Mutated Pheromones - CH 5

After hearing Yue Ran retell what the doctor said in detail, Deng Ling’s expression relaxed slightly, and Yue Shizhong’s heart also settled back to its normal rate. He reached out and squeezed his son’s shoulder, feeling a sense of recovering what was lost.

Deng Ling asked, “He said nothing else?”

Yue Ran replied, “No.”

Yue Shizhong squeezed the bony shoulder again, but still wasn’t completely relieved. “They only tested your pheromone, right?”

Yue Ran confirmed, “Yes.”

His father decided, “I will take you to the hospital tomorrow for a full-body examination.”

There could be something else wrong with his son, and the mutated pheromone could be just one of the complications.

Yue Ran said uncertainty, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“There’s no harm in being extra careful,” Yue Shizhong coaxed.

His mother teamed up with her husband, “Listen to your father.”

The always obedient Yue Ran agreed like a good boy.

Yue Shizhong stroked his son’s head, recalled the mutated pheromone traits and frowned, “You said the alphas from school were not attracted to you. Did they bully you?”

Yue Ran murmured, “They didn’t, they just didn’t want to play with me.”

And occasionally picked on him, to his annoyance…he added in his heart, something he didn’t want to share.

After all, he was an omega. The alphas would bother him, but would not go as far as physical bullying. Only a few idiots made him feel irritated, and he made sure to return the favour. He could deal with these trivial things himself and didn’t need to bring them up.

But even so, Yue Shizhong still felt that his son had been greatly wronged.

Ran Ran was good-looking and very obedient, and they don’t want to interact with him? Those alphas must be blind!

He was very distressed for his son. “If any alpha bullies you in college, let Dad know, Dad will make their lives a living hell.”

Yue Ran gave another affirmative response.

Although his father was a professor, he didn’t look like a professor at home, and he was fiercely protective of his little family. He could only agree and follow along with his Dad’s request, or else his Dad might do something childish.

Yue Shizhong patted his son’s head like a precious treasure. Such a good boy. He remembered his son was going to the same college as Xiujie, thus he planned to give Xiujie a proper talk, so he would look after Ran Ran.

After dinner, Yue Ran chatted with his parents, then he went back to his room and launched the game. Yue Shizhong, washed a plate of finger size fruits and carried it into the room. He happened to look at the screen. “Didn’t you play this game before? What was the name again?”

Yue Ran gave his father a ‘yes’ and lifted his head to look his old man in the eye. “I have finished the college entrance examination.”

Implication: I can play this now.

Yue Shizhong wasn’t scolding him, but he was asking for another reason. “Do you like it?”

Yue Ran replied sincerely, “Yes I do.”

His father processed everything.

If this game is still on his son’s mind after three years, he must like it very much. But he remembered when they made their son delete his account because of his report card results. Ran Ran deleted the account with a calm face. Later, he secretly observed his son for several days and felt relieved when seeing his son buried in his books, studying.

But…Ran Ran must have said nothing so as not to upset them.

Llr vjgilcu rbc kjr rb atbeutaoei, rb wemt atja la tega!

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“Tfr, sbe mjc,” Tef Vtlhtbcu cbvvfv tlr tfjv tjralis jcv qjaafv tlr rbc’r rtbeivfg qgbevis, sfa rjvis. “Df eq ogbca klat er bc ktja sbe kjca, vbc’a xffq fnfgsatlcu lcrlvf. Po sbe tjv abiv er atf ageat, kf kbeivc’a tjnf obgmfv sbe ab vfifaf sbeg jmmbeca, kf kbeiv tjnf mbwf eq klat j rbiealbc—ilxf sbe mjc qijs atf ujwf veglcu atf rewwfg bg klcafg njmjalbc.”

Yue Ran blinked slowly. “…Ah?”

