Mutated Pheromones

In order to strengthen his lion, Yue Ran saved several materials with water properties. He used up almost all of his good materials of other properties, but in the end, none of them mattered because they all ended up in the Little Chicken’s stomach.  

He stared at the culprit, with the intention of eating it alive.

Jiang Xiao saw no movement from the younger man, so he took the initiative to ask.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Did you use the materials?]

Yue Ran didn’t want to talk about it. 

[(Private) Formless Slash: You used the materials but still did not get the right element?]

Yue Ran remained quiet.

Jiang Xiao frowned.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Are you still there?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Yes.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I’ll refine tomorrow. It’s late, good night.]

[(Private) Formless Slash: ?]

Jiang Xiao only had time to send a question mark before the little summoner disappeared from where he stood. 

Feeling something was wrong, he took out his phone to send a WeChat message: [You feeling okay?]

[The stubborn Yue Ran: Yes, ‘night.]

Jiang Xiao saw the ‘night’ as the implication of ‘don’t want to continue this conversation’. He knew something was up. Guessing there might be a mistake during the refinement, he would just have to ask Yue Ran for more information tomorrow.

On the other side, Yue Ran put his hands over his heart as if trying to slow his heartbeat. Unable to fall asleep, he contacted his cousin and asked to meet him at eight in the morning tomorrow for materials. 

Qin Xiujie agreed on the time and date as he put down his phone and smiled at a certain summoner in the game. Before the summoner could say goodnight and go offline, he stopped the other man.

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Wait, Great Star God. There’s something that I want to tell you.]

Pure White Sun sucked in a breath.

This should be what Inked Sun predicted, right? Was this diehard fan really courting him? 

[(Private) Dying Star: Is it important?]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: Yes, let’s open a room in the arena.]

[(Private) Dying Star: You could say it here.]

[(Private) Wailing Wall: No, this is too important. In order to express my sincerity, I need to talk to you on the mic.] 

Pure White Sun: “…”

Oh no! Was this a love confession!

Did this diehard fan approach him at the beginning with impure motives? Or did the other slowly fall for him while trying to get in his good graces?

[(Private) Wailing Wall: If I can’t tell you this today, I still have to tell you tomorrow, and the day after. Please, just listen to me now?] 

He was right, there was no use escaping.

Pure White Sun agreed through gritted teeth and with a sinking heart. They entered the nearest arena entrance before he heard a pleasantly male voice from his headphones, the voice was also very soft, “Can you hear me?”

[(All) Dying Star: I can.]

Qin Xiujie smiled and sighed on purpose. “In fact, I’ve been holding this secret inside for so long. I wanted to tell you so many times, but always hesitated to take the final step. Now, I really don’t want to hide this from you anymore.” 

Uegf Qtlaf Vec: “…”

“Ktfrf ofk vjsr atja P ifjgcfv ogbw sbe, P’nf gfujgvfv sbe jr ws wbra gfrqfmafv afjmtfg. P ofjg sbe klii lucbgf wf, bg fnfc yf jcugs klat wf bcmf P mbwf mifjc.” Hlc Wleplf ktlrqfgfv. “Tbe…Jjc sbe obgulnf wf olgra?”

Djv offilcur oliifv Uegf Qtlaf Vec’r tfjga. 

This rookie diehard fan was brought up by him little by little. He couldn’t turn the person down ruthlessly. What was wrong if the other person liked him? He was also hiding something big from others as well. 

So, he also turned on his mic and solemnly said, “I forgive you.”

Qin Xiujie asked, “Then, will you continue to teach me?”

Pure White Sun replied, “Yes.”

Qin Xiujie smiled brightly and confessed, “Then here I go. I’m Dying Star’s older cousin. I approached you to expose you as an imposter. Afterwards, I learned you didn’t mean any harm, so I didn’t proceed with my original plan. I’m sorry, Sun God, to tell you the truth only now.” 

Pure White Sun, “I…”

I!

Qin Xiujie added, “But I didn’t lie to you. Other than Dying Star, you and Tempest are also my favourites. But not at the level of a diehard fan.”

Pure White Sun said, “Goodbye, and good night.” 

Qin Xiujie watched him leave the room, holding his forehead and laughing.

Just earlier, after listening to Ran Ran about Inked Sun’s speculation, he realized that this was a good opportunity to confess. Pure White Sun really forgave him in advance. The great god would never go back on his word.

Qin Xiujie had a pleasant sleep. The next day, he logged on to his main account and sent materials to his cousin as agreed. They met in the wasteland.

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Are you going to get another lion? To feed your first one?] 

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Yes.]

Yue Ran naturally won’t say that he fed his last lion to that chicken. After receiving the materials, he would have to fight tigers and cheetahs again.

