Chapter 173: The Latest News
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
“Wait?! Where are the big shots?”
“Weren’t they getting married at the Moon Elder’s Temple?”
“They’ve already finished the ceremony, and now everyone’s gone!”
The Moon Elder’s Temple was only used for the marriage ceremony. After the ceremony, a special teleportation envoy would send players back to the Moon Elder’s Temple flower sea. Su Mo only realized after coming out that the crowd was so dense that even those flying on magpies couldn’t find a clear path; it was a sea of people that blocked all the routes. The area around the teleportation envoy was completely occupied.
While entering the temple for the ceremony was easy, leaving the Moon Elder’s Temple amidst the crowd proved to be a challenge.
Fortunately, Yu Zhen had a special item bound to the scene, allowing him to teleport to Sunset City. Afterward, Su Mo used a special item to teleport as well.
“I sent them a message,” Su Mo said, looking at the Global Channel. “It seems like there’s a quest at the Moon Elder’s Temple. I see people discussing it on Global Channel.”
Yu Zhen glanced through his friend messages and noticed inquiries from CloudTraveller and others. Though he was puzzled, he assumed, “It looks like CloudTraveller and the others misunderstood. They probably thought we encountered a quest, which is why there were so many people at the Moon Elder’s Temple.”
Compared to before, Sunset City seemed a bit empty. The two of them walked side by side toward the previously agreed-upon restaurant.
On the way, Yu Zhen helped Su Mo to avoid bumping into nearby vendors and asked, “What are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at the skills. I didn’t pay attention to them during the ceremony.” Su Mo focused on the two new skills, grabbing Yu Zhen’s sleeve and staring intently at the skill page. “The Heart Line Thread 3 skill has been unlocked…”
The Heart Line Thread had initially been a quest item for Su Mo, and later, during the Qixi Festival event, it turned into a two-way quest skill. Apart from the commonly used teleportation and shared health skills, there was also an inactive skill slot. During the ceremony, this skill slot had been activated and unlocked a relatively special 3 skill, Pairing Wings.
[Pairing Wings: When you and the bound partner [UnchainedWanderer] are in the same scene and within 30 meters of each other, the special quest skill Pairing Wings can be activated. During the skill’s duration, both parties’ attack power increases by 5%, defense power rises by 5%, and the effect of skills targeting the partner increases by 10%. This skill cannot be removed and lasts for 10 seconds, with a cooldown of 5 minutes.]
From the skill description, it was a scene-wide enhancement skill, activating mutual buffs as long as Su Mo and Yu Zhen were together. The most interesting part was the increased effect on skills targeting the partner… Su Mo paused, “Targeting skills, like your array lock-on and my Black Tortoise shield, do they count as targeting skills?”
“Yes, that’s right. Similarly, your Black Tortoise’s damage reduction line will also be more effective against my damage reduction.” Yu Zhen explained, “The benefit of this skill is that my array can give you an extra 10% effect for 10 seconds, and your Black Tortoise’s damage reduction will be more prominent for me.”
What a great skill…
Su Mo finished looking at the new quest skill and focused on the latest partner skill that had appeared. He had heard that partner skills were related to the harmony tests before a couple’s contract, and since they hadn’t triggered a harmony test this time, he had thought that no partner skills would be unlocked. He was surprised to find that they had actually received one… Moreover, this partner skill was new and hadn’t appeared in any guides he had seen.
The partner skill Yearning for Reunion was a resurrection skill.
[Yearning for Reunion (Partner): In the face of life and death, longing is hard to bear. When a partner dies within the scene and is within 30 meters, Yearning for Reunion can be used to resurrect the partner. This skill has a cooldown time of 24 hours.]
Su Mo had never thought much of the Heart Line Thread type of quest skill. However, as he became more familiar with its use, he found these skills to be very convenient when needed. Aside from teleportation, the shared health and enhancement skills were highly applicable in many situations… This resurrection skill might seem underwhelming with a 24-hour cooldown, but it could save a healer’s cooldown in critical moments. Since it was a bidirectional skill, he could resurrect Yu Zhen, and similarly, Yu Zhen could resurrect him.
