Mutated Pheromones

Editor: DarkSapphire, Sahloknir

Qin Xiujie’s speed was like a breeze. He said farewell to his teacher, logged off, and relogged to his main account, all within one breath. 

After he was done, he slipped back beside his cousin and put back on the earphone as if nothing had happened. He continued watching the show on his cousin’s screen with a smile.

Yue Ran: “…”

In the game, Pure White Sun, who left the arena just a moment ago, had returned.

His voice appeared in the earphone at the same time. “He’s offline. We can try again once he’s back online.” 

Yue Ran quietly glanced at his older cousin.

Qin Xiujie faced his glance with a grin and stopped bothering his cousin and the old buddies as he moved back to his seat to express sympathy to his guildmates. What welcomed him was a strong dose of expectation from his fellow officer…

[(Private) Ashen Inner Thoughts: How was it? Did you persuade sister-in-law?]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: He isn’t coming back.]

[(Private) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Then what should we do now? Don’t you know Jiang Xiao has been idling by the river? Any longer and he’ll become the next Amah Rock, the stone gazing out for his wife.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: (rofl)]

[(Private) Ashen Inner Thoughts: Stop laughing, I’m being serious.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: I just chatted with him on WeChat. He’s okay. Don’t worry about him.] 

Ashen Inner Thoughts knew the other was known to have a bag full of evil tricks, but when it came to official guild business, Qin Xiujie was very reliable.

So when they entered the guild’s YY server, Ashen Inner Thoughts didn’t bring up Jiang Xiao’s feelings anymore. Instead, he switched the issue on hand. “Jiang Xiao is not in the right state for me to ask for more details. How much do you know about the fake couple? Why did the three gods suddenly stand on our side? Who called for them?”

Qin Xiujie thought the last question’s answer was obvious.

Only the three of them knew about the scheme in advance. Since it wasn’t him or his cousin, with the process of elimination… 

[(Private) Attired Guqin: It should be Jiang Xiao who called for them.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: He mentioned he had an account on the old server. Maybe they are acquaintances.]

Ashen Inner Thoughts repeated his first question. “How about the fake couple?”

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Confidential information (smile).] 

Ashen Inner Thoughts was dumbfounded. “Why aren’t you using your mic?”

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Not convenient for the moment.]

After Qin Xiujie pressed enter, he carried on with chit-chatting and began to do daily quests.

Sunken Moon and Pure White Sun were taking turns to apologise to Yue Ran, and the latter even wanted to go so far as to expose himself on his Weibo, letting his fans force him to stream him shit himself while doing a handstand. In short, they would do anything to calm Yue Ran’s anger. 

Yue Ran pondered for a bit. “Then you should continue playing Dying Star.”

Pure White Sun immediately displaced his misery. “Could I have a different punishment? I’m going to vomit if I play support for any longer.”

Yue Ran uttered one word, “Huh?”

“…” Uegf Qtlaf Vec rkfjafv. “Qtja P wfjc lr rewwbcfg lr abb vloolmeia ab qijs. Zs ibk PH mbeivc’a tjcvif atf glvf. Dfra obg sbe ab gfmijlw atf cjwf.” 

Vecxfc Zbbc atbeuta vffqis. “Olaaif Vajg, sbe vbc’a kjca ab mbwf yjmx?”

Tef Ejc jcrkfgfv, “Jbwf yjmx pera obg ktja?”

He didn’t like to bring up his Dying Star identity because he didn’t want to hear players asking him about his rare summoned spirit beast. Not only would it poke his wound, but also remind him how dumb he was.

In this return, he didn’t plan to re-use Dying Star’s name. If it wasn’t for someone impersonating him, he wouldn’t even tell his cousin. 

Anxiety crept up Pure White Sun’s spine. “Since you’re back, let’s play together again! There have been many updates in your three-year absence. I’ll share with you all the interesting ones.”

Yue Ran replied, “I can still play now.”

Pure White Sun was startled slightly and understood right away.

