Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 1

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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 1 Episode 1
1. I Still Want to Shoot (1)
‘What if I just let it fly?’
It’s 3 PM. By this time of day, I always have this thought.
“So you’re telling me you can’t even get this one thing right?! Huh? Ugh….”
That bald Department Manager in front of me spewing saliva, his protruding belly bulging outward.
“Hey! Are you listening? How does this even count as meeting materials prepared right now….”
The Department Manager’s precious belongings hidden beneath that belly.
‘I could hit it from 500 meters away.’
I was gauging exactly how far away I could shoot and still hit my target.
“Hey!!!”
With the Department Manager’s roar, documents came flying.
Whoosh.
My head tilted slightly as the papers grazed past my ear and landed perfectly in the trash bin behind me.
“You bastard! What’s with the daydreaming while I’m talking to you?!”
I finally snapped back to attention and immediately bowed my head.
“My apologies.”
Both hands clasped respectfully together.
My right hand trembled noticeably more than the left.
The Department Manager’s gaze lingered on that hand.
“Ugh…. Where did you even dig up this incompetent fool…. Slow hands, slow mind….”
The trembling stopped briefly at the word “incompetent,” but the Department Manager didn’t notice.
“Get out! You bastard!”
The Department Manager finally turned his chair toward the computer and waved me away.
“I’m going right away.”
I nodded casually as if I hadn’t just been scolded and left the Department Manager’s office.
“Phew. Made it through another day.”
The moment I stepped out, my expression became perfectly serene.
What people call mental management.
An essential skill I learned as an archer.
“Hey. Did you get chewed out again today?”
A colleague approached me and asked.
“Of course.”
“Sigh… You really do have it rough… Stuck with a boss that wasn’t in your destiny.”
“What can you do. Once you’re parachuted in, you have to live like a slave.”
Parachuted in.
That was always the nickname that followed me around.
I couldn’t bloom with my natural talent and had to leave archery due to injury. My coach, taking pity on me, pulled strings through connections to land me this job at the Company.
“Now that’s some solid self-awareness.”
My colleague laughed anew, surprised by my candid self-description as a parachute hire.
“Know your place, that’s all.”
I kneaded my aching right arm with my fingers as I answered offhandedly.
‘Know yourself before you know your enemy… Those old days.’
His words about knowing one’s place stirred memories of my athletic days. It was something my Coach always used to tell me.
Back then, when I was treated as the most promising prospect, those words never truly resonated. But now, living a life where I barely scraped by with insults, they pierced straight through my chest.
“Hey, I’m heading out first. If I don’t reorganize this report, I’ll be working late.”
My reverie was short-lived. I quickly snapped back to reality and rushed to my desk.

* * *
After work.
I stopped by a convenience store, bought four cans of beer, and headed home.
“Phew… I barely dodged working late.”
Back at home, I glanced at the clock. Nine in the evening.
I quickly sat down at my computer and pulled up a sports video.
‘I don’t know why it suddenly came to mind today.’
Click.
I opened a beer can and watched the footage. I used to play it whenever I felt down, though I hadn’t watched it in quite some time.
The day I became the youngest champion at the domestic championship tournament.
A recording of that historic moment.
The athlete in white on the screen. I take a deep breath.
The bowstring is drawn taut, breath held, eyes sharp and fixed on the target.
All those days of training and practice existed for this single moment of release.
The taut bowstring is released.
Whoosh.
Thunk!
A direct hit.
-Wooooow!!
-Another hit! The, the lens is shattered!! At the youngest, youngest….
-The birth of a legendary prodigy! Ladies and gentlemen, you’re witnessing history….
A close-up of young Sanghyeon’s face flashes across the screen as the commentators’ excited voices rise.
“Wow. I looked pretty good back then.”
Gulp.
I let out a hollow sigh and chugged my beer.
Interviews, award ceremonies, and other congratulatory fanfare passed by, and the video ended.
My face appeared faintly reflected on the black screen.
“I’ve aged…”
In truth, at twenty-eight, I was still young to call myself aged. But the footage from earlier had been from such a vibrant time in my life.
“Let me just watch some gaming streams.”
I turned on a gaming broadcast I usually watched out of habit.
It wasn’t that I particularly enjoyed games or watched them often. In fact, I’d never even played a game before.
From childhood, I had devoted myself solely to archery practice, leaving no time to play games with my peers.
Competitive sports require substantial financial investment.
Living with my grandmother, I couldn’t afford such expenses. I had no choice but to secure scholarships.
As a result, I never played a single game and trained obsessively. That dedication earned me the achievement of winning the youngest player championship.
Back then, I truly believed my path would be smooth and unobstructed.
“Of course, it wasn’t.”
Gulp.
I took a long drink of beer, swallowing down all the painful memories along with it, then refocused on the game broadcast.
The screen displayed a currently trending “Full Dive” style virtual reality game broadcast.
-Hey! Move! Why isn’t this working!?
-Critical! Critical!! Got it!
Full Dive virtual reality games literally create the sensation of a person entering entirely into the game world—the pinnacle of indirect experience media available today.
People commonly call it “capsule gaming.”
That’s because you need a device called a capsule to play it. Even the minimum specification model costs an astronomical sum—an absolute luxury for a salaried worker like me.
For someone like me, simply being able to drink beer and watch such an impressive game was itself a stroke of luck.
[Badgeuk Badgeuk donated 50,000 won]
[Aimee! Where did Aimee go!]
A viewer lamented the broadcaster’s aiming skills and sent a donation. The donation program read it aloud in a ridiculous voice.
-Aimeeee! Aimeeee! Where did you gooo!?
Similar donations continued to pour in.
[True Gumtak donated 4,000 won]
[5 minutes later: So, today’s game is!]
A donation predicting he’d turn off and restart the game in five minutes to aim for editing.
[Aimee donated 30,000 won]
[Hey! I shot it but why didn’t it work! This capsule, what’s wrong with it!]
A donation predicting the gamer would blame the capsule’s response speed despite it functioning perfectly—quite substantial donations continued flowing in.
The chat window is flooded with ‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ’.
But my face had gone rigid.
“Right… inability is a talent too, I guess. Is that hard to hit? Looks easy to me.”
Those days of old.
It was a moment when that era—when I had sacrificed everything merely to excel—seemed truly pathetic.
“I should get some sleep.”
Time had slipped away, and now I needed to prepare for work the next day.
A regular routine.
One of the habits etched into my body during my days as an athlete.
Soon the lights in my room went out, the curtains drew closed, and even the city lights outside the window were shut away.

