Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 106

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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 106
37. Balloon Gum (2)
Pop.
With that sound effect, Balloon Gum made his entrance.
He literally burst forth from thin air.
“Wahaha!”
Balloon Gum extended his hand while letting out his signature laugh.
“You look incredibly handsome in person!”
In person?
This wasn’t a real person but an avatar modeled after one, wasn’t it?
The thought crossed my mind briefly, but I smiled back and grasped his hand.
“Hello. I’m Almond.”
“Yes! I’m Balloon Gum!”
I’d always seen Balloon Gum’s appearance on stream. But there’s always a disconnect between seeing someone through a camera and seeing their full body like this.
Balloon Gum was exactly as I’d imagined him.
A body puffed up like a balloon filled with air, a small stature, a face with an innocent expression.
Balloon Gum incarnate.
From the description alone, he’d seem like a kindergartener from a cartoon, but in reality, he was a middle-aged man approaching forty.
“Mister Almond? But what should we do? Aren’t you dead?”
“Huh? What do you mean…”
“Die – Almond went, didn’t he! Wahaha!”
His occasional use of humor like that was proof of his age.
If the chat window had been open, he would’ve collected countless downvotes for that joke.
“My apologies. Let’s head to the channel I created first.”
Balloon Gum quickly salvaged the situation and sent me a channel code.
Ding.
With the sound, a complex code appeared in my vision.
I raised my hand toward it.
[Will you move?]

* * *
Pop!
With a rather vivid sound effect, Almond materialized into existence.
“Wow….”
Almond gazed at the suddenly transformed landscape, his mouth hanging open.
‘What is all this?’
Balloon Gum’s Personal Discord World Channel. It resembled a fantastical realm inhabited solely by children.
True to the mastery of platformer games, there were countless jump platforms, traps, and spikes everywhere.
Houses that appeared to be crafted from paper folding dotted the landscape.
Even the water cascading from the village fountain possessed a mystical atmosphere, as if painted with watercolors.
-Roooaaarrr!
Beyond that mountain ridge, there was even a dinosaur visible.
Not a frightening dinosaur, but rather one that resembled a stuffed toy crafted from yarn.
‘This never appeared on the broadcast.’
Despite having this personal channel, it had never been exposed on stream even once.
It truly was a personal channel in every sense.
“Wahaha! It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it?”
Balloon Gum laughed sheepishly, apparently thinking her village looked too chaotic.
It could have been because Almond was staring blankly at the dinosaur.
Almond shook his head.
“No, no. It’s wonderful. It’s exactly what I imagined you to be like.”
“Oh? Really? Did you already know about me?”
Almond explained that he had been a fan of Balloon Gum’s for quite a long time, and that he had taken up streaming as a dream because of her.
Balloon Gum appeared quite surprised.
“What?! I didn’t think you’d be that kind of person….”
Calling her own broadcast “that kind of thing.” Almond chuckled at that. In that moment, laughter echoed from somewhere.
Kya-hehe.
It was a woman’s laughter, clear and melodious.
“Mister. ‘That kind of thing’? What’s wrong with your broadcast?”
“Ah. Miho. You were in the channel?”
Miho?
Almond turned his head at the familiar name.
‘Gasp.’
A slender woman with model-like proportions stood before him.
However… her outfit boasted an exposure level and unique design that could scarcely exist in reality.
Unique, yet it suited her perfectly.
She carried off such an outfit with ease.
She was captivating enough to hold one’s gaze. It was impossible to distinguish whether it was the person or the outfit that was mesmerizing.
Balloon Gum, noticing Almond’s gaze, added an explanation.
“Ah. This is your first time in Discord World, right? That outfit is a cash item, a cash item. Why would you wear something like that to a first meeting?”
“Huh? What’s wrong with it? This is This World.”
For her to dismiss it so casually, an outfit where only the vital areas were barely covered with stickers would have been embarrassing even for a virtual world character.
Seeing that she wasn’t embarrassed at all made me wonder if this was just normal here.
‘Is this really This World?’
Almond momentarily felt the illusion of stepping into a cyberpunk world.
“Haven’t we met before? Something like that?”
Miho approached with a bashful smile.
Miho was a typical cat-like woman. There was something about her that seemed dangerous to touch, a tension that emanated from her features.
“Yes. You’re someone who supported me before. Thank you.”
“Wow. You remembered!”
Her eyes crescent into crescents as she smiles along.
The underlying tension that was normally present completely dissipates when she smiles, making her look just like a cute child.
It’s easy to understand why her nickname was inspired by the nine-tailed fox.
Any slightly foolish man would have his liver and gallbladder stolen from him.
Ah, tens of thousands of men were already doing exactly that on her broadcast.
“I was so worried you wouldn’t remember me.”
Her friendliness seemed surprisingly good too. It was on a completely different level from how announcer Huyeon Yu acted warmly.
That felt like skillful socializing, but this felt like a dangerous temptation.
Anyway, why did Balloon Gum suddenly show me Miho?
It didn’t seem like an unexpected encounter.
“Miho is one of the crew members at our company. Well… even though we call them crew, we barely do collaborations. She’s like a close younger sister, so I wanted to introduce her.”
Balloon Gum added an explanation about Miho. And he whispered one more thing: ‘Actually, she was curious about you.’
“Sir! What are you saying!”
“Huh? No, no. I was saying you’re pretty.”
“You’re lying! Who says that as a whisper!”
“Wahaha! There are a few other crew members too. We’re just introducing ourselves. Our company crew.”
Balloon Gum gestured for me to follow him, leaving Miho behind.
We strolled through a residential area that was truly structured like a village.
Apart from the fact that all the houses were shaped like mushrooms, each piece of clothing the residents wore was truly bizarre.
From someone wearing neon leopard print top and bottom with rabbit ears, to someone wearing pants as a top and a hoodie as pants.
‘Miho was actually pretty normal.’
Miho was relatively the most normal among them.

