Genius Chapter 196: Unrestrained Husband

Chapter 196: Unrestrained Husband

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Upon seeing the message, Su Mo quickly sent his ID without thinking much about it. After sending it, he remembered that he had apparently enabled friend request restrictions, so any messages to add him were intercepted.

Just as he was about to lift the restrictions, he immediately received a response from his dad.
[-Dad: It seems I clicked something and can’t add you.]
[-Mo: What’s your ID? I’ll add you.]
[-Dad: Ping An Xi Le (Peace and Joy).]

Su Mo happened to have his friend request list open and noticed the countless friend requests. In the latest additions, he found the ID “Ping An Xi Le.” After approving it, he also accepted several other familiar IDs.

“Looks like they’re talking about something else in the live stream.”
“Wow, there are so many people watching the stream!”
“They’re still cheering for the commanders to go into the stream.”
“The Eclipse side declined; they’re having a post-match meeting.”
“What about the boss momo? Is he going?”

As the faction battle came to an end, information from the outside flooded in. BrokenOracle thought momo would log off to rest but still mentioned the invitation from the live stream to momo.

BrokenOracle asked, “Momo, are you listening?”
Momo replied, “I’m listening. You guys can go; I have something to do.”

Yu Zhen was on a private voice call with Su Mo and noticed the brief silence from the other side. Feeling concerned, he asked, “What’s wrong? Aren’t you logging off to rest?”
Half an hour ago, it was the same person who mentioned feeling a bit tired and wanting to finish early to log off and sleep. Now that the faction battle had ended, this person still hadn’t logged off, leaving Yu Zhen wondering what was on his mind.

Su Mo said, “Just a moment… I’m accepting a friend request.”
“Tomorrow is Monday; you still need to head back to school early.”
Yu Zhen replied, “Log off and rest early. I’ll stay here today and can take you back to school tomorrow.”
Su Mo responded, “Mm-hmm.”
He replied absentmindedly.

The game monitored the players’ physical conditions. Even though Su Mo’s health had improved significantly compared to before, the high-intensity mental strain from 7 PM until now still made him feel somewhat fatigued. Celestial Horizon’s health information, which connected with the loading device, reminded him that he was currently in a fatigued state. The energy value bar in the game was still a good distance from the red zone, and part of his physical status had been unblocked, making Su Mo feel drowsy.

Noticing the fatigue in Su Mo’s tone, Yu Zhen asked, “Has your fatigue value reached its limit? Log off and rest; don’t forget.”
“Not yet, I’m just a bit sleepy,” Su Mo replied. “I’ll tell my dad and then log off to sleep.”
Yu Zhen paused for a moment, “Your dad?”
Su Mo explained, “Yeah, I just accepted his friend request…”
Yu Zhen raised an eyebrow, “Huh?”
“Wait a moment…”

Su Mo’s slightly dazed mind became a bit clearer with Yu Zhen’s question. “Is there a problem? It’s fine; I just hid the information about my partner.”

He had always been curious about the ID of his partner, Xu Zhixing, but Xu Zhixing was always very mysterious about gaming and hadn’t shared much with them. Even Chen Shanxue kept things under wraps regarding her husband. Recently, Xu Zhixing had brought up gaming more often at the dinner table, so when his dad took the initiative to ask for his ID, Su Mo didn’t think to hide it. The title of “archdemon” was already something other players teased about, so sharing the ID seemed harmless.

It was simple to hide the information on the information page.

As soon as he finished speaking, a party invitation popped up in the game. The main faction battle team had already disbanded, and his team now only consisted of the newly formed UnchainedWanderer. The incoming party invitation wasn’t from ScarletFruit and the others, but from someone he had just met.

[player[平安喜乐] joined the party.]

“Dad, you’re level 40 now?” Su Mo asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I played for a long time this afternoon and triggered some weird quest. After completing it, I leveled up several times in a row and suddenly reached level 40,” Xu Zhixing replied, his voice sounding just like in real life, full of energy in the game as well.

Su Mo was speechless.

It seemed that because leveling up was usually so slow, the system couldn’t stand it anymore and had offered a fast-track quest for leveling up.

Xu Zhixing was thrilled to finally connect with his son and asked eagerly, “I’m currently in a place called Sunset City. Where are you?”

Sunset City was the main city close to the newbie area for level 40 players.

“We’re also in Sunset City; I’ll come find you.” Su Mo frequently used the teleport point bound to Sunset City. After the faction battle ended, he teleported to the bound main city, which happened to be right near the entrance of Sunset City. He opened the map to check the location of the blue dots and discovered that his dad was at a spot in the wilderness.

