Genius Chapter 17: “Hold on tight.”

Chapter 17: “Hold on tight.”

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Su Mo said, “Come if you want, ClearWind, you too.”

[Leveling up twice in half an hour, are they cheating?]

[I was just wondering what these two were up to. Since when do you need a specific order for monster hunting and leveling?]

[What are they researching? This is supposed to be the Brave map, not the Wise one.]

[You’re overthinking it. They’re just leveling up.]

ClearWind and ScarletFruit quickly joined them, while Su Mo continued discussing with Yu Zhen.

Currently, ScarletFruit and UnchainedWanderer were both level 31, ClearWind was level 30, and Su Mo was level 29. It had taken them the whole morning and part of the afternoon to level up twice, so leveling up twice in half an hour seemed absurd.

As ClearWind’s livestream zoomed in, forum users finally got a clear view of the cave. The tunnel was deep and wide, with small monsters resembling black mist scattered throughout. Though it seemed chaotic, their distribution actually formed something akin to three straight lines, each in the left, middle, and right sections.

Users felt a chill after seeing the cave, especially due to the unsettling atmosphere and insufficient lighting. Except during battles when the walls lit up, it was hard to discern the full extent of the tunnel.

A freshly drawn board was presented to everyone, displaying not only the original five patterns but also the trigger conditions for 15 different buffs. This chart was clear and concise, depicting each buff’s trigger conditions in a tree-like structure, such as the number of monsters to kill and how to kill them.

[What’s this? Do these small monsters have so many tricks up their sleeves?]

[Could they be doing the Apocalypse quest?]

[??? This seems different from what I understood about the Apocalypse.]

[Wasn’t the livestreamer supposed to be leveling up? Did I stumble into a puzzle-solving channel?]

ClearWind stared at it for a moment, “I understand every word…”

“Don’t aggro multiple mobs, save AoE skills for later,” Su Mo assigned tasks. “ClearWind, attack the left mobs with me. UnchainedWanderer, take the right. ScarletFruit, stay in the middle and heal yourself, don’t worry about us.”

ScarletFruit, a bit bewildered, felt the distribution was familiar, “What do I do?”

Su Mo calmly replied, “Gather mobs, protect yourself.”

ScarletFruit nodded, not daring to object.

Using team markers, Su Mo indicated the positions of several mobs on both sides. The bright pillars of light immediately separated the mobs on the left, middle, and right sides. Holding his wand, Su Mo initiated the attack.

The summoner’s skills were limited; his summons could only do AoE or single-target attacks, and the summoner himself had only a few simple attacks. He targeted the left side, aiming at the nearest three mobs, and attacked simultaneously with his summons. As soon as the attacks landed, he gained aggro and pulled the three mobs a few steps away.

“ClearWind, maintain distance and attack,” Su Mo instructed.

ClearWind, waiting nearby, immediately understood and complied. After the first wave, ClearWind sensed something was off. Their pace seemed to have quickened, and by the second wave, it was even faster! Although he was only attacking the mobs marked by Momo, the rhythm of their attacks was completely different.

[Did you notice? The mobs on the left and right were almost defeated simultaneously.]

[The array master has high DPS, but how did the two on the left manage…]

[The summoner is filling in the gaps!]

After two waves of mobs, a countdown timer suddenly appeared on all four screens. ScarletFruit and ClearWind were momentarily surprised; they hadn’t seen this during their previous battles!

“Stay focused,” Su Mo said. “One minute, focus on AoE, clear the middle too.”

“Got it, no problem,” ClearWind replied.

Apple entered the livestream at this moment. Hearing that the discoverer of the Misty Cave was live streaming, he rushed over not for the map but for UnchainedWanderer. While others couldn’t tell, he had collaborated with ReturnToSimplicity on several quests. When he saw the video of the wild monster area being farmed, he immediately realized this array master might be ReturnToSimplicity’s alt account.

