Mutated Pheromones

[(World) Carnation: ?] 

[(World) Eternal Moon Love: ??]

[(World) Pendant of Moon God: ???]

[(World) Cat Food: Who did you say again? Are you sure you got the right name?]

[(World) Hit a Great Wall: Which arena entrance, please allow spectators!] 

The great Moon God acting like a hooligan. This was so shocking that even Dying Star who was in the instance dungeon was startled.

[(Horn) Dying Star: You are finally showing your true colours?]

[(Horn) Sunken Moon: Stop kidding around. This is our opponent in the arena from earlier. I wanted to chat with him because I planned to take him under my wing. Then I accidentally made him mad.]

[(Horn) Dying Star: Wow, apprentice?]

[(Horn) Sunken Moon: That was my plan.]

Dying Star knew Sunken Moon was going to contact the summoner. The messages he posted in the horn was to help his friend get out of this sticky predicament. The rest of the questions would need to be asked in a private chat.

[(Private) Dying Star: What’s going on?]

[(Private) Sunken Moon: I told him I would take him to get materials, but he refused, only wanting his husband. I merely stopped him.] 

[(Private) Dying Star: You think that’s ‘him’?]

[(Private) Sunken Moon: I think…The Little Star that I know of would never change into this style of work of art.]

[(Private) Dying Star: Hahahaha, what if someone really changed that much from love?]

[(Private) Sunken Moon: Not to this degree. Think about his temper.] 

[(Private) Dying Star: You have a point. That brat was typically not much of a harsh talker.]

After chatting with Dying Star, Sunken Moon exited out of the chat window and looked at the player in front of him.

Maybe because of incoming reinforcement, the little summoner calmed down and used {rest} to sit down with an air of ‘waiting for hubby’s hug’ attitude. As they waited, more and more players gathered around them. They hovered over the entrance, hoping to see some action.

Sunken Moon helplessly used {rest} too and sent a party invite, which was immediately rudely turned down. He had no other choice but to use the local chat. 

[(Local) Sunken Moon: Your awareness is very good. Why don’t you be my student? I will make you into an elite player.]

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: No! I want to learn from hubby (chest puffs up with pride).]

[(Local) Sunken Moon: If not, then how about just giving you useful tips?]

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: No (humph)!] 

The surrounding players cried in their anguish.

Moon God, we volunteer as tribute, please look at us!

Sunken Moon stopped his offer. He apologized for blocking Yue Ran and left the arena lobby.

Yue Ran watched Sunken Moon’s avatar disappear. In satisfaction, he cancelled {rest} and opened the chat window to let his senior know that everything was taken care of. However, he saw someone had already posted in the world chat, which led to his senior messaging him first. 

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Don’t move, wait for me.]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: No need, and I already told you I have everything under control.]

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[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Go do your instance dungeon.]

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: We already finished it.]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Do another one.]

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: They’re done for the day.] 

That’s right, the members didn’t want to enter another dungeon.

Their guild leader’s super soft and adorable wife was bullied on his first day of playing. Did the bully pretend that they didn’t exist?

Even if the bully was Sunken Moon, and even if some of the guild members were his fans, that wasn’t the right thing for Sunken Moon to do!

So, under the guild leader’s command, they quickly arrived at the scene of the event and surrounded his wife the next second. 

Yue Ran was powerless. He could only accept his fate. He used the {hug} gesture and went toward his husband in tears.

Being hugged for the second time today, Jiang Xiao studied the little summoner in his arms. This time, he reacted by returning the same gesture.

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Waaaah hubby, you are finally here.]

[(Guild) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: (head pat)] 

[(Guild) BB Love: Sister-in-law, he bullied you?]

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: He blocked me and refused to let me leave. I was so scared (sniffle).]

[(Guild) Blank: The great god actually blocked your way!]

[(Guild) Strongest O in Universe: Did he really want to take you under his wing?] 

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Yes, but I refused. I want to spend time playing with my hubby (cupped face).]

[(Guild) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Good.]

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: (happy)]

It was the guild members’ turn to cry in their anguish. 

