Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 656

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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 126
43. Ryan Private First Class (1)
Popcorn.
Oksuha.
Undoubtedly the greatest top laner in Ril’s history.
He experienced that glorious era alongside Jeon-ja-pa, undoubtedly the greatest player in Ril’s history and a mid laner.
He thinks to himself.
‘Without Jeon-ja-pa, my wealth would be one-tenth of what it is now.’
In other words, to him, Jeon-ja-pa is a benefactor.
A benefactor who multiplied his fortune tenfold.
It’s rare to have such a benefactor. Unless you’re a snot-nosed kid with a total net worth of five thousand won.
That’s why he believed he had to do anything to repay this debt of gratitude.
Above all else….
She’s also his closest friend.
‘Even though she’s transgender now.’
Even though a gender change happened in the middle of things.
‘Or should I say she was transgender?’
From Popcorn’s perspective, her gender changed, but in reality, she was just hiding it.
Suhan sometimes thinks like this.
‘I’d rather become Batman. That’s what I would’ve done.’
With the money, technology, and effort to hide her gender, she could’ve made a dark hero film instead.
Something dark and gloomy seemed to suit her anyway.
‘No, it’s a relief she didn’t become the Joker.’
Pfft.
Watching the hazy smoke, Suhan lets out a sigh of relief.
It’s fortunate she didn’t become a villain—with her twisted moral compass, she’s far from being a hero.
Phew.
He exhales smoke again and recalls the recent past.
When Sarang asked him to go watch the Civil M match that’s been gaining popularity lately, and he went along.
「You… you’re not just watching this for fun, are you?」
He saw his old friend reviving that old habit.
Throughout the entire match, she was just taking notes without a single proper reaction.
Sarang hesitated to answer, but realizing she couldn’t hide it from Suhan anyway, she nodded.
「Yeah.」
「Then what? You’re going to do this properly?」
「I’m already doing it properly.」
「What do you mean by that.」
「When we went to G-Star. Cookie talked to me.」
「…?」
Suhan had encouraged Sarang to participate in gaming tournaments she could continue to do in order to restore her vitality back then.
“If we make it to the main tournament, you’ll be registered on the roster. Once the preliminaries end, we can modify part of the main tournament roster. For substitutes only.”
“Hey. Why did you accept that? You rejected it every time before!? What?! Why…”
A soft chuckle.
Suhan gazed at the clear blue sky after the smoke had dispersed, mocking his past self.
‘That’s not the kind of person who’d explain himself just because you asked.’
His eyes turned toward his former colleague, who still silently smoked a thick cigar.
‘Impossible to pin down, as always.’
Her hands were still trembling.
Tap.
Unable to watch any longer, Suhan tapped her hand.
“Hey. It’s just a test. Don’t be nervous.”
“That’s what she said.”
“?”
“You asked why I accepted back then.”
“…Ah, right. You did.”
Scritch.
Sarang cut off the end of the cigar and continued speaking.
“She said it was for the next generation…”
What does that mean?
Suhan waited for her next words.
“She said she wasn’t recruiting me to win the championship herself, but for the people left behind when she’s gone, when they can’t play the game anymore.”
“…!”
Suhan stood there, staring blankly at her.
Why she accepted—Suhan, who had been on the same team, understood immediately.
The team that had nearly disbanded after Jeon-ja-pa’s retirement.
Despite being called the world’s strongest, they suffered defeat after defeat so pathetically that everyone eventually couldn’t bear it and parted ways.
‘She’s been carrying that in her heart all this time?’
She seemed to have taken it quite to heart.
She thought she had abandoned the team.
In the end, that was true.
‘This is…’
Suhan felt a sudden surge of emotion.
To think she saw us that way.
Suhan suddenly spoke as if confessing a sin.
“Actually, that’s something we should be ashamed of. It’s not your fault.”
Because he didn’t want her to carry unnecessary guilt.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“The team didn’t disband just because you left. You agreed with Cookie’s thinking because of that? Hey. How is that your fault? Our skills were pathetic. How does a team called the strongest fall apart just because one person changes? It’s our fault.”
“No. It’s my fault.”
“No. It’s our fault, I’m telling you—”
“It’s my fault for leaving even though I knew how skilled you all were.”
“….”
Suhan felt like he was just offering hollow comfort.
“If you happen to recover, come to mid the very next day. We’ll have a one-on-one match.”
“How petty—the very next day?”
“Yeah. Come right away. Even one practice match would count as invalid.”

