DSMC Chapter 141

It wasn’t easy to find someone in such a massive campus, especially when that person was deliberately hiding.

In his human form, Yan Jiyun wasn’t suited for gathering information. He had already missed the best chance to chase after Teacher Qu, and the lingering scent in the air had probably faded by now.

He returned downstairs to the dormitory building and followed the direction Teacher Qu had run earlier.

If Yang Pingping’s death was connected to Teacher Qu, then there was no reason for him to risk exposure by sneaking into Yang Pingping’s dorm afterward just to look for the recording pen.

What exactly had Yang Pingping done that made Teacher Qu willing to take such a risk?

As a teacher at the school, he had no need to sneak around. He could enter the boys’ dorm openly with almost any excuse. It wasn’t even the girls’ dormitory.

Yan Jiyun kept following the narrow path Teacher Qu had taken and eventually discovered that it led straight to the school’s back gate.

He tried leaving through it, only to be stopped by an invisible wall.

Since he couldn’t get out, Teacher Qu probably hadn’t left the school either. Yan Jiyun simply couldn’t find him.

Had Teacher Qu changed identities?

What role was he playing in this school?

Since he could appear during broad daylight, he definitely wasn’t some ghost or monster. That much Yan Jiyun could confirm. Teacher Qu should still be human.

Once he confirmed that, he felt much better. If the person who had held him turned out to be that kind of thing, he honestly thought he might faint on the spot.

Since he couldn’t track him by scent anymore, the only option was to continue investigating. He decided to check the faculty information for Mingya High School again.

No matter how much things changed, the fundamentals stayed the same. Since there was a school celebration, there had to be commemorative brochures. He could try visiting the senior teachers’ office again. But in daylight, he was too noticeable. Better to search the principal’s office or the dean’s office instead.

When Blue Mo had been moving boxes earlier, Yan Jiyun had heard the PE student call the dean “Bald Yang.” A teacher important enough to have a nickname probably had some relevance to the plot.

The dean’s office was easy to find, right on the first floor of the administration building.

Bald Yang was holding a giant transparent cup full of strong tea leaves, lounging comfortably in his chair while humming badly off-key to the old song “Sweet Honey¹”. His eyes were closed, and he looked thoroughly content.

Taking advantage of the moment, Yan Jiyun slipped into the office through the open door.

On the short filing cabinet behind the dean sat a stack of brochures, exactly what Yan Jiyun had been looking for.

He lowered his body and crawled beneath the desk and chair, then jumped onto the low cabinet behind Bald Yang’s seat. He quickly flipped open the school anniversary booklet.

But just as he opened the table of contents, Bald Yang’s chair suddenly moved.

To avoid being spotted, Yan Jiyun had no choice but to leap back to the floor and hide under the desk again. Bald Yang kept spinning his chair around endlessly instead of sitting still in one direction.

Yan Jiyun rolled his eyes internally. ‘Ugh, so annoying. Why won’t he stop spinning around?’

He continued crouching beneath the desk, silently praying for someone to call Bald Yang away. Maybe sincerity really did move heaven, because moments later there was a knock at the door.

A low male voice sounded from outside.

“Director Yang, the principal would like to see you. He says there’s something he wants to discuss with you.”

Yan Jiyun knew that voice all too well.

It was Teacher Qu from Instance B.

Bald Yang’s attitude immediately became extremely polite. He stood up from his chair and spoke with obvious flattery. “Ah, Qu-laoshi. Did the principal say what it’s about?”

Teacher Qu’s voice was calm and steady, without much emotion. “I’m not sure either. Probably something good.”

Bald Yang straightened his suit. “Alright, I’ll head over now.”

Teacher Qu added, “Director Yang, may I borrow your computer?”

Bald Yang smiled broadly. “Of course, of course.”

There were no major secrets on the office computer anyway. Teacher Qu was someone the principal trusted, so there was no issue.

And just like that, Bald Yang was lured away.

