Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 576
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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 3 Episode 46
17. Flipping the Script (2)
What in the world is going on?
This expression perfectly captured the situation.
Jia, who naturally assumed this was some faction’s cunning machination, was greatly flustered.
“This is all real? Then what do we do? I’m ready to tear into them right now.”
Ready to tear into what?
Juhyeok was too absorbed in the auction to understand the situation.
The two spoke about this situation for a few minutes.
“Wait. Why did he accept the advertisement deal then?”
Jia asked suspiciously. Whether a real transaction had actually occurred.
If it were Almond, perhaps, but somehow it seemed like Juhyeok might pull off such schemes.
He wasn’t the type to unnecessarily follow all the rules.
“Ah… The advertisement was handled separately. It wasn’t a transaction.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t.
The advertisement was traded individually, and the game awarded many points because he performed well.
In other words, this was Juhyeok’s argument.
‘Once you add “was his argument” at the end, it loses all credibility like this.’
Even Jia, their closest confidant, found the situation remarkably coincidental.
Would this logic refute public opinion in the community?
Would it work on those organized in the five-minute waiting squad to tear down Almond?
It probably wouldn’t work at all.
‘The evidence is factual, only the inferred conclusion is false. This looks difficult.’
They say to lie well, you must weave truth and deception together cleverly?
The current community’s inflammatory narrative was doing exactly that.
All the evidence presented earlier was factual, but the conclusion derived from reasoning based on it was false.
Yet because the evidence was all true, it was easy to assume the conclusion must be true as well.
“So what do we do? Can we resolve this? It looks like we need to evolve quickly.”
Through the receiver, Juhyeok pondered briefly, then spoke.
“…Ah, yes. Do it that way. Got it. I’ll prepare on my end too.”
To flip public opinion in one go, nothing had more impact than video. This time, Jia couldn’t stay idle either.
* * *
“Sigh.”
After hanging up the phone, I turn to look at the back seat in disbelief.
“….”
Nothing.
The Dehaepdeul who had been shouting and fighting with each other just moments ago have now vanished without a trace.
Where did they go?
I quickly step outside the auction house and scan the venue.
A long table set up in the lounge at G-Star.
I can see numerous men seated around its head.
Each one is frantically tapping away at laptops, tablets, and phones.
Looking at their faces, I recognize several of the thugs who confronted me at the auction.
‘So it’s these bastards.’
They’re the agitators right now.
They’re probably Dehaepdeul.
‘Damn it.’
Should I just rush over and smash their computers?
The anger I felt was more than enough to justify physical force.
But in this twenty-first century rule of law, I obviously couldn’t solve things that way.
‘Then can the law solve it?’
No.
In this twenty-first century rule of law, there were surprisingly few things that could be resolved through legal means.
I could force the issue and drag it out to find some grounds for action, but filing lawsuits left and right over trivial matters like this is essentially spitting in my own face.
And the time it takes for punishment to be handed down is nearly eternal.
‘…What am I supposed to do?’
Both legal and physical solutions requiring coercion are impossible.
‘In the end, it’s a battle of public opinion.’
For celebrities, public opinion is everything.
Even if a proper legal judgment comes down, if public opinion is bad, the judge gets criticized—that’s the reality.
If public opinion is on our side, we’re in a strong position.
‘First, I need to gather evidence.’
I stare intently at the Dehaepdeul in the distant lounge frantically typing away, then shift my gaze.
‘I can’t go there myself.’
They know my face. If our eyes happen to meet, it just gives them more ammunition to prepare against.
I needed someone they don’t recognize to approach them.
And right now, I happened to have exactly such a person.
“Bontovi.”
“Yes?”
He turns around with curious eyes, having been observing Damian.
Hmm. His face certainly doesn’t inspire any wariness in others.
“Let’s get one more shot.”
“Yes!”
I appreciated how he followed without question or complaint.
I pointed at something while tapping Bontovi’s shoulder.
It was the table where the Dehaepdeul were frantically typing away on their keyboards.
“Zoom in as much as possible so we can see the content and their faces, but make sure they don’t notice.”
“Yes!”
Bontovi simply agreed without hesitation, even to an order that looked suspicious to anyone watching.
I understood why Chiseung Kim had brought Bontovi along for the S+ rank running event.
* * *
While Bontovi captured the Dehaepdeul’s scheming on video, I headed to the G-Star administrative office.
“Pardon? Um… the exact point breakdown?”
“Yes. We don’t know how many points were earned at which booth either.”
“I see. One moment?”
The office employee seemed a bit flustered, as if they’d never received such a request before. But if they were willing to help, it was a simple matter to resolve.
Whoosh.
The employee handed over a printed sheet of paper.
“Here you are. Would you like a PDF version as well?”
“Ah. Yes. I’d appreciate that. The number is…”
Shortly after, I exited the administrative office through the automatic doors.
A smile crossed my lips.
‘Just as I expected.’
Depending on the results of the document I’d just received, Almond’s attempt to sway public opinion could have been severely disadvantaged. But the results were even better than I’d anticipated.
Swish.
I safely stored the materials in my briefcase and then headed toward the Hitman Simulator booth.
‘This is worth checking out.’
Depending on what this document contained, visiting the Hitman booth could have been pointless.
Fortunately, it wasn’t.
“Excuse me…?”
The Hitman Simulator booth didn’t seem to sell any merchandise, so it was essentially closed off.
In the darkness, I noticed the conference room lights were on.
The manager I’d made the deal with earlier and the employees under him were still there talking, unable to leave. It seemed to be because of Almond.
I carefully knocked on the door.
“Excuse me.”
“Oh? Manager?”
One of the employees recognized my face.
