Genius Chapter 92: Online Together

Chapter 92: Online Together

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

Outside Sunset City was far from calm during these days when most players crowded into Glacial Ravenlands for the event. What should have been a peaceful grinding spot saw a sudden outbreak of bloodshed.

The fixed team from Temple of the Gods guild had brought their new alt accounts to grind points and level up in the wilderness. With the reputation of a large guild, they had occupied several spots and started farming monsters. However, within minutes of starting, a team of eight people was ambushed.

Yes, ambushed. The opposing side consisted of only two people, without any support. Temple of the Gods team, consisting of eight players with their alt accounts, four each, was completely caught off guard. The alt accounts were easily controlled and had no idea how to fight back. Even when the main accounts intervened, they were subjected to continuous control by a summoner and an array master. Despite the opponent hiding their identities, the guild management recognized them immediately based on their familiar tactics and combat style.

“Damn! It’s Momo and UnchainedWanderer. Let’s go, don’t fight them.”

The new alt account recruit was confused, “Huh? There are only two of them, why not fight?”

“No way, they’re the top players on the array master leaderboard and the dominant summoner from Valor Peak. Fighting them is pointless.”

However, they were not given a chance to escape. Both the array master and summoner were specialists in control professions. With the array master blocking from the front and the summoner controlling from behind, there was no way for them to flee. The group of eight struggled but ultimately couldn’t resist, ending up lying dead on the ground while watching the two walk away triumphantly.

The nightmare didn’t end there. Besides them, other guild members were also intercepted.

Late in the evening, around ten o’clock, amidst numerous new event-related discussion threads on the forum, there appeared a live broadcast thread from the wilderness. The thread’s author took advantage of the low player population to grind monsters and complete quests in the wilderness. What they witnessed was a two-person team consisting of an array master and a summoner, who sequentially wiped out several groups of five-player teams. Interestingly, all these teams belonged to the Ascension Alliance.

As soon as the post went up, many people rushed to comment.

[Hahaha, I’m also on this branch server. I thought they were coming to slaughter us after wiping out the neighboring team, but they left after finishing.]

[I’m here too. Thanks to these two Abyss bosses for dispensing justice.]

[Thanks to the two kind-hearted brothers, they finally drove away the Ascension people who were occupying three spots with just one team. It’s outrageous.]

[Wait a minute… summoner + array master, and they’re from Abyss, only targeting Ascension Alliance… Could it be those two?]

The forum players were sharp-eyed and quickly discovered that these two individuals were no strangers—they were the duo who had just set the record for the fastest completion of the first stage of the new event, just half an hour earlier. As soon as someone made a post, others gathered to watch. Soon, the thread was filled with numerous pictures and short videos, all capturing the live situation of these two in the wilderness.

At first, players couldn’t find them, but later they realized that as long as they kept an eye on the Ascension teams, the big shots would eventually come to harvest. This wilderness harvest lasted for over an hour. The two big shots were extremely sharp, targeting small teams of fewer than ten. Whenever they encountered a large group attempting to surround them, they never hesitated to disengage.

After this wave, it turned out to be a blessing for the players on that branch server. The spots occupied by the Ascension Alliance suddenly emptied out, greatly increasing their monster-spawning speed.

FireworksAndLanterns naturally saw this post too, and excitedly shared it in a private group, tagging UnchainedWanderer. The small group consisted of familiar friends, all of whom knew that UnchainedWanderer was an alias for ReturnToSimplicity. Upon seeing the post, they immediately made the connection.

FireworksAndLanterns: “Is it just me, or did True Brother not output much?”

Watermelon: “What’s Ascension up to again?”

Apple: “It’s not your imagination. He’s just blocking people, not doing any damage.”

ChatMasterWu added, “Even with so many hard controls from the array master, he didn’t attack. He’s focusing on soft controls. Didn’t you notice that most of the control and output are on Momo?”

HealsFor25000: “Knowing him, it’s probably intentional.”

In the evening, many people were still at the event. CloudTraveller and others had finished their battles early. Seeing the post, CloudTraveller was curious and asked in the group, “Are you playing support?”

The message wasn’t replied to until late in the evening, after 10 PM.

CloudTraveller had just come out of the daily dungeon when he saw the notification that Momo had logged off from his friend list. Shortly after, a message popped up in the small group chat:

ReturnToSimplicity: “Not getting involved with them, just testing skills with Momo.”

***

Su Mo logged off early. After taking his medication, he cooperated with Lele to collect his bodily data, then lay down on the dormitory bed to rest. Perhaps due to being overly excited from gaming, he didn’t feel sleepy at all, casually chatting with Lele about various game-related matters.

“Su Mo, is your eyesight bothering you today?” Lele asked.

Su Mo replied, “It’s been okay today, not bothering me much.”