Teacher Qu sat down in his chair and began working at the computer. The quiet office filled only with the rapid clicking of the mouse.

Yan Jiyun heard Bald Yang’s footsteps fading farther and farther away. His leather shoes were so loud that Yan Jiyun could hear him climbing the stairs, excitement obvious in every step.

No matter where you were, there would always be people eager to flatter their superiors. The game portrayed it vividly.

Teacher Qu suddenly stood and walked toward the door. For a moment Yan Jiyun thought he was leaving, but instead he simply closed the office door.

Then, rather than returning to the computer, Teacher Qu began searching through the filing cabinets.

Yan Jiyun stayed crouched under the desk, considering whether he should reveal himself. But since Teacher Qu had appeared on his own, there was no need to rush.

What Yan Jiyun cared about was what Teacher Qu was looking for.

Did his search in Bald Yang’s office have something to do with the main quest?

While Yan Jiyun pondered this, Teacher Qu had already searched through every unlocked cabinet. He finally returned to the desk, skillfully picked the locks on the drawers, and began rummaging through the files inside.

When he pushed the middle drawer closed again, he suddenly noticed a black cat crouched beneath the desk, looking up at him.

Normally, from that angle — and with such dark fur — he never would have noticed it.

But the cat’s eyes were too bright. So bright they almost seemed capable of speaking.

Teacher Qu’s breathing hitched. “Guoba?”

The black cat in front of him let out a low meow tinged with grievance. Yan Jiyun deliberately acted weak.

Right now, he needed Teacher Qu. Whether it was returning to Instance A or staying in Instance B, Teacher Qu was an indispensable NPC to him. So he had to be a little shameless.

Fortunately, after crossing over, Teacher Qu hadn’t forgotten him.

Yan Jiyun leapt onto Bald Yang’s desk and sprawled there.

A faint smile finally appeared on Teacher Qu’s usually expressionless face. “I didn’t expect you to actually follow me here.”

Apparently, Teacher Qu hadn’t found what he wanted in the office. He scooped up the black cat — leaving several dirty little paw prints across the white papers — and headed out.

Yan Jiyun was now extremely curious about what role Teacher Qu was playing in the school.

Still, simply finding Teacher Qu already made him feel much more at ease.

Next came figuring out how to jump between Instance A and Instance B. After that, he needed to find Qi Feng.

The deaths in Instance B were bizarre and mysterious, while the deaths in Instance A came suddenly and unpredictably, entirely dependent on the system’s mini-games and the teachers’ whims.

What he could confirm now was that all of his teammates were in Instance A, while Qi Feng’s teammates were in Instance B. The two of them themselves were separated into different instances. They needed to cooperate. It simply wasn’t realistic for one person alone to clear both instances.

And currently, the only people confirmed to have crossed between instances were Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng. Which meant the two of them needed to work together even more.

After leaving Director Yang’s office with Yan Jiyun in his arms, Teacher Qu headed directly toward another building behind the teaching block.

In Instance A, the corresponding building should have been the laboratory building. Here it was also called the laboratory building, but Teacher Qu brought him to a classroom on the first floor that had nothing to do with science.

It was an art room.

Easels were arranged throughout the room. A fresh apple sat on the instructor’s platform. Near the windows stood two statues: Venus and David.

Neither painting nor music were Yan Jiyun’s strong points, but that didn’t stop Teacher Qu from bringing him here to soak in artistic atmosphere. Maybe after leaving this instance, his temperament would improve considerably?

At least now he finally understood why Teacher Qu had so much more freedom compared to the other subject teachers.

He taught art students preparing for entrance exams, and unlike regular academic teachers, he didn’t need to constantly drill students with worksheets and test reviews.

No wonder Teacher Qu in Instance B seemed less expressive than Teacher Qu in Instance A. As an art teacher, strong technical skill was enough. Once he finished guiding the art students, his work was done.

