Mutated Pheromones

Yue Ran watched his older cousin chatting away with his ‘idol’, feeling like everything was a dream. “I don’t understand. Why did he accept your request? Is he not afraid of you figuring out he’s an imposter?” 

“It’s because of his public persona,” Qin Xiujie explained. “He had been very patient with his fans since his return. He inevitably needed to respond when I confessed to the entire server. If not, it would be against all he is known for.”

Yue Ran questioned, “Why didn’t he use the horn to respond instead?”

Qin Xiujie grinned. “Because I asked if I could see him, so he had to find me, eventually. Then I tested my theory on the friend request, and he actually accepted it.”

Yue Ran asked, “What are you going to do next?” 

Qin Xiujie chirped, “I’m going to tell him I’ll be helping him start his fan club.”

He rubbed his cute cousin’s head with a smile. “He is building his popularity, yet there’s no fan club. Then someone with the ability and ideas has appeared to help him sort out his fans, and even admires him very much. Do you think he would just let me have a brief glimpse of him and then toss me away? Or would he keep me around?”

Yue Ran was left completely speechless.

Qin Xiujie made a motion that showed he would play by himself, as he began to communicate with the fake Dying Star.

On the other end, Pure White Sun and Sunken Moon saw that Little Star had such a devoted fan, who was this concerned for him. It almost brought tears to their eyes.

Out of the five gods of TSSM, Dying Star had no popularity, just like his character ID, a star that quietly fades away. Now there was someone who was desperately looking forward to his return. The two pros were both grateful and guilty to the old fan. Grateful that the fan always remembered Dying Star, guilty that it was not the ‘real’ player.

Then…the fan even proposed to start a fan club.

After they played ranked matches with Inked Sun, only Pure White Sun and Sunken Moon were left in the voice chat. 

Pure White Sun could finally talk without worry, as he lamented with a complicated expression, “He said he wants to create a fan club. What should we do?”

Sunken Moon was also at a loss.

If the real Dying Star didn’t show up soon, they would have to clarify things on Weibo. Would this fan chase them to the end of the world for their heads when he learned he had been duped? 

He said, “Try to delay as long as you can. If we really create a fan club for Little Star, we would just be digging deeper holes for ourselves.” 

Pure White Sun didn’t know how many times he wanted to go back in time and slap some sense into himself. He swallowed a mouthful of blood and typed quickly.

[(Private) Dying Star: No need for a fan club. I don’t plan on going down the path of a streaming career. There’s no need to organize such a thing like this.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: There is! All four great gods of TSSM have their own fan clubs, only you don’t, and this pains my heart!]

[(Private) Dying Star: Really, there’s no need.] 

[(Private) Wailing Wall: There is!]

[(Private) Dying Star: How about this, don’t create one for now. I’ll let you know when I do want a fan club in the future. Then, we can discuss how to start one.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Okay.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Oh right, by the way, great Star God, you said you don’t want to be a streamer. Do you only plan on enjoying the game or do you have other plans? If there’s anything that I can help with, please let me know! My greatest hope is to be of use to you.] 

[(Private) Dying Star: Sure, thank you. Where are you right now? I’ll come to find you and let’s run some instance dungeons?]

Hlc Wleplf rwlifv yglutais. Ktf lwqbrafg kjr gfjiis agslcu ab yeliv j ubbv gfijalbcrtlq klat tlw.

Lf rfca tlr ibmjalbc, jcv joafg wffalcu atf ojxf, tf wbnfv tlr mtjgjmafg jgbecv atf batfg rfnfgji alwfr jcv fnfc qbrafv j rfglfr bo rlcmfgf mbcofrrlbcr mibrf ab j ibnf vfmijgjalbc. Ycmf atfs gjc bcf vecufbc, atfs wjvf qijcr ab wffa jujlc abwbggbk obg wbgf vecufbcr, jr tf kjnfv atf batfg ubbvysf gfiemajcais. 

