!? What is going on!?"

— Huh?

— No way lmao.

— What the heck is this?!

— Bugged game?

— ???

— What?

The camera zoomed in on both commanders’ faces. Best Yi Sun-Shin, who had maintained a poker face the entire game, was now biting her lip. Something had clearly gone wrong.

— Oh no...

— She’s rattled...

— This is bad!

— Not good...

— T_T

Sa-Rang, who always kept her cool even when aggressive, now visibly faltered. And the crowd sensed it.

"W-What now!? What do we do!?"

"I don’t know. Why isn’t anyone there?"

"How long can Joseon even hold out!?"

Meanwhile, Rome’s audience erupted into euphoria with chanting and singing.

"UWOOOOO!! ANTOOOOOOO!!"

Thump, thump, thump.

Anto’s chant rang out with massive drumbeats. It sounded like a festival as a seasoned veteran overwhelmed a fiery challenger. This perfect victory was being celebrated across the stadium.

"Ah... and now a replay. This is shocking, but let’s take a look."

The live feed cut to a replay of when Almond entered the town hall.

"Normally, the commander’s position is marked when you enter the town hall. But look, there was nothing from the start!"

"Right? At first, I thought Anto just disabled commander mode and hid!"

"Nope! He wasn’t anywhere near the area! He wasn’t in the building at all! That’s why no marker appeared!"

"Then... when did he leave!?"

The observers rewound to find the exact moment Anto had left. At a glance, it looked like a group of workers evacuating. That was when OrangeKing’s eyes widened.

"Wait... this was when the workers evacuated, right!? Anto... did he leave with them!?"

Indeed, it hadn’t been noticeable at the time with Joseon’s archers on the screen. When the Roman workers evacuated en masse to the expansion, Anto had slipped out among them.

There was no way to know unless someone was watching from a bird’s-eye view. Almond and Latte would never spot it from their distant point of view, but that wasn’t what truly shocked OrangeKing. It wasn’t the fact that Anto had disguised himself among workers.

"Wait... it was then!?"

It had happened during the evacuation. As soon as the Joseon archers approached the base, Anto had immediately evacuated the workers.

"It’s amazing that he evacuated ahead of time!?"

No, that wasn’t it.

"I mean, a preemptive evacuation isn’t that rare of a strategy."

"?"

Something felt off.

"There’s something off. Something’s... strange."

"What do you mean?"

"Anto didn’t know where Joseon would strike, right?"

"Oh! That’s true. They all thought Joseon was going for the expansion!"

Exactly. The Joseon archers attacking Rome’s main base were assumed to be headed for the expansion. Anto had prepared his defenses accordingly.

"Anto heavily invested in expansion defense and Joseon went straight for the main base with their militia, catching Rome off guard!"

The archers had invaded straight into the base. That was why the workers had to evacuate. Then, OrangeKing’s eyes twitched.

‘Wait a second.’

It all finally clicked into place like a puzzle.

‘Dammit. I’ve been looking at this from Joseon’s perspective the entire time.’

The reason Anto had fortified the expansion wasn’t because he expected archers to go there. No, it was because they eventually would, but not yet.

‘Right now...’

Whoooosh.

OrangeKing’s gaze turned toward Rome’s expansion with defenders like Pierre, watchtowers, and even small walls built up.

"..."

Two archers couldn’t break through all that.

‘He built it for this exact moment.’

From the start, Anto had predicted that Joseon would go for the main base. He had baited them intentionally. The main base’s resources had mostly been depleted anyway, so the resource loss was minimal. The buildings also couldn’t be destroyed by archers. It was the perfect bait.

‘How could this be?’

OrangeKing felt utterly defeated. Had there ever been another match where a commander’s skill made such a difference?

‘When did it all begin? Where did it start?’

Anto’s blueprint was so elaborate. It was beyond comprehension.

"O-OrangeKing? Say something! Joseon is still holding back Rome for now!"

"The hawk release..."

"Sorry? What?"

A strategy born from the absence of hawk scouting. Many possible approaches existed when Joseon had no hawk or could not scout. Anto had chosen to build an expansion.

OrangeKing recalled the slight unease he felt back then because of the expansion’s location. Rome usually emphasized map control. They built expansions aggressively at the front and defended from there to control the land, raise defenses, and protect the base.

‘But he flipped it.’

This time, the expansion was in the back and the main base took the lead. However, that was only OrangeKing’s interpretation. To Rome, the expansion was in the front and the real main base was in the back.

"It all started with the hawk! The moment the hawk went down, Anto started snowballing everything to this point!!"

"?!"

— Huh?

— Is that true?

