Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 103

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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 103
36. Sanghyeon’s Reward (2)
Living in a place like Daldongne, there were always certain visitors who came around frequently.
Knock. Knock.
Those people would rap on the gate and say things like this.
“Receive salvation.”
“Go to heaven.”
They were followers of various religions.
Even as a child, their impression had burned deeply into my mind.
They would always pester my Grandmother at the gate before being turned away like unwanted visitors.
Back then, I couldn’t understand why my Grandmother always sent them away so coldly.
“Grandmother. Don’t you need to receive salvation?”
Even with my young mind, I could tell that my Grandmother didn’t have much time left, and it worried me.
What if she didn’t believe and fell into hell? What if she couldn’t be saved?
Shouldn’t she just believe first and see what happens?
Every time, my Grandmother would answer like this.
“You fool. No matter how twisted a person becomes, people are saved by other people. Rather than those nameless strangers watching from far away, you should just treat your neighbors and those around you well.”
Back then, I simply tilted my head in confusion.
Neighbors?
How could the neighbors in this town possibly be better than the gods thundering down from the heavens above?
‘That’s what I thought back then.’
Inside the car Juhyeok was driving.
I turned my gaze out the window. The landscape beyond the gray city had become a refreshing green.
My reddened eyes were faintly reflected in the glass.
‘Yes. Grandmother won. Everything she said was right.’
So I stared fixedly out the window as if nailed in place. Jia quietly observed my back but didn’t say anything. She simply plugged in her earbuds and gazed out the other window.
Only Juhyeok, who was driving, chattered noisily.
“Hey. Nice scenery, right? Huh? Do you see that?”
No one was listening.
“Wow! Look at that mountain!”

* * *
It wasn’t until they stopped at a rest area while passing through the highway that Sanghyeon turned his head, and Jia woke from her sleep, pulling out her earbuds.
After finishing parking, Juhyeok quickly shouted and was the first to dash out.
“I’m getting sweet potato! No one else can get it!”
“Wow…. Totally childish.”
Jia gave an exasperated expression and muttered as she ran after Juhyeok.
“What’s the big deal about not getting the same thing?”
Sanghyeon simply followed Juhyeok to the counter selling sweet potatoes.
When they returned, Juhyeok had buttered grilled squid, Jia had a skewered rice cake and sausage, and Sanghyeon had sweet potato.
“…Why did you get squid?”
Sanghyeon asked Juhyeok with a puzzled expression.
“Is that a double meaning?”
“?”
“Ahem. No, you bastard. You’re insisting on eating that sweet potato, so what am I supposed to do?”
“Just eat some too.”
“Ugh.”
Juhyeok frowned as if he wanted to punch him.
“Hey. This is the kind of thing where everyone should buy something different and share.”
Juhyeok handed over his squid and took Sanghyeon’s sweet potato. Jia also received some squid.
“Take the rice cake.”
….
However, her skewer was a rice cake and sausage skewer with the two alternating.
He had to choose between rice cake or sausage. Eight out of ten times Juhyeok would choose sausage, but faced with Jia’s firm declaration of “I’ve got my saliva all over the sausage,” he reluctantly picked up the rice cake with tears in his eyes.
Jia quickly grabbed one of Sanghyeon’s potatoes and handed him the sausage.
“Huh…? W-wait, you said you got your saliva all over it!”
“I was lying, Juhyeok.”
“Nooooo!”
At Juhyeok’s genuine cry of anguish, Jia giggled with laughter. Sanghyeon also chuckled and ate the sausage.
‘…It really was a lie, right?’
He felt vaguely uneasy about it, but since it tasted good anyway, he just ate it.

* * *
As the light snack settled in my stomach and drowsiness began to creep in, Juhyeok glanced at the navigation screen.
“We’re here.”
Juhyeok spoke while briefly checking the GPS.
We had arrived at the cemetery.
It was a burial ground carved into the side of a tall mountain. While the lower sections were filled entirely with graves, the very top had a separate columbarium.
My grandmother was scheduled to be placed there.
It was a place I had been familiar with for a long time.
Standing at this peak and looking down, I could take in at a glance the rural landscape that my grandmother had longed for so deeply.
‘We’re here, Grandmother.’
I clutched the urn tightly and stepped out of the car.
The elderly caretaker, who had been notified in advance, came out to greet us.
“You must be Sang-hyun Yu, the one who called?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re the family of the late Lee Jeong-soon?”
“Yes. Ah… these are my friends.”
“Ah, your friends came along. They seem like good people. Let’s go. I’ve prepared the space.”
Whoooosh.
The caretaker loaded our group onto a golf cart-like vehicle and drove us to the top.
The columbarium we arrived at was exactly as I had imagined it.
A spectacular view unfolded below, with mountains and fields stretching out as far as the eye could see.
“Wow…”
Jia and Juhyeok also marveled at the view below.
“Beautiful scenery, isn’t it? The location is excellent too. It’s not easy to find a spot like this—you were fortunate.”
Click.
As the stone lid was removed, a deep space was revealed.
My grandmother’s urn would be placed there.
“Would you like to place it yourself?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
Climbing the ladder, I inserted the urn into my grandmother’s new resting place, positioned high above.
My outstretched right hand began to tremble slightly.
Tap.
An aged hand steadied me.
The caretaker could have remarked, ‘Why is such a young person’s hand shaking like this?’ but instead, when our eyes met, he simply offered a gentle smile.
“Go ahead and place it.”
“Thank you.”
I nodded and pushed the urn in with greater force.
Thud.
The heavy stone lid closed again, and engraved upon it were the characters “Lee Jeong-soon.”
Tap, tap.
As I descended the ladder, Juhyeok gave my shoulder a few pats.
The three of us made only a half-hearted bow toward my Grandmother before heading back down the mountain path.
I had no intention of making a proper offering—if I did, my Grandmother would surely lecture me about how I should focus on helping the living rather than worrying about the dead.
“Thanks, Jia. For coming all this way.”
“Then buy me dinner.”
She answered as if she’d been waiting for this.
“There’s supposed to be a famous sundae soup restaurant’s main branch around here.”
Jia held up her phone’s map, pointing to a marked location.
It was odd that all she asked for was sundae soup, but then again, she did say she liked it.
“Sure. I’ll treat!”
I figured my settlement payment had come through anyway, so I decided to splurge generously.