* * *
After exchanging brief greetings with the village residents,
Almond and Balloon Gum discussed how to proceed.
There wasn’t much to discuss.
Internet broadcasting inherently needed spontaneity, so they didn’t plan things out too rigidly beforehand.
“You just need to master how to avoid sniper shots.”
Drawing on her extensive experience as a streamer, Balloon Gum shared her expertise on how to capture the flag while evading snipers,
and Almond absorbed the information.
Most of their discussion time was spent on this topic.
“Basically, the concept is for you to carry me through a painful duo run. I think that’ll be the fun part for viewers.”
“Got it.”
Finally, Balloon Gum outlined the content’s key points.
“Let me take a quick break and grab a snack, then I’ll log back in for our broadcast time.”
“Sure. See you then.”
Poof.
Balloon Gum’s avatar vanished.
‘Might as well look around.’
Almond decided to stay in This World and explore the village a bit more.
After touring several areas, Almond sat on a bench and observed a living giant dinosaur figurine.
Roooaarrr!
It made strange sounds while performing ridiculous movements.
There was something oddly entertaining about watching this creature.
It somehow reminded me of Balloon Gum.
[Juhyeok: Hey, what’s going on? Balloon Gum’s streaming right now eating a banana?]
So her snack break meant eating a banana.
[Oh. We agreed to take a quick break and meet up for the broadcast time. Looks like she started streaming already.]
[Juhyeok: Ah, got it? I thought you messed up lol. How was it? Everything okay?]
Sanghyeon told Juhyeok about how Balloon Gum had introduced him to various people.
[Juhyeok: Really? She introduced you to her company crew? That sounds like a really good sign?]
[Why?]
[Juhyeok: That’s what her manager said. Apparently Balloon Gum draws a clear line if she’s not interested in someone. She doesn’t introduce her people around or even invite them to her channel?]
[But she invited me to her official channel almost immediately after we met…]
Did she even have time to decide whether she liked me or not? Balloon Gum had invited Almond to her official channel the moment they met.
[Juhyeok: Is that really Balloon Gum’s channel? I heard she doesn’t even show that channel on broadcasts.]
[Oh. Yeah. It’s my first time seeing it too. There’s even a weird dinosaur walking around here.]
[Juhyeok: Right! I heard she doesn’t just invite anyone lol. Wow! Infinite! Favorability! Almond!]
Seeing how excited Juhyeok was, it seemed Almond had made quite an impression on Balloon Gum.
Almond was bewildered. He hadn’t actually done anything. He’d just acted naturally.
Chuckle.
Sanghyeon laughed and drew his conclusion.
‘That brat. He’s spouting all kinds of nonsense just to keep me alive.’
Juhyeok was lying.
“Having fun thinking about something?”
Just then, Miho sat down beside me on the bench and asked.
She was wearing an ordinary hoodie now, not that outfit from earlier that I didn’t know where to look. Thank goodness.
“Oh, I just got a message from a friend. You changed clothes?”
“It seemed a bit too hardcore to show to newbies.”
Miho laughed bashfully.
The white hoodie suited her far better.
On this fresh spring campus, she looked like the kind of female college student who could be a first love.
But somehow I had this nagging feeling she’d dump me for no reason and cheat on me with some senior…
‘What kind of thought is that.’
My memories were so distorted that I was imagining campuses and female college students I’d never actually seen.
“By the way, it seems Balloon Gum really took a liking to you. It’s rare for him to introduce everyone at the company.”
Miho said the same thing.
“Really? I just met him…”
“He’s surprisingly quick at judging people. Though not at all when it comes to games.”
At this point, Miho giggled as if amused by her own comment.
“Anyway, he’s quick to recognize good people.”
“Ah…”
“But… are you still not going to join our guild──”
“Ah!”
I suddenly jumped up from my seat.
Miho was startled and bolted up as well.
“Why, why are you like that!?”
[10 minutes before broadcast]
The alarm I’d set went off.
“It’s broadcast time. See you next time.”
“What?!”
Poof!
I vanished from the channel immediately.
“…”
Miho’s face turned sulky, but she relaxed her expression as she checked the time.
“Seriously.”
Sigh.
She let out a regretful sigh and sat back down on the bench.
Staring blankly up at the sky.
The constellation shaped like Balloon Gum’s face seemed to wink and tease her.
“Ugh!”
Miho threw a stone at Balloon Gum that would never reach him.