* * *
The next day.
I was summoned to the Department Manager’s Office the moment I arrived at the Company that morning.
‘What’s this…? Something feels off.’
Being called to the Department Manager’s Office was routine, but the way my colleagues looked at me was strange.
I had exceptionally sharp eyesight.
I could read even the subtlest expressions on my colleagues’ faces from a distance.
‘This is definitely odd.’
My conclusion was that something was wrong with everyone today.
I would understand why only after entering the Department Manager’s Office.
Tap.
A resignation letter placed before me.
“…There’s going to be a restructuring.”
The Department Manager continued speaking without even looking at my face.
“If you leave gracefully now, we’ll take care of you. But if you get pushed out in the restructuring, you won’t even get that much.”
His voice and expression were so indifferent that I wondered if he was really talking to me.
“There’s only you left. Our team. You know? Everyone else is working hard.”
Now he was dragging my other colleagues in as hostages.
‘I mentioned yesterday that I pushed too hard, and he criticized me for it….’
Actually, yesterday’s report wasn’t bad. I had a sense of that much. Yet the Department Manager persistently found fault and cornered me.
As a mere associate, whenever the Department Manager cornered me, I just apologized. That was the rule.
And now, following that rule, I had to step back from this position.
“…I understand.”
My answer came out more easily than expected, and only then did the Department Manager glance back at me.
“Really?”
“Isn’t that what you’re saying—that I should leave now to get my severance properly? You’ll add a bit more, won’t you?”
“…You calculate fast.”
“I’ve recorded this, so keep your promise.”
It was a complete lie, but the Department Manager nodded. These days, quite a few working adults constantly record conversations. Especially when they’re called to a place like the Department Manager’s Office.
“Well, sure. It’s not my promise anyway—the company guarantees it. Don’t worry.”
“Do I leave starting today?”
“Would you work if I told you to?”
“…I’ll pack my things.”
“Geez.”
I turned around expressionlessly. The Department Manager’s voice came from behind.
“Hey. Don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a parachute hire anyway. Right? All these kids here—they struggled through university, built up their credentials, studied English, spent money hand over fist, even went abroad for studies. We can’t help it, us either.”
I knew.
I knew why the Department Manager always scolded me. Why I barely had any colleagues. Why everything was about to disappear.
It was all because I was a high school graduate and a former athlete.
“I understand.”
I slowly made my way back to my desk and organized my belongings into the box. After four years at the Company, everything I owned barely filled a small postal box.

* * *
“What am I going to do?”
Back home, Sanghyeon sat in the quiet of his apartment.
I’d left the Company with a cool demeanor, but now that I was home, I felt like I was losing my mind.
Twenty-eight years old. High school diploma. Unemployed. Former athlete. Specialty: archery.
With such a pitiful résumé, it seemed nearly impossible for me to work as a salaryman in this country.
And I couldn’t reach out to the Coach again after already owing him a favor.
“Maybe I should buy some ramen? And water too, probably….”
My mind began spinning with a shopping list as if I were preparing for war.
“Haah… haah….”
I steadied myself and took a deep breath.
Even standing felt exhausting, so I collapsed into a chair before eventually throwing myself onto the bed.
Thud.
“Haah….”
I lay there in a daze, staring blankly at the ceiling. A circular fluorescent light hung above me.
It resembled the target I’d always aimed at.
Still gazing upward, I slowly raised both hands, aiming at the center of that target. As if drawing a bow, my breathing steadied and my arms formed a perfect stance.
Tap tap tap tap….
But my right hand was visibly trembling. The longer I held the position, the worse the shaking became.
“Tch….”
Thud.
Finally, my hands fell back onto the bed. Cold sweat trickled down my forehead.
About five minutes later.
I suddenly sat up from the bed.
As if possessed, I walked over and turned on my computer. I briefly considered grabbing a beer from the refrigerator but decided against it.
I logged into the gaming broadcast platform I usually watched, my trembling hands struggling to search for something.
‘Skill streaming’.
Could I make money if I was good at games?

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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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