Mutated Pheromones

Editor: DarkSapphire, Sahloknir

Yue Shizhong used the desktop computer in his study. 

So Yue Ran had to carry his laptop over. He pulled a chair and sat next to his father, watching his father log on to the game with an indescribable feeling. “Dad, why do you suddenly want to play this?”

Yue Shizhong said, “I was curious why you play this every day. I have time to kill anyway.”

Yue Ran asked, “Why didn’t you tell me this when you first started?”

“…” Shizhong confessed seriously, “I wanted to become a powerful player before coming to you. So when you are in danger, I can rush to protect you in a surprise. Later, I found that this game was much more difficult to play than I expected.” 

Yue Ran did his best to maintain his straight face. He didn’t know what impolite word he should use.

Skipping that topic and pretending he didn’t hear that, he looked at his father’s job class and instructed, “Swordsman is a good class, let me see your character stats.”

Yue Shizhong opened his character info page and said, “I added my stats according to that elite player called Tempest, but I always die fighting.”

Yue Ran patiently reasoned with his father, “Tempest has fast hand speed and good awareness. Many attacks could be easily avoided by moving your character, so he can afford to add all his stats to attack and agility. It’s better for you to add some defense or life with your low equipment, and if you can’t dodge as well. Once you’re more proficient at the game, you can change your stats slowly.”

Yue Shizhong listened attentively and nodded, thinking that his son’s wholehearted teaching was adorable. “Could you change it for me?”

Yue Ran hummed, “Let’s ask cousin first. He plays a swordsman.”

Yue Shizhong quickly requested, “Don’t tell him it’s me.”

Yue Ran raised his head in confusion. “Why?” 

Yue Shizhong insisted, “I want to remain anonymous and surprise him later.”

He didn’t want to make a fool out of himself in front of his family with his horrible technique. It was fine in front of his son, not so much in front of his nephew. He had to maintain his dignity as an elder.

He added, “Don’t tell your friends either, or they’ll make fun of you for playing games with your Dad.”

Yue Ran reassured, “They don’t do that.” 

Yue Shizhong quickly rephrased his words, “To prevent them from acting more restrictedly because there is a parent present, just introduce me as your friend.”

Fine.

Yue Ran had nothing to refute. As he typed two words on WeChat, he suddenly remembered that his cousin should be driving, so he contacted Jiang Xiao instead. His senior played both swordsmen subclasses and was probably more knowledgeable than his cousin.

The fact was proven that asking Jiang Xiao was better, as he quickly provided two sets of guides for novices that were simple and accurately analyzed. 

[Yue Ran: Thank you.]

[Jiang Xiao: Thinking of playing long blade?]

[Yue Ran: No, a friend of mine is playing. I am asking for him.]

[Jiang Xiao: I see, are you back home?] 

[Yue Ran: Yeah, been home for a while. How about you?]

[Jiang Xiao: Almost at the airport.]

[Yue Ran: Godspeed.]

[Jiang Xiao: Thanks.] 

Yue Ran locked his phone and put it on the table. He redid his father’s stats and looked at the miserable equipment. “Have you done instance dungeons yet?”

“Yes.” When this was brought up, Yue Shizhong had to mention his doubtful experience. “I don’t know why, but I always get removed from the party mid-way.”

Tef Ejc: “…”

Llr ojatfg wera yf yfsbcv yjv lo batfg qijsfgr mbeivc’a yfjg tjnlcu tlw lc atf qjgas veglcu atf vecufbc. 

Tef Vtlhtbcu ibbxfv ja tlr rbc klat jc lccbmfca fzqgfrrlbc. 

Tef Ejc rtbbx tlr tfjv mjiwis, rtbklcu atja tf vlvc’a xcbk jr kfii. Lf ujnf tlr ojatfg j ilcx ab j TT rfgnfg jcv abiv tlw ab fcafg atf nblmf mtja ab ilrafc ab tlr mbwwjcvr. Ktfc tf mjgglfv tlr biv wjc atgbeut rfnfgji ibk-ifnfi, olnf wfwyfg lcrajcmf vecufbcr.

Yue Shizhong watched his rising experience bar and the two characters standing side by side on his monitor. He suddenly regained the feeling of playing kick ball with a five to six year old Ran Ran. For a moment, he was so moved that he praised, “Ran Ran is really amazing.”

