Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 164

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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 164
57. Light and Shadow (5)
Thud.
Taco’s footsteps came to a halt.
Without turning to face Junmo Gu, he spoke.
“…I said I would be the one to decide.”
Junmo Gu remained silent for a moment before responding.
“You mean between Master and Unranked?”
“I told you. You’re a Master, so you’d do well in other positions anyway──”
“You know well that he’s a one-trick ADC.”
Thud. Thud.
Junmo Gu cut him off and walked toward Taco.
“What are you so conflicted about?”
“It’ll be decided if I just wait. Why are you rushing me?”
“…Am I the one rushing you?”
Taco finally turned around and faced Junmo Gu directly.
There was a noticeable height difference that required looking up. Yet Taco’s eyes remained completely unwavering.
“If you just wait, it’ll be fine. Coming here and doing this—that’s rushing me, isn’t it?”
“You’re just being overly sensitive about it. I naturally assumed I’d be the one, so I was just asking in passing.”
In truth, there was nothing wrong with what he said.
From Junmo Gu’s perspective, he would naturally assume he’d be selected.
Taco thought the same way, so there was nothing to say in return.
In the silence that followed, Junmo Gu opened his mouth again.
“And this tournament has decent prize money, and for streamers like us, it’s important, right? I…it’s my skill broadcast, after all.”
“So ultimately you want to win, right? All you need to do is win.”
“…Well…yes. That’s right.”
The response came slowly.
“Sigh.”
A sigh escaped Taco. He should have known.
Winning wasn’t what mattered most here.
There was his standing and position as a streamer—having reached Master rank playing only ADC.
His viewers surely had expectations of him.
“You don’t need to stick to just one position. Not in a tournament like this.”
This was the best answer Taco could give.
He could have dug deeper, but there was no need to pry into that guy’s sore spots.
“You can switch freely during the tournament. I’m the Coach, so I’ll make the optimal moves to win.”
What he meant was: ‘Wait until I make a judgment. Even in the worst case, I’ll make sure you get to play ADC at least once during the tournament…’
But Junmo Gu didn’t seem satisfied with that.
“…You’re the one being overly sensitive. Aren’t you forgetting this is just a fun tournament?”
‘Fun?’
Whoosh.
Taco approached Junmo Gu with eyes wide open.
“Damn it. Fun? I enjoy winning. You bastard.”
“Brother….”
“Winning was my lifelong profession, and eventually I fell behind and ran away, but I still enjoy winning. Is there something wrong with enjoying winning? Because I ran away? Do I look like someone who plays games for fun now?!”
“Ah… No, that’s not what I──”
“Since you’ve given me a Coach, whether it’s a neighborhood Capsule Room tournament or not, I’ll only make the choice to win. If you don’t like it, you coach instead.”
Junmo Gu was momentarily speechless and took a step back.
From this man who was at least two spans shorter than him.
Junmo Gu remembered again.
How he always lived, who he was behind the mask of the clown known as streamer Takoyaki.
He was still pro gamer Oh Jinseong.
“Ah… I understand. Calm down.”
“You practice properly too.”
Taco vanished through the portal with those words.
‘…Did I touch a nerve when he was in a bad mood.’
Junmo Gu lowered his head and exhaled a regretful sigh.
Taco’s expression hadn’t been good since he first arrived, and I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.
My needless impatience only provoked his anger.
‘If I had confidence in my skills… this wouldn’t have happened.’
Junmo Gu turned the screen back on that he’d been watching.
In fact, he’d been watching Almond’s broadcast. And he’d been observing Taco’s expression.
Taco seemed to have already decided to use Almond as his main ADC.
It made sense. Almond’s skill level was terrifying even by Junmo Gu’s standards.
It was fortunate that this person could only play normal matches as a low-level player.
“Sigh.”
Junmo Gu exhaled deeply and sat down on the bench.
The same spot where Taco had been sitting.

* * *
Screeeech──
As the Capsule’s lid hissed open, Sanghyeon emerged looking utterly drained.
“…Phew.”
Juhyeok spun his chair around out of habit and tossed a towel his way.
“Real Siege is definitely pretty intense, huh?”
Sanghyeon looked particularly exhausted today.
And with good reason—he’d been running the game almost non-stop for nearly six hours straight.
His playstyle was so aggressively offensive that his stamina drain must have been far worse than average players.
“I think my stamina is pretty weak.”
Sanghyeon muttered those words in a voice drained of energy.
“You played great, so why are you saying that?”
“The tournament’s going to be even more brutal though….”
“I looked it up and pros don’t go over eight hours a day on Real. You did amazingly.”
“Yeah. Well. If you say so, then that’s how it is. I’m going to shower.”
Sanghyeon rubbed his right hand absently as he headed toward the bathroom.
“Yeah….”
There was something uncertain in Juhyeok’s tone.
Seeing Sanghyeon like that, I suddenly felt a pang in my chest.
‘Was the contract with the other streamer… more important…?’
I myself was confused about what I actually prioritized.
Sanghyeon’s hospital visit, which we’d built from the ground up together, versus the possibility of contracting with a new streamer.
In truth, the latter was overwhelmingly the more rational choice.
Jia could have handled that task after all.
Yet something kept pricking at my heart, and perhaps it was precisely because my choice wasn’t made through such rational calculation.
In that moment, I had simply coveted the opportunity to contract with the other streamer.
If I’m being honest with myself, that’s what it was.
Whoooosh….
While the sound of Sanghyeon’s shower echoed beyond the door, I stared up at the ceiling and exhaled a sigh.
“Sigh….”
Can Sanghyeon really endure tournaments that last for hours on end? What was Miho thinking when she asked me to be her manager?
Why did I accept knowing all this?
To become a management CEO in the future?
Should I seize the opportunity when it comes?
Or is this a premature move?
“Sigh.”
Another exhale, another sigh.
It felt like various doubts and emotions were swirling up from deep within my lungs.
But they didn’t disappear.
Of course they didn’t.
If a single deep breath could make all my worries disappear, I would never have left the Castle.

