Genius Chapter 139: New Opponent

Chapter 139: New Opponent

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

“Should we continue to report?”

After a moment of silence, someone in the livestreamer group finally asked.

“Let’s wait,” FirstUnderHeaven said with difficulty, recalling that nightmare of a ‘hi.’ “…Let them report first.”

Even though the chances were slim, what if they ended up facing that team again? He had no desire to go through that experience again!

The chat also fell into a contemplative silence, as if their minds had been refreshed alongside the livestreamers’. While they could still laugh and mock the livestreamer group during other battles, seeing this match, witnessing the frustration of not being able to break through, and Momo’s endless tricks left them all with a chill down their spines.

[Let’s hold off for a bit.]

[All I can see in my mind right now is Bitter Melon sitting on the Black Tortoise.]

[Stop it… It’s the first time I’ve realized how unique summoner gameplay really is.]

[Who would’ve thought that a bear with only a taunt skill could wreak such havoc on the frontline???]

[Our group has a match this afternoon. If we run into a team like Momo’s, I think I’ll lose it.]

[If you do, just forfeit. No need to torture yourself.]

***

The livestreamer team hesitated, but Su Mo did not. After coming out, he immediately signed up for the second match. The opponent in the second match wasn’t as challenging as the livestreamer team; it seemed to be a PvE team. The fight was a bit chaotic, as they were clustered together, so a single control could affect a large group.

“Ah, FirstUnderHeaven’s team was still more fun.”

“There are a lot of PvE teams signed up this time, but this battlefield format will likely eliminate quite a few.” 

“After all, it’s a comprehensive format, with PvE and PvP mixed in, and it lasts for two months.”

The match ended very quickly. Su Mo glanced at the lunch break time and then signed up for the third match. The maximum time for a single battlefield round was 45 minutes, with the shortest being just over ten minutes. For Su Mo, this made it easier to manage his time. After accounting for his teammates’ busy schedules, he made a timetable, basically excluding their work and class times. During this period, he also visited the lab a few times, and the experimental project was gradually reaching its conclusion.

Yu Zhen had also started getting busy during this time. Su Mo often saw him handling documents or having video conferences with others.

The Firmament Group had quite a few projects under its belt, and in recent years, more of them were becoming integrated with scientific research. The new project Yu Zhen took on involved building the infrastructure for civilian spacecraft boarding systems. He was busy forming a team and coordinating with the Star Alliance Research Institute. Civil aviation has seen rapid development in recent years, with more and more interstellar routes. Yu Zhen had extensive experience in interstellar exploration from his early years, and his time with mercenaries had given him a deep understanding of spacecraft carriers. The main goal of taking on this project was to improve the safety system for civil aviation.

Once they both got busy, Su Mo realized he had more free time than Yu Zhen.

When Su Mo wasn’t in the battlefield, he spent his time near the forge, while Yu Zhen was nearby, seemingly idle but actually busy coordinating his work.

Over the past few days, Su Mo had mostly been winning his battles, but winning too much sometimes led to setbacks. For example, when he faced the CloudTraveller team, he suffered a defeat. CloudTraveller was a versatile warrior, excelling not only in PvE but also gaining a strong reputation in PvP. In that match, they happened to get a fairly standard control point map, which required quick support and frequent point changes.

Unfortunately, this was one of the Momo team’s weaknesses.

The PvP team from Veiled Cloud Sanctuary was highly experienced and quickly identified that the core of the Momo team was the summoner. So, throughout that match, they focused on taking down FireworksAndLanterns during support, eliminated Black Tortoise when clashing, and prioritized attacking the bear in direct combat. In the end, as the battle concluded, Veiled Cloud Sanctuary narrowly defeated the Momo team due to their point advantage. This was Su Mo’s first battlefield loss.

This loss also exposed their team’s weaknesses in advance—namely, the lack of compatibility in their lineup, which lowered their margin for error.

