Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 689

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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 159
53. Reading the Game (1)
“Huff… huff….”
Jesse descended the mountain path almost like falling, her red hair streaming behind her.
“…Huff….”
She ran desperately, gasping for breath.
Since she didn’t know the situation, she had calculated that there was still a chance of victory.
Was that why?
[Surrender]
“…What?”
Crash.
The moment she saw the word surrender, she tumbled off the mountain path.
After rolling quite a distance, she sprawled out flat and stared blankly at the sky above.
Clear in the middle of the blue sky, it was written plainly.
[Defeat]
The text had changed now, but the meaning remained the same.
“Huff… ha….”
She still gasped for breath, but she couldn’t run. Only her heart was racing.
Screeeeeech…!
The blue sky split open, and her vision lifted upward.
The dome stadium’s ceiling came into view.
“Sigh.”
Jesse sat up and shook her head.
She looked at the other players’ capsules.
They all sat there dazed, only their upper bodies raised.
On the opposite side, people had already rushed out and were jumping around everywhere.
“Yaaaaaay!!”
“We won!!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Even the Think Tank team in the coach’s box had rushed out and were linking arms together.
Jesse shook her head reluctantly and shrugged her shoulders.
“Well… it was map selection anyway.”
Pfft.
True to herself, she simply laughed it off.
“Alright. Let’s prepare for the next match!”
The Viking Assistant Commanders stood up and encouraged the players.
“This is where it really begins!”

* * *
Screeeech.
After the sky opened, I could finally grasp it properly.
‘We won. Really.’
The stadium where the Joseon team was located was absolutely deafening with roars.
“Waaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
As I rose to my feet, an even louder cheer erupted and fans chanted my name.
“Almond! Almond! Almond!!”
The massive screen in the stadium displayed the Balloon Stars members shouting my name until their voices gave out.
Miho waved her hand toward the camera with a smile, and an even greater roar swept through the arena.
“Brother! Yeeeeah! Aaaaah!”
But an even more thunderous noise was rushing in.
“Aaaaah!”
It was the Sink Tank team.
“We won! Completely! Perfectly!!”
“Brother! Come out! Come out!”
“Ah, I’m… sweaty. Sweaty. Don’t touch.”
“Hurry!”
“Got it.”
As I exited the capsule with a laugh, all the players rushed toward me at that moment.
They all linked arms and, as they’d practiced, shouted their chant.
“Joseon! Joseon!”
When Coffee led like this, everyone shouted together.
“Fighting!”
Of course, it didn’t end there.
Bread took the next chant.
“Monster! Monster!”
Then everyone released their arm links and raised their hands.
“Roaaaaar!”
Cheering for the top sponsor brought bursts of laughter through the commotion.
Still, the players’ excitement hadn’t faded, and they spent some time shaking hands with each other and discussing the game.
“Pangeo, you were insane back there. Huh? You’re a practical fighter!”
“Ratte only survived Pangeo’s arrows in actual combat, but got killed by the enemy’s axe instead!”
“Where’s Almond? Almond! Almond just grabbed him by the collar!”
“Oh, Goth, no, Nuts, you…!”
Sanghyeon looked somewhat like an outsider among the excited crowd.
Perhaps this was a professional habit deeply ingrained in his body.
Professionals rarely show excitement until the game is completely finished.
“Almond! You crushed it! You were amazing! Huh!?”
“Damn! Almond! How long are you going to carry us!”
Even Pangeo came running, calling him older brother.
Seeing them like this, they were clearly not professionals.
They were simply people who loved the game and somehow ended up here.
If I were the Sanghyeon of the past, I might have said something to players showing such behavior.
Or the Coach would have already let out a barrage of shouts.
But here, the think tank team that could be called the coaching staff came running first and caused a commotion.
Surprisingly, I didn’t dislike it.
I even thought this might be the natural way.
People who love games, who love archery….
The untrained, original form.
A form that somehow felt nostalgic.
「Sanghyeon, what’s your goal?」
Why was it.
That I could hear the Coach’s voice at this moment.
「Winning the Olympics, sir.」
「Is that really all?」
「Is that all? What else could there be beyond that?」
The Coach would be happy if his student won an Olympic gold medal, yet his expression when hearing that was his goal seemed bitter.
「Right. Now is that time. But listen here. Have you ever thought about why you want to win an Olympic gold medal?」
Why, he asked.
