Genius Chapter 42: My rabbit could still hatch eggs

Chapter 42: My rabbit could still hatch eggs

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

[Please note, the third stage has accumulated 3 failures. Another failure will result in immediate expulsion.]

The two were indifferent to the system’s reminder, ready to start over if needed.

“One dose, two heals?” Yu Zhen laughed at the phrase when he saw the red thread on his wrist. “But this really is a good skill.”

“Time is limited, let’s go.” Su Mo, having finished binding the item, wasted no time and charged towards the group of monsters with clear intent. The two worked seamlessly to divide the 18 monsters into two groups, each drawing them to one side.

Once triggered, the monsters began to automatically cast skills, with arrays visibly forming under their feet. Su Mo nimbly dodged their attacks, his gaze lingering briefly on the health bars before focusing back on the monsters. The monsters cast arrays in staggered intervals; the first array was enough to differentiate them.

Out of the nine monsters, only three initially cast buff arrays.

Su Mo immediately focused on those three monsters. At this moment, his health dropped slightly. “Did you find it?”

The drop in health wasn’t significant, indicating that the opponent might have only grazed by the monsters. Then, the three monsters began their second array. Su Mo’s attention was on two of them; their second array was also a buff.

“Found it,” Yu Zhen’s voice came through, “the gargoyles only cast Solitary Wolf and Zephyr Hawk.”

As the third array activated, Su Mo immediately identified the targets. “Attack directly.”

With clear targets, they charged at their respective monsters, locking onto them almost simultaneously. The increased damage from their skills caused their health to plummet rapidly from 98% to 50%. At that moment, the targeted mechanism monsters broke free and retreated, and several other monsters charged at them.

Not good!

“Retreat!” Su Mo stayed locked on the target, dodging attacks from other monsters and switching his pet, replacing Veil Wraith with the melee-combat Soul Rabbit. “Don’t use area attacks, keep your distance.”

If they hit other monsters, they would lose more health, potentially dying from the monsters’ counterattacks before finishing off the mechanism monsters.

Yu Zhen swiftly retreated, and the position of the monsters in front changed. “Lead them to the lake, the water slows them down.”

Without hesitation, Su Mo led the monsters onto the lake.

The purple water of the lake rippled. Yu Zhen used his lightness skill to create distance, standing on an exposed rock in the lake, and quickly completed an array casting. The speed array enhanced their agility.

“They’re moving towards the mechanism monster on their own. There are too many monsters on my side, and the summons can’t accurately target them.” Yu Zhen frowned, dodging another attack. As an array master, most of his skills were area attacks, with limited single-target skills that weren’t very powerful. He could only kite them at a distance.

While kiting the monsters, Su Mo glanced towards the array master’s direction and quickly spotted the monsters converging in the center. “The one in the middle?”

“Yes.”

Su Mo estimated the distance and their health. He was down to 45%, which meant UnchainedWanderer had the same amount. Both mechanism monsters were still alive, and based on their earlier tests of the other monsters’ health, they estimated that once the mechanism monsters were fully defeated, they should have 5-10% health remaining.

However, there was a potential issue: what if they had to defeat the mechanism monsters within a very short time frame? How could they accurately kill the two mechanism monsters among so many others without dying from counterattacks?

The array master’s skills were too focused on area attacks; a single monster was manageable, but with so many, collateral damage was inevitable.

But if he did it… Su Mo paused, a bold idea forming in his mind. “Wanderer, how about we take a gamble?”

“What gamble?” Yu Zhen asked.

Su Mo gripped his staff tightly and leaped with the agility of a swallow changing direction mid-air, creating a water arc on the lake surface.

“A gamble… on whether we die first or succeed in clearing the stage.”

***

“Boss, do you have any Illumination Scrolls left?”

“Busy here,” ScarletFruit waved a hand, “restocking, come back later.”

ScarletFruit continued to focus on the spectator screen, watching the two players drag the monsters onto the lake. He took a deep breath, “Why does my buddy always like to mess around during events?”

