Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 819

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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 289
94. Vanguard (2)
A few days before the match against China began.
Hee-cheol called Sanghyeon aside privately.
‘Me?’
Sanghyeon found it strange that Hee-cheol wanted to meet without any particular agenda.
But true to his nature, he went anyway.
After knocking on Hee-cheol’s hotel room door and entering, Hee-cheol greeted him warmly.
“Hey. Sit down. Just a moment. Let me get you some tea.”
Though they’d felt awkward around each other at first, they’d grown comfortable with one another by now.
─Clink.
Hee-cheol poured tea into a small cup provided by the hotel and handed it to him.
Warmth rose gently, enveloping Sanghyeon’s hands.
“I called you because there’s something I wanted to discuss.”
“Ah.”
Sanghyeon nodded, though inwardly he was puzzled.
He didn’t think Hee-cheol would hold a strategy meeting with just him, leaving the assistant commanders behind.
So what could this urgent matter be that he wanted to discuss right after they’d returned?
“Well… first of all…”
Surprisingly, Cookie started the conversation with small talk that seemed rather meaningless.
It wasn’t uninteresting. Since Sanghyeon was hearing his stories closely for the first time, they exchanged various topics, and time slipped away endlessly.
And before long, even such stories came up.
“I’ve always been afraid of sharing my story. But you, Sanghyeon—you’ve already done it all. So…”
Hee-cheol said that if they won the championship, he would film a video about his current situation.
At this, Sanghyeon remembered the Nantes match and shared everything on his mind, holding nothing back.
Only then did the main topic finally emerge.
“It’s quite late, but now that we’re getting to the main point, I believe the time has come.”
“The main point…?”
Sanghyeon looked skeptical that this was finally the main topic.
Hee-cheol is quite direct when necessary.
Yet seeing how long the preamble had been, it must have been something difficult to bring up.
“I feel that the time has come for you, Sanghyeon, to become a complete leader.”
“…!?”
Sanghyeon’s eyes widened just as much as when he heard the main topic.
In truth, the leader position had almost always been Pangeo’s role.
Especially when Hee-cheol took command.
Given his style, the game wouldn’t run properly if the leader didn’t understand basic war concepts.
Even if not Pangeo, someone like Danggeun would be more appropriate.
‘Could my strategic thinking already be at that level?’
Sanghyeon even found himself entertaining an absurd fantasy.
“When you first came. Honestly, I had a lot of concerns.”
Hee-cheol finally opens up about what’s been on his mind.
“Were you worried I couldn’t do it?”
At those words, Hee-cheol lets out a soft laugh.
“I never thought you couldn’t do it. It was the opposite, actually.”
“?”
“You were too good.”
“!”
That was the thing. An international team competition is an organization where two hundred people move toward a single objective.
But if the head of that organization suddenly restructures everything around a newcomer simply because they’re exceptional, the trust between members would crumble.
“This was something that should have been done from the beginning.”
When Chiseung and Hee-cheol first brought Almond in, they intended to groom him as the next leader.
However, the other members couldn’t know that they were developing him into a leader.
Hee-cheol is only now revealing this uncomfortable truth.
It was a burden he had to carry almost alone, without telling anyone.
In fact, this was natural for a leader.
And now, he could finally set that burden down a little.
Because, as he said, the time had come.
“Now all the players recognize you, and beyond that, they’re relying on you.”
The flow had been heading that way all along, but after the match against Japan, every player completely trusted Sanghyeon.
His skill, his character, his determination—everything about him.
Hee-cheol had been waiting for this moment.
He thought it might not come this year, but Sanghyeon performed beyond imagination and earned the players’ trust.
Not simply because he played the game well, but as someone who once aspired to be a national representative, he was earning respect here.
Even if he didn’t show it, everyone was learning from his spirit, his training methods, his mindset.
He was already far more than just an ace player with one hundred percent combat ability—he was a major pillar of the national team.
Just as Hee-cheol once was.
“So─”
Hee-cheol’s head, which had been bowed, lifts up.
His eyes were earnest.
The eyes of someone about to make a significant request.
“Become a true leader. At least for this tournament.”

* * *
And so the match against China began, and before long, it was the second game.
“What!? The Cavalry Archer Unit! They’ve recovered!?”
The Cavalry Archer Unit, which had been trapped in the labyrinth formation, began to regain their footing.
“And that’s not all—they’re firing arrows! They’ve actually found the Archer Unit!!”
They even hunted down the Archer Unit and dealt them damage.
Thwip thwip thwip thwip!
Arrows fired in unison rained down upon the Archer Unit.
Bodies, arms, heads—arrows struck mercilessly, sparing nothing.
“No way, they’re shooting while moving! The accuracy!!”
Compared to how China’s Archer Unit had struggled to land proper hits on the Mounted Archers for so long, this was extraordinary accuracy.
This was indeed a striking difference that appeared between players from archery-focused civilizations and those from others.
“The real weakness of the China team is that they lack players skilled at handling ranged weapons!? But even that is relative to China’s standards! These players are hitting their marks well!!”
“That’s right!? The Cavalry Archer Unit’s movements right now are just divine!?”
“They were clearly floundering before! But in an instant! Everything changed completely!”

