Everything went dark for a few moments, then a bright light flashed before his eyes, and Baron found himself standing in the middle of an empty camp, surrounded by forest. He looked down and found that a virtual window named “troop composition” had popped up midair.

In the window, he saw various pictures, names, prices, and statistics for types of troops. It seemed that each troop came with different costs and stats. For example, he would have continuous food costs as days of battle passed. Morale — some troops naturally came with higher morale, as they were more confident in their abilities. Trust — between the armies and the strategist, and the overall “performance” rating of the army.

After browsing for a while, Baron decided on his army’s composition. He’d chosen a thousand cavalrymen, four thousand infantry, two thousand archers, a thousand mounted archers, and two thousand shield troops.

“Hmm.” Baron mused to himself. “Yue Fei said that I had an entire day to formulate a strategy to win the game, I should concentrate and do my best to use this time effectively.

He looked around once more and realized that he was no longer alone in the camp. Thousands of men had appeared out of the blue and were staring at him.

Who even created such a magnificent simulation?

Baron slowly walked up to the front of the army and tried to touch the soldier closest to him.

“Attention, hut!” The soldier suddenly shouted, and as soon as these words fell from his lips all the mounted soldiers behind him dismounted and knelt down before Baron.

“Hello, General. I am to be your lieutenant for the upcoming battle. My name is Ben. My men and I will be under your care.”

“It’s good to meet you, Lieutenant Ben. I am Baron Magellan.”

My goodness, these guys are even more realistic than I’d thought. Do they have some kind of algorithm deciding their actions?

Baron reached forward to touch the Lieutenant’s plate armor. When he made contact with the armor, he felt a jolt of surprise.

“Sir?” Ben was confused as to why his General was touching his armor. What was one supposed to do in this situation? He couldn't get mad at his commanding officer, as there had to be a certain mutual understanding between the two.

“Apologies, I had to... confirm something.” Baron said as he waved the matter away.

“Alright then... does the esteemed general need us to do anything before we siege the city tomorrow?

“For now just have the men rest up. Once the men are settled in, meet me in the large tent.” Baron said as he pointed to the largest tent within the camp.

“Your orders are my command” Ben quickly said before he turned around and ordered the troops to begin settling into the already prepared camp.

Baron proceeded to walk into the large tent, and once inside he found that there was a long table with a few items placed on top. The thing that caught Baron's interest was the map.

He took the map and studied it carefully. After a few moments, he concluded that the map included his current location, the city he needed to siege, and a general outlay of the surrounding land. Now Baron knew why Yue Fei had said that one day of preparation wouldn’t be enough.

It was because checking the surrounding terrain for advantageous warfare alone would cost a great deal of time, never mind spending the time to formulate a solid strategy itself.

He immediately circled points of interest on the map. A few moments later Lieutenant Ben walked in.

“Greetings, General Baron. Is there something that you need?.”

“Greetings, lieutenant. There is indeed an assignment for you.”

“What is it, general?”

“I need you to bring me to these eight spots on this map, as well as the city. I need to study the terrain and the walled city to better understand our situation.

“Yes sir. Allow me a few moments to gather the fastest horses and a few of our elite troops to accompany you.”

“Good, you are dismissed. I will be at the front of the camp in twenty minutes. Don't be late.”

“Of course, sir.” Ben replied respectfully before taking his leave.

Baron once again studied the table but didn't find anything else particularly useful. Pausing in fear, Baron realized that Yue Fei must have received a map of his own. Did that mean that Yue Fei knew where he was at the moment? He quickly dismissed the idea. Even if Yue Fei did know his location, he could always take down camp and move locations.

After all, a map was just a map. It couldn’t track his movements. Still, though, just who was it that made such a game? Could it be that these troops of people that were in this camp actually real, and had free will? A few more minutes passed before Baron remembered what was important.

“Either way, Yue Fei will tell me anything I want to know after this game, so it's best to just focus on beating him first.”

Grabbing the map, Baron quickly made his way to the front of camp, where his lieutenant had already made preparations. Staring up into the sky, Baron frowned. There seem to be a few storm clouds passing by in the sky.

Regardless, he and his men set out to scope the land.

----------------------------

Since Yue Fei was already accustomed to the Death Match game, he had already set his men to check their surroundings before Baron even managed to finish picking out his army composition.

Yue Fei had chosen a relatively simple army composition, so as to not overwhelm his rookie opponent. He had chosen to bring in a thousand archers, six thousand infantry, and three thousand cavalry.

After scouting around for a few hours, Yue Fei had returned to his walled city, locked himself in a room and racked his brain to concoct a strategy with which to defeat Baron.

“Know your enemy and know yourself.” Yue Fei recounted Sun Tzu's famous line.

“Although I may not be the best strategist in the Chinese community, defeating a greenhorn like Baron should be a simple task.”

He reviewed his observations for the day and pored over the map in his hands another time. “It seems that much of the geography in this map has densely packed trees. Good cover for sneaking troops around in… and great for setting up ambushes.”

“Other than that, there are only seven points of interest around the city that the both of us must be careful of. His main objective was to defend the walled city, and it is better to not divide up his army so early into the game.

Yue Fei diligently proceeded to make a strategy he believed would beat Baron. A few hours later, he yelled “Lieutenant En!” towards the door.

His lieutenant quickly stepped inside. “What is it, Sire?”

“Gather the officers. It’s time for briefing.”

“Understood, sir. I’ll call them now.” En left the room and walked down the hall, hollering and knocking on the various officers’ rooms. “The General has formed a plan! War room, now!”

Just a moment later, all of Yue Fei’s officers had lined up in the war room.

“Alright, men. Listen up. This is the plan for the upcoming siege. I will be assigning three of you to each wall, while I will be issuing commands from the central tower. Keep messengers and notify me of any interesting development that may occur on your walls.”

He pointed at the various officers and assigned them to the various walls before issuing additional commands.

--------------------------------

Back at Baron's camp, he was still forming his strategy. He racked his brain to think of something, anything that could give him the edge in the upcoming battle, but the few ideas he had were risky and not very reliable.

In the end, he dismissed his officers and quietly simulated hundreds of battles in his mind, searching for a surefire way to beat his opponent. After a few hours, he was taking a small break when he suddenly noticed the game window on the edge of his peripheral vision, the one he’d used to choose his army composition. He saw that there was a list in the game window, of which he was at the top.

He scrolled down the list, and blinked a few times. His personal stats were as strong as fifty normal soldiers.

Suddenly, he remembered was Yue Fei had said — if either side’s strategist was taken out, their side would instantly lose. Baron had been making his plans under the assumption that he would have to act as a tabletop strategist, who manipulated from the backlines.

But if his stats were so high… he could take to the battlefield! Baron’s eyes lit up as he considered the new opportunities this suggested. Only just before dawn broke did Baron finally call upon his officers to discuss the battle plan. The half-asleep officers slowly walked into the big tent one by one. After they came in, though, none dared to complain as a stern-faced Lieutenant Ben stared them down.

“General Magellan, all officers are accounted for. Ready when you are.”

Baron looked into his officers’ eyes before grinning. “Morning, men. Let me tell you how we are going to win.”