Unlike other perfectly matched teams that had hundreds of ways to recover from mistakes, Su Mo’s team had only about ten ways to do so. This challenge sparked Su Mo’s competitive spirit. Although he had less experience in the battlefield, Yu Zhen had played many battles and had extensive gaming experience. In their spare time, their discussions increasingly focused on how to adapt their strategies to better suit different battlefield scenarios.

“CloudTraveller’s team is quite traditional and tends to play conservatively. One reason they won is that they’ve been working together for a long time and have a lot of experience. Sometimes, they don’t even need the commander’s instructions; the teammates already know the best way to act based on habit and experience,” Yu Zhen explained briefly. “Team battles are about coordination. They don’t obsess over kill counts; their focus is on how to earn points. In that match, we lost because of our lack of experience.”

While he spoke, he noticed out of the corner of his eye Su Mo’s electronic tablet, which had a rough sketch of a map and a draft of the team composition.

Su Mo was sitting with his legs curled up under a blanket, the tablet resting on his knees. His brow was slightly furrowed, and he was occasionally writing and drawing on the tablet. Yu Zhen recalled seeing Su Mo before when he was sick, with a fever patch on his forehead, seriously calculating data on the sofa—very similar to how he looked now, except that his focus had shifted from research to the game.

When Su Mo was deep in thought, he had a habit of furrowing his brow and would rest his fingertips on the tablet.

As soon as Yu Zhen saw Su Mo’s fingers start to move, he could guess that Su Mo was calculating something. It seemed like Su Mo’s personality was such that he devoted an intense level of focus to anything that interested him, and he approached everything with great seriousness.

How did I not notice before… Su Mo in real life also has that same resilience.

However, this resilience and pride were more reserved compared to how they manifested in the game… and at the same time, it made him seem uniquely kawaii.

“The biggest threat in the Tao of Debate Tournament should actually be the BrokenOracle team,” Yu Zhen suddenly remarked. The youth beside him seemed to have found a new point of curiosity, as his clear eyes looked over.

Su Mo asked, “BrokenOracle? The one ranked first as a Daoist priest? Is he really that strong?”

Thanks to ScarletFruit constantly mentioning the rankings, Su Mo remembered this person—the current top-ranked player, and the Daoist priest who had once pushed Yu Zhen’s marksman account down from the top spot.

“He’s from the Abyss faction, just like your team. He’s the guild master of Ren Xiaoyao,” Yu Zhen explained briefly. “I faced him with my marksman account last time. He’s very strong, and the way he plays as a Daoist priest is quite unique. From what I know, Ren Xiaoyao’s elite team has an innovative playstyle, and their overall strength surpasses Veiled Cloud Sanctuary. They’re also the current favorite to win the championship. You might not encounter them in this round, but further down the line, you’re bound to face them.”

In a one-on-one match, facing Ren Xiaoyao would be relatively simple.

But in a team battle, Ren Xiaoyao’s overall strength far surpassed theirs. Some weaknesses couldn’t be compensated for by strategic commands alone; they required improvements in the teammates’ individual skills.

“Oh, you’re right,” Su Mo said, crossing out a few lines on his draft. “The individual skills in our team still need improvement.”

Yu Zhen chuckled and pulled the tablet from Su Mo’s hands. “Yes, but commander, it’s time for your afternoon nap now.”

Su Mo paused for a moment, but the man beside him had already adjusted the sofa position with familiar ease, bringing the thick folded blanket and pillow over to him. After waking up several times on Yu Zhen’s lap, Su Mo had given up on returning to the bedroom to sleep, opting instead to nap on the living room sofa during lunchtime.

Yu Zhen placed the pillow by his thigh and said, “Use this as a pillow; it won’t slip.”

Su Mo didn’t refuse and carefully lay down next to him. “Brother, when I’ve used your lap as a pillow before… didn’t it make your legs go numb?”

Yu Zhen paused briefly before replying, “No.”

Su Mo once again marveled at the difference an S-class physique made. After lying down, his mind began to wander, and his thoughts became a tangled mess.

