Genius Archer's Streaming

Ju-Hyeok was always diligent, but today he was staring at the monitor with a particular intensity.

'Because it's the first special guest segment...'

A special guest segment didn’t seem like much, but it was actually a massive change for a stream.

'It’s a privilege held by only a small number of major streamers with a solid foundation.'

Considering the nature of internet live streaming itself, individual streamers competed with their personal energy and appeal. Viewers came to hear that streamer talk, watch that streamer play, and spend time with them. Even during collabs, participants engaged while maintaining that streamer's perspective. Everything centered around the streamer.

'But a special guest segment doesn't.'

A guest segment reversed all of that. The focus shifted to the invited guest. It depended on who they were and what they did as the streamer stepped back. This was a form of business expansion. Running a stream purely on one’s own energy had limits, so streamers borrowed from others. In restaurant terms, the hole-in-the-wall was growing into a franchise.

'It’s an extremely dangerous transition.'

A hole-in-the-wall and a franchise were completely different concepts. Carelessly launching content, like a guest segment, could leave the streamer in an awkward middle ground and ruin them.

Ju-Hyeok stared with intense focus.

'Hmm...'

How were the results so far?

'Excellent.'

Sang-Hyeon had proposed an appropriate way to compensate for the weaknesses of a guest segment. The focus was still on Almond, not on Orange King.

How would Almond grow intellectually? This narrative stood at the center of the lecture's guest segment. Orange King led the flow. Teaching content naturally meant the teacher would do most of the talking. That left Almond free to simply ride along comfortably like the stream right now!

'Orange King is the one making all the noise.'

Orange King was consuming the most energy. He was radiating like a fish that had found water.

'Almond drew all of this out of him.'

Others wouldn’t know, but Ju-Hyeok did. This was playing out exactly as Almond had planned. Perfect execution followed the perfect plan.

'He has this kind of instinct?'

Ju-Hyeok was privately impressed. He had always wanted to do guest segment content, but failed to push it forward properly. It was difficult to get a feel for how to make it work. When Sang-Hyeon became the Dumb Young Man, he'd seen a flash and caught the thread Ju-Hyeok had been unable to grasp.

'He’s acting on primal instinct as always.'

This had happened a few times at Ah-Sung too. Sang-Hyeon always seemed to be lagging just slightly behind. Suddenly, he'd come in with something nobody else had thought of, and everything would fall into place at once.

'Maybe because he grew up... freely.'

Ju-Hyeok thought of this as a characteristic of people who'd grown by their own will since childhood. They had lived freely, distinctly different from Ju-Hyeok’s own life, shaped like a manufactured product from the start.

"..."

A vague bitterness came over Ju-Hyeok. Why hadn't he thought of this?

"Well... good is good."

Almond's stream doing well right now mattered most, but this question would linger on Ju-Hyeok’s mind for a while.

***

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

A shout rattled the entire studio.

"Hah... hah..."

Orange King composed himself and returned to explaining.

"The Vault is high risk, high reward. You don't just pick it casually. What are you going to do about leveling while you're robbing it? The core of Survival mode is just leveling. Leveling!"

"Ah... leveling..."

Almond drew a star shape in his notes. The funny part was that he didn’t write anything after the star, just the star.

— What’s with the note-taking LOL

— Can we see the notepad once Almond~

— lmaooo just doodles in the notes

Regardless, Orange King explained diligently, "Look, okay. The Vault being in a good location, that part is right. See, but other teams will be thinking the same thing, right? Then, instead, drop at the good hunting ground right next to the Vault and hunt fast. Then, contest the Vault. That's also an option. Actually, it’s much more realistic."

Orange King drew out multiple possibilities on the screen.

"Oh..."

Almond's eyes lit up. His focus remained sharp, probably because he'd personally lost a game here.

'Orange King is completely different from Choi Sa-Rang.'

Sa-Rang's feedback had never been this detailed. She wasn't the type to explain things to someone who didn’t want to know. Her role with Almond was only to make him want to know.

"Why is this more realistic? Why do you think?"

"... Why is it?"

"On the way there, there's prey! More prey! Creeps! You have to kill creeps to level up! To play the game! Survival mode is what?!"

"... What is it?"

"LEVEEEEELING!"

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!

The script paper hammered the desk repeatedly.

— lmaooooooo

— My ears are bleeding LOL

— What’s the point of all that note-taking??

— lmaooooo

— What was the note-taking for LOL

— His head keeps getting bigger

— Going straight into the skull (literally)

"Ah... leveling."

Almond had been trained to shoot arrows with explosions going off nearby, so he wasn't particularly rattled. He simply took more notes. That reaction was actually comedy for the viewers.

— He's so infuriatingly calm lmaooo

— Does Almond not have hearing?

— lmaooo why is he so calm

— lmaooo Orange King's volume is wasted on him

After that, the fired-up lecture from Professor Orange God continued.

Mid-lecture, Orange King casually asked, "But didn't your coach give you feedback on this kind of thing?"

He felt puzzled about explaining all this.

— lmaooo she did

— She probably did?

— They went into the truth room together?

— There's no way she didn't;

"Based on the chat, it looks like there was a truth room session... one-on-one."

"Yes."

"Who's your coach?"

"This person."

Tap.

In the world championship photo Almond had brought to show off, he pointed to a woman in a wheelchair.

"What?!" Orange King's eyes went wide. "This person... is she good at LIL too?"

"She is. Even better at LIL. Probably."

"!?"

— Now I'm curious

— Fr?

— Wow

— What

— Better at LIL??

— What lmaooo

— Hm?

"Oh, no professional career, of course."

"..."

