DSMC Chapter 137

Yan Jiyun tried to claw at the doors of the music building, but they were tightly shut. No matter how much he scratched or tried to squeeze through gaps, there was no way in.

Only now did he understand what Teacher Qu No. 2 meant by telling him not to run around. There had been a deeper meaning behind it. It was his own fault for not listening at the time!

‘Qu-laoshi, I’m sorry. From now on, I’ll definitely listen to you and Qu-laoshi No. 2.’ 

At this point, it was already clear: Teacher Qu No. 2 was just Teacher Qu. There was no twin brother. 

Two different instances shared the same background and the same NPCs, but had different main storylines, with NPCs playing different roles in each.

Players in Instance B also had their ages altered.

So the question now was: how had he gone from the [Mermaid] instance to this one?

And what exactly was the true main mission of this current instance?

Since the main mission had appeared in the system, it meant he had to complete both instances’ missions.

He had come here from the music building. So to return to the other instance, did he also need to go through the music building?

Yan Jiyun circled around the building several times, but there wasn’t even a hole he could crawl through. The windows were tightly shut, without a single crack wide enough for him.

Was there no way back?

Amid his confusion, he gradually calmed down.

Teacher Qu belonged to the [Mermaid] Instance A — his original instance. That was beyond doubt.

But why had Teacher Qu No. 2 appeared in that instance? His personality was clearly somewhat different from Teacher Qu’s.

If the instance Teacher Qu belonged to was A, then the one he was currently in was B. Did that mean if he found Teacher Qu No. 2 in Instance B, he could return to Instance A?

Could it be that the game system update forced them to complete an additional instance?

This wasn’t a merge of instances. This was a crossover.

He hadn’t even accumulated much experience yet, and he was already facing something like this. He had no choice but to keep exploring.

He needed to sort things out.

Instance A:

Named [Mermaid]; the main storyline was to find someone with a good singing voice, protect them from being killed, and successfully help them debut.

Instance B:

Unknown name, unclear main storyline. The only clues so far were Mirror Lake and several NPCs.

NPCs appearing in both instances so far: Teacher Qu, Han Ruibai, Cheng Su.

There could be more he hadn’t encountered yet.

Two Teacher Qus. The one in Instance B could enter Instance A. As for the one in Instance A, it was still unknown whether he could cross between instances.

Conclusion: the Teacher Qu in Instance B was extremely important. He might even be the bug connecting the two instances.

No matter what, his priority now was to find Teacher Qu in Instance B.

The passage between the music buildings of Instance A and Instance B seemed to open at fixed times.

He didn’t know whether there were other passages.

If Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi couldn’t come over here, it meant they were only playing one instance, while he had two.

Did every player need to complete both instances’ main missions? Or if they didn’t accidentally enter Instance B, did they not need to complete its missions? This would need further verification.

Right now, he wished he could go back an hour and glue himself to the floor of that second-floor classroom so tightly no one could pull him off!

Yan Jiyun took one last look at the abandoned music building, then turned and slipped into the night.

He had to find Teacher Qu in Instance B and have him take him out of here.

He still didn’t know what the situation was in Instance B; what role Teacher Qu played here, or what his personality was like. But at least he knew Teacher Qu No. 2 bore him no ill will. Finding him came first.

He ran toward the teachers’ dormitory. The building here looked rather run-down as well.

He skillfully took the lift up and arrived at Room 505, knocking on the door with his paw. Once, twice, three times.

No one?

He knocked again. Maybe they were resting and couldn’t hear him?

After persistently knocking for five minutes, he finally heard the heavy sound of slippers dragging across the floor. This person was heavier than Teacher Qu.

Yan Jiyun quickly hid in the hallway, tilting his head to observe.

In his haste, he had almost forgotten this was a different instance. The Teacher Qu No. 2 he had seen in Instance A was good at hiding. His role here might not even be a teacher living in the dormitory.

