Genius Chapter 157: Teaming Up

Chapter 157: Teaming Up

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

When the robot’s question came up, the two people sitting on the sofa fell into an inexplicable silence for a moment. Lele, knowing that the owner wanted to buy a new bed, immediately sent over various smart bed models that fit the room’s dimensions, particularly recommending a few medical beds. The bed in Su Mo’s room was an old model from over ten years ago. It had been popular back then, but was now long outdated.

However, Su Mo was a nostalgic person. Many of the furnishings in his home had been left as they were, preserving the look from when his parents had left. Except for his laboratory and the modified guest room, he hadn’t changed any other rooms, keeping them as they were from that time.

Su Mo’s terminal was filled with notifications from Lele about the recommended beds. Lele never spared on price when it came to things the owner needed.

“This one is too small,” Su Mo said.

Lele checked the dimensions and asked, “Do you need it bigger?”

Su Mo nodded, “It needs to be large enough for two people to sleep.”

Lele replied, “There are no new medical beds in the 2-meter size.”

Su Mo said, “Then no medical bed.”

The bed selection process shifted from Yu Zhen to Su Mo and Lele. Seeing this, Yu Zhen, feeling helpless, got up and said, “I’ll go check the kitchen. You two discuss it.”

In the end, they decided on a multifunctional large bed. The order was placed, and it would start being shipped from other star systems the next day, which meant it would take several days to arrive.

The final match of the “Grand Debate of the Realm” was scheduled for 9 AM on Saturday of that week, and their opponents were [Ren Xiaoyao], who had advanced by defeating Zenith Expanse. Su Mo’s fever had subsided in the past few days, and he had barely logged into the game. Yu Zhen, on the other hand, had been leaving early and returning late every day, as if there were new problems at work. The previously planned temporary vacation had been canceled.

Su Mo had thought Yu Zhen would return to the central city area, but Yu Zhen still came back to the family district every day. Sometimes, he would come over after having dinner at Grandma Cheng’s place; other times, he would simply stay at Su Mo’s home for the meal.

“Aren’t you tired from the back-and-forth?” Su Mo asked.

“It’s fine,” Yu Zhen replied. “It’s only about half an hour each way. I just don’t feel at ease with you alone.”

“But I’ve already recovered from the fever,” Su Mo said.

Yu Zhen’s response was only a kiss.

Aside from kissing, Yu Zhen never crossed boundaries. He liked to kiss the corners of Su Mo’s mouth and eyes, with a tenderness and patience that restrained his emotions. The more time he spent with Su Mo, the more he seemed to understand how much he liked this cautious yet hiddenly passionate person. Shedding all his stern and hard exterior, what was left between them was only the sincere mutual affection.

Su Mo asked, “Have you been very busy recently?”

“Not really, I just wanted to understand something,” Yu Zhen replied, kissing the corner of his eye. He hadn’t been to the project team in the past few days because of the major issue that had arisen. The missing researchers from back then were all prominent figures in various fields within the Alliance. The talent loss caused by the accident in the Cold Star Region had been significant for the Alliance. With the new predictive conclusions now coming out, the collaborating research institutes and the Firmament Group were paying close attention. Some members of the project team volunteered to assist with the investigation, and the project had been paused for a week.

In the past two busy days, he had come across some things he had never investigated before, including seeing the name of the young and frail Su Mo on the list of relatives contacted by the accident.

Su Mo had lost his parents when he was young and had been living alone with a robot ever since. Yu Zhen kissed Su Mo, wondering if Su Mo had ever cried in the past ten years. He carefully recalled, but aside from a brief lapse when he learned about his physical condition… he had never seen Su Mo shed tears. His memories were filled with Su Mo’s enduring, pale face and calm demeanor despite his pain and suffering.

Su Mo had always been incredibly strong.

“Oh,” Su Mo asked, “Have you figured it out?”

“It should be soon,” Yu Zhen said, feeling a pang of sadness. He desperately hoped for a good outcome, even though the probability was very low.

Su Mo was sensitive to his emotions and keenly noticed his partner’s mood.

