Genius Archer's Streaming

Season 5: Chapter 126. There's No Way He's Smart (2)

Though it was built around Siege mode, the Knight Order's specs were top-tier within Cheese.

First, they had two official Challengers: Black Tea and Sweet Radish.

Lemon was a supporter who could perform at Master level under the premise of playing with Black Tea.

Sweet Potato was a solid Gold, but had good instincts.

On top of that, Almond was effectively someone who, in pure combat, didn't fall behind those Challengers at all. If anything, he possibly surpassed them.

The probability of them finishing low in Survival mode ranked, not even a proper scrimmage, was vanishingly small from the start.

Black Tea muttered in disbelief, "... And yet this idiot manages it."

Da-da-DUN!

[Too bad!]

[8th place]

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooooo

— Why are they following his calls?!

— His persuasiveness just went through the roof lmaooo

— This is too much fr...

— How do you get 8th with this team...

What on earth happened? Viewers catching up from here couldn't help but grow curious.

— Why is the dummy making calls again???

— Insane

— Great Dumb Young Man

— lmaooooo

— What happened

The incident started twenty minutes earlier. Coach Sa-Rang had announced that she was attending a coaches' meeting and left, telling them to practice in team ranked today. The Knight Order was left alone in the channel.

"So, who's calling the shots for us?" Black Tea casually pulled out the team's forbidden topic.

Nobody could easily answer. The answer was in their heads, but no one had enough conviction to insist on it.

Sa-Rang had pulled Almond aside and given him a talk, but she hadn't said, “Don't call the shots again.” She also hadn't praised Sweet Radish.

More importantly, Sweet Radish couldn't assert himself as confidently as last time. A lot of his thoughts had shifted after watching Orange King's lesson.

"Let's just go in."

"... Just go in?"

"Yeah. Pro teams don't necessarily designate a main caller either."

"That's because they're all good."

"..."

— lmaooooooooo fr

— lmaooooo

— Fair point

— fr...

— True

Right, all players on professional teams had solid game comprehension. A hierarchy still existed, but they had all fundamentally surpassed the level of being able to discuss it. Here, it was different.

At this, Sweet Potato said, "Black Tea... what do you mean by that? Are you saying someone here isn't good? Hm?"

He was trying to put Black Tea in an awkward spot.

Black Tea's face went red. "Oh... no! That's not what I meant! W-we're not a pro team!"

At this point, Almond made the decision. "Let's coordinate as we go."

"Hm?"

"?"

Almond shrugged and said again, "We'll go in and coordinate on the fly. We'll get more done with a game than standing here talking."

The Knight Order all nodded. At that moment, everyone probably felt it to some degree.

'In the end, Almond is the one who makes the decisions.'

'Ultimately, everyone listens to the Lord anyway...?'

Calling the shots couldn’t be done simply based on who was most skilled. Ultimately, they were all human. Who people listened to better and who was the leader actually mattered more. The leader was established with a strangely natural, primal instinct.

When that happened, the Knight Order's leader was unmistakably Almond. Even now, in the middle of debating who would make the calls, one word from him instantly sorted out the traffic.

"Let's do it. Let's go in. Even if we lose, so what?"

"Okay~."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just enjoy the game. Goooo!"

Thwack!

Sweet Radish smacked Sweet Potato on the back of the head. "Stop saying, ‘Enjoy the game!'"

"... Oh, no. I just mean let's enjoy playing the game...?"

"Don't enjoy it! You!"

"!?"

Sweet Radish was venting his frustration on Sweet Potato for no real reason.

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooo don't enjoy the game!

— Too mean...

— For fun gamers are annoying

— Try harder Potato Servant

— Needs an explosion necklace fr

They went into the game without any real plan. Loosening up was probably the right description. They had already agreed to coordinate as they went inside.

"Let's go this way. The route from Vault to Turtle is smooth."

"The shadow will fall over there. Other players will converge here. If we win here, we’ll gain a big advantage."

"Here! Here! Enemy!"

Almond was effectively calling all the shots. It naturally flowed like that. Even Almond himself didn't quite understand why.

'Hm?'

At some point, only he was talking. If only that had produced good results.

[8th place]

Crash!

Pushing too greedily for first place landed them in 8th. This was the archetypal Smart Young Man defeat.

Black Tea muttered in disbelief, "... He hasn't improved at all."

This applied not just to Almond, but to herself and the rest of the team. Everyone was too easily swayed by Almond's words and followed along. Even Sweet Radish was more swayed by Almond's words than before. Had some change of heart occurred?

"Oh... no. It's not that there's been no improvement," Sweet Radish said as if making excuses.

"Then what?"

"Almond's persuasiveness has improved."

"!"

— LOL

— lmaooooo fr

— His talking skills went insane

— Political skill maxed out

— Scary...

— Almond now equipped with populism lmaooo

Almond now knew how to build the case for his arguments. He'd learned that from Orange King, which was why his judgment looked oddly right about everything. That was actually the bigger problem.

"..."

Almond blankly stared at the number 8 for a while.

