DSMC Chapter 162

[Want to be Human] Livestream channel:

“Level 5 streamer, what is he doing? Did he really get caught that easily?”

“I went over to the Level 5 streamer’s livestream for a while. Everyone there said he’s really smart, and Kitty Baby seems to think highly of him too. I trust the kitty, and I trust the Level 5 streamer who loves Kitty Baby. Things definitely aren’t that simple.”

“I feel like Mimi is about to clear the [Innocence] instance!”

“Yan Weilan’s favorability is still just a little short of 100. I think the instance probably won’t end until Kitty Baby maxes it out. That’s based on what I’ve observed from Kitty Baby’s instance runs.”

“Then by that logic, I can also conclude that Mimi gets a new ending every time he maxes out an NPC’s favorability. Hahahahaha!”

“This instance doesn’t even need to wait until the end. He’s already unlocked a new main storyline. Isn’t a new ending just around the corner?”

“I’m dying. I feel like Mimi might subconsciously dislike the plot and difficulty the game has arranged, so he personally adjusts the instance’s plot and difficulty every time.”

Although Yan Jiyun was thinking about killing all the NPCs and rescuing Qi Feng, he also knew that Qi Feng wouldn’t recklessly put himself in danger just for the sake of the mission.

Yan Jiyun himself didn’t dare transform back into human form right now either. What if he misunderstood Qi Feng’s intentions and messed up? Wouldn’t that just drag Qi Feng down?

Yan Jiyun was very experienced when it came to hiding in offices.

Fortunately, they had chosen the first floor, so he could still determine directions through sound.

He just couldn’t figure out what Qi Feng was planning. Was he trying to draw out the person behind all this?

The parents charged aggressively into the office. Yan Jiyun was extremely worried that they might hurt Qi Feng. He had already prepared the item in his hand. The moment they dared to attack Qi Feng, he would throw it out and make their eyes burn.

But just as the parents were preparing to confront Qi Feng, Yan Weicheng, who had been watching the commotion outside moments ago, suddenly appeared.

He hadn’t come to plead for his younger brother. He had come with the expression of someone who had already won.

Sure enough, just as Yan Jiyun had guessed, Yan Weicheng genuinely hated his own younger brother.

If Yan Jiyun hadn’t already known about Teacher Qu’s split personalities, who would have thought that Yan Weicheng was the true mastermind behind this instance?

Judging by common sense and all the cases of identical twins or triplets people had heard about in the real world, most of the information was positive. Twins and triplets not only looked alike and each other’s closest allies, but were also said to have some mysterious kind of telepathic connection. The system that created this instance had clearly taken advantage of that information gap between the players and the NPCs.

Yan Jiyun heard Yan Weicheng suddenly say to the group of parents, “I’m Yan Weilan’s older brother. Please don’t blame him just because he did something wrong. He’s still young and will correct his mistakes. My parents and I will make sure to teach him properly. We can even have him transfer to another school.”

Yan Weicheng’s words were incredibly well-crafted. The moment he opened his mouth, he essentially admitted that Yan Weilan was guilty.

At first listen, there seemed to be nothing wrong with what he said. Everyone already believed that Yan Weilan had poisoned students in the same grade. But in reality, every single word Yan Weicheng said was pushing Yan Weilan further into the abyss.

Was his real goal to make Yan Weilan transfer schools?

As for where Yan Weilan would transfer, probably anywhere was fine as long as he stopped taking up his position at school. Perhaps Yan Weilan would have a miserable life after transferring.

Yan Jiyun still didn’t know what kind of people the Yan brothers’ parents were. But judging from the parents in Teacher Qu’s “nightmare,” they were probably similar, or possibly even worse.

Unfortunately, before Yan Weilan turned evil, he hadn’t realized that he could actually influence this instance world. He only gained that ability after he became corrupted, and by then, he had already become the BOSS in the players’ eyes, the target Yan Weicheng needed to eliminate.

Once the players eliminated the BOSS, the instance world would belong to Yan Weicheng.

Yan Jiyun then heard footsteps approaching from behind. It was Yan Weiqing. He ran over and grabbed Yan Weicheng. “Dage, let’s hurry and find Xiao Lan. Once Mom and Dad arrive, they’re definitely going to beat him.”

Yan Weicheng looked around at everyone’s expressions. Once he had achieved his goal, he shook off Yan Weiqing’s hand. “He did something wrong. It’s only right for Mom and Dad to beat him. He can’t keep relying on their affection and doing whatever he wants.”