When Yu Zhen let him go, Su Mo clumsily returned the kiss.

He had never understood the appeal of kissing before, but after experiencing it himself, he found that kissing was the most direct form of communication.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something behind Yu Zhen—

Lele had just come out of the kitchen, holding a cup of hot water. Its expression displayed all the shock it had seemingly learned from somewhere.

“Lele saw,” Su Mo whispered in Yu Zhen’s ear.

Yu Zhen’s gloom instantly lifted, and he chuckled, asking, “Is it not allowed to say?”

Of course, it was allowed. They were already in a relationship.

The kiss was immediately noticed by the other little light bulb in the house. Lele watched in astonishment as Su Mo and Mr. Yu Zhen kissed, and its computational program seemed to struggle to process what it had just witnessed. That day, when Su Mo checked the smart library in Lele’s backend, he found that over a hundred intelligent programs related to dating had been downloaded. The outdated old robot was using its most basic methods to iterate and update its learning processes, even providing Su Mo with a complete list of things to be aware of during a romantic relationship.

“I need to learn,” the robot protested against Su Mo’s attempt to delete its smart programs.

Su Mo looked at the messy assortment of files, feeling a bit of a headache, such as titles like “Domineering CEO” and “Men’s Devious Intentions”…

He could only say, “You downloaded the wrong ones. You’ve downloaded a bunch of viruses.”

The robot innocently asked, “Really? Then we need to delete them quickly.”

Su Mo replied without changing his expression, “Yes.”

After deleting the files, he still felt guilty and ended up installing a bunch of new entertainment programs for the robot.

Lele felt quite wronged. These programs were specifically downloaded from the local robot dating group, based on recommendations from several senior robots who claimed that these dating books would turn it into a master of romance. It was infuriating; those senior robots had to be frauds. They had promised that robots wouldn’t deceive other robots, but it seemed they were just taking advantage of its lower intelligence level.

That evening, Lele left the local dating group and joined another local dating group.

Since it was troublesome for Yu Zhen to come and go from the house, Su Mo decided to increase Yu Zhen’s access level by two levels on the home access permissions, designating the relationship as [Boyfriend].

There were some things Yu Zhen couldn’t say at home.

As soon as Yu Zhen left, the robot started to nag, “Mr. Yu Zhen is of S-class physique.”

Su Mo replied, “I know.”

The robot continued, “Mr. Yu Zhen is not a good person.”

Su Mo looked at it in surprise, “You used to say he was a good person.”

The robot didn’t know how to respond. It continued its internal struggle and kept learning.

***

Su Mo hadn’t played much of the game these past few days. He followed the doctor’s orders, avoiding the game until his health was fully restored, but his restless nature made it hard for him to stay idle. With Yu Zhen on leave, his mentor had sent a message saying he didn’t need to worry about the remaining tasks. Even the data supplement work he had originally scheduled was taken over by his senior, Zhou, and everyone insisted that he take a break.

A few days ago, when his health stabilized and his teammates’ materials were ready, he found himself with time on his hands and started improving the formulas for ScarletFruit and the others.

On Saturday, they were set to face [Ren XiaoYao]—another strong team that might be even harder to beat than CloudTraveller. The Advertising team members were all keen on not falling behind, so while Yu Zhen and Su Mo were offline, they were busy crafting equipment, hoping to keep up with the strength of the opponent.

With no classes, no game, and no experiments to worry about, Su Mo suddenly had a lot of free time. Moreover, the windy and snowy weather outside prevented him from doing his morning exercises, so he dedicated all his time to writing formulas.

Writing formulas became easier with practice, and once he mastered the techniques, it went very quickly. After finishing the formulas, he also had time to guide his teammates on crafting and even wrote a few more formulas. He prioritized helping the other members of the advertising team with their formulas, charging a decent price and not including forging.

ScarletFruit was astonished, “I just got my materials ready, and you’ve already finished everything?”

Su Mo replied, “I had written the basic formulas before; I was just perfecting them now. It wasn’t much trouble.”

