Genius Chapter 105: Sudden Email

Chapter 105: Sudden Email

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

The news of the first completion of “Journey Through Wind and Rain” quickly spread across the forums. Some players were only aware of the event’s first completion method when the game announcement was made, revealing that triggering the “Extremely Dangerous Death Event” was necessary to fully unlock it. The System notifications of the first completion in-game, along with the official game announcement, were posted on the forums, attracting more and more spectators.

The player IDs of the first completion teams were listed in the System announcement, and details of their completion were visible on the dungeon leaderboard. This included how much time they spent, their event completion rate, overall difficulty, and more. Therefore, when players saw an S+ completion in the six-star difficulty category, they were astonished. After all, this was a randomly formed team, and even though it included many skilled players, there was no guarantee that a randomly coordinated team would achieve such outstanding results.

Even haphazardly matched teams could escalate the difficulty of completing dungeons, with any individual mistake potentially delaying the entire group’s progress.

Despite these challenges, such high difficulty levels were conquered by randomly matched teams, securing the event’s first completion and even unlocking hidden gameplay. This sparked numerous discussion threads on forums: some analyzing team compositions, others dissecting gameplay details, and some even gossiping about team dynamics.

The strategy section of the forum became the liveliest place. In a landscape where quest dungeons were everywhere and a single misstep could cost valuable experience, more and more players visited the strategy boards. Insights from top players about completion strategies became crucially important.

At this moment, a top-tier player on the strategy forum summarized and analyzed the dungeon difficulty from the perspective of the first completion team. They provided foundational advice to other players based on known skill information.

[Looking at the team composition formed randomly, this team wasn’t actually well-suited for clearing. Mechanical Iron Prison is a dungeon that requires high agility to evade jailers and navigate mechanisms. With dual core warriors, CloudTraveller has cooperated many times with BitterMelon, and they can basically stabilize the front line, so there’s no need to worry about that. The critical points lie with the melee assassins and long-range professions. Melee types tend to be squishy, and there aren’t many long-range professions with high output; the Doaist priest they brought is still more of a control type…]

[At the 6-star S+ difficulty level, from the publicly available dungeon information, the boss is likely agile and highly offensive, with very complex skill mechanisms. The long-range members of the first completion team should be exceptional; I have to give a shout-out to Momo for this. He’s truly strong. CloudTraveller and him cooperated for the first time, and after they finished, they praised him a lot in the group chat. It’s rare for me to see both CloudTraveller and ReturnToSimplicity praising the same person simultaneously (this really amazed me).]

[But I don’t recommend bringing too many squishy professions for subsequent pioneering teams. From what I gathered in the exploration group, the first completion team did a strong rush-through, but for regular teams, it’s best to understand the mechanics thoroughly and play more cautiously.]

[A strong rush-through at the 6-star level… These veterans really dare to take risks.]

[The OP’s analysis is correct. This dungeon has no disengagement mechanism; if you die, it’s a wipe. It’s impressive that the veterans managed to clear it in one go!]

[Momo’s command is truly impressive. My friend was the healer for the first completion team and couldn’t stop praising him after they finished.]

[???? Is the commenter serious? Our vice leader seems a bit out of it since coming back. Now they want to build a lucky flow assassin.]

[I heard Momo’s command is strong and can drive people insane quickly.]

[Is archdemon going to dominate PVE leaderboards? Their dungeon ranking is rising so fast! With a few more clears, they might secure first place.]

[Wait… even ReturnToOrigin praised Momo??? OP, can you give us more details?]

[Intersections are happening in places I’m unaware of again.]

“On the forums, there are tons of posts. Ask Momo if he’s prepared any strategy posts. Many of my friends are asking about it,” CloudTraveller said halfway through, noticing the array master beside him was silent, then asked again, “ReturnToSimplicity, are you listening?”

“I am,” Yu Zhen snapped out of his thoughts, “I’ll ask him later.”

Su Mo didn’t log in this morning nor did he go for morning exercises. Around seven o’clock, he posted a message in the group saying he wouldn’t be around during the day, and that was the end of it.

Just after reading the group message, Yu Zhen opened his program to prepare for dual sessions to complete the daily demon tasks. “Are we skipping faction wars this week?” he asked.