One moment he was thinking about battlefield strategies, the next about the failed formula from the calculations two days ago, and then he’d glance up and see the man above him, fully focused on his work.

In the past, he would usually doze off while reading, but today, for some reason, he was wide awake.

Wrapped in the blanket and slightly curled up, he couldn’t fall asleep, so he started secretly observing Yu Zhen.

Suddenly, a hand came down from above, blocking Su Mo’s view.

The man’s hand didn’t completely cover his eyes, and Su Mo could almost see Yu Zhen’s face through the narrow gap between his fingers.

Yu Zhen didn’t say anything.

Neither did Su Mo.

The youth blinked, feeling a tickling sensation in Yu Zhen’s palm.

After a long silence, Yu Zhen finally spoke, remembering those unguarded eyes from a moment ago. “Momo, close your eyes.”

“…Oh.”

***

The players participating in the competition were lively and enthusiastic, and those watching the action on the forums were equally engaged. This time, player teams were matched against each other, and with the main system’s fair matching mechanism, each team would encounter opponents of varying difficulty—sometimes facing lower-level teams, and other times, top-tier teams. Not long after the second phase started, many players on the forums were already posting threads analyzing the top-tier team compositions.

Among them, four teams from Eclipse and Abyss factions, part of the major alliances, were attracting the most attention due to their high concentration of top players.

From Eclipse, there was CloudTraveller’s [Veiled Cloud Sanctuary] and Midnight Bell’s [Zenith Expanse]. Both teams carried the names of their guilds, making them easy to remember and clearly representing their guilds’ brands. These two top-tier teams from the Eclipse faction featured full leaderboard rosters, with high levels of skill and awareness, as well as top-notch equipment. Many random teams who encountered them found their matches ending within 20 minutes.

On the Abyss faction side, the top teams were BrokenOracle’s [Ren Xiaoyao] and another team led by Strawberry, a manager from the Fruit Gang, called [Fruit Stew]. There’s no need to elaborate on Ren Xiaoyao—it’s currently the number one guild in the Abyss faction, featuring the top Daoist priest, BrokenOracle, and the top mage, Haitang. With dual commanders, their team had very high adaptability. As for the Fruit Gang’s team, while their lineup was slightly inferior to Ren Xiaoyao’s, it boasted a large number of PvP casters, and Strawberry, a well-known PvP player, led the team with formidable strength.

Of course, besides these four well-established and highly reputed teams, there were also other mixed teams that gathered a lot of attention.

Leading the pack was the team [Advertising Space for Rent], a mixed team that successfully drove most high-level teams crazy. It was a combination of the Momo fixed team and the Fruit Gang management group. The Momo fixed team, which previously wasn’t very well-known, had now become familiar to the forum community. It consisted of archdemon and first-ranked summoner Momo, third-ranked array master UnchainedWanderer, livestreamer ClearWindIsHere, merchant ScarletFruit, and female assassin ZenSlasher. From the Fruit Gang management group, there were the guild master Bitter Melon, vice leader Watermelon, and manager Apple, along with the second-ranked summoner FireworksAndLanterns and the seventh-ranked healer Cantaloupe.

This team had an unusual composition but excellent coordination. On the first day, they drove the popular team [Get In A Game If You Can] mad, and over the following days, they encountered and defeated teams of various levels. Less than five days into the second phase of the Tao of Debate Tournament, this team had become famous on the forums.

[Can someone explain why Bitter Melon didn’t lead the Fruit Gang and instead joined forces with Momo?]

[I fought them once. When I saw Bitter Melon holding the point, I just gave up.] 

[So is their team really available for advertising? I’m thinking of placing an ad with them.] 

[Cough, it might be possible. Team name change for 10,000 star coins.] 

[Has Momo completely mastered the summoner profession? Even FireworksAndLanterns is playing ridiculously under his lead.] 

[[Momo team composition], [Momo team’s common strategies], [How to survive 15 minutes against Momo’s team]… you’re welcome.] 

