Mutated Pheromones

Since the arrival of the cavalry, things quickly spun out of control. 

First, it was the three gods using horns, then all the parties involved met in the voice chat, then White Koi’s leader got to the bottom of things, and it ended with four members removed from the guild—having been together in the guild for such a long time, all the guild members were weeping that things had gotten to this point. But before they truly tasted all the flavours, Vault of Heavens Essence disappeared and left the voice chat at the same time. They didn’t even have the time to urge him to stay.

The voice room exploded again.

“That’s not right. Why did he have to leave? It wasn’t his fault.”

“Maybe he feared we might blame him?” Someone guessed. “If it wasn’t for him, Little Rain and the others wouldn’t have the incentive to scheme. Perhaps he feared that the people who have good relationships with them would only create awkwardness in the future?” 

“Most of us in the guild have virtuous three views, we wouldn’t blame him for this. Leader, please call him back.”

“That’s right. I was rude when I saw the screenshots. I need to apologize to him.”

Jiang Xiao declined, “Let him be.”

None of the crowd wanted to do it, because they wanted their leader to attempt first. But when they heard his answer, they quickly changed the topic to something else.

“Hey…Leader, why did you pretend to go out with him?”

“You guys weren’t a real couple, but him being an omega is real, right?”

“Leader, are you interested in him? If not, let us have a chance!”

“That’s right.” 

“Wait, does that mean he is single?”

Jiang Xiao calmly responded, “I don’t know.”

He didn’t want to continue to listen to their gossip, so he left the room and joined a random small room. Then he took out his phone to message Qin Xiujie, asking about Yue Ran.

[Qin Xiujie replied very quickly: I bought him a name change coupon, he wanted to change his name before playing.] 

Jiang Xiao was relieved.

Since they added each other as friends in the game, Yue Ran couldn’t get rid of Jiang Xiao even if he completely changed his character. However, recalling the witch hunt and how the little summoner was accused by everyone in the guild, he asked one more simple question: [Is he alright?]

[Qin Xiujie: Yes, he is doing fine. In fact, he’s right next to me. If you’re still concerned, we can video chat.]

[Jiang Xiao: No need.] 

Qin Xiujie expected that answer, but it didn’t hurt to suggest.

He closed WeChat and locked his phone. He turned back to his younger cousin. “Your former husband was asking about you. When will you be back online?”

Yue Ran replied, “First thing tomorrow morning.” 

Because there would be relatively fewer players in the early morning. Places like the canyon should be deserted. Less chance for him to run into acquaintances. It was the perfect time to change his name and appearance.  

Qin Xiujie nodded. As soon as he was about to toss his phone back on the table, he suddenly remembered something. He unlocked it again, searched and clicked on a picture of Jiang Xiao. “Look, this is your ex-husband.”

Yue Ran curiously glanced over. 

The man in the picture looked cold and hard to approach, but he was very handsome. He could even outshine their high school’s school grass by tenfold. 

Qin Xiujie teased with a smile, “See, I wasn’t pulling your leg. Isn’t he especially handsome?” 

“Indeed,” Yue Ran agreed earnestly. “But no matter how handsome he is, it doesn’t concern me.”

Qin Xiujie raised his eyebrow. “Do you have someone you like?”

Yue Ran mumbled, “No.”

He pushed the plate filled with finger-size fruit over to shut his cousin up. “The doctor said I won’t find an alpha mate in my life.” 

Qin Xiujie was shocked as he sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”

Yue Ran explained his mutated pheromones to his cousin in detail.

The whole thing was extremely difficult to believe. Qin Xiujie tried to sniff out the so-called mutated pheromones but soon gave up, because as close relatives, each other’s pheromones wouldn’t hinder their judgement—as blood connected them. He could only comfort him by patting his younger cousin’s head. “You don’t need to look for an alpha, there are plenty more fish in the ocean.”

Yue Ran chimed in, “You as well.” 

Startled by his younger cousin’s thoughtfulness, he smiled. “I’m fine.”

Yue Ran highly doubted that.

From what he knew, Pear Blossom Rain was the first person his cousin pursued. But he failed and didn’t feel the slightest despair?

