Chapter 96: Leaderboard Refresh
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
Su Mo swiftly withdrew his hand, and when he looked up, his gaze met that of the array master. The latter’s expression remained indifferent, as if his action elicited no extra response. His voice was as calm and steady as usual, as though he had just returned from being AFK.
“It’s nothing, I just…” Su Mo paused, “I just wanted to take a look.”
At that moment, the forge’s notification sound went off, instantly dispelling Su Mo’s awkwardness.
He turned his head to look at the forge, where a piece of equipment had already been refined. “The armor finished being refined. The stats seem pretty good, right?”
The refinement hadn’t gone wrong; it hit the crucial attribute line on the first try, with above-average stats. In the game Celestial Horizon, forging equipment was highly random, especially with material refinement. If you failed the refinement, you might have to spend money to retrieve the original materials and try again.
Players with bad luck sometimes couldn’t get it right even after hundreds of attempts, eventually settling for a subpar result, looking dejected.
As soon as the equipment was posted to the team, it immediately drew the attention of the other teammates.
ScarletFruit said, “Bro, these stats are amazing. With such high values on the armor, you’ve saved a lot of money.”
Different parts required different refining materials, with the materials for armor being the most expensive. Generally, a finished piece of armor could save half the refining costs.
ClearWind was streaming live and exclaimed upon seeing the stats, “Summoner 80 PvP gold gear already has more attribute lines than other professions. Getting the refinement right is impressive. This armor focuses entirely on physical and magical attack, with plenty of accuracy too. It’s perfect, you’re all set!”
Su Mo had mixed luck with refining equipment, but getting such great results on the first piece today was a good start. “It looks like I bought too many materials,” he remarked.
ScarletFruit took the opportunity to curry favor, saying, “No worries, bro. I’ll buy the materials from you at the original price, no extra charge.”
Since the next refinement would take some time, Su Mo placed the materials inside and then secretly observed Yu Zhen. The array master remained in his original stance, completely still. Su Mo glanced at him cautiously, but suddenly met Yu Zhen’s eyes and quickly looked away.
When he turned his attention back to the forge, he was a bit distracted.
“Bro?? Bro, are you AFK?”
ClearWind called out several times before Su Mo snapped back to reality and switched to the team voice chat. “What’s up?”
“Here’s the thing, someone in my livestream is asking how to clear the second stage.” ClearWind had traveled all the way to the forge in the main city and saw that UnchainedWanderer was also there. “Brother Wanderer is here too?”
Yu Zhen replied, “Yes.”
The second stage of “Journey Through Wind and Rain” had no penalties, but it wasn’t easy to pass. From the time the second stage opened at seven until now, over two hours later, Su Mo’s team was the only one in the entire server to clear it. Initially, players were excited to enter the second stage because it had no set failure penalties or time limits for completion. However, the absence of penalties didn’t mean the game was entirely benevolent.
There was a hidden rule: unless they cleared the stage or the entire team died, they couldn’t abandon or leave the dungeon.
[Help us, please, we’re stuck.]
[Our team has been stuck in the maze for so long.]
[We’re trapped in the cave and can’t get out!]
[My teammates are worse; they logged off. Now our team has only 8 people left, and a few poor new players got matched with us, stuck in this mess.]
“I didn’t realize that,” Su Mo said casually after listening. “In that case, can’t they just have the whole team die to get out? There’s no penalty anyway.”
Unlike their team, which had a three-hour limit without rewards.
[???]
ClearWind explained, “Some can’t get out, and some teams are stuck in the maze. There’s no place to die in there. A whole team is just wasting time inside, whether they’re online or offline, they’re still in the dungeon.”
ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Damn, the main system set up something this tricky?”
ClearWind sighed, “Yeah, getting randomly placed in the maze is the worst. You can’t get out, and you can’t die to reset. They might have to wait until the event ends for the whole team to be released. That’s why my followers didn’t know what to do and came to my stream for help.”
He looked at Momo, “Bro, please help them out. I’ll get you whatever materials you need right away.”
Hearing this, Su Mo became interested. Since the forge had to run anyway, he looked at ClearWind’s screen, which displayed the chat from his livestream. “What’s the mechanism? Tell me about it.”
The second stage was known as the “prison stage,” with the currently appearing scenarios being the Mysterious Snow Mountain, Misty Forest, Deep Sea Cave, and Endless Maze. The comments in the chat provided limited information. Su Mo could only capture key points from the keywords they gave, but everyone’s descriptions differed, making it difficult to understand the situation.
After about ten minutes, a notification sound from the friend mail system suddenly popped up.