Lele noted the key point down and turned to the cabinet to get an eye patch. Su Mo had a weaker constitution; while others could work tirelessly in the lab for three days and nights, he would start feeling uncomfortable after concentrating for half a day. This issue had persisted, so Lele kept a record in its memo to remind him to take care of his eyes whenever Su Mo immersed himself in the lab.

Improving his health condition seemed distant, so all they could do was be cautious in their daily lives. If it weren’t for the doctor’s approval for Su Mo to play holographic games, Lele would have stopped him when he first entered the hospital. Yet, it gradually noticed that after gaming, he became more talkative, more cheerful, and no longer stayed holed up in the lab all day long.

It applied the eye patch to Su Mo. “Su Mo, you can go to sleep now. Tomorrow morning at 8:30, you have the first early class with Professor Edward. You need to be well-rested.”

“Tomorrow at noon we’ll have Braised Meat Sauce Rice,” Lele pulled the blanket over Su Mo. “It’s a new recipe based on the one Mr. Yu Zhen sent. It’s also nutritious; the meat is vegetarian, so you can eat it with peace of mind! We’ll go home tonight, and this weekend we can rest for three days. Monday’s classes have been rescheduled.”

Su Mo reminded it, “Get two portions and bring one to Senior Brother.”

After Lele finished tucking him in and was about to turn off the lights, Su Mo’s terminal flashed. The terminal immediately read out the message from its owner. “Su Mo, there’s a message from Mr. Yu Zhen.”

At the mention of Yu Zhen, Su Mo instantly thought of the figure of array master. He asked, “What does it say?”

Lele promptly relayed, “Mr. Yu Zhen says ‘Good night’.”

“Help me reply to him,” Su Mo wrapped himself in the blanket, the eye patch providing just the right warmth, and suddenly felt drowsy. “Say good night and see you tomorrow.”

The first class at Capital University started at 8:30 AM. When Su Mo entered the classroom, he noticed that unusually, all students were present. Typically, many students opted for remote attendance and projection during classes, but this was the first fully attended class since the beginning of the semester.

Several classmates in the room looked fatigued, some resting their heads on the desks, clearly struggling to stay alert. Such fatigue was rare among students of Capital University, known for their high physical fitness levels compared to the average C-class citizens of the Star Alliance. It was even more pronounced than during the previous finals period.

Shortly after Su Mo sat down, two people squeezed in and sat beside him.

“Su Mo, if Professor Edward takes attendance later, let me know the answers, and I’ll treat you to juice afterward.”

“I’m the same, I’m the same. I was doing dungeons until just now. I haven’t reviewed the textbook at all.”

“If it weren’t for today’s announcement that a big shot would be lecturing, I would have started projecting already. Old man Edward is the most annoying when it comes to taking attendance.”

From their conversation, Su Mo learned that today’s lecturer was a friend of Professor Edward’s. He didn’t often check the group chat and occasionally missed class messages. Professor Edward was known for his wide circle of friends and was an adjunct professor at the Capital Planet Research Institute. He had connections with many big shots in the field, and many lectures in the Mechanical Forging Department were co-hosted by him and the department’s leaders.

The class monitor came over with a book and sat beside Su Mo. “Are you two still trying to act innocent? The so-called reliable team you told me about yesterday turned out to be anything but reliable. I almost got screwed over by you guys.”

“Today’s class should cover intelligent formulas in deep learning. The specific content is on pages 324-356 of the textbook. But Professor Edward likes to tie in current topics, so he might mention recent developments in the Firmament Group’s intelligent machine repository,” Su Mo paused after saying this. “Did you guys pull an all-nighter?”

“You wouldn’t believe it, Su Mo. The three of us teamed up all night playing games, and we still didn’t finish by morning. It’s all because the monitor picked unreliable teammates, and we even got matched with two teams of noobs.”

Su Mo found this somewhat familiar. “Celestial Horizon?”

“Yeah, Su Mo, you know about it too. They released a crap event with random matchmaking that screwed us over,” another student said, turning to the monitor. “Let’s finish it at noon. I just saw on StarNet forums that there’s homework to copy. It’s the first clear team from yesterday, CloudTraveller’s and Momo’s team. There are recordings on the forum, you can slide over the cliff there.”

Su Mo, “?” 

“You can do that?” The monitor was shocked. “We don’t have that rope.”

A classmate suggested, “Let’s get one. Even though it’s not as good as the Sky Fflying Rope in the strategy guide, any rope that can bear weight should work, right?”

The group discussed beside Su Mo for a while before realizing it wasn’t appropriate. The monitor explained, “It’s about a tough level in our game. There’s a gap of about three to four meters between cliffs, and we need to get the entire team across. We were just talking about this.”

“…It’s okay, you guys carry on,” Su Mo replied hesitantly. “But if you’re crossing the cliff, according to typical game settings, there might be environmental factors. Maybe you should observe the surroundings.”

