Genius Chapter 77: Ten O’Clock at Night

Chapter 77: Ten O’Clock at Night

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Su Mo immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. He was in icy water with a thick layer of ice above him. Even as he tried to break through with force, he found it difficult to crack open the ice.

Based on the taskbar information, he seemed to be the one in need of rescue. Underwater, he couldn’t communicate at all. Still recovering from nearly drowning moments ago, he felt his limbs growing weaker, with his left foot even stiffening up.

[Current Frost Value 12/100, if a player’s Frost Value reaches 100, they will be permanently frozen.]

Just as he was about to type in the text channel to communicate, there was a sudden loud noise from above, followed by the sound of cracking ice. The surrounding ice was forcefully shattered.

Someone had violently broken through the ice wall. Su Mo hesitated briefly, then struggled to move closer to the broken ice layer. The next moment, a strong and powerful hand reached in, tightly grabbing his wrist and pulling him out from the heavy ice water.

Su Mo saw the glaring light and collapsed weakly against the man, triggering a violent coughing fit. The person who came to his rescue was Yu Zhen. At that moment, Yu Zhen had no other thoughts; he simply embraced Su Mo and helped him up. “Let’s go, let’s get out of this place.”

[Current Frost Value 15/100, if a player’s Frost Value reaches 100, they will be permanently frozen.]

A chilly wind rustled by, and Su Mo’s wet body made him extremely uncomfortable. It was only then that he had a chance to observe the surroundings of the Winter Realm.

Everywhere in the Winter Realm was ice. He had been rescued from an icy lake, and as he looked around, he saw mostly flat ground with scattered trees and rocks, all covered in ice. Even the mountains were extra snowy white, and the cold wind brought down snow, assaulting them.

Yu Zhen led him into a certain place, and immediately a new prompt appeared before them.

[You have entered the shelter.]

The shelter was actually a massive cave, its walls almost entirely covered in thick ice. Yu Zhen led him deeper inside, where there was an Illumination Scroll and a makeshift campfire. Supporting him to sit down, Yu Zhen said, “These outdoor survival items seem to help reduce Frost Value here.”

He glanced at Su Mo’s left foot, where there was a thin layer of ice. “Once you regain mobility, we can proceed with our plan.”

Su Mo opened the trade interface. Yu Zhen had placed a costume gift box and 5 outdoor survival items there. “Being wet here accelerates Frost Value accumulation. Change your clothes and stay warm here. We’ll discuss further when you’re ready to move.”

“Brother?” Su Mo was surprised to see the outdoor survival items. These were emergency item packs usually containing matches and other outdoor essentials useful for certain exploration tasks. He hadn’t expected Yu Zhen to carry them.

“It’s temporarily safe here. I’ll explain more later,” Yu Zhen said after marking the location for them to regroup, then quickly left the cave to find the others. “We can all gather here later with the help of the scene map and this marker.”

After coming out of the water, the team’s voice channel was restored.

Su Mo could see that besides him and Yu Zhen, everyone else’s voice was muted, but they could still use the text channel, which now had several messages popping up. From the communication among other teammates and Yu Zhen’s explanations, he roughly understood the situation.

Upon entering the Winter Realm, they were divided into two groups: one trapped and one free. The free group had entered the scene early and obtained the [Winter Realm Exclusive Costume Gift Box], which had warmth effects. After they understood the mission details, the rescue mission in the scene was initiated. Due to the unique circumstances of the scene, team members had to find each other to enable voice communication; otherwise, they could only communicate through text.

Besides him, ScarletFruit, ZenSlasher, Apple, and FireworksAndLanterns were trapped.

The other teammates were scattered throughout the scene, searching for people.

“One-Line Link couldn’t reach beneath the ice layer. After activating the skill, he brought me to your vicinity. There are no other obstructions around, so I guessed you might be under the ice,” Yu Zhen used the One-Line Link skill proficiently. In the same scene, he could teleport to the position of others, but if they were trapped, he could only teleport to the nearest accessible location.

Su Mo paused slightly, realizing that was why Yu Zhen found him so quickly.

There was a faint sound from Yu Zhen’s side. “Time is running out. We need to find a way to locate the others.”

Su Mo snapped back to focus. “Focus on finding under the ice. They are likely trapped like me, unable to move. Also, we have reminders about freezing values here. The rescue time is limited to half an hour, likely related to the accumulation of freezing values reaching 100 in half an hour.”

On the scene map, only Yu Zhen’s position could be seen. It seemed he hadn’t met the other teammates yet, so their location information couldn’t be activated.

[Team] Team Leader Momo: Attention everyone in the event, can anyone use the team marking function?

[Team] WhatAHugeWatermelon: Yes.

Yu Zhen left a red marker in the cave, and Su Mo instructed the other teammates to leave yellow markers. Sure enough, except for the four trapped individuals, everyone else in the event could use the team marking function. Suddenly, all the location information became clear.

