Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 149

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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 149
51. Hunting Contractors (2)
“Let me explain how to kill a Contractor.”
Reina explained a weapon called the Binding Crossbow.
“It’s a weapon that shoots a ring attached to a rope. The Soldiers originally carry it to use when subduing us.”
That’s why she said we needed to raid the Soldiers’ Armory.
“Mott, Holly, Jay, Tom, and Theo will each take a Binding Crossbow.”
Essentially, everyone except the girls Julia and Melly had to wield a crossbow.
“Our attacks don’t work on Contractors. I’ve believed that for a very long time.”
Reina synthesized what she had observed over time and what she newly learned through me.
“But yesterday, Almond showed me. It’s not that our attacks don’t work. Our attacks are just too weak.”
She stood a rock on the ground.
“This is a Contractor, and this is us.”
Small, thin twigs compared to the rock.
Those were the children of Reina’s squad.
“After observing Contractor battles, I found that even attacks between Contractors don’t land in one hit, so their defense is incredibly strong. It’s because of the Divine Protection.”
Divine Protection.
In the game, that becomes an element called a health bar.
To Reina and the other Minions without a health bar, it must have felt like an invincible shield.
“But Divine Protection doesn’t last forever. Most importantly….”
Snap.
She brought a thin string and bound the twig and rock together.
“They’re vulnerable to attacks that restrict movement like this.”
“So, so that’s what this Binding Crossbow is supposed to do?”
Mott asked.
“Yes. That’s right, Mott. You’re smart.”
“Haha….”
Mott blushed with pleasure at being praised.
“This Binding Crossbow shoots a hook that binds the opponent. I can’t show you directly. The Soldiers always manage it.”
This meant we had to succeed on the first try.
There was no time for practice.
“Um….”
Tom carefully raised his hand and asked.
“But because of Divine Protection, the hook can’t pierce their skin.”
Divine Protection protects their bodies like skin itself, so no attack can pierce through before it breaks.
Of course, the hook is no exception.
Reina knows that too.
“Yes. That’s right. So we’ll aim for something else.”
Reina had a prepared plan.
The plan that came from her lips was truly extraordinary.
Even Almond tilted his head in confusion.
‘…Can that even be done?’
It was extreme and dangerous.
But…
“Almond! Let’s do this well!”
Mott squeezed Almond’s hand as he spoke.
“You can do it!”
“Yeah.”
Mott smiled brightly.
Theo beside him smiled along.
Though Theo had no memories, he adored Almond then as he does now.
Would Mott be the same even if he lost his memories?

