Mutated Pheromones - CH 32

Editor: DarkSapphire, Sahloknir

Being on the plane right now, Jiang Xiao was naturally offline.

Inked Sun was a little mournful, but he thought since Little Star had finally returned, at least they could get together again later down the road as he dropped the topic.

Taking advantage of Pure White Sun getting Inked Sun up to update on the situation with Star of Jupiter, Yue Ran quickly took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Jiang Xiao: [Contact me as soon as you see this!]

After more thinking, he still didn’t feel at ease.

He then added another message: [Ignore everyone in the game, except me. Especially Sunken Moon and others!!!]

He clicked send, which put his heart more at ease.

During his time sending the message, Inked Sun learned Star of Jupiter’s purpose from Pure White Sun’s succinct explanation. He mumbled, “I knew something was fishy when Sunken Moon suddenly asked me to come to the new server, so it was all because of him.”

Sunken Moon said with a smile, “One more person means one more brain for ideas.”

They have been friends for several years. With their deep friendship, there was nothing they couldn’t say.

Although Dying Star left for a few years, his temper was still crystal clear, unlike the two-faced Star of Jupiter.

In the past three years, the livestream platform signed for all sizes of elite players, and they would get together from time to time to do ranked matches. But even with those others coming and going, they held their small circle of friends the closest and dearest.

Inked Sun hummed, “This is going to be hard to deal with. If he keeps honking his horn, Little Star could only shut the guy down if he accepts the fight. If not, others would think Little Star is too scared to fight, which means Star of Jupiter would get some of his face back. Then he would come bothering A-Bai next.”

Pure White Sun huffed, “So let’s find a way to teach him a lesson, and kick him out of the new server.”

“This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Today’s netizens are all exceptionally schemers. If we teamed up on him, he would definitely make us a laughing-stock once we had been found out.” Inked Sun said while clicking his tongue. “He only lost one game, why must he take it so far?”

Pure White Sun sighed, “That’s how he is. He doesn’t want his reputation to be damaged.”

“Or maybe his loss was too ugly?” Sunken Moon brought this up with interest. “Little Star, how did you beat him?”

Yue Ran helplessly went over everything that happened in the battle that day.

The other listened silently.

Star of Jupiter bit the dust was a good description of the fight result…he didn’t over-exaggerate at all.

Star of Jupiter was probably climbing the arena in a rush. If he lost a game by a small margin, he would not make a fuss. Now, he only had himself to blame for losing that horrendously through his own carelessness, just as he started riding on his second-place victory, how could he bear it?

Yue Ran circled back. “Now what? Fight him?”

Sunken Moon asked, “Can you do it?”

Yue Ran truthfully replied, “I don’t think so.”

Star of Jupiter’s second runner up achievement was not all for the show, plus he was most likely running on an adrenaline high right now. Last time, Yue Ran managed to freeze him and connected with a series of free, critical hits. If they were to compete again, the result could swing either way.

Yue Ran concluded, “I’ll just do best two out of three. If I lose, I lose.”

PK between the masters, the outcome could never be always positive. He was the winner and the loser between fights with his friends.

“Look how imposing our Little Star is.” Inked Sun chuckled. “If he wants to fight, he fights. Not hesitating at all!”

“So you made up your mind?” Sunken Moon reminded, “If you win one of the three matches. Others would guess you are the real Dying Star when we clarify.”

Yue Ran: “…”

That was true.

Inked Sun was surprised. “Little Star doesn’t want to expose himself?”

Pure White Sun answered for his friend, “Yes, he wanted to stay low-key.”

Inked Sun cried, “Low-key! How could a master stay low-key? It’s impossible to hide Little Star’s sharp style.”

Yue Ran stayed quiet.

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[(Private) Star of Jupiter: Hello my fellow master friend, when do you have time for a rematch?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Are you that bothered by my victory over you?]

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: Of course not. I want a rematch with you because of your good skill and I want to learn from you.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Too fake.]

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: I’m being serious.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: My friend told me that you used horns to force me to accept the fight, otherwise, others would say that I’m too scared to fight you. Even if I don’t fight, you would regain your reputation.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: A magnificent great god being so serious with a normal player like myself…]

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: That wasn’t my intention, really! I didn’t think much of it at that time (rofl).]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: I see, then will you send more horn messages in the future?]

Star of Jupiter remained silent for the moment.

