Genius Chapter 43: Speed-run

Guild Race · Pear Blossom Hollow

Chapter 43: Speed-run

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

In the game system of Celestial Horizon, there were mounts. Usually, mounts needed to be obtained from NPC shops or through quests. Su Mo hadn’t bought a mount before; his martial arts skills were sufficient for daily tasks and dungeon needs, so there was no need to spend money on a mount. Seeing the mount reward now, he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, “It’s not as good as your pet egg.”

“What kind of mount?” Yu Zhen looked at him.

Su Mo released [Obsidian Stormcloud], a black horse with snow-white legs, which lifted its hooves in front of them. “It really recreates the famous horses from ancient Huaxia history…” He walked around the horse, a bit surprised. The ancient books in his family also recorded various famous horses in ancient Huaxia, but it was the first time he saw one recreated in a game.

“Celestial Horizon’s database has a lot of information on ancient Huaxia… Recreating the model wasn’t difficult for it,” Yu Zhen observed. “Moreover, this horse’s initial speed is 50 higher than other mounts in the NPC shop, making it the fastest mount in Celestial Horizon’s mount system right now.”

Obsidian Stormcloud was very gentle in front of Su Mo, allowing him to stroke its mane and even lowering its body.

Su Mo hadn’t ridden a horse before, but the game system implanted the skill of horse riding into players. After a bit of exploration of the operational details, he successfully mounted the horse with a flip and took a lap. He seemed to find the mount’s worth. Looking down at Yu Zhen beside him, he asked, “Do you want to try? This seems to be a two-person mount.”

[Momo invites you to ride [Obsidian Stormcloud] together. Do you accept the invitation?]

Su Mo asked, “Did you get the invitation?”

Yu Zhen paused slightly, then mounted the horse, landing steadily behind Su Mo. The posture of two people riding was such that the newcomer sat behind, with the mount’s owner holding the reins. The saddle was designed for two, but space was limited, bringing the two very close together, with Su Mo’s back almost touching Yu Zhen’s chest.

“The speed should be very fast…” Su Mo lightly spurred the horse, and Obsidian Stormcloud quickly ran at a speed of 850.

Yu Zhen instinctively leaned forward, bumping into Su Mo’s back, “Sorry.”

“No problem, this horse moves too fast,” Su Mo said, “Find somewhere to hold on.”

Yu Zhen glanced around, his peripheral vision accidentally sweeping over the waist of the person in front of him, finally placing his hands on the saddle.

The two of them ran around the lake, then left the event dungeon to exchange items at the small stall with purple flowers at the entrance. Clearing the five-star Qixi Festival dungeon allowed them to exchange for almost everything. Su Mo exchanged for the materials he needed, and with the remaining points, he exchanged for some tradeable item materials to sell on the trading platform. “Overall, we made quite a profit after the fight.”

“The rewards for high-difficulty dungeons are very generous, especially for the first clear,” Yu Zhen explained. “This time, the first clear reward for the Qixi Festival was a pair of pets, the purple flower spirit pets from that stall, limited edition, only one pair in the entire server.” This pair of pets was taken by a couple, who also obtained the server’s only Qixi Festival title.

They didn’t exchange for much. On the other side, ScarletFruit moved his stall over and shared his thrilling experience of watching the fight. Finally, he said, “Bro!! I just saw that Obsidian Stormcloud! A two-person mount! The only two-person mount in the entire server! I saw Brother Wanderer riding it, can you take me for a ride?”

Yu Zhen’s gaze fell on ScarletFruit.

“Next time.” Su Mo glanced at the time; it seemed like his parts were about to arrive. “I’ve got something to do, so I’m logging off for now. I won’t be on tonight, you guys go ahead and play.”

After exchanging his items, Momo logged off and naturally missed ClearWind’s greeting. Although the Qixi Festival event’s five-star difficulty was high, it was a comprehensive challenge based on random strength assessments, making it overall easier than the Desert Inn or the Misty Sea. By the end of the Qixi Festival event, more than a thousand teams across the server had cleared it and received rewards.

The synthetic skin he bought for Lele required customization, and Lele had been engrossed in creating his own data, occasionally seeking Su Mo’s input. As the parts he ordered arrived one after another, Su Mo began assembling a new body for Lele. With the school holiday nearing its end and classes about to start, his game time became less frequent. He logged in daily to clear tasks and level up, occasionally tackling dungeons to gather equipment.

Playing the game had ingrained in Su Mo the habit of checking update announcements. He had a general understanding of the weekly challenge dungeon mechanics, but since the challenge dungeon didn’t always favor his team, they often waited for other teams to clear them before attempting the high-level dungeons themselves. However, the highest-level dungeons were only three-star in difficulty, incomparable to the Desert Inn he had conquered.

The game’s limited-time dungeons and challenges appeared roughly once a week. Suitable challenge dungeons would become high-level permanent fixtures in Celestial Horizon after updates, with level 70+ advanced equipment obtained through these regular high-level dungeons.

