Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 918

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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 4 Episode 049
17. The Demon of the Glitch (1)
Games of old were linear.
No matter what choice you made, the targets you had to deal with and the methods to deal with them were predetermined.
Gamers needed to excel at understanding the developer’s intentions rather than exercising their own free will or creativity.
But modern games were different.
Players were given choices.
Through those choices, allies could become enemies, and enemies could become allies.
At minimum, players could decide how to deal with enemies and which path to take.
Freedom of choice had become an essential element in nearly every game.
Especially with advances in AI processing, preparing for numerous branching paths became easier, allowing even small and mid-sized production companies to implement considerable freedom of choice.
Of course, not all gamers viewed this freedom of choice favorably.
[How many games have failed because of freedom of choice?]
[Modern games be like) Open world? More like sad world lol]
[Honestly, if you can’t implement freedom of choice properly, just make a tight linear story instead]
Freedom of choice was such a complex concept that even with AI assistance, it wasn’t easy to implement properly.
Translating life’s countless choices and variables into virtual reality was practically impossible.
Ultimately, games had to selectively showcase that freedom, and this was where a production company’s true skill showed.
Vague freedom of choice could actually diminish game quality, while carefully curated freedom could maximize immersion.
However, small and mid-sized production companies often fell into the former category.
Ghost Busters.
This game was also a product of a domestic mid-sized production company.
With a limited budget, it was honestly difficult to call it a game with impressive freedom of choice.
And yet….
[Isn’t Ghost Busters a mid-sized game? The freedom of choice is insane lol]
I thought it was just a simple exorcism game, but the freedom aspect is godly too lol
[Ghost Busters freedom of choice situation lol]
Was this thanks to the advertising the two streamers were creating?
Among players, word was spreading that freedom of choice was something you could trust in this game.
Freedom of choice was subjective depending on perspective, but this kind of evaluation was exceptional.
At least, that’s what CEO Jeong thought.
‘High freedom of choice, huh….’
He knew exactly what degree of freedom of choice his planned game had.
It wasn’t a game that deserved this kind of evaluation.
The cause of all this was naturally those two.
Balloon Gum and Almond.
They were (destroying) the game with far too much freedom.
They were pioneering freedoms that didn’t exist.
Like cowboys in the Old West.
‘Damn it. This isn’t good at all.’
As a planner, this was hardly something I could approve of.
In fact, many of the comments praising the game’s high degree of freedom could very well be mockery.
A game that didn’t emphasize freedom being praised for its freedom essentially meant the game’s design was loose.
‘Well, regardless, they fell for the final trap.’
But ultimately, it was difficult to completely defy a game’s intended design while playing within it.
Balloon Gum and Almond had fallen into the Production Company’s elaborate trap.
They had mistaken Singihye for the true mastermind and killed her.
‘Things should normalize from here on out.’
CEO Jeong felt relieved.
He turned his gaze back to his work computer.
The modeling department developers, summoned due to the polygon 20% incident, were gathered in a single chat room.
[CEO: I’ve reviewed the proposal. Complete the modeling patch by the day after tomorrow.]
[Newtype: Roger.]
[Broe: Yep.]
Seeing the responses come in, CEO Jeong leaned back in his chair as if a weight had lifted.
“Phew… nothing else should go wrong.”
He shifted his gaze to the monitor displaying the broadcast.
They were still fighting inside Metabucks.
There didn’t seem to be any unexpected variables here.
But then—
“…?”
CEO Jeong rubbed his drowsy eyes.
“…Hm? Did I doze off for a moment?”
What is this?
Thunk.
CEO Jeong tapped his own head.
He wondered if he was seeing things because he’d been up all night.
However, even after tapping his head, the scene before him didn’t change.
‘Why is the final boss stage suddenly appearing?’