* * *
We ended up having drinks at the sundae soup restaurant. Only Juhyeok abstained since he was driving.
“It’s so unfair that I’m the only one who can’t drink!”
But after returning the rental car, he joined us for a second round anyway.
A tipsy Jia insisted on treating for the second round, but I quietly paid the bill instead.
No matter what, they were essentially my employees, and I couldn’t let them spend their own money.
Jia was so drunk she probably wouldn’t remember any of it anyway.
“Hmmm… Almond…”
As usual, I carried Jia on my back to the bottom of the stairs, and Juhyeok took over from there, successfully getting her to her apartment building.
But there was a problem.
“Hey. Jia. Where’s your key!”
“Almond…”
“What, was she a Pokémon in a past life? She just keeps saying the same thing!”
No matter how much Juhyeok shouted, Jia wouldn’t tell us where her key was. Or rather, she didn’t seem to understand words at all.
Juhyeok set her down on the ground.
“I’ll look for it.”
I carefully began searching through her bag.
It felt rude, but what else could we do without the key?
Under the dim orange streetlight, I couldn’t see well. I turned on my phone’s flashlight. A bright white beam flooded out. In that instant.
‘Huh?’
Someone in a dark corner caught my eye.
I almost would have missed them in the darkness.
There was someone positioned as if they were watching this place.
Looked like a man, and something about this felt very wrong.
I stopped searching for the key.
“Yeah, this won’t work.”
“What do we do?”
“What else? I’ll just have to take her.”
“What?!”
“I’ll carry her this time.”
I glanced at the man before hoisting Jia onto my back.
I eventually brought her to my home.
I laid Jia on the bed and asked Juhyeok.
“Did you happen to see anything?”
I told Juhyeok about the man who had been standing in front of Jia’s place.
“Huh? There was someone like that?”
“…Yeah.”
“Hmm…”
It was natural to be concerned since a woman lived alone there, but it wasn’t really a major issue in reality.
“It’s probably nothing. Anyway, she’s going to be shocked out of her mind when she wakes up.”
Juhyeok chuckled and laughed.
Then he went to the sofa and lay down, stretching his aching back.
As Juhyeok habitually checked his phone, his eyes widened.
“Huh? Hey. An announcement just dropped.”
“An announcement?”
“Balloon Gum collaboration!”

* * *
[Balloon Gum Silver Ascension Project]
[Broadcasting Genius VS Gaming Genius]
[Coach: Almond]
My thumb repeatedly brushed across the announcement displayed on the small phone screen.
I couldn’t believe this was real.
‘I’m actually going to broadcast with Balloon Gum…’
It had been scheduled, but seeing it like this in an announcement felt entirely different.
“Wow. There’s even an article about it.”
“An article?”
They wrote an article about streamers doing a collaboration? I tilted my head in confusion.
There really was an article. And it was from the Jaebu portal at that.
[New Content Worth Anticipating for Battle Large Gamers – Balloon Gum & Almond Collaboration]
The content was roughly about how Almond could pull Balloon Gum up to Silver.
Since Almond was a physical-type player, rather than teaching and climbing, it would become a duo rank grind where he’d drag her up by sheer force—that was the speculation.
‘They nailed it.’
That was actually the content we had prepared.
Almond teaching Battle Large know-how to someone right now would be absurd, and it was simply content showcasing both Almond’s extreme talent and, conversely, Balloon Gum’s extreme talent in one place.
-Wow this is gonna be so fun lol
-Lol even if Balloon Gum tags along for duo, Almond won’t care right?
Lol, my first game of Battle Royale was a solo squad win ㅋㅋㅋ
Haha yeah that’s right lol
-Is this gonna be a long-term series??
I wish that were the case ㅠㅠ
-Almond is world-class all the way!
-??? : Hako streamer? That’s merely my afterimage.
The Knight’s comment section had quite a few responses. Overall, the reactions were positive.
I stared blankly at the monitor in one corner of my room.
The memory overlapped with those days after work, watching Balloon Gum’s broadcast in my darkened room with a beer in hand.
Tap.
Juhyeok placed his hand on my shoulder.
“That streamer you liked, right? Balloon Gum.”
“Yeah. Watching him puts me at ease.”
“Actually, the first ad I was planning to do was related to that person.”
“An ad…?”
Now I remembered Juhyeok grumbling that ‘kimchi stew wasn’t originally supposed to be the first ad.’
“Right. If this collaboration goes well, I’m planning to push you and Balloon Gum as the ad models for Fantasia’s new release.”
“…!”
My eyes widened in shock.
Just playing a game for an ad was completely different from being an ad model.
“It’s not an impossible idea. I’ve already discussed it a bit with Department Manager Oh. I’m telling you in advance to get yourself mentally prepared. Give it your best shot.”
I nodded vigorously.
Mental preparation.
It was fully activated.

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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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