Being curious about the finished product, Qin Xiujie played with his younger cousin and waited for him to refine. Yue Ran learned from yesterday, this time, he carefully checked the properties of the materials, and double-checked as he put them into the array before clicking ‘Refine’.

Once the light dissipated, a majestic White Lion stood in the centre. 

Although the thunder element that he liked was gone, its water element was stronger, with a much higher attack than before. Finally, he didn’t fail his refinement.

He suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the anxious grip around his heart was gone.

In the future, he needed to keep the cat far away from that chicken.

When the chicken was mentioned, he was not in his right mind yesterday and didn’t check the little chicken’s menu after refinement.  

He opened the fat little chicken’s character menu to see its attack had increased again, and the original single damage attack became an area of effect. It gained three attributes: water, fire, and thunder. It could puff out three energies at once to cause damage to the enemy respectively. In addition, there was another skill named {rolling ball} below.

Curiously, he hovered his mouse over the skill to see the detailed description: [Charges toward the target location by rolling its body into a ball. Colliding with the target enemy, knocking the target back two meters and dealing 100 physical damage.]

One hundred damage, you gotta be kidding me.

For the sake of the two meters knockback, he reluctantly kept it alive and closed the character menu with a blank expression. 

Qin Xiujie waited for a while before he saw a screenshot sent by his cousin. He clicked to open it and frowned slightly.

[(Private) Attired Guqin: I didn’t feel it increased much, and it lost its thunder attribute.]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: I’ll get you some more materials to try again?]

Yue Ran thought: Cousin, you don’t understand. This is already good enough. 

Only when there was comparison could one know how to cherish.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: No need, this is enough.]

Qin Xiujie thought the other had something planned, so he didn’t persuade further.

When they parted ways, Yue Ran ran a few five-member instance dungeons and quietly filled his hollowed out inventory. 

Half an hour later, Jiang Xiao came online and the first thing he did was to contact Yue Ran. Originally, he thought they would continue to work on refinement, but he heard the PK request instead. 

He followed Yue Ran into the arena and finally met the character menu of the lion. After checking its attributes, he found that there was no failed refinement. Then why did the little summoner throw a tantrum last night?

Unless this was a new refined spirit beast?

This question had been circling in his heart for a long time, but he felt like it was something he couldn’t ask. The pride-filled little summoner might have an outburst.  

Jiang Xiao pretended not to notice and focused on the PK.

Inked Sun and Sunken Moon belong to the type to snooze in bed, while Pure White Sun would usually come online very early, but not today for some reason. So there were only two of them all morning, which made Jiang Xiao very happy.

Yue Ran put aside the courting question for the time being as he was preparing for war. He fought several  thrilling matches with Jiang Xiao, in two of which he almost beat the other party. If he had an aid that buffed strength, he was fully confident that he could beat the swordsman.

Jiang Xiao only felt that the little summoner was getting better and better. He praised without holding back, “Star God is amazing.” 

Yue Ran removed his fingers from the keyboard to take a breather. He asked, “How many matches have you played against Star of Jupiter? How strong is he?”

Jiang Xiao replied, “His apm and reactions are not as fast as yours.”

Yue Ran was surprised. “Really?”

Jiang Xiao confirmed, “Yes. As long as you don’t get pressured by his sixth, your chances of winning will be higher than his.” 

The other quickly agreed with his judgement. 

In the afternoon, the rest of the great gods spent time practising with Yue Ran. They all thought he should have no problem with the rematch.

Inked Sun reassured, “Little Star, relax. Last time, we were unlucky to be matched against Tempest in the early match and didn’t make it to the finals. Otherwise, that brat might not get second place.”

Sunken Moon added, “I have recordings of his matches from the tournament. I’ll send them to you later.” 

Pure White Sun brought up, “Another match?”

Yue Ran quietly looked at the monk silently. He didn’t know what kind of blow the other man took yesterday.

But if the other party wanted to fight, he naturally would accept them. After they went through several fights, they called it a day.

The next day, Yue Ran watched the recordings all morning, warmed up with Jiang Xiao in the afternoon, and then waited for the rematch in the evening. 

Their news had already been widely spread on the new server. After 7:30 pm, players stopped what they were doing one after another. None of them ran instance dungeons or started quests. They stayed together at the entrance of the arena, waiting to seize a seat the moment the room number was announced. 

Sunken Moon and Inked Sun usually livestreamed in the evening. Originally, they wanted to delay their stream for a while, at least after the match. However, when they heard Yue Ran say they could livestream the match, the two immediately understood.

According to Star of Jupiter’s temper, he would be streaming through this fight. If he won, he would boast his victory to everyone and pick Little Star’s littlest flaws. But if he lost, he would not even utter a single word and would also attempt to find a way to save his reputation. Little Star was forced to battle. Naturally, he wouldn’t take this abuse without a fight, so wanted others to help him.

