Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 652
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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 122
41. After Advancement (5)
Between night and dawn, in a convenience store.
A young man crouches down, organizing the shelves.
He appears to be a college student—an ordinary young man.
Click. Click.
With practiced motions, he slots newly arrived snacks into place.
Then his phone rings.
Brrring.
[Hee-cheol hyung]
A call at this hour?
Chiseung tilts his head in confusion as he answers.
“Yes, hello.”
With one earbud in, his hands continue moving busily.
Then—
“A sponsor?”
Thud.
Chiseung stops abruptly, startled.
-Yeah. That’s right. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, so I handled it quietly. It worked out. Almond’s manager helped us.
“Huh? The manager?”
-It’s a long story. To make a long story short…
After hearing the explanation from Hee-cheol, Chiseung’s jaw drops.
“…Wow.”
Honestly, I didn’t even hear the rest of it clearly.
The fact that a sponsor came through for our team was nothing short of a miracle.
‘A sponsor, huh.’
Even Hee-cheol’s old team, the one that had made it to the main tournament before, never landed a sponsor.
-Honestly, among teams that have advanced to the main tournament three or more times, there are plenty without sponsors. We’re just lucky. So… well, if I say more, I’ll sound like an old fogey. Anyway, let’s do our best.
“Yes! We have to do our best!”
Chiseung clenches his fist, invisible to Hee-cheol, as he responds.
‘Hee-cheol hyung is right.’
Even among overseas teams from countries that frequently advance to the main tournament, there were those without official sponsors.
The Civil Empire national tournament itself had a structure that made it difficult to secure sponsors.
Since it was literally a national representative concept, the country’s name was the greatest sponsor, leaving little room for private companies to get involved.
In fact, the famous overseas players participating here earned substantial money from professional leagues, but they participated in the national tournament purely for honor.
Yet our team had secured a sponsor through the national tournament.
How extraordinary was that?
‘Is it because of that?’
Chiseung recalls the fake national team.
‘The sponsor agreed to advertise on the fake national team, didn’t they?’
In truth, Juhyeok had wanted to insert himself directly into the national team competition, but he’d redirected it this way instead. There was no way Chiseung could know about these internal circumstances.
To Chiseung’s eyes, it could only appear one way.
A sponsor had come in after seeing the fake national team.
“Huh… A sponsor, you say….”
For a moment, I stared blankly up at the white lights on the ceiling.
“Excuse me. Could I get a checkout?”
A customer called out to me.
It was a college student carrying four cans of beer bundled up, unable to set them down because the register was closed.
“Oh. Yes.”
Chiseung jumped up and headed toward the register.
Beep.
I scanned the barcode and announced the price.
“Huh?”
The college student tilted his head in confusion.
Was the price different?
When our eyes met as he looked up with an anxious expression, unexpected words tumbled out.
“…Aren’t you, by any chance, Kim Chi Warrior?”
“Pardon?”
“The fake national team! Aren’t you the one who appears there?”
Chiseung’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Aha… No, that’s not me.”
I shook my head, avoiding his gaze.
“….”
It was him, the college student thought, but he only tilted his head.
Chiseung had completely ordinary features with no distinguishing characteristics. It would probably be hard to recognize him.
“Ah… I see. My apologies.”
The customer scratched his head and apologized.
“Oh, yes yes.”
I bowed and was about to leave.
Glimmer.
The store clerk’s name tag gleamed.
“…?”
He saw it.
‘Chiseung Kim’
The name tag with my real name written on it.
Only then did the customer realize this person was truly Kim Chi Warrior.
But he was actually shocked by something else entirely and cried out.
“Wait… That was your real name?”
He had never dreamed that Chiseung Kim was my actual name.
He’d simply thought it was a funny stage name used in dramas or the like.
“This is obviously my real name… Oh.”
Only then did Chiseung realize he’d been caught revealing that he was Chiseung Kim.
“Wow. So you really do work part-time. I see those fake national team members all the time.”
Fake national team members?
“Ah… yes…”
Hehe.
Chiseung laughed awkwardly.
“Well then, take care. Good luck in the main tournament.”
Fortunately, the customer didn’t ask why I had pretended not to recognize him at first.
He simply offered his encouragement as if it were the most natural thing and left.
“Yes! Thank you so much!”
After the convenience store door closed with a loud chime, Chiseung let out a breath of relief.
