Genius Chapter 91: Big Brother is Awesome

Chapter 91: Big Brother is Awesome

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

In the last few seconds, the lagging group members ran with all their might, and the voices of the teammates at the finish line mixed in the voice channel. The sound of falling rocks and the noisy voices seemed to stop at the moment Su Mo fell to the ground. He didn’t feel any pain, his whole body pressed against someone, and the back of his head was held down by someone.

His health was down to 5%, but he wasn’t dead.

Su Mo’s forehead rested against the chest of the person beneath him, and he called out in a daze, “Bro?”

Yu Zhen released him, “It’s okay, we made it.”

Su Mo’s heartbeat seemed to skip a beat at that moment. His eyes scanned the task bar to check the clearance status; it was no longer counting down, and the clearance time had stopped at [00:29:59].

They had all crossed the finish line in the last second.

“Holy crap!!!”

“newbie!!!!!!”

“Oh my god!! The last second, unbelievable!!”

[Congratulations to the player team for clearing [Journey Through Wind and Rain: Overcoming Mountains and Hills], clearance level S++, clearance rating S+, clearance time [00:29:59]. Currently ranked 1st on the server’s overall clearance leaderboard. All players receive event clearance rewards [Demon Points x800 (s)][Autumn Treasure Chest x1]]

The team members, realizing what had just happened, began to cheer after a brief moment of silence. Several people hugged each other excitedly, the thrilling last few seconds still fresh in their minds. They finally understood what had occurred at that crucial moment: Momo had turned back from the finish line to save someone, enabling the last few teammates to make it across in time. They all looked towards the hero, only to see the two people on the ground hugging each other.

Everyone was like, “?”

They fell silent again.

FireworksAndLanterns said, “Huh? Why are you two hugging?”

25000 “????”

Apple said, “Oh.”

Watermelon “???”

[?????]

[As expected, I’ve been watching ClearWind’s stream for so long, I already suspected something was going on between those two.]

[Holy crap, is my ship sinking just like that?]

[??? What ship? Why do you guys make such a big deal out of watching a stream?]

[Shipping ReturnToSimplicity and Momo? Honestly, there’s no chance. I’ve never seen ReturnToSimplicity in ClearWind’s stream.]

[If you’re shipping Valor Peak Destiny, you might as well ship the two big brothers. Brother Wanderer is always the best!!]

[Can you stop? UnchainedWondered and Momo are just good brothers. Don’t bring forum drama here.]

The surroundings fell silent. Su Mo’s gaze shifted from the event rewards in the task bar, and as he looked down, he met UnchainedWanderer’s eyes.

Memory rushed back. In the last second, Yu Zhen had used [A Thread of Fate] to come to his side and helped him cross the finish line.

ScarletFruit, dumbfounded, said, “Bro, we’re happy and all, but there’s no need to hug.”

Su Mo quickly got up from Yu Zhen, and after steadying himself, he suddenly turned around and extended his hand to the person on the ground.

Yu Zhen looked at the slightly disheveled youth, raised his hand, and grasped his hand to stand up.

“I ran out of stamina at the end, and he came over to help me run.” Su Mo explained briefly, “We have a quest skill that lets us teleport to each other’s side.”

Cold Family’s Little Treasure said, “Oh, I get it now. It’s that kind of partner skill, right? My partner and I didn’t get that one; it’s very rare! So, you two are partners?”

Everyone else was like, “?”

25000 looked hurt as he glanced at UnchainedWanderer, “Is that so?! You didn’t invite me to your secret wedding?”

CloudTraveller said, “Is that true?”

ClearWind said, “What!? My brother and brother Wanderer secretly got married?”

ScarletFruit smacked the back of ClearWind’s head, “…What secret wedding? It’s a quest skill.”

[Shipping the two big brothers, newbie!!!]

[If it has a teleport effect, isn’t it a couple’s skill!]

[A skill like this is meant to bind partners, right? Can you just bind anyone with it?!]

