DSMC Chapter 151.1

Yan Jiyun was ultimately dragged back to the classroom by the relentlessly persistent little stick-in-the-mud class monitor without receiving any punishment.

Bravo. Fantastic.

He looked bitterly at the Human Form Time Cards draining away like running water before glaring at the little class monitor.

The class monitor wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. After returning to his seat, he continued working on his embroidery.

Yan Jiyun truly couldn’t bring himself to embroider anymore. He pushed the cloth with his little black cat drawing over to the class monitor. “Class Monitor, help me embroider this, will you?”

The little stick-in-the-mud stayed true to his principles. “No. This is your homework. You have to finish it yourself.”

Yan Jiyun clasped his hands together, putting on the most pitiful expression imaginable. “Please, please? I seriously don’t know how to do this. I’ve already stabbed my fingers twice. If I keep going, my hands are going to be ruined. Class Monitor, you’re the nicest person ever. Help me embroider it! My design is super simple. Look!”

After being bombarded by Yan Jiyun’s enthusiastic pleading, the little class monitor’s unwavering resolve finally began to crack. “I-I’ll… take a look.”

Yan Jiyun immediately shoved the embroidery cloth in front of him. “Can you tell what it is?”

The class monitor hesitated before saying, “A mouse?”

Yan Jiyun felt like this class monitor existed solely to torment him. “It’s a cat! A black cat! Look more carefully! This body, this tail, this color! Isn’t it cool?”

The class monitor frowned thoughtfully. “Oh… I guess it is pretty cool.”

“Oh” your head.

“Class Monitor, you’ve wounded my young heart. If you don’t help me embroider this black cat, I’m going to be very sad.” He stared straight at the boy with the most pitiful expression he could muster.

The little class monitor was finally defeated. “Fine… I’ll help you adjust the drawing first.”

Yan Jiyun immediately nodded. “Mhm, mhm, mhm! As long as you’re helping me, I’ll like it no matter how you change it.”

NPCs were basically AI. Their artistic ability had to be better than his. He wasn’t petty.

“Okay.” 

Apparently pleased by his words, the class monitor picked up a pencil and made a few adjustments. A few minutes later, the mouse-like stick figure on the embroidery cloth had transformed into a vividly lifelike black cat. Not only had he drawn the cat perfectly, he’d also equipped it with an incredibly cool suit of armor.

Somewhat regretfully, he said, “This is about as much as I can improve it.”

Yan Jiyun: …

As expected of an NPC. The kid was a genius.

Compared to the class monitor’s drawing, his own couldn’t even be described as crude anymore. It was downright embarrassing.

Seizing the opportunity, Yan Jiyun pressed further. “Now that you’ve changed it like this, it’s even more impossible for me to embroider. Why don’t you just finish it for me? The teacher isn’t here anyway.”

The little class monitor sighed like a tiny adult. “I’ll embroider the outline for you. You can do the colors yourself.”

Yan Jiyun nodded perfunctorily. “Yay! Thank you!”

One step at a time. If he’d managed to get the class monitor to redraw it, then sooner or later he’d get him to embroider the whole thing too. The little class monitor really seemed capable of everything.

Someone this talented fit Teacher Qu’s “genius” profile perfectly. 

Could he be Teacher Qu as a child? 

But then, what about the poisoning incidents?

This principled, kindhearted, soft-hearted little boy didn’t look anything like a child harboring overwhelming darkness. His personality didn’t seem like someone capable of poisoning others.

Yan Jiyun dragged his chair over beside the class monitor. Resting his chin on one hand, he tilted his head and studied him. “How did you get your name?”

He still didn’t know the boy’s name.

Class Monitor: “My parents gave it to me.”

Yan Jiyun: “…” Fair enough.

Being closer did have one advantage. He could read the embroidered name stitched onto the left side of the boy’s collar. 

Yan Weilan.

Yan Jiyun said, “Don’t you think your name has a lot of strokes?”

Yan Weilan replied, “It’s fine. I’m used to writing it.”

Pointing at the embroidered name, Yan Jiyun asked, “Did you embroider that yourself?”

“No. My mom embroidered it.”

Yan Jiyun immediately switched into praise mode. “Then you must have learned embroidery from your mom. You’re amazing at it. You’re so talented! If you keep this up, you’ll definitely become a master someday, a precious inheritor of traditional embroidery.”

Yan Weilan nodded. The moment he mentioned his mother, his eyes lit up. “Mm. My mom is amazing. She taught me how to embroider.”

This sounded like a child who had grown up wrapped in love. It didn’t match Teacher Qu’s background at all. 

Of course, personalities could split into extremes of absolute goodness and utter evil. Ultimately, it all came down to human nature.

Although the little class monitor was such an adorably stubborn stickler for rules, he still remained on Yan Jiyun’s list of suspects.

After quickly finishing his own project, Yan Weilan began embroidering Yan Jiyun’s armored black cat. Although it was only a simplified version, the finished product was genuinely beautiful.

Of course, a single class period wasn’t enough to make the armor gleam brilliantly. Instead, it looked more like the cat was wearing a knitted winter sweater.

Quietly, Yan Weilan handed the embroidery back. “There wasn’t enough time. This is as far as I could get.”

Yan Jiyun happily accepted it. “This is great, this is great.” Much better than stabbing his own fingers.

Time passed quickly. The arts and crafts teacher suddenly returned and asked whether everyone had finished their projects. Rather than collecting them, she told everyone to take them home.

