Genius Archer’s Streaming

“30 minutes!!! He's surpassed 30 minutes! 39 seconds left until JeonJaPa's record!!!”

All the staff turned around after Yu Ha-Yeon shouted.

'No way...'

'Really?'

'He made it this far?'

No one expected Almond to surpass JeonJaPa's record. No one imagined it because how could someone who just began capsule gaming surpass JeonJaPa? No matter how much of a genius he was, JeonJaPa was a genius among geniuses. It was hard to imagine another genius like that existed.

No one doubted JeonJaPa's skills. He had a solid foundation whether weeds or dirt covered the surface. A foundation no mortal could dig through.

However, thirty minutes passed and everyone slowly realized that the foundation was a smooth, icy surface that could shatter anytime.

***

Crack!

Almond dodged the weapons, lasers, and flares appearing from the floor with godly instincts.

“15 seconds left until JeonJaPa's record is broken!!!”

Only fifteen seconds remained.

Almond deflected the weapons with the shield he grabbed earlier.

"S-Sir! The synchronization! The synchronization level is abnormal!!!" the engineer's assistant shouted and quickly ran over.

"What?"

"The synchronization level is 97%!!"

"That's not possible..."

The engineer stopped mid-sentence.

The synchronization level would be high if the concentration level was also high.

However, there was a limit. A person couldn't have complete control if their mind was inside a virtual body. At best, it would be 85%. Even that would be a dangerous number.

That's right, a dangerous number. The virtual avatar and player would slowly, but fully synchronize if the number rose above that. They would become one.

That was dangerous even in theory and experiments predicted so. It was currently illegal to allow that to happen. Capsules were programmed to automatically disconnect the player once they reached that limit.

"But why isn’t he disconnecting?"

"B-Because this is a test version, so the limit wasn't set..."

"Oh fuck... right!"

This was a broadcasting accident. They used a new prototype capsule to test Stay Alive because they wanted to promote it.

“Only 7 seconds remaining! It's in front of our eyes! Will history be rewritten today!?”

***

Almond could hear Yu Ha-Yeon's excited shouting through all the noise.

Crack!

Bzzt!

Swoosh!

Slam!

Various attacks targeted Almond non-stop.

Kaang!

He deflected a mace with the shield.

Whip.

Even after deflecting the mace, the chain attached to it tried to wrap around Almond like a python.

Almond threw away the shield.

Whip.

The shield flew away with the mace wrapped around it. He used it as a sacrifice instead of himself.

Almond already went through a couple of shields like this and looked for another one.

Swoosh!

He dodged the greatsword flying at him.

BOOM!!!

Then a cannonball flew towards him. He dodged that as well.

“5 seconds remaining! Before the record is broken!”

Swoosh!

This time, five large spears flew at him simultaneously and he had nowhere to dodge.

The tile beneath him glowed red, which meant lava would shoot up from beneath and melt everything.

Almond quickly moved. He felt a heat wave against his cheeks as the lava shot up from where he previously stood.

Swoosh!

Now he had to dodge the spears. He forced himself through an opening in the first three.

Chiik...

They brushed past his clothing and ripped it. He didn't care because his body was already full of scratches.

Almond clenched his teeth and struck his hand out.

“Three seconds remaining!!!”

Chuk.

He barely grabbed one of the spears. Two more spears flew at him. He had to deflect one and dodge the other.

He quickly moved to the next tile while bringing the spear close to his body and spinning it.

Tang!

He deflected one of the spears and felt the shock in his shoulders. The other one landed on the tile he previously stood on.

Slam!

The tile disappeared into the void.

He took care of the two spears, but had no time to relax.

BOOM!

Another cannonball flew at him.

“Two seconds…”

It would've been an easy dodge if he returned to the tile earlier, but that tile had already disappeared.

He had to deflect one or two...

"!"

Just then, Almond suddenly frowned.

“1 second!!!”

'What the...'

His right hand… his right hand felt numb.

KWAAAA!

The screen turned white, followed by a noise that sounded like a broken speaker.

[GAME OVER]

***

"It's too dangerous! Turn it off! We have to turn it... huh?" The engineer blankly stared at the monitor midway through his screaming.

[GAME OVER]

The game had ended.

The director grabbed his neck and wiped his sweat as he stared at the monitor. He pushed away the engineer after he came to his senses and shouted. "The record! What happened to the record? Yu Ha-Yeon, why is she not saying anything..."

“It's... tied! It's a tied score!”

A soft voice could be heard, notifying everyone of a tied score.

"A tie?!"

Chiik...

Yu Ha-Yeon came out of the capsule.

"It's a tie, down to the second! At least in the score displayed!"

