Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 832

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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 302
98. The Same Enemy, Different Perspectives (1)
Like everyone in their youth, I never fully understood my mentor.
Sometimes he was heartlessly cold, and other times his interference felt suffocating.
He even tried to correct my lifestyle and the way I spoke.
“You brat. You say you dream of being a national representative? With manners like yours, people won’t respect you. Stop looking down on the other kids.”
At those moments, I often thought like this.
‘But I shoot better than him.’
Wasn’t I shooting better than the other players here, or even better than Coach?
So who was teaching whom exactly?
A hot-blooded boy in his adolescence often overestimated his own abilities like this.
“Stop pouting. I’m saying this for your sake, you fool.”
“….”
As a child, I wasn’t particularly warm-hearted. For some reason, the darkness of the world never left me alone and constantly tormented me.
I couldn’t fully believe that such words were for my benefit. I only accepted about eighty percent of it.
In truth, Coach Yangincheol was human too, so not every action or word he spoke came purely from wanting to help me.
“Hey, you! How many times do I have to tell you to remove the arrowheads!? Huh? You think you can ignore what an adult says!?”
“But I didn’t leave them on….”
“What!? I checked all your arrows myself! What are you talking about now!?”
“….”
He would lose his temper when he couldn’t control his own nature, and he would scold me over strange misunderstandings. So that remaining twenty percent of distrust always existed between young me and him.
But there came a moment when I accepted everything about my mentor—all his actions and all his sides.
The first week of starting at Aseng.
It was the last day—Friday.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
I rushed down the hallway toward the bathroom in a hurry.
To anyone who didn’t know better, it would have looked like I simply needed to use the toilet urgently.
Thud.
After closing the bathroom door, I sat on the toilet seat without even lifting the lid, my head bowed.
My face, barely visible between my arms and knees, was flushed crimson, and my breathing was ragged.
After spending Monday through Friday at Aseng, I finally saw it. The true face of the world.
It wasn’t someone spitting out annoyed scolding, nor was it a voice trembling with fury.
Yet I felt it.
A distrust of Sang-hyun Yu that burrowed into my skin and settled deep in my bones.
A cold, murderous rejection as if the world itself was denying my existence.
‘So that’s what it was….’
I understood.
Why I trembled and felt so cold in a place where everyone else went about their days naturally.
Why I was only now seeing the world’s true face.
It was because the world I had been seeing all this time was one that someone had carefully constructed for me.
It was because there were adults like that—those who would light an old briquette stove if winter wasn’t warm enough, who would paste cheap glow-in-the-dark constellations on the ceiling of Seoul’s smog-filled nights where stars couldn’t be seen.
My Grandmother, my Teachers at school, and… Coach Yangincheol.
“Ugh… hah….”
Swallowing hard, I recall these memories.
Coach Yangincheol’s sudden bursts of anger, his foolish misunderstandings, his unfair judgments, his demands not to tell the children about the incident….
Only now do I understand.
Even if his mistakes were his own, they were all the result of his efforts.
He was trying to do something for me, for the archery club, and mistakes simply happened.
Just as arrows sometimes miss the center no matter how much effort you put in, it was the same with Coach.
All those adults who seemed so enormous were ultimately just people.
Imperfect beings.
‘Just like me now.’
What was certain was that we were all looking at the same target.
Those imperfect beings stood shoulder to shoulder, bearing each other’s weight, walking together down one path.
I hadn’t realized it at the time, but that alone gave my archery club life a brilliant value.
But when I stepped out into this world, things were different.
Even within the same building, the same company, there were countless targets.
Some were gold, others purple and pink.
My honest, old-fashioned primary-colored target had become worthless here—something not even worth hitting.
I clenched my teeth and made a fist.
As if enduring something to the very end.
‘Again….’
The longing to do it again with Coach, if only I could.
If only I could experience that again—everyone aiming at one target together.
“Sigh.”
But I endure it with difficulty.
Now I’ve learned to distinguish between reality and dreams.
I don’t yearn for the impossible.
My trembling right arm, gripping the bathroom door handle, constantly reminded me of that reality.
‘I won’t be able to see him.’
I shouldn’t go meet Coach.
I had to leave the past connection behind and find a different target, no matter what.
After wiping my eyes, I straightened my flipped employee ID and stepped out into the office corridor.
Creak.
The white fluorescent lights of the office swallowed me whole.

* * *
[Amateur?]
[As far as I know, that guy has always been a professional.]
After the video finished playing on the screen.
“Players, please take the stage!”
Whoooosh!
White light burst forth.
Illuminating them.
“Players enteeeeering!”
With the Caster’s booming voice, the players took the stage.
Sanghyeon walked in alongside them.
Whiiiiing.
The cold air from outside swept in fiercely, and my already tense body shrank further.
But then, a wave of hot air rushed in.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
The roar of the audience surged forward.
Boom! Boom boom!
Along with the thunderous sound of massive drums, countless multicolored lights shot across the venue.
Cookie led the way, followed by two Assistant Commanders, Pangeo, Maratang, and Almond in order.
Sanghyeon gazed at the backs of those walking ahead of him.
They all looked straight ahead.
They were looking at the target placed before them.
They all shared the same target.
Victory in the international archery championship.
‘That’s right.’
It was then that Sanghyeon felt it.
That I was perhaps already achieving the dream I had thought impossible.
I had already found a new Coach and an archery team.
“Our proud! Republic of Korea’s! International championship team! Joseooooooon!!”
At that moment, Sanghyeon’s eyes changed.
I had returned to being the boy from those days when I practiced archery.

