Season 2: Chapter 103. Instruction Manual for Almond (2)
The Embul community, known for its exceptionally skilled members, was quite insular. Most of them had heard Almond's name once or twice, if at all, and showed little interest. This wasn’t too surprising considering even people living under the same roof could exist in different worlds these days. This was especially true for a closed community like Embul, where users couldn’t even post without logging in.
In such an exclusive community, Almond first became known for the hacking controversy. His name appeared in a few posts since such controversies weren’t common domestically. However, as usual, the attention didn’t last very long. After a day or two, Almond’s controversy became buried under their main concern: the national team competition.
Embul started paying proper attention to Almond this time thanks to the provocative title of a post.
[Breaking News: A B rank player has been selected for the national team]
Given their sensitivity to the national team selections, how could they not be interested after hearing a B rank player had been chosen? A barrage of negative comments began pouring in, specifically targeting Kimchi Warrior's Embul profile.
— Did you catch the commander's disease? Haha
— This is not right, haha
— Is this a fixed match?
Kimchi Warrior clasped his hands in prayer, desperately hoping for Almond to prove himself.
"It'll be chaos if they mess up..."
Unlike other gaming communities, Embul had real-world influence. This meant if public opinion regarding Almond's selection grew too negative, it could disrupt the national competition.
Almond needed to perform well, but a bolt from the blue appeared.
"Damn it... Why would they be prepared for this?!"
The opposing commander had prepared for the fast archer rush.
"Does this even make sense?! Who prepares for this nowadays...? Ugh."
Such complaints were pointless because the opponent was only B rank. How could one know what they were thinking? According to Kimchi Warrior's calculations, Almond would still break through even if the opponent was prepared. However, his anxiety remained because...
"No, it'll work. This will work, I swear! BornToB, don't do anything!"
Fortunately, Kimchi Warrior's worries were unwarranted. BornToB heeded his advice to not think and refrained from acting. The decision-making was left to Almond, who promptly drew his bow and fired three more arrows that simultaneously struck three foreheads.
"Shit!"
Kimchi Warrior still felt shocked despite already having witnessed Almond’s skills before. He quickly regained his composure and headed to the Embul community.
"What’s the public opinion? Public opinion."
Had it improved?
"...!"
He saw the first post upon entering.
[What's with this guy? Killing three at once???]
Public opinion was buzzing about Almond on Embul.
"Nice," Kimchi Warrior smirked.
— What's that?
— ??
— Did they pick a physical one-trick? The most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n((.))co/m
— Isn't this that guy... the one involved in the hacking controversy recently...
When Almond was first selected for the national team, nine voted against the selection and one felt uncertain. However, opinions gradually shifted to seven against the selection and three in favor thanks to Almond’s primary weapon, the bow. His secondary weapon, his looks, also made an impact.
Kimchi Warrior felt so elated that he even clapped.
"Good! Good! Just a little more!"
The excitement needed to rise even further.
"Let's win. Keep up this momentum!"
Although the feat of killing three enemies at once was impressive, the real battle was just beginning and the outcome had yet to be decided.
***
Meanwhile, Almond took a moment to glance at his bow after simultaneously killing three enemies.
"Was it a good thing that I brought the Joseon Horn Bow?"
The enemies didn't even react and just died. They would usually shoot back randomly in desperation, but simply died quietly this time due to the difference in bows. The enemies were out of range, but Almond's arrows reached them first. They hadn’t expected him to shoot yet and effortlessly died after being caught off guard.
Three enemies helplessly fell.
"This... how could this be?"
"So easily?"
"A sorcerer?!"
As one soldier said, it almost seemed like magic.
When such a feat occurred, the morale of one's troops would naturally skyrocket. Indeed, the four archers who came with Almond grew inspired by their leader's skill and charged.
"We can win! We have a sorcerer on our side!"
"Wow!"
Although charging archers didn’t seem very effective against spearmen or cavalry, the momentum of the moment was more important than minor tactical advantages in war.
"Shoot!"
The enemy commander Letgo noticed that the other side finally came to kill the workers and cut off their lifeline. He immediately moved the workers chopping wood to the back.
However─
"What? Only one came?"
After all that movement, only one archer showed up.
"... What is this?"
Letgo couldn’t decide whether or not to evacuate just because of one person. Then...
Thunk!
Two workers suddenly collapsed.
"!?"
If he wasn't mistaken, it looked like the archer had shot two arrows simultaneously.
"... Huh?"
This didn't bode well.
[Evacuate]
He quickly resumed the evacuation he hesitated on and the workers ran toward the nearby defense tower.
However, the enemy archer was adept at shooting while running. He charged forward and fired another volley, killing two more workers. Four had now died.
"Shooting while running... and they all hit? Is that a three hundred gold weapon? No..."
The archer didn't stop running and charged in, killing three more workers. Seven had now died.
While fleeing, almost half of the workers chopping wood had been killed. Letgo judged that this wasn't just a matter of skills.
"He has to be a hacker, probably Chinese with that black hair."
That archer seemed to be using hacks, but Letgo still had a chance because the archer had come too far forward in his eagerness to kill the workers. He was within the range of the defense tower.
"Damn annoying guy. Now die..."
However, the archer dodged all the arrows from the defense tower.
"Was that dodgeable?" Letgo recalled his days playing as a mercenary and tilted his head in confusion.
Meanwhile, the archer already disappeared beyond the range of the defense tower.
Letgo sent his workers back to their workplaces.
[Resume Work]
He knew that if he did so, Almond would come back like a ghost to skewer the workers. It was a hit and run tactic, but the hit was a bit too strong.
"Ah..."
This archer felt as irritating as a mosquito in the summer. Letgo trembled with rage and sent out his archers.
'I should have waited to gather more before sending all at once.'
Without enough soldiers, going out now would be like lining up for execution. However, he had to make such foolish decisions with fire at his feet.
'Let's just catch that one since he's operating separately from the rest.'
The moment Letgo’s archers approached, rustling could be heard from the bushes behind. As if waiting for this moment, around a dozen ambushers sprung up from the bushes.
"Ah..."
He had fallen for a trap.
"A trap!?"
The attack on the workers hadn’t been the enemy’s real intention, but simply a provocation to lure out Letgo's hidden troops.
Wham! Wham!
Both sides exchanged arrows and Letgo's archers quickly fell one by one as the enemy precisely struck their vital spots.
The opposing commander exacerbated the situation with a provocation.
[BornToB: E──Z]
Letgo's patience was wearing thin.
"This... this..."
This game was his last promotion match to advance to A rank. He had failed in his promotion.
"I knew it all along! Why am I losing?!" he screamed, but no one could hear him.
Bang!
[Surrender]
Letgo violently smashed the keyboard and declared his surrender. Then he cursed the opposing commander and quickly went to the report window.
[Unauthorized Program Use]
He filed a report claiming the archer from earlier had been using hacks and attached a video as evidence.
A response from the development team came back in just a few minutes.
