Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 252
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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 252
89. We Were Not Mistaken (1)
Whoosh.
The moment four blades lined up before him.
‘!’
‘…Insane.’
Windslash and Beast hesitated for a moment.
Just a brief moment, but they stood locked in a stare-down in that state.
[Blink Blade Technique]
[Remaining Time 00:08]
Even as they did, two seconds elapsed.
In that gap, the Casters began speaking rapidly.
They had anticipated a superplay from Almond, but they spewed out more words tinged with concern.
“Almond needs to be careful here!”
“That’s right! His health is only slightly above 20%!?”
Blinking with two blades is already an incredibly difficult feat. In less than 0.1 seconds, you teleport to a completely different space, and in that instant, you must find your opponent and slash with your blade. And since a simple slash doesn’t deal enough damage, you have to include spinning strikes too.
The field of vision changes in an instant anyway, but now you have to spin around as well.
Beginners are lucky if they don’t vomit up what they ate in the Capsule.
Intermediate players typically don’t even know where they blinked to and just flail their swords around.
“There’s a saying that Blink Blade is most dangerous when using Divine Descent! Of course, that’s about the user themselves!”
Moreover, Blink Blade with Divine Descent activated has health at 30% or below, four blades, and all these blades move through multitasking.
Being able to blink once every 0.5 seconds and shake up the enemy formation, and being able to control the blades without even needing to throw them yourself through a kind of psychic power—just hearing about it sounds like a sweet and fantastic skill without equal.
But when you actually use it, it might be a skill set that literally induces nausea.
Depending on who the Contractor using it is.
“Yes! There’s no reason the nickname ‘Brilliant Moth’ would be so flashy, right!? You have to be careful──”
[Remaining Time 00:06]
It was when six seconds remained.
Almond raised his hand upward.
──Bang!
One of the four blades shot forward.
“Blade One is fired!”
King Gul urgently follows the broadcast.
The Blink Blade Technique has very high broadcast difficulty.
So the Casters practice expressing it by attaching numbers like this.
“Where is it going! No, Blade Two is also fired, one each at Beast and Windslash!”
“Danmuji blocked it!?”
“Goguma dodged it!”
“But the blades return and attack again!”
“Now Blades Three and Four join in!”
“He’s being overwhelmed!”
At first, the two of them evaded and parried well.
However, as each additional blade joined the fray, their stamina began to wane.
Fresh wounds accumulated across their bodies.
[Time Remaining 00:04]
Four seconds left.
Danmuji and Goguma executed the textbook defense against multi-blade swordsmanship.
[Stay close! Stay close!]
[Roger!]
They pressed their backs together, deflecting every blade with maximum effort.
By not exposing their backs, they could theoretically parry all four blades if each handled two. They just needed to endure for four more seconds.
One….
“What!? Almond’s blinking! Blink to position one!”
Crack!
Almond’s form materialized between Danmuji and Goguma.
Whoosh!
[Spinning Strike]
His body rotated rapidly, dealing simultaneous damage to both of them.
Crash!
“Ah! He’s blocking them from pressing their backs together!?”
“His judgment is insane!”
“But Almond’s health is low too!?”
Danmuji and Goguma rushed at Almond instead. One hit each and he’d be finished.
Crack!
[Blink]
But as expected, his form vanished.
“Almond’s blinking! He appears above the Beast!”
“With four blades moving freely, there’s no way to predict where he’ll blink to!?”
Whirl!
Almond materialized mid-air, spinning his body as he naturally slashed across the Beast’s head.
Crash!
“Massive damage!!”
The spinning strike stacks accumulate, damage climbing higher with each hit.
The Beast swipes at him with its front paw.
[Blink]
Crack!
This time he appears below and behind the Windslash.
Crash!
Almond slashes the Beast’s leg with another spinning strike.
Both their health bars had now dropped below Almond’s.
[Time Remaining 00:02]
Whoosh!
Almond’s new form disappeared once more.
In its place, a dark specter clung to Danmuji and began unleashing a barrage of blade strikes.
“Blink with number one! Number two slashes through empty air!”
“Number three thrusts, then blink with number four!”
