Chapter 20

Season 1, Episode 20 of The Genius Archer's Streaming

Chapter 8: Assassination Mission (2)

Oh Director's eyes widened.

'Eliminate the lord of the castle?'

He, too, was a hardcore player who had played Kingdom many times and really enjoyed it.

However, he had never seen such an audacious quest.

'Perhaps if it were a shield and spear...'

In Kingdom, the most stable setup is a shield and spear. If the proficiency and equipment quality of these two were pushed to the extreme, it might be possible.

'But a bow... it’s almost exclusively used for long-range interception or assassination.'

Infiltrating the castle and killing the lord with a bow is almost impossible.

Firstly, due to the guard system.

If a single guard is killed and makes a sound, an immediate signal is sent to all the guards.

So if there are two guards, they must be killed simultaneously, or avoided entirely, or killed one by one without making any noise.

'Furthermore, this lord...'

The lord of the castle, Talorant, who was specifically mentioned, has the worst synergy with Almond.

'He can’t be killed with arrows...'

Even if Almond could avoid the numerous guards and intercept the lord, he couldn’t kill him.

Because of the heavy, dense black armor he always wears, which is even more formidable than other knights'.

'If this were really cleared with a bow...'

If Almond could really take down the lord with just a bow, Oh Director could strongly advocate to the upper management that this person has star potential.

He would insist on signing a publicity contract in advance.

'Claiming he has the potential to become a star wouldn’t be an exaggeration.'

Oh Director liked Almond.

He had a clean image and good skills, but that alone wasn’t enough to become a star.

Becoming a star required something extra, a touch of magic.

And now, on the screen, Almond was selecting an option.

* * *

"Of course. I expected you to accept."

Emilia smiled brightly.

Her beauty was enough to make one feel that the previous choice was right.

- Cr. Option 1 was correct.

- Really, is life that important? As long as Emilia smiles, it’s fine.

- Let’s go to our deaths!

- Haha.

The viewers seemed to have similar thoughts as Almond.

The reactions were good. They were also looking forward to how Almond would clear this mission.

- I’m really curious how Almond will do it.

- How can he? He’ll just die, lol.

- Is this a troll? Almond doesn’t die, only during sponsor reactions.

- Haha, a 100,000 won sponsorship and he’s dead, lol.

Of course, there were those who predicted his failure.

Actually, most of them.

- No matter what, infiltrating a castle and killing the lord is impossible.

- Haha.

- Anyone who has played a siege battle in Kingdom knows how difficult it is. This is just a troll, lol.

- Probably people who haven’t played Kingdom.

The reason is the difficulty of this game, Kingdom Age. Among its content, the siege battles are as difficult as real wars.

In reality, one must climb the walls one by one, and the AI of the enemies isn’t stupid. If you’re spotted even a little, many soldiers will immediately rush over.

Infiltrating a castle is said to be more difficult than crossing the 38th parallel in real life.

- Crossing the 38th parallel to defect is easier.

- Ah, the 38th parallel is a joke, lol. Where, lol.

While these were exaggerated comments, they conveyed the difficulty.

Almond, of course, anticipated the difficulty.

'It will be difficult. Infiltrating a castle alone and killing the lord sounds overwhelming just to hear it.'

But the reason he accepted was simple.

'You have to do the impossible to stand out.'

He was a person who had bet everything on this broadcast. If he were to back down, he wouldn’t have started in the first place.

'And my body is now very familiar with it. Maybe I can really do it.'

Thanks to training and optimization, Almond felt almost like he was flying.

His condition was at its best.

In this state, nothing seemed impossible.

'A castle, after all, isn’t that big.'

Almond had some confidence, aside from his physical abilities.

Medieval castles aren’t that grand, and the number of guards isn’t that large.

"Medieval castles usually have no more than 50 guards, right? I think I can do it."

He showed some confidence.

- Haha.

- Almond: 50 to 1 is a piece of cake.

- Medieval castles are just large mansions, lol.

Almond, who had been reading the chat, turned his gaze elsewhere.

'Anyway...'

His gaze stopped on Emilia's eyes.

'What could be the reason for this woman to order someone to kill?'

Emilia, though a game character, didn’t seem like someone who would hate or want to hurt others. Yet, she had assigned such a dangerous mission. It was impossible not to be curious.

Then the screen went dark.

A new cut scene began.

Almond, who had escaped Sanghyun's control, asked the noble.

"Milady, what did the lord of this castle do wrong?"

"..."

