Genius Chapter 180: Boyfriend

Chapter 180: Boyfriend

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

In the previous moment, the live stream viewers were speculating about why ReturnToSimplicity had entered the live stream. In the next moment, they saw ReturnToSimplicity logged into UnchainedWanderer’s account and, without hesitation, purchased an expensive fashion gift box. They were so stunned that they couldn’t even continue their arguments, all of them staring in shock as if trying to find something more in that view.

[What the hell!!! Damn!!]

[Is it what I think it is!?] 

[UnchainedWanderer is ReturnToSimplicity?!] 

[All this time, I’ve been excitedly eating melon and criticizing the “bad guy,” and now I look like a fool!!] 

[230,000 gold coins… The system will likely confirm the biological information of the main brain.]

[I said their conversation seemed strange! Why did everyone focus on the “bad guy” drama? Was it really that hard to listen carefully to the conversation?]

The viewers of the live stream were stunned, with question marks and exclamation points filling the screen, washing away the chaotic and misleading comments.

The viewers were bewildered. Who had said that the three of them were good friends?! Two people with three accounts?!

In the live stream, ReturnToSimplicity spoke calmly, “Today, with so many people here, I’ll clarify things. ReturnToSimplicity and UnchainedWanderer are both my accounts. Those who know me well are aware of this, but they haven’t made it public.”

[Okay, I heard it.] 

[Who said they were good friends before!?]

[It seems many people mentioned it… I didn’t expect ReturnToSimplicity and UnchainedWanderer were the same person!] 

[????? So the “Shura field” was just your couple’s amusement?]

“This is a good opportunity to clarify,” ReturnToSimplicity continued.

In the view, the array master was still standing beside Momo, while more and more players were drawn to the scene. ReturnToSimplicity’s voice remained steady but grew colder as he continued, “I rarely play the marksman account myself. It’s usually handled by a proxy, and sometimes Momo helps me log in to manage equipment. Currently, I mainly play the array master and only play with close friends. There are some misunderstandings caused by people creating drama recently, so I’m taking this chance to explain everything.”

As the viewers were still processing the shock of the two accounts, ReturnToSimplicity opened an email he had received from CloudTraveller, filled with forum screenshots and some sort of evidence. His voice remained calm but the tone grew even colder.

The listed IDs were players who had been stirring up trouble on the forum over the past few days. A friend had helped compile the information and reviewed their posting history. The recent posts from these users included accusations and slander, and some had even changed their names repeatedly. Forum identification IDs remained unchanged, but there were insufficient real-name registration details, and there were records of forum bans. These accounts were initially judged to be notorious for frequently causing disturbances on the forum and were likely to be fake accounts.

The viewers were stunned. On one hand, they hadn’t expected the topic to shift so suddenly; on the other hand, they were surprised by ReturnToSimplicity’s involvement.

ReturnToSimplicity had been a prominent figure in the Celestial Horizon’s early stages and had a significant influence in the marksman class. Some of his techniques were still part of the skill rotations for marksman players. However, he was known to be a very low-key player, rarely making public statements despite being elevated to near-legendary status early on.

Even now, there were only two or three marksman tutorials on the forum, and he only appeared in friends’ streams when they happened to be grouped for dungeons or battles. He was known for being a quiet and modest expert, and it was the first time that some long-time players had heard him speak so extensively.

In the exploration group, the crowd that had gathered to watch was also taken aback.

“It seems like Brother Zhen is really upset,” HealsFor25000 noted, “He asked me to keep an eye on the forum a few days ago.”

Apple said, “After knowing him for so long, it’s the first time I’ve heard him speak at length like this…”

The audience was stunned for a while but quickly focused on the details in the images, recognizing many familiar IDs.

[It seemed like that’s the case. The poster I saw a couple of days ago was on the list.] 

[I was wondering why so many people were paying attention to the big shot’s love life. I thought the whole “bad guy” thing was just a joke, but then I saw so many extreme comments and thought maybe I was too indifferent to take it seriously…] 

[Yeah, I was also puzzled about the bad guy stuff. Later, they started digging up blackmail material on Momo.]

[Seriously, who has the time to hire water armies to cause trouble? Why turn a game into this?!]

“The poster was clever enough to hide their posting history but overlooked the forum’s keyword search function. The identification IDs can still pinpoint certain keywords,” ReturnToSimplicity said with a cold tone. “The posting times and activity periods were quite concentrated. I spent some time checking their forum interests and reply records. The compiled data is here.”

ReturnToSimplicity opened an image. “The early discussions focused on the Divine Weapon System, which was mentioned in several trade posts and material posts… Initially, it was determined that these players not only enjoyed spreading false rumors but were also quite interested in the Divine Weapon formula and had close interactions with some well-known forum players. The repeated keywords in their replies are in the image. Interested viewers can check it out…”

The viewers in the live stream followed the image and started recalling certain keywords. There were too many issues to keep track of. The Divine Weapon System involved weapons, and it was normal for players who didn’t know how to forge weapons to seek out a master blacksmith. However, because Divine Weapons were different from other weapons, many players experienced failures when forging them.

At this point, high-priced master blacksmiths who guaranteed the attributes of the Divine Weapons started appearing. Their formula prices were extremely high and required many materials, with some even demanding players to fetch materials from their locations. When occasional failures occurred, the master blacksmith would often blame the players, claiming that the materials provided were insufficient and that the failures were the customers’ fault.

