Genius Chapter 205: Extra- After the Meeting (Part 2)

Chapter 205: Extra- After the Meeting (Part 2)

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

After ClearWind sent the link to apply for a forum account, Su Mo spent a bit of time registering and linking his account. Once registered, he was redirected to the forum homepage. “I’ve finished registering,” he said.

ClearWind replied, “Send me your ID. I want to follow you and mutual-follow!”

Su Mo sent his ID over. After mutual-following, he casually entered ScarletFruit’s profile page. He immediately noticed a variety of trade posts filling the space. Clicking into ScarletFruit’s latest trade post, he indeed saw several players leaving comments at the bottom, asking about Summoner gameplay.

Most of the questions focused on physical Summoners.

There were two main schools of Summoners in the game. The current meta leaned heavily towards magic-based Summoners like FireworksAndLanterns. Physical Summoners were exceedingly rare, and hybrid Summoners? There was only Su Mo.

The issue with physical Summoners was the lack of guides and established strategies. Building one was entirely counterintuitive compared to standard setups. Prioritizing stats, understanding breakpoints for various attributes, and balancing the cost were all uncharted territory. No high-ranking player had ever published a detailed guide on the subject.

While players knew that physical Summoners required high physical attack stats, they didn’t know the exact thresholds for physical attack, accuracy, skill accuracy, or other key attributes. Without benchmarks, the trial-and-error costs were prohibitively expensive.

Naturally, these players thought of Su Mo, the sole known hybrid Summoner, whose builds leaned towards physical stats. If they could glean insights from his itemization strategies and stat ranges, it would save them a lot of wasted resources and effort.

As a result, ScarletFruit’s trade post was overrun by inquiries about physical Summoners.

“Bro, did you check out my post?” ScarletFruit said, “Look! How many Summoners have joined my thread! They come, but none of them buy anything!!”

“Oh, I see.” Su Mo exited the post, then searched for Yu Zhen’s forum account. After following it, he quickly exited the forum. “I’ll talk about the guide later. I’m busy.”

“Busy with what?” ClearWind asked.

“Browsing StarNet,” Su Mo replied.

He set aside the forum for now and continued heading toward the central shopping district of StarNet. His goal was the nostalgic zone, where he wanted to buy some old mini-games he had never played before.

Su Mo, deeply absorbed in StarNet, had little interest in the game. Meanwhile, the discussions on the forum were still heating up. The excitement from the meet-up had not yet faded. After discovering Su Mo in the street photo, players realized the treasure trove of content in the post. They found not only Su Mo, but also FireworksAndLanterns and others, and from them, they traced back to some other famous figures who hadn’t yet revealed themselves.

The forum homepage was filled with numerous discussion threads, but the street photo from the “Double Brothers” CP thread had become the iconic image of the page. Speaking of the CP thread, it had a bit of a tragic fate—many forum threads were dedicated to pairings of famous players, including several related to Su Mo and ReturnToSimplicity. However, these CP threads had not been updated since ReturnToSimplicity clarified things in his live stream days ago. The “Valor Peak True Pairing” and “Double Brothers” threads had merged and even linked each other.

Inside the thread, players happily shared content with each other, but after staring at the photos for a while, some subtle clues started to appear to the attentive eyes.

[“Unchained Wanderer looks a lot like one of the leaders at our headquarters…”]

[“Which company is the girl upstairs from? Such a handsome leader!!”]

[“Haha, I work at The Firmament, and I think Unchained Wanderer’s photo looks quite similar to our young master.”]

[“The Firmament’s young master? Oh, is that the one who hosted the Loader development, Mr. Yu? I think I saw him at the Celestial Horizon Loader launch event. He seemed like a handsome guy!”]

[“How handsome? Let me see!”]

[“Here it is, here it is [image]. Honestly, after I found the photo and looked at it… I realized it really does look alike.”]

[“No way! It really does look like him! The street photo’s side profile and the launch event’s frontal shot match perfectly!”\

[“!!! No way? (Whispering)”\

[“It really does look like him. Look at this player’s homepage @TargetIsToBecomeGod. He shared some details about the meet-up in his post, [image]. Isn’t that photo with momo and UnchainedWanderer?”]

TargetIsToBecomeGod was a Capital Planet player who started a thread sharing his experience at the meet-up. His post included various photos from the event, and near the end, there were a few photos taken in the hallway after the event.