Qin Xiujie added again, “I’ll be fine.” 

Looking at his cousin, he thought that Ran Ran’s hard work during this period was not only futile, but also turned into a witch hunt. He couldn’t help patting more of his adorable cousin. “This was all my fault. I’ll put more thoughts into my future target.”

Yue Ran guessed that his cousin wasn’t in a good mood, so he didn’t continue on this topic after a few words of consolation. He shut off his laptop and picked out a movie from his collection to watch. It was decently received and seemed enjoyable. Qin Xiujie wasn’t in the mood to continue playing, so he also shut off his laptop and joined for a movie night.

Both of them got off the game, but a certain someone in his study was still playing. 

During dinner, Yue Shizhong asked a few questions about the game. He learned that his son played on the new server, so when he went back to his study, he created an account on the new server. Now he had just grinded to level six, he still couldn’t grasp the controls. This game was very difficult. 

Trembling in fear, he killed a weak monster. He took a slow breath and paid no mind to the messy quests for the time being. Instead, he went to the hillside beside him to enjoy the scenery, searched his son’s character ID along with the possible son-in-law, and sent friend requests.

Over ten minutes later, still no response from his friend requests.

Watching the beautiful scenery, he contemplated his life and cheered himself up enough to start on beginner missions. Then, a horn message suddenly appeared.

[(Horn) Tenth Phoenix: Regarding the massacre of White Koi’s members. It was found that it was a decision by my guild officer, Return of Phoenix, without my authorization as the guild’s leader. At present, Return of Phoenix and Sugar in Sweetheart have been removed from our guild. I wasn’t strict in my supervision. I would like to apologize to the White Koi guild.] 

[(Horn) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Apology accepted.]

[(Horn) Gossip Lover: Wait a moment, White Koi’s officer, don’t go just yet! Can you tell us why the three gods stood up for your guild?]

[(Horn) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Because our guild leader’s attractiveness level is very handsomely high.]

[(Horn) Gossip Lover: …Are you serious?] 

[(Horn) Ashen Inner Thoughts: That’s right (air kiss).]

[(Horn) Do Not Turn Back: Come slide a pic (drool).]

Ktf obiibklcu qijsfgr lwwfvljafis kfca jrxfk jr atfs yfujc jrxlcu obg j qlmaegf, yea joafg rtbealcu erlcu atf tbgc obg j ibcu alwf, atfgf kjr cb wbgf wfrrjuf ogbw Qtlaf Bbl’r boolmfg.

Snfgsbcf’r jaafcalbc gfaegcfv ab ktja kfca bc abcluta. Ktfs kjcafv ab xcbk ktja tjqqfcfv. Coafg wjcs lcdelglfr, rbwfbcf olcjiis ujnf atf ubrrlqfgr j rmlfcalolm jcrkfg. 

[(Horn) Doughnut: I got it, this news should be reliable. Wasn’t White Koi’s leader all lovey-dovey with his wife? A few of the secret admirers in the guild couldn’t stand it. They colluded with Phoenix Rune’s guild officer and got a bunch of false evidence to frame the wife as a spy from another guild. Then their leader dominantly dealt with them. It was said that the wife was heartbroken and quit the guild and the game.]

[(World) Paid Everything in Full: Oh…]

[(World) Do Not Turn Back: So it was like that…]

[(World) Gossip Lover: But this kind of thing is very common. But to go as far as having three gods on your side?] 

[(World) Doughnut: I heard it was because White Koi’s leader is a shotcalling genius. Several large guilds wanted to poach him.]

[(World) Gossip Lover: Can a shotcaller make the great gods stand on his side collectively? Are you joking with me?]

[(World) Pearl Milk Tea: And Inked God was even willing to give out a naked photo for this (rest chin on hand).]

[(World) Cat Food: I know, I know. The guild leader’s wife is Moon God’s disciple!] 

[(World) Doughnut: No, remember, he turned it down.]

[(World) Song of Requiem: What if he accepted in private? I saw the Moon God and the little couple in the arena before~]

[(World) Buried in Quilt: Then that’s not impossible…]

More and more people joined the discussion, when suddenly, a new horn message appeared. 