When Su Mo heard the notification sound, he saw a file in the private channel. “Bro?”
Yu Zhen had just sent him a file. “Details discussed in the exploration group. Take a look; it should give you a clearer picture.”
The details in the exploration group were more comprehensive. After reading for a while, Su Mo roughly understood the situation in the second stage of the event. After organizing his thoughts, he shared his ideas.
“The mechanism of the second stage shouldn’t differ much from what our team experienced. After clearing one type, you can deduce the overall design of the dungeon,” Su Mo explained succinctly. “You can quickly identify key points from skill mechanisms and mission objectives.”
“When you enter the instance, first familiarize yourselves with the map environment. Look for any distinctive emblems or unusual features on the map. Regarding this maze, there are no damaging skills, and it’s not a large-scale maze. The difficulty rating is only five stars, with the challenge lying in its constantly changing scenes.”
“You should focus on identifying similar objects within the maze scenes and consider rotating or flipping them to construct a rough model,” Su Mo continued. “From the details you’ve provided, it seems the changes occur in the surroundings. For instance, a left turn might become a right turn. Pay close attention to these differences between left and right paths, and you should be able to find the correct route.”
[!!! I did notice a few times that the paths diverged, but they quickly reverted.]
[Same here. We’ve been stuck in the maze for so long. We know it changes, but we don’t know where. It’s frustrating.]
“In that case, pay attention to the changes on both sides. It seems there are many descriptions of junctions in the maze map. Alternatively, maybe you’re not in a maze but in a pattern. For example, try consistently turning left for a few minutes, then right for a few minutes, to see if you can identify a pattern. Once you figure out the pattern, you might reunite with your friends.”
[Can we really do that!?]
[I’ve learned something new. I’ll try it out with my team leader right away.]
“The snow mountain scene was similar to what we encountered. I guess it involves AoE damage, displacement, and intermittent skills.”
“The cave should have a mechanism similar to the maze. Pay attention to changes on both sides of the cave, count the intervals between skills, or monitor the cumulative time on the mission bar.”
…
As Su Mo spoke, he was about to glance at the forge when suddenly he locked eyes with Yu Zhen across from him.
“What’s wrong?” Yu Zhen asked.
“Nothing,” Su Mo avoided his gaze, shifting his attention to the forge.
Yu Zhen didn’t say anything and didn’t move. He silently listened as Su Mo explained the mechanism to others in the chat, keeping his eyes on Su Mo the whole time. He noticed several instances where Su Mo seemed evasive or uneasy.
“So why did you ask me for detailed files? Didn’t we just clear the Misty Forest?” the voice of 25,000 resounded in his ears.
“And also, what’s going on between you and Momo? In the first stage, you kept shielding him and later you were always together. Around 8 o’clock, you both logged in together, and just now in the second stage, you kept talking to him. How come I never noticed you being so chatty when we used to team up?”
Yu Zhen responded, “Is that so?”
“Yeah! You never used to explain yourself. CloudTraveller even said in the group that you’ve changed your style lately when playing together. Do you know what you used to say before? ‘Alright,’ ‘Not bad,’ ‘Okay,’ ‘OK’… At least half the girls I’ve met said you hardly talk.”
“What’s the deal with you and that Momo? Do you two know each other?”
“Wait a minute, last time I saw you at Capital Planet, you told me you didn’t have any friends playing Celestial Horizon.”
“You’re definitely acting weird. I’ve been observing for two days now. Every time Momo speaks, you chime in. When Momo is silent, you don’t say a word. You always respond whenever Momo talks…”
Yu Zhen muted the voice of 25,000. “Are you done?”
Su Mo hesitated for a moment and replied, “Uh, yeah.”
The forge had already completed six pieces. Su Mo had good luck with the first few items, but later on, things started going wrong. One piece turned out completely off-center, forcing him to dismantle the materials and start over.
“What do you need? I’ll go buy it right away!” ClearWind turned and hurried to the stall area to find materials for him. Viewers in the livestream also directed him to which stall had cheaper materials.
“Damn, you didn’t ask me for Eye of the Water Lotus!” ScarletFruit exclaimed.
“You’re hanging your stall at 3000 gold, you’re robbing people! Someone else is hanging at 2800!” ClearWind retorted.
“Come on, brothers should be clear about money! That’s how my brother and I do it. That kid helped me fix a machine tonight and charged me 3500 star coins! I’m losing big today. Buy mine, don’t go to other shady merchants. How about 2790 gold? That’s 10 gold cheaper than the others.”