“Ah, yes. I’m sorry to bother you while you’re busy, but could I conduct a quick interview?”
“An… interview?”
They thought I’d left something behind, but suddenly I was asking for an interview.
“Yes. An interview. I’d appreciate it if you could explain the criteria for how and why the Challenge Points were deducted.”
“Ah….”
It was like asking someone at a funeral to explain how the deceased had died—a request so tactless that the employees’ expressions hardened for a moment.
“Ahem… What do you mean by conducting an interview about that?”
The Manager in particular seemed displeased, letting out a forced cough.
Juhyeok hadn’t anticipated this kind of reaction.
‘Was it really that painful….’
He realized he needed to provide some additional explanation.
“Right now, rumors are circulating that we’ve been exchanging favors among ourselves.”
“What?”
All the employees flinched in surprise.
“What favors?”
“You can’t have favors without getting something in return. Seriously.”
“What could we possibly have to ask favors for….”
From their perspective, it was an absurd rumor.
“It seems to be because we accepted advertising.”
“…What!?”
The Manager scoffed, clearly exasperated.
Juhyeok smiled and tried to reassure them.
“It’s fine. The rumor hasn’t reached any significant scale yet.”
In truth, anyone familiar with the community forums would find it difficult to claim the rumor was insignificant. Juhyeok decided to put on a poker face for now. It wasn’t entirely wrong, after all.
“If we address it now, we can resolve it. For that, it would be much better to have documentation showing the principles and amounts of Challenge Points awarded. After all, we’re in the same boat now, aren’t we? Almond’s image is this company’s image.”
Technically speaking, according to the contract terms, if the model’s image suffers serious damage, the model would have to pay a penalty, so one couldn’t really say they were “in the same boat.”
But Juhyeok wasn’t saying the company and Almond were in the same boat.
He was saying the employees here and Almond were in the same boat.
Because they were the ones who had pushed through Almond’s modeling contract.
If Almond’s image was damaged and the model employment was delayed further, they would lose the CEO’s trust as well.
They were probably experienced enough in corporate life to understand the implication.
“Well….”
Tap. Tap.
The Manager irritably tapped his fingers on the desk surface.
“…Let’s do it. The interview.”
“Thanks so much.”
Juhyeok grinned and fixed his phone camera to the tripod.
“So….”
* * *
A moment later.
Jia received two videos.
[Hitman Challenge Points Mechanics]
[Dehaepdeul Lounge Operations]
Juhyeok added further explanation via message.
[Juhyeok: You’ll figure out what the first one is from the title, and the second one shows the Dehaepdeul right now here at the G-Star lounge writing posts on their laptops to manipulate public opinion.]
Unbelievable. He actually captured that scene directly.
No matter what, to anyone else it would just look like people gathered around tapping on laptops.
“He’s certainly thorough. But I wonder if it’ll actually matter.”
She opened the video without much expectation, then gasped in surprise.
“This wasn’t just shot with a phone camera.”
Bontovi had used a professional camera and zoomed in as much as possible to capture the scene.
The image quality and clarity were overwhelming.
That meant you could actually see the text the Dehaepdeul were writing.
Moreover, since this was video footage, it captured them intentionally manipulating public opinion—writing one post, then writing another.
On top of that, Juhyeok sent her additional photos he’d taken at the auction house.
‘…!’
The same people who were typing on laptops in the lounge just moments ago were now bidding against Almond at the auction.
Jia quickly clicked on the first resource as well.
It was an interview with a Hitman Employee.
[…Well, the points vary depending on difficulty level. Almond was classified at the highest difficulty—the Elite Agent level. That’s where the point potential was already high from the start. It was extremely difficult….]
The content explained how Almond had obtained his points.
However, there was one problem.
“The company is already under suspicion of collusion. What good does an interview with the company do?”
The person conducting the interview was someone being accused as an accomplice.
“Hmm….”
Meanwhile, in the community, recommendations on related posts kept piling up, drawing more attention.
[Today’s Hot Topic]
3rd Place) Analysis: Is there a problem with the points Almond received at his last challenge booth??
This post had climbed to 3rd place among trending posts in the entire community category.
Becoming a trending post in the entire category had a completely different level of impact than becoming one in individual gardens.
It felt like she’d miss her window if she didn’t quickly create and upload a video.
“Ugh….”
Jia clutched her head.
How could she frame this to make it convincing?
She began tearing up paper and drafting a storyboard.
* * *
A few hours later.
A notification rang out to all subscribers of Almond’s channel.
Ding!
[New video uploaded to channel ‘Almond’]
[Challenge video suspected as a bug due to performing too well]
Based solely on the video title, it appeared less like a clarification video addressing the current situation and more like Almond was showcasing his agent’s superplay.
This was intentional on Jia’s part.
She didn’t want to give the impression that she was trying to explain herself.
Even if it didn’t look like a clarification video, the current interest in Almond’s channel was so intense that word spread in an instant.
[Breaking: Almond uploaded a video lol]
Wow, they already uploaded the almond one ㄷㄷ Looks like they uploaded it on purpose first
[Video’s up lol But it’s a premiere]
[Suspected as a bug for performing too well << He's saying it himself lol So funny lol Let's see]
I'm clenching my teeth suspecting this is a bug, but it's a request lol
The video didn't play immediately; a premiere time had been set.
[Premiere in 1 hour!]
This was to first gather attention and control the timing of dropping the next bombshell.
-Premiere ugh
-Wow so cunning! Almond!
-Is this guy deliberately dragging out the time?? lol
-From the title, doesn't he already know what's going on?
-A premiere after so long, chatting together while watching would be so fun lol
-Haters getting destroyed 1 hour before!
[Good bug or bad bug, a crossroads lol]
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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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