Genius Chapter 87: Journey Through Wind and Rain Event

Limited-Time News: Journey Through Wind and Rain

Chapter 87: Journey Through Wind and Rain Event

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

The perimeter of the Capital University sports field was lined with lush green trees, and the specially constructed fitness testing area was set up there. It was time for the annual autumn fitness tests at Capital University. The intimidating fitness test instructors were stationed at each test station, expressionlessly waiting for the students to enter the testing area.

The second-year Class A of the Mechanical Forging Department was queued up in Group A-1. The class monitor was holding a roll call sheet, verifying each student’s test progress. “Lance, have you done the long jump yet? There’s no record of you here.”

The youth named Lance, sitting on a nearby bench, raised his hand when he heard his name. “Not yet, I’ll go in a bit.”

“I really hated the fitness tests. Regular fitness classes already exhaust me, and failing the annual tests means no promotion.”

“Yeah, there’s no other way. Just find a way to pass.”

“Why didn’t you come for the raid last night?”

“Hadn’t finished the old man’s assignment, I was rushing through it. Luckily, Su Mo came back, and I borrowed his homework to copy.”

“No wonder the old man was in such a good mood this morning. Turns out it was because Su Mo came back.”

The class monitor looked at the list and noticed the name at the very bottom of the class roster. He scanned the group of students and spotted a youth wearing a hat in the corner. He wasn’t mingling with the crowd, surrounded by a stack of registration forms, talking to the teacher in charge of fitness registration.

“Su Mo!”

The youth in the hat turned around when he heard his name. “Class monitor?”

Every time the class monitor saw Su Mo, he couldn’t help but feel it was a pity for him to be an F-class. As students of the Mechanical Forging Department’s A-class, most of them were A-class or higher in fitness, with top entrance scores. When an F-class student was placed in their class at the beginning of their first year, it caused quite a stir. Many proud students were very displeased because Capital University had never had students below D-class.

What could an F-class do? At the bottom of the fitness ranking, unable to operate machines, and even minor bumps and scrapes could pose health risks for them.

He came to the Mechanical Forging Department, and due to his poor physical condition, he couldn’t attend most of the lab classes and had to use terminal simulators instead of actual machines. Although no one voiced it directly, there was a concern that having someone with his physique in their class would lower the average scores and affect their class ranking.

When Su Mo first joined A-class, there were inevitably some murmurs.

However, during the first midterm tests in their freshman year, Su Mo scored perfect marks in several theoretical subjects, significantly raising the class average in theoretical scores. Even though he received zeroes in practical machine operation, he earned credits through extracurricular competition experience. After the midterm evaluation, their A-class’s overall score didn’t drop despite having an F-class student. The murmurs ceased.

They realized they shouldn’t judge someone solely based on their physical condition. Later, when they learned about Su Mo’s extensive competition experience, they understood he was an exceptional admission to the Capital University. Students in the class took the initiative to apologize to Su Mo.

Doubts were inevitable, but Su Mo used his academic performance to prove his worth and silence any criticism.

“Sign here,” the class monitor said as he walked up to Su Mo. “Did the physical test exemption note get issued by the test teacher?”

The nearby physical education teacher laughed heartily, “Just got it done for him. Hand it in together afterward.”

“Thanks, teacher,” Su Mo replied.

The physical education teacher said, “No problem. I’m done here too. I’ll take care of the registration board. You can go now.”

Su Mo signed the attendance sheet held by the class monitor, and with the exemption note sorted out, he said, “I’ll head to the lab first. Call me if you need anything.”

“Go on, go on. There’s nothing much left, your stuff is the easiest to handle, everyone else is dragging their feet,” the class monitor laughed. “Be careful on your way.”

After Su Mo walked away, the class monitor sighed deeply while looking at the attendance sheet in his hand.

A classmate nearby asked, “Class monitor, remember to log in this afternoon. There’s a new quest starting today.”

“What game?” The class monitor walked over. “All you do is play Celestial Horizon everyday. Look at Su Mo, the top student, heading to the lab.”

“Su Mo doesn’t play games, does he? I rarely see him play games.”

“With his health, he probably can’t handle holographic games.”

“I heard they opened up E-level. Maybe F-class can play too.”

“During the summer, he might have played terminal games. Su Mo even sent me a screenshot and liked it.”

The class monitor looked at the group chattering away and tapped the attendance board. “Guys, can we finish the physical tests first? If we don’t get this done, we won’t be able to play any quests.”