Yue Ran succeeded in making the other speechless, as he posted the screenshots of the conversation in ‘all chat’.

His friends almost died of laughter.

Little Star was not a man of many hard words in the past. Who knew that three years later, he gained the skill to choke people with his words.

Inked Sun just had to cherish this precious moment. “Little Star, come here, come come, let this brother kiss you!”

Yue Ran immediately stepped back, getting as far away as he could from this old-stinky hoodlum.

Inked Sun was unmoved by the other’s heartless action. He moved his character to the little summoner for a big hug. Then he explained how Star of Jupiter might avoid the important and dwell on the trivial, and would insist on a rematch. They needed to delay a few days so they could come up with something.

It didn’t take long for Star of Jupiter to reply. He didn’t acknowledge the last question. He just sincerely expressed that he did admire Yue Ran’s strength and wanted to fight again.

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Alright, I messed up on my sixth’s refinement today, give me a few days to tweak it.]

[(Private) Star of Jupiter: Okay, I’ll wait for your update.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: ‘Kay.]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: You haven’t answered my last question about whether you’re going to use horns in the future.]

Star of Jupiter went offline instantly.

Now feeling more at ease, Yue Ran shared the latest progress with others.

Because of the uncertainty about the direction of things, Yue Ran wanted to get more of his feeling back, so he started to practice with others. Until he went to sleep at midnight.

He slept till half past seven.

He glanced at his phone and saw no reply from Jiang Xiao, so he got up to do his morning routine and then eat.

Deng Ling didn’t have the benefit of summer vacation like Yue Shizhong, who was a university professor.

She had been busy recently. After her son was discharged, she went on a business trip. Now there were only the father and son at home. Yue Shizhong cooked millet porridge for his son, accompanied by exquisite, small side dishes, and sat face to face with his son for breakfast. Naturally, their conversation was about the game.

Yue Shizhong shared, “I found Tempest’s livestream account. His last stream was three months ago.”

Yue Ran asked, “Is that so?”

Yue Shizhong said, “Yes, according to the time stamp.”

He was puzzled. “Doesn’t the host have to livestream every day?”

Yue Ran explained, “It looks like the contract he signed didn’t have a fixed time schedule. He can stream whenever he wants.”

“Oh, so that’s an option too,” Yue Shizhong felt like he gained more new knowledge. “Casual streaming, that means I won’t even know if I can ever see him livestream.”

Yue Ran murmured, “He has to stream eventually, maybe soon from how long it has been since he livestreamed.”

After a simple but healthy breakfast, Yue Shizhong cleaned up the table and went to wash the dishes.

Yue Ran returned to his bedroom and turned on his laptop, and he happened to hear a ping from his phone.

[Jiang Xiao: Are you up?]

[Yue Ran: Yes, just finished breakfast.]

[Jiang Xiao: What happened?]

[Yue Ran: Are you Tempest?]

[Jiang Xiao: Sunken Moon told you?]

[Yue Ran: Yes.]

[Jiang Xiao: I am.]

[Yue Ran: …]

[Jiang Xiao: Did that surprise you?]

[Yue Ran: I’m Dying Star.]

[Jiang Xiao: …]

[Yue Ran: Did that surprise you?]

Jiang Xiao didn’t reply.

Instead, he called and asked for the details.

So Yue Ran told him the stupid aftermath caused by Sunken Moon and Pure White Sun, and also how they revealed his identity to Inked Sun. So in conclusion, “They said you found a wife on the new server, you see where I’m going with this? In the future, talk to me as little as possible, do not expose us.”

Jiang Xiao was silent for a few seconds and took the initiative to explain that certain duo event so the little summoner would not hear it from others’ mouths.

He said, “The game may hold a 2v2 tournament at the end of the year. Last time I ran instance dungeons with them, they asked for my thoughts, and I told them I’d be teaming with a summoner.”

Yue Ran: “…”

Then he reacted immediately, “So they know you’re going to team up with your wife in the competition?”

Jiang Xiao stated, “Yes.”

“Well, I’m not going,” Yue Ran rejected right away. “You can go find yourself another summoner. If I form a team with you, the cat would be out of the bag!”

Jiang Xiao knew Yue Ran would respond like this, and he kind of wanted to chop Sunken Moon and Pure White Sun into pieces.

He told himself to successfully court the wife first, then revisit this, so he didn’t pursue this and gave a faint, “Okay”.