The door to Room 505 opened. A chubby young man poked his head out, cursing, “Who the hell is knocking in the middle of the night? Are you sick?”

Yan Jiyun confirmed it. This instance’s characters and setup were completely different from Instance A. Even the allocation of spaces was different.

So what role did Teacher Qu No. 2 play here?

He remembered that Teacher Qu No. 2 carried a faint mint scent. Where would that kind of smell come from?

Standing below the teachers’ dormitory, he found himself unsure where to go.

Should he look for Han Ruibai?

No. That was too risky. Han Ruibai’s role in this instance was unknown.

At least now he knew what Main Quest 1 in Instance B required.

What wish had those five people actually made?

He remembered that among the seven earlier, there had been two players. Who knew where they had gone now.

If Instance A had fifty players, then Instance B should logically also have fifty.

After the crossover, was it possible that players meant for Instance A had ended up in B, and vice versa?

Since he had originally entered the correct instance, he hadn’t noticed the crossover at first.

But now he knew.

Honestly, it might have been better not to.

After leaving the teachers’ dormitory, Yan Jiyun decided to find a tree to rest in.

Even though this was a new storyline, the setting was the same.

The campus was very quiet at the moment. Since players were students, they were probably being forced by the game to rest.

He had moved from Instance A to B without receiving any forced-rest notification, which meant the system wasn’t restricting his nighttime activity.

Perhaps only players who crossed between instances had this “privilege.”

Heh. This was not a privilege he wanted.

Clearing two instances within seven days was deadly. There wasn’t even time to rest.

After finding a tree at a crossroads, Yan Jiyun prepared to jump up and spend the night there. Only by resting well would he have the energy to figure out how to tackle both instances.

The campus was eerily quiet. At this hour, all the players were apparently asleep… no one out doing missions?

If he had gone to the student dormitories, he would have realized players were indeed doing missions.

For example, Lan Mo in Room 406 of Dorm Building No. 4 was curled up at the end of his bed, clutching his blanket. A head with hanging hair was slowly lowering toward him, its cold, earthy-smelling breath brushing against his face.

Lan Mo thrust the dagger hidden under his blanket straight into the center of that head!

And that wasn’t the end. A blackish, withered hand grabbed his abdomen from behind. Lan Mo swung back and chopped the hand off with his dagger.

He threw the blanket backward, covering something that was writhing underneath it. Turning around, he plunged a dagger into the blanket. The blade pierced through, and they only heard a “squelch” sound. The thing beneath the blanket disappeared, and the bulging blanket deflated instantly like a punctured balloon.

“What the hell is that thing!” He looked at the dark bluish-black liquid seeping onto the bed and asked his teammate on the opposite bed, “Shi Yan, how are you?”

There were four people in the dormitory. Among those sharing the room with him, one was his teammate, while the other two were NPCs. Both of them were currently being attacked by different “ghosts.”

Lights-out in the school was at 10:30 PM. After the dormitory buildings went completely dark, those disgusting things would appear. They were neither human nor ghostlike, but they had all decided to call them “ghosts.”

Shi Yan had medium-length hair, tied into a small tuft at the back of his head. He said, “It’s disgusting. Why can’t these rotten hands be cut off no matter how I hack them?”

Lan Mo shook the unknown liquid off the dagger in disgust. “I just stabbed through a head. Even more disgusting!”

Shi Yan jumped down from his bed and stood back-to-back with Lan Mo. Their other two roommates were NPCs, sleeping deeply and completely unaware of everything happening.

Shi Yan flexed his wrist. “Should we leave the dorm building? We’ve been killing for half an hour and there’s still no end to it. It never stops.”

Lan Mo said, “Are you sure there won’t be even more of those things outside?”

Shi Yan replied, “How would we know if we don’t try? If Feng-ge were here, he definitely wouldn’t be stuck staying in the dorm.”