For unexplainable reasons, Orange King couldn't look away from the woman in the wheelchair's face for a long moment.

"Teacher~ keep teaching me," Almond called out, trying to redirect his gaze for no particular reason.

— ?

— Why is he being cute about it

— That's annoyingly cute

— Teach me~

"Oh. Yes. Let's continue then." Orange King snapped back and returned to his own work. "Almond, now here's a map. Try drawing a route."

"Oh, yes."

Scritch. Scratch.

"Like this~. Stop by the Vault, then get the Turtle..."

"OH COME ON!"

— The vault again LOL

— lmaooo

— He loves the vault so much

— He lost to Popcorn because of the vault and now thinks it's incredible

Orange King rolled his eyes back and activated his Ultimate Skill again.

Crash!

He leaped up and shouted, "You just casually say swing by the Vault~ like you're cutting up radishes?! The Vault is what?! HUH?! Is it a neighborhood dog house to you?!"

"... Oh, I can't do that?"

"YOU THERE! DUMB YOUNG MAN!"

— LOL

— lmaooooooo

— Dumb Young Man!

— fr

— So funny

— Becoming truly smart really is difficult...

"Again!"

"Oh, so starting from here..."

"Good."

"Like this... while farming around the Vault and contesting..."

"No! No! Just delete the Vault from your head! How many times do I have to say it!!"

"... But the Vault is strong."

"His head is NOT WORKING AT ALL! NOT AT ALL!!"

***

Flinch.

Sa-Rang had been cheerfully typing in the chat and watching, but suddenly pulled her hands away.

“Who's your coach?”

“This person.”

Click.

Her own face had suddenly appeared.

“Is she good at LIL too?”

“She is. Even better at LIL. Probably.”

For some reason, Sa-Rang stopped typing in the chat. Nobody could recognize her ID from a personal computer, but some inexplicable unease kept her hands away from the keyboard. Her interest in the stream also faded. It had turned properly educational now, and she already knew the content anyway.

"Well... it was fun."

It had only been fun when Orange King was hitting Almond on the head. The appeal slowly disappeared.

Click.

She exited the stream window, and the Cheese platform UI greeted her.

[Lecture Special Guest: My Head Still Works. With Orange King.]

[Current viewers: 243,000]

Looking at it from the outside, Almond's stream status was clearly visible.

[#13 Real-time Donation Ranking]

[#2 Real-time LIL Category Viewers Ranking]

She hadn't expected it to reach such a substantial level at the start.

"Zelo is the only one above him."

Excluding the Cheese Village era when viewers had inflated absurdly, this was in the all-time upper tier for Almond's individual stats. It wasn’t that far off from Zelo.

"The other team members are...?"

She had to scroll down a few more times to find them. A significant gap existed, excluding Black Tea. They said viewership had surged after the Knight Order content. That thought hit her the moment she saw it.

"No wonder it might be hard to approach him."

In the professional scene, game skills were the top priority. In the streaming world, by the same logic, viewer count was the top priority. Sweet Radish and the other streamers getting swept up in Almond's odd calls probably had to do with this halo effect. Then, she recalled a past memory.

"Huh. Was I the same?"

Had her teammates also been unable to say things properly because of her own halo?

"Like those guys would have held anything back."

Sa-Rang shook her head and refused to accept it. She steered her wheelchair toward the terrace and threw open the wide window panels that opened outward on both sides. Then, she went outside and lit a cigarette.

Click.

She lit it and stared blankly down at the green lawn below.

'Summer is almost here.'

In the pro scene, the hottest leagues were in full swing right now.

***

Orange King's passionate lecture was nearing its end.

Clap.

Almond suddenly changed the subject. "Well, now that we've properly studied all this theory, I thought we might try something different."

Orange King was skeptical. "... Did we actually study?"

Right on cue, as if he’d been waiting, Almond said, "Yes. To verify that, we're going on a field trip."

"... Where to?"

"Into the Abyss Shadow."

— lmaooooooooo

— lmaooo fr

— Whoa?!

— They're going together???

— Surely not

"... Me too?"

"Yes. It's only a field trip if the teacher comes."

Orange King was extremely flustered. "Oh, but... I've... retired. I washed my hands of all this..."

— lmaooooooo

— What gangster is this??

— He's clearly feeling the pressure

— Now it's the Dumb Young Man's turn!

— lmaooooooo

— If he goes in, Almond will grill him lmaooo

— The power dynamic just flipped, Orange King

Clap!

Orange King realized something and clapped as if excited. "Th-there's no capsule here though?!"

"Oh...?"

"Right?! Are we going to a capsule café? Hahaha! Maybe another time then..."

Almond grinned like he'd been waiting for this. "We have them."

"Pardon?"

"Four of them."

"Y-you're making serious mone..."

Orange King tried to escape by bringing up income, but a card had been prepared for that too.

"They were completely free!"

"!?"

Almond suddenly turned and said to the camera, "Divers sponsored us! They installed the introductory line for us."

This had been an advertisement buildup all along.

— Smart Young Man

— lmaooooooo cards keep coming

— Breaking: with an ad blood transfusion, the Smart Young Man has revived completely!

"It's a product called Divers Offshore~ that just came out. Much more affordable, lighter, and accessible than the professional Deepsea line..."

Orange King had been thoroughly used and helplessly dragged toward a capsule.

"Alright... Divers Offshore. JUMP!"

"..."

"Jump!"

"J-jump!"

Orange King went into the capsule, ready to deal with whatever was headed his way.

— LOL

— lmaooooooo

— Why are you so lacking in confidence for the practical, teacher~

— The power dynamic just completely flipped lmaooo

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