* * *
From the moment Almond struck down Singihye, Metabugs was essentially in complete chaos.
[2nd Class Priest]
Those I thought were employees suddenly changed into priestly robes and started firing off bullets of magic energy.
Boom!
Crash!
Balloon Gum was completely occupied just dodging these attacks.
“Gasp… huff… ah, Almond! Mond! Where are you?!”
Balloon Gum hid under another table while searching for Almond.
-Almond-finding one-trick lol
What are you doing ㅠㅠ Come on, give me a deal ㅋㅋㅋ
-What’s our main DPS doing!
The chat was flooding with harsh criticism, but Balloon Gum felt wronged.
“No, he was just here a moment ago!”
They were definitely standing back-to-back, cooperating with each other. Then Almond suddenly vanished.
-The tempo was off from the start lol
Please play as Balloon Gum, Balloon Gum.
-I’m genuinely curious, but can’t Balloon Gum receive skills??
The chat completely ignored his words and continued mocking Balloon Gum.
Ding.
[Gum Commandment donated 10,000 won.]
[Almond heard Gum Commandment and is running away from Balloon Gum lolol]
-lololol
-Hahaha lol
-For real
-That’s it
“No way!”
Balloon Gum bristled.
With Almond gone, it wouldn’t be strange if I got hit and died at any moment.
Crash!
At that very moment, the table where Balloon Gum was hiding shattered into dust.
Ding.
[Shaman donated 3,000 won.]
[Almondo the Shaman is using teleportation~]
-Ah, that’s it
-So that’s how he disappeared lol
That’s crazy/insane shortcut technique.
I see.
It must be because of the teleportation skill that he vanished in an instant.
There was no way I could have kept up with him in the first place.
“Ah, got him!”
Whoosh!
Almond immediately appeared before the 2nd Class Priest and swung the Rubisword.
Shing!
The blade cut through in an instant, appearing as suddenly as he did.
The priest split in half and collapsed.
“Whoa…!”
-Damn
-Wow
-He’s in sword dance mode lol
-Is this really the same Almondil who only did deduction?
-Insane
Balloon Gum’s viewers were amazed to see Almond displaying his physical prowess after so long.
But those weren’t the only ones impressed by this scene.
The Kim Kim Duo couldn’t help but marvel as well.
“Wait, he’s using Spatial Folding that freely?”
“I can’t even see the aim point….”
It was because of his masterful use of Spatial Folding.
The mechanics of this Spatial Folding technique were notoriously unintuitive from a game design perspective.
Originally, Spatial Folding was a magnificent spell that could fold the earth like a map, turning a single step into tens of thousands of miles.
But in the actual game, it operated on principles similar to the Rubisword’s blink.
It was a teleportation technique that moved in a straight line toward your desired direction.
The difference from the Rubisword was that there was nothing to pinpoint exactly where you’d teleport to.
In a top-down game viewed from above, that might not matter much.
But virtual reality was complete full 3D.
If you roughly eyeballed where to teleport, you’d often end up stuck in a wall or warping to some completely wrong location.
“Using it wrong means instant death, doesn’t it, Manager Kim?”
That was exactly the kind of accident Manager Kim was waiting for.
“Y-yes. It’s incredibly dangerous.”
Even in that famous novel Harry Potter, wizards had countless accidents when teleporting.
The game was no different.
The Rubisword didn’t use its blade to pinpoint teleportation locations for no reason.
“If you use it carelessly, you just explode, you know?”
It was clearly an impossibly dangerous skill.
Whoosh!
Almond used Spatial Folding again and cut down another priest.
Shing!
The priest fell with a single stroke.
“…Wait, again!?”
“Well… expecting Almond to make a mistake was a bit much… he was incredibly skilled with the Rubisword.”
“That’s completely different!”
“Well, I suppose so….”
“No, that’s not the point! Why is he going that far? Huh? He should just go back to the save point!”
Manager Kim, visibly anxious, threw another punch at the empty air on the monitor while urging him on.
“Damn it! Land a hit! You priests! Aren’t priests supposed to be evil spirit types!? Why are they dying instantly to the shaman!?”
He was genuinely worried that Almond might kill everyone here and pioneer some kind of unbeatable route.
However, Manager Kim shook his head.
Such a thing was impossible.
“…They’re not dead.”
“What?”
“The priests did die. But it’s not over. Just as you said, they’re evil spirit types.”
Shhwaaaack!
Shhwack!
It was around the time Almond had nearly cut down all the priests.
“Almond! Almond! When I grow up, I’m going to be Almond!”
Balloon Gum was enthusiastically cheering for Almond.
Craaaaaack…!
Something dark and sinister rose up from the corpses of the fallen priests.
[1st Class Evil Spirit]
Evil spirits emanating a desolate aura.
And they were 1st Class at that.
They floated through the air wielding massive scythes like the grim reaper, or iron maces.
One of them swung its weapon at Almond.
Whoooooosh──
The speed was so overwhelming that even Balloon Gum couldn’t follow it with his eyes.
Almond countered their attack in turn.
He even landed a counter strike.
“!?”
But it was Almond who took the hit.
──Craaaaaash!
Almond’s head snapped to the side, and my body was sent sliding backward.
“Ugh!”
-??
lol
What the heck is that?
-Whoa
Almond tumbled across the floor of the Metabugs studio.

* * *
This was nearly the first time since the game began.
Almond had taken a direct hit from an attack.
Was that why?
“Yesssssss!”
“We got him!”
“Damn it! This is it! We can do this! Evil Spirit!”
The Kim Kim Duo celebrated as if they had just won the championship.
“Finally landing a real hit! Physically too!!”
After the Production Team’s trap card activated, the Kim Kim Duo’s situation had definitely become considerably more favorable.
“No matter what, trying to rush straight to the boss from here? That’s why you’re being punished!”
Manager Kim shouted excitedly at Almond as well. Of course, he wouldn’t hear it.
“That’s right! What? Where do you think you’re going with that rampage!”
Kim Gwajang chimed in once more.
“Trying to solo an entire enemy fortress like that! Do you really think that’s possible~!”
A pang of unease.
That was when it happened.
Manager Kim knew something.
‘He did that.’
What Almond had shown almost immediately after starting his stream was soloing an entire fortress.
Of course, this game was completely different, and the comparison was merely a comparison.
But Manager Kim had a bad feeling.
‘Could it be.’
Could Almond actually break through this?
‘No way.’
The Evil Spirit couldn’t be defeated due to type matchups in the first place.
They could only win if they fought alongside Suyeon.
But since an accident had happened before Suyeon could even join,
there was no way they could exorcise the Evil Spirit.

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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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