While Sunken Moon was expecting this from the very beginning. After actually hearing it, he said, “How about this. A-Bai here will play Dying Star for a while, and then let’s clarify on Weibo…Little Star, are you sure you don’t want this ID anymore?” 

Yue Ran informed, “Not unless I can refine another rare beast.”

Sunken Moon hummed, “I’ll take that into consideration. Anyway, I shouldn’t let others place their suspicions on you, right?”

Yue Ran said, “Yes.”

Sunken Moon had no problem with his decision. 

As long as the person was back, regardless of which character ID he returned with it didn’t really matter.

“What a minute,” Pure White Sun couldn’t resist his urge to interrupt. “We still have Star of Jupiter to worry about.”

Sunken Moon let out a gentle breath. “Ah, I almost forgot him. A-Bai, draw his attention.”

Pure White Sun cried, “I’m like the worst support in history, I can’t beat him.” 

Sunken Moon comforted, “I’ll figure out a way.”

Pure White Sun felt more at ease as he reminded his old friend before he forgot, “Little Star, you need to make mental preparation in the next few days. Once Star of Jupiter refines his sixth, I bet the first thing he’ll do is come knocking on your door.”

Yue Ran asked, “All because I beat him?”

“Yes, he is a despicable person,” Pure White Sun spat. “Before he was popular, he would beg us daily for arena duos to increase the number of his viewers on his livestream. Now that he is popular, he feels that the Star in TSSM belongs to him, and now he should be the Star God. The reason we came looking for you was that I heard him saying you only got the title because of your early advantage.” 

Yue Ran blinked slowly. “That’s why he came to the new server?”

“That’s right. He came chasing after this account’s name and wanted to publicly shame me,” Pure White Sun said with a wide smile from his enemy’s misfortune. “But who would have thought he would bump into you on the very first day. That man got what he deserved!”

Yue Ran quieted down, but not from anger.

According to his original temperament, he would most likely fight anyone who provoked him to death, until they knew who their new father was. But he was a little more mature, and he agreed with Star of Jupiter. 

He really got one of the great god’s spots because he started the game earlier.

Dying Star had a rare summoned spirit beast. This was true for Star of Jupiter as well. But the offensive summoner had more on his belt, like winning second place in a competition, and his higher popularity. Plus, he had fans on the new server too. The rest of the servers don’t know who Dying Star was, since he basically didn’t have real fans, and he didn’t know how many true fans he had on the new server. It was natural that Star of Jupiter would hate a phantom to threaten his popularity.

But he felt indifferent toward this. With Pure White Sun’s straightforward temper, the monk most likely didn’t want other people to badmouth him.

He looked at the two gods on his screen and was too lazy to continue on this topic. “That’s enough for today. I’m leaving.” 

Pure White Sun babbled, “Where are you going? Let’s do an instance dungeon together, no, arena!”

Yue Ran answered, “No. Stay away from me for a few days. Don’t bother me.”

Pure White Sun watched the little summoner disappear after his last sentence, and asked, “Do you think he calmed down?”

“Not sure,” Sunken Moon smiled. “He never had a good temper, but he doesn’t hold it for long. It should go away in a few days.” 

Pure White Sun offhandedly said, “En.” He let out a breath like a heavy burden was lifted from his shoulders. “I almost made it! But cut me some slack, how long do I have to play support?”

Sunken Moon laughed. “You should deal with your diehard fan first.”

Pure White Sun accepted the logic and began to discuss with his friend how to test the fan.

Yue Ran was considering the same thing. 

When he exited out of the arena room, he found a random place to afk. He removed his earphone and turned to his cousin. “Are you not going to tell Pure White Sun the truth?”

Qin Xiujie didn’t answer the rhetorical question. “You don’t want them to clarify this matter now?”

Yue Ran nodded.

He just defeated Star of Jupiter and completed a dungeon with Sunken Moon. If they come clean now, any fool could deduce that he was the real deal. 

Qin Xiujie came to the same conclusion. He smiled. “I estimate White Pure Sun would need to play pretend for another half a month.”

Yue Ran said, “So?”

Qin Xiujie confessed, “I found offensive summoner quite fun to play.”

