Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 331
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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 2 Episode 51
18. Schrödinger’s Almond (4)
Baek Jun-su collapsed.
So absurdly, so pathetically.
Thud…!
Even watching him crumple right at the entrance to the infirmary, Baek Jun-su’s henchmen couldn’t utter a single word.
Their boss had fallen, yet not one of them could lift a finger.
They couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
Everyone stood frozen, as if encased in ice.
It was Sohee Yun’s horrific scream that finally shattered the silence.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
A beat late… no, two beats late.
She screamed as if her mind had abandoned her.
Trembling violently, she crawled toward Baek Jun-su, but couldn’t bring herself to cross the threshold.
Baek Jun-su had just been struck by an arrow and killed. If she crossed that line, she would be struck too.
She stopped at the infirmary doorway, unable to go further. What she felt now was fear rather than sorrow.
Meanwhile, what I felt was…
[Exhilaration]
An exhilaration that set my entire body ablaze.
* * *
‘Exhilaration?’
Almond, who had been racking his brain on how to deal with Sohee Yun next.
He stared intently at the word ‘Exhilaration’ that had suddenly appeared.
[Exhilaration]
[Immunity to all status abnormalities for 10 seconds]
Immunity to all status abnormalities.
For Almond, this was essentially an invincibility declaration.
‘But why?’
Why did exhilaration appear?
‘Ah.’
Almond remembered that this state always appeared whenever one of the delinquents took damage.
‘Because Baek Jun-su fell….’
Having defeated Baek Jun-su, it was a natural emotion in a sense.
’10 seconds….’
A mere 10 seconds of status abnormality immunity granted.
Already 9 seconds remained as I thought.
I began walking toward the infirmary, bow in hand.
“…U-us too! Let’s go!”
The quick-thinking Class Representative decided to follow Almond, despite him walking undefended into the infirmary—the core of enemy stronghold.
He too had seen an opening to end this fight.
Three of the enemies had fallen pathetically, and even the boss had been taken down. Though I had lost all my arrows in the process.
The enemies must have lost something far more precious than arrows.
Their will to fight.
Thud.
Almond positioned himself in front of the infirmary door.
“!”
Sohee Yun and the others saw the bow held in Almond’s single hand.
“Everyone raise your hands and step back.”
Almond stepped into the infirmary as he spoke.
Behind him, the Class Representative and his two henchmen stood firm, gripping spears honed to razor sharpness.
“Back away!”
“We’ll really run you through!”
The spears gleamed with edges that were clearly alive and deadly.
The bow that had taken down Baek Jun-su.
The defeated soldiers raised their hands without even realizing he had no arrows left.
“…Ugh, I surrender.”
Only then did Almond leisurely pull an arrow from a corpse right before their eyes.
And he nocked it on the bowstring.
The blood-dripping arrowhead swung from one person to the next, taking aim.
His eyes met Sohee Yun’s.
Thump. Thump.
I had been nervous that the thrill might fade at this point.
“…Who are you?”
“?”
“Where’s Sohee Yun?”
It wasn’t Sohee Yun.
-??
-What?
-ㅁㅊㅋㅋㅋ You washed off your makeup, didn’t you?
I’m dying laughing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Damn, haha
Sohee Yun stammered in confusion.
Given the situation, no one could laugh, and only the Class Representative leaned close to her ear and whispered.
“She washed off her makeup.”
“Ah. Anyway, keep your hands up and stay back.”
She immediately lowered her eyes and raised her hands.
“Everyone kneel.”
There was not a moment’s hesitation in their obedience.
Thud.
As if drawn by some force, all the children knelt down and raised their hands.
[Exhilaration]
The exhilaration that had been fading reignited.
Now it seemed there was no reason to feel fear facing Sohee Yun.
No reason to fear anyone, really.
‘Is it over?’
That was the moment I thought it.
The screen went black for a moment.
* * *
“You know? You made me this way.”
Huh?
Almond covered his mouth without realizing it.
Or rather, he tried to cover it.
His body wasn’t moving as he willed.
His mouth spouted lines of its own accord.
“No, you all made me this way.”
Juhyeok Kim was speaking. He aimed his bow at every single child in turn as he recited the words.
His low voice trembled faintly. Sorrow and murderous intent clashed fiercely, causing the melody to quaver.
“I got to this point not because of zombies, not because of this damn school. Because of you all.”
That’s right.
This was a cutscene.
A story prepared by the game company.
It might even be the ending.
-What is this
-The cutscene suddenly appearing is killing the mood
-Creepy
-So there are cutscenes in this game?
-Oh
The first intervention by the developers since starting this game. This part alone wasn’t left to the player’s freedom—it had to proceed exactly as they had set it.
“People can never understand others until they experience it themselves.”
None of Baek Jun-su’s henchmen could interrupt while Juhyeok Kim was speaking.
He kept the bowstring taut, still aiming at everyone in turn.
“Once I started acting like you all, I finally understood what you were thinking when you beat me.”
When Juhyeok Kim said ‘acting like you all,’ he was probably referring to killing other students. Even if it had been for survival.
“Shouldn’t I show you how cruel I can be? So that no one else ever dares to defy me?”
Flinch.
At those words, Sohee Yun and the other children trembled.
“When it comes down to risking your lives in a real fight, you don’t have the confidence to win. So you gang up on one weak person and pretend to be as strong as possible. Right? The truth is, you’re all just too scared.”
Creak.
As I brought the bow closer to Sohee Yun’s head, she flinched and nodded urgently.
“Y-yes… that’s right. If I j-just do that, the k-kids won’t t-touch me….”
Sohee Yun sobbed.
“Ugh… hic… once you start doing it, you c-can’t stop… because the k-kids keep t-trying to take my s-seat….”