When Teacher Qu carried Yan Jiyun into the classroom, one of the students quietly painting at an easel looked up immediately and spotted the black cat in his arms.

The classroom was silent, the students carefully avoiding disturbing one another. Naturally, Yan Jiyun also stayed quiet and didn’t interrupt them.

Teacher Qu placed Yan Jiyun on the podium and said, “Today, everyone will draw a black cat. Let’s see who can truly capture its spirit.”

Yan Jiyun swished the painting tools on the podium with his long tail. So Teacher Qu had brought him here to be a model.

The students below all looked quite relaxed.

One student joked, “Laoshi, I’ve decided to paint the background completely black and hide the cat inside it. I’ve even thought of the title already: ‘Did You See My Cat?²’”

The whole classroom burst into laughter. The idea was simply too brilliant.

Yan Jiyun: “…” He will remember this student now!

Teacher Qu scratched under the black cat’s chin with his fingertips, softening the tension in his sharp features a little. “That’s not impossible.”

The other students lowered their heads and started brainstorming ideas. Some of them seriously examined Yan Jiyun, searching for unique traits to draw.

Teacher Qu first explained the assignment before beginning the lesson.

Of course, Yan Jiyun had no intention of obediently serving as their model. He jumped down from the podium and wandered between the desks before finally leaping onto an empty desk and lying down.

The gloomy weather suddenly cleared, and sunlight streamed in. He needed to sun himself quickly to nourish his fur and absorb some calcium.

He let out a big yawn.

Seeing that Main Mission 1 still hadn’t moved after an entire day made him even sleepier.

It wasn’t that he wanted to slack off. He simply hadn’t found the correct way to complete the quest yet.

He kept thinking about one question.

Every instance had a theme. The first instance reflected issues between parents and children, a microcosm of society. The second instance revolved around anti-drug operations and the people who silently sacrificed their sweat and lives behind the scenes. The third instance explored the greed of human nature within a small, enclosed village. The fourth naturally centered around animal protection and family bonds.

So what was this instance trying to express?

Family? Friendship? Love? Or human nature?

Tilting his head, Yan Jiyun noticed a pretty long-haired girl in the back row resting her face in her hands while listening to Teacher Qu lecture. Her eyes were filled with admiration and affection, without the slightest attempt to hide it.

Teacher Qu in Instance A had been gentle but somewhat twisted, liking obedient students. But Teacher Qu in Instance B was rather cold and detached. His voice barely fluctuated while teaching, yet his logic was clear and direct. Even an outsider like Yan Jiyun could understand parts of it, probably because he was naturally perceptive.

He scanned the classroom but found no other players.

His claws were itching to scratch something. He raked them across the desktop, and just as he was about to rest his chin on his paws, he noticed a line of writing beneath them.

[I’ve liked you for a long time. Your name has become a secret I can never speak aloud. As long as I don’t say it, nobody will know.]

[When will you finally turn around and look at me? Just once.]

[I know now. I never had a chance.]

Was this a story about a girl secretly in love with a boy?

There were still several empty desks in the back without students sitting at them.

As if he had discovered a new game, Yan Jiyun hopped from desk to desk while Teacher Qu lectured at the front.

Every desk had emotional confessions written across it, heartfelt and heartbreaking declarations of love.

Yan Jiyun didn’t just jump on empty desks. He boldly leaped onto desks occupied by NPC students too, pawing at their desk.

The students he “favored” looked as though they had received imperial grace. They hurriedly placed their art supplies on the floor to clear space for him to play.

Yan Jiyun: “…”

Actually, he only wanted to check whether their desks had confession notes written on them.

After squatting on one student’s desk for a while, he jumped to another.

This deskmate seemed slightly afraid of cats, pressing himself back against the chair and not daring to touch him. There weren’t many things on the desk, but Yan Jiyun still spotted confession writings on it.

Then he hopped down and stopped disturbing everyone’s class.

If he kept jumping around, Teacher Qu would probably kick him out of the classroom.