* * *
‘I should have memorized that smiling face better.’
Watching Mott’s torn-off head, I finished my recollection.
‘There was no other way.’
And I understood.
Why Reina’s plan was so extreme and dangerous.
‘To kill something like that, you have to go to those lengths.’
No risk meant no return.
To kill these monsters called Contractors, one had to bear that level of risk.
“Something felt off, so I moved positions. And look what you’re up to?”
The Contractor who ambushed was Yuria.
Yuria’s white luminous halo shone so brightly it seemed to drive away all the darkness of this night.
Her momentum was completely different from when I faced that assassin-type Contractor before.
‘Much stronger.’
It wasn’t for nothing that Blue Team won.
Yuria was far stronger than that assassin Contractor.
Moreover, she now stared at the minion with blazing eyes, as if ready to kill.
Fighting a Contractor whose attention was divided back then would be a world apart from this.
I prepared myself mentally.
Twang.
Yuria drew her bowstring.
“Either you all die, or come over here obediently.”
Mysterious white energy slowly gathered along the bowstring.
I didn’t know what it was, but from what I saw in the war.
If that fully accumulated and was released, we would definitely all die.
I survived last time by luck. The minions were spread horizontally, so Yuria couldn’t wipe us all out in one shot.
But would I be lucky a second time?
I shook my head.
‘I need to counterattack.’
Counterattack was the answer. In the end, just as Reina had said, conflict with the Contractors was inevitable.
‘But what about Reina?’
I glanced around to confirm whether Reina was alive or dead. If she died, everything would be over.
‘There she is.’
Fortunately, I spotted Reina easily.
But she was in no condition to mount a counterattack.
“Ah… ah…”
Her pupils had lost focus. Her mind seemed to have shattered. Like most Minions do when facing a Contractor head-on.
She trembled violently, waiting only for death.
Even the legendary Reina couldn’t escape this fate as a Minion.
I finally raised both my hands.
“I surrender.”
Yuria would want to keep Reina and me alive anyway.
「Never die. That would be inconvenient for me.」
Those were the words Yuria had spoken to me.
It meant I shouldn’t switch to the Red Team. Contractors don’t kill strong Minions like me.
Instead, they capture us and erase our memories. Just as they did to Reina.
I didn’t know how memory erasure worked, but it was certainly more troublesome than simply killing.
Yet they endure such trouble to keep strong Minions on the Blue Team.
‘So that’s it.’
My prediction was correct.
As I approached, Yuria smiled.
“Come closer.”
Her bow gestured for me to come nearer.
The arrow’s tip already glowed with white light at its peak, shimmering intensely.
If she released that bowstring, I would die instantly.
I approached slowly, deliberately avoiding her gaze.
“And you, Reina. I’ll give you a special opportunity too.”
Yuria spoke to Reina, who still trembled uncontrollably.
‘The rest will die.’
The remaining Minions were nothing but obstacles to Reina anyway. She would kill them without mercy.
‘How many Minions are left.’
Even so, I tried to count the remaining Minions. For my plan to work, at least four needed to survive.
‘Does she know?’
I studied Yuria carefully.
Yuria’s eyes darted back and forth.
She couldn’t locate the other Minions. In other words, Yuria didn’t know.
There was hope then.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, she spun around and aimed at me.
‘What?’
I was caught completely off guard.
“If you don’t come now, I’ll kill this one too. You two seem quite close, don’t you?”
Fortunately, it wasn’t a killing blow—it was a threat.
Reina, reacting to the threat on my life, slowly pushed herself up.
Her legs still trembled without strength, but her eyes had regained focus.
“It doesn’t matter. Dead or with you. It’s all the same….”
Reina’s eyes met Yuria’s directly.
For a Minion to gaze upon a Contractor’s eyes felt like staring directly into the blazing sun.
Yet Reina did not look away.
“Isn’t that right? It’s all the same anyway. My memories erased. Playing along with your strange games again like a slave, like livestock.”
Yuria’s brow furrowed.
“Strange games?”
“What’s this war, and what’s this filthy Taran you speak of?! When we die, we just go back to Taran and fight again anyway. What’s the difference?!”
Sigh.
Yuria exhaled, as if to say ‘so she figured out that much.’
“It’s not a game. It’s training.”
“What…?”
“Regardless, you’ve learned far too much. There’s no point in persuading you now.”
Creak…
Yuria drew back her bow.
Reina still couldn’t do anything.
She likely couldn’t dodge this arrow.
The fact that her trembling legs were still holding her up was a miracle in itself.
“You’re better off dead.”
If Reina had learned that much, she certainly wouldn’t surrender anyway.
The other Minions who heard this truth would be the same—they’d all have to die.
‘But….’
As Yuria held the bowstring taut, she sensed something odd.
‘Why did that one surrender?’
Clang!
In that instant, a searing sensation struck my left arm.
The bow’s balance shattered, and the arrow fell.
The white blazing energy vanished like a lie.
“As expected, even without a wound, I still lose in power.”
Turning around, it was me.
Unlike before, my eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
“You…?”
Ting…!
Yuria reflexively released the bowstring, but what good was a bow without arrows?
Nothing happened.
I’d only given her another opening.
“The Incarnate Reina shoots without arrows, but you can’t seem to manage it.”
Whoosh!
My sword slashed across Yuria’s jaw once more.
Fwoosh!
Blue flames erupted in the wake of the blade strike.
Yuria’s eyes, now turned away, flashed white with fury.
At the same moment, I bellowed with all my might.
“Now──”
When I’d assessed the remaining minion count earlier.
There were surprisingly enough of them alive. And they were all crawling into their respective positions.
‘If what I saw was correct…’
──Whoooosh!
Hooks shot out from all directions, everywhere.
Hooks fired from binding crossbows.
The ropes extending from each direction stretched taut, forming a star pattern.
“Binding crossbows? That kind of thing…”
Yuria let out a hollow laugh.
Hooks like that couldn’t possibly pierce my skin.
Rather than dodge them, it was better to kill this cunning brat in front of me.
White energy blazed across Yuria’s feet as she swept a kick toward my face.
Boom!
A white explosion erupted along the trajectory of her leg.
It was nothing compared to her arrow shots, but it possessed enough destructive power to be fatal to minions.
However, Yuria was ultimately an archer.
Her hand-to-hand combat skills weren’t particularly refined. There was no way I, who had evaded even an Assassin Contractor’s attacks, would fall for that.
I easily dodged the white explosion’s trajectory.
Rather──
“!?”
Whoosh! Ting!
It was Yuria who hadn’t evaded—or rather, hadn’t chosen to evade.
“The… the hooks with each other?”
The hooks had been fired in different directions, and they’d never been aimed at Yuria’s skin in the first place.
The moment they were fired and then pulled back.
Click!
I’d aimed for that moment.
The moment when each hook caught the other, binding them together.
Yuria’s body was instantly covered and constricted by hooks.
“Ugh…!”
She was already balancing on one leg.
With both arms and thighs suddenly constricted in that state, maintaining her center of gravity became impossible.
Losing her balance, Yuria swayed back and forth.
Then she began to sway side to side as well.
As the swaying grew steeper, her recovery diminished.
──Boom
She crashed to the ground.
At that moment, all the minions flinched.
‘It’s working.’
‘The Contractor too… fell!’
‘We can do this!’
Reina had been right.
The restraints worked even on the Contractor.
I needed to finish this now. That was my role.
‘But something’s missing.’
The hook that Mott was supposed to fire was absent.
Without it, I couldn’t complete the finisher.
Then──
Whoooosh!
“?”
A hook flew from somewhere and embedded itself in the treetop behind me.
Following the taut line, I traced it back.
“Haa… haa… I got chewed out looking for this.”
It was Reina.
She hadn’t lost consciousness after all.
She cranked the pulley to loosen the rope and shouted.
“Almond. Hurry!”
I was already moving.
I grabbed the loosened rope with one hand and rushed toward the fallen Yuria.
I covered her head like executing a tackle.
“Let go! Before I kill you!!!”
Yuria’s hysterical voice pierced the air. She seemed ready to bite me to death with her teeth.
But that didn’t last long.
Whoosh!
“You’re the one who’s dying.”
I instantly wrapped the rope around Yuria’s neck, and Reina pulled the trigger, cranking the pulley again.
Shhhhiiiing──
The rope constricted around Yuria’s neck and lifted her up.

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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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