CH 1

Yue Ran sat on the patient chair, silently looking at the doctor. 

The person in front of him was holding the lab test result, and had been reading through it for over five minutes, as if immersed in another world.

At the sixth minute, the doctor put down the clipboard as he finally faced his patient.

Yue Ran asked, “How does it look? What’s wrong with me?”

The doctor pushed his glasses up his nose and continued to stare at him. 

Seeing the pity in those eyes, Yue Ran guessed worriedly, “Am I dying?”

“No.” The doctor replied.

“I am actually an alpha?”

“No.”

“Then…” Yue Ran was puzzled.

Stopping him from thinking of the worst, the doctor concluded, “You are not sick, in fact, you are very healthy.”

Yue Ran said, “If I am not sick, why am I needed here?”

“It’s just that, your pheromones are a special case, and it might be a mutated kind, but it’s not harmful to your body.” The doctor unfolded the result, “I will give you an example. Cats like catnip, but humans are not attracted to catnip’s scent, that doesn’t mean there is a problem with the catnip.” 

Yue Ran quietly processed the information. “What you mean is…”

The doctor gave him an affirmative response as he studied the omega before him.

The young man had a very slim figure, and was wearing a light coloured t-shirt and jeans. Overall, he possessed a spotless and stylish appearance. Under closer inspection, ‘beautiful’ was the perfect term to describe his facial features—a very common trait of omega.

However… 

The pity in the doctor’s eyes increased tenfold. “The day you came for the blood test, we experimented with your pheromone on an alpha in the hospital who didn’t have a pair. Whether they are doctors or patients, your pheromone repelled them. At first, we thought it was an issue with your gland, but the test result showed you are very healthy.”

Yue Ran: “…”

The doctor comforted, “Don’t worry, your pheromone only repels alphas, not betas or omegas.”

“I already know that.” Yue Ran said, “Anyway, it’s incurable, right?” 

The doctor explained, “It’s not an illness, consider it as a mutation.”

Yue Ran stood up. “Okay, I think I got it.”

Worrying for his mental health, the doctor followed him out and suggested, “There are many excellent betas out there, there is no rule that an omega has to find an alpha partner.”

“I know.” Yue Ran said. 

The doctor’s eyes followed his patient out the door and he sighed at the same time.

The proportion between alpha and omega was becoming more and more unbalanced. It was reported that over ten million alpha were living as bachelors around the world and it was predicted the number would only continue to increase. In these circumstances, it was extremely easy for an omega to find a partner.

But Yue Ran’s pheromone repels alphas, which was extremely frightening because omega and alpha were naturally attracted to each other. If Yue Ran fell in love with an alpha in the future, it would only end in heartbreak. The more pheromone Yue Ran released, the more repulsed the alpha would be. They can’t stay in the same room together, let alone sleeping on the same bed.

It was really tragic for this miserable omega to end up like this. 

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That was when he started to dislike alphas. He didn’t know the reason. At first, he thought it was due to puberty or incompatibility of temperament, but when alphas started to treat him overbearingly, all he wanted to do was punch those alpha’s faces. Over the years, he had a lot of fights with alphas—he wouldn’t have adapted to his situation now if he didn’t learn from this experience with alphas. 

However, because of an omega’s inherently weaker nature, the government issued several relevant protectionist policies, which they established with their earnest efforts. So now Yue Ran was neither the opposite of society, nor did he feel like being an omega was bad. Rather, he was like millions of ordinary people living their ordinary lives, as they count the days when they meet an alpha that they want to marry and start a family with.

Before today, he planned to find a decent alpha at the university and start dating. Now, reality had given him a painful wake-up call. He feared he had no chance with an alpha in this life.

Not the end of the world.

He can always find a beta. 

Yue Ran quietly comforted himself as he put his hands in his jeans pockets and walked down to the subway station.

Being the height of summer vacation, gleeful students were scattered everywhere in the subway’s shopping mall.

When Yue Ren got on his subway train and found a seat, he looked forward and saw a student couple sitting across from him sharing something on a smartphone, very sweet. He grabbed the armrest and when he turned around; he faced another couple with their fingers interlocked, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. He looked away and happened to spot a third couple in the corner, they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

Yue Ran: “…” 

Was he seeing things?

