Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 625

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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 95
33. Joseon’s Secret Weapon (2)
Caster, realizing Cookie’s intention, cried out.
“Aha! So they’re turning the tables on Rome?!”
Though Joseon’s 6 o’clock expansion was under attack, they chose offense over defense.
The first ten archers to receive the Gakgung immediately rushed toward the 2 o’clock expansion.
“Exactly! Even if we send ten archers to defend the 6 o’clock now, it won’t work well!”
“Right. The enemies would have the advantage fighting from a better position.”
“So instead, we assault their base!? Sweep away their workers!? But… how do we break through that rampart and entrance with just archers!?”
Thanks to the Ancient Ramparts map’s characteristics, the 2 o’clock expansion wasn’t easy to breach either.
“Archers can’t set fires!?”
Moreover, ranged soldiers couldn’t use torches against buildings.
“Even if we could use torches, stone walls won’t burn! But!”
Using torches to burn stone was nonsensical even in theory.
Then how could these archers possibly damage the 2 o’clock expansion?
“Once Joseon reaches the 3 o’clock era! Their soldiers can simply craft basic siege weapons on the spot!?”
It was siege weapons.
“S-siege weapons crafted right away!?”
Joseon’s soldiers could manufacture siege weapons on-site once they reached the 3 o’clock era.
“In fact, crafting them on-site is much faster! Though the stats differ slightly on these improvised siege weapons!”
They were inferior to those made in the workshop, but siege weapons could be produced far more quickly this way.
“Ah! So they’re fighting with shovels!”
-This is the Korean military lol
-Shovels lol
-Defense contractor corruption siege weapons appearing?
-The strongest soldier = combat engineer
-Commentator finally realizes it now Season 2
“The siege weapons we can make now are battering rams, siege ladders, things like that… which one should we make!?”
“I have no idea!”
King Gul couldn’t know which siege weapon they’d choose.
But the answer came soon enough.
The archers arriving near the 2 o’clock position gathered briefly out of enemy sight and waited.
[Siege Ladder]
They craft a ladder.
Rather than destroying the rampart, they intended to climb over it.
“Ah! They’re making a ladder? This one gets made incredibly fast!?”
The ladder was the most non-lethal siege weapon.
So its crafting was the fastest.
It’s made in the blink of an eye.
“But can they even place it? If they kick it off the rampart, all hell breaks loose!”
Ladders were convenient, but placing them against the wall was the problem.
If the enemy responded properly, all the soldiers hanging on the ladder would be in danger.
“You’re confident we won’t be detected?”
“Regardless! We’ll build the ladder and gradually approach!”
It seemed Joseon had committed to the strategy of constructing the ladder.
“But there’s a patrol unit up there!?”
A single patrol unit was circling atop the rampart.
Since Joseon was attacking the 6 o’clock expansion, the 2 o’clock position had almost no forces—just one unit.
The commentators suddenly lowered their voices as if they themselves were infiltrating.
“Even if it’s just one soldier, it’s dangerous.”
“Yes. If we’re spotted, they report immediately! And they can summon more soldiers here from elsewhere, right?”
“Exactly. If there’s a barracks, they can disband soldiers from the main base and re-summon them at the barracks here, which relocates them.”
-Why are they whispering
-Siege warfare ASMR
Hahaha King Gyul even bows politely hahaha
Currently, around 150 soldiers are stationed at Rome’s 11 o’clock main base.
If you [disband] soldiers from here and then press [recruit] at the barracks at 2 o’clock, they’re re-summoned at 2 o’clock.
Compared to other RTS games, it’s like killing soldiers and then reproducing them—it’s not a commonly used function.
But given Rome’s current situation, the likelihood of using it was high.
“But is there a way to get in without being detected!?”
“Hmm….”
King Gul pondered for a moment before offering a solution.
“We could kill them in one shot before they even report.”
“The soldier on the rampart!?”
There had been cases where Almond and other Joseon Archers ended things with a single headshot before.
-That??
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ (lol/haha)
-It’s too high
-A heavy infantryman?
The caster had reason to be shocked.
The rampart was extremely high, and it was currently the 3 o’clock era.
“The soldier up there right now—isn’t that Rome’s heavy infantry!?”
Rome’s pride in the 3 o’clock era is the ‘soldier,’ and among them, the heavy infantry is the most notorious.
They wrap themselves in armor to completely block ranged attacks, wield javelins and maces, advance slowly but steadily secure their territory.
Unlike Knights, their production cost isn’t expensive, so they can be mass-produced by the dozens in an instant.
Their only weakness is mobility.
But if they’re moving along such a simple patrol route defending their own rampart, what then?
They would be practically without weakness.
“Now, ten soldiers are approaching.”
The soldiers began advancing toward the rampart guarded by the heavy infantryman.

