DSMC Chapter 163

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“Stopped him, stopped him! The plot has already collapsed so badly that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize it. It’s completely the opposite of the original instance. It was supposed to be Yan Weiqing who fell, pushed down by Yan Weicheng himself, but now no one has fallen at all.”

“I just thought of something. I think Kitty Baby probably figured this out a long time ago. He already knew that Yan Weilan was the one being framed, and he probably guessed that Yan Weilan was one of Qu-laoshi’s personalities. The only way is to save Qu-laoshi’s personality. Could it be that the main personality actually split into several different personalities again? Think about it — several of the split personalities share the same characteristics. When you summarize them, aren’t they basically the same person? And aren’t the other personalities that keep bullying the main personality actually the alters trying to take over the body?”

“You mean the main personality was bullied by the alter and split into several personalities, while the alter also split into several subsidiary personalities in order to kill the main personality’s personalities 1, 2, and 3? Is that what you mean?”

“I think that’s what the new main mission is about. If you put all the instances together, completing them all would count as completing the main mission.”

“I’m dying. I suddenly realized the system really ought to give Qu-laoshi a bigger bonus. One person is doing several people’s jobs! All the protagonists and villains across all these instances are him!”

“With Kitty Baby messing things up like this, these instances don’t seem scary at all anymore. Now I just want to know who Qu-laoshi actually is. Does the kitty already know?”

“Someone said earlier that in the original plot, Yan Weilan went completely berserk. How exactly did he kill everyone? Can someone tell me?”

Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng dragged Yan Weicheng back, stopping him from making things even worse and jumping off the building.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Who would have thought Yan Weicheng could be so vicious at such a young age, and so stubbornly unwilling to change?

There was a reason the plot arranged Teacher Qu to suffer such absurd DID. He was the embodiment of both good and evil. One step forward was a cliff leading into an abyss, while one step backward was a warm paradise filled with endless human kindness.

Even after they pinned him down, Yan Weicheng kept struggling, trying to jump off the building.

Yan Weicheng started kicking and punching them. “Let go of me!”

Qi Feng swiftly pinned him to the ground, giving him no chance to move around anymore.

Yan Jiyun launched into a lecture. “You’re so young, yet your heart is already this vicious. Aren’t brothers supposed to get along? When you’re old, at least you’ll have someone to talk to. You’re only this old, and you’re already trying to kill each other.”

Yan Weicheng turned his head and glared at him. “What the hell does it have to do with you?”

Yan Jiyun really wanted to knock him on the head, but he held himself back. After all, this was only an instance game. Yan Weicheng had been created by one of Teacher Qu’s alter, so there was no way he would change. From the moment he was born, he was destined to have an innate hostility toward Yan Weilan.

[Congratulations, player, on completing New Main Mission 3: “Yan Weilan’s Request for Help.” The reward will be issued after the instance ends.]

The moment the mission was completed, Yan Weilan’s parents and a group of NPCs suddenly rushed through the rooftop door. What followed was the usual scene of parents regretting their actions and so on.

These two parents were not the same people Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng had encountered in the nightmare dreamscape. It seemed that the nightmare instance they had entered was the nightmare of the true main personality, rather than the nightmare of the main personality’s split personality, Yan Weilan.

[Public Announcement: All main missions in the “Innocence” instance have been completed. The instance will close in 5 minutes and will not reopen. The entrance to the next instance has now opened. Players who do not leave this instance within 5 minutes will remain here forever.]

They had to find the instance exit again?

Which instance would they end up in next?

In the [Mermaid] instance, he had known that the route to Mingya High School was through the music building. But here, they had never found a passage leading to another instance.

Yan Weicheng was taken away by his parents, who had finally arrived too late. Yan Weilan and Yan Weiqing were also preparing to leave, but just as Yan Weilan was about to reach the door, Yan Jiyun called out to him.

Yan Jiyun actually still had a few things he wanted to say to the child. Perhaps becoming a cat had given him this instinct to return kindness to people who treated him kindly. “Yan Weilan, wait.”

Yan Weilan turned around and stopped. “Hm?”