Because I decided to do archery.
「Because it’s the best.」
「So you like becoming the best.」
「Uh….」
Was that it.
Young Sanghyeon had never thought about it that way.
「Even if you can’t become the best in archery. You like becoming the best, don’t you?」
「Hmm….」
Can I become the best at something other than archery?
I couldn’t imagine it.
It was the only thing I was good at from birth.
「Then next time. Think about why becoming the best is good. Give it some thought.」
Why was it.
I was already closer to an Olympic gold medal than anyone else from that time.
The Coach seemed to be trying to prepare me for life after archery.
Perhaps because he already knew I would rise too quickly to that place.
He hoped I wouldn’t lose my way there.
「I just like shooting arrows.」
「Is that so? Heh heh. Then that’s fortunate. You’ll keep shooting arrows even after winning the gold medal.」
But whether fortunate or unfortunate, I was not someone who loved gold medals.
I simply loved archery.
I only hoped its culmination would be a gold medal.
I loved that sensation of drawing the bowstring, holding my breath, aiming at the target, and striking dead center on the bullseye.
Perhaps even without an Olympic championship, I would have continued shooting arrows.
“You’re truly a blessed one.”
What my Coach said—I understood it well.
The blessing of genuinely loving something.
Surely the most radiant blessing of all.
Yet this blessing soon returned as a curse.
The moment my yearning for archery—something that couldn’t be stopped even by a gold medal—had to cease.
This blessing was nothing less than a deeply carved curse.
After the accident, I could never draw a bow again, no matter what I tried.
A vast, profound void opened within my heart.
Even if I reached some other pinnacle of achievement, would this enormous chasm in my chest ever be filled?
Even if I continued shooting in the most perfectly crafted virtual reality, would it be filled?
I don’t know.
To find that answer, I simply continue doing something resembling archery.
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Almond! Almond! Almond!”
As my colleagues embraced me and dragged me toward the waiting room, one figure briefly entered my vision.
Everyone from the coaching staff had rushed out—only one person remained.
A single person sitting in a wheelchair, quietly watching the monitor.
Was it the same for that person?
Did they also have a great void hollowed out in the center of their chest?

* * *
Even after the players scattered to their respective waiting rooms for a meeting, the excitement in the broadcast booth never ceased.
There was so much to do—reviewing replays, analyzing how they won, and more.
“Just like this! By dragging out time here! Joseon! Effortlessly! Secures victory!”
“Yes~! Effortlessly! This is what matters!? Every strategy Joseon brought. And the techniques gained through training! It all worked perfectly. Everything operated flawlessly! This is incredibly encouraging!?”
-Amazing
-Even rewatching the replay gives me chills
-Wow
-???: Ahhhhhhh!
-From now on, let’s unify our exclamations as ‘Ahhhhh!’
You did so well ㅠㅠㅠ
-So proud of the national team
Countless viewers flooded the chat with messages celebrating the victory.
The chat window itself began to lag from the volume.
Current viewer count: a whopping 400,000.
The highest viewership ever recorded for a domestic international match.
It was comparable to the peak viewership from Ril’s famous Nantes match.
In a moment, it might even surpass Ril Champs’ viewership.
Perhaps because of this, the commentators’ energy intensified.
With so many viewers responding, their enthusiasm surged.
“Yes! Encouraging, right? Map selection advantage! And as the training results are clearly demonstrated! Against those Vikings! They secured surrender in the Age 2! Not Age 3! That’s unusual too, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Joseon never even advanced to Age 3. For the Vikings, this is practically a humiliation. A humiliation. Those rugged mountain valleys were never originally such a disadvantageous map for Vikings!?”
“It seems the Vikings judged that attempting anything further would only expose their strategies more and lead to defeat.”
“That shows how dire the situation was! Ah, the data just came in….”
The screen displayed the civilization win rates on this map.
Joseon’s win rate was actually 4-5% lower than the Vikings’.
A 5% difference in these statistics was enormous.
“Look at this. This is originally a map where archer civilizations struggle. Especially since cavalry is difficult to operate. The Vikings have a significant advantage.”
“Yes. It’s not quite at the level of maps called Viking-exclusive, but the win rate is respectable, right? If you look here, Mongolia’s win rate stands out?”
Even Mongolia can’t use their side here lol
Even God’s skeleton lol
-Cookie pulls this off!
