Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 346

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 2 Episode 66
24. I Became a Spearman in the Game (3)
There’s a word rarely used in RTS-type games.
A word that all the spearmen lying on the ground dying spout out as if they’d made a pact.
“Ugh… damn luck… shit game…”
“Commander recruitment is trash… ugh…”
Luck.
This word, rarely used in other RTS games.
Is commonly used in Civil Empire.
And no one denies it.
By the law of large numbers, it’s undeniable that skill determines rank advancement. But it’s definitely a game with tremendous variables caused by luck.
From a mercenary’s perspective, the commander lacks skill, or they were hired as a unit to be sacrificed from the start.
From the commander’s perspective, when mercenaries troll. It’s just throwing money away.
Moreover, the cheaper the beginners are, the more often they’re hired for the purpose of being sacrificed.
So the gaming experience for beginners is nothing short of hell.
That’s why it couldn’t be popular.
‘And apparently the Korean civilization has poor balance…’
On top of that, the Korean civilization apparently has a very poor balance in civilization warfare.
Currently it’s ‘Melee’ mode where you fight wearing any weapons or armor regardless of civilization.
But in civilization warfare, you can only equip items from your chosen civilization, and you can gain special abilities unique to each civilization.
Korea is said to be not very good.
You could say if Korea is bad, just play another civilization.
But that doesn’t work when you think about national warfare.
There you can only play as the nation you belong to, and since this content is essentially the reason to play Civil Empire.
Korean users at a disadvantage here have no choice but to leave one by one.
‘Anyway, can I even get that far.’
I nearly died pathetically at the start, yet here I am thinking about national warfare.
Almond couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at himself.
“Phew. You survived too?”
Someone next to me brushes off dirt and stands up, speaking.
It was wackjassey. She had survived as well.
“Lucky. This is the taste of it.”
Lucky, she says.
Here, having half your team slaughtered at the start counts as being lucky, apparently.
Anyway, it’s fortunate she survived. I have someone to ask my questions to.
“I heard spearmen counter cavalry. What’s the actual principle?”
Based on what I just experienced, it’s a question born from the fact that fighting head-on is impossible.
“Counter? Ah, the spear itself deals bonus damage to cavalry, and structurally, if you just keep thrusting, the cavalry just impales itself.”
“I see…”
Hearing it explained, it really does seem like a proper counter.
“But I don’t understand why we lost. That matchup only applies when the prices are equal.”
Price?
I glance down at my own equipment.
A tattered leather armor and a cheap spear that’s no better than what we used back at Zombie School.
Meanwhile, the opponent looked exceptionally well-equipped at first glance.
“Considering their weapons and armor, the price difference has to be at least five times over.”
The woman shrugs her shoulders casually.
“The Commander probably doesn’t have high expectations for us either. We’re just deployed to buy time.”
As she says this, the woman points to the floating order above.
[Track and attack the cavalry destroying the outpost.]
“See? It’s basically telling us all to die.”
The Commander knows better than anyone that we can’t fight that cavalry. Ordering us to fight again without reinforcements is a death sentence.
That was the mission from the start.
You’re just dragging out time, huh ㅠ
-Ugh…
-This is war
Given the nature of this game, I’m just one unit in the overall war.
I was never the protagonist.
In Civil Empire, I always had to keep this premise in mind.
‘Hmm. Do I really have to die?’
I turn to look at the enemy cavalry and think.
They trample over us and set fire to our forward outpost. The soldier training facility is burning with it.
If that place disappears, we can’t expect any additional troop reinforcements.
‘What do I do?’
I look around my surroundings.
I didn’t want to die a dog’s death like my colleagues did earlier.
If that’s the case, why did they attach a 1 gold bonus per cavalry unit?
Isn’t that just a scam?
Such thoughts arise, and a stubborn determination takes hold.
I’ll squeeze out at least 1 more gold from this Commander bastard.
‘The bonus… I’m taking it.’
If I just turn back in front of a bonus, my five years as an Asung mercenary would cry. Yeah, that’s right.
