Genius Chapter 82: Strategy

Chapter 82: Strategy

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

The excitement of the Fruit Gang was dampened by a bucket of cold water, and silently they moved aside to open their chests. 

The forums had exploded with discussions. Various opinions erupted instantly. Most people’s attention was focused on the first-clear team. After the System announcement, they also learned about the peculiar composition of the first-clear team. While they were still trying hard to assemble double warriors and double healers, the first-clear team managed to pass with double assassins and double summoners. 

This left those players who wanted to copy their lineup speechless. How could they copy the lineup when they didn’t even know how to do the homework?! Unable to copy the homework, they could only focus on the players themselves. In this team, all five players from the Fruit Gang were among the top fifty players in the overall ranking, making them the elite of the Fruit Gang and currently in the top tier. However, among the remaining five players, upon thorough investigation by forum users, it became clear that the highest-ranking was the array master UnchainedWanderer, ranked 18th in the overall array master rankings, and notably, he was a rare offensive-type array master. Following him was summoner momo, ranked 12th in the Sect rankings, yet still nameless in the overall rankings of the Sect… 

Cleric ScarletFruit, a renowned game merchant, ranked 29th in the relatively small cleric Sect. Livestreamer physical swordsman ClearWindIsHere ranked 28th among physical swordsmen. Assassin ZenSlasher, who had more forum gossip, had no name in the assassin rankings…

In this way, with such an unconventional lineup, they actually achieved the first kill. 

[I asked my friends from the Fruit Gang… almost all of their management team went, and they said the clearance was all thanks to Momo.]

[Why are so many people asking about Momo? Last time I compiled a post, does anyone want to see Momo’s PvE highlights? Misty Sea, Desert Inn, Qixi Festival… Now we can add one more, the Departed Souls Dungeon, but unfortunately there’s no completion data!!]

[Momo, recently dominated Valor Peak, now first cleared the Departed Souls Dungeon. I feel his momentum is even stronger than BrokenOracle’s.] 

[I really want to hear his commands too!!]

[The person above who wants to hear his commands… Haven’t you seen the previous Fruit Gang posts?]

[Is that the Devil Coach…] 

Some players didn’t quite understand until they delved deeper into the hidden details. It turns out the reason all five members of the Fruit Gang management team followed Momo into the dungeons wasn’t just about early nights and early mornings, but also about timely meals and a schedule as tight as a work or school day. The PvE elites in the Fruit Gang kept quiet, and in the end, when no one else stepped up, even guild master Bitter Melon had to take the lead.  

Forum player unaware: ??? Is he really that terrifying?

Various surfing players from the Fruit Gang expressed:

“He’s like a devil.”

“After following him for raids, everyone felt off.”

“Our vice leader said: Stay away from Momo, or you’ll end up unlucky.”

“My partner and I went once, and didn’t do another dungeon for three days.”

“I heard from my friend…”

“I heard from our managers…”

Other forum users: … Truly an archdemon.

Valor Peak’s archdemon Momo sparked another wave of discussion on the forum due to their first completion of the Mystic Realm of Departed Souls.

More and more people were discussing him, becoming increasingly curious about him, yet he remained very mysterious. As the first player on the Celestial Horizon game forum with no traceable gaming history and no StarNet account, he stood out. Not only that, his in-game friend system chat was perpetually closed, and his movements were even more elusive. Combined with various impression tags, unaware players’ impressions of him became even more complex.

***

Su Mo was completely unaware of this. After finishing his meal, he took a nap in the afternoon. When he woke up, there was a communication from the school. His mentor asked about his recent rest and recovery, suggesting he could return to school for classes once he was fully recovered. His partner, Senior Zhou, would be returning to school next week after completing his studies, allowing their project to continue moving forward.

Previously, their project had already passed the mid-term defense, leaving only the final experimental data to collect. Su Mo had prepared the formulas and documents in advance. The crucial data required his physical presence, so he could only proceed with it when Senior Zhou returned. With Senior Zhou’s internship nearing its end, Su Mo estimated that the remaining tasks could be completed before the upcoming long break, allowing them to catch up with the year-end project evaluation and participate in important research projects with the Alliance.

“Su Mo! Mr. Yu Zhen is here!”

Su Mo was organizing documents in the laboratory when he heard the call. He went out to see what was happening and found Yu Zhen holding a teapot.

Turning to Su Mo, Yu Zhen said warmly, “Grandma made some herbal tea. She asked me to bring it over for you to taste.”

He handed the teapot to the robot Lele.

Lele scanned the contents of the teapot, and the nutritional indicators immediately appeared. He said, “Su Mo, you can drink this.”

“Thank you, brother Zhen. Please, thank Grandma for me as well.” Su Mo quickly invited him to sit on the sofa and noticed a loader casually placed on the table, which he promptly moved to another side.