No one knew where this love-hate relationship with a sprinkle of revenge came from. At first glance, it seemed that it was a story about cheating. The fourth and fifth’s discovered the third, and ended up falling in love with the third together. So they abandoned the scum man and started competing for the third’s attention…Everyone immediately tossed the disciple theory out of the window as they grabbed a bag of melon seeds and enjoyed the shitshow.

Yue Shizhong read the world chat while doing a quest, feeling very despairing.

Seeing these framing, numerous love affairs, even Sunken Moon’s disciple was forced to quit. Young people these days are very scary. Could Ran Ran be bullied in the game?

No, he needed to be stronger. 

He took a deep breath and began to work harder to level up. He didn’t go to bed until late at night.

Yue Ran went to bed after the movie.

The next morning, he got up at seven o’clock and started the game client. 

Maybe it was because of the large commotion he made last night, or because he quit the guild, but as soon as he went online, he was bombarded with notifications of pending friend requests. He declined all of them. He used the name change coupon first and entered two words in the text box, ‘God Killer’, and clicked ‘Confirm’.  

[This character ID is already taken.]

Being in a good mood, he deleted and entered ‘Slaughtering the Moon’. 

[This character ID is already taken.]

Killing God—[This character ID is already taken.] 

Massare—[This character…

Killing Star—[This character…

…

Fuck! Is coming up with a name always this hard! 

Grinding his teeth he tried again and again. Just as he was about to give up all hope and go get a dictionary to pick out a random name from the first page he flipped open, he suddenly saw the physical examination report on his desk. In a slight daze, he typed out the following: A- - - - Killer.

[Congratulations, you have successfully changed your character ID!]

He was satisfied as he used the appearance coupon to change his character’s face from ‘cutie’ to ‘aloof’. Then he bought new cosmetic equipment. He rotated the camera to survey his character from every angle. The more he inspected, the more he liked his new look. He could finally enjoy the game for real.

He excitedly ran to the main city for a supply run and warped into the wasteland for lion taming. 

If a summoner wanted to tame their sixth spirit beast, they had to obtain the beast’s spirit. The spirit had a timer, and after the timer ended, the spirit would disappear. Therefore, before now he had got no other spirit except for the distorted little white chicken he refined. But today was the day.

The lion in the wasteland was a popular monster to tame for many summoners. It was also what Dying Star was currently using.

Although the production had been revamped after the big update, the lion could still be used as a foundation. As long as the material added was good enough, the spirit beast resulting from refinement shouldn’t be too bad.

The only issue was that killing a lion wasn’t easy. Most summoners would form a party for this. He really didn’t want to form a party with randoms. Fortunately, he prepared lots of potions. With his skill, he could chip down a mighty lion’s HP. 

When Qin Xiujie woke up and entered his room, he saw a lion roaring up to the sky and then dropping to the ground, dead. This was followed by his younger cousin opening the ‘summoned refinement’ window and placing the lion spirit in the array, along with several rare materials and clicking ‘confirm’. 

As the white light gradually dissipated, a valiant kind of beast appeared in the array’s centre. Its body was white, and its mane and four claws were faintly purple. the telltale sign of an electric type spirit beast. 

He smiled. “Oh, not bad.”

Yue Ran exclaimed with an “En” as he felt lighter throughout his body and soul. 

Sure enough, a new name meant a new start. He could finally get rid of that displeasing little white chicken.

Qin Xiujie asked, “Are you going to test it out?”

Yue Ran thought the same thing as he travelled to the nearest arena entrance and went in.

With few players online during this period. He waited half a minute before he was matched. He read the system message and was startled. “Star of Jupiter?” 

He knew who Star of Jupiter was.

In this year’s championship, Tempest returned as first with Star of Jupiter as second. This new god also played on the TSSM server, but this guy started the game after he deleted his account. They never had the chance to meet until today.

Qin Xiujie was also surprised. “The one and only?”

Yue Ran said, “Let me ask.” 

Before he could type in the arena’s all chat, he saw a new horn message.

[(Horn) Do Not Regret True Love: Oh my god! I discovered Star of Jupiter in the arena, and it only took him half a minute to kill me. If any spectator wants to join, come quick—!!!]

