Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 795

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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 265
87. Spring (3)
“Yes. See you next time, Former Manager Gu.”
Click.
Juhyeok hung up the phone and fell into thought about the past for a moment.
When I think of Former Manager Gu, one memory comes to mind.
About four years ago.
Back when Juhyeok and Sanghyeon were still fresh recruits.
A time when every employee craved a single word of praise from their superiors, desperately running back and forth trying to catch someone’s eye.
A time when passion as an employee could still support their sagging shoulders.
“Hey. Didn’t you do almost half of this work? Why is he getting the praise? You should go confront him about it.”
“Are you staking your life on praise?”
“No, it’s not just about praise… they say this all gets reflected in the performance review?”
Down the long office corridor.
Juhyeok followed Sanghyeon, trying to persuade him, while Sanghyeon kept shaking his head.
It was actually a common sight among new employees of the same cohort.
Since teams were somewhat divided by subtle cliques and factions, they would give each other advice and sometimes steal each other’s credit.
“I know. That it gets reflected.”
“…Then why are you acting like this?”
“If I try to do more, the situation just gets worse.”
“?”
Juhyeok couldn’t accept the situation at the time.
His own department was involved in what Sanghyeon was entangled in, so he couldn’t just ignore it.
‘Ugh. This frustrating bastard.’
Anger welled up inside Juhyeok.
Something was boiling within him, and he was about to stride past Sanghyeon toward those snickering ahead of them.
Sanghyeon poured ice-cold water on him.
“…I just lost.”
“What?”
Lost?
What do you mean you lost?
Sanghyeon had accomplished the decisive work in this contract.
“What do you mean you lost?”
“Just. Everything… all of it.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“That I’m a high school graduate. That I got in through connections, that I lack work sense and usually fall out of favor, that my social skills are lacking so even when I happen to do well, it doesn’t get reflected. I haven’t won anything at all.”
Sanghyeon seemed genuinely unbothered.
He was thorough in accepting defeat.
No matter what kind of competition it was, even office politics.
“Sigh.”
Until this point, Juhyeok had regarded Sanghyeon as merely a dropout who had fallen into mannerism.
“Do as you see fit.”
However, that was not the case.
He was simply sincere about competition.
Therefore, he was someone capable of the same even in a situation where positions were reversed.
Time passed, and it was when the two of us began working together on the team.
“Why should we?”
Swish.
His tilted head as he spun his chair around in response to the request to appeal for another team together.
“Well… the marketing team… they suffered some losses because of us. You know the former Manager, right?”
“I was never taught that way by the former Manager.”
“…What?”
“The former Manager lost to our Manager. I’m sure he’ll understand soon enough.”
“….”
Tap.
Watching Sanghyeon lightly brush off the documents and organize them before leaving for the day, Juhyeok’s memory stirred.
A long, endless corridor.
‘That time….’
That back figure walking ahead with subordinate employees.
That person was the former Manager.
At that time, Manager Jinho Gu.
“…I understand.”
Juhyeok became convinced.
After that, transferred to the marketing team, Juhyeok did not view the former Manager favorably.
‘Did that bastard teach such things.’
Yet, no matter how hard he tried to think poorly of him.
‘Huh?’
The former Manager was a good person.
‘What is this? He’s… actually decent?’
First, the former Manager was a person with absolutely no flaws in character.
Second, Juhyeok had always been a victor.
Whether in social skills or ability.
Therefore, he had no issues whatsoever with the former Manager.
In any case, after meeting the former Manager.
Though his original nature played a part, Sanghyeon never looked after losers.
Regardless of what kind of defeat it was, even if it was his own.
Even if he seemed docile and foolish normally, at truly critical moments he could casually wield an icy blade without hesitation.
That was Sanghyeon during his time at Asung.
Or perhaps he was even more so before that.
Because of such a demeanor, he had often incurred hatred, but one day at a drinking gathering, Sanghyeon responded like this.
“If I hadn’t done even that much, they would’ve all looked down on me.”
By doing even that much, I received less hatred.
Right now, Juhyeok’s eyes were fixed on the phone number of the department where he once worked.
It was the call log from just before.
‘Jinho Gu….’
What kind of person was he when he was a newcomer?

* * *
When Sanghyeon opened his eyes, Pangeo was still sleeping beside him, snoring softly.
Despite it being the middle of winter, the pillow beneath his head was drenched with sweat.
“Did I have a dream….”
Usually when that guy appears in my dreams, it’s like this. But I can’t quite remember it. I must have slept that deeply.