Then he said to the viewers, "This is a transitional period."

With his persuasiveness up, his rationalizations were equally impressive.

"Muscles grow after the egg gets cracked. It always hurts."

— fr...

— lmaooooooooooo

— LOL

— That's fair

— There's always a transitional period~

— It hurts way too much though...

— That's not an egg cracking. That's an arm breaking lmaooo

'Hmm...'

Excuses came out of his mouth, but his head was working busily.

'What is it?'

He had tried to apply what he learned from Orange King. Even in team ranked, this was the result. Of course, Survival mode involved a lot of luck. Bad luck could account for this, but that excuse wouldn't hold in an actual tournament.

The ability to control the situation with the luck dealt was exactly Survival mode’s core. Almond wasn’t the only one worrying right now.

'What could it be...?'

Sweet Radish had a slightly different worry.

'What on earth am I supposed to do with that person?'

Sweet Radish had clearly watched Orange King coordinate with Almond's opinions. When he actually tried, he was getting dragged around. He had no idea how to do what Orange King had done. This felt like a slightly different domain from gaming.

"Shall we go again?" Sweet Radish suggested.

"This time too... just go in and coordinate?"

"Yes. As is."

Everyone nodded.

Only Black Tea looked slightly dissatisfied. "No, war requires a commander! They say, 'GO DIE!' And you say, 'YES, I WILL DIE!' That's war, isn't it?!"

— LOL

— That's the way lmaooo

— Have you done military service?

— lmaooooo

— fr lmaooo

— That's true though...

She thought it would be better to quickly decide on a main leader. No right answer existed to this problem.

"Let's just go. Sis, we just need to win."

"Sigh. Fine."

Winning was the right answer.

***

The Knight Order, apparently growing more frustrated, started grinding through games.

[8th place]

[6th place]

The results were low again.

"Haah... again!"

"Go!"

There was no more feedback. They just went again.

[1st place]

"YEAAAAAAH!"

They achieved a first place in the middle.

[2nd place]

"Ah, so close."

They got second too.

[5th place]

"... What?"

"Does anyone want to place a bounty on getting every rank?" A resigned Black Tea started thinking about collecting bounties.

— lmaooooooooooooo

— fr they might actually get all of them?

— 4th and 10th left?? lmaooo

— 10th is easy (not Bubblegum easy)~

— lmaooooo

Sweet Radish's head was throbbing in total chaos.

'In the middle, I called the shots too, but...'

Something wasn't clicking on the team. With this, they still hadn’t found an answer. Almond was also sitting on the floor, staring blankly up.

"Mmm..."

He waved his hands around as if calculating something with quite a serious expression. With tournament scrimmages starting soon, even Almond grew concerned.

Ba-bam!

[DoctorStrange has donated 10,000 won!]

[Looking for the one universe where my calls can win lmaooooo]

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooo only one universe...

— LOL

— There should be plenty of universes where they just win?? lmaooo

— Possible if you collect all the Infinity Stones

— Oh him crouching is too cute lmaooo

Viewers found Almond's deep contemplation funny.

He suddenly clapped his hands. "I finally get it now."

"...?"

Every Knight Order member looked at Almond with uniformly terrified eyes.

A long silence passed before Sweet Radish asked, "... Why?"

— Why lmaooooo

— LOL

— Why did that come out as why

— Why did you figure it out?

— lmaooooo

"Oh, no... wh-what strategy is it?"

Whoosh!

Coach Sa-Rang suddenly returned. "You've been practicing well?"

Everyone scratched their heads and dodged answering.

"Apparently not," Sa-Rang muttered and looked at the results sheet.

She briefly lost her words and strained to come up with a conclusion.

"Were you running it with just four people?"

— LOL

— lmaooooo

— The coach's sense of humor

— Hahaha

— Insane lmaooo

— Curious

Of course, she didn't genuinely suspect that. She was just trying to gloss over the situation with a joke.

Almond suddenly said something strange, "No, not four. Three."

"?"

"...!?"

The entire Knight Order felt stunned.

'Is this for the stream?'

'I... don't know...'

'Is he trying to lie?'

It sounded like he was about to joke, “Actually, we ran it with just three people.” However, his expression didn't look like that.

"What does that mean, Almond?"

This time, Sa-Rang didn't call him the Smart Young Man or Dummy. She sounded slightly annoyed.

Regardless, Almond said it firmly, "We should split into groups of three and two. I confirmed it through the practice games. I think the strategy that suits our team is a split."

The moment those words came out, Sweet Radish's eyes went wide.

'What?'

"Wow."

A smile spread across Sa-Rang's lips. "You finally figured it out?"

— Wow

— Wow...

— What?!

— :O

— WOW

— WHAT

— Curious...

Countless viewers were shocked, almost as much as when Almond defeated the math ghost. Some even felt moved.

— Almond!!

— Wow nut man finally!

— Insane Orange King's lesson worked!

— Split

— Orange King sensei... your drum sounds are echoing here too...!

— Wow though the amazing thing is Orange King never once did a split

— Tears of emotion

— Is this real?

— fr?