Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 248

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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 248
87. Blade Against Blade (2)
“No matter how many reports I file, nothing changes.”
A heavy sigh.
Juhyeok buried his face in his hands, slumping across the desk.
It was because of the video that TimesTrouble had uploaded.
[Why Did the Entire World Gasp at This South Korean Archery Athlete-Turned(?) Streamer?]
The way they kept changing the title in real-time just to chase views was pathetic.
‘It’s still just speculation, so it doesn’t matter yet….’
The video had no concrete information yet, but given how these content creators operated, speed was everything—they uploaded speculative videos as fast as possible first.
Then they’d follow up with properly researched videos later, continuously generating views in the process.
Which meant I had no idea what information they’d bring in the next video, or the one after that.
‘Maybe I should just leave some nasty comments.’
Juhyeok had become so helpless that leaving hate comments was all he could do.
He clicked on the video, feeling utterly powerless….
‘Huh?’
He startled and adjusted his glasses.
[This video has been deleted by the copyright holder.]
“…What?”
That’s when it happened.
*Ding ding ding.*
His phone rang.
An unknown number.
‘…What. This timing.’
He normally wouldn’t answer unknown numbers, but the timing was too strange. He swallowed hard and picked up.
“Hello?”
-Hello.
A woman’s voice. Even in that brief greeting, there was an unmistakable elegance. The refined woman spoke without the slightest pretense.
-Tell Sanghyeon to focus only on the competition.
From this statement alone, I could confirm one thing for certain.
‘This woman deleted it.’
She was the one who took down the video.
But I had no idea who she was.
“…If I may ask, who is this?”
-….
The caller fell silent for a moment.
-I’m just a fan. I was rude enough to find out your manager’s number. Thank you for your time.
*Click.*
With those words, the call ended.
“What the….”
Juhyeok retraced his memories, wondering if he’d overlooked something.
There was no way he wouldn’t know someone willing to exert this much effort for Sanghyeon.
‘Who could it be?’
But no matter how hard he searched his memory.
Nothing came to mind.
Nothing, but….
「Hey. Do you happen to know Jeon-ja-pa?」
The question he’d asked when he discovered that one of Jeon-ja-pa’s ten followers was Sanghyeon.
Suddenly, Sanghyeon’s strange reaction from that moment flashed through his mind.
「…No. I said no.」
「Hey. I’m just worried. Isn’t it strange?」
「….」
「You can’t say anything about it, can you?」
Why was this memory surfacing now?
As far as he knew, Jeon-ja-pa was….
‘No way.’
Juhyeok shook his head vigorously like someone who’d just learned something he shouldn’t have.
There must have been a reason Sanghyeon wanted to keep it secret.
And if he’d recalled this memory sooner and pretended to be clever by acting familiar with that woman just now?
‘He might have called me to test whether I’d leak it.’
Knowing that Sanghyeon had told Juhyeok, he might have taken measures identical to the video displayed before his eyes.
[This video has been deleted by the copyright holder.]
Juhyeok stared at that text for a moment.
“Let me just focus on what I need to do.”
He returned to his main work.
He was grateful the issue had been resolved, and he wanted to prepare countermeasures before the next video surfaced.
[Jia]
He called Jia.
“Yeah. Jia, let’s prepare one video in advance. Timed for the finals.”
Then he pulled a video from his folder and sent it via message.
‘National Championships’
A video containing Sanghyeon’s performance from ten years ago.
“We’ll create an introduction video ourselves with this.”
He couldn’t let the haters steal this opportunity.
Jia quickly understood and got to work.
Only then did Juhyeok take a breath and turn his gaze to the community window.
‘What’s this now?’
The real-time search terms were odd.
1. Sanghyeon Pick
2. Almond
3. Blink Blade
.
.
.
‘Does he know Blink Blade is a shop pick?’

* * *
Looking at the posts flooding the community in real-time, everyone unanimously believed Blink Blade was a shop pick.
[Wow, he’s treating that as a shop pick?]
[Isn’t that reckless?]
[That’s just stupid.]
[Another shop pick?]
[Almond shop picking in the finals, live]
“No, that’s crossing the line lol. Shopping picks even in the finals?”
This misunderstanding wasn’t entirely their fault.
Almond had never demonstrated Blink Blade before. He’d never even shown himself practicing it, so from a third-party perspective, it was honestly indistinguishable from a shop pick.
However, there was unexpected controversy brewing.
Isn’t this bad manners? lol
lol seriously seems like they’re just trying to make me feel bad
-Another mental attack?
That’s crossing the line against a pro ㅋㅋ
There was a faction arguing that shop picking in the finals was unsportsmanlike conduct.
