Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 799

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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 269
88. The Advance of Hodu (2)
Today, all the employees in Aseng’s marketing department were in a state of extreme tension.
After all, the eldest son of the chairman—whose succession was practically confirmed—had to meet face-to-face with the Vice President.
Manager Jinho Gu had never even seen the Vice President before, let alone the chairman himself.
This was the first time he’d witnessed the marketing Department Manager, who usually carried himself so fiercely, trembling with such obvious nervousness.
A man so skilled at grinding down his subordinates must fear those above him.
Only then did Jinho Gu recall a very ordinary truth.
For someone who lived in daily fear of their manager, it was unimaginable to see him behave this way anywhere else.
Looking at it this way, humans were truly animals.
When someone of a higher rank appeared, all the self and personality accumulated until then vanished, and only the reflexive response emanating from the spine governed the body.
And he, being of a lower rank, couldn’t predict it at all. These were things invisible in the reality surrounding him.
“Oh, he’s here!”
Thus, the highest-ranking person in this organization made his entrance.
Thump.
The vibration from the footsteps descending from the car seemed to resonate as if it were real.
The Vice President was not a giant, nor did he possess any particularly impressive physique, yet he appeared unusually imposing.
Jinho Gu couldn’t bring himself to look up at his face so easily.
The Department Manager rushed ahead and pushed past him.
“What are you doing! Come on! Follow me!”
“Ah, yes. Yes.”
Surprisingly, the reason he came here in person was because of a former employee who had already left the company.
He came all this way directly to take a photograph with him.
In front of an Aseng-affiliated foundation building, a press conference venue was set up, decorated with a photo zone and elaborate flowers.
Flash!
The first flash burst, and numerous camera shutters from other journalists began clicking.
Click! Click!
Numerous executives and employees trailed behind him.
Security guards stood outside with their arms spread wide, forming a protective line.
Though no one dared cross that line, they desperately maintained it nonetheless.
The Vice President walked toward his destination with long strides, surrounded by cheers and protection.
At that destination stood Aseng’s former employee.
Here, Jinho Gu witnessed a remarkable scene.
“….”
The Vice President smiled and greeted him the moment he saw him.
Not a wave of the hand, but a very subtle bow—the kind of light greeting exchanged between colleagues of equal standing.
The former employee, apparently flustered, bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
The cameras didn’t miss it, flashing frantically.
For Jinho Gu, such flashes were unnecessary.
There was no reason to capture it in a photograph.
I felt like I would remember this moment for almost my entire life.
“Sigh.”
The Vice President approached and extended his hand for a handshake, then placed his arm around my shoulder with a smile.
That smile carried no artifice, no unnecessary gravity.
Thanks to all the awkward silences I’d endured over the years, I could read the Vice President’s expression well enough.
‘How fascinating.’
I was simply fascinated.
Standing before me now wasn’t Juhyeok Kim, a former employee of Aseng, but the CEO of the company managing the national team that had captured everyone’s attention.
The fact that he’d once been an Aseng employee had transformed from a label or point of pride into something merely remarkable.
I turned my head to look at the Department Manager standing beside me.
“….”
His expression mirrored mine.
Watching someone who’d been in the same position as you—or even lower—ascend to an entirely different world was undeniably painful.
Especially for someone at the Department Manager’s age.
In the end, they resort to evasion to protect themselves.
“Man, I guess silver spoon kids really are different no matter what they do. What a world.”
“…Ha ha.”
I let out a laugh devoid of any real meaning.
Though I wanted to say more, some inexplicable emotion short-circuited my brain, leaving my mouth unable to move.
Then someone else approached.
It was Department Manager Park from the Trade Team.
“Right, right~ Huh? Those silver spoon kids really do have it easy in this world. Study abroad, learn English all nice and easy~ Well, what can you do~ The Vice President too.”
*Tsk.*
Department Manager Park seemed reluctant to say more about the Vice President and trailed off.
Even in this situation, his patience in maintaining the hierarchy was certainly admirable as a working professional. That’s what I thought.
But when the Vice President gestured toward somewhere, both Department Managers’ expressions twisted more severely.
“Come here. Let’s take a photo together.”
“Me, me too?”
“Yes. Hurry.”
The Vice President was pointing at Sanghyeon, who had been taking photos of Juhyeok.
Though he was currently quite famous, taking a photo with the Vice President hadn’t been part of the plan.
He was merely one of the national team’s players, and it was actually Juhyeok, the management representative, who represented the entire invested roster.
This happened simply because the Vice President spotted Almond and naturally thought the photo would look better with him included.
After being called upon, Sanghyeon climbed onto the platform and awkwardly shook hands.
Following his lead, he placed his arm around the Vice President’s shoulder.
“I enjoyed watching the games.”
“Th, thank you.”
“Please beat China too.”
“…Yes!”
Sanghyeon nodded vigorously, his face filled with what seemed like genuine emotion.
Click!
This moment too was captured in one of the countless camera flashes erupting around us.
The dazzling barrage of flashes and the cheers of fans directed at the star Almond.
And the Vice President’s radiant smile.
The two Department Managers could only stand at a distance, watching with indescribable emotions.
Yet their mouths couldn’t stay silent, spilling out words.
“So being good at some game is an honor now. Unbelievable.”
“The end times, truly.”
All the events that unfolded here were meticulously recorded by numerous journalists.
[Aseng, Civil M Becomes Main Sponsor of “National Tournament” “Pro League Proceeding Smoothly”]
[Two “Aseng Men” Who Left the Company for Their Dreams Rejoin Forces with the Company]
[E-Sports Market Stirs. Entering a New Golden Age?]
Among all these articles from countless journalists, nowhere was there any mention of Jinho Gu or the two Department Managers.
Instead, the stories were of two ambitious young men returning in glory, analyses of Aseng’s re-entry into e-sports as a marketing relief pitcher to recover from losing to China at the Ril Cup, predictions about the national tournament’s China match, and more.
All manner of stories were written, and depending on the journalist’s style and the platform’s inclination, the content varied completely.
Yet nowhere was their story written.
Of course…
-So those game nerds made it big lol
└For real lol In a country that even exempts them from military service if they’re good at games lol
-That Kim Juhyeok is supposedly some famous silver spoon. But he’s being portrayed as self-made…
└Real talk??
└Everyone who worked at Aseng knows. His father is the CEO of a mid-sized company doing really well.
-I get that he’s successful. But this seems kinda ridiculous
-Once they blow up they change lol With Aseng lol Ugh…
└Why Aseng???
└What are you saying you idiot lol
└He’s talking about those dirty money-eating conglomerates, can’t you understand?
└Wow this guy’s seriously messed up;
In the comments alone, countless stories about the two Department Managers were written.
Strangely, these stories never appeared in the main articles, were never mentioned anywhere, and never surfaced as facts.
But in their own little corner of the comment section, they were gospel truth.

