Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 815

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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 285
93. 200 vs 200 (1)
Immediately after the first match ended.
China Team’s waiting room.
Glug, glug.
Zhang Fei opened the refrigerator and chugged beer down his throat.
“Ugh… Damn it! Damn it all!”
He drank while tears streamed down his face like a man who’d been dumped.
This time, even Youbi couldn’t stop him. Youbi himself was too preoccupied with composing his own thoughts.
“….”
Youbi stared at the ground in silence, lost in deep contemplation.
He didn’t even respond when spoken to.
Guan Yu had to wonder if he’d gone deaf, but seeing no reaction even when tapped, he concluded Youbi was intensely focused on something.
‘What a mess.’
As the eldest of this team, Guan Yu had been playing the role of a sort of class representative.
But with even the soldiers staring silently at the sky, the team’s condition was beyond words, and he couldn’t easily intervene.
One wrong move now could affect the next match.
Yet going straight into the next match in this state made no sense either.
‘That strategy earlier… we were helpless against it. That’s not easy to swallow.’
Cookie’s Advancing Fortress Wall strategy.
If they hadn’t prepared siege weapons in advance, it would have been an absurd strategy that left them blindsided.
If they’d even tried to build the Great Wall of China smaller, they might have blocked it more easily than expected.
But failing to even complete that, they wasted both resources and time, suffering a complete defeat.
“Argh! That’s it! These things happen! Right!?”
Surprisingly, it was Zhang Fei who suddenly snapped back to attention.
The alcohol was taking its effect.
“Everyone, why are you all acting like you’ve been dumped! Wake up! We need to go into the next match and sweep them!”
The soldiers seemed to gain some vitality from Zhang Fei’s energy.
Zhang Fei squeezed through the soldiers one by one, cracking jokes and offering encouragement.
“Hey! You there! Your face is like that, so you’d better play well! Right!? Can you really accept losing to that pretty boy!?”
Whether this could be called encouragement was debatable, but it worked regardless.
Except for Youbi.
“…Second era… Third era… Second era….”
Youbi had been muttering the same words like a madman since earlier.
‘What on earth has he fixated on?’
Everyone actually knew that the last match was the Commander’s mistake.
This was unusual for the China Team.
Youbi was a perfectionist, a man who knew how to execute that perfection.
But as is always the case with perfectionists… when they encounter a truly great wall, they sometimes find themselves unable to do anything at all.
‘Was Cookie such a wall?’
As Guan Yu, who didn’t know the Commander well, I couldn’t understand it.
But judging from Youbi’s reaction, I had to assume it was true.
‘Cookie had quite a bit of prior experience facing him.’
What on earth was happening in Joseon that everyone was playing as if they’d become different people?
Guan Yu tried to approach Youbi to encourage him again, but then—
Someone burst through the door roughly.
──Creak, bang!
“Third era.”
He was Gongmyeong, the head of the Sync Tank Team.
He came in with a confident expression and shouted at Youbi.
“Third era! So get up from that seat!!”
“!?”
Youbi blinked at his words and shot up from his seat.
“How did you know?”
Gongmyeong presented several reasons that Guan Yu couldn’t comprehend and made his prediction of the third era once again.
“Why else would Cookie have rested for such a long time? If we include the period right after the Persia match, he’s been resting for over two weeks.”
“So what?”
“To create a new Joseon build.”
“!”
“Until now, Joseon has focused on creating variables in the first and second eras! But Joseon’s true strength lies in the third era. They’ve been refining a textbook build to resolve this irony! They caught on that we’re wasting resources out of fear of the first and second eras. Otherwise, how could a single match reach that level of perfection?”
It was actually a prediction that came close to the truth.
Except for the reason Cookie had rested.
“But is there any guarantee they’ll go with the third era this match too?”
“Cookie won’t be satisfied yet.”
“…What?”
“I told you. They’ll go by the textbook.”
That was right.
The first match couldn’t be called a textbook victory.
