Mutated Pheromones

Pure White Sun always believed that one could never be too paranoid. 

He attempted to reason with his friends. “He is just a diehard fan. He knew several amazing places and just wanted to share them with his idol. What’s wrong with that? And what if his friend was someone who is a game exploring lover?”

Inked Sun asked, “What else did you guys do at the places he brought you?”

“Nothing much.” Pure White Sun was also a little unclear himself, but quickly recalled, “We usually go over the nitty-gritty of the game mechanics. Outside of that, we would occasionally run instance dungeons. He usually contacts me when I’m free, not a very troublesome fellow.”

Inked Sun giggled. “It seems you have made a good impression on him. I ship.” 

Pure White Sun deadpanned, “…Beat it!”

Beside them, Sunken Moon smiled. “Maybe we are overthinking it, but maybe he was really into you. Pay more attention, alright? Being a single dog for so long, I can see why you are oblivious to others’ advances.”

Pure White Sun rebuked, “Aren’t you a single dog yourself?”

Sunken Moon’s smile widened. “At least I can tell if someone is teasing me.”

“That’s right. Although we are all single, we still have EQ.” Inked Sun glanced at the scenery below and clicked his tongue. “No, I still think he is interested in you. Tempest, what do you think?”

He shifted his attention to the silent swordsman. “You’re the only one in a relationship among us. If you bring someone to this place to enjoy the scenery, do you have an underlying intention?”

Jiang Xiao: “…”

You are practically touching a sore spot. 

Inked Sun poked, “Huh?”

“This person,” Jiang Xiao said faintly. “What’s his nature like?”

Pure White Sun pondered. “Very sensible and smart. He could learn after just listening to my explanation once. But his feelings are fragile and easily moved to tears.”

Inked Sun exclaimed, “Oh, another soft crying type? How do you guys keep meeting these types of players?” 

Pure White Sun denied, “He is not that type of person.”

Jiang Xiao questioned coldly, “What’s wrong with the soft, crying type?”

Inked Sun muttered, “Nothing, pretty adorable actually.”

Yue Ran: “…” 

While they were going off-topic, a message suddenly flashed at the top of the server.

[(Horn) Winterland Loafer: Star God, when would you be fighting A- – – – Killer? Or the rematch is already over? I’ve been waiting for days and this silence is killing me!]

[(Horn) Winterland Loafer: Star God, look here! I’m your diehard fan, pleading for an answer. If you guys haven’t fought yet, I want to cheer for you in advance!]

After this mention, other players immediately undusted this topic. 

[(World) Return of Autumn: That’s right, wasn’t a date being discussed last time?]

[(World) Do Not Regret True Love: I was right. The other escaped by going offline!]

[(World) Phone Case: I can understand if the other person didn’t want to fight.]

[(World) Killer K: One word: wuss.] 

[(World) Fishy Kitten: I did a quick check, A- – – – Killer is online (air kiss).]

[(World) Killer K: Super wuss, not even having the guts to reply.]

[(World) The Past: Neither party is in any urgency. Can’t either of you do thorough research before throwing slander?]

[(World) Doughnut: Guild leader, why are you so angry about it? We, the high-level organisms, don’t argue with the inferior ones.] 

[(World) Anonymous Guardian: You’re the wuss, your whole family is a wuss!]

Yue Ran read through the chat and flattened his lips.

Dad, please, you’re a university professor. Why are you bickering with a group way younger than you?

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Pure White Sun had numerous fans, and there would always be a bloodshed dispute on Weibo. So he was more sensitive to this kind of thing as he asked, “That blockhead isn’t showing his face. Did he encourage his fans to post the horn message?”

“Most likely.” Inked Sun sneered. “Didn’t Little Star corner him last time about posting horn messages? He must have learned his lesson and schemed to not post it himself.” 

Pure White Sun roared, “That son of a bitch!”

As soon as he cussed the blockhead out, a new horn message appeared.

[(Horn) Dying Star: Hey Star God, your fans are about to commit cannibalism. Why aren’t you saying something?] 

[(Horn) Dying Star: Who’s with him? What’s he doing?] 

[(Horn) Backstabber: I am, we just finished an instance dungeon. Star God is afk in the bathroom.]

[(Horn) Dying Star: Alright, I’ll ask Sunken Moon to message him on WeChat (smile).]

He left a meaningful smile and didn’t post any more messages.

