Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 455
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 2 Episode 175
61. The Rules (2)
Whether it was because I’d struck its eye, there was a brief cry of pain.
‘But it survived?’
The Wood Slasher didn’t fall.
“Grraaahhhhh!”
Whirrrrr!
The Wood Slasher charged forward, spinning both electric saw blades in circles.
“Looks like one shot won’t do it.”
I simply shrugged my shoulders and drew the bowstring again.
If it doesn’t die from one arrow, then three or five will suffice.
Twang!
Two arrows fired in rapid succession.
But then—
“?”
The thug closed its eye.
Closed its eye?
What good would that do against arrows? Or so one might think, but for a monster like this, it was effective.
Clang!
The eyelid skin deflected the arrows.
After I hit its eye once, it simply closed it to block further shots.
How was I supposed to kill it then?
-What the heck
-Can’t even pierce the eyelid??
-That’s insane
The only saving grace, though.
This thug was a one-eyed Troll.
It had only a single small eye in the center of its head. With it closed, there was no way it could see anything.
“Grrrraahhh!”
Whirrrrr!
The thug was flailing its electric saw wildly in random directions.
“Luna. What is this? How should I—”
──Clang!
However, the creature had keen hearing.
It stopped abruptly.
And turned to stare directly at me.
“Ah….”
I realized my mistake.
“Kiiiiiiiyaaaa!”
The thug came charging.
I began running backward, following Luna.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
-Running like a dog lol
-Male protagonist special) Hit and run
-Basically just fleeing lol
I pressed Luna further as I chased after her.
“What’s going on? Luna. I hit its eyes.”
“There’s one more. Another eye. If you hit that one too, it’ll die!”
“Where?”
“Behind!”
“Behind? It has an eye on the back of its head?”
If it’s behind, how was I supposed to hit it?
“That’s why I told you not to touch it!”
“…Ugh.”
I turned to look behind me.
The Wood Slasher was charging forward, demolishing the terrain as it came.
A massive body the size of a five-story building. A head positioned just as high. And on the back of that head, there was indeed another eye.
Since it was positioned behind, there was no way to strike it from here.
A curved shot wouldn’t work either.
When I needed to shoot upward, adding curve to the arrow would reduce its power significantly.
Besides, this bow of liberation… it was similar to Reina’s weapon, so it would barely curve at all.
‘Then…’
I had to find another solution.
‘Should I run?’
Since that thing could only hear, escaping would be easy.
‘But the Rune Box…’
It felt too wasteful to flee and leave behind a monster that would drop a Rune Box.
I made my decision.
My feet came to a halt.
Screeeech!
“What, what are you doing?! Why are you stopping! We need to run!”
Luna spun around in shock, looking back.
But it was already too late.
“Huh…? Kyaaaaa!”
I didn’t just stop—I was now charging straight toward the Wood Slasher.
Kiiiiing!
A massive circular saw blade was coming to meet me.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
With that scream, it looked like everything around would be drenched in blood any second. Luna squeezed her eyes shut.
Crash-boom-boom!
The ground grinds beneath the saw, torn and scattered.
Yet there was no blood.
Screeeech!
The sound of earth sliding.
-Whoa
-He got through
-Oh damn
I had successfully slipped between the Wood Slasher’s legs.
Twang!
The moment I escaped, I was already drawing the bowstring.
Whoosh!
A blue trajectory flew toward the Wood Slasher’s back of the head.
And….
-Now that’s it lol
-Archery really is satisfying
-Damn
Thunk!
It struck the Wood Slasher’s eye.
“Gaaaaaahhhhh…!”
A grotesque scream erupted.
The massive body began to collapse.
“Ugh… Ughhhh…!”
A shadow fell toward Luna.
Luna screamed as if she were about to be crushed by the corpse.
Poof!
The corpse vanished into black smoke.
Monsters that die in the Abyss always return to black dust without a trace like this.
“Haa. Haa. I barely made it.”
Luna exhaled in relief, clutching her chest.
-Is she really retaking the exam?
-Luna’s on her fifth attempt but she’s still nervous.
Hahaha Luna ㅠㅠ
Luna gazed at the rising smoke in amazement.
“To defeat a Wood Slasher alone. Even with a bow as a weapon.”
Luna murmured, watching me standing beyond the swirling black dust.