Gongmyeong’s sharp eyes gleamed as he elaborated.
“A Commander’s desires always show through in their command. Don’t you feel it? He wants to beat us by the textbook.”
“!”
Youbi’s eyes widened.
He was genuinely shocked.
Joseon wants to beat China by the textbook?
They want to attempt such a mad feat?
In the semifinals?
“That can’t be.”
Joseon cannot beat China by the textbook. This isn’t simply due to the gap between players.
A Commander who has adapted to the unique difficulty of Chinese civilization won’t lose in a textbook matchup against Joseon.
A textbook matchup here refers to a game that starts with a plain third-era transition followed by open-field combat.
While Joseon excels in the third era compared to China’s third era.
In a conventional matchup, if the fourth era timing is secured considerably early, China can absolutely reach the Ming Dynasty.
Simply fighting in the third era doesn’t mean it remains a third era battle.
Ultimately, it becomes a fourth era confrontation.
At that point, China is naturally overwhelmingly advantaged.
Of course, Joseon’s fourth era is considerable, but the Ming Dynasty is not a typical fourth era.
The Ming Dynasty is evaluated as the one and only fifth era.
Ordinary players would find it difficult to understand, but to seasoned commanders, a conventional battle between Joseon and China sounded like this.
Joseon charging in to defeat a fifth era with a fourth era.
It’s a method with extremely high risk of that outcome.
“Why would they do such a thing? From what I see, the second era is absolutely….”
Youbi paused mid-sentence.
It was because of Gongmyeong’s piercing gaze.
Seeing those eyes, something came to mind.
!
The moment right after the game ended when his eyes met Cookie’s.
Those eyes.
Those eyes as if something had been flipped inside out….
Only then did Youbi realize.
Gongmyeong’s words held merit.
“Could it be….”
There was a reason they would come out with a conventional strategy.
There was a reason to stake such a gamble even with higher odds of losing.
“Exactly.”
Gongmyeong nodded.
“They’re aiming for the championship.”
Thud.
It felt as if something massive had fallen into the waiting room. Perhaps it was silence. Everyone sat dumbfounded, silence draped over them, staring at Gongmyeong’s mouth.
“If they can’t win against China with a conventional strategy, they have no chance in the finals anyway. That’s their calculation.”
* * *
Clap—
Chiseung and Hee-cheol’s hands collided.
Right after Hee-cheol arrived at the waiting room, Chiseung had rushed out.
“We crushed it!”
Pangeo and Maratang also high-fived with the Sync Tank Team.
“Chiseung. The strategy you prepared in the mountains. Excellent.”
“Executing it on the spot like that is impressive.”
Chiseung laughed while wiping his nose.
Then he unfolded his notebook and drew a line through it.
He had crossed out one of the strategies prepared for mountainous terrain.
His notebook contained at least two strategies for each type of terrain.
The Fortress Assault was merely one among those countless strategies.
The Sync Tank Team had filled every page by pulling all-nighters for an entire week.
In truth, there wasn’t enough time to practice all these strategies.
Yet Hee-cheol insisted they write down as many terrain-specific strategies as possible.
At first, I wondered why.
With practice time already stretched thin, why demand they document every conceivable strategy and build variation?
I only learned the answer to this question recently.
“Ah, I had a brief conversation with Sanghyeon yesterday.”
After the Sync Tank Team’s meeting concluded, Hee-cheol mentioned his talk with Sanghyeon during a casual moment.
“I was curious whether it pained him to have people learn of such suffering.”
Sanghyeon had partially and partially reluctantly disclosed portions of his past to the public.
“Generally speaking, one shouldn’t reveal weaknesses, right? I asked if exposing them was a mistake.”
Hee-cheol had promised the production team that if they won the championship, he would document his circumstances on video.
“That’s also a valid point… or so Sanghyeon said.”
Sanghyeon surprisingly didn’t deny that perspective.