The more rational players speculated that Star of Jupiter might be forcing the other to fight, but a considerable number still thought it was A- – – – Killer chickening out. But the fact remained, ‘gaining glory by taking advantage’ was too in-line with the public’s esthetics. The more people said, the uglier the content became, enough to make people want to roast the person involved over a bonfire. 

Yue Shizhong couldn’t stand it any longer as he typed loudly on his keyboard. 

[(World) Anonymous Guardian: What gave you the right to control the time set for the rematch? He already agreed to it, why interfere in his business!]

[(World) Killer K: Oh ho ho, a possible friend finally appeared. If you have the time to quarrel, why don’t you call your wuss of a friend on here?]

[(World) Downpour in August: A- – – – Killer, so many people are watching. Don’t just let your watchdog loose to bark if you are unwilling to say a single word.] 

Of course this enraged Yue Ran, who was already at his breaking point long ago. 

At the moment, seeing them call his father a watchdog, his logical string snapped.

[(Horn) A- – – – Killer: Just saw this.]

[(Horn) A- – – – Killer: [screenshot] [screenshot] I already talked with Star of Jupiter. I asked for two days to fix my sixth. Just you wait, I’ll make Star of Jupiter meet his maker.] 

As soon as he shared those screenshots, the world chat immediately exploded.

Putting their private messages on the table, it was clear that Star of Jupiter was avoiding the question regarding the horn.

Players weren’t stupid, even some people thought he planned this as well.

At first, Star of Jupiter saw things getting more and more out of hand. He was slightly satisfied until Yue Ran stepped in. He almost broke his keyboard in half but had to bear it first, so as not to make his behaviour look even more premeditated.  

On the other side, the other great gods turned towards Little Star.

They were all angry, but being in the middle of the carnage in the chat all these years, they were accustomed to it. At first, they planned to let Little Star calm down on his own before coaxing him, but before they could execute plan B, the little summoner jumped into the bloodbath head first.

Sunken Moon asked, “Fight for real?”

Yue Ran made an affirmative response. 

He didn’t want to contribute to the discord and didn’t want to give unnecessary fluff. Since Star of Jupiter didn’t swallow the loss, then he would get what was coming for him.

But once he was beyond his breaking point, losing was no longer an option. 

He was going to show that guy who was the boss!

He added, “I’m going to make adjustments to my sixth within the next two days. PK the reminder time.” 

Naturally, the others had no objection.

Since things had reached this point, fighting was the only choice. 

Sunken Moon insisted, “Let us know if you’re lacking in materials, we’ll help you get them.”

Yue Ran made a sound as a reply and saw similar messages in the guild chat from his adorable guild members. Feeling warmth in his heart, he replied to the guild chat ‘not short of materials currently’. 

Afterwards, both his dad and cousin pinged him almost at the same time.

He patiently explained and told them he could handle it. When he calmed them down, he looked at these people who cared about him. His anger immediately dissipated as he walked towards others and said, “Let’s PK then.”

After one round of beating, Star of Jupiter arrived not-so-fashionably late, and he poked Yue Ran in private chat.

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: So sorry about earlier. I had something that came up and my phone wasn’t with me. I just saw the WeChat message from Sunken Moon.] 

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: Just ignore them. I just said I wanted to compare notes with you. Take as much time as you need on your sixth. Don’t rush it in order to meet the challenge, that’s not what I want.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Not rushing it.]

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: You’re almost done?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Yes, I’ll see you at the arena the day after tomorrow at eight in the evening.] 

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: Okay.]

After the two discussed it, Star of Jupiter explained the details using the horn.

Yue Ran didn’t bother to read the message as he fought to the death with Sunken Moon. Once they finished their match, it was time to leave the arena.

There were many entrances to the arena. In order to keep a distance between them, each of them arrived using different entrances every time. 

However, today he and Jiang Xiao happened to use the same entrance. After their small party was disbanded, he saw Jiang Xiao beside him after he exited the arena, and immediately remembered something that had moved to the back of his mind. 

Was Jiang Xiao courting him?

They haven’t known each other for very long. How could that be possible? 

Yue Ran was at a loss for words for half a minute. He thought of his cousin and opened their private chat. Told him everything about Pure White Sun, taking them to see the scenery and Inked Sun’s theories. 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Did you take him there to court him?]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Of course not.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Then why?]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: I saw how hard he worked on teaching me. And to be honest, I felt bad duping him. I wanted to gain some brownie points before finding a suitable opportunity to come clean with him.] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I see.]