Yu Zhen asked, “Are you playing in the living room?”

“Yes, so Lele can watch over me conveniently,” Su Mo smiled and replied, “If I have any issues, it can detect them immediately.”

Yu Zhen paused slightly, then asked again, “Are you tired? Two days of consecutive dungeon runs.”

“I’m okay. I’ve had sufficient rest,” Su Mo looked at Yu Zhen. In reality, Yu Zhen looked different from the array master in the game, and his voice was also different. The only similarity was their speaking tone. Su Mo suddenly remembered the critical moment earlier that morning. By that time, he hadn’t considered any other outcomes. The changes were drastic, and he couldn’t calculate the results at all, resulting in a rather sloppy performance.

Until Yu Zhen stacked those arrays for him before his death, the uncertain choices Su Mo faced became more assured.

At that time, he had already forgotten to communicate with his teammates. In almost no communication, Yu Zhen seemed to understand his thoughts and tried his best to cooperate with him.

Yu Zhen said, “About the Departed Souls Dungeon…”

“Bro, this morning…” Su Mo started to speak.

Both spoke almost simultaneously. Yu Zhen looked at Su Mo, “You go ahead.”

“It’s nothing, just about the dungeon. What about it?” Su Mo pressed down the strange feeling in his heart.

Yu Zhen paused slightly and asked, “CloudTraveller came to ask me about the details of Winter Realm. Their lineup is quite different from ours. I have a few details to ask you about. Are you willing to share?”

Su Mo thought it was something big, but it turned out to be this matter.

“Just a moment,” he ran over to fetch his tablet, “What lineup?”

Seeing Su Mo ready to take notes with a pen, Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment, “They have double warrior, double healer…”

“In fact, their main issue lies in positioning. Once they solve the basic positioning problems, it will alleviate the team’s burden,” Su Mo paused briefly, “How about this?”

The two discussed for over half an hour. Su Mo had good memory, and he recalled every detail about Winter Realm’s boss, Eternal Winter, very clearly. It wasn’t until the machine in Su Mo’s laboratory beeped that Yu Zhen stood up to take his leave.

At the doorstep,

“Take care and rest well,” Yu Zhen advised.

Su Mo smiled, “Thanks, bro. I’ll get busy now.”

After Yu Zhen left Su Mo’s home, he forwarded the detailed positioning document Su Mo sent to CloudTraveller. The latter quickly replied, surprised, and even sent a voice message asking him, “So detailed? This is the first time you’ve given me such a thorough strategy.”

“It’s from Momo,” Yu Zhen replied.

CloudTraveller was a bit taken aback, “I’m not friends with him. Please, thank him for me. If you need anything, feel free to ask for my help.”

Yu Zhen acknowledged with a “got it,” ended the conversation, and saved the strategy Su Mo organized onto his phone.

Chatting with Su Mo was really relaxing… There was no need to say much; he just understood your meaning.

Yu Zhen thought of the way the guy had concentrated on drawing just now, and that indescribable feeling in his heart grew deeper.

“… Do we need to find a topic?”

***

In the afternoon, Su Mo immersed himself in work at the lab. By the time he had some free time to log into the game, it was already evening.

As soon as he logged on, he received a team invitation from his teammates.

ScarletFruit: “Bro, do you know you’re famous on the forum?!”

ClearWind: “My viewers were asking this afternoon when you’ll show up!”

“Oh, on the StarNet forum?” Su Mo fed Veil Wraith and Soul Rabbit, then suddenly noticed the spirit pet egg placed next to Soul Rabbit hasn’t hatched yet. He frowned slightly and nudged the egg. Could it be that having Soul Rabbit help with incubation wasn’t effective?

“Exactly,” ScarletFruit continued, “If you open an account on the forum, you’ll definitely gain followers. Many people are even clamoring for you to publish guides!”

“Guides?” Su Mo didn’t quite understand. “What do you mean?”

“Weren’t we the first to clear the Departed Souls Dungeon? According to the current announcements, the seven-star Departed Souls Dungeon will remain accessible in the game for another week. After that, the faction system will update, and the challenge of the Departed Souls Four Spirits will close. However, other players can still continue to clear the seven-star Departed Souls Dungeon and get the basic rewards, like the equipment chest we get every time we clear it.”

After ScarletFruit briefly explained, Su Mo roughly understood the meaning. It meant that they were the first to clear it and received the first clear rewards, but other players could still continue to challenge the seven-star Departed Souls Dungeon to obtain basic equipment rewards. Now that the first clear rewards and faction buffs were gone, various teams were openly sharing information on the forum, all trying to figure out how to clear this dungeon and obtain the equipment rewards. Missing out on this dungeon meant the next quest dungeon might become even more challenging.

