Genius Archer's Streaming Season 1 Episode 2
1. I Still Want to Shoot (2)
Skill-based streams.
Sanghyeon hadn't actually watched many of them, so he didn't know much, but such a market did exist.
No, rather, there were more streams showcasing high-level gameplay.
The streamer 'Bubblegum' he used to enjoy watching had been bizarrely bad at games.
'So Bubblegum was a stream for people who don't play games.'
Only then did Sanghyeon realize. He was someone who didn't play games, which was why that kind of stream had been recommended to him by the algorithm.
Skill-based streams were generally watched by players who loved games. They watched to learn and to improve themselves.
'To think people study this much just for a game.'
Sanghyeon unconsciously felt that he had been looking down on games. This world was just like the sports industry.
You build your skills, and prove yourself by competing with those skills.
There's almost no element of luck.
Skill versus skill.
A real match.
Competition!
"……Nice."
Gulp.
Swallowing a mouthful of water, Sanghyeon muttered.
It was the lifestyle he had loved since childhood. Competing fairly with skill, continuously developing himself, and climbing up step by step.
On the other hand, society operated on completely different rules. Luck accounted for nearly 30%, and connections were three or four times more important than ability. Even Sanghyeon himself had been a parachute hire.
Add school ties and regional connections to the mix, and it was questionable whether actual job competence was ever really measured.
It almost seemed better to have outstanding looks than to be good at one's job.
In short, society's mechanisms were too complex, with too many variables.
Sanghyeon liked things simple.
"……Let's do this."
He thought that perhaps this world of gaming might suit him well.
* * *
Two days after quitting.
A colleague he met at the company café shouted at Sanghyeon.
"Are you crazy!?"
This was Kim Joohyuk, virtually the only colleague Sanghyeon could open up to at the company.
Joohyuk had lived the exact opposite life from Sanghyeon.
Raised in an affluent family, went to a good university, graduated from a prestigious graduate school in America, then got hired at a major corporation—an elite among elites.
"……Do I seem crazy?"
If even someone like him was opposing it this strongly, it was something Sanghyeon should at least consider.
"Th-then does this not seem crazy?"
"No, why. I'm actually really good."
"……You said you've never played games."
"Yeah."
"Hah?"
Joohyuk yelled, straining to produce the most incredulous expression his face could muster.
"Hey, you idiot! And you're pouring all the money you saved for your jeonse deposit into buying a capsule!?"
He shouted so loudly that all the surrounding employees turned to look.
"Um…… I have severance pay too, you know? So lower your voice."
"No, how much severance pay could a guy who got fired as an assistant manager even get!?"
"Getting laid off in a restructuring is a bit different, man."
"Haa."
Joohyuk clutched his head.
Sanghyeon was a friend who could be a bit gruff in speech, but he was sharper and a better guy than most who graduated from good universities.
'The problem is when he pulls this kind of crap sometimes.'
But sometimes that sharpness turned into sheer eccentricity.
For example, right now—declaring he would blow his entire jeonse deposit, saved up by eating at the company cafeteria on weekdays and cup noodles on weekends, on a capsule.
"Hey. Just go to Gangwon Land instead, fuck. That'd be better."
"……I can't play card games though?"
"It's a metaphor, you idiot! A metaaaaphor!"
Ugh, this frustrating bastard.
Joohyuk thought that geniuses really did have a screw loose somewhere.
"How long has it been since you quit archery?"
"Um……"
"You don't even remember, do you!?"
"Umm……"
"And that kind of guy is going to suddenly shoot a bow again? In a game? By emptying his jeonse deposit? Hey. Just try living normally for once."
"Ummmm……"
Sanghyeon's expression didn't change at all.
'This bastard isn't even listening!'
As always, he tunes out anything he's not interested in. He especially has a talent for literally letting nagging go in one ear and out the other.
"Haa. How much did you say?"
"Four thousand!"
'He answers that damn fast.'
Joohyuk almost said something but barely held back. It was obvious he wouldn't listen anyway.
"The capsule alone is four thousand, and the electricity to run it won't be cheap either, and what about other weird equipment……. Actually, do you need any?"
"Um……. I don't know yet. But wouldn't just a capsule take care of everything? It costs four thousand after all."
"Even a 150 million won car costs money for options. My friend."
"Ugh. I see."
Sanghyeon thought.
'Elites really are different.'
There was a lot to gain from conversing with Kim Joohyuk.
"Just wait until I get off work. Alright? Don't buy anything in the meantime. I'll contact someone I know and find a place to get it cheaper."
"Oh……! Thanks!"
"Stay right here. I'm leaving on the dot today."
With those words, Kim Joohyuk hurried toward the elevator.
It felt like just yesterday they were riding that elevator together holding coffee. Watching his back, Sanghyeon felt a slight sting in his chest.
'Forget it.'
This sting was an unavoidable procedure for a new beginning.
* * *
Five in the afternoon.
Sanghyeon was roughly checking market prices on his laptop at the café, looking at stock charts to figure out how to spend his severance pay.