The whole server exploded immediately.

[(World) Return of Autumn: Huh???] 

[(World) Hit a Great Wall: It was Inked God yesterday, today it’s Star God. What’s going on with this new server that caused all of these great gods to join?

[(World) Carnation: Would this server become the second TSSM?]

[(World) Return of Autumn: Begging the first guy, are you telling the truth?]

[(World) Do Not Regret True Love: Yes, arena room 154. The match’s about to start, make haste!] 

All the players were very excited as the ones that wanted to spectate the great god’s match crashed into the arena room like a wave of the sea. 

Once they entered the room, they found that the opponent also had the same doubt.

[(All) A- – – – Killer: The one and only?]

[(All) Star of Jupiter: The one and only.] 

[(All) A- – – – Killer: Oh.]

[(All) Star of Jupiter: Are you going to surrender (smile)?]

[(All) A- – – – Killer: No.]

[(All) Star of Jupiter: (thumbs up)] 

The audience posted the same emoji as Star of Jupiter for the other’s courage, and then they began to discuss how long the opponent would last.

If anything else, this match shouldn’t last too long.

Both of them played summoner. One was an offensive subclass, and the other one was a support subclass. Such a boring match up.

A support summoner leaned toward the light path with their summoned spirit beasts in the light tone. While the attack summoner was completely the opposite. Their summoned spirit beasts walked in the dark style. 

As soon as they entered the stage, Star of Jupiter raised his hand and his Black Snake materialized. He planned to infect his foe with poison. Yue Ran was two steps ahead. Instead of hiding, he seized the time to close the gap.

Star of Jupiter chuckled.

At first, he thought the other summoner was skilful when his surrender suggestion was declined. He didn’t expect to be against a fledgling who used long-range support as a close combat melee to take the initiative to be hit by his serpent… 

As soon as that idea flashed, he saw his Black Snake tightly bound around his opponent.  

At the same time, A- – – – Killer also called out a spirit beast, which rushed toward him and froze him in an instant. 

Both sides exchanged skills using crowd control aids.

The difference was Ice Spirit only froze the target with close to zero damage. While the Black Snake bound its target and inflected poison. But…binding was a crowd control that only stopped a player from moving. It still allowed the player to use skills. Thus, the Black Snake’s animation was winding around its target’s legs, leaving the upper body free for skill casting animation. 

That was also the reason Yue Ran ran forward. He wanted to bring Star of Jupiter into his casting range. 

It was true that he could have chosen his Light Bird to counter the other party’s blind, but if he did that, Star of Jupiter would have released a higher attack beast. It was better to eat some DOT than permitting his foe to use his ability.

At the same time, he called forth three summoned spirit beasts, White Wolf, White Lion, and Furball. 

He quickly used that last beast to buff his other two aids. Once the two were buffed, he immediately controlled the White Wolf and the White Lion to the enemy. Under the two’s strongest attacks, Star of Jupiter lost nearly half of his HP.

Audience: “…” 

Holy fuck!

But that wasn’t the end of it. Furball’s buff was still active.

It had a very broken setting. It added a critical chance buff to players or summoned spirit beasts after the buffed units used an ability or an attack and successfully landed it. Furball could jump again, which doubled the original buff.

Yue Ran’s apm was very fast. 

With Furball’s five seconds of duration, he used the first second to buff his two aids, used the next two seconds to attack Star of Jupiter, then used the remaining two seconds to make Furball hop around the two spirit summoners again.

Although the two’s most powerful attacks were put under cooldown, the damage caused by a single simple skill was also considerable with it being a critical hit. So, under another explosive onslaught, his foe’s HP dropped again. The moment the freezing effect ended, the opponent’s HP bar was a little less than twenty percent left. 

Audience: “…”

Qin Xiujie: “…” 

In the blink of an eye, the great god was beaten to a cripple!

Yue Ran was very pleased with his performance. “It’s so easy to beat a glass cannon.”

Qin Xiujie: “…”

Aren’t you a glass cannon yourself?! 

Yue Ran didn’t know his cousin’s silent criticism as he concentrated on his screen and saw his foe summoned a defensive spirit beast, followed by three attacking aids in succession. He knew the other summoner planned to kill him as quickly as possible.

