Genius Chapter 99: Extremely Dangerous Incident

Chapter 99: Extremely Dangerous Incident

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

Array master swiftly layered arrays to completely control the guard under the cover of 25000’s spirited singing, consecutively applying several defense-reducing arrays on the guard. In just a dozen seconds, the guard was defeated. Taking the key from the mouth of the Heartfire Tiger, he unlocked the cell and entered.

Along the way, most cells were typical, such as the one 25000 had been in—a simple iron cell with a guard outside. However, the cell where Su Mo was confined was notably different, sunken and filled with water, with only an iron cage in the center.

The water in the pool was knee-deep, dripping from above. Su Mo was nearly soaked halfway through. He was surprised to see Yu Zhen, and before he could speak, he saw array master jump down from the edge of the pool, wading through the water to his side.

25000: “Bro, did you just pass by me? Did you forget about me?”

Yu Zhen’s voice was cold and stern, “Keep singing, don’t stop.”

25000: “???”

Apple: “Forget it, he’s not going to save you.”

ClearWind: “Status and rank are evident at first glance.”

Watermelon: “Learn to adapt.”

“Let’s rescue Momo first.” CloudTraveller spoke timely, “In this environment, it’s more useful to rescue him first than you. Momo commands, summoner controls more, you just heal.”

Inside the water cell, Yu Zhen’s gaze darkened slightly as he pulled the iron chain on the cage, “How many locks?”

“Two on the cell door,” Su Mo glanced slightly at his hands suspended above, “And two on my hands.”

“Wait.” Yu Zhen first unlocked the locks on the iron cage, then grabbed the bars and jumped up, leaping directly above the cage. The two chains on top were tightly wound, with their locks entangled layer upon layer. Yu Zhen tried one, “Momo, close your eyes.”

Su Mo hesitated briefly, closing his eyes just as he heard the sound of a blade sliding. Immediately after came a muffled thud, and the chains along with their locks dropped directly into the water. The restraint instantly lifted, and Su Mo slipped down, almost kneeling into the water. At a critical moment, Yu Zhen reached out and grabbed his wrist, preventing him from falling in completely.

“Brother.” Su Mo glanced up slightly.

“Stand steady,” Yu Zhen reminded him.

The Heartfire Tiger fetched Su Mo’s lantern staff from the wall and placed it before him. After Su Mo steadied himself, the force from above dissipated. The Array Master leaped down from the cage, landing on a nearby platform, and swiftly took two handy items from the prison wall.

“The paths inside the iron prison are quite intricate. I practically followed along the way and finally found you here,” Yu Zhen explained. “This is a small gate with five cells inside. Three are occupied—yours, HealsFor25000’s, and ScarletFruit’s.”

Su Mo rubbed his wrist gently. “They’re likely in another direction.”

Just then, another sound came from outside the door. FireworksAndLanterns’s voice grew closer, and in the next moment, he burst into the small gate, bringing with him a tumultuous uproar that instantly reached them. HealsFor25000, who had resigned himself to singing, abruptly stopped and stared wide-eyed at the lively scene outside.

“Fuck, FireworksAndLanterns, did you pull in so many!?” he exclaimed.

“Huh? Are you guys here!?” FireworksAndLanterns rushed into the small gate in panic, followed by a swarm of prison guards—no less than thirty—who flooded in all at once.

Su Mo heard the sound and immediately shoved the nearby dead prison guards into the water pool. Just as he was about to find cover to hide, Yu Zhen grabbed him in one swift motion, exerting a powerful force to leap upwards, landing on a small section of crossbeam above the cell.

The Judge’s Pen was securely stuck, bearing the weight of both. Su Mo’s waist was encircled, with almost all his strength pressing against Yu Zhen.

“Don’t move,” a voice came from above.

Su Mo froze, glancing sideways to notice the muscular and powerful arms of the man. Inadvertently, he seemed to hear the sudden acceleration of his own heartbeat.

At that moment, the sound drew nearer.

FireworksAndLanterns lost his retreat and was entangled by around thirty nets under the watchful eyes of Su Mo and the others. The attacking ability of the prison guards was exceptionally strong, and FireworksAndLanterns was almost killed in an instant.

[Journey Through Wind and Rain⋅Mechanical Iron Prison – Player FireworksAndLanterns has died, triggering the event Danger, activating the Iron Prison Corridor mechanism. Wishing everyone good luck.]

“He’s dead?” 

“He’s dead.”

“Get someone to drag him away later. Quickly go back and watch the other prisoners.”

“One escaped from the water cell. Increase the patrol and bring him back immediately.”

The prison guards outside the cell were communicating, with one running into Su Mo’s water cell to check the situation. Su Mo remained silent, his waist tightly encircled, while the voices in the communication channel were already chaotic.

“Did his death trigger a mechanism!?” Apple exclaimed. “FireworksAndLanterns dying directly activates Danger mode!”

CloudTraveller furrowed his brows slightly. “Mechanical Iron Prison, enhanced patrols. It seems even harder for us to hide. We need to find a way out.”