Lan Mo said, “But didn’t the dorm supervisor just say not to leave the dorm after lights out?”

hi Yan asked, “Do you know why Feng-ge never trusts you to enter an instance alone?”

Lan Mo said, “Huh? Isn’t it because Feng-ge needs me?”

Shi Yan said, “Because your brain isn’t always that reliable. Let’s go. When we’re with Feng-ge, when have we ever listened to NPCs? We have to interpret their words in reverse.”

Lan Mo said, “Alright. But this time is strange. We left so many messages, but Feng-ge hasn’t come to meet up with us. The instance isn’t that big either.”

Shi Yan shook his head. “Probably held up by something, or maybe he’s avoiding exposing his role information to other players, so it’s inconvenient for him to find us.”

Lan Mo nodded. “True. Feng-ge has always been more cautious than us.” He wiped the liquid off his dagger with the blanket. “Let’s go, we’ll break out of the dorm.”

The two of them still moved forward slowly, back-to-back. They didn’t dare let their guard down.

After opening the dorm door, they found other players on the same floor. Everyone had the same idea; they didn’t want to stay inside and wait for death.

This instance had a total of 50 players with the number of male players was higher than female players. Their building had about ten players. Besides them, there should be others on different floors.

A player on the same floor asked if they could team up to deal with these mutated disgusting monsters.

The two agreed. Three people were stronger than two.

They fought their way down from the fourth floor to the third floor, where they encountered a player screaming loudly. The person was relatively small, swinging a baseball bat with his eyes closed.

“Ahhhhhh! Waaaah! Help!”

“Hey, can I join you guys?”

Lan Mo, Shi Yan, and the newly joined player looked at each other and agreed. They suspected he was a high-level player pretending to be weak in this Level 4 difficulty instance, but at least it added another combatant.

So a duo became a trio, and now a quartet.

They continued down to the second floor, with terrifying things chasing them from behind. If they weren’t careful, hands would suddenly shoot out of the ground and grab their ankles. Their arms were almost exhausted from hacking before they finally reached the first floor.

But even after reaching the first floor, they couldn’t alert the dorm supervisor guarding the entrance.

The dorm supervisor was dozing off at the moment.

The crybaby player hiccupped from crying, almost waking the supervisor. Fortunately, they hid quickly, and Lan Mo reacted fast, covering the crybaby’s mouth tightly so they weren’t discovered.

The four of them crouched and slipped out of the dorm building. After exiting through the gate, they felt a surge of relief and ran toward the empty teaching building.

Just as they thought the open space would be safer, they suddenly heard rustling sounds under a plane tree ahead.

Lan Mo grabbed Shi Yan, who was about to move forward. “Wait. I don’t think it’s safe ahead.”

The crybaby player hid behind Lan Mo, trembling all over. “W-why isn’t it safe?” His voice shook, clearly terrified.

Shi Yan said calmly, “There might be a player hiding in that plane tree.”

Lan Mo agreed. “There might even be more than one. Those disgusting things are everywhere. Let’s go.”

Another player also agreed. “Should we check the sports field? It feels like open spaces might have fewer of those things.”

They couldn’t help whoever was in the plane tree. There were too many monsters. They would exhaust themselves trying.

Then Lan Mo heard a cat meowing.

“Meow~”

He took a few more steps forward and still heard it.

“Meow~”

Lan Mo stopped. “Did you hear a cat?”

Shi Yan said, “I heard it.”

Lan Mo suddenly thought of something Feng-ge had mentioned. His cat had also entered the game as a player. Could it be Feng-ge’s cat?

Of course, it could also be an NPC.

He looked back at the plane tree and asked uncertainly, “Do you think it’s coming from that tree?”

Before Shi Yan could answer, the crybaby player said first, “It’s from the tree! The cat has already jumped down!”

“Fuck! I’m running first!” another player turned and ran without hesitation.

Because behind the cat was a swarm of indescribable disgusting things — ghost hands!

“Meow!”