“What are you ah-ing about? I and your mother would not raise you under a dictatorship. We thought you were not very interested in it, we really thought it was just a phase.” Seeing that the game had finished loading, Yue Shizong said tenderly, “You continue with your game. Dad won’t bother you any further but don’t get too absorbed in the game, and no staying up late.”

Yue Ran silently watched his father exit his room, and listened to the door shutting, only then did he come back to his senses.

How was he supposed to explain it to his parents? At that time, he was a little tsundere with high self-esteem and eighth-grader syndrome on top of that. Even if it was heart-wrenching, he must maintain his unfeeling image!

He thought the morning was bad enough. Who knew there was something worse lurking for him in the evening.

He resolutely beat his chest with his fist to release the unbearable weight, and tried to regain his relaxed mood from napping. This time even eating two boxes of ice cream won’t cure his mood.

Not good, he must rely on himself.

He had to find something fun.

He entered the game, ignored the greetings in the guild chat, and went to a random instant dungeon.

He had to act differently from his normal self with his guildmates. He didn’t want to do this right now. Instead, he intended to mingle in random parties and get materials for refinement.

The game was more active at night, and there were players everywhere looking for members or parties. He quickly found a party and followed them into an instant dungeon.

They defeated waves of weak monsters and entered the boss’ room. Only to see the player in charge of pulling aggro rush forward to the boss and hit it twice. The healer followed the first player to heal his damaged health, and the boss changed its target and made a clean sweep of the entire party.

Yue Ran revived at the instant dungeon lobby with a blank face.

The healer was obviously new and left the party in guilt. Another party member got frustrated from the failed run and also left the party. Thus the party was disbanded in no time.

He swallowed a mouthful of blood.

No worries, he could find another party.

Two minutes later, he joined another random party, he soon learned that everyone but himself were new players. As an old player who hadn’t touched the game for three years, he couldn’t carry all four players by himself, so after the party got annihilated, he immediately left the party.

In another two minutes, he joined his third party.

This time, he got more experienced members. The only annoying thing was one member boasting about Dying Star the whole time. He couldn’t hold back asking what was so great about Dying Star and a text box immediately appeared on his screen—[You have been removed from the party by the party leader (I am Support).]

Fuck!

Yue Ran ferociously beat his chest again to endure this.

You gain wisdom from failure! He wandered for a long time and found a party composed of close friends and he entered the dungeon with them, finally at ease.

But he spoke too soon. This was a casual group that was created not too long ago. Several of them would use funny gestures or actions after killing small mobs and take screenshots. When they finally arrived at the boss, who would have guessed that no one knew how to fight the boss. With one ultimate skill, the boss wiped them out.

But everyone was amused by their annihilation, they laughed heartily and got ready for round two.

Yue Ran clicked on the ‘leave party’ option with a blank face. He watched people coming and going through the dungeon entrance. He quietly exited out of the dungeon lobby and climbed the high mountain by the entrance, quietly reached an overhanging cliff, and quietly took a step forward…

Jiang Xiao and Qin Xiujie just returned from dinner.

The summer night still held a torrid heat, and both of them were drenched in sweat.

He let Qin Xiujie have the first shower and turned on his screen to see his character AFK fishing on top of a boulder. As he cancelled the skill and was about to move his character, he saw a player smack onto the ground and turned into the familiar corpse-like portrayal of a knocked unconscious player.

Jiang Xiao: “…”

He moved his camera upward to look at the tall mountain, and back down at the character ID, silently.

Yue Ran selected ‘revive here’ to revive directly on the spot where he was rendered unconscious and wanted to find another cliff to jump off. When he rotated his camera, he saw someone standing beside him.

He quietly looked at the other.

Jiang Xiao also looked at him silently. Seeing that the other player was staying quiet, he started the conversation with a question.

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: What were you doing?]

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

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Is jumping off a cliff fun?]

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

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: …]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Where is my cousin?]

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: In the shower.]