-Wow
Please, I really hope they win so I can see the interview ㅠㅠㅠ
Not only Joseon, but Mongolia—the quintessential mounted archer civilization—also didn’t have a good win rate on this map.
“Mongolia is the civilization with the most championship wins. If it’s like this… the Vikings must be panicking.”
“Exactly. They deliberately chose this map to cause complete chaos.”
“Wow….”
“Cookie. What I want to praise is that in the past, he was called the epitome of what we call ‘playing it safe,’ right? Back then, he was well-regarded in commander rankings, but he had a strong image of only playing it safe.”
“Ah, really!?”
For a caster who had only been watching Cookie this year, it was nothing short of astonishing.
The current Cookie was displaying the demeanor of a mad gambler, far from playing it safe.
“But! Cookie is now interpreting and showcasing the Joseon civilization with a completely different concept this year. You can’t win with orthodox tactics! It seems like he’s determined to completely reinvent himself through all those past failures! And it’s working!”
“Wow. That’s impressive, isn’t it? He’s a commander who executes the fundamentals well too. Yet he’s completely transformed his style and is now creating this underdog surge, isn’t he?!”
“Exactly! Player Cookie! How difficult it must have been all this time! Everyone who knows understands! Back when he was the youngest member! Joseon achieved the legendary feat of first reaching the main tournament!?”
“Ah. Right! I heard he only made it to the main tournament once. And back then, the main tournament started from the quarterfinals, so it was the quarterfinals, right?”
-For real??
-That must’ve been ancient history
-Main tournament starting from quarterfinals lolol
-Oh so that’s what making it to the quarterfinals meant
-Must’ve been when there weren’t many teams
“That’s right. It was shortly after Civil M had come out. Since our country was an esports powerhouse, securing an early advantage was favorable. That’s what everyone evaluates as the result. But Cookie himself probably didn’t see it that way, right? As he’s mentioned in interviews many times! He must have thought the problem was with himself!”
“Ah….”
Korea, where esports culture had spread far and wide long ago.
In a game that had only recently begun, the country always stood out inevitably.
But as nations with strong civilizations like Mongolia, China, Japan, and Italy established their esports industry systems, Korea was gradually pushed back.
It was from this point that Cookie took on the role of commander-in-chief.
“When Cookie, who was receiving attention as the greatest prospect at the time, led the team, it plummeted. It might not have actually been the commander’s fault, right? But he probably didn’t see it that way!”
“Ah. But still! After five years of reinvention! Cookie! Has returned! Now the most highly anticipated prospect! Along with the recruitment of Almond! This is completely déjà vu, isn’t it?!”
-Wow
Ugh, Coberji ㅠㅠ
-He’s back, Cookie
It’s similar to five years ago.
I’m crying / Sob sob sob
I saw it back then too… ㅠㅠㅠ
-Such a story
Then, the screen focuses on a certain man.
He appeared to be around forty years old.
[Joseon’s Commander-in-Chief Five Years Ago]
[Taeyong Lee]
He smiles and waves his hand toward the camera.
Beside him are his wife and children.
-Ooh
-Wow he came to watch
I’m crying / Sob sob sob
-Wow
“Ah. So that’s the commander from back then! Ah. Thank you so much for coming. And….”
As various other explanations proceeded, the strategy time ended.
“Ah! While we were speaking! The players are coming out again!”
The players began emerging from the waiting room one by one.
The players exchange handshakes with one another before splitting off in opposite directions.
This time, toward entirely different sides.
“Five years ago, Cookie was a rookie on this team. Now, after five long years, he’s led them back to the main tournament! He is no longer the youngest member! He is the Commander of this team!”
The Caster’s voice rang out with solemn determination.
“The new talents who will carry his torch stand beside him! Whether we succeed today or not! Whether we succeed next time or not! This match will remain in history! It will kindle an eternal flame! Just as Joseon did before!!”
This challenge might very well be Cookie’s last.
The second round begins.
[Joseon 1 : Viking 0]
“That’s right. Simply by reaching the main tournament, Cookie has already left behind another spark! But! Looking at today’s performance! How could anyone not be greedy!? He won’t want to end as just a small spark! He’ll want to become a wandering flame! He’ll want to leave behind fertile soil!”
“Players! Everyone has entered their capsules!”
Roooaaarrr!
With the cheers of both sides’ supporters, the hologram once again filled the arena, beginning to construct the terrain of the map.
“The match begins! This map is…!”

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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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