Genius Chapter 52:  If You Don’t Send, I Won’t Send

Chapter 52:  If You Don’t Send, I Won’t Send

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

The hunting ground channel had become the primary means of communication among most players. For a while, several “1” messages popped up, all of them serving as covert signals for player contact. Su Mo also followed suit, typing “1” on the hunting ground channel, but he didn’t see any response from ScarletFruit.

In other words, their luck wasn’t that great this time, and they didn’t end up in the same match. Su Mo glanced at the remaining time and hesitated for a few seconds. Below the slope where he was positioned, a group of two people appeared, moving towards the depths of Valor Peak.

“The first hour for the hunters…” Su Mo looked at the skills column, noticing several summoned beasts he hadn’t used yet. Suddenly, he had another idea.

As the countdown in the hunting ground continued, players familiar with the rules were no longer as clueless as they were in the morning. Having grasped the rules and mechanics, they quickly found their positions and observed the hunting ground. This round was calm; ten minutes had passed since the start, and not a single kill had been made. It was evident that the prey were hiding well, and the hunters weren’t rushing to make kills.

[Hunting Ground] SweetMeowMeow: So quiet!!

[Hunting Ground] SilentOne: Are there no top players in this round?

[Hunting Ground] CongratsLuck: Seems like it, no leaderboard jumps yet.

…

Without top players, there was no need to worry about starting off with intense battles to climb the leaderboard. Players relaxed, and the prey emerged from hiding, intending to search for protective jade amulets during this time. SweetMeowMeow was a player who started as prey and, according to forum strategies, upon receiving the prey card, either secured a jade amulet for himself as insurance or hid to survive until the next round’s refresh.

SweetMeowMeow had played a few rounds of hunting battles before. Seeing the absence of top player kills, they boldly emerged from hiding and started searching for jade amulets. With a low probability of finding six jade amulets with one refresh, SweetMeowMeow followed the various refresh points listed in the forum strategy posts one by one. Just as they left their hiding spot, not far away, a jade amulet appeared in a small flower bed within their line of sight.

“Wow, what a lucky start to this round!” SweetMeowMeow eagerly ran over. Just as they were about to reach the jade amulet, a summoned beast hidden in the shadows suddenly emerged, stunning them.

A summoned beast! A… summoner!! SweetMeowMeow immediately snapped out of it, realizing they were being ambushed. They tried to break free from control and snatch the jade amulet. However, the summoner lurking in the shadows seemed to anticipate that they would attempt to break free. In the instant they attempted to break free, the second summoner, who had been waiting patiently, swiftly cast a single-target charm, once again immobilizing SweetMeowMeow.

A White Tiger pounced, and SweetMeowMeow’s health dropped by 10%.

“Damn, why does this summoner have such high physical damage!?” SweetMeowMeow immediately became vigilant. As a player who often frequented the battlefield, they quickly activated a protective skill to withstand the high output of the White Tiger.

However, it seemed the opponent anticipated their moves. In the next second, they were hit by a stun from the Solitary Wolf, completely immobilizing them.

In just three short seconds, SweetMeowMeow’s vision blurred, and they soon found themselves afflicted with four layers of snake venom debuff. The Snake, a basic summon unlocked by summoners at level 70, mainly attacks by stacking snake venom. With moderate movement speed and average basic attacks, its venom damage is augmented by the summoner’s basic spell attack. Generally, when a summoner specializing in spells manages to stack the venom to five layers, it becomes deadly. Physical summoners’ snake venom isn’t as troublesome…

Or so SweetMeowMeow thought, but their venom quickly stacked up to six layers.

[Hunting Ground] Momo killed SweetMeowMeow

SweetMeowMeow: ??? Why is the snake venom from a physical summoner so deadly!?

The first kill in the battlefield outbreak didn’t raise any alarms among other players.

[Hunting Ground] Momo killed Picture-in-Picture

***

After the potential matchmaking mechanism was exposed on the forum, many players began to consider teaming up for coordinated play. Some players formed teams in the Global Channel beforehand, some formed groups with friends and family… while guilds gathered several groups of people to sign up simultaneously.

The [Temple of the Gods] organized the nighttime hunting ground, gathering guild members with participation rights together to maximize the Temple of the Gods’ presence in the match. The more players there were, the easier it was to control the battlefield and coordinate attacks, making it simpler to achieve the highest individual score. If a guild member was assigned as prey, they could be targeted for kills. If a guild member was assigned as a hunter, they could coordinate attacks.

As a manager, LethalSlash immediately sent a message in the channel upon entering the battlefield, then quickly ran to the agreed-upon meeting point to wait for other guild members to gather. Their luck at the start wasn’t particularly good or bad; they received a prey card. They knew they couldn’t achieve a first-round kill with this start, but they could increase their survival probability by searching for protective jade amulets early on.

This time, they were very lucky to have six people in the same match.