[Brotherhood has turned into something else.]

Su Mo had to explain, “…It’s a quest skill called [A Thread of Fate]. I’m bound to him, so we can teleport to each other.”

After he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed Yu Zhen’s health. On the warrior panel, his health should have been the best among everyone, but now it had just recovered to 20%, matching his own recovery progress…

Did brother Zhen use the [A Thread of Fate] second skill to share health?

“The next stage can only be opened tomorrow. Let’s arrange a time and place to meet tomorrow.” Yu Zhen took the initiative to speak, opening the team positioning list, “Once the team configuration is bound, it cannot be changed. If you want to switch members, you can only start from the first stage again or match with players who are also left alone in the second stage.”

CloudTraveller added, “Given the current situation, the upcoming stages should be more difficult. I suggest not changing the team configuration. Randomly matched teammates might be worse, while our team has already worked through one stage together, so our coordination will be better in the next one.”

The team was composed of four squads in total. CloudTraveller’s squad had a flexible schedule, and Watermelon and BitterMelon, who played as a duo, were generally available after 7 PM.

The remaining three random players also agreed they had no issues and added everyone as friends for easier contact.

“I might have something to do tomorrow evening, probably around 7 or 8 PM,” Su Mo said. His schedule largely depended on his senior’s data progress. He had no issues himself, but if his senior needed help, he would have to stay longer in the lab.

“Then let’s add each other as friends first?” CloudTraveller approached Su Mo, “If you have any issues, let us know in advance so we can try to start when everyone is available.”

Su Mo sent friend requests, and once they were successfully added, everyone dispersed.

Outside the dungeon, many players were still forming groups to clear it. This was their first time finishing the quest so quickly. The new quest event indeed had optimizations in some aspects. This limited-time event, with only one stage available each day, reduced the burden on players.

Su Mo had been logging in less frequently these days, thinking it might take the entire evening to complete the quest. Unexpectedly, it only took half an hour, leaving him with plenty of free time in the game. ClearWind was chatting with viewers in his livestream, and ScarletFruit went to restock their shop. Su Mo opened his task list intending to finish any remaining quests, only to find that he had already completed both his daily and weekly tasks.

“…” He seemed to have nothing to do.

Yu Zhen tilted his head and saw Su Mo standing still. He asked, “It’s not safe to AFK here in the wild.”

“No… I’m going to the warehouse.” Su Mo opened his pet inventory and saw that both of his spirit pets were in Satiety status. He stopped in his tracks. Great, he didn’t even need to feed his pets!

ClearWind said, “Bro, have you opened your event chest? This time it seems like there are a lot of materials. Haven’t you been short on materials recently? I think you can stock up on the trading platform during this event; they’ll definitely be cheaper.”

“Okay.” Su Mo glanced at his event chest and opened it. As expected, it contained materials, but they were duplicates of what he already had. It seemed like opening chests was still more rewarding when Myriad Palace Insight used their luck. “I got some materials. Fruit, did you gather all the materials I asked you to?”

ScarletFruit replied in his spare moment, “Yes, I’ve got them all. I’ll give them to you later, after I finish with the shop.”

ZenSlasher said, “If there are no other plans, I’m heading to the wild. Call me if you need anything.”

The other team members went about their own tasks, and the Global Channel was bustling with activity as other players were immersed in the game.

“Aren’t you going to the warehouse?” Yu Zhen suddenly asked.

Su Mo paused slightly, “No, it seems I don’t have anything else to do.”

“You can upgrade your summoner’s compendium. I logged into your account during the day and noticed you still have seven summoning beasts unlocked,” Yu Zhen said. “You should have enough materials and reputation by now.”