Emilia looked at Almond without speaking for a moment.

"Almond, a mercenary doesn’t ask questions."

"..."

Was she not going to tell him?

Just as he thought this, Emilia turned her gaze back to the hill below and spoke.

"Actually, they are treating the villagers as slaves."

"..."

"Not just serfs, but they are selling the villagers to slave traders. Even children and women."

"But the estate can’t function like that."

"No, it’s done to maintain the estate. They lend money at high interest and keep the villagers in debt, eventually making them slaves."

"Will the problem be solved if the lord dies?"

"..."

"Our family will rule."

"Then why not a full-scale war?"

"There is no just cause. I believe this explanation is sufficient for you, mercenary. The reward will be more than enough."

After saying this,

The scene changed again.

* * *

Auuuuu...

The howl of a wolf and a large moon.

The sunny spring hill was gone.

Almond was now in the dark night.

Thud.

A sound effect accompanied the giant text that appeared.

[Assassinate Lord Talorant!]

The mission was assigned.

'Now it begins.'

Swoosh.

Almond calmly hid in the cornfield.

He whispered to the viewers.

"Does talking count as a detection?"

This was a question about whether muttering during stealth would be detected in-game.

- I don’t know~

- Try muttering~

- Haha

- You can change it in the settings, lol

- It’s a setting.

It’s a setting.

Almond thought for a moment.

'But this is a game that values realism.'

He decided to proceed.

"I’ll just go."

Swoosh.

He whispered, hiding in the darkness. From then on, Almond didn’t make a single sound.

Crunch.

His steps were as precise as a trained assassin.

A characteristic that was not seen in the previous Almond.

- Oh...

- His movement is unusual.

- He’s not just good with a bow, it seems.

- It seems to have changed due to optimization.

- Dotori said he has intense focus.

The viewers attributed the cause to innate talent or optimization.

But Almond knew the cause was the action he took before entering the capsule today.

'The training program is better than I thought.'

He had diligently spent 3 hours on the training program in the capsule, which significantly improved his movements in the virtual world.

Almond successfully approached a side of the castle wall where there were almost no guards.

Thud.

He leaned against the dark wall and sighed.

"Huh."

The next problem was how to climb the wall without being detected.

Almond’s gaze moved upward.

Flare.

Two torches patrolling the top of the wall were visible.

Swallow.

Almond swallowed hard.

He was quite tense now that he was close. He didn’t know where to start.

Of course, he had to deal with the two guards first.

'Two of them...'

Currently, two guards were in his line of sight.

'If one dies, the other will definitely cause a commotion...'

He had to take them out simultaneously or without them noticing.

- If you’re going to make noise, kill them both at once.

- How can you kill them both at once?

- You have to kill them without making noise, lol.

- You have to go behind them and silence them one by one.

Silencing them and laying them down slowly would prevent noise. But Almond shook his head.

'No.'

Honestly, Almond lacked confidence in handling the two without using his bow.

'I want to use the bow.'

But if one guard is hit by an arrow, the other will see.

Almond, who was pondering, suddenly had an idea.

'Ah.'

He carefully took out an arrow and whispered to the viewers.

"I think I can kill them both simultaneously with the bow."

His declaration made the viewers hang question marks in the chat.

- ???

- ??????

- ?

- Surely, you’re not going to shoot two arrows at once like in the movies?

- Haha

- That’s not possible here. This is Kingdom, not a movie!

Of course, in their common sense, it was impossible to kill two guards simultaneously with arrows.

Almond thought differently.

'I can do it.'

Kreeee...

Almond started to pull the bowstring.

- Wow, he’s really going to shoot?

- Haha, 50 to 1 ON!

- They’ll all come running.

- Almond, is this your first death?

- Big brother, if one of them is hit, the other will scream!

Worries and taunts filled the chat.

But Almond focused all his attention on the bow. The chat had long disappeared from his view.

'First, the one on the left. Draw a large parabola to make it fall later.'

He repeated the tactic, raising the angle of the bow sharply.

He didn’t take too long to aim.

Whoosh!

The arrow shot up instantly.

Immediately, Almond loaded another arrow on the string.

'Hit the one on the right in a straight line, timed to fall when the left arrow hits.'

Kreeee!

The arrow was pulled back with great force.

"Huh."

He took a slight pause to catch his breath.

Whoosh!

The arrow, shot with immense power, cut through the night air.

And the two arrows pierced the flesh.

Thud!

The left and right guards fell simultaneously, with perfect timing.

- Huh?