Then do you think Jiang Xiao is courting me?

This question went around Yue Ran’s mind, but in the end, he didn’t ask. Because over the years, he had been playing the role of listener to his friends. He had never shared his emotional problems with others, and he wasn’t used to talking about these things with others as well.

As he stared at the input message box for several minutes, he finally clicked it closed. 

The next moment, a new notification sound rang. He thought it was from his cousin, who finally realized his internal struggle. He hurried and clicked on the message and found it was from his senior.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Would you like to explain to me about Pure White Sun’s diehard fan?]

Do you actually have the face to throw that question at me? Yue Ran endured the tight feeling in his heart and retold the story of his cousin pretending to be a fan to learn about the imposter.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Did he fall for Pure White Sun?] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I don’t think so.]

[(Private) Formless Slash: Alright, I’ll be getting off. Don’t stay up too late.]

No, wait. That’s it?

Are you not going to clarify things? 

Yue Ran widened his eyes and before his brain could catch up with his fingers, he already sent three words.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Wait a moment!]

[(Private) Formless Slash: Something you need?]

Yes! Of course, there is something I need. Are you playing dumb!? 

Yue Ran gritted his teeth. As the logic started to return to his brain, he typed a series of words before he deleted them.

After pondering over it, he retyped his wording and then deleted it again.

This vicious cycle repeated several times before he finally posted a message.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: The materials that I rejected from before. Can I borrow them if you don’t need them? I’ll repay you down the line.] 

Jiang Xiao smiled faintly. He could almost imagine the little summoner angry, with puffed cheeks.

An indescribable itch came from his heart. He wanted to drag that person into his arms to snuggle with them. But it was something he couldn’t do over the computer, so he requested a trade with the other person and placed the materials in the appropriate window before completing the trade.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Are you going to refine with just these materials, or are you going to add spirit beasts with similar races?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Going to refine after I tame a few.] 

[(Private) Formless Slash: Let’s go then.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: ?]

[(Private) Formless Slash: Helping you.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: No need, I can do it myself.] 

[(Private) Formless Slash: Faster with two people. The quicker we finish, the sooner you can sleep.]

Yue Ran hesitated before agreeing. He secretly wanted to take this time to think about how to ask him about what he’d heard earlier.

In the end, he overestimated himself. He hadn’t asked the question even after they got a tiger and a cheetah. This was such a difficult question to ask. Feeling too embarrassed, he couldn’t just ask, ‘Are you courting me’ directly, right?

He could only swallow his doubts, as he opened the ‘summoned refinement’ window and dragged in his White Lion, focusing on this sixth summoned of his. 

The system had a feature that included a bonuses rate on refining using similar races. Lions, tigers, and cheetahs all belong to the cat family, so the bonus rate shouldn’t be bad. So he shoved the tiger and the cheetahs into the lion’s mouth, plus some rare materials. After it completed and he viewed the finished product information, he remained quiet.

Jiang Xiao waited and saw, with a sense of deja vu, no reply for a long time.

[(Private) Formless Slash: What’s wrong?]

Instead of answering, Yue Ran sent him a screenshot of the White Lion’s character menu. 

Jiang Xiao opened the screenshot for a look and was also silent.

The beast was indeed stronger, but with the impulsive nature of the materials, it was a fire element.

Of course, a fire element’s strength was higher, but Yue Ran preferred to freeze people first and burst the opponent’s HP down. The conflict between the White Lion with a fire attribute and the Ice Spirit was obviously not what the little summoner wanted.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Add some more materials, maybe you can change its properties.]  

They would need materials with water properties, and either in high quantity or better quality. 

Yue Ran suddenly had a moment of enlightenment as he opened the Little White Chicken’s character menu. Although this summoned spirit beast was garbage, it had water property at ninety-three percent, which should neutralize the fire element. He didn’t wish for increased power for the White Lion, he just wanted the White Chicken to wash away the fire property.

Whatever, he tossed the chicken with the lion into the array, plus a few water-base materials. 

The light dissipated two seconds later. In the centre of the array, there was a fat chicken with two more long feathers on its head.  

His vision suddenly turned black, as he beat his chest hard to suppress the anger.

Bug, this was really a bug!

You motherfucker, I want you to spit out my lion and materials right now!