Chapter 28: War (2)

Chapter 28: War (2)

[Kingdom Age EP.1 Are newbies not allowed to pick the bow?]

This title would capture the attention of every Kingdom Age?player.

The video was an edited version of Almond’s first stream. Ji-Ah managed to condense the stream into 15 minutes of footage.

It began with the following text.

[Bio ID created on: 20XX/11/13]

[The Bio ID that was created just one day before streaming...]

The dark screen brightened and Almond asked, “Should I not choose the bow?”

The screen zoomed in on the chat messages trying to warn him when he asked that question. They tried to explain why the bow was no good, why beginners shouldn’t use it, who already gave up, etc.

Nevertheless, Almond grabbed the bow despite all their warnings.

The chat messages became full of sighs. Then the screen immediately changed and displayed the momentum of Almond’s accurate shooting.

Swoosh!

The first arrow struck the center of an enemy’s forehead. Holographic CGI had been added to the video.

The CGI showed a target and how the shot precisely struck the center of the enemy’s forehead.

“Keugh!”

The chat messages called him lucky as one enemy fell.

However, that didn’t last long.

Bzzt!

The video fast-forwarded after he took the next shot.

Thwack!

The chat froze and only focused on him now. Countless enemies fell one by one and question marks filled the chat. Only praise filled the chat after Almond finished off the last enemy.

The video ended with Roman complimenting Almond.

“...”

Sang-Hyeon became speechless after watching the video. He simply remained silent for a while.

‘This is insane!’

The video felt so immersive to the point of shocking him.

“How... how is it?”

Ji-Ah asked while pretending to watch the joggers nearby. She actually only paid attention to Sang-Hyeon right now.

“This... this is amazing.”

Sang-Hyeon finally nodded and expressed his feelings. It had been incredible. That was how he genuinely felt. He couldn’t express it in any other words.

“I think this is good enough to upload right away.”

“I’m not going to upload it yet. I’m going to save it for now. I heard it’s better to upload two or three videos at once.”

“Ah, I see.”

Ji-Ah seemed unenthusiastic about Sang-Hyeon’s compliment, at least to his eyes.

However, she spoke quickly and with more words. This seemed like a significant change in her personality.

“I’ll keep making them. You like this style, right? I referenced the most popular YouTubers...”

“Ah, yes. Of course. Please, continue what you’re doing.”

Ji-Ah nodded and took her phone back.

No one realized it, but Ji-Ah carefully caressed the phone as if receiving something precious. Not even Ji-Ah noticed it herself.

***

Ji-Ah sat on her sofa after parting ways with Sang-Hyeon.

She felt sticky from all the sweat, but sat down anyway and delayed her shower. She didn’t even turn the TV on and simply closed her eyes to imagine something. She was recollecting something rather than imagining.

‘This is amazing.’

She replayed his compliment in her head.

She closed her eyes as if savoring the moment and a small smile formed on her dry lips. At that moment...

Bzzt.

She received a text message.

[Motherfucker]

Her smile quickly turned into a frown.

Ji-Ah didn’t even bother to properly read the message and deleted it immediately.

Bzzt.

Her phone buzzed again as if waiting for her to delete that message first.

[Motherfucker]

As expected, Ji-Ah deleted it once more without reading the contents of the message.

“...”

She looked up and briefly stared at the rusty ceiling without a word. Then she took off her clothes and headed to the bathroom.

Ji-Ah had a lot to do and accomplish today.

***

Meanwhile, Kingdom Age’s?community busily predicted Almond’s stream and talked about various rumors regarding him.

His stream should be starting soon and everyone’s excitement slowly ramped up.

[Almond’s doing a castle battle today!]

[I’m so excited.]

[It’ll be the world's first attempt at the castle battle with a bow!]

[I’m really excited.]

[Isn’t this the first time someone’s doing the castle battle with a bow? This guy...]

[Almond, you crazy genius...]

The users felt excited because no one had ever attempted the castle battle with a bow before.

People couldn’t help but want to witness the first time something happened regardless of whether Almond succeeded or not.

[I’m going to watch it for sure after school today.]

[I’m going to watch it live today too!]

[I’m going to watch it after work!]

They busily chatted amongst themselves about when and how they would watch Almond’s stream.

However, those plans and schedules soon became meaningless.

Ding—?

An unexpected notification popped up.

[Streamer Almond has started his stream!]

Almond turned on his stream much earlier than usual.

His followers felt surprised and began to swarm in.

— Turned on 4 hours earlier??? Can’t resist this! n0vELusB.c0m

— I’m not done with work yet, but whatever!