And the one running toward them, as Lan Mo had guessed, was indeed a black cat. But whether it was Qi Feng’s cat, he didn’t know!

Lan Mo saw a black shadow dart past his feet and ran toward the cafeteria. He knew Feng-ge must be looking for the cat, so he decisively chased after it.

“Shi Yan, quickly follow that cat!”

The crybaby player saw Lan Mo running and chased after him. “Ge, wait for me!”

Shi Yan ran while asking, “Why are we chasing a cat? It’s so black, we can’t even see it!”

With outsiders present, and since it involved Feng-ge’s private matters, Lan Mo didn’t explain much, only emphasized, “We must find it. It’s very important. It might be a useful NPC!”

Shi Yan didn’t ask further and caught up. “Where’s the cat?”

Lan Mo looked at the empty road ahead. “We lost it already?”

No wonder it was a black cat. It was too damn black!

What they were being chased by were ghost hands, and the one they were chasing was naturally Yan Jiyun.

He had thought hiding in the plane tree would let him rest safely through the night, but who could have expected those strange things to suddenly appear and almost scare him unconscious.

His purchased props had no effect at all. To avoid those things, he could only climb higher and higher.

Fortunately, his body was small and agile enough, and those things could only climb but not jump. He managed to dodge many of them.

But as more and more rotten hands appeared, he was exhausted from jumping between branches. If he kept going, he would die from fatigue. He had no choice but to run before the hands increased further.

This was the first time he had encountered such a bizarre instance, and he had no idea what kind of place it really was.

It was just terrifying.

Just as he was about to reach his limit, several people ran over from the dorm building. From their conversation, it was obvious they were players. So he decided to divert the trouble elsewhere — he jumped down from the tree. Facing it alone was worse than everyone facing it together.

While sprinting, Yan Jiyun just happened to hear players talking about chasing him.

Why were they still chasing him at a time like this?

Did he have something special that attracted that player?

After diving into the bushes, Yan Jiyun looked back at the player running in front and felt he looked somewhat familiar.

When the other party got a little closer, he realized the man resembled one of Qi Feng’s friends — the one called Lan Mo. He had once secretly observed his appearance while hiding in a backpack. Even though he had shrunk, he could still recognize him. The blue hair on his head was very distinctive.

It was definitely Lan Mo.

Qi Feng always seemed to enter instances with Lan Mo. If Lan Mo was in this Level 4 difficult instance, did that mean Qi Feng was also in this instance?

Wait a second. When he was hiding in the plane tree at night, among the students playing basketball with Xue Ping, there was someone who looked extremely similar to Qi Feng. Could it really be Qi Feng, and not his imagination?

He was really stupid. How could he not have recognized Qi Feng?

But it didn’t matter anymore. He hadn’t expected that after the system update, it would mix Level 2 and Level 4 difficulty instances together. Who could have guessed that a Hard-level player would end up in a Level 2 instance? The system really didn’t do human things!

Right now, he shouldn’t think about this. The key was how to avoid these ghostly things.

He still hadn’t returned to human form, and after being spotted by Lan Mo, he definitely couldn’t transform anymore.

However, Lan Mo had never seen him before and didn’t know whether he was Qi Feng’s cat. But from the fact that he was being chased, Yan Jiyun could guess that Qi Feng must have told Lan Mo about his information. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have chased after a black cat while also being pursued by a swarm of ghost hands.

As expected of a veteran player. He had already deduced his identity at a glance.

For now, that was actually a good thing. More people meant more strength. Hurry up and drive away these ghost hands!

Although the ghost hands were not as fast as Yan Jiyun, their numbers were overwhelming, enough to catch up with Lan Mo and the others.

As the ghost hands chased them, Yan Jiyun finally got a brief moment to breathe, and he began observing the three people chasing after him.

One was a man with a small tuft tied at the back of his head. The other was— why was it He Yuanle?

That face was impossible to forget.