[Team] Team Leader Momo: Attention to the four trapped individuals, communicate your positions via text.

[Team] ScarletFruit14: In the water.

[Team] Apple: I seem to be in an ice cave, but I can’t see any locations or open the map.

Among the four trapped individuals, only ScarletFruit and Apple could communicate via text, and their map function was disabled.

Su Mo immediately opened the map to confirm their positions. Yellow columns of light were scattered throughout the scene, with one position blank, likely where Yu Zhen originally spawned and later used a skill to teleport.

The map information in the Winter Realm was very basic, with emblems of two lakes on the scene. The rest consisted of forests and flatlands. To the east and west were lakes, while north and south were forests and flatlands. He had just been rescued by Yu Zhen from the lake to the east, and now he was located in a cave slightly to the east.

Su Mo quickly responded in the text channel: “[Yellow Peach and Watermelon, head to the lake to the west. ScarletFruit should be in that location, potentially drowning underwater, so be prepared with resurrection skills. Apple is in an ice cave, likely a prominent location. Look for elevated spots on the flatland or towards the forest direction. Bitter melon and ClearWind, check your location as well.]”

“[ScarletFruit, try to leave some markers for your teammates so they know where you are in the lake.]”

FireworksAndLanterns and ZenSlasher did not type anything. Either they were unconscious or unable to type due to conditions. Typing in the text channel required some level of mobility; if they couldn’t even move, they might be completely frozen.

“The possible locations for being completely frozen are too numerous…”

Except for areas without ice, any other place could potentially be where they are frozen. Su Mo frowned at the map, wondering about the distribution. Would they be evenly spread out? How would they allocate the five people?

[Rescue Team (Countdown 00:15:10)]

Fifteen minutes passed. Apple was found in a protruding ice cave in the southern forest, illuminating it brightly with his Flame Sword Technique, making him particularly conspicuous in the snowy Global. ScarletFruit was even more dramatic, using healing spells that changed the color of the lake water. Before nearly dying, they summoned a creature that marked their underwater location permanently. Eventually, Yellow Peach found ScarletFruit and revived them.

There was an unexpected surprise along the way: FireworksAndLanterns was accidentally discovered by ClearWind. They had turned into a block of ice on the flat ground, but ClearWind keenly spotted them and rescued them.

Except for ZenSlasher, the four trapped individuals were spread out in all four directions: east, west, south, and north.

The mainframe wouldn’t increase the difficulty in the next half hour.

[Abandon the lakes in the east and west; continue searching in the north and south directions to find ZenSlasher. Those with high freezing values, head to the shelter in the east to rest.]

Su Mo’s freezing value dropped to 0. Instead of extinguishing the fire pit, he continued deeper into the cave. Apart from the north and south directions, another possibility was within the cave itself. Walking in that direction, he found himself in the middle.

The cave was deep, and as he proceeded, it grew larger.

After about a hundred meters, a notification suddenly appeared before him.

[You have left the shelter.]

It was the same cave, but outside the cave was supposed to be a shelter, yet inside it wasn’t. What’s more, as soon as Su Mo left the shelter, he felt an unprecedented coldness, even colder than the bone-chilling cold he felt in the lake. It felt like taking a breath would freeze him solid.

Deep within the cave, a path covered in ice extended ahead, with the sides sinking about half a meter, forming a layer of ice. There should have been water underneath.

“I’ve found ZenSlasher,” Yu Zhen’s voice appeared in the voice channel, “her location is towards the southern middle, you guessed it right, her position should be considered central.”

“Okay, you guys head to the cave to regroup.”

Now they had one person each in the east, west, south, north, and middle.

Others gradually arrived at the cave’s location, and the voices in the voice channel became lively.

ScarletFruit: “This is ridiculous. Starting off in the water, I thought I was done for.”

Yellow Peach: “It’s lucky you floated up after dying. Otherwise, Watermelon and I would have to dive down to rescue you.”

Watermelon: “Is there something wrong with the Winter Realm? Starting with a rescue mission. If we hadn’t rescued everyone, would we have been frozen forever?”

“This eternal freezing seems to be permanent, similar to what happened to Little Silver Flower in the Autumn Realm, where healing resurrection skills were useless, equivalent to being permanently left behind,” Bitter Melon said. “From this situation, it seems like the Winter Realm hasn’t given us a chance to wipe and restart the team.”

Yu Zhen shook his head. “From the looks of it, if it’s a challenge similar to the Autumn Realm, there might still be a chance. If not, then there should be a reset opportunity. But if we reset, we’ll still need to find our teammates.”

Everyone gathered in the shelter of the cave to warm up and recover from the freezing, but from the current scene, this place seemed to be set up for a boss challenge, with no other plot hints seen.

“Where’s my big brother?” ScarletFruit asked.