ReturnToSimplicity was low-key and rarely grouped with others. His only friend was ‘HealsFor25000’, the top-ranked healer. Those who knew him only knew him as a highly skilled player.

Having worked with him and added him as a friend, Apple knew some details. ReturnToSimplicity’s main account was a sharpshooter on Flaming Thunder Mountain. His positioning was extreme, maximizing the potential of a sharpshooter beyond game stats and into personal skill and reflexes. So, knowing he was present, Apple subconsciously felt the four-man team’s operations might not be simple.

ReturnToSimplicity was currently the player with the most completed Apocalypse quests, boasting a success rate of 50%. But as he watched for a while, he suddenly realized that UnchainedWanderer wasn’t leading; it was summoner Momo.

The four were pushing the mobs forward, yet their movements were unusually organized. ScarletFruit gathered mobs in the middle, while DPS attacked on the left and right. Attacking together on the left side would easily lead to mistakes, but after two waves of mobs, there were hardly any errors.

Or rather, there were, but these mistakes were compensated for by the summoner’s micro-adjustments. The livestreamer Swordsman handed control over to the summoner, who efficiently pulled, gathered, and supplemented mobs, displaying almost perfect precision in distance management.

This summoner was incredibly strong.

Commanding already required a panoramic view, which was no problem for ordinary professions, but the catch was, the commander was a summoner. The summoner’s profession had a unique positioning. Official data indicated that this profession inherently demanded high mental strength; the more tasks one juggled, the better they played. FireworksAndLanterns, whom he knew, was an S-class mental strength and excelled in playing as a summoner.

However, the difficulty escalated when it came to commanding while simultaneously controlling summoned beasts. Apple understood the challenge of managing hidden images, but the summoner before him not only commanded but also managed to direct summoned beasts and pets to attack simultaneously. Apple couldn’t help but acknowledge that this level of multitasking rivaled that of FireworksAndLanterns. However, FireworksAndLanterns was merely a lone player skilled in operations but lacking in command.

Just as he pondered, a new development unfolded in the live stream room. Apple was slightly taken aback; the summoner was exploiting the game’s mechanics. These four individuals had discovered the mechanics of the Brave Adventurer map. He promptly started recording a video and shared the live stream link in their exploration group for the Apocalypse mission.

—

The passage was filled with many monsters, but with such organized monster spawns, the four-person team advanced about ten meters. Moreover, the continuously respawning monsters ceased to appear, and their experience points visibly increased twofold in a short time.

ClearWind: “Incredible.”

ScarletFruit: “Could you stabilize your positioning a bit? I’m almost out of mana to heal you.”

[What’s going on? Is the livestreamer cheating?]

[It’s common knowledge that Celestial Horizon doesn’t allow cheating.]

Apple furrowed his brows slightly; these people weren’t cheating but had discovered the mechanics of this map. The Brave Adventurer mode mainly focused on monster spawns, and defeating the map boss counted as completion. However, it was never stated that there was only one fixed way to complete it. Yet, he felt puzzled. What exactly was the mechanism of this map, and how did the summoner accurately mark it?

Half an hour passed, and the barrage of comments in the live chat skyrocketed, pushing the stream’s popularity to the top three on the channel.

In this stream with the leveling-up title, the four individuals were methodically clearing monsters amid what seemed like chaos. Finally, when the last monster was slain, the scene in the passage suddenly changed, and they found themselves in an underground cave.

[Congratulations to the player for completing the Misty Sea Maze. Global progress changed to 95%.]

Live Chat: What just happened?

Yu Zhen looked at Su Mo. “You guessed it.”

Su Mo closed the prompt box and complimented, “Your monster clearing is impressive.”

ScarletFruit, tired from healing, stared blankly at his experience bar. “What’s going on here!?”

He could already reach level 36!

All four players had leveled up. ScarletFruit and UnchainedWanderer were level 36, while Su Mo and ClearWind were close behind at level 35. The low-level monster spawns had bonuses, and Su Mo, within half an hour, caught up to ClearWind’s morning achievements in terms of experience. The speed at which they were clearing monsters was simply incomprehensible.