— LOL

— Wow! Oppa, you came early today!

The dedicated fans already began typing in the chat before he even finished setting up his mic and camera.

Almond felt pleased with the situation as he finished setting everything up.

Beep.

His face popped up on one corner of the screen.

“Hi, Treevy!”

— AlHa!

— AlHa hihi!

— Kya, looking good as usual.

— Oppa! AlHa!

— Dang, you came too early today. Thank you.

Around 310 fans greeted him. That amount felt quite impressive considering he just turned on his stream.

It had increased by 80 to 90 more viewers than yesterday. That meant his stream was gradually growing.

‘I started at a weird time today, but the numbers still grew...’

People didn’t even get off work or school yet when he started today. Despite that, he still reached an impressive 300 viewers.

“I was curious about today’s castle fight, so I turned on my stream earlier than usual. I feel like the battle today will take longer than usual too.”

— Ooooh

— So will today’s stream be longer than usual as well?

— Good for us.

— Kingdom, goated game!

Almond turned on his stream early in the morning for a simple reason. He expected this quest to be longer, so he wanted to stream earlier to make up for that.

Staying awake overnight didn’t make sense, so he decided to do the opposite and begin sooner.

“Alright, then. Let’s go and do the castle battle.”

— Let’s go!

— Watch out for Robin Hood!

— Let’s do this!

***

Thump.

He could feel the texture of the grass as soon as he entered. A light wind brushed past them.

Shaaa...

It felt like the calm before the storm.

Roman approached Almond as the wind blew across the field.

“Almond.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been busy.”

“Sorry?”

Thud.

Roman jokingly smacked his chest and signaled someone behind him.

Lady Emilia watched them from far away inside the castle. Her figure brightly shone even at this distance.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Roman laughed with a dirty smile.

“Ah, n-no... it’s not...”

Almond turned red and denied it, but his words betrayed his actions. He basically just admitted to his relationship with Emilia.

“I’m jealous.”

Tap tap.

Roman jokingly tapped his shoulder.

— ...?

— Roman, you’re a man of many faces.

— I can’t believe we’re seeing this side of him.

— They’ve become that close?

— Kya.

— Is there a Roman route? ><

This new side of Roman had never been seen before. He always acted nice towards Almond, but never this friendly. He usually scolded and sprinkled compliments here and there.

However, Almond and Roman had grown quite close judging from his actions today.

“Anyways, we got a lot done thanks to you. You might even become the same rank as me, Sergeant Almond.”

“No, no, I’ve still got lots to learn.”

“Enough chitchat. Look over there.”

Roman pointed at the center of the army that widely spread across the plain.

“Do you see that cliche knight in golden armor at the center of them? You can probably see him better than I can.”

“Yes.”

“He’s the core of this fight. I want you to try and intercept him.”

“It doesn’t seem like he’ll come out to the front.”

“Of course not. He’s the type to command from the back.”

“Alright.”

Almond nodded and focused on the man in golden armor. Shortly afterward, the war horns blew and indicated that the battle had begun.

Hooooorn!

“Raaaaa!”

“Let’s gooooo!!!”

“Chaaarge!!!”

The soldiers loudly shouted and their horses charged.

The archers aimed up and drew their bowstrings.

“Shoot!”

Almond screamed at the top of his lungs and the archers around him shot. They covered the sky with arrows.

“Heeeeing!”

The knights on top of the horses fell from the arrows and crushed the soldiers on the ground as well. Arrows from the other side also covered the soldiers.

The battle quickly grew chaotic.

“You heard, right?”

Almond commanded the archers and also spoke to the viewers while proceeding forward by himself. He hid in the grass fields.

Shu shuck.

“I’m going to go kill that golden armor guy.”

He planned to snipe the man in gold and end this battle. However...

Ding—?

[ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won.]

[Mission: Every kill = 10,000 won.]

A mission from a viewer suddenly popped up that promised 10,000 won for every kill. This mission would automatically calculate his kills and the amount would be taken from the viewer’s account.

Sang-Hyeon couldn’t believe it.

“Are you sure?”

He looked slightly worried and glanced at the enemy army again. They had around 500 or so individuals.

“It’ll be too much.”

He accepted the mission with a provocative statement and the viewers celebrated.

— Kya, 10,000 won for every kill?

— Are you ignoring Almond?

— How much are you planning to kill LOL

— It’ll probably be around twenty at most.

— Almond could probably do 50 at least!

— Still, 50 on the battlefield by himself? Seems unlikely.

— I say 800,000 won at MOST.