Genius Archer's Streaming

Season 3: Chapter 119: After Qualification (2)

Thud...!

Chi-Seung had watched the entire game while standing and finally collapsed into his seat.

"... Is this real?"

He had already calculated the possibilities of advancing to the main tournament.

[Victory]

The moment this word appeared in front of him, Chi-Seung knew for certain that Korea had advanced. He couldn't help but repeat it.

"Are we really going to the tournament?"

He still doubted whether it could happen in reality. Despite wishing for it so much and trying so hard, a part of him thought it could never happen. It was a contradiction and the truth at the same time. The more he tried, the more that thought that settled in him proved itself.

He believed his spear could pierce through anything and continued to thrust, believing that someday it would break through. However, the shield remained firm no matter what stance he took or how many times he repeated it. The more he thrust, the more it only proved the shield’s performance.

The contradiction was too great. A battle between a spear that could pierce anything and a shield that could block anything.

His spear was not that great and others could easily break through that shield. A not-so-great spear versus a not-so-great shield. That was Chi-Seung's fight.

Thud!

Every time the shield’s impact rang out, laughter came with it.

— Sigh. As expected of the Korean team lol.

— Get rid of the seed rights dammit, Korea sucks at Civil Empire

— Ha, please.

— We should be grateful to even enter the preliminaries, lol.

— Seeding rights should honestly be given out of respect for being the birthplace of esports, obviously.

How laughable did it seem? A world where one could always see a battle between the world's best spear and the world's best shield. Watching Chi-Seung's fight to determine who was more crude would naturally bring ridicule.

Chi-Seung now acknowledged their laughter. He thought maybe what he was doing was indeed trivial.

Then, the shield broke one day.

Boom!

It was astonishing. Something that had been so firm gave way so easily when it broke. Had there been invisible cracks for some time? Or was there a way to break it all at once?

Anyway, it broke. It shattered into pieces and became unrecognizable.

The countless laughs and mockeries also disappeared. Even if they still existed, he couldn't hear them anymore.

“Daehan Minguk!!”

“Waaah!”

Cheers rang out so loud that mockery couldn't dare intrude.

“Waaah!”

The support from the crowd surged like waves.

He swallowed hard to hold back his tears, but couldn’t stop what had already started.

"Ah, damn..."

Chi-Seung frowned deeply. He didn't want to be like this. Tears streamed endlessly from his eyes. Once it started, it couldn't be stopped.

His legs gave out and he couldn't get up or move to another seat. He knew it looked pitiful.

"Whuaa... Ah..."

A grown man crying so loudly. The whole world would mock him. However, he felt that he wouldn't be able to move if he didn't let it out.

His whole body was burning up and trembling. What was this...? What kind of emotion was this?

Chi-Seung didn't know. He was experiencing this whirlpool of emotions for the first time in his life.

He could only guess. Was it pity for the past? Or sorrow? Anger?

'I hated it so much...'

No. He had hated, been angry, and depressed. Those who ignored him looked down on him and never acknowledged him... Those guys... Now, he could finally get revenge!

Where had all those feelings gone? Had they been washed away by the fierce waves? No. The pain was still there. It couldn't have disappeared.

Those feelings had been firmly embedded like stones, forever remaining there, yet he couldn't feel the anger and sorrow from that time.

"Every, everything... had meaning..."

He finally saw clearly after achieving his goal.

Whoosh...

Looking back at the path after the waves receded, he had walked on those firmly embedded stones. The path he walked on was never in vain. Every moment of doubt and agony had meaning. Everything had been an important moment.

"This was it... everything, all of it..."

That was how he could keep going forward. Even if he stumbled, he could do it again. Even if someone gave up and left the team, Chi-Seung continued. Because everything had meaning, even stumbling only made this moment shine brighter.

Now, he could keep going forever. He wasn't afraid anymore. No defeat, neglect, or despair scared him.

The last thing to crawl out of Pandora's box...

"It was all hope."

This dazzlingly bright feeling was hope.

***

— The think tank guys are really good

— Kimchi! Kimchi! Kimchi!

— How good are the actual players if he's this good?

— Quit your part-time job, Chi-Seung~

Anyway, having so many viewers on his stream made him quite happy. It felt nice not to stare at a stagnant chat window all day and not to feel like he was talking to a wall. Everything was going good.

“Ah. If you want to hear more about the finals... Actually, besides me, there's Pang hyung and...”

He mentioned Pang’s stream and other unnoticed players from the Fake National Team who quit their jobs for the finals. It didn't take long to mention all of them because a few members from the Fake National Team consistently streamed.

Meanwhile, the newly unemployed Pang casually entered his capsule to start today's stream...

“Huh?”

He blinked his weary eyes and stared at the number of viewers.

“Is this a bug...?”

— lol

— Is this Pang's stream?

— Wow, so many people

— Can I join the unemployed fleet too!?

— Hello

— Hyung, please do the red card once

— Caught a big fish~

[Current Viewers: 4.3k]

Pang's stream struggled to get even dozens of viewers, let alone hundreds. His streaming schedule was highly irregular and commander streams were more popular, making it hard for player streams to gain traction.

“Wait, this 4.3k... does that mean 4,300?”

— Yes

— Yep

— What else would it be?

— lol

— Yes

“... Wow,” he let out a low exclamation. “Quitting my job was the right choice!” he said excitedly and immediately started the game.

Quickly accepting things seemed to be his calling.

***

Meanwhile, Almond was already a well-established mid-tier streamer. He was undoubtedly the main character of the Fake National Team series as the owner of the channel where it was uploaded. He was also the biggest star player on the team, so he experienced a massive viewer increase even without the finals boost.

He turned on his stream for the day.

Ding.

[Almond has started streaming.]

[Re-summoning the demon of interviews]

Judging by the title, it was a communication stream sharing behind-the-scenes stories about advancing to the finals.

— AlHa

— AlHa hi

— Wow, how long has it been since Almond's solo stream

— Looks like all the Civil Empire members are taking a break today lol

— Wow

— I missed you!!

As soon as news of his stream spread, a huge number of viewers flooded in. Not only those who usually watched Treevy, but also users from other media platforms.

“Oh...”

Even Almond, who rarely mentioned viewer numbers, hesitated momentarily after seeing the number displayed at the bottom.

‘I was just going to chat.’

He thought about playing a game, given the numbers.

“Um. Well... today's just a chat stream talking about behind-the-scenes stories.”

He wanted to ask them if that was okay.

— Even better, lol

— Why are you asking? lol

— He’s asking because there are so many viewers lol

— Translation: Leave if you're going to leave

— Summoning the demon of interviews? Even better

So many viewers had gathered that even Almond, who usually didn't ask, felt the need to ask.