[Thanks for that.] 

[By the way, I’ve figured out Momo team’s registration times. I suggest signing up after 11 AM or after 11 PM.]

As the forum discussions grew more intense, the members of the advertising team were experiencing a nightmare within the game’s battlefield.

Their commander suddenly developed new ideas about team coordination and even started using the battlefield as a training ground, forcing them to try all sorts of strange combinations for trial and error. For example, they were made to defend a point with a single warrior, have two assassins hold a point, or charge into battle without a healer…

“This won’t work; too many flaws are exposed.”

“FireworksAndLanterns is too slow; we need to replace him.”

…

The team channel was filled with the cold, unfeeling corrections from the commander. To make matters worse, even the array master UnchainedWanderer joined in, often suggesting new strategies that pushed their teammates to the brink. What was once a fun battlefield experience suddenly turned into a nightmare. Every time they heard a new team composition, they wondered if the commander was sending them to their deaths in the enemy camp.

Eventually, they were all on the verge of losing their minds, venting their frustrations about the two commanders in their small group chat of eight.

Watermelon couldn’t hold back and asked, “Did Momo give UnchainedWanderer some kind of mind control drug? Why is he agreeing with everything lately?”

“It’s not exactly flattery, but he has been talking more recently,” Cantaloupe said as they pulled out a notebook. “I’ve kept track of it. Unchained used to stick to a few words like ‘hmm,’ ‘oh,’ ‘okay,’ ‘can do’… but recently, he’s been speaking in full sentences, about eight more times per match than before.”

ClearWind exclaimed, “You remember that much!?”

Cantaloupe confidently replied, “Momo’s been pretty concerned about me lately, not letting me run around recklessly, so I’ve had more time to take notes.”

ScarletFruit felt a bit bitter, no longer being the healer that his big brother cherished. Looking at the newly favored one, he couldn’t help but say sarcastically, “Cantaloupe, who would’ve thought?”

Apple, recalling the terrifying experience of being forced to defend a point as a magical swordsman, chimed in, “Yeah, and every word he says leads us further down the path of doom.”

FireworksAndLanterns added, “Lately, Momo’s been making me practice running away, but real men don’t run, right?”

ZenSlasher listened to everyone’s complaints, and with an expressionless face, sighed.

Who would’ve thought that just last week, this group chat was full of fanfiction discussions, passionately declaring that the two big brothers would never have a falling out? Now, they were all disheartened, encouraging each other daily with the desperate hope that this torturous training would end soon. Even Watermelon, who usually loved the battlefield, hesitated for half a minute before each match, as if mentally preparing for what was to come.

As the group anxiously awaited, the second phase was nearing its end. Despite the grueling training, aside from their loss to CloudTraveller, they had won all their other matches.

And then, on this day, they unexpectedly matched with a formidable opponent.

[Your team has been matched with a competitive team…] 

[Match successful. Your opponent is [Zenith Expanse].] 

[Both sides have entered the arena. Welcome to [Eight Desolate Platform: Peach Blossom Lake]. The rules manual has been sent to your player’s backpack. Please check it.]

From the Eclipse faction, Zenith Expanse— An elite team led by Midnight Bell.

The advertising team, who had been suffering for so long, went into a frenzy upon seeing this opponent.

Zenith Expanse, the rival guild of the Fruit Gang, their number one nemesis, in short, the team’s arch-enemy.

Watermelon said, “Damn, Midnight Bell!?”

Apple declared, “I’m fired up. We can’t lose this match!”

ClearWind added, “I’ll take the front line today. I’ll make sure we crush them.”

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Old grudges and new ones combined? Midnight Bell? Zenith Expanse? I’ll make them learn their place on the battlefield.”

Cantaloupe read out the data he had collected from the forum, “According to the latest statistics, Zenith Expanse’s elite team hasn’t lost a single match yet. We’ve lost one, and our ranking is still lower than theirs.”

Watermelon chuckled, “Well then, today they’re going to lose.”