* * *
Right after the shoot with the Vice President.
“Wow. Did you see? Huh?”
Sanghyeon still hadn’t calmed down from his excitement, continuing to chatter away at me.
I was discovering for the first time that this guy was such a talkative fellow.
“I wasn’t going to do it. But like, he just… he did it like this…”
The gist of it was that he hadn’t intended to be photographed, but the Vice President himself had pulled him in and taken the picture.
This wasn’t some dating survival show where a female contestant flirts with and brags about a popular guy.
“Yeah. I saw it too. I was standing right three centimeters next to you, so I’m telling you in case you didn’t notice. There was no way I could’ve missed it. The Vice President knows who you are. He’s a fan of yours. He even bought an Almond hat. Satisfied?”
“Wow…”
After hearing the answer he wanted, Sanghyeon turned toward the fake national team film crew and started saying the same things: “Did you see? Just now when…” and so on.
“That guy. He didn’t endure five years at Aseng for nothing.”
Since he liked the Aseng executives so much, maybe he was able to endure the company life no matter how miserable it was? That’s what I was thinking.
Regardless, the fake national team film crew was holding their camera close to him, filming the excited Almond.
It almost seemed like they were egging him on even more.
Well, for them, this was good material for the broadcast.
With that thought, I was trying to slip out of this place.
‘Hm.’
I encountered familiar faces.
My eyes instinctively turned toward Sanghyeon.
Sanghyeon was still talking with the fake national team, completely unaware.
Why was that?
Normally I would’ve greeted them.
But the atmosphere somehow didn’t allow for it.
It seemed better not to let Sanghyeon know.
They must have thought the same way, barely exchanging eye contact before hurriedly leaving the spot.
“…”
I stood still for a moment, watching the three white shirts disappear into the distance.
For some reason, that moment overlapped with this one again.
That long corridor inside the building.
That corridor where I heard the words that losers have no choice but to accept everything.
Back then, I resisted those words.
But shamefully, this time I nodded my head.
Perhaps if I were in the opposite position, I wouldn’t be able to say this, but it was a word that spilled out inevitably.
“Yeah. We just won.”

* * *
In truth, the good news for Mix Nuts didn’t end there.
As the match against China drew closer, public speculation grew fiercer by the day.
People discussed the national team competition everywhere—at work, at school, even sitting on their couches with family.
“Can we actually beat China?”
“Honestly, it’ll be tough. The only advantage we have is… we have two Commanders?”
“But China has all 200 players as frontline fighters.”
“If it goes to five games, we absolutely can’t win. Look at the power rankings between Japan and China. Plus, their player pool is something else.”
“Still, Joseon might pull through somehow, right?”
With conversations like this happening offline, it was no exaggeration to say that online, posts about the China-Korea match dominated the entire day.
Most notably, the biggest change occurred on OlTube.
Until now, aside from fake national team content or gaming-related channels, there had been hardly any posts about the national team competition on OlTube.
But several nationalist channels began competing to upload content related to the national team competition.
In other words, the national team competition was now being mentioned in the so-called “patriotic hype” sphere.
[3 Reasons Why Joseon Must Beat China]
[The reason why 200 artworks are being added to next month’s Human Body Mystery Exhibition ㄷㄷ]
[Did Joseon Really Lose Everything to China in the Past? Let’s Check the Facts]
[Why Japan Is Ecstatic About the Current Civil M National Team Competition Victory]
[Japan’s Shock and Europe’s Applause for the National Team’s Performance]
And so on.
While somewhat grounded in fact, the analyses were heavily skewed toward optimistic(?) projections to match each channel’s concept.
Finally, someone is speaking the truth.
That’s right; there’s no way Joseon would lose to China lol
I’m missing 200 mystery tickets lol
“lol if it’s 200 vs 200, would we lose~”
While this was fairly effective at easing people’s anxiety,
*scroll scroll*
Juhyeok, scrolling through the comments, let out an indifferent sound.
“Hmm… I guess that’s about right.”
In truth, as someone actually managing the national team, most of it didn’t resonate with him.
But then—
‘Huh?’
What caught Juhyeok’s eye was something slightly tangential to the national team competition itself.
Japan wasn’t shocked, but the Japanese reaction to Almond went crazy lol
-Almond’s gonna blow up in Japan for real
How does someone with such an ugly face even manage to gain Japanese fans lol
Reactions about Almond were coming from Japan.
Just a few casual comments, but…
‘This… this might actually be real.’
His entrepreneurial instinct, which now saw everything through the lens of money, made his heart race.

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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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