"How is it that I seem more nervous than you?"
"Oh. You're here?"
Sanghyeon tilted his head backward to look at Joohyuk. Like a bat.
"……Don't people normally turn their heads sideways?"
"Ah. I suppose."
Sanghyeon turned his head sideways again. Thus becoming a bat that turned its head sideways.
"Anyway, you're a fucking weird guy. Let's just go."
"Where? Did you find one?"
"Just follow me."
Joohyuk threw on his suit jacket with a confident air and led the way.
Sanghyeon was curious about what kind of connections Joohyuk would mobilize to get a capsule cheap.
'Maybe he'll knock off about five hundred.'
* * *
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, huh?"
"This is a capsule room."
"Yeah. Just come along without arguing."
"No…… I'm trying to buy a capsule. Not use one."
Dragged along by Joohyuk's hand, they soon heard a friendly voice greeting them.
"Hey, Joohyuk's here? Is that the friend next to you?"
"Ah. Hyung. Long time no see."
"……H-hello."
Sanghyeon quickly grasped the situation and offered a hasty greeting. It was an older guy Joohyuk knew.
"Did you say Sanghyeon-ssi?"
A man with the impression of someone who would run a Room of Truth rather than a capsule room approached and extended his hand.
Sanghyeon shook the man's thick hand and nodded.
"Yes. I'm Yoo Sanghyeon."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lee Kangseok, the owner here."
"Ah…… yes."
"Follow me. You said this is your first time with a capsule?"
"Yes."
"Then jumping straight to considering purchasing isn't right."
'Is he going to try to persuade me out of it?'
Sanghyeon turned around and glared sharply at Joohyuk. He was simply waving with a smiling face.
For now, thinking of Joohyuk's pride, Sanghyeon followed the owner.
"Here. Go on in."
"……?"
"This is where you register your body information, Sanghyeon-ssi."
"Ah."
"You said you've never registered at all, right?"
"Yes."
"This place will close soon, so strip down to just your underwear and wait as the computer instructs."
Thud.
Sanghyeon suddenly found himself locked inside something like a giant space emergency escape pod.
* * *
While Sanghyeon was inside, the two talked.
"Hyung. You said you had some spare used ones, right?"
"Yeah. The capsules used in capsule rooms run parts so hard that I can sell them for about 1,500. If I see someone who's really broke, I've got some I could sell for around a thousand."
"Wow. Thanks."
"It's nothing. Just the regular price. Tsk…… If I could help it, I'd want to stop him."
"You too?"
"Yeah. We get those kinds of people sometimes. People who insist on buying a used capsule like they're possessed. Games make decent money these days, right? They think if they do well in a successful game or their stream takes off, they'll strike it rich."
"Come on. Do people who think that simply really exist…… aside from him?"
"You think everyone in the world is as smart as you? They're all dumb as rocks. Ah…… Of course, I'm not saying your friend is."
"He is dumb as rocks."
The owner laughed heartily and stood up again. Sanghyeon's body scan should be finishing up about now.
Walking toward the scan room, he continued speaking.
"Ah, and there's one more thing people misunderstand."
"What's that……?"
"They think they'll be good at what they were good at in reality inside the game too. But it doesn't work out that way. Whether in the past or now, games have no physical limitations. It's purely a battle of mental fortitude. Being good at soccer in reality and being good at it in a game are different."
"Even in full dive?"
"Yeah. In reality, you can cover for things or overwhelm others with your physical abilities, but you can't do that in games. There's no physical differentiation."
"Ah……"
"This friend of yours will probably give up right away if I have him try a light game called Real Olympics as a test today. You'd better comfort him well. His story is a bit unfortunate."
"……Understood."
Joohyuk was worried.
'Are games and reality really that different?'
It wasn't that he hadn't played virtual reality games. But from the perspective of someone with an average body, there wasn't much that would make him feel a big difference between games and reality.
Cases where you were good at something physically in reality but couldn't do it in a game were far less common than the opposite.
But perhaps for pros, the difference would be significant. They wouldn't be able to utilize those superior physical abilities in the game.
'Actually, that's better. Saves the jeonse deposit too.'
He vaguely prepared some words of comfort for Sanghyeon, believing it would be better not to buy the capsule.
-Scan complete.
A moment later. Sanghyeon came out of the scan room and entered the capsule at the very front.
"Now. Let's give it a test."
The owner began explaining to Sanghyeon.
"Since you mainly did archery, the test should actually be easy. It's a game called Real Olympics. I've set it to archery for you."
"Ah…… thank you."
"I'll close the door now. Try putting up a score in here. And……"
'And think again about whether you still want to buy a capsule.'
The owner couldn't bring himself to say these words. It would end up that way anyway.
Thud.
The capsule door closed, and the owner and Joohyuk turned on the monitor in spectator mode.
-Woooooaaaaah……
The excited atmosphere typical of the Olympics appeared on screen.
And there stood Sanghyeon, somehow looking absolutely perfect in a white uniform.
Creak.
He drew the bowstring without any hesitation. As if he had drawn it every single day for years.