Less so from being fed another mouthful of dog food, but because of Moon God! Many players dream of learning from the great god. It was very rare for Sunken Moon to ask to be a mentor, but to be turned down!

Ah, oh well.

It was no surprise for people in love to make questionable decisions.

But there was always that one person who remained calm and pointed out the elephant in the room. 

[(Guild) Fruity: I am so jealous. But how did sister-in-law meet him in the arena? Isn’t his alt in a higher rank?]

[(Guild) F0x: Oh right, I heard from someone that his alt reached a high rank in just three days, and he was just goofing around.]

[(Guild) Blank: Oh, really?]

[(Guild) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: I took him to the arena today. We won ten matches in a row and got selected to do a bonus elite match.] 

[(Guild) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Yup! Hubby is the strongest (adoration) (starry eyes).]

[(Guild) BB Love: Oh, so that’s how it is.]

Once things were cleared, they continued to another instance dungeon.

Worried that the soft and adorable wife would be bullied again, they patiently urged him to join. Yue Ran didn’t want to encounter Sunken Moon again, so he accepted without a fuss and followed them to the dungeon entrance. On their way there, he explained everything to his cousin. 

Qin Xiujie was silent for a moment.

Three years ago, when the game collaborated with Huan Shou Livestreaming Platform and conducted their very first Huan Shou Cup Tournament. They opened a new server called ‘Tempestuous Sun, Star and Moon’.

Because the rewards were quite considerable, there were many elite players who poured into the new server. The magnificent experience was, even now, still being discussed enthusiastically in the community. At that time, there were five very well-known players, and their character names just happened to match the name of the new server. Thus, they got the title of the ‘Five Gods of TSSM’.

The Five Gods’ names were Tempest, Pure White Sun, Inked Sun, Dying Star, and Sunken Moon. 

Except for Dying Star who deleted his account, the other four participated in the competition. The first tournament concluded with Tempest crowned the winner, and Sunken Moon in second place. Although the top ten players signed a contract with Huan Shou Livestreaming Platform, it was not a long-term contract. Tempest and Pure White Sun rarely streamed, only Inked Sun and Sunken Moon slowly developed their career as streamers.

In the past three years, there were many new generations of elite players. Huan Shou also catapulted several players to stardom, but those four members’ reputations were as firm as a rock. Only the long-deleted Dying Star had no loyal followers. His name was mentioned occasionally and merely became a myth in the game as time went on.

Now the myth was his younger cousin.

Who was pestered by his old buddy in just one day, making everything very unreal. 

[(Private) Attired Guqin: So the drama trope of recognizing someone you haven’t met for years at one glance is real.]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: …]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: Was your alter ego convincing?]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: I guess.] 

[(Private) Attired Guqin: But something is strange. Think about it, if you work so hard to create an imposter, would you try to confront the possible genuine goods as soon as you meet them? Of course not, because they have the absolute advantage. If it was me, I would play the waiting game and wait for you to initiate and refute, then I would expose you. Because if I accidentally blew my cover and you screenshotted our conversations, the evidence would be against me.]

His older cousin’s logic enlightened Yue Ran.

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: So why did he act that way?]

[(Private) Attired Guqin: I’m not sure. I don’t know him that well. With players being busy these days with the new dungeons, I expected Dying Star to have less free time to carry random players. Don’t contact them, let me handle everything.] 

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: ‘Kay.]

They quickly arrived at the dungeon entrance and entered the dungeon.

The next step was to add YY. As soon as Yue Ran entered the voice chat room, he heard everyone shouting ‘sister-in-law’ in unison, then coaxed him into singing.

He was void of emotion and made no movement. 

Typing as a different personality was tolerable, but asking him to act adorable verbally? Not even in your dreams!

As he was about to type out a few words, he heard Jiang Xiao actively help him. “He doesn’t have a mic. Be quiet and focus on the dungeon.”

The guild leader’s reputation preceded him and everyone immediately focused on the dungeon like a group of well-behaved children.