Yue Ran smiled. “Wait until you’re more familiar with the game mechanics, you’ll be just as amazing.” 

Yue Shizhong asked, “Like Tempest?”

Highly unlikely.

Yue Ran hid his opinion. “Maybe.”

After a pause, he curiously brought up, “How do you know about Tempest?” 

Yue Shizhong recalled, “I’ve seen several videos. Besides him, I also know another player called Sunken Moon who is also very powerful.”

Yue Ran was more curious. “Then do you know about Dying Star?”

Yue Shizhong replied, “Yes, I’ve seen his horn messages.”

There were too many players in the game. These days, he could only keep track of six character IDs: Ran Ran’s A- – – – Killer, Qin Xiujie’s Wailing Wall, Smashing Vault of Heaven, Sunken Moon, Dying Star, and Star of Jupiter who requested Ran Ran for a rematch today. 

He remembered Dying Star because he knew Sunken Moon was playing on his side account in the new server, and Dying Star was Sunken Moon’s friend, who appeared to be very popular. So he paid attention a bit.

He asked, “Is he a master as well?”

Yue Ran held his expression steady and suggested reservedly, “You can check his past videos. He played a support summoner.”

Yue Shizhong turned down, “That’s fine. What I play is swordsman, it’s better for me to watch Tempest.” 

Yue Ran uttered, “…Oh.”

He suppressed the subtle feeling of ‘he is not one of the great gods that his father admired’, and took his father to do a bunch of quests that he could complete with his eyes closed. Soon, his father was level twelve. 

Yue Shizhong was thrilled. This was his first experience being shielded by his son. It was a refreshing and very emotional experience.

However, he knew that young people have their own social circle. After adding his son as a friend, he said, “You can go back and play with your friends. I’ll practice by myself, we can play more tomorrow.” 

Yue Ran reassured, “No worries, I’m not busy anyway.”

Such a good boy that everyone desired to cherish.

Yue Shizhong kindly patted his son’s head. “No, it’s fine. I plan to study some videos first.”

“Oh right, what’s going on with you and Star of Jupiter?” He remembered the argument today and had to ask. “I saw his message today asking for a challenge. It’s nothing malicious, right?” 

Yue Ran didn’t want to worry his father as he gave the simple version, “No, just fighting for fun.”

Yue Shizhong inquired, “Is he good?”

“Yes,” Yue Ran admitted. “He was the runner-up in this year’s tournament.”

Seeing the puzzled expression on his father’s face, he simply explained the competition. “Like how Tempest and Sunken Moon won the championship, so some promotion videos would use them. They have signed a contract with the live stream platform. You can check out their live stream…” 

As he explained, he couldn’t resist the urge to sprinkle his personal preference. “You can also watch other players’ videos or some legendary masters who have never participated in the competition. Pick around and choose ones you like or fits your playstyle.”

Yue Shizhong felt his son was so thoughtful and nodded. “Okay.”

Since Yue Ran was done helping his dad, he carried his laptop back to his room. Once he set his laptop back up, he scanned through the horn message history and found that Star of Jupiter was being too quiet today. So he clicked open his and Pure White Sun’s private chat.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: What’s going on with Star of Jupiter?] 

[(Private) Dying Star: They are streaming today. Sunken Moon and Inked Sun brought us time. They are doing ranked matches today.”

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I see.]

[(Private) Dying Star: Are you busy? I created a room in the arena and wanted to introduce you to someone.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Who?] 

[(Private) Dying Star: I’ll let you know later.]

Yue Ran actually already knew who, but it didn’t hurt to check as he accepted happily. 

A moment later, he entered the arena room using the room number given by Pure White Sun and saw his cousin, who was playing on his ‘Wailing Wall’ account.

[(Private) Dying Star: This is the diehard fan I told you about. He has been waiting for you for three years.] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: …]

[(Private) Dying Star: Really! I quizzed him myself. He has watched your videos countless times, and we have only run instance dungeons so far. I sense no evil intentions from him.]

That’s because you don’t yet know he is the embodiment of evil. Yue Ran thought in a deadpan way as he quietly glanced at a certain player’s character.