“Wait, is that even number four? I can’t tell!”
A speed the casters couldn’t follow.
[Remaining Time 00:00]
The moment the duration of Igear Swordsmanship expired.
Four blades erupted upward simultaneously, scattering crimson blood.
“B-both of them are falling!”
Without question of who fell first, both players collapsed.
In that instant.
-Uwaaaaaaaaa!
The roar that filled the stands became so deafening the sound system nearly burst.
* * *
Click.
Jia, who had saved this clip, spoke.
“Yeonju. I saved today’s highlight reel. I’ll send it through Dropbox.”
“Roger that~”
Tap tap tap.
Even from the sound of keyboards clacking away, you could feel the rush.
“Oh, but we need to cut that highlight down to about five minutes total? Keep it super compact.”
“Will do!”
The atmosphere was warm and friendly, yet a subtle tension hung in the air.
This was because the ‘deadline’ was approaching.
“Jia. When do you think the finals will end today?”
“Probably around 9 PM…? If it runs too late, maybe 10? We should plan for 9.”
“The embargo lifts immediately once the Nant Tournament ends, right?”
“Yeah. We can upload it right away.”
According to Nant Tournament regulations, in-game highlights from the tournament couldn’t be uploaded to personal channels before the tournament ended. It was a measure to concentrate viewership traffic in one place.
But that restriction would soon be over.
Whether that end meant championship or runner-up, only time would tell.
Jia’s gaze turned toward the monitor.
‘At least we won one match.’
She was watching the earlier highlights for editing purposes.
But on one side of the monitor, the live broadcast was already showing Balloon Stars having won set one, with the highlight replay playing.
Jia’s gaze shifted once more to the ‘Champion’s Interview’ folder.
‘I wonder which one will go up…’
She gazed at the folders labeled ‘Upon Victory – Final Final Really Final’ and ‘Upon Defeat – Final Papa Final’ within the directory.
The former was a victory interview featuring past stories that would be uploaded if Almond won the championship, while the latter was a pre-recorded narrative about Almond that would be posted if he finished as runner-up.
Though the content of both files was nearly identical, Jia silently prayed the former would be the one uploaded.
* * *
The casters offered their commentary while watching the highlight reel replay.
“Literally flash here, flash there! Absolutely dazzling! Not Taco—I’m talking about Almond!”
“Exactly. I never expected to see such a polished performance. Wow…”
“Wow! From there like that?”
The commentary was mostly exclamations of amazement, barely distinguishable from the audience’s reactions in the stands.
But that was only because there was nothing more to say.
“Really, all I can say is ‘wow’? There are no words for this! I’d just ban it immediately!”
The blink angle was flawless, the damage output precise and measured as if drawn with a ruler.
“Watching this, the Blink Blade really does look broken.”
King Gul chuckled, as if remembering something amusing.
“For those of you wondering if the Blink Blade might actually be broken, I’d recommend watching this video.”
Ting.
King Gul displayed a link above his palm.
The thumbnail featured Balloon Gum’s round face prominently.
“What’s this?”
“A highlight reel of Balloon Gum’s Blink Blade plays. What we call a blooper reel.”
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ (lol/haha)
Just hearing about it already cracks me up lol
Hahaha, that’s super famous, you know!
It’s probably just an iron ball spinning vertically lol
Is that the highlight? lol
Gum-shaped bad movie lol
“That video is genuinely entertaining. Watching it made me feel a certain… barrier.”
“A barrier!?”
“Yes. A cliff. An MMR cliff.” (*A numerical rating of skill level)
At King Gul’s response, the Caster burst out laughing.
“Is it really that bad!?”
MMR cliff lolololol
I’m dying laughing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Almond could never match that insane talent.
A cliff is still a wall, I guess lol
“Watching it will definitely convince you that the Blink Blade isn’t broken.”
“Ah, I see. The Blink Blade highlight that even made a former pro player like King Gul feel that barrier. Be sure to check it out. We’ll be back shortly for Game 2 bans and picks!”
* * *
“Nice~!”
I thrust an uppercut into the empty air and shouted.
“We’re actually winning this! Yeah!”