Yan Weiqing was wavering, but he still said, “I don’t believe Xiao Lan would do something like this. He’s so scared of chickens that he won’t even go near them.”

Yan Weicheng didn’t make his intentions too obvious in front of Yan Weiqing. “I also don’t think my brother would do something like this, but the teacher found physical evidence.”

Yan Weiqing anxiously said, “Dage, don’t you think someone is framing him?”

One of the parents said, “Little boy, if your brother did something wrong, then he did something wrong. You’re sensible enough to admit his mistake on his behalf, and that deserves praise!”

Yan Weicheng used the parents’ support to shape how everyone around him viewed him, and the effect was obvious.

Yan Weiqing was frantic. He wanted to drag Yan Weicheng away, but Yan Weicheng refused to budge. This was the perfect opportunity for him to make a name for himself. How could he let it slip away?

Only by comparing himself with Yan Weilan could he show what a magnanimous older brother he was. He had long been sick of being constantly overshadowed by his younger brother.

Yan Weicheng’s appearance had inadvertently “saved” Qi Feng, preventing him from being surrounded and attacked by the parents.

However, the enraged parents still pointed at Qi Feng’s nose and cursed at him. One parent even directly tried to hit him.

But they never managed to touch Qi Feng, because the ropes around his hands and feet suddenly came undone.

He had already calculated the distance. He nimbly grabbed onto the window and jumped down.

Before the other parents could react, he turned around and looked at Yan Weicheng. “Yan Weicheng, why are you framing your younger brother? You were the one who poisoned the students, not your brother.”

Yan Weicheng froze slightly, his entire body stiffening. “What are you talking about?”

Yan Jiyun secretly congratulated himself for not recklessly rushing out to rescue Qi Feng. Sure enough, Qi Feng had another purpose behind what he was doing.

This was Qi Feng’s elaborate trap. He had also figured out that Yan Weicheng was the one who had poisoned the students. Now things were much easier to deal with.

Qi Feng had already set up this chain of events when he told them to enter the painting. He used his own capture, then took advantage of the relationship between the principal and Shao Xin to complete the trap.

The principal needed a reason for all those parents to surround him. At that moment, Shao Xin’s “Yan Weilan, Qi Feng, and Yan Jiyun bullied me” incident came in handy. Since they couldn’t find Yan Weilan, all the parents’ anger would be directed at him instead, making Qi Feng the scapegoat.

Once there was a scapegoat, and all the parents had been gathered together, the person who had poisoned the students would naturally come out to watch his masterpiece.

It was also the perfect opportunity to establish Yan Weilan as the “poisoner.” Among the people involved, nobody’s identity was more suitable than one of the Yan brothers.

Qi Feng didn’t bother explaining any of this to Yan Weicheng. “The person seen taking the medicine and poisoning the food in the surveillance footage wasn’t Yan Weilan. It was you disguised as him. No matter who comes forward to testify, it’s difficult for them to tell the three of you apart. As long as you deliberately wore the school uniform and styled your hair the same way as Yan Weilan’s, you could fool everyone.”

Surveillance footage?

Yan Jiyun knew there was evidence. So the principal and the others hadn’t been so certain Yan Weilan was the culprit simply because they found medicine in his desk — there was surveillance footage too.

If that was true, Yan Weilan really would have been unable to prove his innocence.

But after Qi Feng revealed the truth, both the parents and the principal were stunned. The result was both reasonable and absurd! The poisoner was actually one of the triplets? Was this some kind of joke?

[Want to be Human] livestream channel: 

“Just as expected from a Level 5 streamer! What a chain of traps! He calculated how every NPC would react and eventually found Yan Weicheng!”

“Yan Weicheng? How could it be Yan Weicheng? What did he do?”

“You guys seriously didn’t figure this out? Kitty Babukitty had already guessed it earlier, and while the kitty and Yan Weilan were inside the painting, he confirmed the result with Yan Weilan. I think the Level 5 streamer had already figured out the truth when he heard Yan Weicheng manipulating Yan Weilan. Otherwise, how could he react so quickly and set a trap for Yan Weicheng?”

“To be honest, I’ve seen the Level 5 streamer’s ability now. Kitty Baby also figured out who the poisoner was, but the Level 5 streamer was still one step ahead of him. Of course, that doesn’t mean Kitty Baby couldn’t have lured Yan Weicheng out. He just would’ve taken a little longer.”

“I don’t think there’s actually much difference between them. One simply exposed Yan Weicheng directly and bluntly, while the other probably exposed him while also running around like crazy. They’re both very smart. They just have different ways of doing things.”