* * *
Sarang exchanged greetings with the Sync Tank team and underwent a capsule test.
Though they called it a test, it wasn’t much.
In the main tournament, she wouldn’t be able to use her personal capsule, so they came to Hee-cheol’s house—which was set up identically to the one used in the main tournament—to test how it would affect her.
“Hmm. Your synchronization rate is excellent? It’s remarkably stable.”
Hee-cheol’s girlfriend, who had some expertise in this area, was checking the readings.
Those from the Sync Tank team who knew something about capsules also confirmed the results alongside her.
“Right? How is it so stable? She must be genuinely talented.”
Normally, when someone enters a capsule, their biometric responses change immediately.
The space is so unfamiliar and cramped, and they experience such a bizarre world.
The body undergoes a kind of abnormal reaction.
Experienced users manage to suppress that abnormal reaction as much as possible.
But they had never seen anyone this stable in their entire lives.
“Isn’t this practically professional level already?”
“But she said she only did this as a hobby….”
“Um… I’m sorry to bring this up, but could this be related to her leg condition?”
Everyone’s heads snapped toward the person who made the suggestion.
It was Mool Mandu who had spoken.
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“Well… Almond hyung. Think about it. All the data readings are incredible. You said your arm was inconvenient too.”
“Come on. By that logic, everyone with a disability would perform like Almond?”
“Ah… yeah, that’s true.”
Mool Mandu’s theory had the right starting point, but it was somewhat flawed.
This phenomenon doesn’t simply occur because someone’s body is inconvenient.
Of course, they wouldn’t understand.
Suhan, watching from behind, thought to himself.
‘Because they don’t know how much she yearned for it.’
They couldn’t know how many times she had trained against the irrationality of a body that had stolen her childhood dreams. They couldn’t know what kind of war she had been waging inside her mind.
“Anyway, it just means she’s that good.”
Everyone from Sync Tank nodded in agreement.
The readings were stable.
Like a mirror-smooth lake.
At this rate, there would be no problem switching to the main tournament’s capsule.

* * *
Hisssss.
Sarang emerges from the capsule.
“Grab hold.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
Chiseung and Suhan supported her from both sides, lifting her up.
They practically carried her over to the wheelchair before transferring her.
Then they explained the results to her.
“That went well.”
Sarang’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
‘It still works.’
I’d thought it might be difficult since I’d been using only my personal capsule for quite some time.
But my body remained the same as always.
Thump. Thump.
My heartbeat began pounding loudly.
What was this feeling?
Nervousness? Excitement?
Whoosh, whoosh.
Sarang shook her head as if trying to shake it off.
‘Commanding from keyboard and mouse is no different. Just that far and no further.’
I didn’t want to hope for anything more.
“The game starts soon! Let’s go!”
The Sync Tank team members rushed over to the sofa and sat down.
[Joseon vs Rome]
[Match 2]
She positioned her wheelchair beside the sofa and gripped her phone in one hand.
It was for taking notes if anything came up.
That’s when Suhan approached and whispered in her ear.
“Hey. About that earlier. Come to top instead of mid.”
It was a joke he made after seeing Sarang’s stable stats.
Pfft.
She laughed it off.
“Just pick a delivery menu.”
“…Ah! Right!?”
Suhan had forgotten and opened the delivery app.
Since he wasn’t participating in this strategy meeting anyway, he’d decided to just order something to eat.
“I have some expertise in what to eat too. Right. So you really are the commander. Placing the right talent in the right position.”
He muttered as if asking them to acknowledge his reason for existing, but Sarang and all the Sync Tank team members were already fully focused on the match.

