Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 552

—————
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 3 Episode 22
9. A Star League of Memories (2)
Choi Sa-rang found herself alone in the food truck.
She was in quite a predicament.
“I don’t know how to do this….”
All she knew was the timing for flipping meat.
Popcorn had forbidden her from touching anything else, claiming she’d ruin the taste.
The real reason he’d brought her out wasn’t to help with work, but to get her outside and let her relax in any way possible.
But then….
“Wow! Oppa! That’s it!”
A tall Pink-haired Woman in the distance was pointing at the food truck with enthusiasm.
“The Manager said it’s delicious!”
A Slender Model-like Woman, a Chubby Man, and a Muscular Bald Man.
An odd combination.
“Is that Baek Jong-won? Why do you trust him so blindly?”
“No. He said he lived in America?”
“So just because someone lived in America makes them Baek Jong-won?”
“Ha…! Cuban sandwiches are American!”
“What? They’re Cuban, not American.”
“Oh? Right…. I guess so.”
“Runestars fanatics. Ugh.”
“Why did you suddenly jump to that conclusion?!”
Above all, these three were incredibly loud and boisterous—completely incompatible with someone like Choi Sa-rang.
‘That’s not the issue… surely they’re not about to order.’
They were clearly heading straight toward her.
‘If this bastard ran off as a joke, he better get back here fast.’
Popcorn was nowhere to be seen.
Had he gone to the bathroom too?
[Sarang: Hey. Where are you. We have customers.]
Fried corn: lol
[Sarang: I’m serious this time]
Fried corn: lol
[Sarang: Is this a macro?]
Fried corn: lol
Unbelievable….
She couldn’t believe it—probably because Popcorn had pranked her when he went to the bathroom earlier.
“Hello~!”
The Pink-haired Woman approached with a friendly greeting.
“We’ll have 3 Cuban sandwiches and 3 non-alcoholic mojitos….”
The order came in.
“….”
After that, I suddenly couldn’t hear anything.
“B-bird… three sandwiches and a mojito… um, and what was it?”
“Guacamole nachos.”
“Ah….”
Ding!
Eventually, after finishing the payment and handing over the order number….
“Please wait a moment….”
She couldn’t have imagined that the request to wait meant waiting for the Shop Owner to arrive.
She glances at the customers seated at the tables for a moment.
‘Should I just do it myself?’
Hadn’t she been watching Popcorn do this the whole time?
‘I can do this too.’
At the workshop, she was the only one exempted from meal duty among her teammates.
Her cooking skills—which everyone called the “talent of the devil”—but!
All the ingredients are already prepared, and I just need to grill them and stack them up in layers to serve.
Click.
She confidently took out the prepared pork shoulder roast and sliced it.
‘Grill this first.’
Since this shoulder roast was grilled whole like ham, slicing it separately left the inside undercooked.
After slicing, grilling the inside surface to trigger the Maillard reaction was the first step.
Sizzzzle.
‘And this green moho…? Sauce.’
I needed to mix the sauce called moho with this grilled pork shoulder ham.
But I should have prepared the bread, cheese, and Pickle beforehand.
Sarang’s hands moved busily here and there.
“Ha….”
Where was what again. She frowned for a moment.
“Wow. That looks delicious~”
The Pink-haired Woman, whom I thought was sitting at a table, had come up to the front of the truck to watch?
“Is it okay if I watch?”
“Ah… haha. Yes.”
Sarang felt it.
Sweat trickling down her back.
“Wow. The smell. Amazing.”
It wasn’t particularly distracting, but with those sparkling eyes in front of me, I felt too pressured to do it properly.
It wasn’t an excuse—it was real.
“Amazing! Hey! Didn’t you play Civil Empire before?!”
Thump!
Suddenly, someone jumped up onto the truck.
I never thought I’d be so happy to hear that voice.
“You know that thing Almond used to do? There’s a challenge for it right now. Only the Commander is participating. It’s with Kima. I was late because I signed up for it. If you’re into the games he plays, you’d go crazy….”
“….”