The merchant brother next to him, noticing him engrossed in the spectator screen, leaned over to take a look. “Which stage are they on now?”

“Stage three,” ScarletFruit replied, feeling a bit anxious for the two inside. “They’re being really bold. Wanderer’s shoes and headgear are already gone.”

The merchant brother commented, “Momo and Wanderer’s skills are impressive. Their lightness skills haven’t broken, and they can still chain movements endlessly on the water.”

Inside the game, the two players weaved through the crowd of monsters. ScarletFruit proudly said, “Of course. But what’s the point of this third stage? There’s a bunch of monsters, and my buddy is losing health like crazy…” He sighed, placing the last two Illumination Scrolls from his bag onto the stall.

The merchant brother watched for a moment before suddenly saying, “What is Momo doing?”

“Pulling monsters,” ScarletFruit answered, then looked back at the spectator screen. “Wait, what?! What’s my buddy doing?”

[Momo ran in the wrong direction?]

[??? What’s the expert doing, giving up?]

In ClearWind’s live stream, not many players were watching the third stage attempt, but at that moment, everyone’s attention was drawn to the summoner, Momo, who was jumping freely on the water. They watched as Momo led nine monsters, performing a reverse lightness skill at a critical moment. His toes skimmed the water, using the momentum to leap over the nine gargoyles, landing steadily on the water behind them and sliding a long way before gathering strength for another lightness skill.

Momo’s movements were decisive. After sliding a distance on the water, he used the lightness skill again, heading straight towards UnchainedWanderer with the nine monsters in tow. The distance between the two, initially quite far, shortened dramatically in seconds.

[Oh no, they’re going to collide at this rate.]

[If the two groups of monsters collide, it will be even harder to deal with!???]

[Are they planning to give up?]

[I don’t understand this move; weren’t they doing fine just now?]

The live stream audience, through ClearWind’s alternating spectator views, understood the uniqueness of the two groups of monsters. From the experts’ previous operations, it was clear they were identifying and attacking the mechanism monsters. The opening of this attempt was excellent. Momo and UnchainedWanderer successfully separated the monsters and were effectively killing them. Yet now, they were disrupting the previously advantageous situation by pulling the monsters back together.

[Did they use an item just now? Their health is dropping evenly.]

[Seems so, but that’s not the point! Why suddenly group the monsters?]

[This is their fourth attempt, they’ll be expelled if they fail this time.]

[No way, they’re at the final stage.]

[I’m so nervous!]

Both players continued to kite the monsters, with skills continuously applied to them, but their distance kept decreasing. The high-attack small monsters of the third stage had their skill marks appearing separately. Grouping the monsters could lead to unclear skill judgments, causing wrong attacks or being attacked by other monsters.

The best approach was to keep them separated and eliminate them individually. Yet, at this point, it seemed they were bringing the monsters back together.

“They have no other choice; their health isn’t enough,” CloudTraveller, who had just cleared the stage, saw that UnchainedWanderer and Momo were tackling the five-star challenge and quickly opened UnchainedWanderer’s view to watch. “These monsters are counterattack types. Of the two professions, only the array master’s health is slightly higher. Now, these monsters are clearly converging, limiting the array master’s movements.”

CloudTraveller focused on UnchainedWanderer, having watched part of the live stream replay. He knew the content of the first two stages, both trust-based challenges. The first stage involved chaotic views, and the second had multiple layers of debuffs.

Since the Apocalypse, the main brain’s newly opened dungeon and events have adopted a difficulty mode that combines with the real-world assessment system. Playing the game is one thing, retaining the basic gameplay of the game, but it’s more like adding various brutal environments in the game’s Global and letting star alliance players challenge and hone themselves in this situation.