ClearWind said, “Big bro, you are my idol!!”

“Let’s skip the idol talk.” Su Mo asked, “Since your materials are ready, do you need help with the forging?”

ScarletFruit replied, “Oh, we can’t always rely on you to help. We’ll figure it out ourselves and ask you if we don’t understand!”

ClearWind added, “Exactly. You just got out of the hospital; don’t tire yourself out. Take it easy.”

ZenSlasher said, “You mentioned you wanted to refine some equipment. I opened a few chests last time and sent them to you. Don’t forget to pick them up.”

ScarletFruit chimed in, “Yeah, we can’t use those, so we sent them to you and Brother Wanderer.”

“Got it, thanks,” Su Mo responded. He did plan to work on the equipment, but he and Yu Zhen had hardly been online recently, so it was a pleasant surprise that his teammates had prepared everything for them.

ScarletFruit said, “No need to be so polite!”

With the three teammates busy with weapon crafting, Su Mo found himself with more free time. He sent the finished weapon formulas to the others.

During these rest days, Apple finally surpassed FirstUnderHeaven. Before the leaderboard announcement went out, he sent FirstUnderHeaven a name change card.

FirstUnderHeaven was infuriated, and that night, the big spender streamed his equipment crafting, spending vast amounts of money. In the end, despite his efforts, he fell behind Apple in the quest section. The total leaderboard scores showed a gap of about ten points, with Apple still in first place.

Su Mo was curious and asked, “Did he change his name?”

ScarletFruit, the gossip expert, quickly replied, “Yes.”

Su Mo asked, “To what?”

ScarletFruit answered, “To ‘Ascent to the Throne.’”

Su Mo was speechless. The internal competition among magical swordsmen was indeed fierce.

The internal competition was fierce not only among magical swordsmen but also across many popular professions. During this period, the quest points awarded by the Grand Debate of the Realm were highly contested. Only the top teams could secure high positions, and the teams in the later stages were all strong. The leaderboard rankings had risen a level, and the most critical factor for scoring was the 80-level divine weapons.

The points from the divine weapon system contributed significantly to the equipment rating. Since Momo had forged two high-level divine weapons with awakening skills a while back, more and more people began attempting to forge their own. Among them, the most popular were masters like WhiteCraneand PlumBlossoms and a few others. WhiteCraneand PlumBlossoms had spent a long time developing the awakening skill, but his success rate wasn’t as high as momo’s 100%. Over the long period, he had only managed to forge two weapons.

One was for mages, and the other was for healers.

Su Mo saw the two weapons that ScarletFruit posted in the group. While they did have awakening skills, the basic attributes of the weapons had become somewhat poor. It seemed that there was a problem with the forging materials and formulas; the issue likely arose from not considering the basic attribute caps during the upgrade process, which led to these problems.

Both weapons made it onto the divine weapon leaderboard but still lagged behind the top three.

The first place was occupied by Void Lantern, the second place by MIdnight Bell’s Treading Waves and Striking Sky, and the third place by the Celestial Punishment.

Midnight Bell’s Treading Waves and Striking Sky did not have an awakening skill, but its basic attributes were high, surpassing the scores of the two awakening skill weapons forged by WhiteCraneandPlumBlossoms. This issue highlighted a key point: an awakening skill was ultimately just a skill. While it could add a finishing touch, if it caused a drop in the weapon’s basic attributes, it might be better not to use the skill at all.

After all, skills could be replaced by quest skills, so there was no need to take risks.

Yu Zhen only had time off on Friday. When he arrived at Su Mo’s home, he happened to see Lele directing the robots to set up the new bed. Su Mo’s old bed, after being folded, had been stored in the utility room. With the new, larger bed installed, the once spacious room had become rather cramped. After they had lunch, they went online and saw that the teammates had already reliably leveled up their weapons to level 80 and were figuring out the sequence for merging materials.

ScarletFruit quickly sent a message—

[Big Brother, hang on for a moment. The three of us are still working out the material details. It will be ready soon.]