* * *
Almond didn’t know much about strategy.
Yet, in today’s game, he could be certain of this much.
‘They’ve committed to an all-out assault.’
Rome’s strategy today was simply to hammer away relentlessly.
From the first age to the second, and now even into the third age they’d just entered.
Rome’s forces kept pouring forward.
“Kyaaaaaaah! Push through!”
Boom——!
Another massive impact crashed against the gate.
“Damn it! This time it’s the south gate!”
“Move!”
The archers standing atop the walls had no choice but to frantically shift positions and rain arrows down on the enemies.
Twang!
Ping!
Almond too pulled his bowstring taut from his position on the wall.
‘Because of shields and helmets, shooting from above is actually disadvantageous….’
Yet it made little difference.
I wasn’t even upgraded to Gakgung yet.
The enemies expected arrows coming from above so predictably that they all held their shields upward.
Besides, if they just wore their helmets properly, attacks from above wouldn’t even count as headshots that would kill them instantly.
Even Almond couldn’t pull off some miracle like making arrows shoot upward from below.
Thunk!
Thunk…!
The arrows I fired here were so brutally straightforward that I had to hit the same target five or six times to whittle down their health and kill them.
“Ugh. Damn it! If armored soldiers show up, this is really going to be over!?”
Pangeo gritted his teeth and shouted.
“They just keep attacking like this… so why are we at a disadvantage!?”
Ratte pulled his bowstring desperately, asking with frustration.
“First, we lost in the Roman land-grab style of fighting….”
Danggeun answered.
But unlike her usual self, she didn’t continue easily.
Was it because she was shooting frantically?
That could be it, but it was probably because it was something that would lower morale.
“Lost? Lost and what?”
“Sigh. It’s just a difference in player pool.”
….
Thud.
A brief silence fell, as if they’d just heard shocking news.
Only the sounds of enemies dying and bowstrings twanging echoed like white noise in the background.
“The biggest difference between a strong team and a weak team isn’t the front-line players.”
Line order.
This was terminology used in Civil M.
Basically, those who received weapons first were called front-liners, while those who received them later were called back-liners.
Naturally, the front-liners were more skilled.
“The real difference comes from the back-liners. The fact that soldiers can keep dying and being replaced like this isn’t just because resources flow smoothly. Their back-liners are just as skilled as our front-liners. They can sustain the same quality of warfare indefinitely.”
“I… I see.”
The moment Ratte spoke those gloomy words.
──Thwack!
A crossbow bolt struck him, sending him flying.
Less than half of the soldiers who first climbed onto the rampart remained.
The entire roster had been replaced.
“This is what a true Civil M war actually looks like. A prolonged siege.”
Danggeun spoke as if making sure Almond heard.
“You won’t be able to fight the same faces in this battle.”
The longer the battle continued, the less soldiers could execute their predetermined plays.
Without predetermined plays, they had to rely purely on individual combat ability.
In other words, it became impossible for the weak team to overcome the strong team through organization or special tactics.
‘This happened often in scrims.’
Almond remembered.
In scrims, I’d always lost this way.
But in actual matches, Joseon had always maintained the initiative through Cookie’s surprise attacks and innovative tactics, so this had never happened before.
Even in matches we lost, Cookie had controlled the flow of the game.
This wasn’t the time to curse ball possession in soccer.
Now that I’d lost even that possession, I could feel just how helpless it was.
“Maybe Anto doesn’t really care about winning or losing in this game—he’s just showcasing their entire player pool.”
If Danggeun was right, Anto’s intention had hit the mark.
Now we could clearly see what kind of enemy we were facing.
“Me, the south! The south gate!”
“No! It’s the west!”
“The enemies are climbing the north wall!”
Enemies ravaging Joseon’s forces from all directions.
They were everywhere.
It felt like fighting a thousand men, not two hundred.
The gap in capability was painfully apparent.
The enemy was overwhelming us.
‘What’s this.’
But something felt strange.
Thump. Thump.
My heart pounded as fiercely as the sound of them battering the gates.
Was this fear?
No, it wasn’t.
‘I want to win.’
Rather, Almond’s competitive spirit burned even hotter in this moment.
His heart wasn’t pounding to flee from the enemy.
It was screaming at him to charge forward, to sweep them away with his own hands.
Beep!
[Assemble]
The command came down from Cookie.
Judging by the location, it was likely an order to resupply with new weapons.
Almond immediately descended from the rampart and rushed forward.
He had been given a mission he had never been assigned before.

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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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