Yue Ran quietly stared at him, expression full of doubt.  

Qin Xiujie added, smiling, “I watched all the competition videos.”

Yue Ran was more sceptical. “Can you at least tell me if you’re his fan or not?”

Qin Xiujie shared, “No.”

He watched it for the gameplay, not for the player. 

It was only a competitive channel, after all, most of the viewers watched for personal inclination. Both Tempest and Pure White Sun are his favourite great gods. These two had the biggest fan bases and the most mysterious. It was not today that he learned Pure White Sun’s had this temperament. 

He chuckled. “I wanted to study under the Sun God to learn attack type summoner. Once they post their explanation, I’ll reveal my relationship with you, which could be regarded as a punishment for him to pretend to be you. You can settle the accounts with Sunken Moon yourself, I don’t care.”

Yue Ran questioned, “Really?”

Qin Xiujie kept smiling and stayed silent. 

Fake of course.

Pure White Sun’s attitude toward his ‘friend’s cousin’ would be totally different from ‘fans’. These days, Sun God wanted to care for his lost friend’s fans. Treating the fans extremely well, as if they were his parents. This feeling was too fresh and addicting, so much so he wanted to continue for a few more days.

Yue Ran saw the answer from his cousin’s expression.

If his cousin said he liked to mess with people, it was always harmless. Being too lazy to probe further, he was ready to play with his new friends. 

Qin Xiujie brought up, “Oh, that’s right. A few days ago, when the great gods came to our rescue…What is their relationship with Jiang Xiao?”

Yue Ran pondered. “Well, that Inked God came looking for him earlier, saying they were friends.”

Internally, Qin Xiujie said ‘of course’. Otherwise, why would Inked God come to the new server suddenly.

Yue Ran asked, “You didn’t know?” 

Qin Xiujie sighed. “He only told us he used to play on the old server and nothing else. I didn’t want to ask if he doesn’t want to talk about it.”

Yue Ran made a noise and all he could think about was who else didn’t have a history.

With their conversation over, Yue Ran opened his guild chat, but a notification stopped him. It was a private message from Jiang Xiao, his main account.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Sunset City (56,72). Come meet me. I’ve something for you.] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I can’t meet you.]

[(Private) Formless Slash: There’s no one here.]

Yue Ran naturally believed him and went to that location without worry.

When he arrived at the destination, it was the most remote area in the city, and it wasn’t inside a house. Instead, he had to go around the back, step on the debris crumbled wall to jump on the roof. 

Sitting on the shady side of the roof, behind them was the whole city and before them was the towering Green Mountain. There was really not a single shadow in sight.

His senior was quite assuring and gave him a quiet look.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: How did you find this place?]

[(Private) Formless Slash: I came to this city for something and wanted to give you something. So I went around the city.] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Oh, give me what?

Yue Ran accepted Jiang Xiao’s trade and saw several high-level materials plus three spirits placed on the trade window. 

He was startled, and only wanted to accept the spirits.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I can’t ask for the materials.] 

[(Private) Formless Slash: These are excess.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: You can’t say that about these high-grade materials. I’ve already refined a new sixth and don’t need materials for the time being. Just keep them.]

Jiang Xiao saw the little summoner’s stubbornness and could only remove the materials.

However, a new problem arose. Because the spirits Jiang Xiao gave him were all low-level ones that could only be obtained from the open egg. Logically, it is impossible for a swordsman to get them. 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Did you buy these?]

[(Private) Formless Slash: When I passed the stalls, I saw someone selling it, so I bought it.”

These kinds of prizes given by the system were a waste of the stall’s space because of its dirt-cheap price. So Yue Ran didn’t have to act modestly as he gave a simple thanks and opened the ‘summoned refinement’ window. He fed the three spirits to the little white chicken.

The chicken he had fed several times was already round and fat. 

The moment the white light ended, and the three spirits entered the chicken’s stomach. It had a new visual change—a single-long feather grew on top of its head like an exaggerated cowlick.

Yue Ran: “…”

Jiang Xiao: “…”