FireworksAndLanterns lay on the cold floor, with two guards bagging him up in a sack. “I was just able to slip away, but I ended up running in the wrong direction! How was I supposed to know which door to pick? Turns out, it was a dead end.”

He then asked, “What should I do? They’re putting me in a sack. Are they going to drag me off to some strange place?”

As FireworksAndLanterns was being bagged, the guards from 25000’s cell leaned against the door, watching. “Hurry up, stay out of trouble.”

“I think that little monster in your room is quite audacious,” remarked FireworksAndLanterns.

25000 replied, “More than audacious. It just threatened me with a whip, forbidding me from singing.”

The rest of the team couldn’t see the situation. CloudTraveller asked, “What’s happening now?”

FireworksAndLanterns replied, “I’m about to be dragged away. Can someone save me?”

25000 added, “I wish someone could save me too…”

At that moment, the two figures on top of the water cell exchanged glances. As they fell, the array master unleashed an array, and the summoner’s creatures responded immediately. Su Mo swiftly controlled the guards at the entrance to 25000’s cell, with the summoner’s creatures following closely, giving them no time to call for backup.

After controlling the guards at the cell entrance, Su Mo turned to help Yu Zhen focus on killing the guards bagging up FireworksAndLanterns. The two of them cooperated seamlessly, achieving a flawless kill with almost no need for communication.

“The keys are here.” Su Mo took down two keys from the wall of the cell door and tossed them to HealsFor25000, then turned to check on ScarletFruit in another cell.

There were several cells here, containing HealsFor25000, ScarletFruit, and him.

25000 could still call out, but ScarletFruit had been unconscious since the beginning. After Soul Rabbit stole the keys and opened the door, Su Mo entered and rescued ScarletFruit.

“What’s the situation?” 25000 rushed over after resurrecting FireworksAndLanterns.

“In a comatose state, recovery in 15 minutes after rescue,” Su Mo said, noting the negative status on ScarletFruit. “It’ll be another 15 minutes before they wake.”

Amidst the chaos, 15 people managed to gather, but only 5 were operational; one was still unconscious. Su Mo searched other areas in the cells but found no one else, indicating they might be elsewhere.

CloudTraveller was still trapped. “You guys are the main force now. Even if you encounter patrols, you should be able to hold out for a while. The priority now is to find the locations of the others. The most important thing is to find ZenSlasher; she has the map. We probably need that map to find a way out of here.”

After FireworksAndLanterns revived and tried again outside, he said, “The paths outside have become more difficult. When I first went out, I just couldn’t touch the walls. Now, there are fire and arrow traps. The entire corridor has become more challenging.”

“Testing the mechanisms is easy; let the summoned creatures try. They give us room for error, and we have two healers here,” Su Mo reassessed the situation. “Actually, the main difficulty of this level should be finding people. Coupled with the traps outside that drain health and the guards capturing people, it increases the difficulty of our search. Without healing, the traps outside could become lethal.”

CloudTraveller nodded, “Yes, your team composition is actually better now. We just can’t afford unnecessary losses anymore. The outcome of death events is unpredictable, so it’s best not to trigger them.”

Without healing, they proceeded cautiously, worried about losing health due to traps and potentially exhausting healing potions or getting caught by guards due to slow movements.

However, with two healers and two summoners, testing the traps on the corridor became easier. If it’s just about damage, they could handle it directly.

“I think we can take out the guards, but we should focus on killing the gong-beating guard first,” recalled FireworksAndLanterns. “Initially, I didn’t encounter so many small monsters. It started when the gong-beating one appeared; more small monsters appeared along the way.”

Yu Zhen added, “That one might be a trap monster. Triggering it will likely attract even more small monsters.”

Su Mo added, “In simple terms, there are three mechanisms: corridor traps that deplete health, guards patrolling and capturing or killing, and random death events.”

After waiting for 15 minutes, which seemed lengthy, FireworksAndLanterns and Su Mo ventured out to test the traps when the guards weren’t patrolling. Once they confirmed they could handle the trap’s intensity, they felt relieved.

Su Mo gradually understood the rules of this mechanical iron prison. Initially, the difficulty shouldn’t have been too high. However, chaotic or unplanned killings of guards could easily trigger death events or attract more guards, leading to team failure.

Soon after, ScarletFruit woke up. Confused at first, it took explanations from others for him to realize he had been idling for nearly half an hour.

“I didn’t notice anything. The mainframe kept me in another space playing cards, saying I was unconscious and waiting to be rescued,” ScarletFruit explained. “I was just about to finish the game when suddenly I got a failure notification and ended up here.”

He sighed, “I was just two minutes away from finishing. Lost 30 gold coins.”

The others were speechless.

The group of five set off, fully equipped. Su Mo and FireworksAndLanterns had just figured out some of the mechanisms in the corridor. The traps operated in a predictable manner, allowing them to avoid some of the common patterns. Even when unexpected situations arose, their summoners took damage first, followed by healing, making their movements relatively easy.

On the other side, Old Daoist, who had just escaped, had a rough time. As a lone Daoist priest, the traps were dangerous, and with guards patrolling, it was challenging. His only stroke of luck was taking medicine before using skills, preventing a death event. In the end, he entered a cage with low health, re-experiencing life behind iron bars, and gained an additional guard minion.