***

The physical fitness field was bustling with activity, while Su Mo entered the quiet laboratory building.

Senior Zhou would come after the fitness test, so Su Mo took the opportunity to start up the lab machines. Their project only needed final refinements and data support, as the mid-term defense was already passed. Recently, they were mainly busy preparing data for the theoretical formulas, which was not complicated but time-consuming.

After returning to school a few days ago, Senior Zhou, who had been studying at a research institute for several months, brought back a bunch of books signed by notable figures. He also inquired about several research projects that were recruiting and eagerly asked Su Mo if he wanted to join him during the next holiday.

It wasn’t until noon that Senior Zhou hurriedly came in with two lunch boxes. After greeting Su Mo, he immediately got to work.

“You have no idea how annoying some people at the research institute are. I gave him the data several times, but he still wouldn’t approve it,” Senior Zhou couldn’t help but complain. “Work that could be completed in a day gets delayed by two or three days just for signatures. And the guy I’m partnering with is so slow at providing information. After spending so much time with you, I can’t get used to working with anyone else.”

“Are you really not coming with me for the internship next holiday?”

“No rush, let’s talk about it later.” Su Mo was eating the lunch Senior Zhou brought, a meal from the canteen for patients. “The machines are running over there. Aren’t you going to finish eating first?”

“The fitness test wore me out, I have no appetite,” Senior Zhou said as he closed the lab door. “I’ll start the data run first and come back later.”

Su Mo sat in the break room, watching him run the data. After finishing his meal, he got some water and took his medicine.

The two had been working together for a long time. Around three in the afternoon, Senior Zhou, who was running the data, had a moment to come out and quickly eat his meal before heading back in. By four o’clock, Su Mo had finished his work and checked the messages on his terminal.

Apart from the temporary class schedule sent by his advisor, the rest were all chat messages from the “Get Wealthy Quickly” group. The addition of a girl named ZenSlasher to their four-person subgroup hadn’t slowed down the group’s gossiping. Whenever Su Mo checked after class, he would see hundreds of messages, mostly StarNet links, with only a few that could be accessed via terminal.

Today’s messages were all about the new quest in Celestial Horizon. Last night, the game released a quest announcement.

It turned out that some players had written complaint letters to the headquarters of Celestial Horizon, using all the dirty words they dared not say online to greet the mainframe. After these textual messages were sent to the official channels, it left people unable to decide whether to laugh or cry. Suddenly, there was a surge of discussions online. Some criticized the mainframe for not handling mechanisms that directly linked the sun and moon realms, others felt there were too few quests triggered by the entire population, some complained about the harsh experience point deductions, and others mentioned the uneven distribution of gaming skills. Some even pointed out that certain professions lacked immersive experiences…

The official customer support team accepted these suggestions and diplomatically informed the StarNet mainframe managing the Celestial Horizon game. Shortly thereafter, they received a brief reply.

The mainframe sent players a smiling emoticon, followed by a preview of a limited-time quest event involving all players that was released last night.

-Cool autumn days, journeying together through wind and rain. The Dream Master of Autumn God’s Realm brought the Autumn Child to the Glacial Ravenlands, also bringing mysterious rewards for all players. Now open for all to participate in the limited-time quest event “Journey Through Wind and Rain”. Players can sign up solo or in teams of up to 5 people at the Autumn Child’s location. This event is rated ★★★★★ in difficulty and will commence across all servers 24 hours from now. Stay tuned!

The event started at 7 PM. According to the official support team, this event is a Yang realm event, which got all Celestial Horizon players unexpectedly excited.

The forums were filled the whole day with discussions about what kind of event “Journey Through Wind and Rain” would be. Various analysis threads emerged. Su Mo hadn’t logged in for two days because of this event. ScarletFruit and ClearWind had mentioned him all morning in the group chat, and in the end, he could only promise to be online in the evening.

Yu Zhen: What time are you logging on tonight? Su Mo typed back: Not sure, waiting for Senior Brother to finish running the data.

Yu Zhen: Going home this weekend? Su Mo: Yeah. Around five o’clock. Senior Brother Zhou came out of the lab looking exhausted. 

Senior Brother Zhou: “I’m beat. Let’s take a break, and then we’ll finish up tonight. I’ll go ask the administrator for the keys later.” Su Mo heard this and closed the terminal, “Let’s finish the rest tomorrow. I’ve got something to do tonight.”