“But strangely, when you openly display your weaknesses, at some point they transform into your strengths.”
Hee-cheol trailed off while turning his gaze toward the window.
Perhaps at that moment, he was thinking of his girlfriend.
Of her, who quietly shouldered this burden alongside him, unknown to anyone else.
“Concealing things might be what makes them weaknesses. That’s the thought that struck me…”
Wounds must touch air to form a scab.
“Now I want to lighten the load. No—I want to lighten it for her. I… I want to keep my promise to the production team.”
I understood.
The destiny Joseon now faced.
They stood at a crossroads not of whether they could defeat China, but of whether they could claim the championship.
“Players, take your positions!”
Watching the players turn back, I gripped my notebook tightly.
“…May the day come when this is needed.”
In the matches ahead, there would be no occasion to employ the strategies contained in this notebook.
*
“All players have entered the arena!”
The players exchanged brief bows and headed toward their respective capsules.
“Roooooaaaaarrrr!”
With tremendous cheers, the map begins to materialize.
“Here we go! Joseon versus China! China versus Joseon! The long-awaited semifinals! Match 2 begins!”
“The map is…!?”
Whoooosh…!
A gentle breeze sweeps across.
All elevation differences flatten out in an instant, and a vast grassland unfolds.
The stage for Game 2 revealed itself.
[The Mongolian Steppes]
-The opponent is~~~
-Wow
That’s so fundamental/basic lol
What the heck!? ㅋㅋㅋ
-Oh…
The Mongolian Steppes.
King Gul’s expression showed clear displeasure.
“The Mongolian Steppes. The so-called pure skill map, right?”
The Mongolian Steppes was the most fundamental map in Civil M.
As such, it was a map where raw mechanical skill could be laid bare for all to see. This meant it was disadvantageous for Joseon, relatively evaluated as the weaker team.
“Usually when a map like this comes up, the lower-tier team is at a disadvantage, right?”
“Ah. That’s right! Because variables disappear!”
Being the most fundamental map meant the map had few variables.
In a place that was mostly flat terrain, there were almost no geographical variables.
“Yes. Like that mountain path chase with Almond earlier—one player can’t sweep everything! These scenarios barely happen here.”
In terrain-heavy areas, multiple variables emerge. Even if there’s a skill gap between opponents, if one side controls the terrain well, you can still see a fairly competitive match.
For example, Cookie’s fortress assault in Game 1 operated on that same principle.
An archer positioned on top of a fortress can fight at a much greater advantage than an archer below, making such strategies possible.
But the Mongolian Plains had no such loopholes.
Only vast grasslands and parched soil worn down by nomadic passage.
“Then King Gul, do you think Joseon is at a disadvantage on this map!?”
“Yes. I can’t deny that. Fundamentally, Joseon needs some mountains to have an advantage.”
ㅠㅠ (crying/tears)
-It’s fine, we won earlier anyway
-Still gotta try though
King Gul didn’t sugarcoat it.
This map was disadvantageous for Joseon.
When assessed coldly, Joseon’s military strength couldn’t compare to China’s.
‘At least officially, that is.’
Certainly when advancing from preliminaries to the main tournament.
When the power rankings were first compiled.
Joseon was not a team that could match China.
In fact, they couldn’t even defeat Persia or Japan.
Yet Joseon had just broken China’s long, undefeated streak.
“Of course, you only know once you play the game!”
“Yes! And who knows what brilliant strategy Joseon has prepared!?”
“Exactly! Game 1! Kuboji’s bag of tricks literally exploded!?”
-Bag of tricks lol
-LMAO HAHAHAHA
-HAHAHAHAHAHA
“Ah! The Bag of Tricks! That’s exactly the right way to put it!”
“China really got completely threshed without doing anything! That’s the power of strategy! The power of the Bag of Tricks!”
“Yes! I’m certain something else will come out of Cookie’s Bag of Tricks! I truly believe that!”
However, so far neither side had made any significant moves.

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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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