Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 865
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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 335
107. The Very Last (1)
“Zuzu~!”
“Ahhh! From CK’s perspective, it’s unfortunate but they’ve lost…!”
“Right? Jeon-ja-pa showed an incredible performance, and even fought brilliantly right up to the sanctuary at the end! But ultimately, when five people rush in at once, there’s no way to win!”
“Yes. With this result, the current standings….”
Thump.
Returning to the waiting room, Sarang collapsed onto the desk, burying her head in her arms.
‘…This won’t do.’
After appearing like a comet and claiming three consecutive championships.
The team was experiencing a slump.
Someone had transferred to a major capital team, dangling their championship career. Someone else remained on the team but seemed to have lost any reason to try harder.
Such attitudes were now plainly revealed through their performance in the games.
Perhaps it was acceptable since they had achieved so much.
However, the problem was that it wasn’t acceptable to someone.
“….”
Still lying there blankly, staring only at the wood grain on the desk—one person.
Choi Sa-rang.
Grind….
Her white teeth ground together as she clenched her jaw.
She could hear the voices of her teammates entering the waiting room.
‘Useless bastards.’
Anger surged so intensely that she momentarily regretted the past when she had carried those thugs to victory.
What was that match just now?
Not a single one of them did anything right except me.
“Come on, come on~ Get up and let’s do feedback. Even if we lost, we need to know why.”
Clap, clap.
The Coach entered and clapped to redirect attention.
However—
“Why we lost. Are there people here who don’t know that?”
—Creak.
Sarang simply stood up from her seat and grabbed her bag.
“Sanghyeon…? I understand it’s tough. But now there’s a new patch coming out too. If we coordinate there….”
“Coordinate?”
She swept her gaze across the remaining teammates and scoffed.
“What coordination with four bastards who don’t want to win? Even if we multiply instead of add, the answer doesn’t work out.”
“!”
Suddenly everyone froze.
At this, only the ADC, Cosmic, rebutted.
“If even one person is zero, multiplying makes everything zero anyway! Obviously! You idiot!”
“…?”
Their eyes met with a deadly intensity.
“Zero? That’s wrong. You’re all negative numbers.”
“Ha, really? All four of us are negative, so why isn’t a positive number showing up!? Could it be that one of the other guys isn’t negative either!?”
The Coach interjected in alarm.
“Haha… guys? It’s just a figure of speech, it’s not actual multiplication, right? P-please calm down….”
“Your mouth sure moves well. During team fights too, you should’ve moved it well enough to deal some damage.”
But it was useless.
“You should step forward and create some angles. Isn’t that what the mid laner does!?”
“I scaled better than you. Should I take the hits instead of you?”
“Then am I, the ADC, supposed to take them!?”
“Then scale better than me. Deal more damage. Oh right. Damn it. You weren’t planning to do that anyway, right?”
“What…!?”
As the argument escalated into shouting, the Director entered the waiting room.
“Hey, Sanghyeon! What are you doing! Everyone outside is cursing you out─”
Sarang had already passed by him, closed the door, and left.
──Slam!
* * *
Boom!
A massive mace crushes the helmet.
A heavy iron shield advances into that space.
The Joseon soldiers fall helplessly.
The front line is pushed backward.
“You’re being pushed back too much!”
“Damn it!”
“Buy time! Buy time! Do something, anything!!”
The Joseon soldiers no longer think of victory.
Buying time has become their only objective.
Yet paradoxically, an army that merely tries to stall cannot withstand Rome’s elite forces.
Crash──!
“Gasp!”
Another Swordsman from the front line falls.
Thud.
Rome’s massive shield advances into that space once more.
The advance proceeds smoothly, as if a simple puzzle were being solved piece by piece.
“This… how, how can we….”
The opponent is flawless, solid, and their organization is almost noble.
Gulp.
Mok-i, one of Maratang’s Swordsmen.
He swallowed hard, muttering to himself.
‘The previous match… remember the previous match.’
He desperately tried to recall anything to steady his mind. The memory of victory.
‘How did we win?’
But the memory wouldn’t come.
The Joseon soldiers collapsed one after another, as if they’d been trampled beneath this army since birth.
“Aaahhh!”
“B-behind us is the royal palace! We must defend it no matter what!”
The more desperately they fought, the faster they fell.
Thwack!
Spears thrust through, piercing the second line, maces crushed the first, shields pushed the entire front forward.
Boom!