“Maybe… this time it’ll work?”
* * *
After the Wood Slasher fell.
The inevitable rewards followed.
[Your level has increased!]
[Lv. 9]
My level had already reached 9.
I’d soloed the Wood Slasher without a party, earning tremendous experience points.
The rewards weren’t limited to experience alone.
“Rune boxes.”
-Finally
gg (or “keke” – an expression of laughter)
-Unboxing incoming
Rune boxes had appeared.
Two of them, no less!
“Phew.”
If runes dropped, I’d need to rack my brain for a while. I took a deep breath to ease the tension.
-Let’s do an unboxing like a YouTuber
I can’t translate this as it’s not a meaningful word or phrase in Korean. The characters “ㄷㄱㄷㄱㄷㄱ” are just consonants repeated without vowels, so they don’t form actual words or convey meaning in Korean.
-Hodu spin warming up lol
I actually rubbed my hands together like an unboxing streamer before cracking a joke.
“A bit dated, perhaps. But you can feel the care put into the packaging.”
hahahahaha
-Real
-A bit?
Then I placed my hand on one box and asked.
“We’re pulling runes, right?”
-Yeah yeah
-ed
-It’s runes
-Weapon incoming
-1111
The chat was flooded with numbers.
1 meant rune, 2 meant weapon, 3 meant potion.
Since I already had a bow, I didn’t need any better weapons. Potions were equally unnecessary.
‘Number 1 it is.’
[You have selected a Rune.]
I chose the rune without hesitation.
[Rune of Duplication – Lika]
From the other box, I selected a rune as well.
[Rune of Explosion – Ahemors]
The Rune of Explosion and the Rune of Replication.
As expected, their functions weren’t explained. Based on their names alone, they don’t seem entirely useless.
Especially the Rune of Explosion—I’m worried about just how massive an explosion it might produce. It feels like carrying a small explosive device in my hand. For now, it’s merely a stone etched with bizarre characters.
“You picked two runes?”
Luna approaches and asks.
“You’re not getting any.”
Almond cut her off decisively.
He clearly couldn’t trust Luna yet.
ㅋㅋㅋ is Korean onomatopoeia for laughter (like “haha” or “lol”). The “ㅁㅊ” part is slang meaning “crazy” or “insane.”
[UNTRANSLATED LINE 167]
A natural English translation would be:
[UNTRANSLATED LINE 169]
“lol crazy”
[UNTRANSLATED LINE 171]
or
[UNTRANSLATED LINE 173]
“haha insane”
-What are you, a kid?
-Almond just won’t give it, period
Luna bristled, exasperated.
“Who asked you to?”
“I thought you’d ask to distribute them since we’re party members.”
Almond scratched his head as he said this, then spun around sharply.
He didn’t even want to show the rune characters unnecessarily.
After turning around, he switched the microphone channel.
“I’ve obtained runes.”
Almond waves the runes in the air for the viewers.
-So cute lol
-Translate them gg
-Are you messing with us lol
-Don’t tease the repeater. How do you use that thing? Don’t tease him. How does that work anyway!
-This is too much lol
“I’ll try to decipher these when I have time.”
Almond decides to set aside the rune translation for now.
After all, who knows how much longer it would take to decipher them.
“First, I should focus on finding the exit.”
He begins walking along the glowing path on the ground without using the runes.
Tug.
Luna grabs him.
“Wait. Aren’t you going to use the runes?”
“Not right now.”
“If you use them on your weapon, it’ll be strengthened immediately.”
“Ah. Strengthening….”
Almond had momentarily forgotten about the runes’ enhancement function.
‘Strengthening would definitely be beneficial.’
Luna presses him.
“Soon you’ll be running into other participants in droves. Shouldn’t you strengthen your equipment beforehand?”
Strengthening would certainly be advantageous. But it’s not possible. Don’t runes disappear when used?
Then I won’t be able to decipher it.
Where should I write down this character separately?
‘Where should I write it….’
It goes without saying that I don’t have writing implements or paper. Even if I did write it, I doubt I could replicate it exactly as it appears.
It would be better to interpret it during that time.
‘Time?’
Right. Time is the issue.
Recall the rule that suddenly came to mind earlier.
[Exactly 20 people can enter.]
If more than 20 people go through, we absolutely cannot proceed to the next floor. It wasn’t explicitly stated, but it’s essentially first-come, first-served.