As he thought about the various uses of the skill, Yu Zhen guided Su Mo outside, avoiding the wandering vendor carts.
Yu Zhen had been about to remind Su Mo to be careful when he noticed a summoner beside him, who was completely absorbed in arranging their skills. The summoner’s attention seemed entirely focused on skill placement, with their left hand gripping Yu Zhen’s sleeve tightly and their other hand working swiftly, completely oblivious to their surroundings as if all trust was placed in the person guiding them forward.
Yu Zhen’s gaze shifted from Su Mo’s face to the hand gripping his sleeve. The hand was delicate and small, looking fair and attractive, reminding him of Su Mo in real life.
He had held Su Mo’s hands before. Those hands were well-defined, with thin calluses from years of handling components. The back of those hands was marked with visible veins, cold and fragile to the touch, as if he could easily break them with just a little pressure.
“Brother?”
Yu Zhen’s attention snapped back as he met Su Mo’s gaze, and he realized he had been lost in thought. “What’s wrong?”
Su Mo asked, “Aren’t we leaving?”
“Yes,” Yu Zhen responded, taking the initiative to hold Su Mo’s hand. “Give me your hand; I’ll lead you.”
The fingers he held were warm and felt strong, without calluses or visible veins… The game’s realism was impressive, blending the vibrancy of life into its mechanics.
But Yu Zhen thought to himself, it was still different.
By the time they arrived at the tavern, most of the Fruit Guild members had already returned, with the remainder still stuck in traffic. The tavern was filled with delicious dishes, and the high-priced experience banquet spread from inside the tavern to outside. There were many people coming to enjoy the food and drinks, including a lot of familiar faces.
“Did you see?” ScarletFruit asked.
ClearWind nodded, “Yes, they came in holding hands.”
FireworksAndLanterns stood between them and asked, “And then?”
“Nothing much. He was just wondering if Momo and Yu Zhen got married because of some quest or something,” Apple said with an expressionless face. “He even thought they might have gotten married just to unlock the Dao Companion skill.”
ScarletFruit replied, “I didn’t say anything wrong. Didn’t someone get married just to get a skill not long ago?”
“And now?” ZenSlasher asked.
ScarletFruit laughed, “Getting married wouldn’t involve holding hands, so I need to ask about it.”
He felt like he had been blind in the team all this time, wasting years on gossip and fan fiction. It wasn’t until now, seeing the two big brothers get married in the game, that he realized something had been off from the start.
When FireworksAndLanterns saw ScarletFruit leave, he looked at Apple and shrugged, “Do we still need to ask? I already understood.”
Apple was speechless.
Yu Zhen was talking with CloudTraveller and others at the entrance of the tavern while Su Mo was being pulled around by ScarletFruit, who was asking all sorts of questions. Amidst the confusion and excitement, the flower parade and continuous fireworks in Sunset City added to the lively atmosphere.
Inside the tavern, with people coming and going, Su Mo was pulled by ScarletFruit to a table to play cards.
ScarletFruit took the dealer’s seat and said, “Brother, no hard feelings in the card game tonight.”
“Okay.” Su Mo, who rarely played cards with them, was in the mood and asked, “How much per game?”
However, ScarletFruit underestimated the situation because Su Mo’s card skills were as precise as his data calculations.
The lively scene continued until 11 PM. When Su Mo logged off to rest, ScarletFruit, for the first time, tearfully saw him off, urging him to go to bed early and not stay up.
After logging off, Su Mo noticed that Yu Zhen had logged off earlier than he did. When he came back after brushing his teeth, he found Yu Zhen had prepared a foot bath for him, filled with various herbs. The strange smell was more bitter than medicine. The herbs had arrived only recently, and Yu Zhen had logged off early to get them ready.