Yan Jiyun hadn’t expected that he could still call out to an NPC after the mission had ended. He walked over and rummaged through his pet inventory. He saw the bracelet Teacher Qu had given him and wanted to give it to Yan Weilan, but he couldn’t take the bracelet out to give it to someone else. In the end, he simply gave up on that idea and said, “I hope you won’t let these things affect you in the future. Brothers should get along and help each other. Your eldest brother is just an extreme exception. His way of thinking isn’t normal.”

Yan Weilan suddenly felt a warmth in his heart. “I understand. Can I give you a hug?”

Yan Jiyun opened his arms. “Of course.”

Yan Weilan hugged him and said, “Oh, right. That little black cat you asked me to embroider— I finished it.”

He seemed to know that Yan Jiyun was about to leave. Taking the finished piece from his pocket, he handed it to Yan Jiyun with a smile. “Here. Don’t forget to turn in your homework.”

The gloomy sky suddenly cleared.

Yan Jiyun took the embroidery and asked the question that had been the reason he called Yan Weilan back. “Let me ask you something.”

Yan Weilan stood obediently in front of him. “Ask.”

The sunlight felt warm on Yan Jiyun’s body. In a tone as casual as if they were simply chatting, he quietly asked, “If everyone hadn’t cleared up their misunderstanding of you today, and instead the misunderstanding had gotten even worse… if no matter what you said, nobody believed you, what would you do?”

Yan Weilan fell silent for a moment, as though he had made an important decision. With a serious expression, he said, “I would fight back. I would make everyone’s misunderstanding of me a reality. Then there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding anymore.”

It was a sincere yet cruel hypothetical. But Yan Jiyun knew that this was exactly how the instance would have ended if Yan Weilan’s fate had not been changed.

He would have taken everyone down with him.

Yan Jiyun nodded. “Okay. But in the future, don’t do something where you hurt the enemy by eight hundred but lose a thousand yourself. It’s not worth it. You have to be braver in the future.”

Yan Weiqing called out from ahead, “Didi, Dad is calling you.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” Yan Weilan turned around to leave, then looked back at Yan Jiyun one more time. Suddenly, he asked, “I will. Will we—”

Will we meet again?

Although he didn’t know why he wanted to ask that, he ultimately couldn’t bring himself to finish the question. He went downstairs with Yan Weiqing.

After Yan Weilan left, Yan Jiyun looked at the black cat embroidery in his hand, wearing the exquisite, beautiful armor. It was exactly as he had imagined it, as though Yan Weilan somehow knew what he wanted.

Satisfied, he stored it in his prop inventory.

[Congratulations, player, you have obtained the prop “An Embroidered Piece” from Yan Weilan. This prop cannot be used within this instance.]

Yan Weilan was gone when Qi Feng suddenly walked up and patted Yan Jiyun on the shoulder. “Let’s go. You have four minutes left to find the exit.”

Yan Jiyun casually draped an arm around his shoulder. “You don’t look very anxious either. Do you already know where the exit is?”

Qi Feng nodded. “That painting.”

Lan Mo turned around, intending to tell Feng-ge to hurry up, only to see Yan Jiyun affectionately resting one arm on his Feng-ge’s shoulder while whispering something to him. When had he ever seen Feng-ge get this close to someone?

It was downright bizarre, ah. Yan Jiyun really was bold.

Feng-ge would definitely get angry and shake him off in a moment. But… why wasn’t Feng-ge shaking Yan Jiyun’s hand off? He was even hoping Feng-ge would say, “Let go.”Lan Mo waited and waited, only to see Yan Jiyun walking downstairs with his arm still around Feng-ge’s shoulder. Feng-ge didn’t say a single harsh word. The two of them were even discussing the plot together!

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“Hahahaha, Xiao Lan looks like he’s seen a ghost.”

“Is this the first time someone’s put their arm around Feng-ge’s shoulder?”

“Not the first time, I think. But in this instance, the same person has put his arm around Feng-ge’s shoulder several times. What’s the deal with this Yan Jiyun? How did he get Feng-ge’s approval and favor so easily?”

“No way. How could my Feng-ge possibly take a liking to this freeloader? He must just be trying to cling to Feng-ge. Feng-ge, shake him off! Why does everyone keep trying to ride our Feng-ge’s coattails? It’s seriously annoying. Someone like this should disappear from the instance as soon as possible.”

