Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 717

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 3 Episode 187
62. The Well (1)
A few minutes earlier.
One of those called Persia’s Three Archers had fallen.
Now only two archers remained in the forest.
Kenin, the Ace, and Upla.
They had temporarily abandoned the idea of returning to the main camp, instead unleashing a barrage of rapid fire toward Almond.
“The angle is definitely right, so why isn’t it working?”
“…Damn it.”
They were bewildered by the inexplicable misses.
From this angle, it should have been a perfect shot with room to spare.
Yet that thug remained alive, impossibly.
Even Kenin, hailed as the greatest Ace, was thrown into confusion by an evasion technique he had never encountered.
“What method is he using?”
Kenin’s expression hardened as he shouted.
“Keep firing for cover! I’m moving forward!”
Kenin advanced step by step while loosing arrows in rapid succession.
Determined to skewer that wretch lurking behind the trees, his rate of fire accelerated with each passing moment.
‘Huh?’
Only then did Kenin detect something peculiar in his opponent’s movements.
‘He was moving backward?’
From a distance, left and right movements are easy to discern, but forward and backward changes are difficult to perceive.
Especially when the difference is merely a step or two.
It was like those moments in sports broadcasts where it’s unclear whether a goal was scored or not.
That was it.
Almond had precisely calculated the effective range of their arrows.
‘They can only reach this far.’
Accounting for the angle of the curved shots, I had gauged the distance their arrows could travel.
What began as a vague boundary had gradually solidified into a precise line.
With just a step or two of difference, I could slip past the enemies’ arrows.
In reality, such arrows would have dealt damage even at the edge.
But in this game world, where physical force became completely ‘0’ after traveling a certain distance, such a technique was possible.
“Damn! The range doesn’t reach!”
The moment Kenin cried out—
“──Kenin! Watch out!”
Almond, who had been moving back and forth behind the trees, stepped forward. Was he launching a counterattack now?
Creak.
As he advanced one step, he drew back his bowstring.
[Focus]
“!?”
Kenin threw himself to the side.
‘For some reason, I feel like this shot will definitely land.’
My instinct as an archer told me so.
That arrow he’d just drawn would inevitably hit someone.
That’s why I threw myself out of the way.
No matter how skilled an archer is, they can’t predict the future. By throwing myself to the side this suddenly, I could at least avoid a headshot.
Whoooosh—
Sure enough, Almond’s arrow grazed past where my head had been.
It was a difference of barely 0.001 seconds.
The arrow came flying with tremendous acceleration from the power of the Focus Faction.
This was what made the Joseon bow so terrifying.
But then, Kenin smirked.
‘Got him.’
Thwack!
My arrow had struck Almond’s ribs.
That’s right.
Even as I threw myself to the side, I’d released a shot.
To the enemy, it must have looked like I was fleeing in fear.
But in that split second, I fired my arrow.
‘Even without a curve, if you give it the right angle, what can he do? Fool.’
That wasn’t all.
The arrow Upla had fired while retreating also seemed to have found its mark.
Thud.
Almond simply collapsed to the ground.
“Nice!!”
Kenin and Upla cheered without hesitation.
He had been that difficult an opponent to bring down.
“This is Persia! Ha ha ha!”
Kenin wasn’t speaking in mere figures of speech.
If the Joseon bow had its own terror, then Persia had its own.
Namely, the incredibly agile moving shots utilizing the Parthian Shot technique.
“Did you think I was running away!? Huh!? Ha ha ha ha!”
The Persian bow could fire even while throwing oneself to the side in retreat, and the Persia’s three archers never lost accuracy even while doing so.
One shouldn’t judge the situation ahead based on their movements.
Even while bowing in apology, even while appearing friendly and reaching out for a handshake.
The Persian archers could casually draw their bows and shoot their opponents dead without warning.
“Let’s go! Back to the main camp!”
Kenin and Upla began running toward the main camp.
Much time had already been wasted, but Persia had plenty of experience turning situations around with just a few archers.