After the Qixi Festival event, Celestial Horizon launched various limited-time challenges across the map. Despite complaints on the forums, players gradually adapted to the new difficulty grading system, and more teams succeeded in clearing dungeons. Compared to the previous game system, this marked a significant change. Skilled and capable players found it easier to earn richer rewards in this challenge system, causing rapid shifts in Celestial Horizon’s leaderboards.

As the school term approached, Su Mo reached level 75, with only two pieces of his PvE dungeon set left to acquire. UnchainedWanderer, ScarletFruit, and ClearWind progressed even faster, reaching level 76 with complete sets of equipment.

“Apple died too many times in the Qixi Festival dungeon; originally first place, now second. FireworksAndLanterns hasn’t dropped though, probably because there aren’t many in the summoner sect,” ScarletFruit remarked, noticing Su Mo’s lack of interest. “Bro, as your career fan, I’m quite anxious.”

Su Mo looked up at him, “What do you mean, career fan?”

“I think you could really aim for the leaderboard or something. Look at ChineseAppleBlossom, the top wizard, who rose to the top after shining in three challenge dungeons. And BrokenOracle, super strong!” ScarletFruit pulled up Celestial Horizon’s leaderboard.

Su Mo glanced over. Celestial Horizon had many leaderboards: equipment, cultivation, demon points, overall ranking, and more. The one ScarletFruit mentioned was the overall ranking, which comprehensively evaluated all elements from various leaderboards. It displayed both a total profession ranking and a sect-specific ranking.

“This one has the highest prestige. Equipment can be boosted by spending money, and cultivation can be enhanced through skill refinement, but the overall ranking mainly comes from PvE and PvP performance. Equipment and cultivation contribute less to the overall score. The overall leaderboard has been changing rapidly recently.”

Currently, Celestial Horizon listed five major sects and 11 professions.

Flaming Thunder Mountain encompasses warriors, marksmen, and assassins.

Serene Essence Temple encompasses array masters and Daoist priests.

Billowing Robe Pavilion encompasses healers and mages.

Mountainless Blade Sect encompasses physical swordsmen and magical swordsmen.

Spirit Sanctuary encompasses summoners and clerics.

“Don’t have such a high sense of competition,” Su Mo advised after checking his own ranking. In the dungeon overall evaluation rankings, he was 20th within his sect, but 183rd across all sects, not even appearing in the top 200 of the overall rankings. He casually clicked on other rankings and was surprised to see two names on the wealth list: LuckyScarletFruit and UnchainedWanderer. So his teammates were quite wealthy?

Su Mo remarked, “You could try aiming for the wealth list; Wanderer is ranked 11th, and you’re only 35th?”

“Bro, the top ten on the wealth list are as rich as nations. Being 35th is a blessing for a small merchant like me. Did you see the top wealth holder, ReturnToSimplicity? They’ve been holding the top marksman spot for weeks thanks to paid services, and until a few days ago, they were also first in the overall ranking for more than two months, just recently overtaken by BrokenOracle.”

ScarletFruit seemed to convince himself again, “You’re right, one shouldn’t have too high a sense of competition. If I can’t persuade myself, I can try to persuade Brother Wanderer. Brother Wanderer has been doing exceptionally well, even breaking into the top 30 array masters.”

Su Mo closed the rankings and returned to his tasks. UnchainedWanderer’s pet eggs had hatched last week under the care of Soul Rabbit, producing a Fierce Heart Tiger and a Deep Sea Shark, both with reportedly good skills. Meanwhile, Su Mo’s Veil Wraith finally reached the required level yesterday. The materials had been sitting in his warehouse for half a month, and now he could finally upgrade it.

Once the materials were in place and the upgrade initiated, the Veil Wraith, initially a mass of fog, began to change shape. The fog condensed into limbs, the green deepening until it became a knee-high mist deer. A new special skill appeared in its skill bar. Su Mo, expecting it to be a passive skill like Soul Rabbit’s, was surprised to see it was an active skill called [Phantom].

[Veil Wraith: Special Skill (Active): Phantom]

[Skill Description: The Veil Wraith, a beloved of the Misty Sea, is born with illusory mist. Upon using this skill, the Veil Wraith will create three illusions resembling its master. These illusions inherit the master’s defense attributes and can act autonomously. Once attacked, they will confuse the enemy. Skill hit rate: 100%. Illusion duration: 30 seconds.]

An illusion and confusion skill? A control skill suitable for escaping.

ScarletFruit asked, “Bro, what skill did you get after the upgrade?”

“Phantom.” Su Mo showed the skill to ScarletFruit. “It’s an active skill, looks pretty good.”

ScarletFruit commented, “That’s a great PvP skill, but since you don’t PvP much, it might not be very useful.”

Having completed his demon points for the day, Su Mo was about to log off when he received a team invitation from apple.