“I don’t think he’s clinging to Feng-ge. Who can say what’s going on in an instance? And he and Yan Jiyun were the ones who found the exit together. Yan Jiyun never said they couldn’t tell other people about this secret. Besides, their two teams have been cooperating from the beginning. Isn’t having one more friend and one more ally a good thing?”

“Holy crap, you guys really think highly of this Yan Jiyun? Don’t you remember that Feng-ge used to have another close friend too? They often went into instances together, and a lot of people even shipped them. Feng-ge saved him several times, but that guy still ended up betraying Feng-ge. I hope Feng-ge keeps his eyes open and doesn’t get screwed over again.”

“I want to hear the story. Can someone tell me what happened?”

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“So according to the original plot, Yan Weilan was framed, and then he gradually became corrupted because of it. Since they framed him using food poisoning, he would retaliate by poisoning everyone? If the players didn’t eat or drink for several days, they might survive. But the moment they ate anything, they’d be done for, right? Yan Weilan was brutal. So that’s what ‘no survivors’ meant!”

“Exactly. He poisoned everyone in the school, so there truly were no survivors.”

“To this day, no player has figured out how he managed to poison even the expired biscuits in the little supermarket.”

“Even defeating him wouldn’t help! As long as players touched food or water, they’d die. They might even starve to death or get poisoned.”

“You could survive five days without eating or drinking, but think about it — it’s five days without food or water. Nobody could stand that. Yan Weilan would definitely find a way to make them want to eat. Put delicious food right in front of you, who could resist? It’s a huge test of the players’ willpower. No wonder the system rated this as a Level 5 Hard instance.”

“Hahahaha, those Level 5 streamer veteran fans next door are still saying Mimi is riding their Feng-ge’s coattails. They should look at who’s actually dealing with Yan Weilan! Without our darling Mimi, their Feng-ge would have to drink their own piss to survive five days in this instance! I’m so pissed!”

Lan Mo ultimately never got to see Qi Feng push Yan Jiyun away.

They were now heading to where Lan Mo had hidden the painting — in his desk. The most dangerous place was the safest place, after all, and fortunately, nobody had discovered anything special about the painting.

Five minutes really was incredibly short.

With the instance’s missions completed, the NPCs no longer needed to follow any plot. They mechanically went to class and came out of class. Their class happened to be having another lesson, so there was no one there.

After getting the painting, they began examining it in the empty classroom.

Gu Wenzhu had never entered the painting before, so he didn’t really understand how it worked. “The painting can only let us enter and leave it, but what counts as leaving?”

Qi Feng looked toward Yan Jiyun. “Any ideas?”

Yan Jiyun scratched his chin. “Let’s go inside and take a look first.”

He grabbed Qi Feng’s hand, and with a thought, they entered the painting.

Lan Mo watched the two of them enter hand in hand, feeling extremely conflicted. Feng-ge was way too biased. Why was he never allowed to hold Feng-ge’s hand?

He asked Gu Wenzhu beside him, “Can I hold your hand?”

Gu Wenzhu gently pushed up his glasses and scrutinized him. “Are you sure?”

Lan Mo immediately felt uncomfortable under his gaze, as if he had been stripped naked. “No, no. I was just saying.”

Qiu Xi made a gesture to comfort Lan Mo: ‘Mo-ge, you can hold my hand.’

Lan Mo rubbed his arm. “Forget it, I was just kidding.”

Just thinking about deliberately holding someone’s hand felt weird. Feng-ge really was going through a lot, ah…

After Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng entered the space inside the painting, they quickly searched around.

[Time remaining until the instance closes: 3 min 20 sec.]

There really wasn’t much time left.

Qi Feng told Yan Jiyun about the painting. “I tried that painting before. It can’t be cut open, and it can’t be smashed.”

Yan Jiyun searched through all the tables and chairs inside, even moving the sofa aside to check underneath it, but there was nothing.

Unlike the other instances, this one didn’t seem to have a passage leading to another instance. At least, they hadn’t noticed anything like that while completing their missions.

Time slipped away little by little, making them increasingly anxious.

In the end, Yan Jiyun plopped down onto the sofa and rested his chin on his hand, thinking. Suddenly, something occurred to him. He looked up and met Qi Feng’s eyes. “Let’s go. We’re getting out.”

Qi Feng nodded, and the two of them left the painting one after another.

Gu Wenzhu and the other two were also studying the contents of the painting.