Su Mo replied, “I’m inside the cave. You guys rest first, I’ll see if there are any other clues.”

By now, it was already 10 PM at night. They had spent the entire day reaching the final stage of the Mystic Realm of Departure Souls, starting as the most backward team and instantly reversing to first place.

Resting was quite lengthy, and other players changed into winter clothing.

Bitter Melon carried various strange items, even setting up a tent and bringing out a barbecue grill. “Fortunately, I had the items from the guild’s banquet last time in my pack. Since we’re waiting anyway, we have fire here. Want to grill something to eat?”

ScarletFruit couldn’t help but ask, “Bitter Melon, how come you have so many strange items in your pack?”

“I have a quest item bag that gives me an extra 50 inventory slots,” Bitter Melon said as he set up the fire pit. “Might as well bring everything. We won’t need it later, right? Don’t worry, once these items generate fire, it’s hard to put out. It’ll cook well, even if we don’t have much meat.”

Apple spilled a bunch of things all at once. “I’ve got this. There’s still some kitchen food stolen from the Autumn Realm. Should be edible.”

ScarletFruit couldn’t understand. “… Your bags really are so empty.”

Grilling started immediately, and everyone gathered around.

ClearWind couldn’t resist checking various strategies on the forums, discovering that most teams found techniques to pass the second stage. “In the Mermaid Realm, they died and came back to life, died out of the dungeon, and continued to grind experience.”

“Hey, many teams have reached the second stage,” ClearWind replied. “But the top teams seem to be in the third stage.”

Apple also went around the group to explore and came back, “CloudTraveller just posted the strategy for the first stage. The reason why progress was slow in the first stage was because most players underestimated the Seven Star Challenge. If a team wipes twice, it delays progress. Actually, most of the time was spent on leveling up.”

“After that, they became more cautious, knowing that wiping out required healing insurance. Some hardcore DPS teams even brought three healers and had nine people testing skills while one stayed behind. If a wipe occurred, the designated healer would save the team.”

ClearWind, hearing news from the top players in the team, asked again, “I can’t understand the news about those top teams on the forums. Some say they’re on the third stage, others say they’re on the fourth. Who are our competitors for the first clear?”

Watermelon couldn’t help but say, “If you think a bit, you’ll see that we’re the first ones to reach the fourth stage. Currently, our progress is in the lead.”

Just then, Yu Zhen added, “There are two teams, one is Eclipse faction’s CloudTraveller team, and the other is Abyss faction’s BrokenOracle team. When we were on the third stage, BrokenOracle’s team was ahead of us.”

“But now, neither of them has reached the fourth stage.”

BrokenOracle is also a player from the Abyss faction. If their team wins the reward, the faction reward will also go to them. But at this point, everyone is definitely aiming for the first clear reward.

“Winter Realm isn’t as straightforward. Currently, we haven’t seen the boss yet, nor have we discovered any reminder mechanisms.”

Su Mo analyzed briefly, “From the beginning, the mechanisms in Spring and Summer were the most straightforward, with the boss directly in front of you and skill mechanisms needing simple testing. But starting from Autumn, there were information manipulations and text traps in the scene… If this is the final stage of the dungeon, in the worst-case scenario, everything will likely come full circle.”

Winter Realm currently has one very clear point. It’s about reducing the number of participants. The initial task was simply a reduction task. Other members listened quietly, inexplicably feeling excited. Now they were in first place. With a bit more effort, couldn’t they secure the first clear?

Watermelon felt this trip was not in vain and asked, “So what do we do next?”

Others were also curious, but then they heard the command, “Just scout around. Since the difficulty is high, save progress at 11 o’clock, log off and rest. We’ll plan the rest for tomorrow.”

In an instant, it was like a bucket of cold water was poured over everyone’s heads.

The more difficult the challenge, the more cautious one needs to be. Given the current situation, if they wanted to secure first place, they had to be even more careful. Otherwise, if eliminated in the fourth stage, starting over would take even longer, which would be more trouble than it was worth.

However, they still needed to understand Winter Realm’s mechanisms before making a decision. They couldn’t underestimate their opponents either. Thinking of this, Su Mo glanced at Yu Zhen’s avatar in the team, but quickly looked away.

Su Mo saw the path ahead growing darker and pulled out an Illumination Scroll to see deeper. As he walked, he said, “Let’s assess the situation first. If it’s too difficult, we’ll log off at 11 and rest. We can figure out the rest tomorrow morning at 7. With a good mental state, it’s easier to clear…”

He was cut off midway as he suddenly felt his left shoulder become exceptionally heavy.

A slender hand rested on his shoulder, its icy fingers tracing down to his neck. The chilling touch of the fingertips made Su Mo instinctively want to recoil, but the hand firmly held him in place. In an instant, he was afflicted with status effects like [Immobilize] and [Cold].

He realized he had encountered the boss.

And it was a red-named monster that attacked actively.