He Yuanle seemed even more “watered down” than him. He had only shrunk a few months, but He Yuanle looked like he had regressed from an adult to a middle school student.

For some reason, he felt a bit schadenfreude. Finally, someone who had shrunk more severely than him and had an even harder time moving around.

But he didn’t expect He Yuanle to actually be a Hard-level player. Was he clearing instances through crying?

“Ahhhh! Help! Ge! A ghost hand grabbed my clothes!”

Lan Mo and Shi Yan turned around and helped cut off the ghost hand clinging to his back.

“Ge, my back feels cold!”

Yan Jiyun: “……”

He Yuanle really was lively. Wherever he went, he could liven up the atmosphere.

Since Lan Mo was chasing him and had drawn most of the aggro, he was willing to return the favor. He shook a small branch beside him to make a sound.

The three of them immediately headed toward that direction.

Shi Yan had good eyesight and said, “The cat is over there. Chase it.”

Although He Yuanle was still crying, he didn’t ask why they were chasing a cat. He seemed to understand very well that one must lower their head under someone else’s roof, and he followed instructions obediently without being annoying.

His legs were short, so he ran slowly. Lan Mo and Shi Yan, both over 180 cm tall, each grabbed him by an arm and carried him along.

When Yan Jiyun looked back, he saw He Yuanle desperately tiptoeing while running. If he weren’t currently in cat form, he might have laughed out loud.

He Yuanle was just too funny. How was he supposed to hold back and escape seriously like this?

Ahead was a standalone two-and-a-half-story building with a sign that read “Supermarket.”

Yan Jiyun noticed that the rustling sounds on the ground were increasing. The movement of those three people seemed to have attracted even more ghost hands.

He didn’t need to worry about their origins for now. The priority was finding a place to hide.

The supermarket ahead looked suitable.

He ran faster than the three of them. The supermarket door was not open, so he jumped onto the edge of a window. Feeling a draft coming from inside, he crouched on the windowsill and waited for them.

Lan Mo and Shi Yan were clearly trained; their speed was very fast.

Although it was night, Yan Jiyun deliberately aligned himself with the moonlight so they could spot him quickly.

With limited strength, he waited for Lan Mo to push open the heavy window.

As expected, Lan Mo didn’t disappoint. Once it opened, Yan Jiyun jumped in first. The supermarket was very quiet, unlike the rustling sounds outside.

Maybe they could temporarily hide here.

The ghost hands were still rushing toward them. This time He Yuanle was no longer screaming. He was too exhausted, running out of breath. Lan Mo and Shi Yan jointly threw him through the window into the supermarket, then Shi Yan climbed in, and finally Lan Mo followed.

They were still not fast enough. Two ghost hands managed to grab Lan Mo’s right leg.

Yan Jiyun jumped onto the cashier counter and watched as Lan Mo swiftly dealt with the ghost hands with his dagger before flipping in through the window. Shi Yan quickly pulled the window shut.

Their coordination was seamless.

He knew both of them were Qi Feng’s teammates. They must have cleared many instances together and likely had the same level of synergy as Qi Feng.

How enviable… and a little infuriating. He and Qi Feng probably didn’t have such seamless coordination.

After catching his breath, Lan Mo walked toward Yan Jiyun, who was crouched on the counter.

Yan Jiyun had already decided not to reveal his identity, so as soon as Lan Mo approached, he jumped onto a shelf.

Lan Mo sheathed his dagger and rubbed his palms as he walked closer. “Little black cat~ Candy~”

Yan Jiyun remained unmoved. Who the hell was Candy?

He was just about to think of how to describe Qi Feng’s teammates when he suddenly heard the ghost hands violently smashing against the supermarket rolling shutter from outside.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

T/N: Congrats Yan Jiyun, you reached a new high record of 3 NEW names in one instance!

Though, Lan Mo probably forgot YJY’s name. Candy is 糖果 (tángguǒ) while Caramel is 焦糖 (jiāotáng). They do share a character.