“We’re going ahead. There’s a manager leading in the guild. Zenith Expanse is also organizing; they’ve found a way to counter the detection items,” CloudTraveller looked puzzled at him, “Have you not planned to log into your marksman account in the past few weeks?”

“Depending on the situation, maybe just for the minimum rewards,” ‘Momo’ replied.

Yu Zhen finished speaking and added ‘Momo’ to the team. “Is the faction war still unstable?” he asked.

“The gameplay is still being adjusted, but it’s getting there. Several side quests have been quite intense recently,” CloudTraveller looked at ‘Momo’s character, “Are you dual-boxing?”

“Yeah, so I’ll just secure the minimum rewards tonight,” Yu Zhen replied briefly.

Dual-boxing in faction wars… CloudTraveller was momentarily unsure how to respond. Then he said, “They’re starting the fourth stage today, just like Momo mentioned yesterday. They’re revisiting the second stage, but this time the randomly generated secrets have some differences compared to before. The overall mechanics haven’t changed. If you have time, could you ask for me? I won’t delay you with tasks. I’ll head back to the guild first.”

After parting ways with CloudTraveller, Yu Zhen teamed up with ScarletFruit and others to complete tasks, and they finished them very quickly.

He logged off briefly around noon and when he logged back in the afternoon, Momo was still offline, and there were no new messages from him in the group, indicating he was probably busy all day.

The living room was lively, with Grandma Cheng still watching holographic shows.

Yu Zhen went to the kitchen to prepare dinner and glanced at the ingredients in the fridge. He thought for a moment and sent a message to Su Mo.

After about half an hour, a reply came saying he was at home.

“Where are you planning to go?” Grandma Cheng asked.

Yu Zhen packed up the stewed medicinal food, “I’m going to Su Mo’s house.”

The two live in a community not far from each other. When Yu Zhen pushed open the door, a stranger greeted him.

The man standing at the door was nearly two meters tall, dressed in a black tailcoat with short hair and a handsome face.

Yu Zhen paused briefly. It was rare for strangers to visit Su Mo’s house, let alone someone who would proactively open the door.

His gaze paused momentarily on the man’s left ear, where he noticed an earring. A robot?

“Mr. Yu Zhen?” the man in the tailcoat spoke up.

Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment, “Lele?”

To distinguish between humans and synthetic robots, all synthetic disguises left a robot identification earring on the left ear. Did Su Mo have Lele switch to a synthetic disguise? He remembered that Lele’s model was somewhat outdated, and off-the-shelf synthetic disguises wouldn’t be compatible. This must be a custom-made synthetic skin disguise.

“Yes,” Lele opened the door wide.

When Yu Zhen entered the house, he saw various scattered parts on the floor, some already neatly arranged, others still lying around. Su Mo was wearing overalls and standing at a doorway, wearing a transparent visor on his head, busy assembling something. When he noticed Yu Zhen approaching, he smiled, “Brother Zhen, give me a moment. I’m almost done assembling the machine here.”

“No problem, you go ahead,” Yu Zhen replied. His gaze couldn’t help but linger on Su Mo. It was the first time he had seen Su Mo wearing experimental equipment.

It wasn’t the high-end equipment commonly used in research institutes, but rather outdated models that had been phased out long ago. The machines had a mix of colors and showed signs of multiple assemblies. Yu Zhen had never seen them before, so he looked at them for a while longer.

Su Mo hadn’t had time to log in all morning; he had been busy changing Lele’s synthetic disguise.

The new synthetic disguise was even better than Su Mo had expected. After changing Lele’s synthetic disguise, Lele looked completely different. If it weren’t for the familiar voice, Su Mo would have found it somewhat unfamiliar. Changing the synthetic disguise required dismantling all the other parts. After dismantling them, Su Mo reassembled Lele’s original robotic disguise and planned to keep it in the house’s warehouse as a memento.

Unexpectedly, this task took up the entire day, and they still weren’t finished.

“Brother Zhen, I can handle this myself,” Su Mo said, seeing Yu Zhen helping to organize the parts.

Yu Zhen handed the medicinal food to Lele, glanced around at the organized situation, rolled up his sleeves, and asked, “Are these parts sorted and organized properly?”