Of course, there were plenty of people countering this argument.
When it comes to dealing with the cool kids, you don’t say anything. The nerds cry ㅠㅠ
“Lol so radish is okay to eat but pickled radish isn’t?”
└That’s Mosol for you.
└We decided to call that authenticity!
The first counterargument was why the reaction was different from when he shop picked against Mosol.
The second was a logical counterargument questioning what sportsmanship even meant in a war match.
What kind of manners are those in a ranked match lol
-Sportsmanship in war? That’s ridiculous
Hahaha~~ Then they shouldn’t have done the Incheon Landing either~~ Hahahaha Isn’t that a pathetic, unsportsmanlike tactic?
└Sneaking ashore cowardly on the flank and ambushing them. That’s not something a great general would do.
lol if this were medieval times, you’d get smacked right in the face by the Pope for that tactic
-There are some weird haters. Shop picks are honestly so entertaining, why are they being like this.
└Almond’s so handsome that a lot of people feel inferior
Honestly, Almond is pretty much a nobody, lol. He’s not even from a pro background or anything, just some guy who was working at a company, lol.
└Asung is ‘just’ a company?
└Does Asung look like nothing to you?
└What does Asung have to do with Lil? He has no background, that’s right
“I heard you used to be an archery player from Almond? So you’re not a beginner with a bow, right? lol”
“Are you believing that baseless loser’s words lol the video was taken down too.”
The shop pick sparked an unexpectedly heated debate.
However, all this controversy was instantly dispelled by the subsequent explanation(?) from the broadcast team.
King Gul said this.
“Could this be a card he secretly prepared?”
“What?! It’s not a shop pick?”
When Caster asked back, King Gul pointed to the affinity window.
“The affinity is way too high for a first-time pick, isn’t it?”
-For real. It’s maxed out
-But why is there no record?
-That’s true
Affinity 100.
It was an affinity stat that could never appear from a divine being purchased directly from the shop.
-Didn’t he just raise it through exchange?
-Does affinity only go up if you play?
-Didn’t he just buy it from the shop beforehand and then raise the affinity through exchange? There’s no record at all.
Some viewers suggested he might have purchased it from the shop in advance and then only worked on the affinity through gift spam.
But King Gul shook his head.
“Blink Sword is the type where affinity rises primarily through skill recognition, right? So you can’t raise it to 100 through exchange alone.”
“But there’s no record. How did he get his skill recognized? Analyst, do you happen to know?”
Caster passed the baton to the Analyst, who was well-versed in theory.
The Analyst began explaining while adjusting his red glasses.
“Well… it does go up even if you play in practice mode.”
“Ah. So he did it in practice mode?”
“That’s correct. But….”
“But what?”
“Obviously, it’s difficult to get skill recognition from the divine being in practice mode.”
“Ah~ So there’s that problem too? Then how exactly did Almond manage it?”
“It means he practiced enough to overcome all of that. Either he had tremendous talent as always, or both.”
King Gul interjected and emphasized once more.
“Then it really must be a hidden trump card, right?! His pick speed was incredible, after all?”
In short, he wanted to say that I was right.
-Is this one of those things? Even a broken cow is right twice a day?
-Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Isn’t it like catching a mouse while a cow is backing up? lol
King Gueul has to get hit twice a day or it breaks lol what a bunch of idiots
Of course, the viewers didn’t acknowledge his foresight(?).
“But Danmuji, why aren’t you picking?”
The camera caught Danmuji staring blankly into empty space.
His usual bright expression had vanished.
Had he been shocked by something?
“Danmuji…?”
Though he couldn’t possibly hear her, the Caster called out to him again as if trying to wake him.
Then Danmuji suddenly swayed.
Thud.
He fell flat on his backside.
“W-what?”
“Is this a Disworld bug?”
Danmuji quickly got back up, but embarrassed, he lowered his head and covered his face for a moment. It didn’t seem to be a bug after all.
What is this lolol
That’s hilarious lol
-I get that sometimes in Disworld when I’m too focused elsewhere
-Why’s he doing that? He’s swaying! Why’s he doing that? He’s swaying!
Danmuji, his face flushed red, quickly selected his next pick.
[Heavenly Great Sage – Hand]
A divine spirit modeled after Chinese mythology—the Heavenly Great Sage.
“Isn’t that a top pick?”
“That’s right. He’s picking top first?”
“Mid would have been the right choice here. He seems a bit shaken, doesn’t he?”
I was shaken up lol
-obviously…
You were clearly shaking, weren’t you? ㅋㅋㅋ
It was obvious that Danmuji was mentally rattled, so there didn’t seem to be any particular strategy at play.