“Years ago, when I was on a space voyage, I met a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and bought some health-preserving herbs from him.” Yu Zhen checked the water temperature with his hand and adjusted it, “You shouldn’t just wait for your body to recover. Soaking in this will help alleviate your symptoms of body cold. It’s ready now.”
Su Mo tested the water temperature with his foot, and once he found it comfortable, he placed his feet into the tub.
He shivered slightly but soon adjusted. Afterward, he took the warm water from Lele and wrapped himself in a blanket, leaning against the sofa, and asked, “Brother, how long do I need to soak?”
“At least 20 minutes,” Yu Zhen replied.
Noting that the time was quite long, Su Mo saw that the new group chat was active and decided to join in. The new group was created by CloudTraveller and included many old players from Celestial Horizon. Originally called the Apocalypse Exploration Group, it had now become a medium-sized chat group. The group was a combined channel of StarNet and terminal, which was convenient for Su Mo, who didn’t have a StarNet account.
The group was very lively, with discussions focused on game-related topics.
Su Mo had only been in the group for a short time, and the message count had already reached 999. The current discussions were all about game gossip, so he clicked to read the messages. Su Mo had a habit of checking messages. The Rich Early Group often accumulated multiple messages, and he would read them one by one. This time, he noticed quite a few familiar names.
At the end of the messages was an invitation to a voice chat, which showed 15 people were currently chatting.
Yu Zhen asked, “What are you looking at?”
“Group voice chat. I haven’t joined yet.” Su Mo showed him the screen, “It seems like they’re talking about a quest.”
“You can join in,” Yu Zhen explained, “They often use group chats to discuss quests when they find them. If you have any quests you’re interested in, you can join too. Sometimes their methods for solving quests are quite unique.”
Since the foot soaking still required some time, Su Mo decided to join the voice chat to listen in.
However, instead of hearing about a quest, he ended up listening to gossip. He paused slightly, “I think I got it wrong. It seems like they’re not talking about a quest; they’re discussing how someone from Zenith Expanse got cheated on.”
Yu Zhen, “……?”
Su Mo didn’t listen for long and ended up falling asleep while soaking his feet.
Yu Zhen only put down his work when he heard the prompt from the foot soaking bucket. He brought a towel from Lele to dry Su Mo’s feet. After removing the herbal residue, he noticed Su Mo’s feet were red from the soak, but he was sound asleep, clearly exhausted. Yu Zhen tidied up the surroundings and then carried Su Mo into the bedroom.
The sleeping Su Mo was unaware that the voice chat was still active on the terminal.
Although the microphone wasn’t turned on, just having the chat open was quite unsettling, especially for a group of onlookers. It was like a midnight thriller. After all, one moment they were reading about the day’s events at the Moon Elder Temple on the forum, and the next, the forum’s hot topic, Momo, had joined the chat without leaving.
The situation at the Moon Elder Temple had caused quite a stir. The game had generated so much buzz, with various rumors and posts flooding the forums, dominating the homepage all night. The main topics of discussion were: [Did the Global-level quest appear or not?], [Who was the Zenith Expanse manager who got cheated on?], and [Momo and UnchainedWanderer’s marriage].
Momo and UnchainedWanderer were at the center of attention. The two top players had just won the Grand Debate of the Realm championship in the afternoon and then went to get married before the evening’s celebration banquet. The speed of their marriage caught everyone off guard, and the level of discussion soared.
[We knew they had a good relationship, but this was the first time I realized it was like this.]
[Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations.]
[Playing a game, I’m curious how they ended up like this…]
[Honestly, I just came out of the building next door, and it was quite the story.]
[Tonight, all the excitement on the Capital Planet’s branch servers was at the Moon Elder Temple. The wedding of these two top players really made an impact.]
These three topics didn’t necessarily fit together, but with a mix of fact and fiction and a crowd of onlookers stirring the pot, the discussion turned into two different theories. One theory insisted that the Moon Elder Temple had a quest, while the other merged dramatic storytelling with the marriage, claiming that a Zenith Expanse manager, who was in love with Momo, had led an elite team to the wedding.
