Mutated Pheromones

The competition among guilds was fierce. In order to obtain information or undertake dirty tricks, larger guilds would have these throwaway accounts, or accounts that are guildless and easily disposed of. They were used for specific purposes without giving away the perpetrator’s identity. It was easy to get a few throwaway accounts, but the underling hesitated.  

“Leader, I just chatted with their officer. If the guild leader’s wife was killed right after, won’t they suspect it was us?” He dwelled on. “Won’t we be exposed?”

“In any other time, yes. But right now it’s the best chance.” Traceless Water explained. “Moon God sent his invitation in a kind-hearted manner, and not only was the offer turned down, but he was also called a hooligan with a horn message. No die-hard fans would let their idol’s name be slandered.”

The member blinked slowly as he tried to process everything. “What you mean…”

Traceless Water said, “That’s right. Get some throwaway accounts and pretend to be Moon God’s die-hard fans, and kill that slanderer on sight.” 

He added after a pause, “But don’t act too deliberate. First, check his location and initiate the plan if there is a dungeon entrance nearby as my alibi. I’ll have a reason to be there. Once your party roughs him up a little, my party will rescue him. I will justify my goodwill under the pretence that we wanted to merge with their guild. Although that idea was rejected, I couldn’t just watch one of their members get killed. See where I am going?”

The member slapped him lightly. “That’s genius!”

Traceless Water recalled, “I remembered the fuss he made with the horn yesterday. He must be a delicate type and would absolutely be grateful to us. Once we have a positive relationship with him, our chance of winning over the leader would greatly increase.”

“Leader, I would rather hold and admire your thigh than a wall for support!” The member praised. “I will get to it right away.”

Traceless Water cautioned, “We must make haste. I doubt we are the only guild that thought of this.”

In fact, the top five guilds’ strengths were about even. In order to expand or close the gap, the guild leaders would naturally seek new talents.

Even the guild leader of the top one guild of the new server, Eastern Blizzard, would notice the hidden master and try to win him over. Because Moon God won’t be playing on his alt forever, the guild leader had to consider things in the long run. 

Traceless Water’s guild members understood the urgency of the situation as they began to locate Vault of Heavens Essence and assembled their throwaway accounts.  

More than half an hour later, one underling replied they had found the target’s location. He was mining alone near the Shivering Mountain.

A twenty-five member dungeon entrance happened to be at Shivering Mountain. Even the god above was helping them!

Traceless Water quickly gathered able bodies to ‘run’ the dungeon, while the members on the disposable accounts began step one of their plan and went to the location provided by their colleague. 

At the same time, another group also intended to use die-hard fans for their scheme. 

They were not the top five guilds that Traceless Water was thinking of, but members of White Koi guild itself.

In a YY server, four members created a chat room with a password to hold a small meeting.

Bashful Rain was in disbelief, “I was only gone for a few days and I returned to find the guild leader got himself a wife from out of thin air?”

“Yes, not only that, the person acted very coquettishly. They go as far as sending a horn message for a kiss! Made me throw up a little bit in my mouth,” Fruity sneered. “Click on the link that I sent and you’ll see how useless the leader’s wife was.” 

A few of them clicked on the link, which was the forum post with the clip from Sunken Moon’s live stream where their guild leader fought Moon God.

With the video played at a slower speed, everyone that watched the clip could tell the summoner’s true strength. It was obvious he wasn’t a newbie.

Bashful Rain spoke first. “We need to inform others that we were duped!”

Fruity signed, “It’s no use. Yesterday, when Moon God wanted to take him as an apprentice, I mentioned the elephant in the room, and the leader just came up with a logical explanation. We can’t post the same question.” 

Djrtoei Ejlc jrxfv, “Zbbc Xbv? Vecxfc Zbbc??”

Mgelas gfqilfv, “Ktf bcf jcv bcis.”

“Gb sbe atlcx atf ifjvfg ilxfr atf rewwbcfg obg tlr jylilas ab jma mbdefaalrt?” Djrtoei Ejlc kjrc’a rjalrolfv klat atja. “Qtfc mjc kf rtjgf atf ilcx?”