Even as tears streamed down her crimson face, my eyes remained cold and piercing.
My icy gaze turned toward the children beside her.
“Tch. Why does that bastard live like that? Why does she keep getting hit? You all asked me this every day. Now that you’re experiencing it, how does it feel? Do you understand why she lives like this now?”
I turned my aim toward the children standing beside Sohee Yun—those who had been walking a precarious line between bystander and perpetrator.
“Huh? Why aren’t you answering? Why are you all kneeling so pathetically just because I told you to? Why do you live like that? Come on, grab that spear over there and come at me.”
“…?!”
For a moment, really?
Should they really grab the spear and come at me? That thought crossed their minds.
But they simply couldn’t.
Learned helplessness in the face of a dominating opponent.
It wasn’t something only I possessed. They all had it. They just happened to not be in my position by chance.
“Why are you just standing there? I said come at me.”
No one moved.
A bitter smile crossed my lips.
“Give me that.”
I extended my hand toward the Class Representative.
Without hesitation, he handed me the spear he’d been holding.
Whoosh.
I gripped the spear with the blade facing backward.
“You pathetic bastards whose greatest life achievement is licking Baek Jun-su’s boots…!”
Crack!
I struck one thug’s solar plexus with the shaft of the spear.
“Why are you acting so tough?”
Then I kicked the one beside him.
Thud!
The ones who got hit rolled helplessly across the floor.
“I’ve never once seen you guys actually fight! You just swarm around together. Pretending to be predators?”
Thud!
Crack!
I continued swinging the spear like a club, beating them relentlessly. One of them even had teeth fly out.
Yet they didn’t even resist.
“Why were you above me?! Why were you above me in the first place?!”
Crack!
Crack!
I beat them until they couldn’t think of anything else, until they were nothing but pulp.
Throughout it all, no sense of exhilaration emerged.
They simply weren’t worth the effort.
“Haa… haa….”
I knocked them all unconscious and stood there gasping for breath.
I stepped in front of Sohee Yun.
“J-Juhyeok… I, I’m….”
She was the only one I hadn’t touched.
Her face had gone pale and her entire body trembled uncontrollably.
I threw my spear down onto the floor.
Clang!
Sohee Yun’s eyes locked onto the spear rolling across the ground as if nailed in place. She’d realized she wasn’t going to be hit.
“Th-thank you. Thank you.”
She clutched my shoes with both hands, her voice trembling with tears, but—
It was a vain delusion.
“Thank me for what? This is just the beginning.”
“Huh…?”
The relief in Sohee Yun’s eyes flickered once more with dread.
“The others can at least be used as workers. But you’re completely useless.”
That’s right.
The reason I went through the trouble of beating the other children was to use them as subordinates.
But Sohee Yun wouldn’t be useful for that, so I’d left her alone.
“N-no, I’m useful! I—!?”
“Class Representative. Tie her up.”
“Y-yes! Right!”
Somewhere along the way, the Class Representative had become very obedient to my commands.
The screen fades to black.
* * *
The screen brightened again, revealing Class Representative’s henchmen and I dragging Sohee Yun toward the basement.
“P-p-please… Juhyeok, please… Please spare me. Huh? I-I’ll do anything! Please!”
Sohee Yun pleaded in a trembling voice, her arms bound behind her back.
Ding.
Suddenly, a choice appeared.
[1. Anything? Hmm. Perhaps you might be useful after all.]
[2. Anything? Yeah, that’s right. If you want to survive, you’ll probably have to do anything.]
“Huh?”
Almond, who had been watching blankly until now, suddenly snapped to attention.
Numbers flooded the chat window.
-1111
-2222
-option 2’s line is hilarious lolol
-11111
-go with 2
The viewers choosing option 1 were probably just joking around.
“Since this is my first time, I’ll go with the route that seems normal.”
That was obviously option 2.
Unless this was my second attempt or something like that.
-ok
-good
-yay~
Juhyeok Kim opened his mouth.
“Anything? Yeah, that’s right. If you want to survive here, you’ll probably have to do anything. And you’re not dying. That’s pretty much the same thing.”
-lololol so cool
-wow so refreshing
-sohee’s expression lolol
“Ah… Aaaaaaah! Ahhh!”
Sohee Yun let out one final desperate scream, shrieking like a madwoman.
But I paid her no mind.
Just as she had done before.
Creak.
“This is where you’ll be going.”
I said, opening the music room door in the basement.
“There’s no place to relieve yourself. Your arms aren’t free either. And I have no intention of giving you any food.”
“…”
“I’ll lock the door completely. I’ll barricade it.”
It was essentially telling her to die.
“If you reflect on your life up until now and write a reflection essay diligently on the blackboard in there, who knows? Maybe I’ll look at it and reconsider.”
Thud.
Juhyeok Kim shoved her back, pushing her into the music room.
The dark, damp space was already drenched in blood. After all, it had been used to dispose of zombie corpses.
“Block it.”
At Juhyeok Kim’s command, the Class Representative’s henchmen swiftly locked the door and even barricaded it.
Sohee Yun’s blank face was visible through the small window at the top of the door.
She simply stared into empty space with clouded eyes.
She couldn’t scream or wail.
The cut scene ended here.
* * *
At that moment.
On Almond’s Ollytube channel.
A new shorts video was uploaded.
The thumbnail stood out particularly.
It was a format never seen before on Almond’s channel.
-What’s with the thumbnail? lol
-Wait, does it actually happen like that???
-Isn’t that something haters posted on the Community?
A post from the Community had become the thumbnail for this video.
The video title was like this.
[Zombie School) Haters Getting “Silenced” in One Video]
The view count skyrocketed immediately after upload.
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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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