— What is he even saying? lol

— OrangeKing’s spitting madness...

— Bro this game... cleanest strategy ever...

— What a setup...

"W-What are you saying?!" the caster asked again and forgot all about the ongoing broadcast of Joseon’s main base.

"The hawk scout was used up, and Anto opted for a secondary base. But it wasn’t the usual Rome-style forward expansion. It was a hidden one in the rear! Even if Rome wants to ramp up its resources, having clerics spawn from the main base means you have to defend it. You rarely see this kind of expansion! Even with more resources, it’s over if the clerics die! But Anto went for it! Why!?"

"!"

— Woah!

— I don’t get it T_T

— What even is this?!

— Almond fans in shambles lol!

"Because it wasn’t an expansion! Look! All the clerics! And most of the workers! They’re already at the expansion! Even the commander!"

— Damn...

— If that’s not the main base, then what is?! Lol

— Holy...

— What a trick...

"From the very moment the hawk disappeared, Anto had already predicted this elite rush scenario!!"

"...!?"

The caster’s eyes widened like saucers.

"W-Wait, are you saying... this whole situation, this elite rush... he planned this way back then!?"

"Yes."

OrangeKing nodded with certainty.

"Watch the replay closely. Before it was even clear the archers were coming to the main base... who moved first?"

"!"

He hadn’t thought about it, but another group did start moving even before the workers.

"The clerics..."

— Omg!

— Whoa...

— It’s true??

— What the heck?

— He knew?

"All the clerics either joined the main base defense expedition or moved to the expansion long ago. I thought he was just pushing for more resources... but no. That wasn’t it."

"Huh..."

The caster was at a loss for words. It was true.

— Insane...

— Next-level bait!

— Unbelievable...

— No way...

— He really planned all that?

"W-Workers are cheap, so he just had them mine until the end or had them evacuated later so no one would suspect anything."

Some workers had simply been left to die so the enemy would fully take the bait. OrangeKing couldn’t even finish his sentence.

‘Dammit...’

To lose like this felt so hollow. Even as a commentator, he desperately wanted Joseon to win. Victory felt so close. Two archers had made it all the way into the enemy’s command room. At that moment, Joseon had won. And now, the crushing despair felt unexplainable.

‘All of this... came from just that one move?’

One use of the hawk scout in battle... That one act had triggered this avalanche. Against someone like Anto, was there no room for even a single mistake? And why was the Roman main force so strong? Joseon had more troops, so how did they get pushed back? How was anyone supposed to play a game against someone like this?

OrangeKing felt powerless. Something he rarely ever felt even in his pro career. He now felt it sitting at the caster’s desk.

"This is a flawless strategic victory for Anto. This is just... there’s no denying it..."

Rome had pushed all the way to Joseon’s palace, and Joseon only had two archers left as militia. What could they possibly do now?

"Wait a second!!" the caster suddenly shouted and grabbed OrangeKing’s shoulder.

"Joseon is preparing one last stand! It’s not over yet!! It’s not over!!"

"!?"

‘It’s not over? This?’

OrangeKing snapped back to attention and looked at the screen.

‘No way...’

Latte and Almond were now heading toward the expansion. They were breaking out of the town hall and dodging through the rain of arrows as they escaped the main base.

"Almond! Latte! They’re going out! Escaping is even harder than breaking in!!"

Arrows from behind were harder to dodge than from the front, but they weaved through the deadly hail. The two of them sprinted toward the expansion, which was Rome’s true main base. It sounded absurd, but they were doing it. They hadn’t fallen yet.

‘They’re... still going!’

They would never break. The weight of helplessness? Almond had carried it on his back for ten years. He was used to the sandbag. He simply got up and ran again. If anything, he ran harder now.

"And!!"

There was movement in Joseon’s palace, too.

"Our commander! She’s left the palace! On horseback!? She’s gathering cavalry for one final resistance! And she’s rallying them in the rear!!"

"Wait—what? The commander!?"

— Huh??

— No way...

— What?!

— Holy...

— What’s happening??

— She’s here!?

Joseon, pushed to the brink, gathered troops in the rear for one last stand. This was a familiar pattern in many civilizations, but not with the commander herself standing among them.

‘What the hell...?’

OrangeKing didn’t know that the one person who once left him with that sense of helplessness in his pro career was now standing there. Even she had fought through countless moments of despair to reach this point.

Screeeech...!

She drew her sword.

‘Unbelievable...’

“Gulp,”

OrangeKing swallowed dryly.

He saw her eyes through the commander's camera. It looked as if literal flames were blazing in them. And those flames spread like wildfire across the battlefield.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

The cavalry charged as one.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Joseon began its final advance.