“Qtfc atf ueliv ifjvfg tjv cb mtblmf yea ab vfji klat tlw,” Mgelas rjlv wjaafg-bo-ojmais. “Ktf atgfjv kjr qbrafv cba abb ibcu jub jcv kjr jigfjvs yeglfv ys cfk atgfjvr yfobgf jcsbcf mbeiv vlu rbwf vlga eq. Qf klii kjla yfobgf ecfjgatlcu atf atgfjv ab fnfgsbcf.” 

She pondered for a moment before reckoning. “Let’s stop beating around the bush and start with why I dragged everyone into this room today. I’m sure everyone ought to have some idea.”

The other three remained silent.

The reason was crystal clear, since everyone present has an unrequited love for Jiang Xiao.

Only one of them enjoyed gaming, the rest were playing the game for Jiang Xiao. Other than Bashful Rain, the other three were terrible at video games. They worked hard and trained their skill to be above the guild’s average, to be qualified in participating in dungeon runs with the leader. 

Although their leader doesn’t bother with guild affairs, he is still very serious about running the dungeon. After they failed the twenty men instance dungeon many times, Jiang Xiao was unhappy, so they didn’t dare to purposely pick on the little summoner in the dungeon. 

Fruity remembered, “I once asked the leader if he likes anyone; he said no. During yesterday’s dungeon run, the leader called out ‘darling’ before using the little summoner’s real name. He calls no one darling. Maybe he didn’t learn the other’s name until later, so he used ‘darling’ to mask that fact. That means ‘childhood sweetheart’ and ‘not good at gaming’ were all lies. My conclusion is, they must have made a deal in the dark.”

Bashful Rain blurted out an “ah” and asked, “For real?”

Fruity hissed, “Very likely.” 

Bashful Rain sighed a breath of relief. “Then why care if their relationship is fake?”

“There is a saying: fake it till you make it. Besides, can you stand him scattering dog food with the leader daily?” Fruity snapped. “Hey you two non-contributors, speak up! You saw how much the alphas in the guild really dug the type of omega that pretender was. If you really think nothing will develop if this continues, then forget it and pretend I said nothing.”

The other two were F0x and Pear Blossom Rain. 

The former said, “What’s your plan then?” 

Fruity answered, “I have a friend from the Phoenix Rune guild. Her husband is a guild officer.”

F0x was surprised. “Isn’t that one of the top five guilds?”

“Yup! She said their guild has many throwaway accounts, and she had already persuaded her husband to help us.” Fruity babbled. “We can let those disposable accounts kill us under the pretence of wronging Moon God.”

Bashful Rain was confused. “Kill us?” 

Fruity confirmed, “That’s right, they want to kill the leader’s wife, and we protected him at the cost of our lives. Then we start an argument about this in the guild chat. We don’t expose him, but if he continues to act like a newbie while watching us die to protect him, I say let’s allow him to continue to act.”

Bashful Rain inquired, “What use is this?”

Fruity laid out her thought process. “When the guild members finally learn the news and want to avenge us, we will leak the thread’s link. This way, they’ll know that their innocent sister-in-law is actually a master at gaming. Even more so, he watched us die in front of him repeatedly. At that point, the guild leader will stop ignoring the issue and deal with it. In the end, that little bitch won’t have the face to stay in the guild.”

F0x brought up, “But he loves being coquettish. What if he took the initiative to request help in the guild chat just after our first death?” 

Fruity smirked. “Since his and the guild leader’s relationship is fake, he must not like to trouble other people in the guild. I could tell from his solo playing style. It will be very unlikely for him to post in guild chat, and even if that minor chance actually happened, I still have a backup plan. Everyone can rest assured.”

After a pause, she asked, “Now I need to know, are you guys in or not? Just one no from the group, we will pretend this never happened.”

Bashful Rain declared, “Count me in.”

F0x echoed, “Count me in too.” 

They waited for Pear Blossom Rain, who had not uttered a single word. 

After a few seconds, Pear Blossom Rain finally spoke, “Okay, I’m in.”

Fruity happily announced, “Alright ladies. I recorded our conversation and will send everyone a copy. Once the little bitch is out of the picture, we’ll return as love rivals. Whoever reveals this secret to the leader, remember, you also had a hand in this.”

F0x suddenly posed, “But if one of us really got together with the guild leader in the future and someone else selfishly released the video to the guild leader? What then?” 

Fruity maintained, “We all have the same risk, and we would have to rely on our own ability to solve that issue when it arrives.”

