Genius Chapter 39: Chaos

Chapter 39: Chaos

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Su Mo was stunned. When he had just jumped, he had clearly landed accurately on the next stone pillar, and he felt his foot touch solid ground. But in the next second, everything changed, and he fell from a high place, crashing at the bottom of the cliff.

Had the mission failed? Did he make a mistake in positioning? Did he step on the wrong mechanism? Or was there a specific landing point required?

The countdown ended, and his perspective changed again. Su Mo and UnchainedWanderer returned to the start of the mountain path, and the flat path reappeared. The difference between the Qixi Festival event and other event dungeons was that, upon death, players returned to the very beginning of the level. Only after three consecutive failures would they be expelled from the dungeon.

Barely five minutes had passed since they started, and they had already faced their first failure.

Su Mo glanced at his experience points. He was still at level 72, but his experience bar had shrunk significantly. The penalty was 30% of the total experience required for the current level, not 30% of his character level. Thus, his margin for error was still high—one more failure and he would drop to level 71.

Back at the starting point, Yu Zhen looked at Su Mo. “I received a prompt that you died from falling.”

“Walking forward automatically starts the level. We split up and took different paths. I couldn’t see the end; it was just a sheer drop on both sides. I took one step and fell.” Su Mo recalled the scene he had just witnessed and asked his teammate, “What about you?”

Yu Zhen said, “I was also on a path with obstacles and traps. I heard the prompt that you had fallen when I was halfway through.”

Su Mo focused on the key point. “So, the mistake must be on my side? Was it the obstacles or the mechanisms?”

Yu Zhen nodded. “Shall we try again?”

They restarted the level. Su Mo found himself back on the mountain path with cliffs, and the obstacles and traps around him had changed. He tried to communicate, “Wanderer, can you hear me?”

After a while, a voice responded, though it was mixed with environmental noise, making UnchainedWanderer’s voice sound ethereal, “I’m here, keep talking.”

“Let’s verify the environmental factors first.” Su Mo observed the scenery ahead. “Do you see a step or a stone pillar on your left?”

After three or four seconds, Yu Zhen replied, “No, my left side is empty.”

Su Mo looked at the step on his left. Was it fake, or was Wanderer’s side fake?

Soon, Yu Zhen’s voice came again. “There is a stone pillar on my right. I will try to move onto it; the pillar is walkable.”

On the right? Su Mo turned his head to see that on his right side was a sheer drop. There was no stone pillar, not even a foothold. So, from the first step, UnchainedWanderer’s path was correct, and his side was fake?

“Where exactly on the right? Describe it in detail.” Su Mo requested. The coordinate system here was completely ineffective, making it impossible to use coordinates to test positions.

Yu Zhen had already reached the stone pillar. Hearing this, he returned to the starting position. “Stand in the middle of the starting step. The first foothold pillar is at about your 2 o’clock position, about 0.4 to 0.6 meters higher than the starting step, with a gap of 0.5 meters. Your initial jump height should be at least 0.6 meters, and the distance should be 0.6 meters.”

Hearing this, Su Mo took a small step forward, carefully estimating the coordinates described by UnchainedWanderer. It was a suspended position with an abyss below. The real wind and environmental feel seemed to suggest it was a trap, not to be jumped or walked on.

Yu Zhen asked again, “Momo?”

“Wait a minute.” Su Mo simulated the height and distance in his mind again and jumped directly from the edge of the path. The wind on the path hit his body, and he landed steadily on the suspended spot. Looking down, he saw an endless cliff. The only position he could confirm was the foothold beneath his feet; all other positions were indiscernible.

The wind howled on the path. From Su Mo’s perspective, he could see the perilous environment, full of risks and indistinguishable truths. The further he went, the less room there was for error. It was a completely immersive environment, even giving him an absurd sense of weightlessness. His senses told him everything was real, even though he knew it was fake.

Despite his feet being on solid ground, he felt a sense of freefall.

This feeling was unpleasant. Su Mo had never experienced such excessive stimulation, as if an extremely uncomfortable sensation was forcibly imposed on him. It felt incredibly real, yet he had to force himself to believe it was fake.

“Momo? The next step is a stone step at the same height, in your 11 o’clock direction, with a gap of 0.5 meters.”

“Wait a moment.” Su Mo looked to his left, but it was still empty.

When he looked back, the original position had mirrored itself. He distinctly remembered the starting point being behind him diagonally, but now it was in front of him. “Wanderer, I’ve lost my sense of direction.”