Only then did Popcorn realize there was a customer in front of him.
“…! Such a beautiful customer in such a humble yet hip place!?”
Popcorn clasped his hands together and took the order.
“What can I get for you?”
“Ah… I already ordered from that person over there.”
“Ah~ I, I see!?”
“Three sandwiches. Guacamole nachos. Three virgin mojitos. I’ll make the mojitos.”
Cold sweat dripped down Popcorn’s temples.
“Yeah. Let’s do that….”
Ha!
From that point on, he focused entirely on cooking without saying another word.
A moment later, after Miho took all the food.
Sarang asked casually.
“Civil Empire? What’s that?”
“Ah… didn’t you used to play that before?”
“I did. For a bit.”
It was a game she could play with a keyboard and mouse without straining her legs.
Since it hadn’t garnered much attention in Korea, Sarang had played it quite seriously back then.
She’d even made it onto the Commander rankings.
“Almond plays it too. Did you know? He’s competing at the national level.”
“National level…? I don’t really watch much besides Ril.”
I knew he played Civil Empire. But I had no idea he’d prepared for it at the national level. I hadn’t watched much besides Ril-related broadcasts.
“Civil Empire has a national team?”
From her memory, Civil Empire wasn’t popular enough to have a national team.
“Ah. It’s an abbreviation. It’s not actually a national team. It’s an international competition. Apparently it’s content provided by the game itself?”
“Ah. I remember now. There was something like that.”
When Sarang’s Commander ranking was quite high, she’d received offers too.
Of course, she’d declined.
Unless she stepped forward as the supreme commander, she’d have to direct from the field no matter what.
That was impossible for Sarang.
She was already in a state where she couldn’t use her legs back then.
Or more precisely, she’d played that game because she couldn’t use her legs.
It was how she soothed the desolate emptiness after her involuntary retirement.
“You seemed to enjoy it quite a bit back then, didn’t you?”
“….”
Did I?
It was so long ago that I don’t remember.
Back then, I had to immerse myself in something, anything, to keep my mind from shattering.
But now….
‘Why am I like this?’
The corners of Sarang’s mouth lifted slightly.
Thump. Thump.
My heart rate climbed, my cheeks flushed, and vitality surged through me.
There had never been a Civil Empire tournament played with just keyboard and mouse.
“You want to go, don’t you? Hm?”
“H-how many times is this?”
Popcorn said he’d already registered for the challenge.
“You. Twenty-three times.”
Snort.
Sarang deliberately turned her gaze away.
But Popcorn saw the anticipation written all over her face.
‘That’s right. This is who you are.’
Choi Sa-rang.
If she had been born in another era, she would have been a mercenary wandering countless battlefields.
Winning one war, then drawn like a spell toward the next battlefield….
A person who breathes freely in suffocating confrontations.
But if you confine such a person to only home and hospital,
then no matter what you do, you’re dying.
She was slowly killing herself.
Deliberately smoking harsh cigarettes and drinking harsh liquor.
Destroying herself bit by bit.
‘I haven’t smoked a single one today.’
The cigarettes I used to chain-smoke, I haven’t touched since the fighting game.
I haven’t reached for alcohol either. Even though beer is right beside me if I wanted it.
She, who had been close to alcohol dependence, never once reached for it.
It was as if she’d forgotten it existed entirely.
Even now, isn’t she turning her eyes not toward the refrigerator, but toward the Civil Empire booth somewhere out there?

* * *
Jesse, Sanghyeon, and Juhyeok arrived at the Civil Empire booth.
Greeting them was an enormous placard that looked somewhat tacky.
[Nostalgic Star League]
“Ah. So this is it.”
Ding.
A message appeared in the corner of my goggles.
==== ====
Objective: Fulfill the role of Commander using only keyboard and mouse to annihilate enemies!
Method: Play as you would in a typical Commander match. Use the soldiers the system assigns to you as-is. Continue defeating the opponents you’re matched against.
Reward: 50 Bibikun Chicken Gift Certificates or various gift cards
==== ====
Jesse said something to me.