He obediently returned to the desk from before and sprawled there in the sunlight again.

Jiang Shiwen here was also dead, and her death timeline was before the instance began.

Information obtained in the first round:

Yang Pingping had a girlfriend.
Before Yang Pingping died, he had fought with the top student.
Jiang Shiwen was the top student’s girlfriend. In this instance, she died by hanging herself in the dormitory.

Information obtained in the second round:

Cheng Su had gone out after Yang Pingping fell into the lake, and her clothes were still wet afterward.
The reason for Jiang Shiwen’s suicide: after her family discovered her relationship, her grades dropped, and they forbade her from dating. Before her death, she had a huge argument with her family. There was pressure from academics and pressure from her parents. However, the top student had not broken up with her, so the true cause of death remained unknown. Her friendship circle also required investigation. From Instance A, Yan Jiyun learned that Cheng Su and Jiang Shiwen should have been fairly close and likely shared some sort of secret.
Cheng Su had been pushed off the auditorium stage, but she survived.
Han Ruibai’s laptop didn’t match his supposed background. The laptop might not have been his originally, or perhaps he suddenly came into money and bought a new one. He had also received five love letters, all from someone calling themselves “The Person Who Wants to Become a Mermaid.”
A voice recorder confiscated by Teacher Qu.

As for the relationships between the characters:

Han Ruibai, Yang Pingping, Cheng Su, and three others all knew each other. They seemed tied to a hidden incident — one connected to their lives. This was the main mission and still needed investigation.

At the moment, everything vaguely pointed toward Jiang Shiwen’s suicide.

However, there was one character who remained unclear.

Yan Jiyun remembered Shi Yan mentioning that Jiang Shiwen’s top-student boyfriend was Chen Chaofei from Class 1. Strangely, when Yang Pingping bullied Jiang Shiwen, why hadn’t Chen Chaofei stepped in to help her?

Jiang Shiwen’s grades weren’t as good as the top student’s, so perhaps the pressure she felt didn’t only come from her own parents. It might also have come from the top student’s parents.

No, no. That wasn’t right.

Some of the information they received probably needed to be filtered out as irrelevant.

Which parts weren’t important? Let him think.

Cheng Su and Yang Pingping had gone out in the middle of the night to play the spirit invocation game together, which meant they were on decent terms. Cheng Su and Jiang Shiwen were probably friends too. Classmates naturally formed social circles, and boys especially valued “loyalty.” A friend’s friend was also considered a friend. So how could Yang Pingping have bullied Jiang Shiwen?

The five of them, including Han Ruibai, were hiding a truth, a secret only the five of them knew.

Jiang Shiwen’s death wasn’t because of romance, but it still might have been caused by a certain kind of emotional attachment.

If this were merely an ordinary revenge story, and someone was avenging Jiang Shiwen, then the top student would naturally be the prime suspect.

But the top student was easily provoked and clearly not someone capable of careful long-term planning. That meant he couldn’t be the mastermind behind everything.

Looks like the truth still needed further digging.

Still, Yan Jiyun had guessed something. The wish they made must have been this: they didn’t want the truth exposed, and they didn’t want to die.

Yan Jiyun behaved exceptionally well during Teacher Qu’s class.

After lecturing for over half the lesson, Teacher Qu let the students spend the remaining half drawing the cat.

Naturally, Yan Jiyun wasn’t about to stay behind as a model. Teacher Qu carried him to the office next door.

Teacher Qu wasn’t the only art teacher for the art exam class. Another teacher shared the spacious office, and cool air drifted in through the open windows.

When Teacher Qu picked him up, Yan Jiyun deliberately pretended to dislike being carried and kicked at the pocket of his coat with his hind legs. No voice recorder.

Where had he put it?

The other teacher wasn’t in the office. Teacher Qu set Yan Jiyun down and told him not to run around.

