Genius Chapter 94: Displacement Mechanism

Chapter 94: Displacement Mechanism

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

A scream rang out, and the team list showed a reduction in a teammate’s health. Watermelon instantly became vigilant, activating an additional damage reduction skill in the midst of the raging wind and moving back a distance.

“This is ridiculous.”

“Darn it, avoiding lightning strikes, this thing deals massive damage.”

“How do we hide?! We’re in a forest! Trees everywhere!”

“Is it another luck-based challenge? If I had known the second stage would be like this, I would’ve prepared a set of lucky gear.”

Another flash of lightning streaked across. Watermelon watched as the swift lightning struck a tree not far ahead of him, directly setting it on fire. “Is this lightning even survivable if it hits a person!?”

“Lower your center of gravity, don’t stand, keep your legs together and squat.” Yu Zhen’s voice came through the voice channel, “If there’s nowhere to hide, just stay away from tall trees.”

The lightning strikes caused even greater damage than the wind. Originally, the wind only caused 1% to 5% health loss for players, but the lightning directly reduced health by 6% to 20%. The most unfortunate was ClearWindIsHere, whose health dropped to 60% after being struck by lightning on top of previous damage.

In the wilderness, within the forest scene, despite their efforts to avoid lightning, the environment was highly unpredictable. Especially when the raging wind and lightning came together, they either risked being blown away by the wind or suffered significant health loss from lightning strikes. These dual mechanisms undoubtedly increased pressure and difficulty for them.

“I’ve never hated thunderstorms like this before.”

“It’s pitch black. Without the mini-map, how could we even tell directions?”

“Hey, did the fog dissipate?”

“The rain cleared the fog.”

“That fog just now was quite mysterious.”

The wind quickly died down. They couldn’t afford to stay in place any longer; lingering would only increase the danger.

Su Mo immediately said, “Let’s prepare to move. We’ll divide the map into east, west, south, and north. Everyone, gather at the central point. Prioritize reuniting with healers or those in your vicinity. If anyone experiences long-distance displacement, report it immediately.”

Continuing with their previous strategies of reporting and confirming their positions within the Misty Forest map, the team divided into east, west, south, and north. The positions of the 15 team members were not evenly distributed. ScarletFruit, HealsFor25000, and MyHeartIsCold, the three healers, were positioned in the east and south, with only four other DPS in their vicinity, totaling seven people. The largest group was in the north, with five people.

At the central point was ClearWindIsHere. The fewest people were in the west, where only one person was located.

Su Mo encountered such a perilous wilderness environment for the first time. Summing up this game level in gaming terms, there were essentially three mechanisms: strong winds, displacement, and lightning.

Although the rain and wind somewhat affected their assessments, the intervals of the strong winds could be roughly determined. Paying attention to the changes between small and large winds every 50 seconds, they used damage-reducing and defensive skills to mitigate harm while moving. With a cooldown period of 50 seconds for everyone’s skills, they could fully avoid the damage.

The medium for displacement had not been confirmed yet and was temporarily set aside.

The remaining threat was lightning, which posed the greatest risk to the players’ health.

Su Mo kept low while moving, occasionally glancing at the lightning in the sky. Since the first lightning strike, the thunder had not ceased, occasionally delivering devastating strikes that inflicted high damage on teammates.

Su Mo reported again, “Attention, big wind is coming.”

There was no countdown in this level, but there was an accumulating time in the task bar. Unknowingly, they had already spent nearly fifteen minutes on this level. The team had already developed methods to deal with the strong winds. However, this time, in order to avoid the lightning strikes, they had to reposition themselves, resulting in changes in their positions after each bout of strong wind.

“This is impossible, these lightning strikes are too accurate.”

“Just a moment ago, I ran out tens of meters, but one gust of wind pushed me back over ten meters.”

“Moreover, it’s so dark in this forest. If it weren’t for the mini-map, it would be easy to go the wrong way.”

Just then, a voice suddenly came from the team, “Fuck, how did you suddenly appear in front of me?!”

At the same time, Watermelon’s voice sounded in the team, “I think I’ve discovered displacement.”

This voice was like a breakthrough, causing the other teammates who were discussing to immediately fall silent.

Su Mo paused briefly. Sure enough, he saw two blue dots in the middle, and the westward displacement teleportation had directly sent Watermelon next to ClearWind.

The one who discovered the displacement happened to be Watermelon, who was positioned to the west. As an assassin, his movement was extremely fast, and in stealth mode, it seemed that the lightning strikes in the sky wouldn’t lock onto him. So he ran swiftly. Initially, he was quite far away, but after a sprint, he suddenly appeared in front of ClearWind.