For example, cutting down those trees near the cliff, each about three meters tall.

Soon after, the bell for class rang.

Professor Edward entered energetically and greeted the students in the classroom before diving into the main topic. He indeed invited a friend from the industry today to talk about “Intelligent Deep Learning and its Application in the Market.” This subject focused heavily on theory but also aligned with current market demands, emphasizing research into understanding needs, which was one of their core course contents.

“My friend is young and happens to be here at the school today for some business, so he took the time to come and speak to all of you,” Edward prefaced. “You may have heard of the Firmament Group. Today, we have Mr. Yu Zhen from the Firmament Group. He has been responsible for several industry projects, and one of the recent highly successful projects is the Celestial Horizon game’s virtual holographic loader.”

Upon hearing about the Celestial Horizon project, the students in the classroom immediately perked up.

Su Mo turned his head and saw Yu Zhen, dressed in a suit and polished shoes, walking in from the door. He didn’t carry any extra classroom equipment, just a teaching light board in his hand. After exchanging pleasantries with Professor Edward, he immediately launched into the main topic.

Dressed in a suit unlike his usual casual attire, Yu Zhen exuded a serious and upright demeanor. His every movement seemed to command the room, quickly quieting down the classroom. All eyes focused on the subject he brought with him.

It was Su Mo’s first time seeing Yu Zhen like this. Unlike the reserved Array Master in the game, the real-life Yu Zhen carried a natural charisma from a young age. His speech was fluent and concise, reminiscent of his in-game persona, direct and to the point. Coupled with his impressive appearance and presence, people couldn’t help but be drawn to him.

During their eye contact, Yu Zhen merely nodded slightly before continuing his lecture.

During the class, which covered topics Su Mo was already familiar with, he couldn’t help but follow Yu Zhen’s thoughts throughout.

Yu Zhen only lectured for half of the session before Professor Edward continued with the remaining part.

With the change in speaker, the atmosphere in the classroom shifted. Su Mo listened as his classmates whispered about Yu Zhen, discussing everything from the development of the Celestial Horizon loader project to its current popularity across the Star Alliance. Even behind the scenes, students who knew about the loader and the Celestial Horizon game had heard his name. Many had even considered applying to join his project over the summer, but unfortunately, he never recruited externally.

“Su Mo, I heard you turned down an invitation from the research institute before?” the class monitor whispered, “Old Yu Dao’s initial project was aligned with that institute. If you had joined, you might have graduated directly into his project team. What a missed opportunity!”

“It’s okay. I wouldn’t have been a good fit,” Su Mo replied softly.

Su Mo’s gaze turned towards outside the classroom, but Yu Zhen’s figure was no longer there. He had an indescribable feeling lingering within him. Just then, his terminal suddenly vibrated, displaying a new message from Yu Zhen — [Shall we have lunch together at noon?]

After a brief pause, Su Mo replied — [Sure].

Almost immediately, Yu Zhen responded — [I’ll wait for you at Block A of the office building].

***

In the morning, Su Mo had only one class. After class, instead of joining his classmates at the physical fitness testing ground, he detoured to the laboratory. The Block A of the office building was located right next to the laboratory building where he was, making it conveniently on his way.

Upon reaching the laboratory, Su Mo immediately delved into intensive data calculations with Senior Zhou. By around ten o’clock, they wrapped up the data analysis.

“I’m exhausted,” Senior Zhou emerged from the lab, clutching calculation sheets and reviewing the day’s work. “Damn, you’ve finished all of it?”

Su Mo nodded, “I have something to attend to tonight, so I finished the lighter workload first for you. The other file contains intermediate data, about two days’ worth. I’ll be going home for the weekend, won’t stay here.”

“I can barely keep up with your speed,” Senior Zhou slumped into a chair. “It’s good to have less work today. I need a break before heading to my brother’s shop later to repair machines. I was dead tired last night.”

Su Mo looked at him, “Weren’t you going to the shop? Why so tired?”

“It’s my cousin, not just some random guy. I only sat there for over half an hour. He said he was done with his busy work and then dragged me into sorting out materials,” Senior Zhou couldn’t help complaining, “Here I am, a top student at Capital University, a rising star in mechanical forging, and I’m stuck doing material sorting. And to top it off, the smart machine in his shop is broken, so I had to do calculations manually.”

Su Mo asked, “Didn’t you report it for repair?”

“No, my cousin is stingy. He says since I study mechanical forging, I should be willing to test the smart machine in his shop. But I have to fix it for him too. That machine has broken down five or six times already. The repair service he found is probably not reliable. I’ll take a look tonight. If I can fix it, it’ll save trouble. Otherwise, I’ll start charging him next time. Clear accounts between close relatives,” Senior Zhou said decisively.

Su Mo asked, “Which generation is the smart machine?”