Players from various fields who come here because of its reputation are numerous. Difficulty is a threshold but also a challenge target. Thinking about the background of the game “Celestial Horizon,” ApexMind plans the operation, the Advanced Research Institute provides technical support, and the loader is provided by the Firmament Group’s research. It can be said that this is the most luxurious lineup of creators ever.

CloudTraveller glanced at UnchainedWanderer and suddenly understood why he was willing to spend so much time on this game.

The array master [Global’s first kawaii] partnered with CloudTraveller, said, “Most of the array master’s skills are AoE, but there are also single-target skills. If you continue to kite, you can still wear them down.”

CloudTraveller came back to his senses, looked at another person from UnchainedWanderer’s perspective, and said, “The health is not enough. Summoner Momo is very good at calculating. Even if the skills are precise, they may still suffer unnecessary damage from other unexpected factors, such as the attacks of small monsters or the backlash caused by the skills skimming past. The cooldown time of the array master’s single-target skills is relatively long, coupled with the obvious phenomenon of monster aggregation now, which is their disadvantage under this mechanism.”

Kawaii asked, “This?”

CloudTraveller said, “If they were given another chance, they would choose a more cautious approach. But this is their fourth attempt, and failure means starting over… Their summoner is very bold.”

As soon as his words fell, the situation in the field underwent the most shocking change.

Summoner Momo successfully charged into the group of monsters with his summoned creatures, and at this moment, his summoned creatures changed to Zephyr Hawk, Solitary Wolf, and White Tiger. Zephyr Hawk coordinated with the array master’s slowing array, slowing down all the summoned creatures at once—

Kawaii slightly lost her voice, “Are they insane!?”

CloudTraveller frowned, UnchainedWanderer’s health dropped directly to 38% after this wave of slowdowns. At this moment, the Solitary Wolf and Soul Rabbit on the field rushed towards the [array master stone statue monster] that UnchainedWanderer had targeted earlier, while the White Tiger bit directly onto another monster. The distance pulled open during the kiting, the adventure of the slowed array, unexpectedly gained 4 seconds of time at this critical moment.

The health was still dropping rapidly—

30%, 25%… 15%, 8%… 3%…

UnchainedWanderer finally reached 0%.

And the two monsters locked in the spectator’s perspective also died simultaneously.

[0?????????!]

[Did they make it?!]

***

Su Mo fell into the water, buoyed by the water to pop his head out. Just as he looked up, he saw the array master beside him. The view in front gradually returned to normal, various disappearing interfaces reappeared, and his gaze stopped at the array master’s health bar, which showed 500 health points. He couldn’t help but smile and say, “It’s fortunate that your health is high, otherwise we would probably have to start over again.”

Their health was at 0%, but they each still had a meager 500 health points left.

Yu Zhen reached out and grabbed Su Mo’s wrist, and with a full-powered light skill, the two leaped out of the water, like dragonflies skimming the surface, and finally landed on the shore.

There were no stone statue monsters on the shore path. The two walked along the wet path and finally saw the altar deep in the Purple Flower Valley. Surrounding it was a swirling sea of purple flowers, and the altar stood quietly among them. When they stepped into the range of the altar, the voice of the main brain sounded timely—

“Congratulations to players UnchainedWanderer and Momo for successfully completing [Qixi Festival·★★★★★], obtaining basic rewards: the right to purchase all rewards from the Purple Flower Stall, and 30,000 points of event scores for all 1-5-star events. The comprehensive challenge rating is S++, and the rating reward is 3500 demon points per person, and a bound quest gift box [Qixi Festival event gift box].”

“Due to the detection that the two are in a [fated relationship], they qualify for the [Qixi Festival] bond relationship prize pool and receive the special bond [Qixi Festival limited appearance gift box], along with the bound special quest item [Fate Thread Connecting a Thousand Miles], which has been changed to a bidirectional special skill, and the third hidden skill slot has been activated.”

“The settlement is complete.”

“[Deep in the Purple Flower Valley] will be reclaimed after the end of the Qixi Festival event. We wish you a pleasant journey in the beautiful sea of purple flowers.”