“Aren’t you busy grinding for points these days?” ScarletFruit was surprised to see Apple.

Apple, panting slightly, said, “I finally caught you, Momo. We need your help, do you have time?”

ScarletFruit was also puzzled, “What’s the emergency?”

Su Mo looked at Apple curiously, “What happened?”

Apple asked, “Have you heard about the new guild dungeon?”

ScarletFruit froze, “You mean the speedrun mode?”

Su Mo knew about guild dungeons but not about the speedrun mode, so he looked at ScarletFruit in confusion.

“Yes,” Apple posted a game announcement in the team chat. “It’s not exactly a new guild dungeon, just an adjustment to the existing one with an added speedrun ranking.”

Since the factions were established in Celestial Horizon, guilds had undergone a reorganization, allowing only players of the same faction within a guild. The restructured guilds had to compete for various resources, such as participating in guild leagues, fighting for field outposts, and killing enemy faction players in the wild to increase guild power. These were collectively known as guild resources. Guilds with high resources could rank on the guild leaderboard, with rewards for being in the top one, top three, top five, top ten, and top thirty. Guild members received corresponding weekly rewards, making guild resources extremely important in Celestial Horizon’s current system.

However, a few weeks ago, a new PvE competition resource was suddenly added to the PvP system: the guild dungeon. So far, only one dungeon, [Pear Blossom Hollow], had been introduced.

[Pear Blossom Hollow] could only be cleared by guild members. Its difficulty ranged from ★★ to ★★★★, with the guild able to select the appropriate challenge level. Higher challenge levels yielded higher resources, with fixed resources for each challenge stage. Within two days of its release, the top ten guilds had cleared the four-star difficulty and obtained the corresponding resources.

The new game announcement, however, indicated that this guild dungeon would be revamped. Along with slight adjustments to the original difficulty, a speedrun mode would be added. Clearing the four-star difficulty would now provide not only the base resources but also additional resource supplies from the speedrun ranking. The shorter the clearance time, the more resources would be awarded upon guild resource settlement.

“This involves guild resources. The speedrun mode is a new resource point,” Apple explained. “Our guild, [Fruit Platter], is currently ranked fifth on the guild leaderboard. This new resource point poses a new competition. The first-week rewards for the speedrun mode are very rich and might cause us to drop from fifth to sixth place. The difference in rewards between fifth and sixth is significant.”

ScarletFruit was puzzled, “Hasn’t the speedrun mode only been out for three days? I just checked the speedrun ranking; your guild is in seventh place. Given your existing resources, you should be fine.”

“It was stable initially,” apple sighed. “But Temple of the Gods invited external help and allied with Eclipse faction’s [Zenith Expanse].”

Temple of the Gods had a solid foundation, only dropping in rankings because their guild master was absent. After allying with [Zenith Expanse], they climbed from ninth to sixth within a few weeks. With the speedrun mode’s first-week rewards being so rich, a high ranking could potentially elevate them past [Fruit Platter], making them the new fifth.

“In the speedrun mode, they’ve reached fourth place. I heard Zenith Expanse members helped them. We’ve always had a grudge with Temple of the Gods, and if they surpass us this time, we’ll be taunted and trampled underfoot for a while. We can lose to others, but not to Temple of the Gods.”

Temple of the Gods… Su Mo recognized the name. They were their enemies, shouting in the wild a few days ago but getting repelled by ClearWind and ZenSlasher.

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Fuck, I wondered why they’ve been so arrogant lately. Turns out they allied with Zenith Expanse!”

“Is Zenith Expanse that powerful?” Su Mo asked.

ScarletFruit explained, “Eclipse faction has two strong guilds: CloudTraveller’s Veiled Cloud Sanctuary and Zenith Expanse.”

Su Mo realized he had touched a knowledge blind spot; he hadn’t known a game could have so many intricacies. “So, what next?”

Apple had considered coming here for a long time. Although skilled commanders were mostly in CloudTraveller’s guild, they had sought help from many friends. When he approached Momo, the management wasn’t very optimistic. Momo had high scores in two dungeons and demonstrated excellent command in the Desert Inn, but there were many other skilled commanders in the game with higher scores and more experience. Momo, while talented, was still new, and opinions on him were mixed. [Pear Blossom Hollow] was different from [Desert Inn]; it wasn’t just about clearing the dungeon but doing it quickly.

Apple believed in Momo, so he decided to give it a try. He sighed, “Speedrun mode strategies are guild secrets and prohibited from spectatorship. CloudTraveller can’t help us. We’ve been trying for two days without improving our ranking. After seeing your innovative strategies in Desert Inn, I thought you might be able to help. If you’re willing, our guild is prepared to offer a commission or rare materials from our guild warehouse.”

Su Mo understood, “You want me to help you clear the speedrun mode?”

Author’s note: 

ScarletFruit: Bro, there’s money and revenge involved.