“Watermelon, explain clearly,” Su Mo asked.

Watermelon carefully recalled, saying, “I bumped into a tree. Right after that strong gust of wind passed, I wanted to shorten the distance quickly. In the process of running, I was blown by a small gust of wind and bumped into a nearby tree. At first, nothing changed, but as I took a few more steps, I suddenly saw ClearWind.”

Su Mo paused briefly. The medium of displacement was a tree?

CloudTraveller asked, “Do you remember what kind of tree it was?”

“Those trees over there all look very similar, kind of short and small. They don’t seem like trees that you can distinguish by appearance. If I had to find a feature, I can only say those trees look exactly alike.”

Watermelon couldn’t quite recall under the questioning. “Oh right, I also bumped into a tree during the strong wind earlier, but at that time, I didn’t experience any displacement. It’s strange this time.”

CloudTraveller said, “If that’s the case, the rest of us better not touch the trees.”

That being said, in such an environment, minimizing collisions was incredibly difficult. There were strong winds and menacing lightning strikes. The forest was dense with trees, and it was unavoidable to encounter them while moving through the grass.

After about a few minutes, another person experienced displacement.

This time, it was Watermelon’s teammate from the group of five in the north, Bittermelon. He had just taken a few steps when suddenly he found himself no longer in the north, but appearing in the west. He experienced displacement without touching anything.

When this situation came to light, everyone in the team was left dumbfounded.

“What’s going on? Is this thing random?” asked the little treasure from the Cold family, “Is it the kind where displacement happens just by moving!?”

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “No way! Then we’ll never reach the end. You move with your teammates, and suddenly they’re gone? If the main brain randomly makes people disappear, then isn’t it just bad luck forever keeping us from regrouping?”

“It can’t be like this. This is just a 5-star event dungeon. There must be something we triggered,” kawaii asked the others in the team, “Could there be some underlying mechanism…”

Just then, another gust of wind swept through, forcing everyone to stabilize themselves once again.

In just a few seconds, another instance of displacement occurred, this time affecting the Little Treasure from the Cold Family in the north.

“She disappeared right in front of me,” Yu Zhen was also in the north, very close to the Little Treasure. He could faintly see her figure and was about to go over and regroup when she suddenly vanished. “I’m sure at that moment, she didn’t hit any trees. She just disappeared while walking.”

There were no signs of displacement at all.

“Oh god, I’m getting goosebumps,” exclaimed ScarletFruit. “Is this place really a horror show?!”

“What ‘misty forest’? It’s more like a forest of man-eating trees,” muttered HealsFor25000 while dodging lightning. “Can’t run, can’t stay.”

Having just experienced a bizarre displacement, the Little Treasure from the Cold Family was now even more timid. “I’m scared. I don’t dare to walk anymore.”

The wind and rain intensified, accompanied by continuous thunder, spreading a chill among the players scattered throughout. In this harsh thunderstorm, the forest seemed to transform into a devouring entity where people could disappear suddenly while walking.

During brief moments of calm, the thunder grew louder and more intense. Most players found themselves in a dilemma—whether to move or stay put. The healers were not worried, the warriors had thick enough health pools, but the most challenging were the squishier members of the group. They lost health from the wind, from lightning strikes; no matter how many skills they used, how cautious they were, their health plummeted rapidly. Occasionally, those unlucky ones faced consecutive lightning strikes, which instantly depleted their health potions.

After healing herself, ScarletFruit sighed, “Let’s talk, it’s so gloomy.”

Old Daoist, still dodging lightning strikes, spoke breathlessly, “Brother, you have time to talk, but we don’t!”

HealsFor25000 said, “I’ll keep you company. I’m not afraid of lightning strikes.”

Apple lamented, “Never thought I’d get struck by lightning so many times in a dungeon.”

ClearWind remained silent for a moment before remarking, “If you hadn’t said that, maybe the lightning wouldn’t have struck.”

FireworksAndLanterns sighed, “I’ve run out of health potions. Will I ever make it to the healers in my lifetime?”

IHaveaColdHeart: Are you scared, sweetheart? It’s okay, your husband is here to chat with you.”

IHaveaColdHeart’s little one from the Cold family whimpered, “I’m too scared to move.”

“It’s alright. You’re in the south. I’ll come get you in a bit. We have nothing to fear.”

The others remained silent for a moment.

Unable to hold back, Watermelon spoke up, “Brother, is everything alright?”