Su Mo surveyed the entire cave space and explained briefly, “There’s a technique to clearing monsters. Blindly attacking won’t get you anywhere; it’ll just keep you in place.”

There indeed existed a way to forcefully clear the level, but that required a full team situation, where the killing speed matched the respawn rate of monsters, to completely traverse this Misty Sea Maze. For their small team of four, brute force wasn’t an option; they had to be strategic. The key points lay in the patterns on the walls and the order of monster kills.

Su Mo and UnchainedWanderer conducted a test. Only attacking the monsters on the left or only on the right resulted in random buffs. Attacking the left side granted buffs, while attacking the right side resulted in debuffs. These effects were entirely random and more likely to affect monsters. However, attacking both sides simultaneously produced different effects.

In essence, the cave passage had two mechanisms:

1. If the number of monsters killed on the left side > the number killed on the right side, it triggered a full-screen positive state. Different numbers resulted in different positive states, lasting for a minute. Only one positive or negative state could exist at a time, and killing monsters wouldn’t trigger other buffs.
2. Building upon the first mechanism, if the monsters on the left side were killed first, the buff landed on the player; otherwise, it landed on the monsters. Once the rule was followed, the killed monsters wouldn’t respawn.

ClearWind listened intently, his mind blank. Throughout the ordeal, he had only followed instructions without grasping the intricacies involved. ScarletFruit remained silent for a moment before solemnly patting ClearWind’s shoulder.

[Holy crap, this is my first time seeing someone complete the Apocalypse mission.]

[Damn, four people cleared it?]

[I’m dumbfounded.]

[Who’s this momo person? They seem so strong. Are they a big shot in the Apocalypse exploration group?]

[No, they seem to be a new player!]

Su Mo finished explaining and didn’t say much more, instead turning his attention to the new scene.

After traversing the misty cave passage, they arrived at the deepest part—a natural cavern illuminated by faint ghostly light. Stalactites hung in irregular patterns, and the cave lacked smooth paths, with only uneven rocks and deep pools visible. Additionally, in the center of the cave stood a massive stone stele covered in densely packed inscriptions, exuding an air of mystery.

Su Mo’s gaze lingered on the natural beauty of the cave. He knew this concept came from various data videos on terminals; Capital Planet lacked such natural scenery, let alone such accurately recreated ones. He fell silent for a moment, then jumped down the slippery slope.

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Damn, is there no path?”

Yu Zhen said, “You guys stay up here to cover us,” then followed the summoner’s footsteps and jumped down.

After landing, it was difficult to find other footholds. The two could only move towards the central platform along the surface of the deep pool, using the protruding rocks. Su Mo reached the central platform first and looked up at the towering stele, his gaze fixed on the inscriptions.

“Ancient Chinese text,” Yu Zhen heard the summoner’s voice as he arrived.

He asked, “Can you understand it?”

“Somewhat,” Su Mo replied, stepping back a few paces and looking up at the top of the stele. “The light is too scattered.”

Although there was light in the cave, it was unevenly distributed, and the inscriptions on the stele were not deeply engraved. From his angle, it was difficult to fully discern the text, making reading it very challenging.

At that moment, the low voice of the array master sounded, “Come here, I’ll help you.”

Su Mo turned around in surprise to see the array master standing beside him, staring straight at him. He hesitated for a moment, a bit unsure, but still walked over. “How will you help?”

As he approached, everything spun around him. The man’s arms were strong, effortlessly lifting him up.

“Wait,” Su Mo panicked, grabbing the array master’s shoulder, his entire weight resting on the man’s arms.

“Hold on tight.” Before the man finished speaking, he exerted force and leaped onto the uneven rocks nearby, gripping the protruding rocks on the mountainside with one hand and stepping on the scattered rocks below, keeping them securely suspended at a height.