“What are you doing? The Commander’s orders are absolute. There could be penalties if you disobey.”
Click.
The woman pulls on a helmet from who knows where—one that wasn’t there before—and pushes it down firmly before taking the lead.
I quickly grab her hand.
“…What?”
The woman turns back with a startled expression.
“Is there another way?”
“I said there are penalties?”
“Let’s try something different.”
“Different how?”
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
In the meantime, the surviving allied spearmen were already advancing toward the cavalry.
“Hey, you two—what are you doing? Stop flirting and fight!”
“We’re cannon fodder anyway. Just charge and take down at least one of them before we go!”
They too knew they would die, yet they advanced toward the position the commander had indicated.
“What are you doing? Let go. Can’t you hear what they’re saying?”
“Right.”
Almond ignored her words and spoke as if he’d just realized something.
“Pick up those fallen spears over there and follow me.”
A sudden commanding tone.
It was merely a habit from his Zombie School days bleeding through, but she couldn’t help but feel irritated.
‘What is this bastard trying to do?’
Did showing kindness make her look easy to push around?
This wackjassey had all sorts of strange ideas.
Yet she couldn’t refuse outright.
‘Blood stains…?’
It was because of the blood on Almond’s spear.
‘What? He stabbed a cavalry unit?’
First deployment.
First time facing mounted troops.
Everything was a first.
The enemy cavalry were elite units with costs up to five times higher.
Forces equivalent to a fully-armored royal knight order.
Even if spearmen received bonus damage against cavalry…
To receive a damage judgment against them with such a cheap spear, you couldn’t just stab the armor.
You had to pierce the seams the armor couldn’t protect.
Piercing those seams with a spear in the brief moment horse and lance collide… it was nearly impossible, even in a game.
It was faster to just bring an expensive spear.
But how did he manage it?
‘It must have been luck.’
That was her conclusion.
And she decided to speak firmly.
Soldiers giving orders to each other was forbidden. The only superior was the commander.
“…Get lost. What do you think you’re doing, giving orders?”
She brushed his hand away.
Then she took a charging stance, intending to continue the assault on the cavalry as the commander had ordered.
At that moment, the head of a spearman who had charged at the front came rolling toward her.
It was the one who had said just moments before that they should at least kill one cavalry unit.
It was the moment when I could clearly see with both eyes that charging forward would be a dog’s death.
My steps came to a halt on their own.
She glanced at Almond again.
Her eyes examined Almond carefully, scanning him from side to side.
‘Hmm….’
She made a decision.
To change her mind.
“Hey.”
“…?”
“Tell me what you’re thinking. I’ll go with you.”

* * *
Slurp.
A boy who had sucked on candy with all his might.
His lips, coated smooth with sugar, mumbled.
When stressed, nothing beats sugar.
“What are they doing?”
I ordered an attack, but there are two spearmen doing something strange and unexpected.
While all the others charge in a straight line, these two are taking a wide detour far off to the side.
Could they have some kind of strategy?
“Strategy my ass. Aren’t these guys worth 1 gold?”
They might have some strategy of their own, but their rank is C-rank.
They’re wandering mercenaries among mercenaries.
And they’re not even veteran mercenaries at that.
Besides, looking closely, one of them is a woman.
The commander can’t see the ID, so I don’t know which country she’s from, but she’s a red-haired Westerner.
The man running alongside her is an Oriental.
Both of them have decent faces, so it looks like they’re on some kind of lovers’ escape.
Tsk tsk.
“That’s exactly why I told you that popular people shouldn’t play this game~~ like I explained.”
The boy commander ‘Geunjebabangeumnida,’ unusually skilled for his age, had seen cases like this quite often.
Since this is a game played by people, there are indeed cases where two of them make eye contact and run around together.
For someone as serious about this game as he is, it’s utterly absurd.
“This is war, I tell you. War! Huh? Why do these C-rankers have so little tension?”
…he said, yet he didn’t bother to stop them.
He didn’t have the leisure to do so.
Battle command only accounts for about 40% of a commander’s duties.