Old Daoist muttered, “I’m dragging everyone down. This is the only thing I can do for everyone.”

25000 said, “It’s okay, you staying alive is a great achievement.”

Without a map, navigating the map of the Mechanical Iron Prison became extremely difficult. It appeared simple, but in reality, it was intricate and complex.

Firstly, it wasn’t just ordinary branching paths but divided into several regions, each with complex and remarkably similar corridors. Unless one entered and confirmed, there was no way to determine if they had been through that area before.

During this time, they encountered several patrolling guards. Fortunately, several DPS reacted quickly, controlling and killing them at the first opportunity, thus avoiding attracting more guards. However, with each encounter, their chances of encountering guards increased gradually. Quietly, this path seemed to become increasingly difficult to traverse.

25000 added, “It’s indeed tough without a map. If we keep going like this, we might end up running into more small monsters.”

CloudTraveller and the others were also at a loss. Until their teammates found them, they couldn’t provide assistance. The only thing they could do was to speak up and provide direction when their teammates reached Vicinity, helping to better distinguish their location.

However, before they could think of any other useful methods, the five-person team had already made progress—

The commander was mapping.

“Have you got it?” Yu Zhen glanced at Su Mo.

“Almost done, I’ve mapped out this area,” Su Mo used the in-game drawing board, recalling positions from memory and marking them.

As they wrapped up mapping the area, Su Mo furrowed his brow slightly, feeling something strange. “There seems to be a slight deviation in one location. There might be a problem…”

He rubbed his temples. “We might need to go through it again. The direction at the left fork of the arrow-shooting mechanism pathway seems a bit fuzzy.”

Yu Zhen fell silent for a moment. “It should be at around 2 o’clock in the direction from the water dungeon.”

Su Mo hesitated briefly, his gaze fixed on Yu Zhen’s face.

Yu Zhen added, “Try to see if it matches.”

Su Mo lowered his head and continued marking the positions of the arrow-shooting mechanism pathway on the map. As he supplemented it, his sense of unease deepened; the path seemed to repeat itself. After pondering for a moment, he flipped the map and suddenly realized.

Since it was the Mechanical Iron Prison, his first consideration when getting lost should have been the mechanisms rather than the maze itself.

This wasn’t a maze but a rotating mechanism at the fork in the road. He had thought they were progressing forward, but in reality, they had circled back around.

Su Mo sorted out his thoughts. Just as he was about to explain the issue with the path to his teammates, he suddenly met Yu Zhen’s gaze. For a moment, he forgot what he wanted to say.

Yu Zhen’s eyes were deep and he gently asked, “Have you figured out a solution?”

Su Mo snapped out of it, slightly turning his head to avoid Yu Zhen’s eyes, and simply replied, “It’s about the mechanisms.”

ScarletFruit rushed over, asking, “What do you mean?”

FireworksAndLanterns exclaimed, “You know the way?!”

“I do.” Su Mo shared the completed map in the team channel. “The map of this area is marked with the locations of the mechanisms. Some paths require us to go in reverse, otherwise we’ll keep going in circles.”

HealsFor25000 was secretly impressed. While they were rushing around trying to find people, Commander Momo had already recorded the routes and directions, and based on memory, constructed a detailed map.

Su Mo exclaimed, “This is unbelievable…” His admiration had just been voiced when suddenly, the voice of the mainframe echoed in his ears.

[[Journey Through Wind and Rain · Mechanical Iron Prison] Player MilkMixedBitterMelon has died, triggering the event [Disaster], reducing all players’ defense by 5%, lasting for 30 minutes.]

After a while, another broadcast popped up:

[[Journey Through Wind and Rain · Mechanism Iron Prison] Player WhatAHugeWatermelon has died, triggering the event [Extreme Disaster], activating the special gameplay mode [Death Patroller] in Mechanical Iron Prison.]

Su Mo asked, “…?”

Others responded, “???”

“What the hell, how did you two die?!”

“What happened? I just took a nap.”

“Two deaths in a row?!”

“How did it suddenly change like this? I was still squatting in the little black room.”

As two consecutive death broadcasts appeared, the rest of the team was taken aback. Before they could inquire about the situation of their deceased teammates, a bright golden system notification appeared in front of everyone.

[Global Announcement] Journey Through Wind and Rain. WhatAHugeWatermelon and teammates unexpectedly triggered a rare death event [Extreme Disaster] during the adventure in [Journey Through Wind and Rain · Mechanical Iron Prison], activating the hidden gameplay [Death Patroller] of the [Journey Through Wind and Rain] event, with a difficulty challenge level of ★★★★★★.

[Attention all players, mission objective has been updated: Eliminate the Death Patroller and escape from Mechanical Iron Prison.]

There was silence in the team channel. For a while, everyone didn’t know how to express their emotions—whether it was joy at triggering the special gameplay or sadness at being forced to increase the difficulty.

Until another voice broke the calm.

The deceased Watermelon spoke up at this moment, “This is my first time appearing in such a global announcement.”

Author’s note: Teammates: Hmm, all golden and it only includes your name. 

Watermelon: …