There was a brief pause before Yu Zhen heard his voice again, “Or perhaps I’ve completely lost control now, a continuous feeling of weightlessness, a confused sense of direction… Fake environmental factors are giving me a chaotic sense of reality. I might completely lose my judgment from now on.” Su Mo took a deep breath. “I’m not sure if the environmental factors will cause significant psychological pressure on me in the future, but if I start arguing with you or theorizing, please stop me immediately. There’s an 80% chance my judgment will be incorrect.”

Yu Zhen’s heart sank upon hearing this. “How are you feeling? If you’re uncomfortable, we can abort.”

“Don’t worry, I can still go on.” Su Mo turned the alarm bell of the medical component to maximum and checked the medical index again. Everything was still stable, indicating that his body was not under strain. He could somewhat convince himself of the visual illusions, but the real sensations led to erroneous judgments. It was no longer a matter of closing his eyes; even with his eyes closed, the sensations of weightlessness and others persisted.

Furthermore, closing his eyes might actually increase the psychological pressure.

“Keep your original direction and don’t move. At 11 o’clock, use light-footed skill to jump.” Yu Zhen’s voice calmed down. “Now listen to me. Use your left foot to explore the reality. You’ll feel weightless, but you won’t fall, right?”

“Right.” Su Mo forced himself to believe Yu Zhen’s judgment and took two steps to the left. “I’ve moved two steps.”

“Now, jump at 11 o’clock.”

Gritting his teeth, Su Mo leaped directly to the designated spot. The feeling of weightlessness didn’t change, but he was indeed standing in mid-air. For the first half of the path, he circled around in suspended positions, and the real mountain path seemed to drift further away from him.

Su Mo stared around for a long time, trying to force himself to trust UnchainedWanderer’s judgment.

Outside the game, ScarletFruit watched with his heart pounding. He couldn’t hear the players’ voices, but from Momo’s perspective, he saw a completely chaotic space. He was stunned. When he switched back to UnchainedWanderer’s perspective, it was a normal, perilous mountain path.

He followed the game for a while and noticed that Momo would only jump after UnchainedWanderer had jumped.

“Bro, did you watch the five-star livestream this morning? What were they testing at the beginning?” ScarletFruit asked the merchant beside him.

The merchant replied, “Wasn’t it those themes? This is the Qixi Festival couple event, testing trust, cooperation, and coordination. I watched other people’s livestreams, and they were pretty similar. It shouldn’t be too different.”

ScarletFruit returned his gaze to the spectator view. He had accidentally switched to the real perspective just now and felt the intense feeling of weightlessness his elder brother was experiencing. He panicked and switched back to the god’s-eye view. This wasn’t cooperation; this was completely entrusting life and death, wasn’t it?

It was like Wanderer was teaching his elder brother to jump off a cliff step by step, and his elder brother had to obey, or else the mission would fail.

And this cliff-jumping wasn’t easy. One misstep could lead to falling off the cliff. Even on his spectator view, the normal mountain path was difficult to traverse. It was like an obstacle course testing light-footed skills. He saw Wanderer jump to a high point to confirm the position’s reality and then return to the next step. He accurately tested the position with light-footed skill, and only then would his elder brother jump. Especially as they progressed, the size of the footholds varied, and some were even moving bricks. One wrong move and they would fall forward.

ScarletFruit watched for about ten minutes, feeling uneasy. On one hand, he was glad he hadn’t joined them, and on the other hand, he was anxious for his elder brother.

At the same time, ClearWind was so nervous that he stopped doing his own tasks. He kept switching between views, and several times Momo almost fell. His heart nearly stopped. “This is too much. What kind of mental resilience do they have to play like this? You don’t know, when I switched to the real perspective just now, that feeling was too suffocating.”

[Truly, the five-star difficulty is not something ordinary people can handle.]

[This morning, the team next door was streaming CloudTraveller. They were testing trust in a cabin, which was also sickening. They made teammates choose items to save the other teammate, and some items were traps.]

[Is Momo’s difficulty level higher again? This path is too long.]

[Momo’s dungeon rating should be high, and UnchainedWanderer’s shouldn’t be low either. They must have set the difficulty to five stars for combat.]

“Can items be used in this event? I’ll send a few items to my brother; I have a tradeable flying item.” ClearWind started rummaging through his inventory and quickly sent the flying item over.

[Don’t bother; external aid is prohibited in this event.]

[Don’t bother; they won’t receive it inside.]

[Huh? Why did the boss stop moving?]

ClearWind saw the scene on the screen: Momo was standing at a suspended position, with a real stone step right in front of him. However, he didn’t move forward. ClearWind became puzzled. “Isn’t there a step ahead? Why isn’t my brother jumping?”

Inside the Purple Flower Valley Path, Yu Zhen guided step by step. “When you jump, your body will deviate. Turn 30 degrees to the right to face forward again. The next position is right in front of you, a step.”