No wonder CloudTraveller asked Yu Zhen for details. Yu Zhen had thought CloudTraveller wanted to review the dungeon.

Su Mo asked, “Didn’t you guys tell anyone else?”

“We didn’t know much ourselves. Some details were confusing at the time, and we just followed your commands. Our memories are also limited,” ScarletFruit explained. “People from Fruit Gang asked for your opinion, but you weren’t online this afternoon.”

Su Mo had to reply to Bitter melon and then said, “I’ll give you the strategy later.”

Coincidentally, he had discussed it with Yu Zhen at noon, and there were detailed notes on the electronic board.

ClearWind asked, “Fruit, why aren’t you thinking of using the strategy to make a fortune this time?”

ScarletFruit chuckled, “Whether to make money or not, listen to my big brother.”

“Isn’t there that forum? Just post it directly when the time comes.”

Su Mo felt making money from this wasn’t very meaningful, but he was still somewhat interested in exploiting the mainframe’s loopholes.

As more people cleared the dungeon, more equipment dropped. The headache of balancing would be for the game’s mainframe, not them.

Reflecting on their sloppy clearance, Su Mo realized there were better ways to succeed. They could have made changes in various details, like reducing the freezing effect on melee professions, instead of ending up in a frantic state with only one person left alive to clear the dungeon.

Su Mo fed his spirit pets and checked the spirit pet egg, which showed no signs of hatching. He then turned his attention to the equipment chests accumulated in his inventory.

Each basic clearance of a boss awarded one equipment chest and refining materials. The first clear bonus was more generous, providing a special chest along with equipment chests, totaling five pieces of equipment, one quest chest, one appearance chest, plus materials and attribute points.

Su Mo decided to open all five equipment chests. They all yielded level 80 PvE golden equipment. “This equipment is better than before.”

“Summoner is using the Stellar Set, right? The official just updated level 80 PvE golden equipment, and currently, the best attributes come from the quest dungeon.” ScarletFruit glanced over. “Wow, bro, you’re really lucky. These pieces have great stats. Earlier, FireworksAndLanterns opened his chests after finishing the dungeon, and one of them had terrible stats, completely unusable. He’ll have to spend materials later to reforge it.”

Su Mo heard ScarletFruit’s words and looked at the remaining chests decisively, deciding to open them another day.

“Level 80 is approaching, upgrading equipment and refining will cost a lot of gold coins,” Su Mo scanned the remaining astrology charts in his bag and suddenly said, “There’s a money-making opportunity, want to join?”

ScarletFruit’s eyes lit up, “Let’s do it! Where there’s money, there’s me, ScarletFruit!”

***

Even though the first clear of the Departed Souls Dungeon had ended, the torment for players was far from over.

It was nearly past eleven in the evening when most players respawned from the Departed Souls Dungeon, having lost levels in the process. Unable to hold back, many went on the forum to criticize the game developers. However, they were surprised to see a trade post by the merchant ScarletFruit resurfaced, with some players already familiar with him assuming he had new items in his shop. Instead, upon clicking, they discovered it was actually a strategy guide link.

ScarletFruit posted a strategy guide?! And he used his trade post to redirect traffic to it?!

The Celestial Horizon forum was divided into many sections, with one specifically dedicated to strategy discussions.

Here gathered many top players’ game strategies, and it also attracted most of the leaderboard’s regular high-ranking players. For instance, CloudTraveller is one of the highly popular strategy thread owners here. The strategy section of the forum has a special rule: players who frequently post high-quality strategy threads with high engagement will receive official medals. In the future, posting strategy threads will display a badge of honor, attracting the attention of most players looking for strategies.

At this moment, the homepage of the strategy section is filled with various strategies for the Departed Souls Dungeon posted by top players. Almost every spot on the homepage is occupied by high-engagement threads, pushing down any new posts as soon as they appear.

And at this moment, a new strategy thread suddenly emerged, neither bearing the emblem of a top player nor gaining high popularity quickly, but its number of replies rapidly increased within a short period. The poster was a newcomer who had posted for the first time in the strategy section.

Title: “[Shocking! That guy actually released this thing…]” Other players: ??? What thing? Who’s that guy?

Immediately, countless people clicked into the thread and saw a familiar username.

[LuckyScarletFruit: Ta-da! Here comes the simplified guide for Departed Souls dungeon! Want to know how to become a PvE champion? Want to know how to breeze through the seasons? Want to clear Departed Souls dungeon in just one week? Then you must check out this guide! It covers all kinds of team compositions—there’s no combination you can’t find, only ones you haven’t thought of! Produced by the leader of the first clear team, Momo, it’s the most comprehensive guide to the Departed Souls dungeon in history. Don’t miss out if you happen to pass by!]

Players who clicked into the thread: This is actually a guide thread???

Author’s note: ScarletFruit: When it comes to posting, I’m a pro.