* * *
Rustle.
A forest near the ramparts. Ten soldiers move forward in a crouch.
Pangeo, the leader of the archer unit, raises his fist.
Tap.
A signal for everyone to stop.
“There might be sentries posted on top of the ramparts.”
Even when short on personnel, most forces deploy at least a couple of lookouts.
The soldiers murmur among themselves.
“How many do you think are in there?”
“Who knows.”
“I have no idea either….”
It’s difficult to estimate from the field. How many troops might be beyond that rampart.
Only a commander observing everything from above could make a reasonable guess.
Ding.
A message arrives at just the right moment.
[The 6 o’clock camp is under attack, so the estimated force at the 2 o’clock camp is around 10 soldiers.]
Cookie’s assessment was the most credible, but even that was merely an opinion—not something to rely on completely.
Still, Pangeo takes this information into account.
“Around 10 soldiers… if that’s the case, there will definitely be sentries on the rampart. A ladder approaching nearby would be too conspicuous….”
He singled out Almond and called him over.
“Come with me.”
Almond nodded and stepped forward.
The two left the rest of the unit behind and began approaching the rampart as closely as possible.
“There.”
As they drew near, I could see it.
A single figure pacing back and forth atop the rampart.
Pangeo swallows hard.
‘A heavy infantry soldier? Are you serious?’
The enemy had positioned a heavy infantryman on the rampart as if anticipating that Joseon would conduct guerrilla warfare with archers.
They’d placed a heavy infantryman right there on the wall.
Normally, they would have stationed a crossbowman capable of ranged attacks instead.
‘I need to kill him in one shot. This is going to be difficult.’
A soldier can only report to the commander when they take damage.
So if I kill him with a single strike simultaneously with the hit, the system won’t register a report.
The commander would only know if they deliberately watched this location.
The problem is that killing a heavy infantryman in one shot is extremely difficult.
‘Still, it’s just one person.’
At least with such small numbers, there was a way.
“Mond, let’s shoot at the same time.”
“Why? There’s only one of them.”
“Listen, even if we hit their head, if we don’t land it perfectly, the damage is only half.”
“Ah….”
Hitting the helmet dealt considerable damage, but it still wouldn’t bring them down in a single shot.
To properly take them down, I needed to hit their eyes between the helmet gaps.
Expecting to land a shot in the eyes from here all the way to the top of that rampart was asking too much.
It would be more efficient to shoot with the mindset that we’d both hit their heads.
“If we both hit their head simultaneously, we can kill them in one shot.”
Almond nodded and nocked an arrow to the bowstring.
‘The Gakgung….’
Almond felt somewhat nervous too.
‘This is my first time.’
This would be my first shot with the Gakgung.
I’d drawn it many times during scrims, but this was my first time in actual tournament play.
One might say it’s still the same bow regardless.
But CivilEM was rather meticulous with weapon authenticity, so the feel was quite different.
Compared to the short bow, the Gakgung had a taut, rigid tension from the moment of drawing.
Light from [Focus] blazes from the arrowhead.
Pangeo counts down.
“Alright, when I say three, we shoot, yeah? One….”
When I first shot this bow.
I remember how that felt.
Even the sound of drawing the string was different.
Like a beast catching its breath, a low rumbling growl….