“Sorry about that,” IHaveaColdHeart said, “My baby at home isn’t scared of anything else, just horror movies. I’m just comforting her a bit, not showing off affection.”

“Brother, being single in this isn’t easy,” ScarletFruit chimed in.

Yu Zhen stopped moving and instead looked towards the eastern direction on the map, where Su Mo was located. He had been keeping an eye on it, but Su Mo’s position hadn’t changed since just now.

Just then, Su Mo’s voice came through the voice channel, “Who’s the DPS on the east?”

“That’s me,” ZenSlasher responded, “What’s up?”

Su Mo said, “Can you move? Try moving, don’t stop. Others on the east can move, but avoid long-distance movements.”

The others fell silent upon hearing this. No one else in the east moved either, leaving only Momo and ZenSlasher conversing in the team. Both were located in the east, and while they communicated over voice, the rest of the team, aside from dodging skills, tried to maintain their original positions, occasionally glancing at the mini-map.

About a minute later, the two blue dots on the minimap in the east suddenly disappeared, and shortly after, two new blue dots appeared in the north and south respectively.

Momo and ZenSlasher had experienced displacement, but this did not happen to the others.

“What the heck!?”

“It really moved!?”

“So does standing still have anything to do with the east?”

“Is there a pattern to the displacement? But there were displacements elsewhere just now.”

Yu Zhen looked at the dots appearing in the south, pondering for a moment before suddenly sensing a potential pattern. “Have you figured out the timing?”

“3-4 minutes,” Su Mo hesitated slightly. “I can’t be completely sure, but it should be safe within 2 minutes.”

CloudTraveller paused briefly, then made a decision after a short thought. “You take command.”

“People in the west and north, don’t waste time now. Move quickly to the central position,” Su Mo instructed, eyes shifting between the increasing time on the taskbar and the minimap. He briefly explained to his teammates, “This is a clockwise spatial displacement. According to the map directions—up for north, down for south, left for west, right for east—the current teleportation point is in the east, and the next one should be in the south.”

Spatial displacement teleportation?! Clockwise?!

Su Mo stated concisely, “Listen to my command now. People in the east and south don’t move. People in the west and north, don’t waste time, move immediately to the center.”

“What does that mean? I’m a bit directionally challenged.”

“Forget about the meaning, just run straight ahead.”

Momo’s calm voice acted like a tranquilizer, prompting everyone to obey and immediately move towards the center position.

With assignments given for east, west, south, and north, only the two individuals near the center did not receive specific instructions.

Watermelon asked, “So, we don’t move, right? Are we considered at the center? We can’t tell east from west, north from south, where do we belong?”

“There might be a regional range. Don’t leave your current positions,” Su Mo quickly explained. “We haven’t fully figured out the mechanism yet. For now, you two are the midpoint for everyone. Stay with ClearWind and don’t separate.”

The middle position was difficult to define. Watermelon and ClearWind were not exactly in the center, but rather relatively close. ClearWind and Watermelon exchanged a glance, understanding they should not separate. What exactly constituted not separating? This silent and unpredictable teleportation…

At that moment, momo’s reminder voice resounded again, “Attention, 20 seconds until a big wind.”

ClearWind moved behind a tree and suggested, “Comrade Watermelon, items can’t be used either. How about we hold hands?”

Watermelon looked at his own hand. Without items, indeed, this seemed like the only option. But as soon as he reached out his hand, lightning flashed before his eyes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three bolts of lightning struck consecutively in front of him. Reacting swiftly, he dodged the lightning strikes. In the blink of an eye, he heard his teammates screaming.

“Fuck!!!!”

Upon hearing the commotion, Su Mo urgently asked, “What happened?!”

Watermelon took a few steps back, silently staring at the corpse of his teammate in front of him. If he had held hands just now, it would have been a double blow—chillingly tragic.

ClearWind said, “I got struck to death. Unbelievable. It hit me with three bolts in a row.”

At that moment, the wind arrived. The merciless and violent wind blew at this moment, raging furiously.

Watermelon had to activate his damage reduction skill, lowering his body to control his posture. He glanced sideways and saw ClearWind being blown away by the fierce wind, banging against a tree with a series of thuds, flying tens of meters away in an instant, and finally getting stuck in the tree.

ClearWind was speechless.

Watermelon was dumbfounded. “…He got blown away.”

Su Mo asked, “Far?”

“Not far, stuck in the tree,” replied Watermelon.

The commanding voice appeared in the voice channel, emotionless, “Heals can’t reach him yet. Watermelon, go retrieve him.”