Su Mo asked, “I remember you sold it to me for 2400 before?”
ScarletFruit hushed him, “Bro, keep it down. That was your VIP exclusive price. If it gets out, how can I do business?”
Su Mo replied, “Oh.”
ClearWind interjected, “??? I’m not settling for this 10 gold difference.”
ScarletFruit delivered the goods and hurried to the forge, insisting, “Alright, alright, 2700 gold. Buying from someone else will cost you 100 gold more. I’m cutting you a deal here.”
The two haggled directly at the forge. Su Mo stood there for a moment, then suddenly received a trade request from Yu Zhen. Opening it, he found several types of special materials inside.
“Bro?” he asked.
“These are leftovers from my previous refinements, collecting dust in my warehouse,” Yu Zhen explained.
Yu Zhen said, “Didn’t you just mention needing Blaze Essence Grass? It’s harder to come by. Take this for now.”
Su Mo hesitated for a moment. “… Aren’t you going to list it on the trading platform?”
“My trading slots are all filled up. No space left,” Yu Zhen confirmed, then clicked ‘confirm’. “Just take it for now.”
Considering the price he had paid before, Su Mo placed the market price coins in the trade window. “Thanks, bro.”
It wasn’t until 10 PM that Su Mo finally finished refining all his equipment. Despite a few mishaps later on, and acquiring additional materials from ClearWind, he managed to achieve satisfactory attributes.
Yu Zhen looked at the equipment information Su Mo sent to the team and remarked, “The attributes of this equipment are pretty good. The overall rating should increase significantly.”
“It should get a boost,” Su Mo finished adjusting the attributes and put on the equipment. When he looked at Yu Zhen, he paused for a moment before saying, “Bro, I’m logging off first. Been busy all day, need to get some sleep.”
“Alright, I’ll log into your account later for daily tasks, just a few rounds left,” Yu Zhen replied.
Su Mo suddenly remembered he hadn’t done today’s daily tasks. “Isn’t it too late? It’s okay to skip a day.”
Yu Zhen simply said, “I need to clear them out anyway.”
Without thinking much more, Su Mo quickly logged off.
Just came back from school today, rushing all the way, Su Mo thought his body would be exhausted, but after logging off, he didn’t feel any different. He hurriedly went to get the medical device to check his physical data, and surprisingly found it very stable. “I don’t seem to be particularly tired today.”
Lele leaned over to look at the medical device. “The readings are normal. You’re very healthy, Su Mo.”
Su Mo was pleasantly surprised and tried a few more times.
“Just now, a robot delivered something. It’s a medicinal soup sent by Mr. Yu Zhen,” Lele brought out a bowl of soup from the kitchen. “It meets the standard for nighttime intake. I’ve checked; you can have it.”
Su Mo hesitated for a moment, then opened the robot’s message board and found a note indicating it was supper.
He hadn’t eaten much outside tonight and was indeed a little hungry.
“Lele, why do you think brother Zhen treats me so well?”
Lele tilted its head and its electronic screen displayed a smiling emoji. “Mr. Yu Zhen is a good person.”
Su Mo stirred the spoon in the medicinal soup, lost in thought.
Lele urged, “It’s getting cold!”
Su Mo picked up the bowl of medicinal soup. “Got it.”
Late at night, the game forum was bustling with activity. Countless night owls were discussing the “Imprisonment” second stage of “Journey Through Wind and Rain”. Numerous threads filled with complaints topped the forum, while many players also emerged to update strategies. The strategies varied in form, but most covered similar content.
The most popular thread was about the maze stage strategy. The OP was a frequent poster known for casual banter, and the thread quickly rose to the top of the forum.
[Thanks a lot to big bro Momo for providing the strategy this time. Our team was stuck for over two hours, couldn’t figure out the changes. Finally, big bro pointed out to us to pay attention to the timing of the changes. Wow, that was indeed the issue! The guide is up there, fellow maze stage players can take a look!]
[Seriously? Is Momo that amazing?]
[Imprisonment stage, right? You can check out ClearWindIsHere’s live stream replay. Around nine o’clock, Momo mentioned the clearing technique in the live stream!]
[Seems like it was summarized by the leader in the exploration group. Momo didn’t exactly tell us how to do it, just gave us a few ideas to try out.]
[Exactly! The maze stage seems to have several random patterns. Our team watched the live stream at the time, and it was indeed an issue with left and right paths.]
The discussion in the thread intensified for a moment when a player hurriedly came to report— [OMG, did you see the leaderboard refresh in the early morning? There’s been a change in the summoner ranking!]