* * *
“Sanghyeon, look at this.”
It was Coach.
He appeared in his youth, not a single white hair visible.
He held out something rolled into a circle.
At first glance, it resembled an unfinished hula hoop, yet he displayed it with considerable pride.
“This is what we call a Gakgung.”
“A Gakgung?”
When I asked what it was, Coach turned the question back on me.
“That’s right. A Gakgung. You don’t know?”
“I know about modern archery.”
Coach’s face became exasperated.
“What? You should obviously know modern archery since you’re in the archery club! You must have slept through history class!”
“If I sleep, my form gets disrupted, so I don’t usually sleep during class.”
In other words, I simply hadn’t paid attention.
“…Fine, fine.”
Coach stared blankly at the Gakgung he had taken out with such effort to showcase.
Casting pearls before swine, as they say.
“Sigh. Alright, fine. Still, I’m in a good mood, so take a look. I brought it out to show you anyway.”
“So what is this, exactly?”
“A Gak… No, this is a bow. A bow.”
“?!”
Sanghyeon approached with surprised eyes.
Now he seemed to have developed some curiosity.
“But it’s so round… it’s a bow?”
“When you first apply force, you keep it rolled up like this….”
Coach placed the Gakgung on a brazier sitting on the table and began applying heat.
Afterward, he inserted one end of the bow stave into a mold for shaping and pressed down firmly.
“You straighten it in the opposite direction of how it’s rolled up.”
The bow, originally shaped like a ‘C’, straightened in the opposite direction, becoming a ‘}’ shape.
Creeeeak….
Once it settled perfectly into place, it became the shape of the bow I had seen in historical dramas.
“We call this ‘raising’ the Gakgung.”
“…I see.”
“Since you’re forcibly pulling back something that was originally rolled forward in the opposite direction, imagine how powerful the tension must be.”
A bow completed by pulling backward what was originally curved forward.
That’s why it’s classified in English as a Recurved Bow.
“What do you think?”
Twang~
Coach grinned and strung the completed bow, then plucked the string.
The twang of the bowstring resonates with crystalline clarity, like a stringed instrument.
It’s because the string is made from animal sinew in the traditional method, after all.
“Want to give it a shot?”
At the time, I was too young to realize that Coach himself had purchased the gakgung but never actually fired it.
I simply nodded, as if entranced.
“Alright.”
Coach grinned and handed me the bow.
“It’s a bit different from modern archery.”
Just as when I first learned modern archery, Coach held both my hands and taught me the stance step by step.
“Your left hand goes around here… and unlike modern archery, you shouldn’t touch the string to your lips. The size is far too different….”
After tapping my posture to correct it, Coach stepped back.
There was no need to teach me how to draw and release the bowstring anymore.
“Now, just pull back.”
I nodded and slowly drew the bowstring.
Grrrrk….
‘What is this.’
The sensation was entirely different from the smooth, refined string made with modern technology.
The rough sensation of being drawn out while friction against the wood transmitted directly to my skin exactly how far I was pulling and how much force I was exerting.
‘This is about right.’
I realized I had drawn the bowstring to the maximum tension I could handle.
The taut state where the string and bow were in a tug-of-war—full draw.
‘But where do I shoot.’
The problem was, we were indoors.
“Coach….”
I turned to ask Coach where I should aim.
“H-hey! Don’t aim at me! Over here! Here!”
Creak.
Coach hastily opened the window.
Cold winter air seeped through the narrow gap of the window, barely a hand’s width open.
Yes, it was winter back then too.
Beyond the window, I could see three concentric circles—a target.
Hitting the center of that distant target through a gap barely wide enough for an arm to pass through was far from easy.
Yet no one in this room doubted it.
“Go ahead and shoot through here—”
The moment my right hand released the arrow.
Twang!
The arrow would surely lodge itself in that target.
──Thunk!
“Hey! Who’s chasing you!? Why are you in such a rush, you archer?”

* * *
“Two… what the hell! Why did you shoot first!?”
Twang!
An arrow flew before Pangeo could even nock his bowstring.
The timing wasn’t perfect.
Thunk!
But the target was struck with precision.
The Heavy Infantry soldier clutched his eye and tumbled backward.
“That was the angle I should’ve shot at just now…”
Crash!
The heavy sound of something falling below the rampart echoed out.
“Oh…!?”
Pangeo blinked in surprise for a moment, then gestured toward the rear.
“Yeah! Faster is even better! Hey! Everyone come here! The scout is dead!”
Almond’s lips curled upward slightly, thinking of Coach.
‘I doubt he’s watching.’
There’s no way Coach would be watching the game, but I’m curious. If he saw someone getting praised for shooting quickly, what would he say?

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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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