Sanghyeon thought this as he sat up and checked the time.
It was 10 o’clock.
Normally I would have been startled, but there was a notice in the group chat.
[Chiseung: Today is a rest day]
There was no training today.
It was a day to rest freely.
Just as I was about to get out of bed, I lay back down again and checked the other messages.
[Juhyeok: You feeling okay? You were sleeping so I just came by. Make sure to see the doctor tomorrow.]
[Juhyeok: Hey. When are you waking up?]
[Juhyeok: Text me when you wake up]
Juhyeok had sent three messages in a row—something must be up.
Sanghyeon tilted his head and sent back “Why?” before checking the other messages.
Hyun-joo: Oppa, your game was insane lol You were seriously crazy! All our classmates are going wild!
Dongsu: The pride of Hugyae! Sanghyun!ㅋㅋㅋ
Soyeon: Wow, Sang-hyun really made it big~ㅋㅋ
There were also messages of support from the archery club members.
The Korean-Japanese War had gained nationwide recognition, so there was hardly anyone who didn’t know about it.
Even people I knew from the company were sending messages.
‘Huh?’
But when I saw one particular message, my eyes trembled slightly.
‘Soyeon?’
I shook my head vigorously and looked again.
Suhyun: Sanghyun’s really made it big~ㅋㅋ
It was Suhyeon.
One of the archery club members.
A completely different person from the deceased Soyeon Han.
“…Ah.”
Hadn’t this happened before?
There are times when you’re half-asleep, glancing at the clock only to misread the time by a significant margin.
Or when you cycle between dreaming and waking, you lose track of what was actually a dream and what wasn’t.
Some people say they drift back to sleep just to continue a pleasant dream.
In my childhood, there were moments when I too would seek sleep again.
Simply to see that dream once more.
But from some point onward, I never made that choice again.
Because the moment I awoke and realized it was only a dream, the pain was unbearable.
‘I need to wake up.’
As always, the moment my eyes opened, I jolted upright.
I moved toward the window. If I stayed in bed any longer, I might drift back to sleep. I might dream again. The cold air would snap me awake quickly.
Creak.
I threw open the window, and cool air brushed against my cheeks.
A sharp gust swept in.
But it wasn’t what I expected.
“…Huh.”
Perhaps because I was in Japan.
The bitter, acrid scent of winter had vanished from the air.
The air was refreshing rather than cold, carrying a gentle moisture that felt soft.
A tiny dandelion seed drifted from afar, clinging to the bridge of my nose.
Spring had arrived.
At this rate, I might not fully wake from the dream.
I stood gazing out the window in a daze for a long while, then suddenly shook my head vigorously side to side.
“Blblblblbl….”
Ridiculous sounds escaped my lips, a desperate attempt to shake off sleep.

* * *
As the seasons changed, many things changed with them.
First, Civil Empire had become a genuinely popular game.
Even if this year’s popularity was merely a fleeting trend, that was the reality for now.
M-bul announced a server expansion to accommodate the influx of people into the community, and rumors circulated that Civil M’s Korean branch was throwing a bonus party.
These were significant changes.
In terms of news, they were the kind of changes that would make the social section of the Korea Daily.
When changes like this occurred, smaller ones naturally followed in their wake.
In terms of news, they were the kind of changes that would appear in a small corner of a local newspaper.
Sanghyeon witnessed these changes when he answered Juhyeok’s call.
Half-asleep, with the face of a raccoon not fully awake from hibernation, he made his way to his guest room.
“What’s going on?”
Upon seeing Sanghyeon, Juhyeok became visibly excited and showed him something.
“Hey. Check this out.”
What appeared on the screen was an OlTube channel.
It was Almond’s channel.
[Subscribers: 1.049 million]
After the fake national team, the channel’s views had skyrocketed, and finally the subscriber count had hit one million.
“The trend is insane—people are even watching from overseas.”
Each channel has its own characteristics.
Some channels gain subscribers quickly while views lag behind or stagnate.
Some channels see continuous view increases but have few subscribers.
Almond’s channel was oddly the latter.
Usually, such phenomena appear on channels dealing with high-fatigue content that uploads sensational videos.
Juhyeok interpreted the cause of this phenomenon as consistency.
Both Almond and Jia lacked the experience to establish a clear direction.
Because of this, there had been several changes in editing direction, and reactions varied—sometimes good, sometimes bad.
But as Almond gained word-of-mouth recognition, or as certain events unfolded, the views alone climbed slowly upward.