Why did it fucking feel like everyone around him was in a loving relationship?

As a single dog with their marriage line cut off, he felt that even the air carried a light scent of lemon sourness. He might as well be a phubber and ignore his surroundings, out of sight, out of mind. Then he heard two notification sounds from his phone. Checking the locked screen, he received two messages on WeChat.

Unlocking his phone, one message was from his buffoon of an older cousin, and the second one came from Xiao Yu. 

[Buffoon: Didn’t you say you wanted to play martial arts heroes again? Hurry on getting an account and come find me.]

[Xiao Yu: Did you get your test result? What did the doctor say?]

Yue Ran quickly messaged his friend back: [He said it was a mutation.]

No new notification came from his phone. Instead, he received an incoming call. 

The moment he accepted the call, he heard Xiao Yu’s anxious voice through the speaker, “What’s the deal?”

Yue Ran replied, “I am in the subway right now, we can talk more when we meet the day after tomorrow.”

After a brief silence, Xiao Yu cautiously said, “Okay, the doctor…he said nothing else? Is it major?”

Yue Ran, “No.” 

Nothing that would affect his health, other than he could never fuck with an alpha.

Xiao Yu heaved a sigh of relief. “I am glad to hear that.”

Yue Ran said, “Okay, then see you soon.”

Xiao Yu stopped him, “Wait, Xiao Yang won’t be coming, we need to move the date.” 

Startled, Yue Ran asked, “Is he okay?”

Laughing mysteriously, Xiao Yu chuckled, “You wanna take a guess?”

Yue Ran raised his eyebrows.

He, Xiao Yu, and Xiao Yang were all omegas. They have been together since kindergarten to K12. Although they didn’t apply to the same university, they were still in the same university city. The relationship they built up was like a family. 

Both Xiao Yu and Xiao Yang have alpha boyfriends, and they were the reason he went to get a physical checkup. The alpha boyfriends tactfully mentioned to his friends that there was something wrong with his pheromones. Listening to their advice, he went to the hospital after finishing his college entrance examination.

They finally endured their last year of high school and scheduled a get-together the day after tomorrow. They never thought one of them wouldn’t be able to go just days before.

Definitely not running away with his boyfriend. After all, they planned this fun meet up together. Could it be…he blurted with a sudden realization, “His first time?”

Xiao Yu laughed. “You got it.” 

It was really the first estrus period!

Omegas would get their first estrus period around the age of seventeen to eighteen. Most of them would choose to delay the symptoms by taking a suppressant. Only a few would find a partner to mark them. Listening to his friend’s tone, Xiao Yang obviously picked the latter.

“He just turned eighteen and already settled this early?” Yue Ran said in surprise.

Xiao Yu added, “He likes him, and both of their parents have met.” 

Yue Ren asked, “What about you?”

“I still haven’t decided yet.” Xiao Yu’s voice carried a faint awkward shyness, as sweetness seeped out of his tone. “But if it was him, there’s nothing that I would say no to…”

Yue Ren deadpanned, “Oh.”

Everyone around him was really being lovey-dovey! 

Xiao Yu uttered, “But that’s what’s going on, let’s move our meeting up to a later day. After Xiao Yang finished his estrus period.”

“Kay, contact me then.” Yue Ran finished.

He ended the call and replied to his cousin.

[Yue Ran: Coming.] 

[Buffoon: See you at the general store in the west of the main city.]

[Yue Ren: Got it.]

It was just on noon when he arrived home.

He turned on the air conditioning, scouted food in the fridge, and prepared a simple meal with the microwave. As he carried his heated food and sat in front of his computer, he saw the game had just completed its download. 

The full name of the martial arts heroes game was ‘Hero’s Bound’. The word ‘Bound’ referred to the game’s main city’s name, ‘Sacred Bound’. Legend had it that the game owner’s lover created it. All the staff were resigned to their fate as they labeled the magnificent city with this bizarre name.

