DSMC Chapter 103.1

Arc 5: Peak Competition

Overnight, the incident of the New Forces Guild’s Intermediate-level branch being destroyed spread wildly throughout the Central Zone.

After Yan Jiyun wrecked their base that night, he wandered around the newbie instance exit and the place where dried fish were sold, but Qi Feng never appeared. However, there were quite a few people lying in wait there for Qi Feng, which showed that he was indeed being surrounded by players from the New Forces Guild. Yan Jiyun waited nearby for nearly an hour; those people still didn’t leave, and his caretaker also never showed up again. Eventually, he returned to the apartment he rented to rest.

He hadn’t expected that after waking up, the big commotion he caused at the New Forces Guild branch would become the hottest topic in the Central Zone that day.

The incident even alerted the New Forces Guild headquarters.

Fu Guangmin, who had narrowly escaped death, limped to the headquarters to complain bitterly, pushing all the blame for the branch’s destruction onto Qi Feng.

However, their president, Yu Zhe, remained very calm and did not believe Fu Guangmin’s one-sided account.

Yu Zhe said, “Qi Feng never launches sneak attacks in the Central Zone at night. I estimate it was one of his teammates.”

The head of the publicity department said, “I haven’t heard that they recruited any new members. Someone bold enough to pull off such a smooth ambush is rare.” He clicked his tongue twice. “Fu Guangmin, did your sixth sense fail you this time? If I remember correctly, you were the one who bombed Qi Feng’s bar first, right?”

Fu Guangmin didn’t dare lie in front of the president and the department head. High-level players were far stronger than an Intermediate-level player like him. He replied timidly, “Yes, I bombed it first.”

Yu Zhe said, “Since that’s the case, you can’t blame others for coming to take revenge. What kind of grudge do you have with them?”

The New Forces Guild ranked among the notable guilds in the Central Zone. They dared provoke Qi Feng because his group was small, but no one expected to be counterattacked.

Fu Guangmin said, “I heard that the President was bullied by Qi Feng in an instance, so I thought…”

Yu Zhe stared straight at Fu Guangmin and asked in return, “Are you sure it was because of me?”

Fu Guangmin felt his scalp go numb under the gaze. Sweat began to form on his forehead. All his thoughts seemed to have been seen through, and cold sweat streamed down his back.

Their President looked thin and frail, as though a gust of wind could knock him over, yet he occupied an important position in Central City. What he relied on was his mysterious special ability. Anyone he looked at would feel as though they had been completely seen through. This was why Fu Guangmin, despite his poor character, had managed to reach his current position. His special ability was somewhat similar to Yu Zhe’s, making him a convenient substitute.

The publicity minister said, “Since it’s already happened, let’s leave it at that. Abandon the old location and find a new place to reopen the Intermediate branch. Also recall the people chasing Qi Feng. If Qi Feng could stay in the Central Zone for so long, he has far more tricks than you imagine.”

“I understand. I’ll withdraw the orders immediately,” Fu Guangmin said, wiping cold sweat from his face before leaving.

The plan to surround Qi Feng had been his own decision. In the past, surrounding others had never caused problems, but this time he had kicked an iron plate and caused such serious consequences.

After Fu Guangmin left headquarters, Yu Zhe asked, “Qi Feng really hasn’t recruited any new members?”

The publicity minister, Zhuo Yue, said, “He and his teammates are always elusive. It’s possible they’ve developed members inside instances. I don’t know if he’s planning something new lately. People I placed in other guilds saw him wandering around Central City recently. In the middle of the night he even went to Information Street and pretended to run a small stall. Who knows what he’s up to.”

Yu Zhe frowned. “Looks like he’s planning something big. These newcomers like Fu Guangmin have no idea how formidable Qi Feng used to be. Tell them not to act recklessly again. They might not even know how they die.”

Zhuo Yue said, “Alright, I’ll arrange for people to keep watching him. Actually, if he hadn’t been so active in the Central Zone recently, our people wouldn’t have discovered his foothold.”

Yu Zhe leaned back against the sofa, relaxing his back. “Even the most careful plan has flaws. But Qi Feng is still not someone to underestimate.”

Similar conversations were happening among many guilds.

A wave after wave of new players had entered the game. Now, players below the Intermediate level might not even know who Qi Feng was. But players in High-level instances and above were extremely wary of him. The incident back then had caused such a huge stir, and Qi Feng still managed to survive until now. This alone proved his ability.

Long ago, Qi Feng had already been regarded as a guild-level force by himself. If he raised his hand, there would certainly be followers. Unfortunately, after leaving his original guild, he gave up forming a guild altogether. He would not become someone else’s shelter, nor did he need a guild to shelter him.

With him being so active recently, was he planning a comeback?

Many guild leaders began to pay close attention to Qi Feng and secretly assigned people to gather information about him.

—

On the morning of the second day after Yan Jiyun received the Peak Competition entry ticket.

He wandered around the Central Zone, originally intending to gather more information about the Peak Competition. Instead, everyone was talking about the New Forces Guild branch being bombed, and from these discussions he heard quite a bit of gossip about his pooper scooper. 

It turned out that Qi Feng had once been a veteran member of one of the three major guilds back then. Apparently, during a certain instance run, he had a disagreement with the guild because he saved a teammate. Many members of their guild died in that instance, and the guild leader at the time placed all the blame on Qi Feng. In anger, Qi Feng left the guild. As a result, the three major guilds were reshuffled, and the Central Zone was extremely lively during that time. After that, Qi Feng gradually became more low-profile until he faded from public view and turned into a legend. Over time, no one mentioned the old stories of the three major guilds anymore.