Meanwhile, the engineer ran to Almond's capsule. Ju-Hyeok followed right behind him.

"Check the record! Check it!" the engineer shouted and grabbed his assistant.

"Ahhh! Alright!"

The assistant typed away on his keyboard, caught off guard by his ponytail being grabbed. He calculated the record down to the fourth decimal place.

"No way…"

"What? Is it another tie?"

"Yes…"

"FUCK! Is it not even 0.000001 seconds quicker?"

"Uh, I'll extend the number."

[00:30:31.3959400192......]

[00:30:31.3959400192......]

The numbers were identical as if it was a glitch.

"How is this possible? Is it like pi or something?"

The assistant felt confused too. How could this be possible unless the machine malfunctioned?

He scratched his head. "Well... for now, what's happened has happened." He repeated what his mentor taught him. Suddenly, a commotion occurred at the capsule.

"Hey! Yu Sang-Hyeon!!!"

"Are you okay!"

Ju-Hyeok and the engineer's voices rang out. Manager Oh also waddled over.

"Hey, director! Isn't there some kind of problem?!"

"What are you talking about?! We did a check-up beforehand!"

The director ran to Almond as well.

***

He felt wet.

"Sigh..."

He could hear his light breathing through the fog. He was definitely alive.

Almond felt reassured to find out he was still alive. Wouldn’t that be obvious? The last person who died in a capsule was five years ago.

"Hey! Hey! Wake up!" Ju-Hyeok shouted at him.

"Call the medical team now! Just call them!"

"Manager! You can't shake him like that!"

"What the? Sang-Hyeon! What's going on?! Hey, Director!!!"

"N-No! No! We did a pre check-up and everything! This is just..."

After that, their shouting began to mix.

Manager Oh was angry.

Sang-Hyeon’s vision slowly focused again. As the fog cleared, he could see them one by one. They all shouted at each other with red faces.

He heard a girl's bright voice, "It's the medical team! Please move out of the way!"

A wave of people wearing white gowns bulldozed through. The crowd split to clear a path for the ambulance.

A flashlight shone on his pupils. He could see a woman’s silhouette beyond the white light.

Her long, black hair moved back and forth in front of his hazy vision. It felt comforting.

"Are you aware everyone is just staring at your back?"

He could clearly hear her voice.

Sang-Hyeon moved his lips and called out a name, “Han So-Yeon?”

"Sang-Hyeon? Are you awake?"

He finally heard an actual voice.

'Ah...'

It was just his imagination. Of course, why would she be here?

He wanted to close his eyes from the light, but the doctor held his eyes open. She turned off the light after checking his dilated pupils.

"He's conscious…"

His vocal cords felt free again and he could finally speak.

"!"

"Phew!"

"Oh my, I was so worried..."

A sigh of relief could be heard all over.

Sang-Hyeon pulled up his exhausted body. He thought he would feel some muscle pain, but he didn't because his body had remained still the entire time.

After he got up, the first thing he did was look at his right hand. He felt a tingling sensation, followed by the usual trembling.

"We're going to do a medical check. We need to do it now judging from his situation.”

The nurses and doctors pushed through the crowd, placed Sang-Hyeon on a roller, and carried him away.

***

The engineer returned to analyzing the data after the doctors took Sang-Hyeon away. He couldn’t do anything in terms of medical assistance. He could only try to finish his job.

'Even though their times are the same...'

Almond’s time precisely matched JeonJaPa's record, but that didn't mean his body analysis would also be the same.

'This data could be different.'

The engineer organized the completed datasets one by one. A single value came out once he finished calculating them.

This was the virtual reality ability number, or VNS, for short. It was like the APM during the computer game days.

"...!"

The engineer couldn't take his eyes off this value.

'I knew it!'

Just because their times had been identical didn't mean every stat would be the same. He couldn't help but smile.

Ziing.

He headed to the director after printing the dataset.

"Sigh... So close. We need the record to be different, so it trends. They’re going to blame us for faking it if it's the same score..."

There would be no better gift to the director, who felt frustrated with the result.

"Director."

The engineer handed him the paper.

"Hm?"

"Look at this. Only their times are the same by coincidence, but look at the analyzed data. This will add some credibility."

"Huh? So? What is this?"

"It's the VNS calculation."

The director wasn't good with numbers and didn’t seem particularly interested. However, he couldn't help but be thrilled after seeing the number.

"It's… it's this high!?"

The VNS of an average person was 83. A pro gamer averaged around 97. If one’s VNS surpassed 100, they were deemed to have great potential as a pro gamer. JeonJaPa had an unbelievable score of 291.

"Is this real?"

"Yes!"

Almond had surpassed that.

"It's not a tie for Almond, at least with these calculations."