Mutated Pheromones

Editor: DarkSapphire, Sahloknir

Today was Monday. 

As a new week started the fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five member instance dungeons’ timers finally refreshed. The party’s agenda for today was the twenty man dungeon. Yue Ran didn’t know anyone except for his cousin, Sunken Moon and the fake Dying Star.

They were still waiting on people, so while waiting, Yue Ran joined the YY voice room link sent by Sunken Moon.

Sunken Moon had been waiting in the room dedicated to instance dungeons. Once he saw Yue Ran join the server, he moved the little summoner to his room and asked with a smile, “Can you hear me?”

Yue Ran turned on his mic and replied, “Yes.” 

Sunken Moon started his questionnaire. “How long have you been playing the game?”

Yue Ran said, “Pretty long.”

Sunken Moon tried to figure out if this person was Little Star through voice, to no avail. 

After all, the last time he heard his friend’s voice was three years ago. Not to mention the voice change from puberty. If this really was Dying Star, he probably couldn’t distinguish using voice anyway. 

He praised, “I heard of your talent. Would you like to join me for some arena matches later?”

Yue Ran was undecided, “We’ll see.”

This brief response touched Sunken Moon’s heart. The simple and mysterious speech style was very similar to Little Star.

As he was about to continue the conversation, he saw an inflow of party members joining the room and greeting him one after another. Their chat would need to wait. 

Using this advantage to mute his mic, Yue Ran glanced at his cousin. “Why do you insist on me doing an instance dungeon with them?”

“He pestered you for like half a day after just one fake move. This time you beat Star of Jupiter. Of course he is going to knock on your door. If you ignore him, he’ll just continue to pester you.” Qin Xiujie explained. “You see, this doesn’t fit my first theory.”

Yue Ran was puzzled. “So?”

Qin Xiujie continued, “Similar to the situation last time. In fact, they just have to wait for the real Dying Star to appear and then destroy them. They don’t need to contact every possible player every time because it’s a very inefficient method.” 

Yue Ran asked, “Is that what you mean by strange?”

“Not only that,” said Qin Xiujie. “I’ve been in contact with the imposter Dying Star a lot recently. I also mentioned forming a fan club, but he brushed it off.”

He faced his younger cousin. “Typically, pretending to be Dying Star is either for brand or for profit. Let’s talk about branding, he’s already popular, but so far, he refused to create a fan club. As for profit, there’s only livestream. If he streams every time Sunken Moon invites him to an arena or instance dungeon, he would attract traffic. I asked, it seems he didn’t plan to go down that career path. I also found out that he has never turned on his mic since his return.”

Yue Ran questioned, “Then what’s his plan?” 

Qin Xiujie recalled, “Well…just going online daily, drawing attention using horns and doing his utmost to train me. Just like…”

In the middle of his sentence, Sunken Moon’s voice came out of their headphones because everyone had arrived and they were about to start the dungeon.

The two followed their party and entered the dungeon. They performed according to the shotcalling, as they progressed breezily, they came to the first more difficult room.

As a long-distance summoner, Yue Ran didn’t rush forward. 

Then he displayed his insane APM to fully buff a few members and called out his White Lion at the same time to fight along the frontliners. During this time, he was even directing some of his attention to the prior topic. “Like what?”

Qin Xiujie smiled and concluded softly, “It’s like taking care of an orphan.”

His cousin’s voice was covered by the loud game sound effects, so Yue Ran didn’t hear it clearly. “What?”

Qin Xiujie waved his hand to gesture ‘talk later’.  

Yue Ran could only fully focus on the game and began to play seriously, not holding anything back.

After a few rounds of small monsters, they quickly reached the mini boss.

To defeat this mini boss, skilful support was required. Having the Great God Dying Star on their team, every member was composed.

Dea rbbc, atflg jaafcalbc kjr vlgfmafv jkjs ogbw Gslcu Vajg. 