“Did none of you notice the important point? Why did Mimi choose the Level 5 streamer as his master? Because they’re equally smart!”

“Hmm, but has the Level 5 streamer still not realized that his pet cat can turn into a human?”

The truth behind the student poisoning incident became chaotic once again. Some parents began directing their anger toward the school administrators, while others still firmly believed that Yan Weilan was responsible. Some even claimed that all three brothers had worked together. Twins had telepathy, after all — how could they possibly not stick together?

The situation had changed, and the players had managed to resolve part of the crisis surrounding Yan Weilan.

The principal had no way to use the surveillance footage to determine exactly which person had done the poisoning. They were triplets who looked exactly alike. How could he tell them apart?

Seeing that things were going badly, Yan Weicheng shoved away Yan Weiqing, who was holding onto him, and ran.

He had plenty of tricks up his sleeve. “You people should stop slandering us! First you say it was Xiao Lan, then you say it was me. I think the principal just wants to find a scapegoat. Even if there’s surveillance footage, I suspect someone used face-swapping technology to deliberately frame our brothers.”

Smart!

When he needed Yan Weilan to take the blame, he was the righteous older brother willing to sacrifice his younger brother. But when he needed Yan Weilan, he played the loving-brother card.

If only Yan Weicheng used that cleverness elsewhere, he could probably accomplish quite a lot.

Qi Feng had finished the little surprise he had prepared for Yan Weicheng and was just about to leave when he saw Caramel standing beneath the window, looking up at him.

Yan Jiyun had been about to throw a few smoke bombs at the group of parents, but seeing that Qi Feng was fine, he decided against it. Those parents were nothing more than tools Qi Feng had used.

Qi Feng calmly expressed his surprise. “Caramel, you’re not going to run off and play again later, are you?”

Yan Jiyun: “……” He hadn’t been playing. He had been working very hard on the mission!

Then Qi Feng scooped Yan Jiyun up and ran toward the school pond. He needed to retrieve Yan Jiyun and the others who were still hidden inside the painting.

When Qi Feng and Yan Jiyun returned to the dark room, Yan Jiyun didn’t see Yan Weilan or Lan Mo.

The painting and the people were both gone. There were only two sets of different footprints on the windowsill.

Qi Feng figured it out immediately and said to Yan Jiyun, “Looks like the three of them have already left.”

Only Yan Jiyun knew that only Lan Mo and Yan Weilan had left.

Lan Mo probably hadn’t been able to control Yan Weilan and had been forced to leave, or perhaps they had encountered some situation that made it impossible for them to stay. There must have been some compelling reason for them to leave.

Qi Feng suddenly made a request to Yan Jiyun. “Caramel, can you smell Lan Mo? Let’s go find him.”

Yan Jiyun leaned against his chest and pretended not to understand a word. How could he let his pooper scooper boss him around like that?

He calmly thought it over. Qi Feng didn’t seem like the type to ask him to do things for him. Why had he suddenly asked whether he could find Lan Mo?

After thinking about how he had just outsmarted Yan Weicheng, Yan Jiyun had to consider this very carefully. If he agreed right now, it would prove that he could completely understand what Qi Feng was saying. What if Qi Feng was testing his intelligence? Before, he had never directly experienced how smart Qi Feng was. But now he realized that Qi Feng’s intelligence was subtle and understated. He could fall straight into one of his traps without even realizing it.

If he let his guard down, he would eventually expose the fact that he could transform into a human. But he wasn’t as resistant to revealing it as he had been at the beginning. If the two of them kept clearing instances together, sooner or later he would slip up.

One lie required a hundred more lies to cover it up.

Seeing that Yan Jiyun showed no reaction in his arms, Qi Feng said, “All right. Maybe you haven’t really interacted with Lan Mo, so you don’t pay much attention to him.”

Yan Jiyun’s interactions with Lan Mo had been limited to the Mingya High School instance. Saying he had never interacted with him wasn’t exactly accurate.

He weighed his options. When Qi Feng mentioned Lan Mo’s name for the second time, Yan Jiyun finally reacted.

Yan Jiyun stared at Qi Feng with his big eyes. “Mrrrow?” 

Qi Feng: “Lan Mo, do you know him? The blue-haired one.” He gestured to Yan Jiyun, mimicking hair sticking straight up.

Yan Jiyun jumped to the ground. He couldn’t pretend not to know. In Qi Feng’s eyes, he was a clever little cat, so pretending to understand now would actually seem a little too fake.