* * *
Whoooosh….
Standing beneath the cascade of scalding water, Sanghyeon gazed down at his own body.
Since he hadn’t been doing strength training separately lately, much of the muscle had faded, yet his physique remained impressively toned for an ordinary person.
To his discerning eye, sensitive to human anatomy, only the muscles in his right arm appeared slightly deficient.
Everything else was flawless. In fact, his body would have been worthy of a success profile at any gym.
Which made the irritation surge all the more.
‘My body is perfectly fine….’
My body remained perfectly healthy, yet my brain refused to keep pace—this bizarre sensation was impossible to explain to anyone.
Even the Doctor couldn’t properly explain that this trembling in my right hand wasn’t muscle soreness.
What more needed to be said?
The Doctor’s words about gaming time, which I’d once dismissed without thought, suddenly pierced through me relentlessly.
Could I be overexerting myself?
Sanghyeon felt no pain. He was merely fatigued, and everything returned to normal after sleep.
Yet whenever this trembling appeared, it was impossible not to feel at least some fear.
‘I need to find a solution.’
It was certain that Story Mode consumed less stamina. Despite being the same Capsule game, there was a difference in energy expenditure.
While this was perhaps an obvious phenomenon, knowing it for certain versus merely suspecting it made a significant difference.
Now Sanghyeon was almost certain.
Though he hadn’t shown it outwardly, he had always kept track of his fatigue levels while playing Story Mode and other games.
And now he had formulated a hypothesis with considerable confidence.
‘When I perform movements possible in reality, my brain doesn’t become overloaded.’
When using only movements feasible in reality, I could sustain Capsule usage for longer periods.
This wasn’t unique to me.
Other Players were also affected by this to some degree.
They all said that games like Battle Rage, grounded in reality, caused far less fatigue than games like Reel, which employed completely fantastical powers.
This could be sensory fatigue from dazzling lights and thunderous sounds, or it could simply be that Reel requires more mental exertion.
But Sanghyeon had formulated his own hypothesis.
‘If this is correct… I’ll be able to extend my play time.’
He began to consider training specifically designed to increase his play time.

* * *
[Almond reached level 20 today! World domination is just around the corner!]
I scrolled through the Reel Community to clear my head.
The first post immediately swept away all my worries and concerns.
“Puhahahaha!”
The fact that Almond was spouting off about world domination after barely hitting level 20 struck me as hilarious.
-Those nutty guys are always exaggerating lol
-Here they go again
-Now Reel’s getting world domination too, Mixed Nuts!!!?
-lololol this is just ridiculous now
While plenty of people like me were simply laughing at the post, some were already starting to acknowledge Almond’s abilities.
-If you look at Almond’s ‘pure skill’ alone, he’s actually pretty promising for the tournament?
└He’s definitely not Bronze level lol
└Seeing him massacre on Normal mode, he’ll definitely make it to Platinum. Doesn’t that mean Balloon Gum’s team firepower is insanely strong?
└Nah, Balloon Gum’s team has overlapping top tiers and positions. They haven’t solved that yet
-Honestly, isn’t Almond’s team the most entertaining? His Support is Taco with a freshly shaved head glaring daggers, his ADC is a newborn wolf charging at tigers without fear, and his Mid is a peerless beauty who could topple nations….
└lololololololol you’re literally writing poetry lmao
└Count Gérard de Fonzarque… please make this canon.
└”If there was a subject called ‘being whipped’ on the college entrance exam, I would’ve gotten into Seoul National University early admission”
Of course, there were still far more people who didn’t acknowledge Almond than those who did.
Even the world’s greatest player, Jeon-ja-pa, had plenty of people who didn’t recognize him, so it was only natural.
-Yep~ Ooh-dahn~ Anyway the champion is Danmuji~
└If that guy doesn’t win the championship it’ll be embarrassing lol he was literally a pro until the other day
└Three months ago becomes the other day—now that’s magic.
Many people were predicting that the championship would go to the team with a player named Danmuji.
Turns out he’d only recently retired from the pro scene, and his pro record was respectable.
Even though he didn’t have championship experience like Taco, he seemed to be a recognized player.
-Danmuji? Yep~ in our Mixed Nuts universe we don’t count that~~~ bring us walnuts or peanuts~~
-Bringing Danmuji instead of Jjajangmyeon lololol
└Is there actually a pro gamer named Jjajangmyeon?
└Nah. Obviously not lol
└This guy’s obviously a newbie who came from Almond’s stream smh is there a Jjajajangmyeon lololol
-Danmuji? I used to brutally destroy that guy whenever I ordered ramen at the PC bang. How’s he supposed to beat Almond?
-Look at these nutty guys talking shit about names since they’re losing, so fucking childish lololol
└Real talk, bunch of kids
Almond fans and Danmuji fans were already clashing pretty evenly.
This alone was actually incredibly good news for Almond.
After all, it made no sense to compare an active player against a pro and an unranked civilian.
“Man. I really hope public opinion stays like this.”
The viewer count was climbing and I was slowly establishing my place on Reel.
Zing….
[Department Manager Oh]
A call came through to Department Manager Oh.
It was extremely rare for someone to call at this hour in the evening.
Juhyeok answered immediately.
After listening to something for a while,
he asked back in a serious yet excited voice.
“…Did that really happen?”
-It’s all thanks to Almond’s good image. Congratulations.
Juhyeok felt relieved.
Before adding one more streamer to manage, a major gift had arrived for Sanghyeon.
This would put his mind at ease a little.

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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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