Someone role-played very convincingly as he said hello the moment he entered the room. 

[(All) Wailing Wall: Hi master, we meet again.]

[(All) A- – – – Killer: Yeah.]

[(All) Wailing Wall: When do you want to run an instance dungeon with our guild?]

[(All) A- – – – Killer: We’ll see.] 

On the other chat, Pure White Sun also gave the purpose for this.

[(Private) Dying Star: He is your diehard fan and would definitely keep your secret. I want to clarify things with him, is that alright with you?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: It’s up to you.]

[(Private) Dying Star: How about we do some ranked matches? He dreams of playing games with you.] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Did you ask him?]

As soon as Pure White Sun read the reply, he asked the other using the arena’s all chat.

While the ‘diehard fan’ still appeared to have some functioning brain cells as he brought up a good point…

[(All) Wailing Wall: Great Star God, we are all playing summoner.] 

[(All) Dying Star: No issue. We can take it easy. If we lose, we lose.]

[(All) Wailing Wall: Alright, I’ll try not to hold the Great Star God back!]

Yue Ran: “…”

Are you really going to fight? 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Why didn’t you find an excuse to decline?]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Look at the time. Sunken Moon and others are about to end their stream. I bet he would want to discuss with you about Star of Jupiter. At most, we will play about two to three matches.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: …]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Let’s go then, Great Star God~] 

Speechlessly, Yue Ran could only follow them to fight ranked matches. Then he saw the same messages posted on the party chat almost at the same time.

[(Party) Dying Star: No mic.]

[(Party) Wailing Wall: No mic.]

He knew it! 

Also, Pure White Sun had already reached a high rank with him being in the middle. Even if his cousin was at a low rank, their matchup wouldn’t be too weak. They must have looked like an insane bunch for teaming up as three glass cannon summoners.

He resisted the impulse to beat up his cousin and accepted to be the team’s shot caller. He found every match very thrilling, since they almost got annihilated every single time. Fortunately, his cousin’s prediction was correct. In the middle of their third match, he saw a notification of Sunken Moon getting online. With a sigh of relief, he ended this absurd match immediately. 

Sunken Moon didn’t come by himself this time. He brought Inked Sun along.

However, he didn’t bring the person in before asking Yue Ran’s permission. 

Yue Ran didn’t care.

Since they were all old friends, there was no point in keeping this secret. Besides, on the day when things got clarified, Inked Sun would definitely come knocking on their doors with loads of questions. It was better to clear things now.

Several people bid farewell to the ‘diehard fan’ and created a new room.

When Inked Sun learned the truth, he was very surprised as he clicked his tongue. “And here I thought that Dying Star wasn’t as sharp as before, it turned out he wasn’t you.” 

Pure White Sun was unhappy. “How was I not sharp?”

Inked Sun said with a smile, “Not sharp from any angle.”

Deciding to ignore the monk, he walked around Yue Ran. “Dying Star, your new ID is so domineering.”

Yue Ran asked, “In a good way or a bad way?” 

“Of course in a good way.” Inked Sun paused. “Oh, by the way, is Tempest online? Let’s call him in as well. It’s so rare for all of us to be together.”

Hearing this, Yue Ran was dumbfounded. “He is also playing on the new server?”

Inked Sun chirped, “Yes sir, he’s what-cha-mah-call-it, Smashing Vault of Heaven.”

Yue Ran suddenly felt that he was hearing things. “—Huh?” 

“Smashing Vault of Heaven, heavy blade,” Inked Sun responded. “And let me tell you, he also got an in-game wife called Vault of Heaven’s Essence. Can you believe how vulgar their names are!”

Yue Ran: “…”

When this was brought up, Sunken Moon and Pure White Sun especially had something to say.

Sunken Moon chimed in, “Can you believe it? Tempest would call him darling here, darling there.” 

Pure White lamented, “They also publicly showed their affection using horn messages several times.”

Yue Ran: “…”

Inked Sun continued to interrupt, sharing gossip with his good friends. “His wife is so cute though. Really coquettish. I never expected someone as cold as Tempest would like this kind of whiny type.”

Yue Ran: “…” 

Even if I die on the spot, I would never, ever let you guys know that person was me!