* * *
When they first fell victim to the formation, most observers concluded the Cavalry Archer Unit couldn’t fight properly.
So the question became whether Cookie would help them, or wouldn’t.
Whether they would complete their mission wasn’t even a consideration.
Youbi felt the same way.
His gaze remained fixed not on the Mounted Archers, but on Joseon’s Main Force.
In Youbi’s eyes, those Mounted Archers were already dead. Some had panicked so badly at the formation shift that they’d stumbled on their own, while others had been cornered against dead ends, surrounded by Spearmen, and died miserably.
Some had even foolishly charged into places where spears jutted out countless times, becoming skewers in the process.
Given the situation, Cookie’s next move mattered far more to the broader context of the war than whether the Cavalry Archer Unit survived.
This was certainly sound judgment.
And yet—
‘What is this.’
──Thwip thwip thwip thwip!
The number of China’s Archer Unit suddenly plummeted.
Since the commander’s screen displayed troop counts by unit type, he could see it immediately in numbers.
[Archers 43 → 31]
Twelve soldiers had died in an instant.
Since the Archer Unit had been organized with tight margins to begin with, each individual soldier was critical.
What on earth had just happened?
The Archer Unit was positioned at the very core of this labyrinth formation.
It was a formation designed to protect the Archer Unit’s ranged fire while advancing slowly forward and disrupting enemy charges.
And that critical Archer Unit had taken a hit.
He had no choice but to look toward the Mounted Archers.
“!”
Youbi’s eyes widened in shock.
‘Is that the same unit from before?’
It was certainly the same unit, yet it felt unfamiliar.
It was like watching an entirely different force.
Just moments ago they seemed like a disorganized rabble, but now they were a cohesive elite unit.
Youbi’s eyes darted about, searching for the reason.
And what caught his attention was one thing.
‘The vanguard….’
The leading figure running fastest and most precisely.
[Aamond]
It was Almond.
His blue robe billowing behind him, commanding the unit from the very front.
‘The moment he took the lead, the entire momentum shifted completely.’
This happened in actual warfare as well.
Even when identical squads performed identical missions through identical procedures, the combat strength of the army would transform entirely depending on who led the vanguard and whose orders they followed.
That’s why in ancient Chinese history, while strategists and tacticians were valued, the generals who commanded the vanguard were also held in the highest regard.
War is an endless succession of fear and anxiety, dancing between life and death.
If soldiers could follow the back of a trustworthy general who confidently stood at the vanguard, anyone’s spirit would transform.
Such a general could completely overturn the tide of war simply by standing at the front and allowing their soldiers to place their faith in them.
‘Could it be…?’
Youbi hadn’t thought it was Almond.
He had been watching him, but not for this particular ability.
It was hard to believe.
Yet it was unfolding right before his eyes.
Crack!
At the vanguard’s signal, the cavalry archer unit turned their horses’ heads in unison and glided smoothly through the maze.
Their eyes were fixed solely on the back of their leader.
Clatter! Clatter!
They were racing through this minefield of impossible variables at maximum speed.
This would be impossible without fanatical trust.
Anyone would hesitate and waver. In those gaps, the spearmen would close in.
Those moments of hesitation accumulating was the core psychological warfare of this formation—eventually allowing infantry to catch cavalry.
But these soldiers had faith.
If Almond could forge ahead, there was a path.
That’s what they believed. Not a single doubt clouded their conviction.
That certainty-like faith was creating a path where none existed.
Though there was no actual path, when they ran together, one emerged.
Crack!
Almond, leading the vanguard, drew his bowstring once more.
Only then did the soldiers tear their eyes from his back and turn their heads toward their targets.
This entire process unfolds with mechanical precision and flawlessness.
The balance maintained through both feet, the bowstring drawn in a perfect horizontal line, the targeting locked steady as the horse moves beneath me.
And then, a soft whisper—
A release without the slightest tremor, as if a phantom had simply passed through.
──Twang!
To expect an arrow released with such perfection to miss would be foolish.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
A sharp, ringing cry echoes across the field.
Even Youbi feels his entire body tingle.
The soldiers below need not be mentioned.
[Archers 31 → 12]
The Archer Unit had effectively lost its fighting strength.
With these numbers, they could barely fulfill their proper role in a 200 versus 200 engagement.
The Cavalry Archer Unit had ultimately accomplished their mission.
Youbi lowered his head for a moment.
‘If this continues….’
It was clearly his turn to maintain the offensive.
Like Omok, once you begin making moves to sustain an offensive, your opponent is forced to defend, and you continue to dictate the tactics.
Your opponent can only think about countering what you produce, leaving them unable to make any moves of their own.
With the current formation, Youbi should have definitely seized the offensive.
Then he would simply wait to see how Cookie would respond.
‘….’
Cookie hasn’t moved an inch.
All of Joseon’s units still held their positions.
Had they abandoned the Cavalry Archer Unit from the start?
‘No.’
Youbi felt it instinctively.
This wasn’t a choice made to sacrifice them for safety.
That sensation he’d felt when their eyes met after the first match ended.
A pull, as if being drawn in…!
That overwhelming force.
‘He believed in them.’
Cookie believed that the Cavalry Archer Unit would break through even in that situation—no, that they would show something even greater.
Youbi squeezed his eyes shut.
In the end, it was he who had to produce a counter here.
With a heavy heart, he places his next stone on the board.
Click.
The black stone settles onto the board.
[Guan Yu]

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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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