The summoner’s compendium, for the current Spirit Sanctuary summoning system, included 15 types of summoning beasts. Su Mo had only trained Zephyr Hawk, Solitary Wolf, White Tiger, Lunar Feline, Spectral Fox, Snake, Black Tortoise, and Bear, totaling 8 types. The other 7 types were still untrained. Aside from the basic skills, a summoner heavily relied on their summoned creatures. After reaching max level, the summoner compendium unlocked completely as Sects opened. However, there were also other issues to consider: the increasing cost in gold coins and reputation required for training. Previously, Su Mo didn’t have enough reputation and felt that the few summoned beasts were sufficient. Over time, he forgot about this matter.

“All unlocked, but a few training conditions haven’t been met,” Su Mo checked. Currently, he could still learn four types of summoning beasts, while the other three required special training conditions.

“I forgot about this. It must be because your side quests aren’t completed,” Yu Zhen paused slightly. “Advanced skills from other Sects also require unlocking. You should start by accepting the quests and completing them.”

“No rush. I need to save some gold coins. I’ll focus on learning these four for now, and deal with the others later,” Su Mo said.

The four types of summoning beasts available for training were divided into one physical type, two spell types, and one support type.

The physical type summoning beast was called Thunder Lion, covered in golden fur. It was an AoE summoning beast with extremely powerful attack capabilities. After pouncing, it inflicted significant damage to enemies within a 2-meter radius, accompanied by a daze effect. It was another summoning beast besides Zephyr Hawk that carried AoE negative effects.

There were two spell type summoning beasts: one single-target and one AoE.

The single-target spell type summoning beast, Celestial Deer, did not inflict other negative statuses but dealt massive single-target damage to enemy units, similar in effectiveness to White Tiger.

The AoE spell type summoning beast, Azure Phoenix, was a continuous damage summoning beast without negative statuses. Unlike Snake, which needed to continuously stack basic attacks to build up poison damage that would eventually detonate, Azure Phoenix’s skill effect was 5 seconds of sustained damage that gradually decreased as enemy players moved.

Su Mo understood the uses of these three summoning beasts after seeing them. Thunder Lion for crowd control, Celestial Deer for single-target damage output, and Azure Phoenix for group attacks; they could achieve high damage when combined with control.

Support-type summoning beasts usually had strong functionality. For instance, Bear and Black Tortoise: one taunted enemies, the other reduced damage. What surprised Su Mo the most was the last summoning beast, named “Ferret”. It enhanced the summoner’s movement speed and damage capabilities.

After learning about it, Su Mo summoned the Ferret, and the snowy-white summoning beast crawled onto him as soon as it landed. As the skill reached its maximum level, two states lasting about 8 seconds each appeared on him. Under these states, his movement speed increased by 50%, and his attack power increased by 10%.

This support-type summoning beast could either be used as an escape skill or as a temporary burst skill. It was also the only enhancing-type skill in the summoning beast compendium so far.

“As summoners progress, they essentially string together combos using different summoning beasts,” Su Mo released several summoning beasts and sequentially tested their skills. “It actually demands quite a bit of mental focus.”

“It tests the positioning of summoning beasts and the ability to switch control,” Yu Zhen added. “The challenge for summoners lies here. Unlike other professions that only need to chain their own skills, summoners need to constantly switch and consider where to place summoning beasts to avoid interruptions.”

Su Mo looked at the new summoning beasts, brainstorming more combinations. “There are quite a few AoE setups. I’d like to challenge you in a PvP match sometime.”

Yu Zhen paused briefly at Su Mo’s words. “Should we try it in the wilderness then? Or perhaps the battlefield.”

Su Mo looked at him. “Now?”

“Yeah. I suggest the wilderness. The battlefield has been heavily grouped up recently, so if you want to practice combos, it might be more challenging there. Although there are many people attending the event tonight, there should also be players from the Ascension Alliance doing tasks in the wilderness. We can use the Heavenly Eyes to scout and intercept them.”

Yu Zhen took out several Heavenly Eyes from his inventory, intending to find targets from the enemy list first. He suggested, “I’ll intercept them for you, and you can take them down.”