Entering the normal area from the newbie zone at level 40 also brought about another problem.

Once players left the newbie protection, they would enter the faction division, and an alt account wandering in the wild was essentially a point-giving machine.

Su Mo suddenly became alert. “…Dad, wait for me right there; I’ll come to you right now.”

The wilderness was desolate, with yellow sand swirling in the air.

Outside Sunset City, the area was eerily quiet. Xu Zhixing had just reached level 40 and entered the normal game zone. He had heard from the young people in his guild that the game truly began at level 40, and everything below that was merely an adaptation period. Originally, he had planned to wait until he reached the maximum level before telling his son, but after a conversation with his wife, Chen Shanxue, he changed his mind and thought to add him as a friend first.

As soon as he formed a party, he immediately noticed there was another person in his son’s group. When he saw that person’s ID, Xu Zhixing discreetly peeked at his personal information.

In a party, some personal information could be viewed, such as equipment and profession, etc.

[player[平安喜乐] is viewing your profile.]

[player[平安喜乐] is viewing your profile.]

……

Yu Zhen replied, “…?”

He cleared his throat lightly. “Your dad has been peeking at my profile since just now.”

Su Mo, who had been chatting privately with him, paused for a moment upon hearing this, and after a while, he finally processed what “peeking” meant. “He’s probably just curious?”

[player[平安喜乐] is viewing your profile.]

Yu Zhen was speechless.
His curiosity might have been a bit excessive.

Having played games for so long, Yu Zhen was used to people checking his gear or information when in a party. Sometimes, even when he went AFK, others would walk around and scrutinize him. However, being stared at for so long was a first for him; it felt as if the person across from him kept opening and closing his profile, repeatedly clicking on it.

This made him feel a bit anxious.

Su Mo was a bit puzzled. “…Why isn’t he looking at me?”

Yu Zhen paused slightly. “He isn’t looking at you?”

“Nope.”

Flying swiftly outside the city, Su Mo rushed over, especially since the faction war had just ended. At this moment, there weren’t many people in the wild. He was worried that his dad, having just entered the normal area, might get killed by someone due to faction alt accounts. When he arrived, he found that there weren’t many people around, just a tall male assassin standing still.

The male assassin was not hidden and had an adult male physique.

Su Mo’s father, Xu Zhixing, was a newbie at gaming, and he only had a vague understanding of the game’s settings. The face he had chosen in the game resembled him a lot in real life. As Su Mo took a step closer, he saw a young face that he had encountered countless times in photos—his father’s younger self, which he had once been too afraid to look at.

When the male assassin noticed them, he took a step back.

Su Mo was so focused on looking at his dad that he only then realized that his father had a red name… In the wild, a red name only indicated one thing: the player belonged to an opposing faction.

Xu Zhixing said, “Son, I ran into two people in the wild, and they seem like they want to fight me.”

Su Mo was speechless.
Yu Zhen was speechless.

Su Mo canceled the ID hiding option and awkwardly said, “Dad, that’s me.”

Xu Zhixing replied, “Huh?”

“Uncle, you can disable the option to hide player IDs in your settings,” Yu Zhen explained. “This way, we can hide our IDs, and you’ll still be able to see us when you’re in our party.”

Su Mo also switched the game mode to party mode. He was genuinely worried that if he wasn’t careful, he might accidentally kill the assassin; at level 40, the character was just too fragile. A mere touch with a weapon might be enough to take him out.

Xu Zhixing paused for a moment. “Is this your friend?”

Su Mo said, “No, this is Brother Zhen.”

Xu Zhixing replied, “Oh, so it’s Xiao Yu. No wonder his voice sounds a bit familiar.”

Yu Zhen added Xu Zhixing as a friend and switched to his original voice, saying, “There will be enemies in the wild. We belong to opposing factions, so when you see us, we appear as red names.”

“Oh, I see,” Xu Zhixing replied, lowering his head as he followed Yu Zhen’s instructions to disable that setting. “At least I finally figured it out… I thought I was getting into big trouble as soon as I left the newbie zone. How did we end up as enemies? Can’t we change that back?”

Su Mo said, “Not for now… the game doesn’t allow faction switching.”

“This game is ridiculous.” Xu Zhixing finished adjusting his settings and looked up, noticing that the two red names in front of him had turned into green names, indicating they were teammates. He tried to lock onto their IDs for further details and immediately saw their information.

One was momo, and the other was UnchainedWanderer.

“Oh, so that’s how it works. Now I can lock on and see your IDs.”