Dfmjerf atf Xgfja Gslcu Vajg’r qfgobgwjcmf kjr nfgs jnfgjuf, ktlif atf qfmeiljg C- – – – Bliifg kjr nfgs rtjgq. Lf qgfaas wemt mjgglfv atf ktbif qjgas.

Ktfs tjv tfjgv jybea Vajg bo Aeqlafg’r yibbvs jgfcj vfofja bc tlr olgra vjs bc atf cfk rfgnfg. Vb atfs jrrewfv Zbbc Xbv jcv Vajg Xbv kfgf qgbylcu atlr reqqbga bea. Aevulcu ogbw atf ilaaif rewwbcfg’r rxliir, tf kjr gfjiis jc fzqfga.

They all hoped the summoner would join their guild, so they started complimenting him immediately.

“Holy cow, that A-person is super strong!”  

“Yeah, A is awesome!”

“…” Yue Ran clarified, “My name is A- – – – Killer.”

The member said, “It’s all the same.”

Yue Ran countered, “It’s not the same.” 

The members would naturally stop arguing with him, and they changed their tune in succession. There were even members begging for an arena duo. 

Yue Ran gave several simple replies as he listened attentively to Sunken Moon’s command and pushed through the mini boss.

Sunken Moon, as the shotcaller, was quiet for a few seconds before he chuckled lightly. “C’mon, let’s continue.”

Qin Xiujie narrowed his eyes and opened his and Dying Star’s private chat. 

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Great Dying Star, are you guys testing that support out?]

[(Private) Dying Star: Yes.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: I think he’s pretty powerful.]

[(Private) Dying Star: Indeed, I say he’s a master.] 

[(Private) Wailing Wall: But his level shouldn’t be as high as you.]

[(Private) Dying Star: No, he’s probably better than me.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: (shock)]

Qin Xiujie closed the private chat window when the party encountered other small mobs and easily cleaned them up. 

After defeating the first mini boss, support wasn’t as critical on the rest of the mini boss and final boss. Listening to his cousin, Yue Ran fought as usual and effortlessly completed the dungeon.

The members chorused, “Moon God, let’s also do the twenty-five man instance dungeon?”

Sunken Moon turned the offer down, “Tomorrow, I’ve something I need to do today.”

They glanced at a certain support and tacitly replied, “Okay” and left the room. 

Soon, there were only four people remaining in the room. Seeing a new private message from Dying Star on continuing their training, Qin Xiujie followed the imposter, leaving only two people in the original dungeon chat. He said to his cousin, “What did he say?”

Yue Ran answered, “Arena match.”

Qin Xiujie decided, “Accept it.”

Yue Ran reminded, “We challenged each other all the time in the past. If I do battle him, he’ll surely recognize me.” 

Qin Xiujie shared, “I asked Dying Star about his opinion on your strength. He said that you might be better than him. I’m a fan he wanted to rope in, as a fake. He shouldn’t have praised a person who might be the real one in front of me, logically speaking”

He showed an enigmatic smile. “I’ve got an idea. Do you want to hear it?”

Yue Ran replied, “What?”

Qin Xiujie watched his reaction. “Maybe, Sunken Moon molded a fake Dyning Star to force you out. He should be familiar with your temper. If I hadn’t stopped you at the beginning, you would have approached the imposter already.” 

Yue Ran: “…”

He stared at his older cousin with a deadpan expression.

Qin Xiujie confronted his cousin’s expressionless look and patted the soft head with a smile.

Yue Ran turned back to his screen and agreed with Sunken Moon’s proposal. 

They left the YY voice channel and created a room in the in-game arena. As soon as the countdown reached zero, Yue Ran rushed forward and saw that Sunken Moon was doing the same. He summoned his White Lion, then quickly followed by Ice Spirit the moment the White Lion took a leap toward his target. Both of his spirit animals charged toward Moon God.