Su Mo decided not to form a team and waited for his teammates to finish up.

He hadn’t been online much these days, and the trading platform had accumulated various materials. He took the materials down, fetched some gold from the warehouse, and headed straight for the forge with Yu Zhen.

“Bitter Melon asked me to thank you directly yesterday. How many formulas have you written these days?” Yu Zhen sighed and said, “Didn’t you say to rest more?”

“I wasn’t that busy. I hadn’t been online these days, and since you weren’t around either, I just wrote formulas when I had nothing else to do.” Su Mo rummaged through the warehouse, taking out the materials he needed. He continued, “For just a few people’s formulas, I had already summarized the framework when I wrote them for you before. The rest was just filling in materials according to the situation, which wasn’t that mentally taxing. But Bitter Melon’s formula was indeed a bit tricky. His equipment and point distribution were too unique, so I took a long time verifying the materials. Fortunately, he provided plenty of materials.”

Yu Zhen had always wanted to ask, “You’re not short of money, are you?”

“I was short before. Back then, the loader couldn’t recharge on StarNet, so I had to earn game currency through gameplay.”

Su Mo raised an eyebrow slightly. “I’m not short now, but there’s no reason not to earn money that comes to you. The warehouse of the Fruit Gang has a lot of rare materials that can’t be bought on the market.”

Yu Zhen commented, “You’re quite the little money-maker, are you eyeing their materials?”

Su Mo didn’t deny it and said, “There are quite a few materials in Celestial Horizon that can’t be bought with money.”

He then added, “I’ve been so bored these days that I turned the logic of the formulas I used to work on into a program.”

“Writing a program?” Yu Zhen couldn’t help but ruffle Su Mo’s hair, finding that it was easier to do so in the game.

Due to their height difference, he could envelop Su Mo completely while doing it.

“This thing is quite similar to the data I frequently deal with. I didn’t even need to change the program framework. I exported Celestial Horizon’s material library to create a database, then imported the formula templates to generate results with one click.” Su Mo thought for a moment and said, “But this is only suitable for mainstream builds. The one-click generated results can’t compare with custom-made ones. I realized it didn’t seem very useful after I finished it, so I set it aside. Celestial Horizon does a pretty good job with the equipment system; it’s quite diversified.”

Yu Zhen was waiting outside the warehouse NPC. Seeing Su Mo searching for so long, he asked, “Is there anything else you need?”

“It seems like we’re also missing some Mystic Grass and Nine Heavens Black Iron,” Su Mo said. “Let’s check the stall area.”

“Hold on, I’ll switch accounts to help you get it,” Yu Zhen said. “I have it on my marksman account.”

ScarletFruit and the other two finally finished refining the materials. Although it took a while, they felt a great sense of accomplishment once the materials were done. It was only then that they noticed Momo and UnchainedWanderer hadn’t joined the team.

“Hey, didn’t we group up with the big guy earlier?” ScarletFruit glanced around and saw that UnchainedWanderer was not online. “Did Brother Wanderer log off?”

ZenSlasher said, “I just saw a log-off notification. He must have just logged off.”

ClearWind added, “Strange. I sent a team invitation to the big guy when I first logged in.”

He sent another team invitation and found that the opposite side already had a team.

“Brother Wanderer might have gone offline. Let’s join the big guy’s team,” ClearWind suggested.

ScarletFruit quickly withdrew from his previous team and sent a request to momo.

The request was soon approved. Just as he was about to speak after joining the new team, he was startled to see an unfamiliar yet familiar ID appear in the team—

[ReturnToSimplicity]

He blinked, looked again, and noticed that the ID ReturnToSimplicity was followed by Momo.

ScarletFruit said, “……！！！”

[playerClearWindIsHere joined the team] 

[playerZenSlasher joined the team]

What was originally a two-person team quickly filled up with five members.

The team fell into silence as the new arrivals saw the IDs in the team.

ClearWind said, “……Hi? What a coincidence.”

ZenSlasher was speechless.

ScarletFruit was speechless.

“Hi, you say?!”