And the marching footsteps came in unison, as if perfectly synchronized, each step falling at the exact same moment.
‘Damn it. Are these… actually people?’
Not individual players, but a massive living organism. A monster with an exoskeleton of iron.
It advanced, spewing jagged protrusions through the gaps in its skin.
Dead cells fell away, and fresh flesh sprouted instantly in their place.
This was an immortal monster.
“Haa… ha….”
Those who had been shouting grew gradually silent.
Do you know what that is?
Human emotion spreads easily.
Despair spreads too.
Right now, the Joseon army was a single helpless herbivore.
‘Maratang… when will you come?’
Mok-i couldn’t bring himself to attack either, waiting only for the Leader’s resurrection.
But Joseon seemed to be gathering their last-stand forces, and reinforcements weren’t coming.
‘This is already over. Hurry…!’
The Joseon soldiers holding this front line were already dead.
No one believed they could win this battle anymore.
Humans manifest what they think into reality.
Sometimes it’s an ability bordering on miracle, but it becomes a curse.
Despair was becoming reality.
That despair summoned another, became real again, and the acceleration of defeat began.
The experienced players knew it.
If they didn’t overturn something here, the match would end in an instant.
But was such a thing even possible?
* * *
“How… how can this not work? Sanghyeon?”
Supporter, Marshmallow.
A man of small stature with a soft, gentle build.
He chased after Sarang and held out a canned coffee.
“I understand. Not everyone might desire victory as desperately as you do. I know how that feels.”
“…What good does your understanding do?”
He’s just a tool.
Sarang turned his head away, looking in an entirely different direction, yet he still accepted the canned coffee.
Click.
As he cracked open the can and tossed the contents into his mouth, Marshmallow quietly settled down beside him.
“But not everyone can excel like you do. Sanghyeon. The greatest players must always understand that.”
“…Who said anything about excelling like me? If you expect that, you’re not even human. The problem is they’ve simply lost the will to win the game.”
“Haha… yeah. That’s right. But… hmm…”
Marshmallow pondered for a moment, then brought up this topic.
“Do you know what the characteristic of living organisms is?”
What was he suddenly talking about?
Marshmallow did have a lot of interest in strange things originally.
But did he really want to bring this up now?
Sarang let it go in one ear and out the other as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
“It’s called synchronization.”
“?”
Synchronization?
An answer he hadn’t expected.
Sarang turned to look at Marshmallow with the cigarette in his mouth.
He began explaining with an expression absorbed in theory.
“Fireflies light up almost simultaneously when darkness falls, as if they’d made a promise. Locusts are normally docile, but when a few start raging, all those nearby become infected and devastate the entire land.”
Could such a thing really exist?
He still didn’t understand.
“People are the same way.”
It could have been a made-up story just to reconcile them.
That’s the kind of guy Marshmallow was.
“People unconsciously synchronize their movements with those around them. The way this happens is so instantaneous. They say it can even shake sturdy large bridges. Really. It’s a theory used in bridge construction.”
Whoosh.
Sarang lit the cigarette and gazed at the sky again.
He could roughly predict what he was going to say.
“So Sanghyeon. I understand that you’re the most crucial resource. But if you take the lead despite that, if you bear a much greater burden, the others will change just like you.”
“And here I thought you said something.”
Sigh.
The cigarette smoke dispersed.
“I knew it.”
That exceptional people ultimately bear greater burdens.
I knew it.
But would that really change my teammates?
“Even if they don’t seem like it. They’re all looking only at you. When you change, everyone will change. That’s just how living beings are, right?”
Hehe.
Words Marshmallow left behind with a laugh.
In the end, I don’t know if those words were right or wrong.
After this game, she could no longer participate in matches.
And soon after, she suddenly announced her retirement.
* * *
The final cavalry unit lined up behind the royal palace.
A Commander stood before them.
‘Haa.’
After taking a deep breath.
She gazed at the faces of the cavalry soldiers for a moment.
They all looked shocked.
They never expected her to appear personally.
After all, there was nothing good about the Supreme Commander stepping forward in this game.
While all factions applied regardless of unit type, granting combat advantage, the risk was catastrophic.
The absurd risk that the game itself could end.
Yet she stepped forward anyway.
No, it was precisely because of this that she stepped forward.
Perhaps that’s why no one objected.
They simply stared at her.
And she stared back at the players.
Sling!
She drew her sword.
The Commander’s blade.