When he logged off of his alt account, he heard his uncle calling them from downstairs that dinner was ready, so he and his younger cousin went down to enjoy their meals. Once his stomach was full, they returned to the bedroom, and he logged on to his main account. 

As soon as he was in the game, he heard an in-game notification for a new message. 

He opened the private chat window and found it was from Pear Blossom Rain. These days, they ran instance dungeons daily and even had long conversations. All thanks to his younger cousin.

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Coming?]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Instance dungeon?] 

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Later, I have something to ask you first.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: I’m all ears.]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Do you remember when I asked you about the guild leader and sister-in-law?]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Yes, I do.] 

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Didn’t you say you knew nothing? Well, I think you know something but aren’t telling me.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Guilty, I knew I could commit an offence toward anyone but a healer.]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Can we please stay on point with less of your misdirections?]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: I heard today that Vault of Heavens Essence had joined our guild with malicious intentions. I’m worried that something might happen.]  

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Who did you hear it from?]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: I can’t tell. They told me everything, and I couldn’t sell them out as soon as I turned my head. Anyway, they said it’s serious and this scares me. It took me all day to decide to bring this up to you.]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Do you really not know if there is an agreement between the leader and him? Even if you can’t say it, at least let me know it exists so I can feel at ease.]

The smile on Qin Xiujie’s face suddenly vanished. 

He read over the chat twice and typed a simple response.

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Let’s keep it a secret for the time being.]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: I see, alright.]

[(Private) Pear Blossom Rain: Oh well, let’s do an instance dungeon then and stop worrying about this. You go on ahead and I’ll be there soon, there’s something I need to do first.]  

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Okay.]

Qin Xiujie exited out of the chat window and turned his attention to Yue Ran. “That time when you were harassed by Sunken Moon’s fans, what did you say Pear Blossom Rain’s group did?”

Yue Ran recalled, “We just met by chance.”

Qin Xiujie said firmly, “Tell me the truth.” 

Yue Ran blinked slowly. “That’s the truth. When the crazy fans came at me, her group protected me.”

Qin Xiujie interrogated, “Walk me through the details again.”

Yue Ran was confused, but he obediently recounted the event again. Seeing his cousin was staying silent, he asked, “Is there a problem?”

“It’s very possible,” Qin Xiujie replied after a moment’s silence. “Today, I’ll join you and your husband in the ten members dungeon.” 

Yue Ran said, “Okay.”

As soon as seven o’clock in the evening had passed, the guild members went online one after another and clamoured about forming a party to run instance dungeons.

As usual, Yue Ran was selected to run the dungeon with Jiang Xiao. Today being the day to run a ten man dungeon, Jiang Xiao would grab more guild members, making the guild chat especially active.

[(Guild) Blank: Although I’m trying to avoid dog food, I can do the ten members instance dungeon. So I’m down. Pick me!] 

[(Guild) Fruity: You’ve been picked so many times already, it’s our turn.]

[(Guild) F0x: That’s right, begging the guild leader for a carry~]

[(Guild) Bashful Rain: It’s better to beg sister-in-law than the leader. Sister-in-law, I haven’t beaten a ten man dungeon for several days, please help (cry).]

[(Guild) Attired Guqin: Add me to the ten members as well.] 

[(Guild) Pear Blossom Rain: +1]

Jiang Xiao scanned through the private message sent by Qin Xiujie and quickly decided on the best members to take. He selected Fruity and her three friends, with Attired Guqin. After they gathered at the closest warp gate, they journeyed toward the dungeon entrance. 

The entrance of this ten member instance dungeon was at the plains. 

From the nearest warp gate, they would need to go through a canyon to get there. 

The party entered the canyon and walked for over fifty meters. Then suddenly, five to six players jumped out from behind the boulders on the side of the road and came straight at them. At the same time, the party behind them, who looked like they were going to the dungeon entrance as well, rushed toward them. The White Koi party was immediately surrounded on two sides and was hunted down without demur.  