He really hadn’t known where Lan Mo was because he hadn’t heard Lan Mo’s voice just now, but it was already the third day since they entered the instance. They had to speed up their progress.

He vaguely heard Lan Mo’s voice coming from somewhere in the distance of the school building. It didn’t sound like he was on level ground. It seemed more like he was somewhere high up. Had he and Yan Weilan returned to the school building?

Qi Feng followed behind Yan Jiyun. Seeing him run back toward the school building again, he was afraid other players or NPCs might see him, so he patted the backpack he was carrying and said, “Caramel, get in. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Yan Jiyun slipped into the greenery, leading Qi Feng to the school building first before returning to his backpack.

After Qi Feng cleared himself of suspicion and shifted the parents’ attention onto Yan Weicheng, he was now free to move around the huge school campus.

Suddenly, the sky darkened again.

Yan Jiyun thought grimly, ‘This is bad. Yan Weilan really did run into trouble.’

What was going on? Every time he left, some NPC had to cause trouble.

Qi Feng ran back to the bottom of the school building and saw a group of people standing there. It was still the same group of parents. Qi Feng pulled a hat out from the side of his backpack and put it on his head to cover his face, easily walking past them.

Yan Jiyun had to find somewhere to change back now. The plan had changed; he had to go find Yan Weilan, who might be in trouble.

He quietly slipped out of Qi Feng’s line of sight.

Qi Feng waited in the greenery but didn’t see his cat return. The cat had no idea where it was going again, so he had no choice but to squeeze into the crowd and then rush upstairs.

Only after hearing the footsteps leave did Yan Jiyun turn around, find an empty spot, and change back into human form before running upstairs in the school building.

He discovered that the closer he got to the school building, the clearer Yan Weilan’s voice became, and the clouds in this area were also growing denser, forming a dark, gloomy mass.

It started to rain.

If the incident was happening on the rooftop, it reminded him of something: the incident in the [Mermaid] instance where Jiang Shiwen was pushed off the building by Cheng Su.

Both were worlds formed from Teacher Qu’s split personalities. There had to be things that were connected. If the incident of someone being pushed off the building had to happen, then someone would inevitably fall from the rooftop later!

Would it be Yan Weilan, Yan Weicheng, or Yan Weiqing?

This was terrible.

Yan Jiyun immediately quickened his pace up the stairs. His short little legs were really inconvenient; he couldn’t even run very fast. It was driving him crazy.

He rushed straight to the rooftop, but at the entrance to the rooftop, he saw Qi Feng’s back. 

When he approached, Qi Feng naturally turned around. “You’re here?”

Seeing how natural his attitude was, Yan Jiyun naturally asked, “Aren’t you going up?”

Qi Feng moved aside to make room for him. “You look first.”

Yan Jiyun stood beside him and saw what was happening on the rooftop.

[Want to be Human] livestream channel: 

“Ahhhhhhh, did Kitty Baby finally figure it out again?”

“What, what, what did he discover?”

“Obviously, it’s the corresponding plot from the original instance. Yan Weilan summoned his older brothers to the rooftop to explain that he wasn’t the one who poisoned anyone. In the original instance, Yan Weilan discovered that Yan Weicheng was secretly plotting against him much later than this. This should be the brothers’ final confrontation.”

“We thought this instance was pretty okay. It’s all conflicts between NPCs and NPCs, and we haven’t really seen much fighting between players and NPCs. So far, all the players in this instance are still alive and well. Where did the ‘no survivors’ thing come from? Isn’t that a bit exaggerated?”

“I think it’s okay too. Where did the ‘no survivors’ thing come from?”

“Of course people who haven’t seen it wouldn’t know. Then I’ll spoil it for you in advance: Yan Weilan will completely darkened on the rooftop. Yan Weicheng is extremely selfish. He deliberately pushes Yan Weiqing down and then tells everyone that Yan Weilan pushed him. By this point, no one trusts Yan Weilan anymore. Everyone believes all the ‘facts’ Yan Weicheng tells them, and no one believes Yan Weilan. Most importantly, Yan Weilan doesn’t defend himself. He’s no longer disappointed or shocked by Yan Weicheng; he’s so furious that he’s trembling. Yan Weicheng even kills his own brother, like a madman, and Yan Weilan is even crazier than him.”

“That sounds awesome. I want to know how he goes crazy.”

“Of course he goes on a killing spree! Otherwise, why would it be called ‘no survivors’? He traps all the students inside the school and kills them all!”