Even using a strange game title, it weirdly got super popular. Even after its release six years ago, the hype did not die down. The first time Yue Ran picked up the game, it was during his junior high years. Later, between being discovered by his parents and preparing for the senior middle school entrance exam, the game was uninstalled. From then to the time living on the high school campus and completing his college entrance exam, he could finally play the game again.

After three years, many new updates were added to the game.

He read through the information on the official website while eating, then selected the market platform. He intended to buy an account, because grinding for max level was really boring and tedious. 

One of the staff in the pre-owned account section pinged him: [What is the job class the customer is looking for?]

[Yue Ran: Summoner.]

The staff was clearly delighted as six characters’ information and the screenshot were quickly passed to him.

In this game, the job classes were divided into different subclasses, two per job class. It happened that the six accounts were split evenly, three accounts per subclass. 

Wanting to play support, he looked at the character ID of the three options: ‘Wailing Wall’, ‘Smallest Cherry’, and ‘Vault of Heavens Essence<’ …None of them sound pleasing, only the last one sounded the most intimidating, but except for that ambiguous less-than sign at the end.

Am I not up-to-date with trends?

Sitting in front of the computer, Yue Ran silently looked at the screen.

The other party waited for a long time and saw no replies. They initiated: [If the customer is not satisfied, we can do a customized order tailored to your preferences.] 

[Yue Ran: No need.]

[The other party asked: Oh, what kind of account is the customer looking for?]

[Yue Ran replied: Male support.]

[The other party narrowed the options down: ‘Wailing Wall’ and ‘Vault of Heavens Essence<’ are just what you need. ‘Vault of Heavens Essence<’ is even a couple’s account, it happened that someone purchased the other account the other day.] 

[Yue Ran typed in astonishment: You sell the couple’s account separately?]

[The other party informed him: Of course! We have a high demand for them. They wanted to test fate, don’t need to ask. A few of them met their fated one. As the saying goes, ‘a fated match across a thousand miles is drawn by a thread’. With the size of the game, it doesn’t mean the buyers would always find their other half, but if they do, it means fate brought them together. What’s wrong if they don’t end up as a couple! They could always stay as friends!! Would the customer like to purchase this account?]

Looking at the character ID again, he felt this was his best option. He didn’t want to play an account called ‘Wailing Wall’, anyway.

Besides, the ID looked very cool. The other couple’s account would very likely have a cool name as well, maybe even a matching name. Plus, the word ‘fate’ was very tempting. After all, today was the day where everyone was talking about love. 

So his wallet got lighter as he brought the account with joy, took the account information and logged onto the game. Found that the character’s last logout point was in the main city, where players around him were coming and going. His screen was bustling with noise and excitement.

He arrived at the general store, as agreed with his cousin. As he was about to contact the buffoon, he suddenly spotted a swordsman passing by him. He looked at the four words plus the familiar symbol above: ‘>Smashing Vault of Heaven’.

Yue Ran looked back at his own ID: ‘Vault of Heavens Essence<‘

The swordsman probably noticed him as well as the player stopped moving. 

Yue Ran: “…”

The two IDs were clearly intimidating, but together, they became very perverted!

He quietly faced the swordsman, who was also looking at him.

After a dead silence, the swordsman finally made a move. 

[(Local) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Hi.]

Then Yue Ran enabled player killing and dashed toward the player for an attack.

Fuck the saying that lovers across meet from a thousand miles apart.

The group has something to add: 

Teo: For Dark, my editor (Let’s see how long I can translate two projects without going crazy), I hope you enjoy this project.

I will be borrowing terms and style heavily from this old MMO game called Mabinogi (such a toxic game but I loved it). Using it as a baseline would help keep the battle and game mechanic flow more consistent. Also common terms from League of Legend (I put a lot of time into those two games…).

Things to note: character ID shall not be longer than 25 characters, character ID must be comprehensible English translation if possible, and I will keep shorthand gaming terms at a minimum unless it’s common terms like alt (I am not typing alternative account 24/7), let me know if I need to explain any term in the story.

Dark: Loving it lol, you got this Teo <3 

Sahloknir: I lol’d at the gamertags. Poor Yue Ran. On the other hand…maybe he’ll still get his ‘vault’ smashed this way?

Teo: Don’t mind my search history on coming up with their names…