“Phew…”
This kind of situation wasn’t familiar to me, but the feeling wasn’t unpleasant. Becoming famous, that is.
“This is… crazy.”
My heart was racing a little.
“I wonder if this kind of part-time work will get harder now.”
Ahem.
Chiseung muttered to himself as he resumed organizing merchandise.
Click. Click.
While inserting snack bags one after another.
“Oh.”
Suddenly remembering something, he headed toward the beverage cooler.
After searching here and there for a while, he found it in the corner at the very bottom.
“Is this it?”
A white, elongated sports drink can.
A canned beverage from the brand that sponsored the national team for this international tournament.
“Hmm…”
He pondered for a moment, then rearranged the can’s position.
To the most central, most visible spot.
‘This much should be fine.’
Chiseung smirked at his reflection in the beverage cooler’s glass.
* * *
Almond stared intently at the beverage and made a resolution.
‘Alright. Let’s do this.’
The white can in his hand bore a peculiar label.
‘Monster Water’
Bizarre and aqueous—an unusual name for a sports drink.
Quite the distinctive branding choice.
Oh man, that’s hilarious lol
-Is the naming messed up? Is this a martial arts novel?ㅋㅋㅋ
-What about demons?
I can’t provide a meaningful translation for this text as it appears to be corrupted characters or gibberish rather than coherent Korean text.
Oh yeah, I know that one, it’s delicious lol
An unusual concept paired with an unusual name.
Perhaps that’s why the request was equally peculiar.
‘Here goes.’
*Pop!*
Almond cracked open the can with a satisfying hiss and gulped down the contents eagerly.
Then came the promised performance.
*Whoosh!*
He raised both arms high like a prehistoric creature.
“ROOOAAARRR!”
He roared with all his might.
After drinking, roar like a monster with that pose.
That was the instruction.
“Ahhh…”
His posture was awkward, and the roar grew weaker toward the end—”ROOOAARRR…”
Despite his determination, embarrassment had gotten the better of him.
He couldn’t bear hearing his own voice echoing back through his ears.
Haha, that’s so funny!
What are you doing lol
Hahahaha
I’m going crazy lol
Wow lol so cute I’m dying ㅠㅠㅠ
What is this lolololol
Awkward as it was, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Or perhaps the awkwardness made it better?
Either way, the chat exploded.
Donations poured in.
*Ding!*
[Mengcheongeolli donated 30,000 won.]
[Do you really become a monster after drinking that?]
“Ah… Thank you for the sponsorship, Mengcheongeolli. There’s no such feature. I was just messing around.”
haha
-The username checks out lol
What do you mean, haha?
You’re such a dumbass lolololol
I would’ve at least asked you to pretend to be a monster lol
-Ahhhhh do it one more time please!
Almond briefly considered whether he should do it once more, but decided against it.
He decided to just finish explaining the sponsor instead.
“Ahem. Anyway. Monster is an awakening-type sports drink, and it’s a domestic brand.”
-So Monster is the sponsor
-A team sponsored by Monster lol
-Wow, homegrown
Wolsuhyang had almost no brand recognition, so they had planned to insert the name of the sports drink they produced themselves.
In other words, the ‘Monster’ they sold as their main product was the team’s sponsor.
“Since Monster is sponsoring the national team, you’ll probably see it often in the broadcasts. The taste is quite good too, so I hope you all try it.”
-ed
-Going to buy a case
Hahaha, the national team plays with the “monster.”
The name is so funny that the ad will probably do well lol
Are you trying to get advertised by being made fun of in the community? lol
Monster! Kyaaaaaaah! Hahahaha!
Ah, this is a legendary meme ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Haha!
* * *
The next day.
“Ugh…”
When Sanghyeon woke up in the morning, he felt utterly drained.
Well, it wasn’t actually morning.
It was already past noon.
‘Sleeping in… not ideal.’
He shook his head and got up, heading toward the bathroom.
He figured a shower would help him shake off the grogginess.
Today was unusually exhausting.
‘Was it that drink yesterday? I went to bed way too late.’
He went in and instinctively looked at the mirror.
“…”
After a moment’s hesitation, Sanghyeon struck a pose in the mirror.
“Graaaah.”
A monster pose.
Hmm…
He tilted his head once and simply started showering.
Whoooooosh.
* * *
After the shower, as he was cleaning up yesterday’s mess in his room.
“Did you stream more in the early morning yesterday?”