Moreover, even if Little Star really lost, having them comment on one side could at least let other people know that he wasn’t a noob, and save him from any ugly comments made by Star of Jupiter afterward.  

With that, Sunken Moon and Inked Sun turned on their livestreams.

Both of them added Star of Jupiter as a friend. Instead of fighting for a spot with the audience, they directly let Star of Jupiter drag them in, and then they gave a short story of the incident in their livestream before saying, “They’ll fight in a minute. Let’s enjoy the fight together.” 

Pure White Sun logged in to a monk account that he had recently made in the new server. He added Star of Jupiter as a friend and started his own livestream. 

Jiang Xiao followed suit and bought a random new account. It didn’t matter if the account was a swordsman or not. He quickly logged into the new server and also started his livestream. 

Two of the most popular great gods started livestreaming at the same time, causing an earthquake on the new server.

Soon, this rematch had stepped out of the new server and was spectated by the whole game.

Star of Jupiter received the news.

Because they were all invited by him, he thought these gods had come to support him. He was both excited and nervous. Excited from having the reputation for these gods to do this, and nervous about the possibility of losing. 

However, after his experience playing in competition, he quickly changed his mentality. 

Last time, he didn’t have the proper equipment and one moment of carelessness cost him an easy victory. As long as he paid more attention, he shouldn’t lose.

Putting this in the back of his mind, he waited for A- – – – Killer to invite his friends before he shared the arena room number with the public.

In an instant, the room was crowded with spectators. 

The players who didn’t grab a spot wailed in world chat. Soon, when they heard that several great gods were streaming, they hurried to view it from there.

During this time, Yue Ran asked Star of Jupiter about the victory condition, whether it was best two out of three or just a single match.

There were too many uncertain factors in the latter option, so Star of Jupiter chose three games just to be safe and said he wanted to play all three games even if there was a victor. Because he wanted to win three flawless games in a row.

Yue Ran had no objection. After setting the game mode, he pressed ‘Ready’. 

Star of Jupiter also clicked ‘Ready’, and they were sent into the map at the same time, waiting for the countdown to end.

The moment the map loaded, there was an uproar from the audience. 

The two fighters were also stunned because it seemed to be a stage where knocking a player out could result in an instant victory.

For fairness, they selected the random stage map option. 

With the recent update, players have a high probability of getting a new map because of the temporary increased chance. Which was their current situation now.

In front of them was a long and narrow mountain path, with a mountain wall on one side and an abyss on the other. There were no places to cover in the middle.

Fortunately, the mountain path was about three meters wide. As long as players were careful when walking, they wouldn’t fall off the stage.

A stage like this was a kill stage, but it wasn’t a difficult one, the battleground was just slightly compressed. 

Unless…the players have the ability to send opponents flying…like a knock-off.

Yue Ran was unclear whether Star of Jupiter’s sixth had this type of ability or not, but he did.

He had {rolling ball}.

Taking advantage of the off-combat state, he quickly removed White Lion in the sixth spirit beast slot, and replaced it with fat little chicken, before he dashed forward. 

Star of Jupiter wouldn’t allow himself to freeze so easily. Seeing the other summoned his Ice Spirit, he countered it by calling forth his sixth, Black Flaming Bird, and set it loose on Ice Spirit for a quick kill.

Yue Ran didn’t dodge at all. When he saw the firebird spitting out the flame, he timed the Ice Spirit’s skill down to the millisecond. 

In an instant, the two skills collided. Due to the high attack of the Black Flaming Bird, the Ice Spirit’s attack not only was negated but was instantly killed on the spot.

Star of Jupiter relaxed for a moment, and as he was about to launch a new round of attacks, he suddenly saw a figure’s movement—A- – – – Killer didn’t retreat as he assumed, instead, the support summoner rushed to him without hesitation under the crushing skill’s effect. In addition, there was a chubby chicken beside him. 

The chubby little chicken was round like a soft rice dumpling and as high as a person’s knee.

It had snow-white feathers, three long feathers like an exaggerated cowlick on its head. The middle feather was white, sandwiched between a purple and a red feather. It looked very stupid. Star of Jupiter was slightly dumbfounded. Before he came to his senses from the fact ‘A- – – – Killer’s sixth was actually not a lion’, he saw the chicken quickly roll itself into a ball.

The next moment, a meatball crashing into him was the last thing he saw.

Bang! It knocked him out of the stage. 

Star of Jupiter: “…”

Spectators: “…”

This was like bowling!

[Victory] appeared on Yue Ran’s screen as he slowly walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. 

The chicken hopped over to him and joined him.

Yue Ran didn’t look at his fat chicken. He lifted his head to watch the setting sun in the distance, tasted the brief victory and coldly opened his mouth. “Little chicken, I forgive you.”