He calmly summoned his White Bear to tank the damage for himself, then with White Wolf and White Lion, he led them toward the other guy while carrying the bear on his shoulder. Relying on the huge HP advantage, they beat Star of Jupiter with brute force. 

Star of Jupiter had a lot of competition experience. He knew A- – – – Killer’s strategy the moment he was frozen in place.

Now with his low HP and seeing this bastard dashing over, his face sunk so much his chin could touch the ground. 

But there was no way out. The gap from the early stage was too wide. Besides A- – – – Killer’s tricky move, he could only hold on for another minute before losing. 

The spectators were silent.

Followed by the arena’s all chat exploding. All the messages were exclamation marks in a variety of quantities.

Holy shit! A great god of attack type summoner bit the dust by a random support summoner. This was a once in eight hundred years’ chance. What was this A- – – – Killer’s origin? 

Star of Jupiter almost broke his keyboard.

He took several deep breaths before swallowing his rage back and maintained his style.

[(All) Star of Jupiter: (thumbs up) Amazing, let’s find a new room for a match again?]

[(All) A- – – – Killer: No, maybe later. I need to go eat.] 

With that, Yue Ran left the arena stage and went offline.

Qin Xiujie went out with him to a restaurant. On their way to the restaurant, he examined his cousin walking in front of him.

Yue Ran looked back and gave him a puzzled expression.

Qin Xiujie patted his head with a smile. “I finally have a feeling of ‘your greatness as a great god’. Please carry your weak cousin.” 

“…” Yue Ran blankly smacked the hand away.

Meanwhile in the game, the ocean of the audience was still boiling.

At the end of the match, the spectators would automatically be kicked out of the room once both players left, so they switched to the world chat. A few smaller players tried to analyze the fight.

[(World) Do Not Regret True Love: Looks like Star God just brought the account. His equipment is garbage, and he didn’t have a sixth. A- – – – Killer used cosmetic equipment, so it’s hard to judge what kind of equipment he has. With the White Lion as sixth, he was clearly at an advantage.] 

[(World) The Past: Just let it go. Star of Jupiter didn’t expect to be hit with a freezing status effect, and even if the other guy didn’t have a sixth, Star God would have taken a large amount of damage.]

[(World) Dark Summoner: But if Star God’s equipment was slightly better, with additional defensive stats, not to mention a sixth, he might have been able to beat his foe in the later fight.]

[(World) The Past: I don’t believe it. In my opinion, A- – – – Killer is a pro who would never give Star of Jupiter a chance to turn the tables around.]

Both sides held on to their sides. After a long quarrel, none of them listened to the other’s argument. 

This was what Pure White Sun saw when he got online. He wanted to play his imposter role, then go get some food. Who knew the world chat was discussing something about Star God, so he posted a horn message.

[(Horn) Dying Star: ???]

[(World) Carnation: Good morning, Star God~]

[(World) Dying Star: Morning, what is everyone talking about? What happened to me?] 

[(World) The Past: (rofl) (rofl) (rofl) Not you, we’re talking about Star of Jupiter.]

[(World) Dark Summoner: Star of Jupiter Great God has also joined this server. He just finished an arena match and probably went afk to eat.]

Pure White Sun narrowed his eyes. That bastard really came.

This piece of shit had always wanted to step on Little Star. Since the day of ‘Return of Dying Star’, he had been eyeing the new server in secret. Last night, Inked Sun appeared out of nowhere, and the next morning, he didn’t have the patience to wait any longer and also joined the new server. 

Now Pure White Sun thought about it. That he and Sunken Moon fell to this point was all thanks to that dumbass Star of Jupiter.

Now that they reached this point, if he couldn’t beat Star of Jupiter to death, the suffering he experienced during this would all be in vain!

Pure White Sun cracked his knuckles and secretly thought about how to make that arrogant fool wish for death. At this time, he saw new messages posted on the world chat. Other players explained the fight to him.

[(Horn) Dying Star: ??? He lost to a support?] 

[(World) Return of Autumn: Yes, he was like nothing but rubble on the ground.]

