Genius Chapter 147: New and Interesting News

Chapter 147: New and Interesting News

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

“Shouldn’t a boyfriend sleep on the sofa?” Su Mo didn’t expect such a counter-question, but he suddenly realized that other people’s homes would typically have guest rooms, unlike his own place. Since he lived alone for a long time, the guest room had been converted into his parts storage and study.

“Then should I sleep in the guest room?” Su Mo asked again.

This was indeed a somewhat tricky question, and Yu Zhen wasn’t sure if it was a test or a genuine question.

After a brief silence, Yu Zhen stood up. “The medicine is on the table. You’ll sleep in the room tonight.”

Su Mo noticed that the medication he needed before bed was already on the table. “Then where will you sleep?”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa,” Yu Zhen said. “This is my temporary work residence, and I rarely have visitors here. The bedding in the guest room hasn’t been unpacked, and it’s too late to have the robot clean it now. We’ll make do with this for tonight.”

“Your stomach should be fine now, right? Take the medicine and rest; it’s already very late.”

“I’ll take a shower first.”

After taking his medicine, Su Mo was escorted by the intelligent robot to Yu Zhen’s room. The room was enormous, easily more than twice the size of his own, with floor-to-ceiling curtains tightly drawn and the temperature set to Yu Zhen’s usual sleeping preference. The room clearly showed signs of Yu Zhen’s daily life, with wall art and decorative pieces that reflected his tastes.

The robot left as soon as it brought Su Mo to the room. Standing there for a moment, Su Mo felt a bit out of place. Eventually, he decided to sit in the wicker chair and opened his terminal to browse messages. He quickly noticed lively discussions in the “Get Rich Soon” group chat. Seeing him join in, the group teased him and invited him to join the group voice chat. With nothing else to do, Su Mo joined and listened to the three others chatting about forum gossip, including the recent commotion about the divine weapons.

“Brother, how are you going to handle this?” ScarletFruit asked. “I have a bunch of merchant friends asking around, and apparently, all the big bosses are trying to find ways to contact you, trying to figure out what you’re thinking.”

When Su Mo crafted the first weapon, he hadn’t expected it to cause such a stir. And since the crafting formula was still only a theory, it wasn’t until he made Yu Zhen’s weapon that he could confirm its success rate. After hearing what ScarletFruit and the others said, Su Mo began to understand the situation. “The formula isn’t a secret; I’m sure many people can forge this type of weapon—they just hadn’t dared to try before. Now that WhiteCraneandPlumBlossoms has paved the way, more and more people will start experimenting with crafting. Eventually, the system will become more refined.”

As for the awakening skill, based on past experience, in the end, only 11 weapons should have this skill.

The formula he created was reliable, but the awakening part still depended on luck.

ScarletFruit asked, “Aren’t you going to take this chance to make some money?”

“Is there even time to make money?” Su Mo replied. “Have you forgotten that the third phase of the Grand Debate of the Realm is starting this weekend?”

The third phase of the Grand Debate of the Ream was about to begin, and with it, they had even less time due to the quest. Making money was not something that could be done on a whim.

“True,” ScarletFruit agreed. “I’ll let Watermelon know. He’s been asking me about it.”

“No worries, I’ll respond to him in my friend list when I log in tomorrow,” Su Mo said, posting a basic list in the group chat. “I just posted a list of basic materials needed for crafting each profession. The basic materials are the same for all professions. If you plan to forge weapons, you can prepare the materials according to the list and then send me the details of your equipment and attributes. I’ll tell you what reinforcement materials you need.”

The other three in the voice chat quickly caught on. ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Bro! Are you going to help us craft the weapons?”

Su Mo responded, “I have some time in the next few days, so I can help you with the formula writing. We can discuss weapon crafting once you gather the materials. But for legendary weapons, you’ll need dual-quest weapons and some rare, high-level materials. You’ll need to prepare those yourself. Keep an eye out for useful materials in the quest chests and don’t let any get thrown onto the trading platform.”

ScarletFruit shyly asked, “Bro, can I be a bit greedy and ask for an awakening skill?”

ClearWind also chimed in, “Me too, me too. Is there a specific way to forge an awakening skill? Do you need four pieces at level 110?”

What four pieces at level 110? His teammates seemed to have misunderstood something.

“Currently, only 11 weapons in the entire server have awakening skills. Besides the two already forged, as long as other forgers haven’t produced an awakening skill, there should still be a chance,” Su Mo explained. “But it really depends on luck. If someone in your Sect gets their materials ready before you and their weapon happens to have an awakening skill, then it’s too late for you. As for WhiteCraneandPlumBlossoms, if he manages to forge his weapon, his formula probably isn’t problematic, so it’s just a matter of time before he figures out the skill.”

Is that really the case?

ScarletFruit said, “Our cleric Sect doesn’t have many people, but ClearWind is in trouble; physical swordsmen are so popular!”

ClearWind started to feel anxious, “Does that mean we’re racing against time? Let’s go for another quest battlefield. I still want to farm Zenith Expanse for more treasure chests.”