An eerie silence fell over the chat, but the most important thing now was to get rid of Vault of Heavens Essence first, before the fake really became real. 

The scrolled for the last message from Vault of Heavens Essence, which said he was waiting at the twenty-five member dungeon entrance for the guild leader. So they went to the Shivering Mountain and saw him by the entrance. 

[(Local) Fruity: Sister-in-law.] 

Yue Ran noticed a new local message in the chat and typed a simple reply.

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Yes? (flushed) (happy)]

Fruity curled her lips and sent her friend the specific coordinates, and started a casual conversation with her target.

[(Local) Fruity: Do you know why the leader isn’t online right now?] 

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: He’s probably busy.]

[(Local) F0x: Are you going to join the twenty-five dungeon run today?]

Yue Ran was just about to send ‘idk’ when he suddenly noticed Pear Blossom Rain in the group and stopped his pinky above the enter key. He studied the four guild members’ character names carefully—he wasn’t familiar with one of them while the other three didn’t acknowledge him yesterday. Now he was sure Fruity was on to him.

Older cousin’s future sister-in-law likes the senior, she must be jealous of him…These must be her friends. 

So they were trying to get close to him, not to make friends, but to set up a trap for him. They must be trying to find a way for him to admit that he didn’t know his ‘husband’, right?

Yue Ran hesitated and pondered over this. Well, with the principle of fewer complications the better, he should just step over the trap.

So he deleted his original message and stopped controlling his character. Once they posted two more messages in the local chat, he moved his character to leave.

Those people would naturally follow him. 

[(Local) Fruity: Sister-in-law, where are you going?]

Yue Ran stopped again and turned back to them.

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Are you talking to me?]

[(Local) Fruity: Yes.] 

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: My little uncle walked out because he had to take a call. If you’re looking for him, you’ve got to wait.]

The four were shocked.

Before they could regain their senses, a group of seven or eight players came toward them from not too far away.

[(Local) Traitor~Escapes: Vault of Heavens Essence, you get back here!] 

Yue Ran was completely baffled. 

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Who are you?]

[(Local) Traitor~Escapes: We are Moon God’s fans!]

Fruity gasped in surprise. “Are these real fans?!” 

Pear Blossom Rain mumbled, “Heh? They are not your friend’s group?’

Fruity giggled, “No, they are not, they are still on their way. But this is even better, let’s execute our plan.”

F0x hesitated. “But he’s not currently playing the account.”

Fruity insisted, “Who cares if that isn’t him, we need to stop the fans first.” 

Then those four madewalked in front of the leader’s wife to protect him.

[(Local) Fruity: Are you guys here to cause our sister-in-law trouble?]

[(Local) F0x: If you want to touch our sister-in-law, you have to get through us, first!]

[(Local) Pear Blossom Rain: That’s right!] 

Those disposable accounts were also having a discussion in their own YY chat room. “Guild leader, there are four players here from White Koi. They said we have to go through them first, do we kill them?”

“No need, let’s see if their friendships are genuine and could hold during difficult times. If they are genuine, we will rope the effort.” Traceless Waster said. “Don’t lay a single finger on them, just wait and see.”

Traitor~Escapes accepted the order and went to work.

A moment later, he returned, “Leader, the situation has changed.” 

Traceless Water snapped, “What?”

Traitor~Escapes filled in, “The owner is afk, and the one that’s playing the account right now is his fifth-grade nephew. Because Vault of Heavens Essence forced him to do his summer vacation homework, he plans to drop everything in the inventory while his uncle is busy.”

“…” Traceless Water didn’t know how to react for a few seconds before he freaked out. “Go stop him! Vault of Heavens Essence gets emotional easily and he might go as far as quitting the game from this. I’ll be there soon!”

Traitor~Escapes refreshed his order and became resigned to his fate with this tedious task.  

So he led his party to go around the group of four players who were wholeheartedly waiting for their death and surrounded the ‘nephew’. A text bubble appeared above the leader of this fierce and wicked party.

[(Local) Traitor~Escapes: Little kid, what you’re doing is wrong. Your little uncle did it for your own good.]

Fruity and her party: “…”

Yue Ran found everything unamusing and replied cold-heartedly.  

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Go away, I hate adults like you the most.]