ClearWind added, “Perfect. Let’s end this match in 30 minutes.”

The team began discussing back and forth, and Su Mo’s gaze was focused on the opponent’s name displayed in his field of vision. The countdown for the preparation phase was still ongoing, and his attention was on the new map for this round of Eight Desolates Platform.

Peach Blossom Lake was picturesque, a lake-type battlefield with obstacles. This time, the victory condition was still based on capturing points for points, but there were now 3 points instead of the usual 2, and the battlefield time had been extended by 20 minutes. Quest battlefields could vary greatly, sometimes adjusting the battlefield time based on the difficulty of the obstacle map and the opponent, but with so many matches played, Su Mo was encountering a 3-point map for the first time.

The Peach Blossom Lake map was a familiar basic map for players, adapted from the Peach Blossom Village’s terrain, including the village’s entrance, exit, and the lake in the center. The points were located at the village entrance, the village exit, and the center of the lake.

As the number of points decreased, the battlefield was becoming more conventional. It was a very common linear battlefield: entrance–lake center–exit. They had just started, and their preparation position was at the village entrance, while Zenith Expanse’s preparation position was likely at the village exit. Su Mo quickly reviewed the strategies they had tried over the past few days. They had encountered lake-type maps before, but only with multiple points; this was the first time they had faced a 3-point map, increasing the difficulty significantly and directly highlighting their weaknesses.

Su Mo murmured, “Peach Blossom Village…”

He was very familiar with this map. Back in Newbie Village, he had even walked around the map several times. Now, looking at the map, he could instantly identify the useful terrain around the stone tablets in the Vicinity.

“Newbie Village map, we can’t afford to be careless. We’re familiar with it, but so is the opponent. And it’s a disadvantageous map,” Su Mo said.

Yu Zhen suddenly remarked, “The strategy needs to change. We shouldn’t try out new lineups today.”

“No… we can try,” Su Mo suddenly became interested. “There are different strategies for this map.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhen looked toward an uncertain direction, as if a summoner was standing somewhere not far off.

He knew that Su Mo wouldn’t suggest trying something if he wasn’t confident. If Su Mo said there was a better approach, then he had come up with a more brilliant plan.

With fewer points and a linear battlefield—arranged in a line with top, middle, and bottom—it meant that after both sides captured the village entrance and exit, a clash would inevitably occur in the center of the lake… which was their disadvantageous map.

Looking at Zenith Expanse’s lineup: double warriors, double healers, double magical swordsmen, assassins, marksmen, array master, and physical swordsman. The opponent’s lineup had an extremely strong front line and powerful back line. If they set up their formation in the center of the lake, their team might not be able to overcome it.

It was a disadvantageous map with a disadvantageous lineup.

As Yu Zhen was contemplating what method Su Mo was planning to use, the team began to stir with restless voices. The teammates, who had been filled with righteous indignation for a while, eagerly asked the commander.

ScarletFruit asked with anticipation, “Big brother, how are we going to teach Zenith Expanse a lesson?”

Watermelon coldly responded, “Which one should we take down first? Midnight Bell? Or still Midnight Bell?”

ZenSlasher said, “I can go around and take out one, either a mage or a healer.”

ClearWind added, “Don’t worry about protecting me. I’ll charge straight into the crowd and disrupt their formation.”

Bitter Melon conservatively said, “Then have Little Firework carry me and drop me by the stone tablet.”

FireworksAndLanterns said, “No problem. My Black Tortoise has been very smooth with carrying people lately.”

Su Mo said, “…No need.”

Everyone waited eagerly for the command, only to hear a calm question.

Su Mo’s voice trailed off as he asked, “Does anyone here specialize in climbing trees? Diving will work too.”

The teammates were puzzled, “?”

Weren’t they supposed to charge in and fight to the death?

Author’s note: 

momo: Zenith Expanse? No problem, keep trying out strategies.

Teammates: Let me handle it, let’s go all out against Zenith Expanse!