Su Mo saw Yu Zhen proficiently sorting through the parts and hesitated for a moment. He almost forgot that although brother Zhen appeared to be the elite type who sat in the office all year round, he was actually responsible for projects involving component materials and might be even more familiar with them than Su Mo.

The parts were sorted out quickly. After helping with the organization, Yu Zhen didn’t linger. “Drink the hot soup from the thermos while it’s still warm. I’ll head back now,” he said.

Su Mo had just sat down. “Are you leaving so soon?” he asked.

Yu Zhen’s gaze lingered on Su Mo’s face for a moment. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to him. “Here, wipe it. You’ve got some grease on your face,” he said. “I won’t stay longer. Don’t work too late on assembling things.”

“Okay,” Su Mo replied. He escorted Yu Zhen to the door and watched him leave, feeling a strange sensation in his heart.

Suddenly, Lele asked, “Is this disguise not good-looking?”

Su Mo closed the door and looked at Lele in puzzlement. “Isn’t it super handsome?” he said.

After all, they had meticulously designed this face based on many accurate Chinese facial features they found online. The owner of the custom shop even wanted to ask them for facial data at the time.

“But I’ve walked by Mr. Yu Zhen several times, and he didn’t look at me,” Lele frowned slightly, querying in a troubled electronic tone, “According to the database, humans appreciate beautiful things, but Mr. Yu Zhen didn’t appreciate me.”

“…,” Su Mo paused. “Lele, you should know it’s not polite to stare at people’s faces, and similarly, it’s not gentlemanly to stare at a machine’s face.”

Lele tilted their head at the comment. “Mr. Yu Zhen didn’t look at me, but he looked at you several times.”

Su Mo hesitated briefly. “He looked at me?”

Lele nodded and walked to where Yu Zhen had been standing just now, repeating a sidelong glance gesture.

The movements of the synthetic person were more realistic than those of the mechanical casing, especially in mimicking human actions, achieving a one-to-one reproduction.

After performing the action, Lele asked again, “Su Mo, is Mr. Yu Zhen secretly watching you?”

***

Night fell, and the game world was bustling.

“My bro hasn’t been around all day today. Where did he go?” ScarletFruit had just finished grinding faction battles for rewards and returned to the main city area to set up a stall for equipment.

“Maybe he’s got something going on,” ClearWind, idle and planning to livestream, noted. Many were still immersed in the Celestial Horizon event, and ironically, the first to clear it seemed the most relaxed.

ScarletFruit glanced at ClearWind. “Why are you free tonight? Aren’t you supposed to be out in the wild with ZenSlasher, ambushing people?”

“Not going anymore,” ClearWind sighed. “Sister ZenSlasher, I don’t know what’s up with her. Didn’t she finish her dailies during the day? After that, she ignored me and has been hanging around the main city. I messaged her, but no reply.”

“Maybe she had something to do and went AFK? My brother isn’t around either. Just now, Brother Wanderer was helping him in the wild, grinding faction reputation. He hasn’t logged on yet, so I doubt he’ll be able to do his daily quests tonight,” ScarletFruit sighed. “Brother Wanderer didn’t respond to me either. I wonder what he’s up to.”

[Holy crap, Windy, you’re finally streaming.] 

[Check the forum! There’s a huge fight going on!!] 

[Go protect sister ZenSlasher!!]

ClearWind had just started his livestream when he saw his fans spamming the chat. He paused, “Looks like something happened.”

“What happened?” ScarletFruit asked.

ClearWind hastily opened the forum to check the situation. Most of the posts on the front page were about the event or faction battles, but what really caught fire were the gossip posts. There was one post prominently featuring ZenSlasher’s name and ID, which had been lifted several floors high and was trending as hot.

“Quick, check the forum!!”

Su Mo logged in very late. He was in a secluded spot in the wilderness, AFK grinding faction battle reputation points. He glanced at his task list; he had already completed all of today’s daily tasks. There were still three people in his team, but no one was speaking, and it was unusually quiet.

He hesitated for a moment, thinking he hadn’t turned on his sound. Just as he was about to check the System settings, he suddenly received an email.

The email was from a long-lost game friend—Small Bear Biscuit.