[(World) Do Not Regret True Love: Objectively speaking, he underestimated his enemy and suffered a lot from differences in equipment and number of available summoned spirit spirits.]

[(World) Dying Star: Did anyone record the fight?]

[(World) Do Not Regret True Love: No. Everything happened too fast…] 

[(World) Hit a Great Wall: We thought it was going to be a boring match up…]

It didn’t matter if there was no video. Pure White Sun just wanted to enjoy the image of Star of Jupiter’s face and smacked the table in joy

He quickly asked for the support’s character ID. Once he learned the summoner’s name was ‘A- – – – Killer’, he searched for the name and sent a friend request. He took out his phone and called Sunken Moon.

Sunken Moon was still sleepy. He answered in a daze, “This better be important.” 

Pure White Sun shared, “A new and powerful support summoner has appeared on the new server. He even beat Star of Jupiter black and blue.”

It took Sunken Moon a few seconds to reflect on the news, then gradually sort through the amount of information, and finally wake up. “Star of Jupiter is at the new server? Is that new summoner Little Star?”

Pure White Sun responded, “I don’t know. He’s not online right now, I just heard it from word of mouth.”

It didn’t matter if the support summoner was Little Star or not, he smacked the shit out of Star of Jupiter. From now on, they would be best buddies! 

Yue Ran was completely unaware of the things happening in the game.

After breakfast, he and his cousin strolled around the community and went to purchase a watermelon. Then they returned home and went online—to find several pending friend requests waiting for him, and one of the character IDs was very eye-catching: ‘Dying Star’.

He blurted, “The imposter sent me a friend request.”

Qin Xiujie logged on to his alt account and proposed, “Accept it, and see what he wants.” 

Yue Ran clicked ‘Accept’, and the next moment, a new message arrived from the other party.

[(Private) Dying Star: Hello.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Hello great god, something you need?]

[(Private) Dying Star: I heard you beat Star of Jupiter. Care to do an arena with me?] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: No, it was all luck.]

[(Private) Dying Star: Then are you busy? Let’s do an instance dungeon?]

Yue Ran followed his cousin’s instructions and said yes to the first question and to decline the invitation. But suggested doing it at another time. Once they agreed on a new time, in the corner of his eye, he watched his cousin chatting with Dying Star. He moved his character to the lake and set up auto fishing, then he pulled his chair to sit beside his cousin and watched them running a dungeon.

Yue Shizhong happened to knock on the door and enter with a plate of watermelon slices. He saw them sitting in front of Qin Xiujie’s laptop. 

He placed the plate on the table and glanced at the screen curiously. He thought that whatever was happening on the screen that captured Ran Ran’s attention must be the legendary raid boss he heard so much about. But it turned out to be just a private message window.

Qin Xiujie typed so quickly that the sound of keyboard clicking was like a drum beating. 

[(Private) Wailing Wall: I’m so excited that I can run an instance dungeon with the Great Dying Star!]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: I can’t stop my tears from flowing. I had to pinch myself to confirm this wasn’t a dream.] 

[(Private) Wailing Wall: For this moment, I’m willing to wait for you for another three years. No! Ten years even!]

“…” Yue Shizhong silently glanced at his nephew’s face, quietly turned around and closed the door.

He went back to his study and studied the game icon on his desktop. He lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

Hero’s Bound, he didn’t completely understand this game. 

Who would play and change their personality so much that even his family members didn’t dare to recognize them?

But even if he didn’t understand, he still needed to play.

Once he was in the game, he clicked his friend list to find his friend request was still in limbo. He couldn’t resist the urge to send a new friend request, but the system promptly returned a message: [The player ‘Vault of Heaven Essence<’ does not exist.]

Yue Shizhong: “???” 

Translator has something to add:

Teo: Please enjoy the uncut VIP chapter that I promised ages ago for the ko-fi.

Just an update to my life. I recently got a new job that will start next week (10/18/21). What does this mean for the readers? Hopefully nothing, one thing that I can think of is less side project like TRF between my translations because this job has higher pay and I don’t think I can sneak translating at work hour like my last job.

But you never know, this insane translator does have four on-going project being release atm  Also totally didn’t plan the double chapter 24 releases today for both MP and TRF.