But their identity cards weren’t too favorable, and the likelihood of starting off with kills to achieve the best score was slim. Their only option was to ensure that everyone remained stable and progressed to secure rewards.

“Let’s find the jade amulets first,” LethalSlash immediately decided on their strategy. “We only have two hunters on our side, and the other four are prey. Let’s find the jade amulets first and see what happens in the second round of spawns.”

With five jade amulets still unclaimed according to the prey interface, and no kills erupting in the first ten minutes, LethalSlash felt this round should be relaxed. Once their conditions for self-protection were sufficient, they could consider eliminating some competitive players.

Just as they had gathered and walked for a few minutes, the kill list began to stir.

Suddenly, one of them said, “Boss, the player Momo in these kill notices… isn’t that the one we know?”

LethalSlash glanced at the kill notices only to see Momo’s name mentioned several times. “It’s him.”

Seeing this ID, LethalSlash became furious, especially remembering the last time they competed in the guild dungeon. They, [Temple of the Gods], had become an alliance guild with [Zenith Expanse], and with the help of Zenith Expanse’s ranking team, they had initially secured the fourth position. They were even confident that if they surpassed [Fruit Platter] in the speed ranking, their overall rating would definitely improve.

However, to their surprise, Momo appeared with a confusing all-magical lineup, accompanied by a group from [Fruit Platter], and seized the first place on the speed ranking. It was a slap in their faces. They were dumbfounded and quickly attempted to replicate their lineup, but their performance was nowhere near as good as before. They even delayed the Zenith Expanse ranking team’s time, resulting in [Zenith Expanse] being surpassed by Veiled Cloud Sanctuary in the end.

Because of this incident, LethalSlash received a scolding from the other managers and had some conflicts with the Zenith Expanse management. Eventually, they managed to mend the relationship and prevent the collapse of the two alliance guilds.

And the culprit of this incident was none other than summoner momo.

“He’s in our match?” LethalSlash sneered. “Is he alone?”

The other person said, “Seems like it. I just checked the chat records in the hunting ground, and none of the people he usually teams up with are there.”

In the past, they couldn’t beat his team, but could their team not beat just one summoner?

LethalSlash made up his mind. “Let’s go, we’re going to ambush him.”

The other person said again, “Boss, he’s a hunter. We can’t kill him.”

“We’ll bring his health down to zero, then guard him,” LethalSlash remembered his past experience of being camped by Momo and his group at the respawn point. “We’ll guard him. If he has the ability to eliminate all four hunters, then he can wait to be eliminated himself.”

The situation in the hunting ground quietly underwent a change.

Su Mo’s skill allocation was relatively slow. Instead of evenly distributing points across all summoner summoning charts, he prioritized maxing out the skills he used previously before investing in other summoning skills. In addition to his six most frequently used summons, he also invested in Black Tortoise, a shield-summoning creature that absorbs damage, and a Snake that inflicts continuous damage by stacking debuffs.

The Snake primarily increased damage by stacking debuffs, with each layer lasting only three seconds. This means that if another debuff is not applied within three seconds of stacking one layer, the previously stacked layers will reset to zero. The snake required a high level of control from the summoner. Initially, it wasn’t part of Su Mo’s damage output rotation because its short-term damage wasn’t high. It frequently died to boss ultimate skills in dungeon environments due to being too fragile, so Su Mo didn’t use it much.

However, after several attempts today, Su Mo discovered that while the Snake’s individual attack power might not be high, in a favorable output environment, coupled with his original summon attack cycle and the limited summon quest skill, it could stack up to six layers of poison on hostile units, precisely when the Snake’s duration ended. Moreover, its poison stacking was area-of-effect, not limited to single-target attacks, making it more effective in battlefield or group monster environments.

Unfortunately, in the expansive battlefield of the hunting ground, coupled with the prey’s evasion, there was no place to try out the Snake’s group effect.

Su Mo killed another player, bringing his total kills to 15, when he suddenly noticed a group of people approaching from afar. Huh?

When enemies meet, LethalSlash’s eyes lit up when he saw Momo. “Leave him.”

Before he could finish speaking, however, he was suddenly stunned in place by Solitary Wolf’s stun. Most of the players participating in this hunting ground were PvP players, and [Temple of the Gods] was a war guild. They were all very familiar with ambushing and engaging in combat outdoors. Seeing LethalSlash being controlled, they immediately rushed forward to control the summoner.

The summoner profession relies on mental strength, and a summoner with strong mental strength can summon a bunch of creatures in one go, which was particularly annoying.

However, it was not completely unsolvable. The summoner’s strength lay in the summoned creatures, but also its weakness. The summoner itself didn’t have many skills; its attacks and self-protection relied entirely on summoned creatures. The simplest way to deal with a summoner was to prevent them from summoning anything.

The team of players charged straight towards the summoner hiding behind the trees. However, as they approached, the summoner calmly summoned a Zephyr Hawk to slow them down.

