Genius Archer's Streaming

Season 3: Chapter 45: Turning the Table (1)

"... Huh?"

Having lost a whopping 1,400 points, the fundamentalists no longer had the energy to participate in the auction.

"Hey, hey. Surely, we still have... how many points do we have now?"

"... Sigh."

"We still have over 2,000, right? Should we bid more? Huh?"

They had been taken advantage of in various ways. Now, even if they combined all their points, they barely had over 2,000. They couldn’t beat the opposition even if they had more than 2,000 points.

Despite repeatedly trying to trick the opponent, they had been tricked themselves this time. Moreover, the blow was devastating this time. It was a knockout defeat.

[Remaining Points: 0]

One of the fundamentalists, unable to contain himself after seeing his remaining points, screamed, "Ah, aaaaahhhhh!"

Their screams of despair even reached Sang-Hyeon.

— Lmao

— We can hear everything lol

— These crazy fundamentalists lol, that’s real madness lol

— Just give up on Raina~

— Raina would probably prefer Demian going to Almond anyway~~

— This is real education lol

— Fundamentalists’ joy lol lol

— The fundamentalists' backs are bent like a bow...

With the troublemakers gone, the auction could not have proceeded more straightforwardly. Sang-Hyeon could purchase whatever he wanted peacefully until Raina’s bow came up.

When Raina's bow did appear, there was no significant competition. Simply having more than 2,000 points meant no one could compete.

The other challenger with 2,600 points had gone off to bid on another mobile game figure and third place with 2,100 points couldn’t spend all their funds on Demian.

Naturally, the bow went to Almond.

"Congratulations! Number 14!! Raina's limited edition bow! Demian is yours!"

A roar of applause followed.

Ding.

Raina’s bow appeared on Sang-Hyeon’s phone screen. Not just on his screen, it rose up as a hologram.

"Wow..."

The holographic projection was quite detailed. Of course, the actual item he would soon receive would be even more spectacular since it was a limited edition piece.

— Wow

— After Raina’s robe, now Raina’s bow too :(

— Now even the bow...? :(

— Raina’s bow thief lol

— Did you really have to take it all to be satisfied!?

As Sang-Hyeon acquired Raina’s bow, the chat overflowed with messages of jealousy.

Sang-Hyeon playfully added fuel to the fire, "Ah. Is this bow any good? I genuinely don’t know."

— This man, the level of deception is different lol

— ??? Handsome and rich at 184 cm, but is my life okay with this? I really don’t know

— Don’t know what? #*@&*@*(*

— What kind of nonsense #(%@(&*$@ -_-

While most took his joke well, a few fundamentalists in his stream still hurled harsh words. Rather than feeling bad, Sang-Hyeon enjoyed the situation. Perhaps it was the ease of the victor.

When a streamer was in a good mood, it impacted the viewers. They seemed to find the fundamentalists' meltdown amusing too.

— Lmao, the fundamentalists are flipping out!

— Haha crazy lol

— These must really be the fundamentalists

Sang-Hyeon also found delight in viewing the lively chats of his members. His eyes caught another detail in the bow’s description marked with [+more].

"There's a description here. I'll take a look. Not sure if it's good or what..."

— LOL

— Crazy nut, caught another wacky concept

— They’re in for it now, gonna go all day with this LOL

"I'll read it and if it's no good, I'll just sell the bow~"

Sang-Hyeon was reading the description to a dying corpse and launching the final attack.

They inflated the idea that Almond receiving an advertisement contract was also an act of solicitation. If they loosely worded it as, “Does this make sense? Disappointed in Almond,” it would make for a sufficiently inflammatory post.

To sum it up, Almond had agreed to a major advertisement there and received an absurd amount of points. That was how he overwhelmingly won first place and drew public attention... They completed their little scenario like that.

Tadadadadak... Thump!

The members uploaded all the posts.

"Will they bite the bait?"

Now, they had no choice but to wait for the community users to bite the bait they had thrown.

"They'll bite. Some are waiting for it."

They didn't expect users to be deceived by the bait. They were expecting that there would be haters ready to bash Almond. Once a few of them started acting as instigators and posting comments, even the general public with little interest in the matter could be swayed in the direction they wanted.

***

Just then, Ji-Ah was observing the reactions in the community after having finished uploading all the videos.

[Serious Analysis Needed: Are the points Almond received at the last challenge booth problematic??]

She witnessed such a post being uploaded.

"What? This is..."

At first, she didn't pay much attention. Before Almond became famous, she reacted to every such thing. After gaining some popularity, this had become routine.

She never thought such absurd and false posts could be persuasive. However, the world didn't always roll as predicted.

"... What."

Ji-Ah nervously tousled her hair, a habit when she felt annoyed.

“This is getting more attraction...”

Wasn't the earlier post rapidly receiving recommendations and starting to rise as a hot issue?

— Isn't this slander?

└ Once it's a hot issue, we'll know. haha

— Ah, no wonder the points seemed absurd.

— How much did one booth give??

— Did it hit ten thousand points?? Then, that's really crazy.

— Return the first place prize too damn it.

Comments revealed that several people felt infuriated. Challenge points were a sensitive topic not just for the fundamentalists, but also for other contestants.

Moreover, Almond had as many jealous haters as he had fans. Such tempting bait drove them crazy.

— There really is another force helping Almond

└ What, are they the Illuminati? LOL

└ This guy is really sick

People with such crazy ideas truly existed. If a post that seemed more credible than the Illuminati appeared, they would endorse it. Above all, what triggered them were words like “secret advertisement” and “collusion.”

— Did he receive an advertisement deal there too? Then, isn't it really collusion?

└ Still don't know about that, but the author is damn sure

└ It's G-Star, they get a lot of advertisements, can't say for sure from that

└ Isn't it funny though? Just happens that the booth that gave more than ten thousand points also has an advertising contract with him. And from an unknown gaming company?

└ Really LOL, smells fishy

└ There are actually a few famous games there, damn it

— Apparently, they gave out so much that the booth couldn't operate the remaining days.

Ji-Ah felt dumbfounded.

"People believe this crap."

They really believed that Almond obtained nearly all his points from one booth and agreed to an advertisement deal in exchange. Then, that booth had to cease operations. All of it sounded like implausible conspiracy theories.

Ji-Ah decided to verify it since they had some basis.

"Is it possible to talk? Oh, it's nothing much..."

She hastily called Ju-Hyeok to ask for the full story, but...

"Yeah. Seems like he earned the most there. Ah... so it's true."

Something was off.

"So, that booth isn't operating tomorrow or the day after... That’s true too."

Why was everything correct?

"Even the advertisement deal... he received one..."

Unexpectedly, the members' posts were based on facts.