“Jesse’s asking if you’re participating too?”
Juhyeok translated from beside me.
“Ah….”
A keyboard and mouse game. That’s poison for me.
There’s a problem with the hand that holds the mouse.
Jesse probably doesn’t know about that yet.
“No. I can’t do it. Tell her I’m just not compatible with Commander.”
When Juhyeok explained from beside me, Jesse nodded as if she understood completely.
-If Almond played Commander lol
-Just thinking about it makes me dizzy
-lol Without physical ability, isn’t he basically Balloon Gum? lol
“Everyone. Just because I lack physical ability doesn’t mean I become Balloon Gum.”
I responded to the chat mentioning Balloon Gum.
[Rubisword donated 10,000 won!]
[Almond. Almond. Where are you going today?]
“Ah. Thank you for the donation. Since Jesse came from far away. I think we’ll just look around here a bit and then part ways.”
-Yeah, she did come from far away
-Denmark is pretty far lol
-You didn’t come to see her?!
I chatted with Jesse about various things through Juhyeok for a while.
Why she came here, how long she’s staying, and so on.
Then.
My eyes widened.
‘Huh?’
The challenge matching had started, and I could see a familiar silhouette.
The spectators murmured.
“Someone in a wheelchair applied too.”
“Oh…”
“A woman?”
A wheelchair was uncommon in competitive gaming, and the fact that she was a woman made her impossible to overlook.
-Huh?
-Wait, isn’t that the girl who was dominating in Popower?
-lol Civil Empire too
-Popower delinquent girl?
Many viewers recognized her.
Wasn’t she the one who disliked her face being exposed?
‘So she plays Civil Empire too.’
It seemed like as long as she didn’t use her legs, everything was fine.
Sanghyeon stepped forward unconsciously, as if finding it fascinating.
Their eyes couldn’t really meet. The distance between them was set quite far anyway.
She was concentrating on the monitor more than anyone else.
“Ohhh. The male audience’s reaction is intense, isn’t it? Participant number 23. Will her skills be equally outstanding?”
“Yes. Looking at the data from the submitted ID, she held a very high ranking in the past.”
“Oh… but she requested privacy?”
“Yes. In fact, she hasn’t played for a very long time. It’s practically a dormant account now! The game has changed a lot in the meantime, so… who knows how it’ll go!?”
“Meanwhile, Participant 2 that she’s facing is currently ranked within the top 300!”
Ooooh.
People gasped at the mention of top 300.
Sanghyeon thought it was probably higher if Choi Sa-rang hadn’t kept it private.
“The rules are Civilization Mode, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
Civilization Mode.
This was a mode where players could select and play with different civilizations.
The concept was good.
But with a small player pool, it gradually lost popularity. There was a problem with the matching system.
Soldiers had to select each civilization and wait.
Unlike Basic Mode where any soldier could be matched with any commander, it became so subdivided that matching took forever.
“Now, what you need to know is that this is a newly introduced test server from Civil Empire. With this matching system, Civilization Mode can be played smoothly enough, they say.”
So it was a test server.
Right, if something new hadn’t come out, there would be no reason to showcase it at G-Star.
“All soldier players are matched without knowing which civilization they’ll be assigned to, and after entering, they receive their positions from the commander.”
“Yes. Ah… right. This should have changed a long time ago!”
“Then let’s begin.”
Cheers and applause erupted as the Civilization Mode match started.
“Participant 2. Your ID is ‘Mun Ik-jeom’, correct? Currently on a 3-win streak! Mun Ik-jeom selected the ‘England’ civilization!”
“Yes. The longbowman rush is a troublesome civilization.”
“Participant 23 has the ID ‘Daisunsin Choi’! Living up to the name, right!? She selects the ‘Joseon’ civilization!”
Ooooooh!
Cheers erupted from all around.
The Joseon civilization was a difficult choice if one was thinking of victory.
Cookie, who was watching the match, showed considerable interest.
It wasn’t just because of the Joseon civilization selection.
“…That user ID looks familiar.”
It was because of an ID that had left quite a striking impression on him before.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————