Genius Chapter 35: Final Clearance

Chapter 35: Final Clearance

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Array master was close to Su Mo, still recovering from the single-target pounce with low health. After UnchainedWanderer’s words, Su Mo directly commanded his summoned beasts to focus fire and swiftly eliminate the array master.

Yu Zhen wasn’t surprised, lying on the ground but still reminded, “Watch out for the distant single-target pounce.”

At this point, most of the group was critically wounded, and ScarletFruit’s healing capacity was extremely limited. Su Mo rapidly pondered, “Those with potions, use them. Those without, activate self-protection. ClearWind, cover the position!”

At 4%, the entire group was in a tense and delicate situation. ClearWindIsHere dashed from beside the boss, successfully shielding ScarletFruit, taking the hit of a single-target pounce, dropping to 5% health. ScarletFruit bestowed his strongest single-target healing on ClearWind, then focused on protecting the main tank, SnackTimeBear. “ClearWind, fend for yourself. I’ll take over healing SnackTimeBear.”

At that moment, a group attack from the boss descended, instantly killing the mage Mewminati and the assassin ZenSlasher.

ScarletFruit was overwhelmed, only able to save those remaining on the field. SubmergedFish’s shackle was lifted, and she immediately healed all the wounded teammates. However, his combat resurrection cooldown wasn’t ready yet, leaving three people lying on the ground. The other four DPS seized the moment to unleash their full force.

At 3%, to everyone’s surprise, two shackles fell, locking onto ScarletFruit and SubmergedFish, while simultaneously, the boss initiated a one-minute berserk countdown.

The feared berserk finally arrived, in the midst of chaos and at the most challenging moment.

ScarletFruit, before being shackled, used his only combat resurrection to revive UnchainedWanderer. But SubmergedFish’s combat resurrection wasn’t ready yet, leaving two people lying on the ground. With the healers shackled and little time left, the situation was dire.

Chaos erupted in the voice channel.

“Oh damn, berserk!”

“It couldn’t have come any sooner or later, just perfect timing, right?”

“What do we do!? Do we go all out?”

“Listen to the commands, everyone focus on the boss,” Su Mo’s heart sank, his voice stern, “Activate all bursts, ignore everything else.”

At this point, it was either death from the berserk or fighting for survival. The voice channel fell into a silent agreement, and all the DPS in the team unleashed every accumulated skill and potion, relentlessly attacking the boss. Su Mo summoned Soul Rabbit again, all summoned beasts joined in, focusing on attacking the boss and breaking the shackle.

With 52 seconds remaining, as the boss approached berserk, its skill potency increased, several single-target skills activated simultaneously. SnackTimeBear, the main tank, was sealed by a front-facing skill at a crucial moment, enduring three single-target attacks, then fell to the ground as his health hit zero.

“I can’t hold on anymore!” SnackTimeBear urgently called out, “Someone taunt!”

The plug-in popped up a red warning for the agro change. Su Mo urgently drove the bear charge in the emergency, forcibly taunting the hate back before the boss’s hit landed on Assassin ChatMasterWu, turning the main tank into a summoned bear, temporarily stabilizing the chaotic situation.

After 10 seconds of restraint, the two healers unleashed various healing skills, pulling the endangered health lines up to acceptable levels. By this time, 30 seconds had passed, and the boss was left with 2% of its health.

Yu Zhen barely withstood the single-target pounce, then in the next second, activated a defensive array, crucially covering the two healers.

The summoned bear’s health dropped to 15%, and SubmergedFish barely managed to heal it with a single target heal, “combat res is up.”

Su Mo glanced at the DPS list, not letting SubmergedFish save the main tank SnackTimeBear, but decisively choosing the superior burst damage Assassin ZenSlasher, “SubmergedFish, save ZenSlasher.”

At 25 seconds, healer SubmergedFish swiftly moved forward and used a combat res to revive the Assassin. ZenSlasher immediately took a potion and rushed up to start outputting damage, wasting no time.

ScarletFruit nervously healed, “Did this boss take the wrong medicine? The damage suddenly spiked so high.”

SubmergedFish said, “Summoned beasts are not like warriors, their health and defense are lower than warriors. Being able to withstand the approaching enraged boss is already impressive.”

Another skill lock appeared on the field, and the boss’s skill power increased again. The summoned bear’s health fluctuated like a roller coaster, struggling to hold the front line, buying time for others.

At 15 seconds, the health was at 1%.

The players lying on the ground dared not make a sound or disturb their teammates. The healers performed to the utmost, stabilizing everyone’s health in the most difficult stage. Fortunately, the frontal seal did not affect output, and DPS skills were maximized. The representation of health points gradually decreased, finally reaching zero in the last 2 seconds of the boss’s health.