Senior Brother Zhou was surprised. The lab enthusiast wasn’t pushing him for data today. “You’re not hanging out in the lab today? In that case, I’m out too. I’m dead tired from the experiments. My cousin keeps asking me to help out at his shop near the gate of the Capital University. He said his assistant took leave today, so he wants me to cover for him.”

Senior Brother Zhou’s cousin ran a small shop called “[Commissary]” at the entrance of the Capital University. They sold everything from mecha parts and rare books to electronic instruments… and even offered a service for ghostwriting love letters, which was a bit outrageous.

Su Mo asked, “He’s not there today?”

“In the store. He said he was going to play a game and didn’t have time. It’s that popular Celestial Horizon, you know?” Zhou Shixiong complained, “My brother is a game merchant. Usually, when we’re in class, he’s busy making money in the game, even hiring his store assistants to create accounts and sell materials. It seems like he’s making quite a bit. Today, everyone’s talking about Celestial Horizon’s upcoming pre-event. That’s why he asked me to watch the store.”

Since both of them didn’t plan to stay here tonight, Su Mo locked up the data materials. It was only 6 o’clock when they finished packing. Senior Zhou asked, “What are you going to do tonight? If you’re bored in the dorm, why not come with me to my brother’s store?”

“Not bored.” Su Mo closed the laboratory door and turned his head, “I’m going back to play games. See you.”

“Oh, okay.” Zhou Shixiong, “???”

Wait, what game??? Su Mo is actually playing games!

***

Su Mo arrived at his single dormitory not far away, where Lele had just finished cooking dinner.

“What did you make? It smells so good,” Su Mo said as he sat down.

Lele shook its head. “It’s a new dish Mr. Yu Zhen taught me, called ‘fish-flavored shredded pork.’ What did you have for lunch?”

“The hospital meal from Cafeteria 1,” Su Mo replied, taking a bite to try. Lele’s dishes were usually fragrant but subtly seasoned.

However, today’s dish was unexpectedly flavorful, with a hint of saltiness.

Lele shared its cooking insights, “Mr. Yu Zhen recommended some niche ingredients from Luo Mingxing. He said they enhance the flavor naturally without exceeding the standard salt usage.” It concluded, “Mr. Yu Zhen is really a good person.”

By the time Su Mo logged into the game, it was just past seven o’clock.

As soon as he logged in, he was invited by teammates to join a party. They hurried to Glacial Ravenlands and submitted their applications.

Yu Zhen asked, “Wasn’t it supposed to start at eight?”

Su Mo whispered, “My senior went to check on the shop, so I came earlier.”

“Sorry, we’re a bit late. The others just formed their teams and entered,” ScarletFruit said. “The officials actually came out to guarantee it’s a yang event. I want to see what this event is all about. They say there’s no punishment with level drops or money deducted. They’ve really hyped up this event, making the mainframe seem like a good guy.”

“Just focus on the task,” ClearWind replied. “I’m live-streaming this, so everyone, behave and keep it classy.”

ZenSlasher was speechless.

Su Mo looked at the Dream Master NPC next to him and the little children, feeling deeply that the mainframe wasn’t necessarily a good guy.

“[Applied for Journey through Wind and Rain (5 players), please confirm.]”

“[All members confirmed, matching teammates for you.]”

“Teammate matching!? Aren’t we already a full team?” ScarletFruit exclaimed.

Yu Zhen frowned. “This event probably isn’t a 5-player event.”

[Teammates matched (10/15)] [Teammates matched (12/15)] [Teammates matched (15/15)] [Matching successful, welcome to “Journey through Wind and Rain,” based on player average pass rating, current event difficulty level adjusted to S. Team voice channels are now open. You have 10 minutes to get acquainted with your new teammates.]

The scene before them suddenly changed as 15 people arrived at a central platform, their IDs all displayed.

WhatAHugeWatermelon exclaimed, “Damn!! How did I end up meeting you guys in the duo queue?!”

ScarletFruit was taken aback, “Hey, isn’t this comrade Watermelon? Global is so small, huh?”

[CloudTraveller] [Global’s kawaii] [FireworksAndLanterns] [Apple] [HealsFor25000] [WhatAHugeWatermelon] [MilkMixedWithBitterMelon]…

Su Mo hesitated slightly. It seemed like there were quite a few familiar faces here?