Su Mo discussed various considerations for forging with them, advising them to hold off on upgrading until his material formulas were ready, and to keep the weapon’s base values reserved to avoid issues when the weapon was completed. ScarletFruit and ClearWind, being forgers themselves, quickly understood these points. Given their extensive experience with refining equipment, they were already focused and didn’t need additional reminders.

ScarletFruit and ClearWind promptly sent Su Mo the details of their equipment attributes. It wasn’t long before Su Mo received files from both teammates. He then asked, “ZenSlasher, send me yours too.”

ZenSlasher hesitated slightly, “No need, I haven’t completed my dual weapons.”

“It’s fine, send it to me,” Su Mo replied simply. “That way, you can also prepare in advance once the material list is available.”

ZenSlasher agreed and sent over the screenshots of his equipment attributes.

ScarletFruit suddenly remembered something and asked, “Bro, what about the forging fee?”

Forging fee? Su Mo chuckled, “Oh, you want to pay? Then let’s go with the market rate.”

“Forget it, forget it, bro, just pretend I never said that,” ScarletFruit said with a chuckle. “Our brotherhood isn’t something money can measure. If you need any materials in the future, just let me know. I’ll help you find them as fast as I can.”

ClearWind added, “Fruit, gather some materials.”

ScarletFruit immediately responded, “Starting at 10k gold with a discount, others are at 90% off, I’ll give you 98%, and for ZenSlasher’s sister, 97%. For my bro, a special rate.”

Su Mo asked, “…? A special rate?”

ScarletFruit corrected himself, “Misstatement, I meant a discount.”

The group chat became lively again, with ClearWind and ScarletFruit haggling over prices. In the end, ScarletFruit generously offered an 80% discount.

“Oh, right, bro, you’re still awake at this hour?” ClearWind suddenly realized. “Are you playing so late with Brother Wanderer? You haven’t gone home yet, have you?”

ScarletFruit added, “ClearWind, you’re coming back to Capital Planet next month. We can consider meeting up then. It’s not fair that only you and Brother Wanderer get to meet secretly and have fun!”

As the group chat continued, Su Mo suddenly noticed faint footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw Yu Zhen, dressed in pajamas after his shower, entering the room. Seeing Su Mo still sitting, Yu Zhen asked in a stern voice, “Why are you still up?”

The question immediately stunned everyone else in the voice chat.

The lively chatter instantly ceased. Su Mo turned his head and said, “Not yet, I’m going to sleep now.”

Yu Zhen’s gaze fell on his terminal, which was displaying the voice chat interface from the “Get Rich Early” group. He nodded slightly but didn’t leave, just stood there watching Su Mo.

Su Mo turned off the voice chat and saw that Yu Zhen had taken the two files. He asked, “Aren’t you going to rest?”

Yu Zhen replied, “I’m not tired yet. I’m going to review a few more documents.” Noticing that Su Mo was standing, he added, “Didn’t you say you didn’t get enough sleep at noon? You should rest quickly.”

“Oh,” Su Mo said as he walked to the edge of the bed. Looking at the large bed and the neatly arranged files nearby, he thought that Yu Zhen must often be busy with work before bed. He hesitated slightly and said, “Bro, you should sleep here.”

“I still have work to do. I might disturb you,” Yu Zhen said.

“It’s okay,” Su Mo assured him.

Yu Zhen met Su Mo’s clean gaze and, for some reason, agreed, “You sleep first. I’ll finish up the documents and come over.”

Su Mo, feeling a bit tired, soon lay down and prepared to sleep. The robot brought over a blanket. As he covered himself, he seemed to detect a familiar scent on the pillow and blanket, similar to Yu Zhen’s own scent.

By the time Yu Zhen came over, Su Mo had already fallen into a deep sleep, curled up under the covers in the same position he had when sleeping on the sofa. Yu Zhen dimmed the bedroom lights, leaving only a warm orange glow by the bedside. He lingered by the bed for a long time before finally tiptoeing over and adding another layer of blankets for Su Mo.

[Is that Brother Wanderer’s voice?]
[Brother Wanderer’s voice sounds different from the game!]
[Has the boss gone to sleep? The voice chat has ended.]

Yu Zhen responded briefly in the group chat but soon stopped checking the messages and leaned back to continue reading his documents.

After a while, he heard a rustling noise and glanced at the sleeping Su Mo beside him. He tried to cover Su Mo’s hand, which was exposed outside the blanket, but when he lifted the youth’s wrist, he found it was unconsciously clasped around Yu Zhen’s own hand.

Yu Zhen froze for a moment and softly called out, but Su Mo didn’t respond. In Yu Zhen’s palm was Su Mo’s hand, which was gently holding onto his finger—a habit that seemed childlike.

As night deepened, Yu Zhen forced himself to focus on his documents, trying to continue working. However, he found himself regretting it and unable to shake off his growing sense of weariness. He should have slept on the sofa.

***

The next morning, Su Mo woke up and realized he had slept in until after nine o’clock. The robot came in to guide him through his morning routine and breakfast. Su Mo learned from it that Yu Zhen had gone to work and that breakfast was ready in the kitchen. Yu Zhen would take him back home in the afternoon. After finishing his meal, Su Mo had nothing else to do, so he used the free time to complete the weapon formulas for his teammates. He was familiar with their operational habits, so he wrote the formulas very quickly, finishing them in just over an hour. He then sent the three documents to them.