Of course Yan Jiyun didn’t run around. He merely prowled around Teacher Qu’s office, pawing through things left and right, yet he still couldn’t find the recorder.

This place was too obvious. Surely it wouldn’t be hidden here.

Then his eyes landed on a bag beneath the chair in the corner. Inside was a black coat.

Wasn’t this the coat Teacher Qu wore when he entered the boys’ dormitory? Could the recorder be inside it?

Teacher Qu was seriously reviewing paintings. Seeing that Yan Jiyun remained near his feet and didn’t wander far, he didn’t notice the cat’s paw slipping into the bag to feel around the coat pocket.

Search— nothing.

Search again— there it was!

But how was he supposed to take the recorder out?

His paws simply weren’t dexterous enough to perform the difficult feat of pulling out a recorder one-handed.

Yan Jiyun dug for the recorder so intently that he forgot about his own weight. He successfully tipped over the bag, half his head plunging inside. Earlier, he had only been balancing on his hind legs, but now half his body had toppled into the bag, his hind legs sticking up off the ground.

Hearing the noise, Teacher Qu lowered his head and saw the entire cat stuck inside the bag. The cat frantically poked its head out, eyes even wider than before, round and adorable.

The normally aloof Teacher Qu burst out laughing, adding a splash of liveliness to the quiet office.

Yan Jiyun, however, felt nothing but utter social death. Fortunately, he was only a cat. Otherwise, he’d be fleeing to Mars right now.

Teacher Qu lifted him out of the bag and sternly lectured him, “Guoba, don’t rummage through bags.”

Pretending not to understand, Yan Jiyun regretfully stared at the coat inside the bag. He had almost reached the recorder!

[Want to be Human] livestream channel:

“Hahahahaha, Kitty Baby is still ridiculously cute but absolutely brainless. How did he manage to fall headfirst into a bag? This Teacher Qu is so gentle too!”

“He probably forgot his own weight after becoming smaller. Wasn’t he trying to fish the recorder out of the coat pocket?”

“So what’s on the recorder? Even though the two instances merged, the content itself probably hasn’t changed, right? Any experts want to discuss the plot?”

“The recorder is a key item. Finding it advances the story, but obviously the kitty didn’t get it. Teacher Qu would never let him touch it unless he turned back into a human.”

“If he turned human, he probably wouldn’t even be allowed into the office. Teacher Qu isn’t nearly as easygoing as he looks. He’s just gentler toward cats. Cats aren’t humans after all.”

“Which person just said Teacher Qu wouldn’t let Kitty Baby touch the recorder? He literally took it out himself—”

That’s right. After pulling Yan Jiyun out of the bag, Teacher Qu casually took out the coat as well and placed the recorder — stuffed carelessly into the pocket — onto the desk.

Yan Jiyun jumped onto the desk, nudged the recorder aside with his paw, then deliberately pressed the power button.

Since the power button had already been pressed, Teacher Qu had no reason not to listen to the recordings. So without overthinking it, he selected one of the recordings in front of Yan Jiyun and pressed play.

The first sound wasn’t voices, but the noise of something heavy hitting the ground.

Then came voices. One belonged to a young male, probably a high school student judging from the sound.

Boy A: “We’re just leaving her here?”

Boy B: “Nobody really comes to the music building anyway. She’ll wake up tomorrow morning and go back to the dorm herself.”

Boy A: “Isn’t this a little too much? She helped us before.”

Boy C said coldly, “But she betrayed me. This is only a small lesson.”

Boy A: “But she’s still your girlfriend. Isn’t this too cruel? Besides, I don’t think she—”

Boy C interrupted, “Chen Chaofei, do you want to die?”

Suddenly, the person holding the recorder stepped on a dry branch, making a noise that alerted the three male students.

“Who’s there?!”

The person with the recorder turned and ran. The others didn’t catch up, and shortly afterward, the recording ended.

Yan Jiyun was shocked. Wasn’t Chen Chaofei the top student who had argued with Yang Pingping?