With Jiang Xiao’s advance order, Yue Ran was killed in the blink of an eye without resistance. Before he died, he moved his camera toward his companions and found that they were laying on the ground like himself.

Flying messages immediately appeared in the guild chat, all of them were the news of their unjustified slaughter. 

Their party of ten was unyielding, as they all chose to revive on the spot, followed by another quick messaging session.  

The rest of the guild members were shocked and asked what had happened to them. Seeing that none of the party members replied, they opened YY and joined their voice chat that was formed for the dungeon run. “What happened? Where are you guys?”

Jiang Xiao answered their first question calmly, “A group of random players.”

Qin Xiujie answered their second question angrily, “We are at Battlefront Valley.”

Fruity urged, “They’re like a bunch of rabid dogs. Everyone needs to come quick!” 

The rest of the guild members immediately put down what they were doing.

The ones in instance dungeon exited the dungeon, the ones in the middle of a quest paused mid-way, and those in arena matches forfeited the match, as they all sprinted to Battlefront Valley.

They thought they could easily revenge kill these random players, but what was waiting for them was another wave of new players to counter their reinforcement.

In fact, the enemy numbers were not as large as theirs, but they came out at a loss because they were scattered. In a flash, they were chopped down one at a time. When a player chose to revive on the spot, their character would revive with less HP, making them an easier target. 

But that wasn’t the most irritating thing.

The most irritating thing was that these people didn’t go away after killing them. Obviously, they were camping their unconscious bodies.

The guild members joined Jiang Xiao’s voice chat room, one after another.

Sounds of keyboard smashing came from Blank’s mic. “I got all of their IDs down. Let’s choose to revive at a further spot and kill them together.” 

BB Love was equally angry. “What if they are gone by the time we return? With the size of the game, how could we hunt them down one by one?”

Hit Me and Ur Bald could no longer hold back his sailor’s mouth. “Fuck them, I say we revive again and fuck them up!”

Ashen Inner Thoughts was shouting with the group, “Motherfucker, what did we do to make them mad?”

Strongest O in Universe sighed, “No idea, does anyone know them?” 

Everyone replied with either ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Not me’.

During this period, many guild members chose to revive on the spot and they were cut down again, as expected. The chat was filled with more foul language. Then suddenly, someone spoke up.

Bashful Rain cried, “Sister-in-law, I’m begging you. Please tell them to stop!”

The entire room turned silent. 

Yue Ran was stupefied. But before he could respond, someone asked for him.

Blank questioned. “What did you say? How is this related to sister-in-law?”

Bashful Rain declared, “I’ve sent the screenshots in the chat. These were from a friend of mine. I didn’t believe it at first, but now I have no choice but to believe it.”

The guild members quickly switched windows to YY and clicked on the screenshots shared by Bashful Rain. It was the chat history of their sister-in-law with an outside guild member about the so-called plan. 

Jiang Xiao narrowed his eyes.

Good, they finally hooked their first fish tonight.

Yue Ran blinked slowly and repeated the same action, then he finally collected his thoughts.

It turned out there was no undercover agent. It was to frame him! 

That Bashful Rain joined their dungeon run was in the perfect position to give their location out to the enemies. Even if she was not picked, she could always ask in the guild chat to learn which dungeon they were running. Once they were killed, the guild members would surely come to their rescue, resulting in them being killed repeatedly, which would ruffle everyone’s feathers. Now, with these screenshots as evidence, it made it appear that he was the one colluding with the outsiders. What kind of guild would allow him to stay?

He remembered Bashful Rain was one of his future sister-in-law’s friends…then recalled all the things that his cousin asked earlier, as he slowly turned toward his older cousin in silence.

Qin Xiujie’s face was expressionless, and his spirit had long sunk.

Translator has something to add: 

Teo: The way Jiang Xiao used ‘fish’ for their ‘rat’ reminded me of the phrase, hook line and sinker. So instead of using ‘the first fish has appeared’, I added ‘hook’ in the translation. Also, this is the chapter where I learned that I was translating Dying Star incorrectly.