“He seems to have made a mistake from nerves. It happens. Even pro teams make ban-pick mistakes at Worlds finals. But he needs to pull himself together!”
As if hearing King Gul’s words, Danmuji continued his picks without further hesitation.
And selected an appropriate mid-lane divine spirit.
[Wind Blade – Seiko]
A divine spirit who cuts enemies with blades forged from wind—Seiko.
“That’s a solid pick.”
“What’s the win rate between Wind Blade and Flash Blade?”
“Hmm. You could say it’s 50-50. In tournaments, anyway.”
Red Glasses speaks, and King Gul chimes in.
“Blade versus blade! The matchup name itself is 50-50!?”
Sword against sword lol
Strictly by the rules, hahahaha
It’s basically a match though lol
-Solo queue warning!
“Ah. If it’s 50-50, then the pick isn’t that good, is it?”
“That’s just the laning phase matchup. In terms of team composition, it’s quite strong. The Heavenly Great Sage synergizes extremely well with it!”
“Ah. That’s a team-oriented pick rather than a counter to individual matchups!?”
“Exactly. We’ve already eliminated Ninja, the hardest counter!?”
Once the picks were finalized.
“Understood! This is the first match of the highly anticipated finals! Now that picks are complete, I should explain the special rules for this finals!”
“That’s right!”
King Gul interjected with a somewhat theatrical response, as if he had something to explain.
“Now, since the Nant match is an event match, special rules apply. Specifically, rules that activate in 2v2 situations.”
“That’s quite a legitimate rule, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. When a 2v2 situation occurs, the match proceeds with ‘blind picks’!”
-Whoa, for real?
-That’s hilarious lmaooo
-Isn’t that total chaos?
-Wait, didn’t pro tournaments do this a few years ago? lmaooo That’s sick.
Blind picks.
A rule where you pick immediately without bans. Literally, neither side can see the other’s picks.
“In this blind pick format, you can freely pick anything, and it’s possible for the enemy and your avatar to overlap. That’s what we call a mirror match!”
“Exactly! That’s pretty entertaining too! Alright, loading is complete! The match begins now!”

* * *
Standing in the midlane, Almond gazed quietly at the name floating before him.
[Danmuji]
It was Danmuji.
He stood across from me with his usual bright expression.
Currently, before minions spawned, it was a kind of cold war state.
Perhaps because of this, Danmuji greeted me.
“Hey there~!”
He’d seemed quite shaken during the ban phase earlier, but his voice was bright as if that had never happened.
“Oh! Is that perhaps a shop pick?”
Danmuji stepped forward slightly as he asked.
Almond didn’t bother responding.
He wasn’t the type to engage in mind games, nor was he the type to accept them.
He was simply the type to ignore them.
“Silent as always, I see. You won’t fight until the minions arrive anyway, right?”
With a thud.
Danmuji sat down on the ground.
“Well then. Until the minions arrive, I’ll just meditate.”
Almond showed no reaction whatsoever.
At least, not outwardly.
He simply stared blankly at the spot where Danmuji sat.
‘What is this….’
I didn’t show it, but I was slightly taken aback.
‘Didn’t Taco say that Blink Blade was his main character?’
Taco had definitely said that.
That Danmuji’s main was Blink Blade.
If so, he should have internalized the killing angles that Blink Blade could execute?
From my perspective, Danmuji’s current position was unmistakably a killing angle.
However, it couldn’t be done in a single move. In chess terms, it was the kind of opening that would allow me to land checkmate after exchanging 2-3 turns of offense and defense.
‘Is he not seeing this? Or is he showing it to me intentionally?’
The problem was that I couldn’t tell whether that opening was deliberate on his part, or just an absurd mistake, or perhaps an unbelievable lapse in focus.
Regardless, I was the type whose body moved first.
Whoosh.
I quietly lifted my blade.
Even my breathing stopped as I drew my concentration to its peak.
Then I threw it to the precise location.
Whoosh!
The blade shot out like an arrow, bursting forward.
I had already spun my body halfway around and leaped upward.
[Blink]
Light flashed behind Danmuji, and I appeared.
Clack.
The thrown blade was already back in my hand. Sinews bulged from my grip, and maintaining the rotational force I’d imparted beforehand.
Whoosh!
A vicious arc of light rushed toward Danmuji’s neck.
‘Got him.’
Danmuji’s eyes gleamed and his lips curved upward.
Our eyes met, and I realized it was a trap. He had deliberately shown me that killing angle.
But it was only now that I truly understood.
‘I think I’ve got him.’
He could only see one or two moves ahead, nothing beyond that.

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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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