[Congratulations on clearing, event settlement in progress]

“We cleared it?”

“Amazing!”

“My head hurts from all the skill usage.”

“My hands are sore.”

“So tired, even more than three hours in the demon dungeon.”

The players in the live stream room were stunned. Even in the last minute when the boss was nearing madness, the commander was able to remain calm and give instructions. Those DPS didn’t care about anything else, just outputting damage. The burst damage and output in the team list peaked at the last minute. They didn’t expect this team to clear it, especially after only trying out the skills on the first 20% of the boss’s health. It was mostly improvisation and healing rescue afterward, but in such circumstances, this team actually cleared it?

In a dissatisfied team, they dealt 3% of the damage in one minute???

[Immortal dungeon run, besides kneeling and shouting ‘666,’ what else can I do?]

[Momo’s commanding skills… I wish our guild leader could command like him. Our guild leader always gets hysterical, either stutters or cracks his voice every time.]

[We cleared it?! I feel like I watched the entire thing, yet also like I didn’t see anything at all.]

[I was so nervous, more intense than watching an action movie.]

CloudTraveller finished watching the latter half of the livestream, deeply admiring Momo’s calm commanding abilities in the face of danger. Both teams started at the same point on the third boss, and they even started before momo’s team. This time, they truly couldn’t match up.

“No wonder he’s such a fearless player.” CloudTraveller dropped 10 deep water bombs in the chat, then switched back to the game to add summoner game friends. However, as soon as his friend request was sent, a notification popped up:

“Sorry, this player has disabled friend requests.”

CloudTraveller: “?”

The people in the dungeon were unaware of the situation outside. After the boss was soul-locked, the scene inside the dungeon changed. The soul-locked body cracked inch by inch, and the boss occupying most of the space turned into black mist scattered in the air. Finally, like being sealed, it compressed downward inch by inch, turning into a bead the size of a palm, falling directly into the endless abyss under the sealing array.

“Whoa! Whoa! The boss lady fell down!” ChatMasterWu, who was closest, took a quick step forward and caught the falling boss lady’s body in mid-air, then fell backward.

At this moment, the dungeon settlement finally arrived, and a System announcement popped up in front of everyone.

[Server-wide Announcement] Congratulations to players momo, UnchainedWanderer, ClearWindIsHere… and others for first clearing the limited-time event Desert Inn, successfully completing the comprehensive dungeon Desert Inn Abyss, and receiving the first clear reward [Desert Inn Boss Lady’s Gift].

[Server-wide Announcement] Congratulations to players momo, UnchainedWanderer, ClearWindIsHere, Apple… and others for completing the limited-time event Desert Inn challenge and receiving the clearance reward [Desert Inn Treasure Chest] x1.

[Detected the presence of 5 players with challenge rights in the team, totaling 2 teams, extra reward of 1000 demon points and [Desert Inn Treasure Chest] x1.]

[Congratulations to players for first clearing the Desert Inn event, with an overall evaluation of S++, and will be recorded in the Celestial Horizon’s Glory Clearing Ranking.]

Two System announcements in a row, besides the common first clear rewards and [Desert Inn Treasure Chest], those with challenge rights would receive additional rewards. Su Mo checked the rewards: two quest chests and a first-clear gift. Instead of immediately opening the rewards, he lifted ClearWind’s silence and let him talk to the boss lady, “Give your items to her, you might get another quest reward.”

ClearWind finally freed from silence, hearing Momo’s words, swallowed his complaints and quickly ran over to talk to the boss lady.

After the boss’s soul-lock was broken, the boss lady’s soul returned to her body. At this moment, she was standing not far away. She became excited when she saw the package that ClearWind took out. It turned out that the package contained local specialties brought by the renowned chef from her hometown. ClearWind was dumbfounded; he had traveled far to deliver the package, and it turned out to be just local specialties. Moreover, to show her gratitude, the boss lady also gave ClearWind a jade pendant.

ScarletFruit was shocked, “So, did you exchange your quest parchment for a jade pendant?”

“Yeah,” ClearWind sighed in disappointment. “She told me that with this jade pendant, I can eat and stay at Desert Inn for free, and waive the fees for posting bounties. She asked me to bring friends over when I have time. Is this it? I worked so hard for this jade pendant?”

In short, this jade pendant was equivalent to a lifetime Desert Inn VIP card, allowing the bearer to bring a group to consume food.

Apple chuckled, “This is the most pitiful quest reward I’ve ever heard of.”

The people in the team successively opened the treasure chests. Most of the first-clear rewards contained rare materials, which were very useful for upgrading PvE equipment or exchanging for PvP equipment later on. The [Desert Inn Treasure Chest] contained various quest items, weapons, or special skills.