The breeze of the flower sea blew gently, and the two sat down by the stone steps, counting their rewards.

“So many things?” Su Mo listened to the main brain’s settlement and found that there were more things in his backpack than he had imagined. With 3500 points from the demon rating, it was enough to raise their levels back to where they were challenged here, and they also received an extra quest gift box.

“The bond relationship prize pool? The reward list didn’t seem to mention this.” Su Mo’s original [Fate Thread Connecting a Thousand Miles] item had disappeared from his backpack, but a quest skill called [Fate Thread] appeared in the quest skill list.

“Celestial Horizon just opened the Companionship System, which belongs to the bond relationship. I remember that the companions who cleared it before on the forum also got this reward.” Yu Zhen opened the quest skill list and also saw [Fate Thread]. “It should be the item you just used that made us [fated], triggering this reward.”

[Fate Thread Connecting a Thousand Miles] originally belonged to a unidirectional skill. After Su Mo bound it to UnchainedWanderer using the item, it became a unidirectional skill, and only Su Mo could activate this skill alone.

But the event reward turned this skill into a bidirectional skill, meaning both parties had the right to use this skill. Su Mo looked at it and said, “This isn’t bad either. The teleportation skill can teleport in place without having to run to a teleportation point. The shared health aspect can even be used as a blood-selling skill to save you in the dungeon.”

A blood-selling skill…

Yu Zhen chuckled at his words, “Have you thought about the effects of the skill properly?”

“Unfortunately, the time to recover stamina is quite long.” Su Mo continued to look. “As for this third skill… since they’re hidden skills, they shouldn’t be too bad.”

The third skill was a hidden skill, and the description stated that it had not yet been activated.

After counting the rewards, Yu Zhen turned his head and asked Su Mo, “How did you determine it was that trap monster?”

Su Mo sorted through the package. “Because the subsequent operations were quite special, it was easy to judge it as the template for a trap monster. But the trap monster we saw was different.”

“I remember it was in the Level 23 Wild Monster Zone. At that time, I only had two summoned creatures, and you didn’t have many arrays either. This set of skill cycles would appear in the subsequent routines.” Su Mo smiled. “If I were the main brain, I would definitely choose this set. The skills are simple but can fit into all cycles, with low recognition, making it easy to misidentify.”

Su Mo glanced at the gift box and added, “Your operating habits are very recognizable. If you stack two layers of enhancement arrays, you will definitely use a defensive array.”

Level 23 Wild Monster Zone, that was when the two first met.

Yu Zhen didn’t expect his memory to be so good, even remembering what skills he used at the beginning.

“What did you get from the gift box?” Su Mo asked.

Yu Zhen replied, “Another pet egg.”

The previous one hadn’t hatched yet, and now another one came out.

Su Mo paused at his words. “My rabbit is good at hatching eggs. How about letting it hatch?”

Yu Zhen asked, “It can hatch?”

Su Mo stuffed the Soul Rabbit into his arms and said, “Oh, right, my rabbit is delicate. You’ll have to give it some high-quality feed as a reward. It has to be high-grade feed.”

The scenery of the Purple Flower Valley was beautiful, and the two began to discuss the topic of hatching eggs.

Yu Zhen lowered his head and met the round eyes of the Soul Rabbit, who seemed unaware of its fate, even rubbing against his hand while acting cute.

At this moment, the owner of the pet next to them said again, “Hatching two eggs might be a bit difficult. You’ll have to give it some time, or feed it more. When it’s full, it’ll definitely hatch.”

Yu Zhen hugged the Soul Rabbit and said, “…Okay.”

“This appearance gift box seems to be non-tradeable… Let’s put it aside for now.” Su Mo looked at the [Qixi Festival event gift box] on the other side and opened it, revealing a purple light.

“Congratulations on obtaining the quest mount [Obsidian Stormcloud].” Su Mo blinked. Obsidian Stormcloud? A mount?