• @TargetIsToBecomeGod: I think I ran into Momo and his friend on the way out. I dropped my stuff and didn’t notice. Momo was ahead of me, and when he saw I dropped something, he reminded me. At first, I didn’t realize, but by the time I figured it out, Momo and his group had already walked quite a distance. I only managed to snap a few pictures.

The thread was filled with people asking about momo’s appearance.

• @TargetIsToBecomeGod: He’s pretty handsome, and his friend is also very handsome. He should be UnchainedWanderer. Let me look… I took a close-up shot with my terminal at the time [image]. Handsome, right? The clarity isn’t great, but the guy is definitely handsome. Haha, if I had recognized him earlier, maybe I could’ve talked to him more.

The photo was taken with a terminal’s zoom effect. Due to the angle, it happened to capture momo turning around and most of his friend’s face beside him. Combined with their outfits, when compared to the street photos, it was easy to make the connection. If the street photo had only been a possible match, now with this new photo, it was clear that UnchainedWanderer’s appearance was unmistakable.

[“So sweet.”]

[“Momo was leaning on UnchainedWanderer, right? I can see UnchainedWanderer’s hand on his waist.”]

[“If only their in-game interactions were sweeter, I wouldn’t have to look at two street photos and ship them!!”]

[“In the game, they’re just two straight guys who only know how to play the game (watched the replay and came back with some harsh words).”]

[“Daily question: Did ClearWind stream today?”]

[“Replying to the post above, he might stream tonight.”]

[“Wait!! Is this the main point? UnchainedWanderer’s appearance and the young master’s appearance!!! Over 90% match, okay!”]

[“And his alt account is on the wealth leaderboard…”]

[“It’s basically confirmed, right?”]

As players were discussing the match between UnchainedWanderer’s and the young master’s identity, a female player posted a link in the thread.

 [“Girls, I saw a post on Capital University’s forum!”]

Capital University was a renowned institution in the Star Alliance, and over 80% of its graduates went on to become the Alliance’s powerful elite reserves. After the Celestial Horizon game meet-up, several students in the university’s entertainment section had posted about the game, and naturally, a screenshot of the current number-one summoner, Momo, was shared in the thread.

In the screenshot, momo was wearing a mask that covered half of his face.

Even though he was wearing a mask, to the students of Capital University, it was almost like he wasn’t wearing one at all.

There were quite a few players from Capital University in Celestial Horizon, and students from the same school and major, like Su Mo, with his remarkable appearance, were easy to remember—especially his eyes.

They were clean, bright, and particularly beautiful.

After all, his face appeared every day in the school’s forum promotion section. His StarNet profile was full of achievements, with the most prestigious ones listed on the résumé. He was even the star of the promotional videos on the Capital University StarNet account, and had been featured multiple times on the StarNet science channel for discussions… He was considered the top academic genius in the eyes of most Capital University students.

When the meet-up screenshots were posted on the university forum, his identity was immediately revealed…

[“Damn! Is that the genius from the mechanical forging department? The genius went to play games!”]

[“The genius looks like Momo!”]

[“Momo looks like the genius!!!”]

[“Su Mo? The F-class genius from our school?? Let me check the promo video, hold on.”]

[“I know him! He’s the genius from the neighboring department, our professor talks about him all the time!”]

[“No way? F-class students can’t play Celestial Horizon, and isn’t F-class for the severely ill? How could he play games???”]

[“You’re behind. Firmament developed an F-class loader. You can check their official website.”]

[“I’m in the same class as him. Su Mo may be F-class, but he’s not that severely ill. He’s easy to talk to, and will help with questions. But yeah, his health isn’t great. I’ve heard he’s been hospitalized a few times due to experiments, he’s really dedicated.”]

[“No way!? Momo is Su Mo!? The genius plays games so well!?”]

[“Looking at the photo, they really look exactly the same. I even compared it with the video of him winning the gold medal last year, and his voice really sounds the same.”]

Suddenly, the discussion about Su Mo started to heat up.

The internal forum of Capital University was only accessible to people within the school, and the discussion thread quickly gained a lot of attention. As the discussion grew within the school, rumors started circulating and eventually made their way to StarNet’s Celestial Horizon forum. Even people from other schools began to get curious about whether Su Mo was actually momo!