The exaggeration reached absurd levels, and it wasn’t until a Zenith Expanse manager came out to clarify that things finally calmed down. The forum buzz lasted several days before gradually subsiding.
During this time, Su Mo spent his days playing the game and doing daily quests with friends, and his evenings were occupied with reading and studying. He took a break from work, and with the competition registration deadlines approaching, he stayed at home to rest and study. Yu Zhen usually went back to the main city for work but would return on weekends.
Having stayed for an extended period, Yu Zhen eventually told Grandma Cheng about their relationship. The two families lived close to each other, and Su Mo would visit to play chess when he had time.
Grandma Cheng didn’t explicitly mention anything, but she treated Su Mo very well. When Su Mo had been ill earlier, Grandma Cheng had the robot send chicken soup regularly. Now that they were in a relationship, Grandma Cheng sent even more chicken soup, and a few days ago, she even sent Su Mo a pair of hand-stitched gloves.
Due to being pampered and gaining a couple of pounds, Lele became more diligent in learning cooking, shifting his focus from Yu Zhen to Grandma Cheng. Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. After Su Mo completed the competition, returned to school for final exams, and discussed next semester’s topics with his advisor, he confirmed everything and went home to rest, with the year-end approaching.
“What are you looking at?” Su Mo woke up from his nap and noticed Yu Zhen was staring at the terminal, which displayed what seemed to be photos.
“Photos from when I was young. Grandma organized the ones she sent me a few days ago.” Yu Zhen swiped the screen to show him. The first photo was of a young Yu Zhen in work clothes, standing next to a repairman with a partially disassembled robot beside them.
He swiped to the next picture, which was a photo of young Su Mo and Lele.
Little Su Mo had red eyes and was holding Lele’s hand tightly, unwilling to let go.
Su Mo paused for a moment, recognizing it immediately. “When was this taken?”
Yu Zhen replied, “It was taken by Grandpa.”
Su Mo recalled the chess-loving Grandpa Yu, who indeed liked to take photos with the terminal. There were some photos at home that Grandpa Yu had developed and given to him.
“I don’t remember much about those early years. Seeing the photos made me recall some things,” Yu Zhen said, pulling Su Mo into his embrace and asking, “If I hadn’t asked, would you not have mentioned it?”
Su Mo paused, “I hadn’t thought about how to bring it up.”
And there wasn’t really a need to… After all, their time together when they were young was brief. Back then, Su Mo only saw Yu Zhen as a kind older brother who helped find a repairman. He didn’t know that the kind older brother was Grandpa Yu’s grandson until they met again later and he learned Yu Zhen’s name.
Su Mo leaned in closer, asking, “What else did you take photos of?”
Yu Zhen couldn’t resist pinching his cheek and said, “Just some random photos. There weren’t many group photos. Grandma found them in Grandpa’s data pad. That pad was a bit damaged, and some albums were already lost.”
“I have some,” Su Mo said, “Let me go get the album.”
Seeing Su Mo running to the lab, Yu Zhen followed him.
He rarely went into Su Mo’s lab. When he reached the lab door, he saw Su Mo standing in front of a glass cabinet, appearing somewhat dazed and not moving. Yu Zhen frowned slightly, feeling a bit concerned. “Momo?”
Su Mo snapped out of his daze and crouched down to pull out a box from the very bottom of the glass cabinet. “I’m looking for it.”
Was he struggling to remember where the photos were? Yu Zhen pushed aside his strange concern and was about to go in to help find the photos when he suddenly received a communication request.
Upon seeing the caller, his expression changed slightly. He stepped back from Su Mo’s lab and answered the call. An urgent voice from his assistant came through.
“Mr. Yu, the research institute has detected a new signal. Do you have time? The experts are at the institute right now… There’s new information about spaceship B2145.”