The Blink Blade hard-carried what had been a difficult game to victory.
“This is going to change people’s perception~!?”
There were plenty of people who praised Almond highly. However, due to the nature of Reel Pro, most viewers were people who kept up with fiercely competitive professional matches.
Even with Almond’s stellar performance as a former streamer, the atmosphere wasn’t one of proper recognition.
In the first place, it was laughable to expect such recognition from a match against Nant.
But I felt it.
The secret weapon’s debut, and this level of carry?
Before the day ended—no, before the second set even began—people’s perception of Almond would change.
‘Let’s see.’
By now, while the second set’s ban-pick phase was underway, there were probably quite a few posts on Big Pro already.
I opened the highest-ranked Big Pro post.
[???: Hey. Jeon-ja-pa. What are you doing?]
It was a post with this kind of title.
Inside was a large, ridiculous photo of Popcorn, a top laner who was Jeon-ja-pa’s former colleague.
「Jeon-ja-pa! Can’t you hear me?」
…with this caption written beneath it.
Below that was a large photo of Jeon-ja-pa closing his eyes briefly before waking up.
「Ah. Wait… I just went to help.」
…with this caption written beneath it.
Hahahaha lol
I helped out for the first time in a while lol
-By the way, did Jeon-ja-pa really retire? Why’d he just disappear without a word… He was a legend.
-If he’s going to help, he should help our Balloon Gum.
└Would you abandon peak-handsome Almond with 387 exes and possess a fat middle-aged man instead?
“387 people lol that’s crazy, even if you met one person per day you’d go over a year”
What’s with the specific numbers lol
└Fact) Walnut can’t remember that many people. So this is bullshit.
└Balloon Gum is cute too!
-This should be pinned
-Almond today was literally Jeon-ja-pa
I cannot provide a reliable translation for this text as it appears to contain corrupted characters, typos, or nonsensical Korean text that doesn’t form coherent words or phrases.
What’s up?
└Nah, that’s a lie
Is this guy an idiot lol
It was a meme meaning Jeon-ja-pa had possessed someone and played through them, used whenever someone showed incredible performance.
It was usually a meme that only appeared in professional matches. The fact that it was being used in a Nant match meant Almond’s performance was comparable to Jeon-ja-pa’s.
In fact, it was the purest praise a real player could receive.
“Ooh.”
Juhyeok, energized, examined other posts as well.
The next one had a title like this.
[???: Almond!!!]
Inside, a large photo of Jeon-ja-pa with his arms crossed was displayed prominently. And sure enough, in large, thick font, it read:
「Only today.」
This was a meme meaning he’d only give me comfort today.
It was evidence that the real pro community had truly begun praising Almond.
Haha, Zapa-type is coming out a lot today.
-Almond’s world-class. Matching up with Jeon-ja-pa.
-Honestly, today’s 1.0 Jeon-ja-pa, no question
-Almond was literally peak Jeon-ja-pa limited to just this one set
Compared to Jeon-ja-pa, the usual comments like “that’s not it” or “that crossed the line” were almost nowhere to be found.
“He proved it properly.”
Juhyeok smiled with satisfaction.
He knew best what kind of effort Almond had put in to prepare for the Blink Blade play.
He had practiced his movements not just in the Capsule but even in the yard. Wielding a stick-like object with those trembling, pitiful arms.
At first, Juhyeok had wondered why Danmuji was pushing so hard like that.
But now he understood his way.
The stage didn’t matter to him.
All that mattered was winning, proving himself, and being recognized.
Come to think of it, it was the same for Juhyeok. Whether the stage was a large corporation or someone’s manager, all that mattered was proving himself and being recognized.
What was important wasn’t how flashy the stage was, but how brightly he himself shone.
‘Anyway, it’ll definitely be banned now. What a waste.’
With a play like that, it would absolutely be banned.
A card he’d carefully prepared, yet blocked by a single system called a ban. It was disappointing.
With these thoughts, he looked at the second set’s ban-pick screen.
‘…?’
Strangely enough, the Blink Blade appeared again.
It wasn’t something Danmuji had taken. It was Almond’s Blink Blade.
‘They didn’t ban it?’
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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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