Qi Feng said to them, “Hurry. Let’s take the painting to the multi-purpose building.”

Yan Jiyun nodded as well. “Let’s go.”

Why had the painting been hung there?

Because that was where the exit was. The painting’s function was to conceal the truth that the multi-purpose building was the exit. Without thinking carefully about it, there was no way they could have guessed.

There were only about three minutes left.

Everyone rushed toward the multi-purpose building with all their might.

Unfortunately, they were short, and they could never run as fast as adults. Their little legs really affected their speed. On top of that, the damn system had made finding the exit even harder. The [Mermaid] instance had given them ten minutes, but this instance had reduced it to five. The difficulty had increased by more than a little.

The other players had their eyes on Qi Feng, Yan Jiyun, and the others. When they saw them sprinting, they sprinted after them as well. Never mind whether they actually knew where the exit was. Nobody had any clues at the moment, and Yan Jiyun had been the one who triggered this instance in the first place. If they didn’t follow him, who else were they supposed to follow?

Thus, a long line of players followed behind the five of them, looking almost as though they were being punished by their PE teacher to run laps rather than desperately trying to escape with their lives.

Yan Jiyun’s physical fitness was decent. Running this distance only left him slightly out of breath. Gu Wenzhu’s stamina was worse. By the time he ran over from the teaching building, he was practically gasping for air. Qiu Xi and Lan Mo had to drag him upstairs, otherwise he wouldn’t have made it in time.

It wasn’t really his fault. One of his legs was already impaired, so he normally couldn’t train like an ordinary person.

The three of them really did each have their own weaknesses, but they also each had their own strengths. Qiu Xi was strong, Gu Wenzhu was quick-witted, and Yan Jiyun was fast.

Finally, they made it to the fourth floor before time ran out.

[Time remaining until the instance closes: 30 sec]

Qi Feng was carrying the painting and running at the front, but they were now facing another problem.

They weren’t tall enough. There wasn’t enough time to find chairs and stack them up either.

Qi Feng said to Yan Jiyun, “I’ll lift you up. You hang the painting.”

Yan Jiyun knew there was no time to be embarrassed about it. “Okay. Come on, give me the painting.”

Qi Feng exerted all his strength and lifted Yan Jiyun up, while Lan Mo supported him from the side. Yan Jiyun hung the painting back up.

He carefully shifted it back into its original position. “Done.”

The instant the painting was hung back up, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet begin to tremble. Everyone’s bodies started swaying.

“Is the building collapsing?”

“This isn’t the exit?”

“Are we going into another instance again? I’m only an Easy-level player! Why am I playing such a hard instance?!”

At that moment, Lan Mo also shouted, “Feng-ge, your cat!”

Qi Feng replied, “It’ll come along.”

He had a feeling that his cat was nearby. It simply hadn’t shown itself because there were too many people around.

Yan Jiyun guiltily turned his head away, avoiding the subject of the cat. Qi Feng really didn’t need to worry. His cat had been here all along.

Before they could think any further, the entire multi-purpose building collapsed, and all the players disappeared from the Innocent instance in an instant.

Yan Jiyun thought that he would finally be able to confront Teacher Qu directly.

Then he lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the floor of a classroom in the music building. There was no one around, and it was very quiet.

Yan Jiyun hated sudden silence the most, so he immediately got up from the floor.

At this point, he had returned to his high-school-era form. Looking at the old, dilapidated classroom, he guessed that he had returned to Mingya High School.

The system interface also displayed his current mission information.

The mission he had previously accepted had already been completed by other players.

Aside from the main mission of Mingya High School, there was also an additional new main mission. They had just completed mission 3, which meant they hadn’t actually completed the entire main mission yet.

In other words, the first three missions had only been part of the new main mission. The remaining missions would have to be completed in Mingya High School?

What was strange was that they had all left the [Innocence] instance together, so why was he the only one here?

Where had Qi Feng and Gu Wenzhu gone? Would their missions be the same?

After Teacher Qu had merged three instances together, Yan Jiyun had developed an intense hatred for doing missions.

Ugh, so annoying! Damn Teacher Qu. Couldn’t he just come out and let Yan Jiyun find him himself?

Yan Jiyun didn’t immediately leave the old classroom. His Human Form Time Card still had about 10 minutes left, so he wanted to rest for a while before turning back into a cat and leaving.