However, most people were only repeating hearsay. The players who truly knew the truth back then were either no longer around or had Hard to higher-level instances. The ones gossiping now were relatively low-level players, and their stories might have completely deviated from the truth, so they couldn’t be fully trusted.

After thinking about it for a long time, Yan Jiyun only concluded that his caretaker had once been a remarkable figure, had helped form a guild, and might have been betrayed. He didn’t believe his caretaker would deliberately cause his teammates’ deaths. He cared so much about even a pet cat he raised, how could he possibly harm his teammates? There must have been some hidden circumstances.

After wandering around outside for a while, Yan Jiyun still couldn’t find where his master and his friends had hidden. He simply returned to rest again.

He rented an apartment, so he didn’t have to share housing with other players. It was very quiet.

Since he couldn’t find them, there was nothing he could do. The Peak Competition was about to begin, so he needed to prepare.

Facing unknown dangers still made him afraid. This time he would face players stronger than himself. Inside the competition he would be at the very bottom, with every other player had more experience and greater strength than him.

On the last day, Yan Jiyun went nowhere. He stayed in his personal space to rest and adjust his mindset, and also sorted through some questions he still had about the previous instance.

He was a little concerned about the cat teaser prop.

He remembered that in the first instance, the bandage he used on Li Muyang had come from the instance itself and could stop NPC bleeding. But in this instance, why could the cat teaser also return the black panther and the others’ consciousness back to their human bodies?

Could this be the key to the information players searched for?

He asked the system about it, but the system did not give a detailed explanation. It only said this was part of the instance’s settings. If the props players brought into the instance happened to meet the conditions, they could clear it quickly. It was a shortcut to clearing the instance, but even after an instance was opened a hundred times, not even one player might achieve it.

This time, Yan Jiyun had stumbled upon it by accident.

It seemed that bringing the right items into an instance was indeed very important.

Before the Peak Competition began, Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi entered an Easy-level instance together.

If they all managed to come out safely next time, he would finally have teammates to enter instances with. They might not always clear everything together, but at least they could support each other inside.

—

While Yan Jiyun was preparing to enter the Peak Competition, Qi Feng, who was staying somewhere else, was still frowning deeply.

They had previously lived in the small bar, but this time they were staying in a luxurious and expensive hotel.

This was also one of their strongholds.

However, Qi Feng had maintained this worried expression for three days already.

The others thought he was troubled by the Peak Competition. Three members of their small team had been selected, but their entry tickets were all different colors.

Lan Mo suddenly appeared on the sofa opposite him, studying his teammate’s mental state.

Qi Feng was looking at the master-pet interface in the system. After coming out of the last instance, he had received nearly three hundred notifications. After roughly scanning them, he almost felt like having a heart attack.

The system showed that Caramel was currently online, but not beside him. He had no idea which corner it was hiding in.

When he came out of the instance, Caramel was still inside one. He found Qiu Xi, who told him that after Qi Feng entered the instance, Caramel had been taken away by its other owner.

Since when did Caramel have a second owner?

Could it be that after entering an instance, it had been adopted by another player?

So far, Caramel had only entered four instances. After the first instance, it returned directly to its real-world home. If it truly had a new owner, it must have met that person during the second or third instance.

But after leaving both the second and third instances, Caramel immediately came to find him that same day. Could it be that the other owner deliberately let it come to him?

Was that person good or bad? Had they been hiding around him the whole time?

If such a person really existed, then their situation would become very passive. The other party would know his whereabouts and might even use Caramel.

Moreover, shortly after Qi Feng entered the instance, that person had quietly taken the cat away from Qiu Xi.

He was a newcomer, yet very capable. But why did he take Caramel? Did he bring Caramel into the instance with him? Had he taken Caramel through the last three instances?

Perhaps Caramel had some kind of special fate with that person. Like, they encountered each other in the first three instances, and in the fourth instance the person personally brought Caramel in.

But Qi Feng still couldn’t determine that person’s purpose. If he and Caramel cooperated well, did that mean the person simply wanted to use Caramel to clear instances? If danger arose, would he abandon Caramel immediately?

Qi Feng had been in this godforsaken game for three years. He had seen many players who cooperated well at the beginning, but when faced with instances that required choices, the stronger ones would always abandon the weaker ones. Humans always thought of themselves first — let alone when Caramel was just an animal.

He only hoped the person who took Caramel into the instance wasn’t as bad as he imagined.

After finishing a glass of water, Lan Mo decided to interrupt Qi Feng’s thoughts.

“Feng-ge, aren’t you about to enter the Peak Competition? Don’t you need to prepare?”

Qi Feng’s thoughts returned. “The rules and gameplay of the Peak Competition change every time. There’s nothing much you can prepare in advance.” Maintaining the best mental state was enough.

Lan Mo placed the cup in front of him. “I know. I just mean… you don’t seem to have slept well these past two days. Do you want to rest for a bit?”

He had only been out of the instance for a few days and was already worrying about something again. The dark circles under his eyes had returned.

Qi Feng understood what he meant. “It’s fine. I’ll enter the instance later.”

Lan Mo didn’t push further and instead said, “I went near the small bar today. There are even more guild people there now. Even the place where we used to set up our stall has more people.”

Qi Feng rubbed his temples. If not for those guild members, he might have already found Caramel.

“Leave them alone for now. They’ll probably leave in a couple of days.”

He glanced at Caramel’s status bar; it was still “Online.”