Knowing nothing about this dungeon, Yue Ran didn’t want to cause trouble for his ‘hubby’ so he journeyed through the dungeon like a tourist. He would stay as far from the monsters as possible. 

Since they completed this dungeon once, Jiang Xiao cleanly led them forward.

Although there was some mess up from the other members, they were successfully resolved under the amazing guild leader’s command. It could be considered this run to be a daunting experience without mishap.

Jiang Xiao didn’t act out of the ordinary. But with one extra body, his attention would always shift to that new member. He looked at the empty party chat and typed a word.

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Bored?] 

This was, of course, directed to his wife. No one in the guild answered.

Being extremely cooperative, Yue Ran promptly clickety-clacked a reply.

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Not at all. I am very thrilled just seeing you. Hubby, do your best (finger heart)!]

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Okay.] 

All the single dog alphas in the party were super jealous and wanted to vent on their poor keyboard.

Not only did their sister-in-law don’t make a racket while the guild leader was in the dungeon, but he would also accompany him obediently. Fuck, what kind of unworldly immortal wife is this!

The formally empty party chat was instantly rolling with the same message.

Jiang Xiao watched as ‘to be dignified by this quality of dog food’ filled the party chat neatly, as they arrived at the mini-boss room. 

When Yue Ran cried for help earlier, the party happened to be fighting here. They were basically going to get annihilated.

Because this boss would cast daze at a random area, and as long as the spell landed, he would follow it with an attack. If a glass cannon happened to be hit with the jackpot, it would often be game over within a second for them. A support and healer are a must fighting this boss.

Jiang Xiao explained the notes and advice on the mini-boss, and the supports and healers in the group answered as they started their boss fight.

But expectations don’t always equal reality. Once the boss started dazing, one of the supports made a mistake and the healers couldn’t keep up with healing. In a blink of an eye, the party was annihilated. 

The two job classes remained silent. They were too frightened to speak.

Jiang Xiao ordered, “Again.”

The chat room turned quiet, until Pear Blossom Rain uttered, “Leader, I think it’s best to have two more supports or healers.”

The rest agreed with her. “The two supports can form a group. Once the boss uses daze, a mistake won’t end our run.” 

Jiang Xiao replied, “If we lose again, it means we don’t have the right team combination. We will go again with the same team.”

With no objection, the party entered the dungeon.

Soon, they reached the room before the mini-boss. They saw the leader didn’t move forward, guessing he was deep in thought, they didn’t disturb him.

Jiang Xiao was indeed thinking, but not on what the guild assumed. 

He remembered that Qin Xiujie called the little summoner’s name earlier today, but he wasn’t paying attention at that time, so he forgot what it was. Since they were ‘childhood friends’, he couldn’t use the character’s name.

He glanced at Qin Xiujie next to him and saw the other party wasn’t sensing his eyes. He gave up on asking and said instead, “Come here, darling.”

Yue Ran: “???”

Qin Xiujie: “???” 

Guild members: Fuck, guild leader would actually use pet names?!

Jing Xiao called again, “Darling?”

Yue Ran came back to his senses. He was now sure Jiang Xiao was calling him, so he complied with the request and walked to the guild leader’s side.

Jiang Xiao gave him an instruction. “You stand here and wait for my command. The remaining two summoners will be in a group.” 

The instruction slowly entered the entire party’s ears, and they were shocked.

What was the meaning of this? The guild leader wanted their soft and adorable sister-in-law to act as two summoners? Is this even possible!

Translator has something to add:

Teo: After translating the project, I think YY is very similar to TeamSpeak 3. For anyone that is not familiar with TS3, it was popular between the fall of Skype and the rise of Discord. Users can host a server (or buy cloud to host their server) with numerous voice rooms (public or private/ lock) where users could pick one to chat verbally or through typing. Other users can join via server link. When a user joined/logged on a TS3 server, users would either logged on some sort of lobby or the last channel they were in. The user with authority power could move other users around different rooms. Users can only be at one server at a time, they can only view the chat in the room they are currently in, so there isn’t a way to lurk in other chats. All of these are my experiences using TS3 before I switched to Discord back in Nov of 2015.