Both ClearWind and ScarletFruit found clues for quest pets, along with special quest items. Su Mo hadn’t opened his yet; he turned to the array master who had just revived and asked, “What did you get?”

Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment before unfolding it for him. “A pet egg, and a special profession skill.”

The pet egg’s breed couldn’t be determined at the moment, but the special profession skill was very powerful. While activated, it could extend array time by an additional 4 seconds and had a cooldown of 3 minutes.

“Not bad,” Yu Zhen commented. “What did you get?”

“I haven’t opened mine yet,” Su Mo replied, but before he could finish his sentence, a golden announcement suddenly appeared before him.

[Limited-time event Desert Inn closing soon, please be aware.]

[Server-wide notice] The limited-time event Desert Inn will close in half an hour. The Desert Inn boss lady will return, and now begins the server-wide resource update. In one hour, the advanced dungeon [Desert Inn] will descend upon the Celestial Horizon continent. The difficulty will be ★★★, with a recommended entry level of level 70. The challenge will be available once a week. Please stay tuned.]

“A new dungeon?” Su Mo was surprised.

“It’s not a new dungeon. I just saw someone in the group share the official information about the [Desert Inn] dungeon,” mage Mewminati explained. “This Desert Inn uses the same mechanics and bosses as the event we just completed, but it’s simplified into an advanced dungeon with a difficulty reduced by three stars and a lower mechanic difficulty.”

“So, it’s like a simplified version of the boss we just fought?” ClearWind asked.

“You could say that,” Mewminati confirmed. “Desert Inn is part of the main storyline, and the boss lady is likely to be an important NPC. It’s not surprising that the mainframe released this dungeon. Oh, and don’t worry, the loot has been changed. There are no individual rewards, only public rewards. The dropped equipment chests are level 70 blue chests, with random professions, and the chances of getting purple or gold are not high.”

In other words, after they completed the hell-level limited-time event dungeon, the official reduced the difficulty to normal and released it for other players to challenge.

All the online players in Celestial Horizon noticed the announcement of the new dungeon, and many had already rushed to the official website to read the dungeon introduction.

In ClearWindIsHere’s livestream room, players, after listening to Mewminati’s explanation, suddenly realized —

[So, it’s the same mechanics, just simplified for us to clear. The mainframe is smart, letting the experts go through the hell version first, then releasing the simplified version…]

[I think it’s great. That hell difficulty made me cry every time.]

[It’s time to copy the homework. Prove that I’m the best batch of players who copy homework.]

[What homework?]

[The experts helped you understand the mechanics and taught you how to clear it. Isn’t that like having the homework answers?]

[If the experts don’t copy their homework, would you? I’ve already called my friends and family; see you all in an hour.]

After understanding the rewards for the simplified version of Desert Inn, the other members of the team weren’t interested. They had already obtained the highest rewards, and doing it again seemed pointless.

After completing the dungeon, ScarletFruit enthusiastically added the bosses as friends. “Bosses, feel free to come spend again next time~~”

Several bosses responded positively, not only adding ScarletFruit as a friend but also wanting to add Momo as a friend.

Apple asked, “Momo, did you disable friend requests?”

“Yeah, I’ll add you guys.” Su Mo proactively added them as friends. He had it open before, but lately, more and more people had been adding him, so he decided to close it before going into the dungeon today.

Mewminati said, “Boss, next time you run a quest dungeon, you can invite us. Money is not a problem, as long as there’s a spot.”

[Whoa, are the bosses lining up to add friends?]

[I just followed ScarletFruit on the forum. I was planning to buy tickets next time!]

[I regret so much now. If I had known, I would have bought the 3000 gold ticket earlier. I probably won’t be able to grab it next time, sob.]

[You guys are still thinking about buying tickets, while the bosses have already got their favorite seat numbers.]

[Hilarious, did you guys see that post on the forum by the Physical Sword? He had already gotten his ticket, but just before the dungeon started, he couldn’t log in due to constipation, so ScarletFruit switched to the assassin girl.]

“Yeah, CloudTraveller’s team complained that the assassins were too fragile without me. Next time, bring me along if you have the chance,” ChatMasterWu said, sneakily glancing at Yu Zhen, trying to cozy up, “Oh, and, boss, next time you could bring some items that target other professions. Assassins are dying out in the wilderness; leave us some room to survive. Archers are too strong; you could bring something to deal with them. I’ll definitely buy tons!”

Yu Zhen was speechless.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Su Mo said casually, “Right now, the Dispel Cloak items are selling well.”

At that moment, he received a text mail message, a private chat from one of the friends he had just added — the female assassin ZenSlasher.

[ZenSlasher: Master, thank you for helping me clear. I feel like I owe you an apology. I didn’t know you were livestreaming before joining the team, and due to personal reasons, something might cause trouble for you all.]