However, only fans who frequently watched his live streams thought they wanted to keep watching this channel.
Even including all the casual viewers who occasionally dropped by, it took quite a while to exceed 500,000 subscribers, let alone reach one million.
Everything changed when the fake national team content began.
The subscriber growth rate climbed at an extraordinary pace.
The fake national team was consistent content with continuity, so there was a concept of “next episode.”
This made people hit the subscribe button to watch the next episode.
And structurally, whenever national competition results came out, one more episode of the fake national team would be released.
As recognition increased, subscription rates climbed along with it.
Now that I’d won even the Korean-Japanese War, I suddenly realized the subscriber count had surpassed one million.
“At this rate, we could hit 1.3 million by the time the national competition ends.”
Juhyeok stares at the graph, thrilled.
“Right now, all sorts of channels are sending emails trying to book you in advance—it’s absolute chaos.”
Major channels always gather famous figures to create large-scale project content.
In the past, programs featured primarily established celebrities.
But over the last decade or so, at least 50% of such content is filled with celebrities based on SNS or minor channels—personal streamers.
Naturally, someone like Almond would be treated as royalty even appearing on such shows.
Regardless of the channel’s scale or revenue, he currently commands the support level of a national hero.
“Even ‘The Brilliant’ reached out. Are these guys insane?”
Kha ha ha.
Juhyeok bursts out laughing.
“What’s that?”
“You don’t know The Brilliant?”
“No.”
“You know, it’s where smart celebrities come on and basically have intellectual battles.”
One person gets eliminated each time they clear a stage, and those who win the intellectual battles continue surviving as they play games that change every time—that was the format of the content.
“…Oh?”
As Sanghyeon watches the video with interest, Juhyeok feels a wave of anxiety wash over him.
‘Don’t tell me this bastard wants to go on it?’
Now that he thought about it, Sanghyeon had a strange tendency to trust his own intellectual gameplay.
Click.
“Huh? Why’d you turn it off?”
“It’s nothing.”
“…What do you mean nothing? Why are you turning it off?”
“I said it’s nothing?”
“Tsk….”
Sanghyeon’s spirits deflate somewhat mysteriously.
“Ahem.”
Juhyeok shows him the next topic to clear the air.
“Look. Forget The Brilliant and all that. Check this out.”
It was an Excel chart.
The Excel spreadsheet with the merchandise revenue he’d planned to brag about this evening.
“One, ten, hundred… huh?”
Sanghyeon’s expression shows complete surprise.
“Is this really merchandise revenue?”
“And that’s just yours. We’re eating 100% of this ourselves!”
Juhyeok suddenly gets excited at the mention of money, jumps up, and stretches out his hand.
Clap!
Sanghyeon, without thinking, slaps his hand back. It was an amount that naturally called for a high-five.
The two make eye contact and immediately begin hosting their own hype Olympics.
“Where should we go? I’ve already reserved appointments for all the real estate along the Hangang. Grandmother said I should live somewhere with a view of the Hangang if I’m going to be a man.”
“I’m planning to meet Elon Musk first. Father said I should at least meet famous people and see.”
Of course, with the money they’d accumulated so far, they couldn’t even reserve a single decent property along the Hangang, let alone afford any without debt.
I’d sooner meet Elon Musk by sheer luck than see this happen.
“This is just from my merchandise sales alone… How much would everything else add up to?”
Yet their eyes overflowed with hope.
While it might fall short of true wealth by current standards, it was an amount that allowed them to dream of the future.
“Right. Everything else combined comes to here.”
“…?”
At that moment, Sanghyeon’s expression—which had been beaming and radiant—turned peculiar.
‘Is it about 1.5 times as much?’
Almond’s merchandise sales alone accounted for 75% of all the international tournament merchandise combined.
‘I thought it would be around four times.’
Naturally, I hadn’t harbored great expectations given the disparity in recognition, but I hadn’t anticipated such a stark difference.
“It’s probably because my recognition still lags behind. We’ll need to address that gradually. Besides, it’s not like we’re dividing anything up anyway. Whatever.”
“Yeah. That’s true.”
Rather than a matter of splitting money or not, Sanghyeon felt that the spotlight on the international tournament had become far too concentrated on him.
Of course, it was only natural for the most exceptional player to receive the spotlight.
Even during my archery days, I’d understood this as a given. Sanghyeon had never harbored any objection to it.
Archery is an individual sport, after all. Civil M, on the other hand, is thoroughly a team sport.
“….”
Sanghyeon fell silent for a moment. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t see the hard work they’d put in.

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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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