“Hey, did you sleep well last night?”
“Brother Wanderer’s voice sounded so cold.”
“When you were sleeping in the blanket, the three of us were out searching the entire map for quests.”

Su Mo asked, “Did you find anything?”
ClearWind replied, “No, we wore eight pieces of lucky gear and still didn’t find anything. I strongly suspect that the luck flow might have been adjusted recently.”
ScarletFruit had a double weapon, but he hadn’t obtained many enhancement materials. ClearWind and ZenSlasher had their materials, but they were still missing one more quest item.

The formulas were just the basics. ClearWind and ZenSlasher needed to wait until they had the other weapon before completing the remaining formulas. ScarletFruit’s formulas were complete, but without enhancement materials, he couldn’t proceed to the next step. In the end, even though the formulas were ready, they would have to wait until they collected all the materials for the double weapons before they could proceed with the crafting.

After finishing with the materials, Su Mo also responded to messages on his friends list. For regular collaborators like Bitter Melon and Apple, he mentioned that he would only have time after the Grand Debate of the Realm. He had more free time after the convention, so if they still wanted him to craft, they could discuss it then.

By noon, when Yu Zhen got off work, the two went out for lunch, and afterward, Yu Zhen took Su Mo back home.

“Won’t you come up and sit for a bit?” Su Mo asked.

Yu Zhen replied, “I have some work at the company. I’ll come over again on the weekend.”

Once inside, Lele looked at him with a pitiful expression, making Su Mo feel as though he had done something wrong.

Su Mo asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s your first time staying over at someone else’s place,” Lele said. “You’ve been away from home for 30 hours.”

Su Mo was speechless.

Lele had been quite distressed recently. After reading a bunch of books on teenage development, he was even more convinced that his young master was in a sensitive age. As an intelligent robot, it should address the issues faced by its master. “Su Mo, have you encountered any troubles recently?”

Su Mo thought for a moment and said, “Not really.”

Lele waited a long time but did not hear any problems from Su Mo. Finally, he saw Su Mo take out a new data loader and start connecting it to the home network.

In just a couple of days, the weekend arrived, and the third stage of the Grand Debate of the Realm began.

The second stage had eliminated many teams, leaving just over ten thousand teams for the third stage. When it started on Saturday, Celestial Horizon updated the challenge type for this stage, defining it as a PvE quest challenge in the form of a dungeon. However, this challenge was much more difficult than the first stage, with quests rated at a minimum of 5 stars. There were no limits on the number of challenges or the challenge duration, and a variety of quest dungeon libraries were open. Each time a player entered, they would be randomly matched with a map, and rankings would be based on the players’ ratings.

Only the top 200 teams had a chance to advance to the final stage of the Grand Debate of the Realm.

As soon as this news was released, most people realized that the Grand Debate of the Realm was approaching its end. The third stage lasted for 3 weeks, and only those with scores in the top 200 during this period could advance. This increased players’ determination to challenge the quest dungeons. With only three weeks for the event, if a team could not advance, it was most cost-effective to farm dungeons for rewards.

Since Yu Zhen was at work, Su Mo’s team adjusted their challenge schedule. They aimed to ensure qualification and to complete as many challenges as possible.

By the end, they managed to complete about three challenges each week. As the third stage concluded, their ranking was lower compared to some hardcore teams, placing 15th in the third stage. When combining the evaluations from the previous two stages, they ended up in 8th place overall.

“This result isn’t bad. Have you seen the Zenith Expanse team? They haven’t slept for five days and have been grinding through quests non-stop,” Apple remarked. “Compared to those hardcore teams, our pace is much better.”

“Cantaloupe, I’ve noticed you’ve been paying a lot of attention to Zenith Expanse recently,” Apple continued.

“Recently, more people have been farming for materials, and everyone wants to complete their dual weapons,” FireworksAndLanterns sighed. “So when will the main system bless me with a weapon? I’ve opened so many 5-star chests, but still haven’t gotten a single weapon.”

ClearWind commented, “It’s difficult to get quest weapons from Celestial Horizon whether you grind or pay.”

ScarletFruit added, “I’ve even gotten three duplicate materials.”

The surrounding peaks at the summit of the Tournament had become less dense, and their positions shifted with the team’s movements.

As the number of people dwindled and their neighbors changed several times, they were about to leave when they suddenly saw a dove descending from the sky. It fluttered its wings and finally landed on Su Mo’s shoulder.

ScarletFruit asked, “What’s that?”

As Su Mo reached out to touch the dove, it transformed into white smoke and then turned into floating golden text.

[7-day countdown will begin in 1 hour]

[Dear [Advertising Space for Rent], the final debate of the Grand Debate of the Realm will start in seven days. The challenge format will be [Quest Arena]. Specific challenge rules will be announced in seven days. Teams need to be registered now.]

[First-time team submission types are: [1 person] [2 people] [3 people] [5 people]] 

[Please fill this out within the specified time; late submissions will be considered as forfeits.]