After all, an F-class student playing a game was such an outlandish idea.

It made people wonder how deep his understanding of the game must be if he could reach this level despite his physical disadvantages.

[“Is Su Mo really that talented?”]

[“You can search for his profile on StarNet… all I can say is that he’s very talented.”]

[“I’m deep in thought. I quoted one of his papers the last time I wrote a report… his ideas are really innovative. He’s my idol… feels like the fourth wall has been broken!”]

[“I just finished searching. He had already won numerous major competitions before even entering University.”]

[“He’s excused from attending lab classes… no wonder he sometimes logs in during the day. Of course, he has time to log in since he doesn’t need to attend classes.” (bitter laugh)]

[“A lot of research institutes are waiting for him to graduate, you know? The Capital Planet Research Institute is notoriously strict, only admitting graduates. Even Institute One invited him to recruit him during his time at school, so you can imagine how outstanding he is.”]

[“Wait? He’s F-class???”]

[“No way? I’m just an A-class failure.”]

[“There’s no physical limit in the game, but excellent physical condition does give you an advantage. You could say he’s defeating others despite not having that advantage…”]

[“If momo really is Su Mo… then he really is an F-class playing games.”]

Su Mo, with his F-class physique and S-class mental strength, was the only F-class student admitted to Capital University.

The young man rose to fame early, with his papers published in well-known academic journals within the Star Alliance. He had received multiple Star Alliance project grants while still in school, achieving perfect scores in theory. His school made exceptions for him during evaluations, and he had already received several invitations from Capital Planet’s top research institute even before graduation. His titles and honors were so numerous that his reputation had spread far and wide.

The internal forum of Capital University even had a thread listing his awards and the achievements of his project teams. Just last year, he had won a gold medal in a prestigious competition.

He was not only exceptionally talented but also an academic genius. If it weren’t for his physical limitations, he could have achieved even greater honors.

But if this person was truly momo, and considering his accomplishments in the game… people suddenly felt a chill down their spines. This news had only just spread from the Capital University forum when it was swiftly contained by the administrators, and the thread was closed. Not a single photo had been leaked.

Moreover, previous threads and photos discussing the “Prince” had also been deleted.

The street photos were blocked, and the photo from “Target Is Becoming a God” was also removed.

When Lance saw the forum post spreading, he immediately contacted Su Mo, but Su Mo didn’t respond. He had no choice but to reach out to the forum administrators. They explained that the post had been closed due to internal discussions being leaked, which was standard procedure in the Capital University forum, where posts could not be shared externally.

After Su Mo received the news, he sent him a thank you message and said he would treat him to a meal when he returned to campus.

“It’s normal for it to get exposed. So many people at our school play Celestial Horizon. Fortunately, Su Mo has been on sick leave recently, otherwise, he would’ve been questioned nonstop,” the class monitor said. “After a while, the discussion will die down.”

Lance asked, “Is Su Mo really E-class?”

“Yes, didn’t he tell you that when you asked him?” the class monitor replied. “A few days ago, I was delivering materials to Professor Tang and overheard them discussing it. Su Mo’s advisor was so happy; he calls him every day to check on his health.”

“I just wasn’t sure!” Lance said. “It’s a good thing if his health improves! This semester, we’ll have to rely on him to lead the way again!”

The class monitor said, “He was leading us even when he was F-class.”

He then asked, “How come he hasn’t been online these past few days?”

After the meet-and-greet, they had added momo as a friend, but after adding them, he hadn’t been online at all. Lance said, “He’s probably been busy. When I message him, it takes a while for him to reply.”

***

The team leader of the Celestial Horizon operations department was very anxious, especially when his subordinate mentioned that they had found Yu Zhen’s gaming account on the forum. He immediately put down his current tasks to contact Yu Zhen’s assistant and then reached out to the person in charge of the Celestial Horizon forum, asking them to remove the relevant photos from the forum.

It wasn’t a secret that Yu Zhen played games—his old team members, who had worked with him on the initial development, all knew. At the time, the operations team leader had been the deputy team leader, and he knew that Yu Zhen had been one of the first test users of the loader and that he often played games. However, the exposure of his gaming account could cause unnecessary trouble for someone of Yu Zhen’s status. Since the operations team had noticed the situation, they naturally couldn’t sit idly by and had to help Yu Zhen handle the matter.