* * *
6 PM.
Ding.
A notification shot out to all of Almond’s followers.
[Almond is starting a stream!]
That notification reached Balloon Gum as well.
“Ah, you’re here now. We were supposed to meet at 6:30, but you came a bit early!”
-Wow, no way
-Master class entrance
-This is gonna be hilarious lol
-Real talk, duo? lol
-How are they duoing with such a huge rank difference
-Squad rank doesn’t exist so it’s possible
-Oh squad lol
-This is gonna be hilarious lol
-Isn’t Miho joining?
Balloon Gum, who had hastily shoved a couple more bananas into his mouth, started the intro.
“Alright!”
Boom! Clap!
The drum sounds from the background music hit perfectly in sync.
“Today!”
Boom!
It was like a grand movie trailer.
-Wow! Timing skills!
-lol DJ Gum!
-That’s hilarious
-MC Gum
Of course, when Balloon Gum did it, it was just comedy.
“A clash of genius versus genius!”
-???
-Who’s the genius??? lol
-Why are they both geniuses?!
“Streaming genius VS gaming genius!”
-Lmao
-Crazy lol
-A genius is a genius~
-Streaming genius lol
Boom boom!
The drum sounds gradually began to intensify.
“So who will be the victor! Let’s begin the Hell Balloon Gum Tutoring Content~~~~ now!”
Boom──
The music soon shifted to Battle Rage’s theme.
I was aboard the helicopter, ready for the drop.
I’d grabbed the cue beforehand, off-screen, to avoid getting sniped.
-??? When did that happen?
-Damn, this is the physicality of a 50k streamer dodging snipers lol
-When did he grab it lol
-As expected Balloon—
-But where’s Almond?
The helicopter was packed with countless avatars.
Unless they were attention-seeking avatars sporting a massive belly like Balloon Gum’s, it was hard to tell who was who.
Then Balloon Gum struck up a conversation with the avatar sitting across from me.
Just an ordinary-looking male avatar.
“Where should we drop?”
-Oh! It’s Almond!
-Whoa!
-Nuts! Hi!
-That’s Almond’s avatar? lol
-Oh man
That was Almond.
“Hmm. Let’s head to the Armory.”
Almond decided matter-of-factly to go to the Armory.
Balloon Gum was startled.
“Huh…?”
The Armory on the first round?
“The, the Armory? Are you sure about that?”
Balloon Gum questioned him, but Almond seemed unwilling to change his plan.
“It works well for beginners.”
“….”
Balloon Gum’s eyes glazed over in bewilderment.
-Balloon Gum’s expression lol
-A pig who lost his kingdom lol
-That’s just you….
-Lmao
Lol fuck
-lololol Balloon Gum starting at the Armory, that’s pretty rare….
Almond doesn’t seem to have much talent as a Coach.

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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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