* * *
Each time a player was announced on the screen, the roar from the audience was deafening.
“Almond! Almond! Almond!”
Almond’s introduction was especially thunderous.
This was partly due to his popularity, but also because Pierre appeared right beside him.
The cheers from both factions for these two biggest stars were so loud that eardrums trembled.
“Pierre! Pierre! Pierre!”
“Almond! Almond!”
“Waaaaaaahhhhh!!”
Pangeo glanced toward the audience.
“Wow. It’s intense today.”
There were slightly more Korean spectators, but the gap wasn’t as wide as it had been during the China match.
What stood out was that nearly one-third of the Korean audience members were holding Almond costumes or cheering tools.
His popularity soared with each passing day.
Those almond-shaped cheering tools kept evolving, and now even Pangeo wanted to own one.
Pangeo tapped his younger brother’s shoulder playfully as he walked ahead, throwing out a joke.
“The whole world is almonds… huh?”
He was about to shout that the whole world was almonds.
But something caught his eye.
“Wait, what kind of cheering is that? Does Italy eat a lot of fish?”
A massive fish-shaped kite was flying around.
But that section wasn’t from Italy—it was from the Korean side.
It was ambiguous, but it was definitely the Korean side.
“Brother. Isn’t that you?”
“Huh? Come on. Even if I’m ugly, a fish…? Whoa!?”
Pangeo never could have imagined it.
Not until Almond pointed it out did he have the slightest clue.
‘Wait, a fish? Could it be…?’
A massive fish-shaped kite soared above the spectator stands.
Flutter~ flutter~
It swayed as if trying to captivate the eye.
The fish shape was quite peculiar.
Flat and wide, it looked exactly like…
A flounder cut up for sashimi.
“A, a flounder!?”
It resembled a flounder.
“That’s literally me!?”
It was.
This flounder kite was a cheering tool for Pangeo.
Only then did he notice the slogan beside it.
[National Anglers Association]
I couldn’t figure out who on earth had made something that size.
It turned out to be a custom-made tool created by the older male fans of the fishing videos he consistently uploaded to AllTube.
This couldn’t be.
People really do see what they want to see.
How could I not recognize it?
A flounder!
Even the placards held by others had the phrase “It’s a monthly catch!” written all over them.
They were cheering tools for Pangeo.
‘Is this really all?’
But that wasn’t all.
Only then did it register in my eyes.
‘There are things for the other players too….’
Moreover, cheering slogans for the other players were scattered throughout as well.
Not just the major players like Maratang, Danggeun, and Spam—nearly all two hundred players had their names spread out in various places.
When did so many of these cheering tools sell? Who even bought them in the first place? Most people would want to buy Almond’s.
Only then did Pangeo realize.
‘…The Manager.’
Someone’s hand had definitely touched this.
That suspicion was correct.
This was an event Juhyeok had prepared in his own way.
After earning tremendous revenue, he used part of it to ensure every player could hold at least one piece of merchandise with their name. He gave away items that weren’t selling as bonuses, asking people to wave these too.
He asked them while saying this would help the team.
“….”
A tingling sensation seemed to flow through Pangeo’s eyes.
“Ha….”
Pangeo knew this about himself.
The heroes of this game weren’t people like him, but rather people like Cookie, Almond, or Choi Sun-sin.
‘But still….’
Yes, he wanted to show it.
That there was still something left in me.
That an unextinguished flame was still burning.
Even if it wasn’t burning wildly and madly, I had kept my own spark alive in this world’s cold wind.

* * *
After all the Players entered their capsules.
The game was ready.
“Everyone is logged in!”
“Now then…!”
The Analyst and Caster lock eyes with each other.
Both of them jump to their feet.
“Thank you for your patience, everyone!”
“The underdog’s whirlwind! Joseon with their unconventional tactics and momentum! And Rome—the elite perfectionists who defeated the eternal champion Mongolia!”
“That’s right! Joseon, who was evaluated as the weakest, and Rome, who was evaluated as the strongest, have met in the finals! This fateful confrontation!!”
“Joseon versus Rome! Rome versus Joseon! The national championship! The long-awaited finals! Now!”
The Caster throws an uppercut and shouts with full force.
“Let the match beeeeeeegiiiiiiiin!!”
The arena’s hologram activates, and the first map slowly comes into view.
The hologram flickers, and the stage for the first finals match appears.
Kuguguguung…!
Towering sand-colored fortress walls rising high around the main base area.
These ancient ruins of a fortress wall, their construction lost to time, are sturdier than any fortification Civil M’s civilization could ever build.
[Ancient Fortress Wall]
This is the Ancient Fortress Wall.
It was the map where Joseon and Rome first clashed against each other.
[Current Viewers: 1,289,000]

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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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