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

Jiang Xiao saw the text bubbles popping out. Most of them were a single word. Thinking of the little summoner throwing a tantrum, acting coquettishly and using various emoji in the guild chat. He suddenly felt the little summoner was a little pitiful.

[(Private)] >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Not in a good mood?]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: No.]

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Want to do a dungeon with me?]

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Fuck no!]

Whoever brings up an instant dungeon, he would unleash his rage on that person!

Well, that was one more word with an exclamation mark too.

Jiang Xiao scrolled through the guild chat and saw Yue Ran did not respond to the guild members. Jiang Xiao predicted the omega must have joined random parties and was overwhelmed by the weirdos.

This little summoner was very easy to read. He must also be staring at the screen with his big, puffy eyes right now.

Jiang Xiao grinned slightly and typed out a series of words.

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Want to do an arena with me?]

Yue Ran reflected on his prior experiences and agreed.

Players can earn points from winning the arena and can exchange those accumulated points for materials. Since his senior was a guild leader, he should not be screwed over like the instant dungeon.

The two went to the nearest arena entrance and selected double battle.

The arena was divided into nine ranks. The higher a player climbs, the harder their opponents become. Their new accounts did not have arena points, so they had to start from the first rank.

The arena had voice chat.

The moment Yue Ran joined the chat, he heard a deep voice. “Listen to my commands later.”

Yue Ran replied with a ‘kay’, saw the game successfully found an opponent and sat up straighter.

It turned out he was right.

This senior was really not a fraud—very strong in fact. He only needed to sit back and provide a buff or throw out status effects.

In a blink of an eye, they won their ninth match, and Yue Ran gradually recovered a little bit of his feel for the game.

The last match was starting soon, and their match was a swordsman/healer combination team.

The two types of swordsman job class were heavy blade and long blade.

The former had a high defence, commonly used for pulling aggro. While the latter had an average defence, but high in attack and mainly used for maximizing damage output. The type of swordsman Jiang Xiao played was a heavy blade against a long sword type that their opponent was playing.

Although the heavy blade had fewer combat skills, as long as they could lock down the healer, the victory was in the bag.

Jiang Xiao quickly analyzed the situation. As he was about to give a command, the little summoner waved his staff and summoned an Ice Spirit at the healer, instantly freezing their foe in place. Followed closely by calling out a spirit beast and buffed his critical attack.

He immediately praised without hesitation, “Nice.”

Although his partner could not keep up with the rhythm at first, he hadn’t missed a single skill. He had a very sharp instinct hidden within.

Still somewhat shaky though, maybe from a long hiatus?

These were only his speculations. Throughout his observation, not once did he stop his fingers, as he quickly knocked the swordsman across to the corner and rendered the player unconscious. They successfully took this match.

A horizontal message popped up: [Congratulations on winning ten matches in a row. Proceed to the bonus elite match?]

The two stared at the message, stumped for words.

In the first rank, when a player won ten matches in a row, they can advance to the second rank.

But this game’s arena had a very interesting setting. If a player won ten games in a row in the lower ranks, there was a lottery system that had a chance to draw that player to enter a match against a player in the higher ranks. If the player won the match, the player would skip ranks and receive corresponding points. If the player loses, no points would be deducted and no progress would be lost. They would rank and advance like normal.

The system obviously drew them, and they have an opportunity to challenge a higher rank team.

Jiang Xiao asked, “Accept?”

Yue Ran didn’t even need to consider. “Yes.”

Jiang Xiao did what he was told and clicked ‘accept’.

They were transported to the bonus elite match area.

[Looking for a match. Please wait.]

[Match found.]

[Opponent: Sunken Moon, Dying Star.]

Translator has something to add:

Future Teo: Hello, I learned that I mistranslated Star Destroyer’s name. The raw is ‘星滅’ which is star + to extinguish or wipe out. But instead of being the one who destroyed the star, he is the destroyed star. So the new name for Star Destroyer is ‘Dying Star’. I guess that’s one good thing about working ahead, catching my mistake very early on…