Sharp and gleaming as it caught the light.
“Let’s go.”
Whoosh…!
As she turned her horse’s head, her long hair scattered in the wind.
No lengthy words were needed to convey that she had staked everything on this final battle.
By standing at the very front, everyone could understand the true meaning of this battle.
Thud—
When her horse’s hooves made their first sound.
All the players, no, the soldiers felt it.
Thud, boom, thud, boom…!
My heart was racing in sync with it.
The pace quickened with each passing moment, and the landscape blurred past in an instant.
Through the rising dust, it became visible.
‘The enemy.’
The Supreme Commander’s blade shot upward.
She cried out with all her might, louder than she ever had before.
“All forces!!”
Slash!
The Commander’s sword pointed precisely at the massive cluster of Roman soldiers.
The flank—the gap that had to be broken through.
“Chargeeeeeeeeeee!!”
A crimson path was drawn toward that point.
All the horses thundered across it.
Thundering hooves pounded the earth!
In this moment, everyone felt it.
‘This, this is—’
The word “spread” was fitting.
──Whoooosh!
A fire lit by someone had spread to everyone.
This cavalry charge was now a massive inferno.
A colossal flame of war that fell upon the open steppe, defying reason and logic.
It descended upon the Roman forces.
Thundering hooves pounded!
The horses’ speed reached its peak, and a roar erupted.
Without anyone leading, all of them simultaneously.
“Raaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”
The Supreme Commander at the very front adjusted her grip on her blade.
The Roman soldiers all turned to look this way at once.
With the silk-robed Supreme Commander riding out personally.
Their eyes could not help but be drawn to her.
Slash.
Everyone began turning toward her.
Everything around converged upon her.
‘Now.’
Sarang’s eyes swept across the situation in an instant.
She searched for the opening that would appear in this moment.
‘Here.’
Riding the sweeping winds of war, her blade was unleashed.
──Shhhhwaaack!
“!”
The Roman spear passed behind her, and her blade struck the soldier’s neck.
An enormous roar immediately swept across the battlefield.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
In that moment—
Kuguguguguung!
The entire cavalry that followed crashed down upon the infantry, and everything collapsed in an instant.
Everything slowed.
“Hah… haaah…”
Even her breathing stretched out excessively long.
She extended her blade and swung it again.
Chwaaaaak!
Crimson blood erupted.
A head flew.
A spear came flying.
She tilted to the left, and it slowly grazed past her shoulder.
The horse continued its charge.
Her blade followed, cutting through.
Chwaak!
Chwak!
Blood erupted from both sides once more.
The pristine silk garment stained deep crimson.
Kuung…
With a heavy sound, Rome fell.
Tumbling down.
All manner of weapons came flying once more.
Spears, crossbows, maces.
Every single one aimed at her.
Bread and Coffee joined at her sides.
Kaang…!
Kagagakang!
They blocked in her stead.
Thanks to them, Sarang did not retreat.
She pressed forward.
Her blade did the same.
Chwaaaaak!
Like a ravenous beast, it tore into the enemy’s blood once more.
‘More…!’
Blood reflected in her dilated pupils.
And the wave of enemies rushing toward her.
Like a tide.
Waves of blades surged toward her neck alone.
One touch would leave her body riddled with countless cuts, yet she gladly kicked off her shoes and plunged into the sand.
‘More, more!’
Splash!
Hoofprints stamped across pools of crimson blood.
Sword tips scattered through the air.
Clang!
She repelled the enemies’ assault.
The foes pressing in from all sides faltered backward.
Splash!
Sarang’s horse surged forward again.
‘Haah….’
Her legs grew numb.
But she could not stop.
「Locusts are docile by nature, but once a few begin to rampage, all nearby fall into madness and lay waste to the entire land.」
If she stopped here, everything would end.
This speed, this impact, this momentum, this frenzy.
The moment any single element faltered, it would all vanish.
“To the very end….”
If she maintained it to the end, her opponent would disappear.
“Fight!”
Slash!
Her blade cleaved through the enemy, carving a path forward.
Then─
“!”
A momentary coincidence.
Perhaps that was all it was.
‘Marshmallow….’
The instant she drew her sword horizontally.
Every Joseon soldier swung their blade in unison.
──Boom!
「Even sturdy great legs would shake from this.」
The shield wall wavered.
Rome, that colossal fortress….
‘It was real.’
Had begun to crumble.
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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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