One of the IDs ReturnToSimplicity posted was a relatively active master blacksmith on the forum, known as Brother Hao. Brother Hao was very active on the forum, had posted numerous articles about forging, and knew many other master blacksmiths. He even organized a neutral alliance for master blacksmiths and actively raised the prices for forging Divine Weapons. It could be said that the current distorted market for Divine Weapons was largely created by them.

[Was it actually him?] 

[I remember he posted a few days ago pointing out errors in Momo’s formula, and there were people agreeing with him in the comments.] 

[Momo’s formula works really well; I used it to forge my own Divine Weapons.] 

The players began to understand…

It turned out that these people had been persistently attacking Momo’s reputation, distorting facts on the forum, simply because Momo’s formula affected their earnings from forging Divine Weapons. After all, some of the one-click generation formulas were even better than theirs. By attacking Momo’s character and shifting the focus to problems with the formula, their ultimate goal was to protect their own interests.

Yu Zhen hadn’t had time to log in for the past few days. The clarifications were actually quite simple, and ClearWind had mentioned them in the livestream, but the repeated raising of the issue was problematic. Although Yu Zhen had been busy with New Year activities and hadn’t been online, it didn’t mean he hadn’t seen the online discussions. Jokes in the group were one thing, and Su Mo not caring was another, but he didn’t want Su Mo to be unjustly smeared because of him.

He patiently explained in the comments, “Momo’s formula program was completed a long time ago. Previously, because friends in the group needed help, he organized these formulas into a framework program to share. The intention behind sharing the guide was to reduce everyone’s time costs, so you wouldn’t waste unnecessary time at certain stages and could make basic judgments about the formulas rather than being misled into spending excessive amounts of money.”

[If the big shot didn’t come out to speak, they would have continued to slander him!?] 

[There are too many people involved in these matters; sometimes, you don’t even realize you’re being used as a pawn.] 

“He doesn’t visit forums and doesn’t have a forum account, so I’m speaking on his behalf. Whether you use it or not is up to you, but choosing to spread false accusations is indeed disgraceful.”

Yu Zhen’s gaze lingered on the increasingly numerous comments. “Complete evidence will be submitted to the forum management later. I’ve saved and reported the records of posts and statements that had a significant impact. Similarly, I’ve asked someone to remember the IDs of the players causing trouble in the livestream; I’ll contact the StarNet platform to handle it afterward.”

The comments began to vary in their responses. The earlier water army members had been mostly kicked out by ClearWind, and those remaining were intimidated into silence by the evidence provided by ReturnToSimplicity. Seeing that ReturnToSimplicity had stopped speaking, ClearWind stepped in to smooth things over, saying, “I’ve told you many times, if you’re here to watch the drama, that’s one thing, but surfing the internet should be done with some common sense. Look, isn’t there someone causing trouble here?”

“Take a good look at the posts, okay? The formula explicitly states it’s for reference only,” ClearWind continued. “If you’re unsure, ask a friend who’s a blacksmith. Be more careful when crafting Divine weapons, keep track of your materials, and if you end up being scammed, don’t blame my brother’s formula.”

[We really need to thank Momo for the formula. I don’t know if he’s watching the livestream, but thanks anyway; it’s been very useful.] 

[Thanks! We’re just here to watch and are not affiliated with those who caused trouble earlier!]

[Got it, got it. So, let’s get back to the main issue! Why did you initially say those two were good friends? You’ve been misleading us!]

[And Apple! He also said in the livestream that they were good friends.]

Apple, who was still at the front row watching, chose to remain silent.

Others who were watching in excitement fell silent.

Livestreamer ClearWind, feeling uneasy, attempted to explain, “Aren’t they good friends?”

He hadn’t misspoken; they were indeed good friends!

[Actually, don’t take it too seriously. It’s normal for good friends to get married; I’m in a soulmate relationship with my best friend too.] 

[Watching the drama is one thing, joking around is another, and ClearWind has clarified many times that they are just good friends. Don’t interfere in others’ gaming lives.] ClearWind was left speechless. No, it seemed to have gone awry.

[Ah, just treat it as a plastic relationship. There’s nothing wrong with good friends getting a marriage certificate.] Yu Zhen suddenly said, “Good friends? That’s not quite it.”

Audience: ?

At that moment, a special notification appeared in ReturnToSimplicity’s view, coming from the terminal end. The sender seemed to be a special focus for ReturnToSimplicity, with a special pop-up set to alert him whenever a message was received. Everyone was still listening to ReturnToSimplicity, when suddenly, a dialogue box with the note ‘mo’ started flashing.

[-mo: Accept the transaction.]

The key issue wasn’t just the message but the content of the chat above.

Earlier messages showed Momo asking marksman to get floating cloud beads, and further up were messages time-stamped from the previous evening.

-yzklji_063: Are you staying at my place tomorrow?

-mo: Then I’ll bring a change of clothes.

-yzklji_063: There are some here, no need to bring any.

[That voice message was 3 hours long!?]

[Staying together!?]

Yu Zhen clicked on the transaction, and then a flurry of floral effects appeared.

[System] Momo gifted UnchainedWanderer [Half-Life Gift Box]

A new message popped up in the Zenith Expanse chat,

[-mo: I wanted to give you a gift.]

“We are currently in a relationship; he is my boyfriend.” Yu Zhen’s gaze faltered, and his serious tone seemed to dissipate. He said, “Is there a problem with living together with a boyfriend?”