“Break the control!” LethalSlash shouted angrily.

The player who broke free immediately rushed forward. As they were about to reach Momo, a Spectral Fox suddenly appeared behind Momo and charmed them in place. Meanwhile, the slower-moving players were thrown into chaos by a Lunar Feline from the side.

The hunting grounds didn’t have a teaming mechanism, so all players were considered red-tagged to each other, meaning they were attackable units.

Healers in the hunting grounds could only assist in outputting skills, unable to designate healing to red-tagged players. LethalSlash’s team had a healer, but at that moment, they were playing the role of a hunter. 

The chaotic state in dungeons and regular battlefields was manageable, but in this hunting environment where everyone was red-tagged, it was disastrous. Everyone was at full status, and after being confused, various basic attack skills were randomly used, some hitting teammates directly, significantly reducing their health.

LethalSlash was dumbfounded; he overlooked the summoner’s confusion skill and the red-tag environment of the hunting grounds. This wave directly reduced their strongest magical swordsman to low health. He urgently shouted, “Use the red potion! His skill needs cooldown; keep attacking!”

Several players immediately killed the main culprit, LunarFeline, and then swiftly pursued Momo. Momo leaped onto a tree, utilizing the environment of Valor Peak for positional output. 

Red potions have cooldowns… once the enemy side uses red potions in the hunting ground environment, it’s like they’ve exhausted most of their healing skills. Momo endured several skills but still orderly used control to distance himself quietly, placing the Snake in a hidden spot. The players pursuing from behind seemed unaware of the trap, directly entering the range of the snake’s skill.

The opportunity arrived.

***

The players in the hunting ground were a bit unfamiliar with momo, only becoming interested after seeing him announced as the killer several times. His ID seemed familiar, but they couldn’t quite recall where they had seen it before. Later, a player said he was a PvE player, and they reluctantly recalled some memories. Initially, they only had faint memories, but after a few minutes, the players didn’t think that way anymore.

[Hunting Ground] Momo killed I feel so weak.

[Hunting Ground] momo killed doesn’t want to team up, wants to solo.

…

[Hunting Ground] Congratulations: What? Several heads down?

[Hunting Ground] Not a talker: Seems like 7? Who’s this momo!? What profession is so fierce?

[Hunting Ground] Banana Eater: momo… isn’t he the one ranked 15th on the hunting leaderboard? I remember he’s a summoner.

[Hunting Ground] Congratulations: A summoner with 7 kills in 15 minutes??

[Hunting Ground] Flower Among Flowers: Are all PvE players this fierce in battles?

In just a few lines of chat, a few more minutes passed, and momo once again killed 3 players, bringing his total kills to 10. Initially, players who were looking for protective amulets hesitated upon seeing this situation. But considering Momo’s killing spree, what if he accumulated 20 kills and ended the match early? Wouldn’t their efforts in finding the amulets be wasted? Should they risk an early end or play it safe and hope for the best?

Players glanced at the remaining refresh time for the first hour, which was about half an hour. As time passed, Momo killed a few more, reaching a total of 15 kills. However, these 15 kills seemed to be a bottleneck, and Momo’s killing speed slowed down.

[Hunting Ground] Player Count: 79, Hunters: 20, Prey: 59, Refresh Time Remaining: 00:16:35, Hunting Ground Time Remaining: 03:16:35

[Hunting Ground] Congratulations: 15 kills, seems like it’s stopped?

[Hunting Ground] Silent One: Let’s not feed him. Everyone’s hiding, once he hits 20 kills, we’re done for.

[Hunting Ground] Blessing Goldfish: I’m hiding, my spot is good, he definitely won’t find me.

[Hunting Ground] Little Confused Egg: Still 15 minutes left, everyone hold on.

In the midst of the chaotic battle in the forest, the hunting ground channel, after a brief calm, entered into a new storm.

With just 15 minutes left on the countdown, the hunting ground channel suddenly flooded with a series of consecutive kills.

[Hunting Ground] Momo killed Little Sword Brother.

[Hunting Ground] Momo killed LethalSlash.

…

Four kills in a row, directly bringing momo’s kill count to 19.

A player hiding in the shadows, “?”

[Dang! Who are these four? So easily killed!?]

[Four kills just like that? I didn’t expect there would be more after the first ones.]

[Weren’t we supposed to stop feeding!? Don’t mess with me!]

[Hold steady!]

[Don’t feed anymore! You’re giving me a heart attack!]

[For these few minutes, just treat it like you’re constipated and stay in the toilet. Promise me, don’t come out, okay?]

A few more minutes passed, and a system announcement popped up in the hunting ground.

[player Momo has completed the achievement for 20 kills in a single match. Hunting Ground ends.]

A player hiding in the shadows, “?????”

“We agreed you wouldn’t feed if I didn’t. We were supposed to play it safe and hope for the best! What happened?”