As he looked at the IDs, Xu Zhixing hesitated for a moment. He hadn’t felt anything unusual before, but seeing these two names together suddenly sparked a sense of familiarity. He seemed to have heard them somewhere. Before he could recall where, his gaze was abruptly drawn to the title beneath momo’s ID.

“UnchainedWanderer’s husband…?

Wait, what does that mean???”

Xu Zhixing repeatedly confirmed the title, staring at the ‘UnchainedWanderer’s husband’ under momo’s ID and then glancing at UnchainedWanderer beside him.

UnchainedWanderer was a normal title, but the title under momo was anything but.

At that moment, Xu Zhixing’s somewhat muddled mind suddenly cleared, and the words he was about to say were abruptly halted.

“You shouldn’t be out here; it’s best for an alt account to apply for protection time in the main city before coming into the wild,” Su Mo said, standing beside him. “I’ll take you to the main city to apply for protection time.”

Xu Zhixing glanced at UnchainedWanderer and then at momo. “Son, I might be getting old and my eyesight isn’t very good.”

Su Mo replied in confusion, “…Dad, there’s no blurring in holographic.”

Xu Zhixing cautiously asked, “So what does ‘UnchainedWanderer’s husband’ mean?”

Yu Zhen suddenly looked at the others and saw the title beneath the ID.

“……”

The partner title hadn’t been removed.

In their private chat channel, Yu Zhen groaned, “Didn’t you say you were going to hide the partner info? How did you forget to remove the title?”

Su Mo said, “…I forgot there was a title.”

At that moment, Su Mo’s weary brain finally registered that they seemed to have forgotten about the partner title. Perhaps it was because they had been gaming for too long, or maybe it was due to his worry about Xu Zhixing being attacked in the wild; he had hurried over and completely forgot to remove the title.

In the private chat—
Su Mo: “Bro, what should we do? Should we just say it directly?”
Yu Zhen: “…It’s fine, I’ll go talk.”
Xu Zhixing: “Son?”

Su Mo was speechless.

Yu Zhen said, “…Let’s head back to the main city; it’s a bit dangerous out here.”

With yellow sand swirling around them, the three of them walked back side by side without using any lightness skills.

Along the way, they encountered several red names. Xu Zhixing understood that red names represented the enemy faction, but when he thought those red names were about to attack him, the individuals unexpectedly walked away, some glancing back as they went, while others just stood there.

Xu Zhixing asked, “What are those red names doing?”

Su Mo replied, “Probably just lurking around in the wild.”

Xu Zhixing responded with a vague understanding, “Oh, okay.”

Not long after, they also saw some green names, and when they noticed the trio, they ran away.

Xu Zhixing asked again, “Why are those green names running? They’ve disappeared!”

Su Mo was speechless.

He had no choice but to take the initiative to explain the faction mechanics to Xu Zhixing.

After returning to the main city, Su Mo and Yu Zhen helped Xu Zhixing apply for protection time for his alt account. It didn’t take long before they all logged off together. After logging off, Su Mo was pulled by Lele to take medicine, while Xu Zhixing asked Yu Zhen to go to the study.

“Bro,” Su Mo said, looking at Yu Zhen.

Yu Zhen ruffled his hair and said, “What are you thinking about? It’s nothing, right? Aren’t you tired? After you finish your medicine, go to bed early.”

Su Mo felt extremely fatigued. After taking his medicine, he sat on the sofa, fighting off sleep while glancing toward the study from time to time. If the game’s title had been exposed, then no amount of explanation would suffice. He could use gameplay to brush it off, but explaining it later would be even more difficult. Plus, his relationship with Yu Zhen was not a secret in the game. Once his dad learned his ID, finding out other details would be quite easy.

In front of family, both he and Yu Zhen didn’t want to complicate a simple matter too much.

He hadn’t expected to run into trouble here. Perhaps he should have borrowed a summoner-type alt account from ScarletFruit to cover it up. Maybe it was just that he was too tired at the time, and he hadn’t been on guard with his parents; he hadn’t considered many things thoroughly.

Chen Shanxue brought a cup of water over and said, “Why aren’t you going to bed yet? Your dad and Xiaoyu should finish up their talk soon. Lele said you’re really tired, and it’s already past midnight. Listen to your mom, and don’t stay up late, okay?”

Su Mo replied, “No, I’ll just wait a little longer.”

Chen Shanxue asked, “Is something bothering you?”

Su Mo hesitated and said, “…A little.”

Chen Shanxue continued, “Is it about Xiaoyu? At the beginning of the year, you told me you liked someone. Is it him?”

Su Mo looked at Chen Shanxue in surprise, seemingly not expecting her to know so quickly.