When Sunken Moon saw the incoming White Lion, he noticed the Ice Spirit’s shadow and his heart jumped like that lion. Without a second thought, he buffed himself, yet, it was unneeded as the Ice Spirit didn’t activate its skill. The Ice Spirit was skating around him as if it was mocking that it wasn’t at fault for wasting his cleansing skill.

He made a quick decision to kill that smug spirit.

But the other side already predicted this, as almost in the moment he moved, the summoner withdrew the Ice Spirit. Not only that, the White Lion was commanded back to prevent him from damaging it. The summoner’s goal was obviously for his cleanse buff to run out.  

Naturally, he wouldn’t sit around and wait to die. He made his character scurry toward the support.

The next moment, before he could land an attack, the summoner waved his staff and called out his White Bear. The new spirit beast rested on its owner’s shoulder, as the two blocked the Ice Spirit’s view from their enemy as if saying: Didn’t you want to attack? Well, go ahead! Hit the bear.

Sunken Moon smiled helplessly. The cleansing effect was wearing off, and he knew it was a matter of time before he would be hit with a freeze. Instead of dodging, he cast himself a healing-over-time-spell.

That skill annoyed Yue Ran the most. After he froze the healer, he went with the same method he used to deal with Star of Jupiter and beat the ice statue to death. 

After a few seconds, the freezing effect ended, but Sunken Moon made no movement.

After throwing two more attacks, Yue Ran also stopped when he saw that his opponent didn’t heal himself.

[(All) A- – – – Killer: DC?]

[(All) Sunken Moon: I just wanted to give you more chances to vent your anger on me.] 

[(All) A- – – – Killer: Moon God really knows how to joke.]

Fearing he made the summoner mad, Sunken Moon instantly ended the match and spoke using the arena’s voice chat, “Wait, don’t go. Let me explain myself.”

Yue Ran enabled arena voice chat. “Explain what?”

Sunken Moon said, “Explain the fake Dying Star.” 

Yue Ran responded with the right amount of doubt. “Huh? Dying Star is fake?”

The healer was silent for a second and confirmed solemnly, “That’s right. He is not the real Dying Star. Which reminds me, I need to have him change his name to ‘Mr. Cool…”

Yue Ran rebuked, “Shut the fuck up!”

Sunken Moon burst out laughing. “Are we finally going to stop playing pretend?” 

Qin Xiujie had long been sitting beside Yue Ran.

Because his teacher didn’t have the heart to teach, and he also wasn’t in the mood to train, he gave a casual excuse to end their training session. Now he stole one of his cousin’s ear earbuds to listen to their conversation. He quickly turned to his cousin, trying to figure out why his reaction was this extreme.

Yue Ran refused to meet his eyes.

How could he tell his older cousin that ‘Dying Star’ and ‘Sunken Moon’, very matching character IDs, had actually come up by them by accident. He didn’t know how Sunken Moon came up with his name, but for Yue Ran, it was during his second year syndrome…He didn’t want to talk about it. 

In the voice room, Sunken Moon opened his mouth again.

“I know you’re angry, but please listen first. I wanted to use a fake Dying Star to find you. Now that you’re back, I’ll make an announcement on Weibo to clarify this misunderstanding. I’ll reveal to everyone that Dying Star from before is not real, we’ll delete the account as well.”

Yue Ran humphed, “You can play however you like. It has nothing to do with me.”

Sunken Moon thought the summoner was throwing a fit inside, so he made his attitude more sincere. “Don’t be like that. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad.” 

Yue Ran ignored him.

The healer waited, but hearing nothing, he asked, “Let me call the imposter over so you can see for yourself.”

Yue Ran argued, “What is there for me to see?”

Sunken Moon chuckled, “C’mon, if you’re still angry, you can take your anger out on us.” 

As he said that, he contacted the pretender. A bit later, the number of people in the room was increased by one.