A fleeting thought of how senior was really a good man passed Yue Ran’s head as he changed the topic, “But the way, why do you never livestream?”

Jiang Xiao answered, “Not interested. Why?”

Yue Ran wondered, “Nothing, just curious how you look when you’re streaming.”

Jiang Xiao would pretend to not see the pleading requests from any other person, even if they cried him a river.

But if his wife was curious, he must meet his future wife’s needs! Jiang Xiao informed the younger man, “I’ll livestream tonight.”

Yue Ran was stumped for words.

His goal was to persuade Jiang Xiao to livestream at least once, but he didn’t think that the other person would agree to it this easily. He was a little unsettled. “Aren’t you busy lately?”

Jiang Xiao said, “I have a bit of free time in the evening. Plus, I have remained silent for too long.”

Yue Ran was thrilled. “Then, I’ll be watching for sure.”

A faint smile appeared on Jiang Xiao’s face as he chatted with his little summoner for a while before hanging up.

On this trip, he used the excuse of changing planes to see Yue Ran. To further cover up his excuse, he didn’t go online during the day. This dragged on until eight in the evening when he sent a message to Yue Ran as a heads up. Then he logged on to his dusty platform account and then on his main account.

Two minutes later, the whole server was shaking like an earthquake of a high magnitude that was caused by a single source.

[(Horn) XXX: Tempest is online and livestreaming ahhhh!]

The new players were in the dark, while the older players—especially the fans—were very shocked and abandoned their games to open Tempest’s livestream. Yue Ran, who already pulled his father to sit in front of the monitor, also entered the livestream room. They watched how insane the messages were and the flying donations from all directions. Both seemed to be coming in endlessly.

Yue Shizhong didn’t know this was possible because of his son’s effort, thinking only how lucky it was for him to catch the livestream. He was shocked speechless upon seeing this scene. “There are so many people!”

Yue Ran agreed, “Yes, he and Pure White Sun are very popular because closed combat job classes are very enjoyable to watch.”

Of course, the fact that he rarely streamed might be one of the contributing factors, which made all the fans hungry for more. Now that they finally had the opportunity to spend money on their idol, they would naturally throw money at their screen.

However, Jiang Xiao never showed his face, and seldom turned on his mic. Yue Ran felt that if his senior showed his face at least once, the fans would go ballistic.

Some alpha’s natural advantages were impossible to not be envied. His senior probably belonged to those classified as superior genes. As he quietly pondered, he took a peek at his father, who was watching the stream attentively. So he used his phone and logged on to the platform to send some donations to his senior, or he would feel bad for troubling his senior.

Jiang Xiao stared at the livestream and didn’t know which one was from his little summoner.

But this didn’t affect his mood. Just knowing that his junior was watching him made him happy enough.

However, the good mood only lasted until ten o’clock.

After ten o’clock, two hours into his stream, he ignored the fans’ begging requests and turned off his stream. He logged on to the new server to look for the little summoner for a chat, instead, the other was playing with someone else.

[(Private) Formless Slash: Is that your friend who plays swordsman?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Yes.]

In dejection, Jiang Xiao tried to see if they could do instance dungeons together. Before he could send the message, he saw the player ahead was the little summoner, who was really accompanied by a swordsman whose character ID was ‘Anonymous Guardian’.

Just as he spotted them, he saw the swordsman run to the younger man and hug him. He narrowed his eyes dangerously.

Under his son’s guidance, Yue Shizhong opened the gesture window and found a whole new world. He then clicked on {head pat} and gave his son’s virtual character a head pat. He said smiling, “This feels so realistic.”

Yue Ran mumbled a response and caught a glimpse of his senior not far away. He didn’t want to appear too weak-minded, so he took his father away.

The next moment, he received a new in-game message.

[(Private) Formless Slash: I just saw you, was that your friend?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: Yes, he just started.]

[(Private) Formless Slash: You guys seem close. Is he also an Omega?]

[(Private) A- – – – Killer: No, he is an alpha. He’s also a fan of yours. He was watching your livestream just now.]

Jiang Xiao: “…”

No wonder the little summoner brought up his livestream today.

It turned out that his stream today was for that swordsman’s eyes.

Translator has something to add:

Teo: Kitty, thank you so much for the ko-fi (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)!

To all the reader who was anticipating for the big reveal, it only took one chapter of wait uwu.