Chen Shanxue covered him with a blanket and said, “If you had someone else you liked, would you still be playing games during your break? Young people I know go out with their friends every day when they’re dating. Do you think I wouldn’t guess?”

Su Mo replied, “He’s worried you guys would oppose it and said he wants to wait a while before saying anything.”

“You young people just think too much,” Chen Shanxue said. “I’m not an old-fashioned person. Same-sex marriage has been legal for so many years now. I’m not the kind of person to consider these things. Xiaoyu is a nice guy; your dad and I have seen it during this time. I heard from Lele that he took care of you a lot before.”

Su Mo glanced at Lele.

In a different skin, Lele said, “Lele didn’t say much.”

Su Mo asked, “Then what did you say?”

Lele replied, “…I just said Mr. Yu Zhen cooks really well, taught Lele how to cook, and helped us a lot.”

Su Mo was speechless.
They were almost finished revealing everything.

“Don’t blame Lele,” Chen Shanxue noticed his gaze. “Your dad won’t make things difficult for him; they just need to discuss some matters. Aren’t you tired? You should rest your eyes first. Once they come out, I’ll talk to you.”

Su Mo was too exhausted. While chatting with Chen Shanxue, he quickly fell asleep. The conversation in the study lasted until after one o’clock. After Yu Zhen came out, he nodded slightly to Chen Shanxue and, seeing Su Mo fast asleep on the sofa, quietly said, “I’ll help take him to his bedroom to rest.”

Chen Shanxue saw him skillfully pick up Su Mo and asked, “Aren’t you staying over to rest tonight?”

“That wouldn’t be appropriate,” Yu Zhen replied. “I’ll visit in the morning. He might be a bit tired from gaming, so keep an eye on his temperature tonight.”

After bringing Su Mo to his bedroom and covering him with a blanket, he refrained from kissing Su Mo’s forehead in front of Chen Shanxue, merely whispering a soft goodnight.

In the game, the faction battle had just ended, but the late-night festivities continued. The Abyss faction had won a resounding victory, and all players in the faction received double rewards. Naturally, the focus of discussion in the game shifted to archdemon momo. Everyone in the livestream had witnessed the entire retrieval battle, and the various strategies gradually unfolding around the winter stronghold were truly dazzling.

[Don’t mention it! I was sweating bullets when I saw the summer stronghold; who would have thought there would be a chain of taunts?]
[The pinnacle of taunting in the gaming world! I feel like future boss battles will be interesting. If everyone plays like that, the fights will be even more exciting.]
[Watching this makes me want to join the retrieval battle too! Is momo going to lead again next week?]
[I feel like there’s nothing momo can’t do. How does his brain work? Is there really someone who can play games this well?]
[Archdemon truly lives up to the name; I, an Eclipse player, just felt like shutting down after that.]

[Don’t panic! They didn’t have the healing buff; we can still have fun in next week’s resource battle!]
[I was scared to death! After my faction battle ended, I ran into archdemon, and I was so frightened that I immediately ran away, but a newbie got blocked by them.]
[What newbie? So why isn’t archdemon coming to the livestream room? After playing for so long, he’s still so mysterious! What’s the big deal about coming to the livestream?]
[Tears! No one knows how embarrassed I was while scrolling through ClearWind’s livestream.]
[UnchainedWanderer and momo are so sweet! I’m just here munching on candy during my daily routine.]

Eclipse truly didn’t suffer a loss; the commander of this faction battle directly pushed momo onto the pedestal of command, turning the tide and winning beautifully! Even the assassins, who usually didn’t get along with momo, ended up posting praise for him.
[momo is truly strong. I only found out after I finished that he actually participated in the retrieval battle last week, using an alt account to lead the assassin team.]
[Yes, yes! He led our assassins to steal the boss and even did air raids; it was so satisfying for us!]
[Is that true? I saw some people next door saying that momo’s command was devilish. Why are you all saying something different?]
[Who’s on the other side? Can you stop spreading rumors?]
[Probably a mage, oh, and two physical swordsmen.]
[Stop making things up! Anyway, we assassins had a blast following their lead.]
[No matter how devilish it was, I really want to try it out, okay?]
[I heard there might be a highlight reel of the faction battle; maybe there’s a recording!]
[That was awesome! This faction battle can be legendary; let’s get some highlight recordings!]

The discussion on the game forum continued to rise, and many people were inspired by this faction battle, arranging to fight again next week on the Capital Planet side quest. Among the hot posts discussing the faction battle, a new post suddenly popped up.
-[My goodness!!! Is anyone checking the overall leaderboard? It’s been refreshed!]