The moment Pure White Sun entered the room, he turned on his mic and said in an excited and trembling voice, “Buddy, you’re finally back!”

Yue Ran snapped, “Who are you calling buddy?”

Pure White Sun introduced, “I’m Pure White Sun.” 

Yue Ran: “…”

Qin Xiujie: “…”

“Did he explain everything to you? Our main goal was to look for you. Do you know how many horns I used? Or how many friends I have added?” Pure White Sun lamented. After he cried his heart out, he realized they were going off tangent and quickly returned to the topic at hand. “But I’m willing to go through any hardship to have you back. Don’t worry, I didn’t cause a scene or cuss at any fan during this time…”

“Wait,” Yue Ran finally collected his thoughts. He attempted to speak in an indifferent tone, “You two great gods. If you want to look for someone, can’t you just post it on one of your Weibos?” 

“It didn’t work.” Sunken Moon said with a wry smile.

Pure White Sun quickly filled in the blank. “Do you not know the degree fans would go to? That year, Sunken Moon sent only one short, nostalgic post about you, and a fan immediately knocked on our door pretending to be you.”

Yue Ran questioned, “And you two believed him?”

Pure White Sun sighed, “That fan’s older brother is a veteran player in TSSM, he knew about you. They used memory loss to justify the missing information. He said he only remembered bits and pieces. It was a school holiday during that time, and he told us he was in first year of senior high school. He even provided us with a medical record of his traffic accident. Do you know how similar his acting was?” 

Yue Ran wondered curiously, “…And then?”

“Sunken Moon was sceptical, but he continued to act with the flamboyant fan and tried to look for a week’s worth of memory. In the beginning, we almost died laughing…” Pure White Sun suddenly laughed out loud. Then, when his voice stopped, he went silent as if he died on the spot.

Sunken Moon checked, “What’s wrong?”

Pure White Sun uttered, “Hey…do you think what I’m doing now is as fucking stupid as what that fan did before?” 

Sunken Moon pondered over the hardcore fan who had been waiting for that moment for three years, and comforted his friend, “Not sure.”

Yue Ran: “…”

Qin Xiujie: “…”

Foul language came out of Pure White Sun’s mouth. “Little Star, you keep chatting. I’ll go get that fan.” 

Yue Ran inquired, “Your fan?”

Pure White Sun instantly clarified, “No, your fan. Don’t worry my friend. If he falsely pretended to be your fan to get close to us, I’m going to straighten him up.”

Yue Ran: “…”

Qin Xiujie: “…” 

Translator has something to add:

Teo: Urmulus, thank you so much for the ko-fi!

Just to clarify, Yue Ran and Pure White Sun are not related by blood. In Chinese Culture, brother (plus sister) could be used in many settings and the usage is very versatile.

I’ll be adopting the translation rule I set for myself on another project: Family members will be in English, referring to an unrelated party will be in pinyin (or translated into something more appropriate like Mrs or Mr). So Yue Ran will call Qin Xiujie ‘older cousin’, but call Jiang Xiao ‘gege’ or older brother. 

My reasoning is that the ones appearing in novels are commonly gege (older brother), jiejie (older sister), shushu (uncle), etc. My assumptions are that the readers are familiar with them. But it gets more complicated when addressing more branch out family members, like I can’t expect the readers to remember biao ge is older male cousin from the mother’s side, tang ge is older older male cousin from the father’s side, etc. And if the word is used once in a while, it means there would need to be a translator’s note whenever it appeared in a chapter. I mean I could translate biao ge/ tang ge to older cousins but that would create inconsistency where I would only be doing pinyin to a selective few addressing and that’s a kick to my OCD. Does that make sense?

I’m also interested in what the readers have to say about this. I only recently adopted this to my projects, so not all of my projects follow this rule. TRF somewhat following but I do break it during some instances where I used Mother Lin instead of Ms. Lin, definitely not ICU since that one is older…I’m everywhere on this