When the subordinate asked, “So, leader… is it really Yu Zhen’s account?”

The operations team leader replied, “So curious? Whether it’s his or not, the discussion has to be dealt with.”

He then added, “But looking at the photos, it’s 99% likely.”

“We don’t need to get involved in Yu Zhen’s private life.”

The operations team leader packaged the photos and sent them to Yu Zhen’s assistant.

When Yu Zhen received the news, he didn’t show much reaction. He simply asked his assistant to keep an eye on the forum and handle any negative comments first.

His project was nearing completion, and the weekend gave him a two-day break. During this time, Su Mo wasn’t attending classes, and with Su Mo’s parents, Su Zhixing and Chen Shanxue, working during the day, he spent most of his time at home with Lele. When Yu Zhen arrived at the Su household, Su Mo’s parents hadn’t come home from work yet. Lele was standing on a chair in the kitchen, cooking, while someone on the couch was completely immersed in StarNet, oblivious to the surroundings.

“How long has he been playing?” Yu Zhen asked.

Lele replied, “Su Mo has been playing for four hours, and he hasn’t logged off yet.”

Recently, everyone in the Su family knew that Su Mo had become obsessed with StarNet.

For Su Mo, who had never been online before, everything on StarNet was fresh and exciting, and he couldn’t explore it all. As long as his health wasn’t an issue, the Su family was happy to indulge him in his online activities.

Yu Zhen walked over and straightened Su Mo, who was lying in a disorganized manner. Recently, Su Mo had spent a lot of time on StarNet, and his replies to messages often took half an hour to an hour. Yu Zhen sat next to him and sent him a message.

After about fifteen minutes, Su Mo disconnected from the loader and opened his eyes.

“I was playing a game just now and didn’t notice your message…”

Before Su Mo could finish speaking, he was pulled into someone’s arms.

Yu Zhen asked, “What game are you playing?”

“The EADF3 year release version of the mecha single-player game,” Su Mo replied. “I only found it in the nostalgia section; the store mostly had the 5-year release version. I almost couldn’t find it. Are you working this weekend? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming over?”

Yu Zhen replied, “I’m not working.”

Su Mo asked, “So, are you staying here?”

Yu Zhen answered, “I’m not staying.”

Su Mo seemed a bit disappointed, “Alright then.”

“I heard there’s a new event this week,” Yu Zhen said, pinching Su Mo’s ear while inhaling the faint scent on him. “Want to join me for a game tonight?”

Su Mo paused for a moment, as if hesitating.

Yu Zhen wrapped his arms around him, teasing, “Is the mecha game really that fun?”

Su Mo, feeling a bit ticklish, said, “Well, my boyfriend is more fun.”

***

After several days, ClearWind finally went live again, and the livestream room was buzzing with excitement. As soon as he started the broadcast, he was quickly pushed to the top of the trending list. The big livestreamer felt the fans’ longing for him, and immediately kicked off with a giveaway. The prizes ran for two rounds, but ScarletFruit didn’t get any special treatment.

[Windy, what are you doing tonight? Are you playing the new event?]

[Hurry up and group up, we’re waiting for you to play the event.]

[This event is useless, but I want to copy the pros’ homework.]

ClearWind felt the “friendly concern” from his fans. It was rare that his fans didn’t complain about him being offline; in fact, he felt a little awkward not being criticized as soon as he started streaming.

“It feels like there are a lot of new faces here?” ClearWind glanced at the barrage and said, “Event? That limited-time event? I probably won’t play it.”

“My big brother isn’t going online tonight.”

Not long after he said that, he saw that both momo and UnchainedWanderer had logged in.

[They’re online!]

[Windy, hurry and group up!]

“Wait,” ClearWind was a bit flustered from the fans’ urging. “They’re in a team already, I need to leave the team first.”

After Su Mo logged in, he teamed up with Yu Zhen and, as usual, opened the pet interface to feed his pet. While feeding it, he asked, “What are we playing tonight?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a team invitation pop up.

Just as Su Mo clicked to accept, he heard Yu Zhen’s nonchalant voice—

“Aren’t we supposed to be playing with my boyfriend?”

ClearWind, who had just joined the team, was caught off guard. “?”

He was in a dilemma. “…Should I leave the team?”

Author’s note: Selling pants, 1 star coin per pair.