“I have one here too,” Su Mo said, looking ahead. His position was no longer suspended, and there was indeed a step, indicating that this time it was real. He subconsciously wanted to move forward but was stopped by a voice in his ear.

“Don’t follow the perspective to jump. Move two steps to the right first. The step is slightly lower than your current position, with a gap of 0.7 meters. Use light-footed skill to make a two-step jump. Jump far, not close,” Yu Zhen instructed.

Su Mo focused and saw that the step in front of him was quite wide. He could reach it with about 0.3 meters, whereas UnchainedWanderer’s suggested 0.7 meters was already at the edge of his visual step. He suddenly had a feeling. Could the mainframe be playing tricks with the perspective? In fact, his and UnchainedWanderer’s judgments might both be half-true. The earlier steps on his side might be false, while the later ones could be true. “Wanderer, I suspect the mainframe is still setting traps. It’s very likely that obstacles are appearing on my side, while yours are false. There might be a deviation issue with the judgment points…”

He spoke for a while, but there was no response from the other side.

“Are you there?” Su Mo asked in a low voice.

“0.7 meters. Keep your position and jump. Trust me, I’ve tested it,” Yu Zhen said.

Su Mo hesitated for a while, then made up his mind to jump forward. He landed on the edge of 0.7 meters without falling, and the feeling of weightlessness disappeared instantly when he stepped on solid ground. A unique sense of safety came over him suddenly. After pausing for a while to readjust to the environment, he didn’t hear any further instructions from the other side.

He frowned slightly and called out again.

UnchainedWanderer still didn’t respond. Su Mo waited for a while, refraining from acting recklessly. Instead, he stood still and reexamined the Purple Flower Valley Path in his mind. Just as he was simulating the eighth possible scenario that might occur next, he heard UnchainedWanderer’s voice again.

“Okay.”

Su Mo asked, “What were you doing?”

Yu Zhen landed back on the step, looked ahead at the endpoint of the Purple Flower Valley Path that had already appeared, and said, “I just walked through the entire path to the endpoint. You can fully trust me; there are no illusions on my side.”

“Already walked through?” Su Mo suddenly laughed. “Actually, you’re taking too much risk this way. Moving slowly leaves room for retreat. If there are other challenges that require my cooperation halfway, won’t all our previous efforts be wasted?”

“We should have moved earlier,” Yu Zhen said. “At least confirm safety first, so you won’t overthink. Didn’t we agree from the beginning? Trust me for the rest.”

Su Mo hesitated for a moment, feeling inexplicably relaxed upon hearing these words. “You’re right. Besides, if you make a mistake, it’s your experience that gets deducted.”

“We won’t make any more mistakes,” Yu Zhen smiled. “Are you rested? Let’s continue downward. I just found another path that leads to the endpoint. Let’s compare the environments.”

Su Mo reexamined his surroundings. “Which two paths?”

“Nine o’clock and two o’clock. Do you have footholds on your side?”

“In my current perspective, there’s a foothold 0.5 meters away at two o’clock, but it might be false.”

“Then jump to a position 0.3 meters away,” Yu Zhen said, sounding somewhat relieved.

The two cooperated again, and when Yu Zhen guided again, he was very steady, even more precise than before. Without the chaotic feeling of weightlessness, Su Mo became bolder in his steps. After about ten minutes, they both reached the endpoint together, and the mission checkpoint reminded them of completion. The chaotic scene returned to reality. Su Mo looked back and saw the flat mountain path reappear.

Su Mo turned to the array master beside him. “Thank you.”

Yu Zhen looked at him puzzled.

Su Mo didn’t say much. Although there was a faster route available, UnchainedWanderer let him choose. In the second half of the journey, he followed the positions where there were steps on his side, and as a result, he hardly felt any weightlessness. How come he hadn’t realized before that UnchainedWanderer was actually very attentive?

The mission completion was calculated, “Congratulations to player Momo and UnchainedWanderer for successfully passing through the Purple Flower Valley Path. Now opening the second checkpoint, Purple Flower Valley Forest. Best of luck to both of you. Passing through the Purple Flower Valley Forest means passing the checkpoint.”

The two continued along the mountain path. Below was a vast forest. From above, the forest looked like a purple cloudscape. However, at this moment, there was an extremely eerie feeling.

The leaves in the forest rustled, and a chilly wind blew.

Just as they descended from a height, a purple vine came rushing towards them, splitting the ground with a deep trench, separating the two. At the same time, dangers emerged from all directions. Su Mo barely managed to stand firm, and a sharp vine silently approached his feet.

The next moment, its sharp tip was revealed.