* * *
This was the turning point.
The commentators finally caught sight of the forest near Persia’s main base.
“What!?”
“Almond!?”
Almond lay collapsed in the field, and the Persian archers began rushing back toward their main base.
“If this happens, the game could get really weird!?”
-He lost
-Looks like he just fell
I’m crying / Wahhh / Boo-hoo
-He held out long though
-Good fight though…
Though Almond had fallen to them, the viewers didn’t seem to think the situation was critical.
“Ah. So that’s why! That’s why Persia is still holding on! But what could possibly change with just two more players added!?”
The thought was that just two escaping the forest and returning to the main base wouldn’t change anything.
Already, multiple Joseon archers were thoroughly harassing the workers at Persia’s main base, and even the barbarian soldiers’ combat was gradually being pushed back by Joseon.
What could two players possibly accomplish when Joseon had already seized the advantage?
“They can make a difference!”
King Gul insisted these two could accomplish something.
“Persia has a history of overcoming early crises with just a handful of archers! They’re an archer civilization after all! And they’re strong at turtling! How do you think that’s been implemented!?”
Just as Joseon relied heavily on the power of their archer units centered around Almond in the early game.
Persia had also overcome crises or decided matches many times through the power of their frontline archer units centered around the three archers.
“Especially in the early game! One or two aces can easily turn the situation around!?”
Moreover, this was still the early phase where troops hadn’t received much equipment supply.
There was a high probability that a few ace units could decide the battlefield.
The reason Joseon had such high early-game decisiveness was precisely because their ace units had extremely high combat power.
Those on Joseon’s viewer side who had experienced that power couldn’t help but acknowledge it.
-Oh…
-Damn, did we do this a lot?
-Yeah
That’s crazy, what a crisis then.
-Ugh
-Fake
-So we were just frogs in a well after all
-FAREWELL “well”
Those who had been hiding their desire to disparage Almond began appearing one by one, even provoking the chat.
The catchphrase they’d decided to push this time was apparently “frog in a well.”
-32 strong is minor league lol
-Still the best in the well tho haha
Hahaha, the skill gap is insane.
Those who had been holding their breath while the national competition was going well began to emerge one by one as the archer-versus-archer confrontation seemed to be turning against them.
In other words, the damage Almond had suffered at this critical moment was significant enough to shift the balance.
While his death had shaken matches before, never quite like this.
“Ah… Player Almond, you held on well! Please revive quickly! I’d love to see you rejoin the battlefield!”
There was no real solution except to watch Almond revive quickly and return to the fray.
“Let’s check the worker casualty count now!”
“Ah, Persia… are they truly a turtling master? They’re holding better than they did at first!?”
Persia was reducing worker losses by constructing additional defensive towers near their main base.
I needed to gradually amplify even this damage to finish them completely.
But it seemed increasingly unlikely.
There were no siege weapons in the second age, so this alone wouldn’t end it.
“If Joseon’s rush gets blocked here! What happens!?”
“Even so, it’s still a significant advantage, right? We might unexpectedly see a third age battle, or even fourth age…”
Moreover, if these two archers return and successfully defend again, things become truly ambiguous.
Joseon’s advanced barracks-related structures would become meaningless, and all the excessive investment would be wasted.
It would drag on through third age combat and eventually into fourth age.
-Fourth age??
-Fourth age against Persia is literally impossible
-Ah
-No way
T_T
-Are we watching fully upgraded Persia lol
“Persia gets all upgrades for free, but it takes a lot of time, right?”
“Yes. You can shorten that time by continuously increasing scholar numbers? So by fourth age, upgrades just happen freely and endlessly!”
By fourth age, all of Persia’s forces would emerge in a nightmarish state with full upgrades applied.
“Elephants equipped with full health and defense upgrades… I really don’t want to see that!?”
-For real
-Horrifying
-lol
-Ugh
Hang in there, Pang ㅠㅠ
To avoid such a sight, the archers who had entered Persia’s main base had to push themselves to nearly annihilate the workers.
Or they had to win against these two Persian aces coming now.
“Now, the Joseon archers who’ve entered the main base! You must be aware of the forces coming from the forest! You must prepare! When archer numbers are this low overall, these two aces are huge!?”
Could preparation alone lead to victory?
Such doubts filled those watching.
Even Almond’s best strategy against them was merely to buy time.
“Why isn’t Cookie pinging!? He needs to prepare!”
“Exactly! Can’t he see this!?”
Cookie was not pinging the archers at the main base.
I need to inform them that two archers are coming from the forest.
-What?
-???
-They might not see it right now because they’re busy
-Ah
-Of all times??
The reason became clear the very next moment.
“Huh!?”
King Gul’s eyes widened in shock.
I cannot translate this as it does not form a valid Korean word or phrase. These appear to be random consonants without vowels.
-Gasp
-Huh
-?

* * *
“We’ll make it just in time.”
“Yeah.”
Kenin and Upla.
The two conversed freely as they sprinted at full speed through the forest.
“We’re probably a bit late.”
“We can handle it.”
Kenin exuded confidence that everything would be resolved the moment he arrived.
“But that guy… seemed a bit dangerous.”
Upla muttered while glancing at Almond’s corpse lying behind them.
“So what? He’s dead anyway, isn’t he?”
…
Kenin had a habit of refusing to acknowledge any rival who posed a real threat.
“Yeah. He’s dead. But he killed six out of our eight team members.”
“Don’t get on my nerves. Just focus on the next battle—”
Kenin’s expression darkened as he glanced back for a moment.
“Seven.”
An unfamiliar voice cuts in.
‘Huh…?’
Perhaps from the sheer shock.
Everything in Kenin’s vision slowed to a crawl.
‘What. Insane. Upla?!’
Something glowing with white light pierces through Upla’s face and bursts outward, crimson droplets scattering in all directions, each bead dancing slowly, languorously…
‘Upla! Is he dead!? Who the hell! Was there another one!?’
Someone reflected in his constricted pupils.
Someone stands there.
Beyond the space where my colleague’s head nearly exploded away, past that blood-soaked curtain.
As if aiming at this world from beyond the gates of hell itself, a single figure stood within the crimson landscape.
Already drawing another arrow.
Kiiiirick…
I muttered to myself.
“Eight of them, then? I should report this to Danggeun.”
Whoooosh!
White light blazes forth.
Kenin’s mouth slowly drops open.
Yet in that moment, an unavoidable question flickered through his mind.
‘Wait, he’s already killed them all—why is he reporting now?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————