On top of that, they said the entrance could even be recaptured, so there are many complicated variables at play.
In other words, arriving late means suffering enormous losses.
I can’t waste time here reciting Confucius and Mencius through rune characters.
I steeled myself.
“Let’s just go.”
“What? Why? We can enhance and then go!”
‘That enhancement… I can’t do it.’
I have to postpone the enhancement because of the tattoo interpretation. It’s ridiculous, but that’s the current situation.
Still, I can’t tell Luna about the tattoo.
Once I can trust her completely, that’s when I should share it with her.
Instead, I decided to say this.
“Anyway, thugs like that are no problem with this weapon even without enhancement.”
I tapped the bow lightly, trying to end this argument right there.
But Luna didn’t back down and pressed on.
“…Wouldn’t enhancement with runes be insufficient?”
For an NPC, she’s surprisingly sharp.
I racked my brain for a response.
“I’ll use that when a better weapon comes along.”
I was talking about thinking big picture.
“People like you who see the big picture don’t last long here.”
Oh, come on.
Now she’s pressuring me with experience?
But I had something to say too.
Back when I worked at Asung, I had mountains of things to say if I just pulled out the collection of sayings from my superiors.
“Ah.”
Thunk.
I struck my fist against my palm as if I’d just realized something.
“So you know so well, which is why you’ve been here for so~long?”
The embodiment of a cooking show host lolol
Hahahahaha, seriously
-Nun-soo is dying!
-The stagnant water at the top of Jaesuhakwon lol
-Lol that’s too much
Luna huffs indignantly and stamps her foot.
“You! What kind of rude talk is that!”
Seeing this reaction, it seems she really has been here for a long time.
Hmm. My trust in her rises slightly.
“Anyway, tell me. Luna.”
I take this opportunity to ask what I’m curious about.
“What.”
“Why did you decide to tell me this? That only you realize this is repeating. Is it okay to tell me?”
This is probably related to the identity of this body that I’ve entered.
Luna doesn’t answer for a long time, then walks beside me without meeting my eyes and responds.
“You’ve always… been the variable.”
A variable?
“You were always different from others. Every time a cycle starts, you’re always different from the last cycle. Your name changes. Your personality changes. Your abilities are different.”
This… sounds like she’s talking about players changing.
-Scary
-Isn’t she talking about players??
-Oh wow
-We’re aware of it??
-Meta awareness lol
Though vague, Luna is clearly referring to the players entering through this body.
Of course, during Ran’s story mode, Lete’s possession and release explained player intervention.
‘This is different from Lete’s case.’
But this is different from Lete’s case.
Ran’s story mode begins when a player enters the game.
The current story mode is one where a player becomes part of an already-progressing story.
Because of this, Luna recognizes players in real time.
In other words, she remembers the users who came to clear the story mode before me.
I’ve heard this somewhere before.
‘So that’s why Jeon-ja-pa’s data has been accumulating.’
The fact that Luna remembers players means she also knows about Jeon-ja-pa.
In other words, user data is accumulating here.
‘Then my enemy is definitely either Swift or Luna.’
Luna, who holds the memories of users.
Swift, whom Luna said she couldn’t trust.
One of these two must be my enemy.
Looking at the community’s opinion pushing toward a confrontation with Jeon-ja-pa, that’s my inference.
But there was something I questioned.
‘But why is Luna still here?’
If this were Reina’s story mode, she would have escaped long ago.
Why does Luna continue to remain in this place?
Or if she were an enemy, why hasn’t she died?
Even if I substituted Swift for Luna, the question remained the same.
This Abyss is nothing but mysteries.
My gaze turns toward the rune glowing in my hand.
‘Could the answer lie within this?’
Tap. Tap.
Luna jabs my side.
“There.”
She points toward something.
“The person holding the entrance. I found them.”
There is a place where all the light spreading in every direction converges into one.
In the very center of that location.
A human silhouette stood.
‘That bastard is….’
A Ninja.
The same Ninja wielding that strange sword technique from our earlier clash.
That thug holds the entrance.
‘But that’s not all, is it?’
A Ninja wielding that strange sword technique.
Whether he drank a Potion or not, he’s already fully recovered.
‘There are those protecting him.’
On top of that, there are forces escorting him.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————