But he’s just a kid. How does he kill people? How exactly does it happen? Does ‘everyone’ include the teachers and those troublesome parents too?”

At this moment, what Yan Jiyun saw was the three Yan triplets on the rooftop, with Lan Mo, Gu Wenzhu, and Qiu Xi each keeping an eye on one of them.

Yan Weiqing already knew what Yan Weicheng had done. He wanted to attack his eldest brother, but Lan Mo stopped him.

Yan Jiyun felt as though he were watching some melodramatic soap opera. Eight- or nine-year-old children were carrying an entire primetime family drama on their tiny shoulders.

Yan Weiqing was more straightforward. He said furiously, “Dage, why would you do this? What did our Didi ever do to wrong you?”

Yan Weicheng had completely exposed himself now. He wasn’t bothering to hide anything anymore. He snapped at Yan Weiqing, “Didi, Didi, Didi. All you ever care about is him! When have you ever put your Dage first?”

Yan Weiqing: “But haven’t you always cared about Xiao Lan? What’s wrong with me caring about him?”

Yan Weicheng: “But we were all born on the same day. Why should I have to give in to him in everything just because I was born a few hours earlier?”

Yan Jiyun thought, ‘Could it be that Yan Weicheng was treated unfairly by their parents at home, which made him hate his younger brother so much that he even wanted to get rid of him?’

The parents in Teacher Qu’s world were unreasonable, and the people in it were just as absurd. Could it be that Teacher Qu really had an older brother or sister who had once framed him?

Looking from the surface to the underlying meaning, everything here hinted that Teacher Qu’s elementary-school years had not been particularly happy.

Yan Weiqing understood and saw things more clearly than Yan Weicheng. “Our Didi always gives in to you. Don’t you know that? You usually like eating chicken legs, and he says he doesn’t like them and leaves them all for you. He was born a little later than us, and his health can’t compare to ours. Every time, he’s envious that we can run and jump around while he can only stay at home. You even said that learning to embroider from Mom was too girly, and he never got angry with you. Dage, I’m just asking you: what has he ever done wrong?”

If Yan Weicheng were so easily persuaded, he wouldn’t have framed Yan Weilan today. He said, “Those are all superficial things. He’s always at home telling Mom and Dad bad things about us. Otherwise, why would it always be us getting beaten instead of him?”

Yan Weilan, who had remained silent all this time, said, “Dage, I’ve never said anything bad about you to Mom and Dad. But you’ve always been hostile toward me, and I thought it was just my imagination. You were the one who poisoned that rabbit last year, weren’t you? Were you testing whether you could use the same method to poison your classmates and frame me for it?”

Yan Weilan had hit the mark. Yan Weicheng’s face alternated between pale and livid, and he admitted it outright. “That’s right. There shouldn’t have been another person like you in this family. You should have died when you were born. Without you, everyone would have focused their attention on me.”

It was the first time Yan Weiqing had heard such words from the older brother he admired, and he was stunned. “You actually wanted our Didi to die?”

Yan Weicheng said, “Not just him. You too.”

As he spoke, Yan Weicheng began moving toward the rooftop railing. 

Yan Weiqing’s eyes reddened with anger. “Dage, how could you?”

Yan Weilan wiped his tears and looked at Yan Weicheng. “I never thought Dage was a bad person. Instead, I always thought you cared about me and Erge. I’ve always looked up to you and learned from you, which is why I became the way I am now. Back in first grade, the teacher said we should find a good role model so we could become better ourselves. Dage, you were my role model.”

Yan Weiqing: “Exactly. In our Didi’s Chinese composition last semester, the person he wrote about as his role model was you. You know that.”

Yan Weicheng merely looked at them coldly. “So what? I hate you all! Since everyone already knows I did it, then I’ll just make you all live with your guilt forever!”

Whoever had the brilliant idea of putting a three-tiered wooden step ladder right beside the railing must have been seriously twisted.

At this moment, Yan Weicheng charged toward the three-tiered steps. He was about to accomplish his goal!

Gu Wenzhu was closest to Yan Weicheng, but his legs were inconvenient at the moment. Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng, who had been standing at the entrance, simultaneously rushed toward Yan Weicheng as he ran up the steps.

They anticipated Yan Weicheng’s next move. The two of them simultaneously lunged at him, each grabbing one of his ankles!

Yan Jiyun even said coolly, “Nice try. Let’s see you jump now.”

Yan Weicheng, whose plan had been going perfectly: “……”