Juhyeok appeared from behind, asking with confusion.
Streaming at dawn? That was completely unlike the usual Sanghyeon.
“I had so much energy left over, so I just went for it.”
“So much energy left over…? Then shouldn’t you be dating someone?”
Juhyeok was still quite sensitive about capsule usage time. Even if it was a dedicated capsule, he believed there had to be limits.
“It’s because of this. This thing.”
Sanghyeon picked up the can he’d been about to throw away.
“Monster?”
“Yeah… I only had one can. The effect is seriously incredible.”
Ha ha…
Sanghyeon laughed awkwardly and tossed the remaining can into the recycling bin.
Juhyeok found himself staring at the sponsor’s drink he’d brought.
‘Wait. What? Does this actually turn you into a monster or something?’
If it awakens you to this extent, what was he supposed to do? This wasn’t actually some kind of drug, was it?
He was overthinking everything.
Now that he thought about it, he realized he’d never actually verified the drink’s contents.
‘Honestly, even if I looked, what would I understand?’
Of course, Juhyeok, being a liberal arts graduate, had no idea what components did what even looking at this.
‘But I’ve got experience from my trading company days. It should be fine.’
From the start, he had closed deals on products he knew absolutely nothing about many times before.
Thanks to his trading career, just by glancing at a business structure or brand marketing approach, he could sense whether someone was peddling snake oil or doing legitimate work.
According to his data, Wolsuhyang was doing legitimate work.
‘They made it too well, really.’
Juhyeok thought that way and moved on. After all, the awakening drink had actually provided awakening, so what was the problem?
“Sponsor or not, don’t drink it too often. Just keep the cans around.”
“Okie~”
You couldn’t drink coffee all day just because a coffee ad was attached.
Sports drinks were the same.
It had to be just about exposure.
“Anyway, for us it’s a fake sponsor. A fake sponsor.”
Juhyeok said it in a reproachful tone.
The Almond channel had never received a single won directly from this sponsor.
The money came from the international tournament.
Yet the fact that they gave exposure even on the Almond broadcast was purely a service on their part.
It was to demonstrate the connectivity that whenever sponsorship attached to the international tournament, ads would also air briefly on the Almond broadcast.
The international tournament and Almond were now inseparable.
‘The reverse is true as well.’
Conversely, when ads came to Almond, they naturally affected the fake national team or the international tournament side too.
Rather than being connected financially, it was an inevitable phenomenon that arose because their relationship was so intricately intertwined.
Juhyeok thought this would be quite attractive to advertisers.
Didn’t purchasing desire skyrocket the moment a “1+1” tag was attached to the same product?
Advertising was the same.
‘I think we can develop this.’
That’s right.
The reason Juhyeok was giving the nuance of connecting the Almond channel’s advertising as a 1+1 deal.
It was because he was thinking he could do something with the international tournament team.
* * *
After the main tournament was confirmed.
Group E, where Joseon belonged, had only matches without much tension remaining.
“Ah! Viking! Viking! Are they really advancing!?”
“Right here! Vietnam is eliminated here! How is this possible!?”
“The Viking civilization! Truly incredible!”
“With their devastating early-era power, they’ve gained tremendous advantages!”
Several other groups were still fighting decisive matches where fates hung in the balance.
“From now on, Viking will determine their group ranking against… uh… where was it? Ah, Ottoman. They’ll decide 1st place in the group against Ottoman.”
“So if the team that achieves 1st place in their group advances, there’s a possibility they’ll face our country?”
“That’s correct.”
Viking and Ottoman were set to play an additional match.
“England! Advancement confirmed! They move up to 2nd place in the group!”
“Wow… the Duchy of Rus must be quite disappointed?”
“Yes… ultimately! They couldn’t overcome the longbow wall and are eliminated!”
“So now… Japan advances as 1st place in the group?”
England barely secured advancement with 2nd place in the group.
Meanwhile, Portugal, China, Persia, Japan, and Mongolia successively confirmed their main tournament advancement.
“Now the next match is Group E. It’s the match between Joseon and Rome?”
“At least this isn’t a dead match like Espana versus France?”
The day when Group E’s final fate would be decided was approaching.
[Joseon vs Rome 2nd Match]
The final match of the preliminaries.
And─
[Fake National Team ep4. The Moment of Victory]
This day was also when the Fake National Team series would be uploaded.
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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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