Although Yan Jiyun had burned through quite a few Human Form Time Cards during this class, he’d also gained quite a bit.

The moment he heard they didn’t have to hand in the embroidery, he immediately shoved it back into Yan Weilan’s hands with a casual excuse. “Class Monitor, help me make it even more awesome.”

Yan Weilan looked down at the embroidery that had suddenly been stuffed into his arms. He froze. “Why won’t you embroider it yourself?”

“Because yours looks better.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Yan Weilan reluctantly agreed. “…Okay.”

Before he could say anything else, Yan Jiyun had already run off toward the front.

Watching him happily chatting with students from the neighboring class, Yan Weilan quietly pursed his lips.

Yan Jiyun had actually spotted Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi. Everyone had spent the class period gathering information.

The five of them found a quiet corner and compared notes.

Lan Mo was in Class 1, so he spoke first. “Our class has 41 kids including me, so 40 besides me. I’m not sure how many are players yet. There are probably around 35 real NPCs. I paid attention to the students who were active in class and the troublemakers, but none of them really stood out. One student worth noting is that there’s a kid who’s been coughing nonstop. I secretly asked around, and apparently he was sick not long ago.”

Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi were both in Class 2. Gu Wenzhu did the talking. His report was much more organized and complete than Lan Mo’s. He first told Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng what had happened at the infirmary.

“When we got there, the child who had already fainted suddenly went berserk. Even the doctor and nurse couldn’t hold him down. They couldn’t inject the sedative, and he escaped. The child ran around aimlessly. The three of us chased him behind the cafeteria building. There we found him lying on the ground, growling back and forth with a stray dog outside the fence. After he scared the dog away, he noticed us, and that’s when we triggered a side mission.”

Yan Jiyun asked, “You completed the side mission?”

Lan Mo nodded. “We did. We had to outrun the rabid kid. He almost bit us. In the end, we knocked him unconscious with something before we could escape. After completing it, the illness became much more severe. The commotion attracted other teachers. A PE teacher passing by knocked the kid out, and the doctor sent him to the hospital. The three of us were discovered by teachers and dragged back. You probably saw us when we passed your classroom.”

That was exactly what had happened. The three of them had been marched back to class by the homeroom teachers of Classes 1 and 2 like naughty children.

Qi Feng said, “The NPCs in this scenario have an incredibly easy time dealing with us. They can completely suppress our actions.”

Gu Wenzhu nodded. “It’s troublesome. Very different from the high school scenario, though it does make sense.”

Yan Jiyun asked, “Did your Class 2 have any particularly outstanding students? I remember one of the poisoned students came from your class.”

“Poisoned?” Gu Wenzhu frowned. “It seemed more like rabies. Can poisoning even cause rabies?” 

Yan Jiyun explained, “Qi Feng and I found a collection of medical records in the infirmary. Four students fainted or vomited over the past half month. The rabid child you mentioned was Zhou Zhou. He fainted twice, and as for whether he had rabies the first time, we don’t know. Yu Fei from Class 1 and Qian Duoduo from Class 2 also had the same symptoms. The Class 4 student is named Liu Xueying. None of us are assigned to Class 4, so we can’t investigate directly. Everyone should try gathering information indirectly.”

Gu Wenzhu answered immediately. “Qian Duoduo is our class monitor.” He really was quick at collecting information.

Lan Mo added, “Yu Fei is our class monitor too.” 

Yan Jiyun turned toward Qi Feng. “And Zhou Zhou from your class?”

Qi Feng nodded. “That’s right. But after he got sick, the vice class monitor took over his position.”

He and Qiu Xi had been listening to everyone else talk the whole time. Since Qiu Xi wasn’t in a position to speak much, Gu Wenzhu’s ability to organize information was more than enough. The two of them had basically become a fixed duo by now. Fortunately, the trash game hadn’t deliberately separated them.

Gu Wenzhu said, “If that’s the case, then Liu Xueying from Class 4 might also be the class monitor. The class monitor of every class seems to end up collapsing. It really could be poisoning, while Zhou Zhou might genuinely have rabies. That only leaves the class monitors of Classes 3 and 5.”

Everyone turned to look at Yan Jiyun from Class 3.

Yan Jiyun said, “I just had an arts and crafts class and spent some time with our little class monitor. He’s a very quiet little boy with a soft heart. The kids in our class listen to him, and he’s very smart. He doesn’t strike me as the type of child who’d do bad things.”

Lan Mo said, “We can’t judge based on intuition.”

Yan Jiyun didn’t argue. Lan Mo was right, but the fact that his intuition was usually accurate was also true. There was simply no need to explain that to everyone.

Qi Feng said, “Next we’ll probably need to make contact with Class 5’s class monitor. I’m close to Class 5, so I can keep an eye on him whenever I pass by.”

Yan Jiyun said, “There’s only one class left today.”

Qi Feng nodded. “I’ve already looked into how the school operates. It’s a fully enclosed boarding elementary school. Classes end at 5 PM, followed by dinner and showers. Evening study starts at 7 and ends at 8.20. Lights out is at 8.50. Also, everyone should pay attention to one thing tonight: there’ll be plenty of teachers and dorm supervisors checking the dormitories.”

Everyone understood immediately. If they wanted to sneak out and investigate at night, they’d have to be especially careful of the teachers and dorm supervisors. In this scenario, those NPCs had tremendous authority.

The setting was just too damn realistic. No matter how capable a third grader was, there was no beating an adult.