He needed to sort out the plot of Mingya High School.

Who Teacher Qu was was already very clear. Once he turned back into a cat, he could simply go find Teacher Qu.

The entire music building was completely silent. Yan Jiyun guessed that the players might have been randomly distributed, just like when they entered the [Innocence] instance.

However, the Mingya instance had originally already been in progress, and the other players had already completed half of it. Entering now put them at a disadvantage, since many of the missions would no longer give them points.

He glanced at his instance countdown. It was already the evening of the third day. After tonight, the fourth day would begin.

Every time he entered the Mingya High School instance, it was at night. They really were destined to meet.

Ten minutes later, the experience card expired, and Yan Jiyun switched back into cat form. He could go find Teacher Qu now.

This time, leaving the music building went smoothly. There was no sudden plot event, and of course, there were no other players or NPCs either.

But once he left, the surrounding area was extremely dilapidated. It looked completely devoid of any signs of human habitation.

Wasn’t this Mingya High School?

Yan Jiyun quickly hid himself among the dead leaves nearby, his entire coat of fur standing on end. He checked again to see whether the Mingya High School instance mission was still active.

The mission bar was lit up, nothing wrong there.

He was certain that when they had been in the [Innocence] instance, the Mingya High School mission bar had been grayed out.

There was nothing around except the eerie sound of the wind. The parasol trees swayed wildly like clawed monsters. Why wasn’t there a single person?

Gosh, this was creepy…

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“Hahahahahaha, where did Kitty Baby go this time?”

“Still in Mingya High School, right? Nothing seems to have changed at all—”

“Take another look. Take another look! You call this ‘nothing has changed’? When Kitty Baby left the music building before, it didn’t look like this at all. Back then it was lush and full of life. Look at it now. There’s nothing here. It’s like an empty shell of a school.”

“So creepy, so creepy. What the hell is going on? Can some expert give us a ‘high-energy ahead¹’ warning? I’m starting to get scared.”

“Mimi is even more scared than we are. He’s hiding in the bushes and doesn’t even dare come out.”

Indeed, Yan Jiyun didn’t dare move recklessly right now.

Who knew where Teacher Qu had thrown them this time? They had already used this setting twice. Could there really be a third time?

He really wanted to shout for help. Could someone please come out and explain what was going on???

After thinking it over from every angle, Yan Jiyun finally decided to leave the area where he felt safe. If he didn’t clear the instance soon, he wouldn’t have enough time.

There were only a little over three days left. He didn’t know whether there would be any more new instances later. If he really ran out of time, then he would actually have to tell jokes to Teacher Qu No. 1 every single day from now on. But his jokes weren’t even funny…

Yan Jiyun left the music building and ran toward the school gate. At least this area still looked slightly newer.

There wasn’t even a single streetlamp around Mingya High School in the evening. Sure enough, the place looked completely rundown.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of brakes outside the gate.

Three large buses stopped outside the school, along with several vans following behind them. The doors opened, and dozens of people got out.

Yan Jiyun crouched near the security booth. At that moment, an NPC came out of the booth and opened the gate for them.

Someone handed the security guard a cigarette. “Ge, you’ve worked hard.”

The guard took a puff and said, “No problem. Go on in. Make sure you come out in four days. Otherwise, my brother-in-law is going to chew me out.”

The man replied, “We’ll leave as soon as we finish filming. You’re a good man, Ge.”

The security guard said, “Just keep the noise down. This dump of a school has been abandoned for years anyway.”

The man replied, “Thanks for the reminder!”

Then he turned toward the people getting off the buses and shouted, “All actors, get inside! We’ll set up tents in the classrooms and spend the next few nights there. Everyone get ready. We’re about to prepare for the first scene tonight.”

Everyone filed inside.

Among the crowd, Yan Jiyun spotted Qi Feng dressed in a suit. It was almost dark, yet he was still wearing sunglasses.

Lan Mo was standing beside him, telling him what they were going to film later and reminding him to memorize his lines. He absolutely couldn’t just say “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.”

Yan Jiyun also spotted Gu Wenzhu and the other players from the original Mingya High School instance among the crowd.

He should have been happy to see everyone. But he wasn’t happy at all right now.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!

Why was he the only one who was still stuck in his high-school form?!!!