Production command was often more important.
Production command refers to things like producing workers, mining resources, and using those to build military outposts and train troops.
In short, it’s like handling ‘supplies’ in actual warfare. It costs money to deploy soldiers, and wood and stone are needed to raise buildings and castle walls.
A commander’s duty is to accelerate this cycle as much as possible while producing large numbers of troops and high-quality soldiers.
Commanding those soldiers is the next task, so to speak.
“No wood left.”
So the boy turned his screen back toward the production section. All the wood from the main base had been depleted. He needed to establish a new camp.
Crack!
With just a few workers, the camp was built in an instant.
“Gold is….”
Gold—the most crucial resource for employing mercenaries.
The gold mine was running smoothly, but….
“Ah. Ah. Harassment… Argh!”
A surprise harassment attack from the enemy archer unit had come. From a distance, they were continuously whittling away at the workers with their bows.
“I pulled all my defensive troops!”
In the end, he had completely forgotten about the two spearmen who were fleeing with Sarang.

* * *
Phew.
Exhaling a shallow breath, I hid my body behind the bushes.
Jesse—I decided to just call her that from now on—followed alongside me, breathing heavily.
“This really took a while.”
I had to take a long detour to approach without being spotted by the cavalry.
We carefully laid the spears we had brought down on the ground.
‘There must be thirty spears here.’
I couldn’t have brought this many on my own.
It became manageable because Jesse helped.
I turned my gaze toward the cavalry destroying the outpost.
The outpost was already engulfed in flames.
[Infantry Training Outpost]
[Health 23%]
In reality, it would be impossible to do anything about it, but since this is a game, a few workers could probably repair it again.
If I could just defeat the cavalry now.
Click.
I shouldered one spear and gripped it firmly.
Then I inhaled.
And as I exhaled, I threw it with all my strength.
“Hah!”
Whoosh!
The spear flew in a parabolic arc.
Jesse watched from beside me with an expression that seemed to say ‘Is he really doing this…’ without much excitement.
──Splurt!
The moment the flying spear pierced the neck of one cavalry unit.
“!?”
Her eyes flew wide open in shock.
The Cavalry with a spear lodged in his neck slipped from his horse like someone who had already been dead.
Thud.
[Cavalry Eliminated +1]
This message appeared in my field of vision.
He was dead.
“…Oh.”
I muttered that this actually works, then picked up the next spear.
“Huh? It’s over? This, what is this….”
Jesse was flabbergasted at my calm reaction.
“You, you just killed a Cavalry worth up to 5 gold in one shot!? How did you do that!?”
“…Why? I told you beforehand. How I’d do it.”
I tilted my head at her in confusion.
I had clearly explained earlier that I’d hide in the bushes and throw spears to kill as many Cavalry as possible.
Why was she so surprised?
“That’s exactly it! Who would actually think you’d do it? Throwing a spear from this distance to take down a fully-equipped Cavalry!”
Spearmen have bonus damage against Cavalry, so even with a massive equipment gap, landing a hit on the neck can result in an instant kill. But killing from this distance with a spear like this is a different story entirely.
If this kind of play were possible, no one would ever recruit advanced Cavalry. You could take down a 5 gold Cavalry investment with a 1 gold Spearman. Who would recruit them?
That’s how difficult this is to pull off.
It’s a result that only comes from divine accuracy, perfect force distribution, and luck all combined.
“You thought it wouldn’t work…?”
Yet I ask why she thought it wouldn’t work. From her expression, she seemed to regret underestimating my skills.
‘Why does she look disappointed?’
Jesse retorted in exasperation.
“Of course! You think other Spearmen haven’t tried this? If this works, it breaks the economy!”
It was natural to think it would fail. There’s a price difference, and she must have experienced that herself.
I don’t entirely disagree.
‘What. Then….’
But this raises a question for me.
“…Then why did you follow me?”
Why follow a plan that seemed destined to fail?
Jesse shrugged as if asking why I’d ask something so obvious.
“Because you’re cute.”
“?”
Suddenly, the chat exploded.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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