Senior Zhou paused for a moment, “L-250, I checked it yesterday.”

Su Mo thought for a moment and said, “It might be due to aging parts. You’ll need to replace them. The first-generation parts for L-250 are rare now, but your brother’s shop should have them. If you don’t charge for the parts, for labor and calculation fees, according to market repair prices, you can charge him 3000 stellars.”

He paused briefly after saying this, “Of course, you could give him a discount and charge 2500, and you wouldn’t lose out.”

Senior Zhou was taken aback and laughed, “Wow, Su Mo, you really know your stuff!”

“I know a bit,” Su Mo replied modestly, then suddenly noticed a message from Lele saying lunch would arrive in 20 minutes. He remembered he had asked Lele to prepare lunch yesterday.

He quickly added, “Senior, I’m going out for lunch. I’ve ordered takeout for you. Don’t wait for me. If there are any issues with the data, message me.”

***

Yu Zhen came to Capital University because there was a project seeking collaboration outside the school. He decided to visit the university to inspect the project, and the decision to attend Professor Edward’s class was made hastily last night. He knew Su Mo was one of Professor Edward’s students.

As the class approached its end, the area around the office building remained quiet.

After bidding farewell to Director Liu, Yu Zhen headed to the agreed meeting place. From his position, he could see the laboratory area. Usually, when he came to Capital University, he ate in the cafeteria with Zhang Qi or occasionally went out with school staff, but those options weren’t quite suitable for Su Mo.

After searching the ordering app for a while, he finally found a suitable restaurant.

“Brother Zhen,”

Yu Zhen looked up and saw a young man with a single-shoulder backpack approaching him. “Is the experiment over?”

“Not busy for now,” Su Mo said. “I left early to avoid the crowd after class.”

“Then shall we…” Yu Zhen nodded, suddenly noticing the food box in Su Mo’s hand.

Su Mo smiled as he held the food box. “Let’s go to my dorm. Today is still the day for physical tests, and the restaurants around the school are probably crowded. I just ordered the ingredients. I’ll treat you to a braised fragrant meat sauce rice meal. Lele is especially good at making this.”

The single-person dorm room was neither too big nor too small.

The two of them, along with a robot, had lunch in the tiny dorm room. It was Yu Zhen’s first time visiting Su Mo’s dormitory, eating a rice cooker meal with the main dish being braised fragrant meat sauce rice. Considering their dietary differences, the meal was divided into two portions.

“Do you have classes in the afternoon?” Yu Zhen asked.

“No,” Su Mo replied. “These days are for physical tests, so most of the school’s classes have been rescheduled.”

“I came here today to inspect the project, and I’ll probably stay until the afternoon,” Yu Zhen said. “Tomorrow is Saturday. Have you booked a hovercar yet?”

Su Mo hesitated slightly. “Not yet.”

Yu Zhen picked up a piece of meat for him. “Then let’s go back together in the evening.”

***

Around seven in the evening, the second stage of the event dungeon in the game had already begun. The team members had logged in early, sitting in Glacial Ravenlands and others, also checking the online guides to see if there were any updates from the guild.

CloudTraveller said, “BitterMelon is probably working overtime and will be on in about 10 minutes. It’s just Momo and UnchainedWanderer left. Did they say what time they’d be on?”

“Strange, brother Wanderer is also late today,” ScarletFruit scrolled through the chat but didn’t see any messages from UnchainedWanderer. Momo said an hour ago that he would log on at 8 o’clock. “My big bro said 8 o’clock, but brother Wanderer hasn’t said anything.”

ClearWind added, “That’s odd. Brother Wanderer usually logs on early. He didn’t mention being late today.”

Little Treasure from the Cold family asked, “Have you contacted him? Do you have his contact info? Give him a call.”

CloudTraveller replied, “Let’s wait a bit longer. He’s not usually late, so he must be held up with something.”

Watermelon remained silent for a moment. “Then I’ll go to the warehouse to get a few more knives and repair some equipment.”

“Did they go PKing in the wilderness last night? I saw several posts on the forum today mentioning them,” Old Daoist, who didn’t understand love, said. “Do you have a group chat with them? Remind them to bring snacks online. It seems like FireworksAndLanterns said they would block him today.”

ScarletFruit replied, “I checked the forum today too. It’s unbelievable. Wasn’t ClearWind streaming yesterday? I followed the fanfiction forum and updated over ten chapters overnight. They covered hidden marriages and wilderness fights.”

ClearWind remarked, “It’s too realistic.”

Cold family’s treasure asked, “So it’s not just a hidden marriage, then?”

Apple chimed in, “According to the plot of fanfiction, after the hidden marriage, they should be online playing games together every day.”

Just as they finished speaking, two messages popped up consecutively in their friends list:

Your friend [Momo] is online. Your friend [UnchainedWanderer] is online.