DSMC Chapter 155.2

Several hours had passed. The NPC elementary school students had also returned to the dormitory, and every single one of them was sleeping like the dead.

Yan Jiyun stepped onto Qi Feng’s stomach a few times. Miniature Qi Feng’s belly was surprisingly soft, yet he still didn’t wake up.

On the opposite bunk lay Lan Mo, also flat on his back.

Yan Jiyun jumped over, patted his face, then bounced onto his stomach. He was stomping hard enough. Why still no reaction?

He checked the game system.

It hadn’t turned gray. Everything was functioning normally, including the prop inventory. No new mission had appeared.

Instead of immediately checking the neighboring room, he jumped back beside Qi Feng, lay down again, and continued thinking. 

Seven hours had passed since he fell asleep. He had gone to sleep just as evening study hall began, around 7 PM. Then, it should be around 2 AM. 

Even though he was a cat, he had no desire to become a nocturnal one. Damn garbage game!!

Resting his chin against Qi Feng’s chest, he continued organizing his thoughts.

They were inside Teacher Qu’s mental world. During the day, poisoned food was used to kill his alters. At night, the math teacher, driven by malicious intent, abducted children. And in the dead of night, nightmares could kill Teacher Qu’s alters inside the instance.

Standing against Teacher Qu was the game’s main mission, which required the players to protect Yan Weilan.

Why?

Wasn’t Teacher Qu the main personality?

Could Yan Weilan actually be his true personality?

If the main personality were killed, then the strongest remaining split personality would have the chance to completely take over Teacher Qu’s body?

The information currently known was:

1. Teacher Qu’s split personalities include: the triplet class monitors, Xiao Yue, Teacher Qu No. 1, and Teacher Qu No. 2.
2. Xiao Yue had already died in the [Mermaid] instance.
3. He had triggered the new main storyline by baiting Teacher Qu No. 1.
4. After entering the new storyline, one of Teacher Qu’s personalities was using legitimate means to kill the class monitor. From this, it could be inferred that if a split personality was killed through illegitimate means, Teacher Qu’s other personalities would detect it and retaliate. In other words, the alters were killing one another.
5. The current main mission required the players to protect Yan Weilan.

The only confirmed information about Teacher Qu’s main personality was that his emotions were reflected through the weather inside the instance. They needed to find the personality that had been sad when he first entered the instance.

Was that only true information they had? 

Their progress was still a little too slow.

Tomorrow would already be the third day, yet they still didn’t have much information related to Teacher Qu.

Then again, neither Qi Feng nor Lan Mo could be woken up. Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi were surely still asleep as well. None of the other NPCs showed any signs of activity either. The surroundings were so deathly quiet it made goosebumps crawl over his skin. If a pin dropped on the floor, it would probably make him jump.

Could it be that he was the only one awake in the entire world now?

Did that mean he could freely roam through Teacher Qu’s mental world?

He leaped onto the windowsill, hooked the latch open with his paw, pushed the window open, and poked his little black head outside.

At this hour of the night, even if someone were around, they wouldn’t be able to see his black head anyway.

He glanced outside, then immediately pulled his head back in. 

There wasn’t a single person outside. This wasn’t the elementary school world he had been seeing at all.

Holy shit, this is terrifying! He really was inside Teacher Qu’s mental world, and at this very moment, Teacher Qu was probably having a nightmare!

Yan Jiyun was just about to hook the window shut again with his paw when the system suddenly became active.

[Ding.]

[Congratulations to the player for successfully unlocking the solo mission: “Journey Through Teacher Qu’s Dream.” Completing this mission will earn you generous point rewards.]

[Mission Details: Late at night, Teacher Qu has gone to sleep as usual. However, once he entered dreamland, he began having a nightmare. He’s trembling all over, frightened, and crying. Please help him get a good night’s sleep so he can welcome a wonderful new day. If he remains trapped in his nightmare until dawn, the player’s main mission will be refreshed. Resolve Teacher Qu’s nightmare before daybreak.]

[Friendly Reminder: This mission carries a certain level of danger. Good luck.]

Right now, Yan Jiyun wanted nothing more than to curse. He wanted to curse the game and Teacher Qu! 

He had merely gone to sleep and woken up, so why had the whole world changed?

Where were the other players?

The moment the system notification ended, he heard faint sobbing drifting from somewhere far away. The intermittent crying was even more horrifying than a horror story.

Yan Jiyun instinctively shrank his neck.

Before he could even close the window, he discovered that the dormitory was flooding. Water was already seeping in through the crack beneath the door.

Shit, shit, shit. What kind of nightmare was this?

[Want to be Human] livestream channel: 

“Hahahaha! Oh my god, I got up in the middle of the night to pee and found Kitty Baby already hard at work doing quests.”

“I thought we’d have to wait until tomorrow morning before seeing him grinding again. Is that viewer who watched this no-survivor instance still here? Is this the same instance you saw before?”

“It doesn’t seem quite the same. This one feels even harder? And there definitely weren’t any solo missions in the version I watched.”

“Exactly. Our Kitty Baby isn’t like other players. He always triggers storylines normal players never encounter. Let me explain how this instance works: he first found the answer to this world, and then that answer sent him looking for another answer.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Successfully bamboozled the big shot, hahahaha.” 

What it meant was that everything Yan Jiyun was experiencing now was exactly what Teacher Qu had to experience, and faced it together with Teacher Qu.

Yan Weilan was still just a child. His family circumstances weren’t bad. There was no way he would have dreams like this.

He still hadn’t found the true main personality. Yan Weilan was the protagonist of this instance, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was the main personality.

Teacher Qu was such a massive pain in the ass!

The seawater continued seeping into the dormitory.

Yan Jiyun jumped back onto the bed, then onto Qi Feng’s chest, stomping frantically.

“Meow~”

“Meow~”

“Meow~”

‘Wake up, Qi Feng!’

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

His cries became louder and louder. He didn’t want Qi Feng to drown in seawater!

[Want to be Human] livestream channel: 

“Mimi, run! Leave the human behind! Since it’s a solo mission, only you can enter. Nobody else will come.”

“Kitty Baby is still trying. Those desperate meows are breaking my heart. I wish I could enter the game and finish the mission for him.”

“Am I the only one who wants to see wet Kitty again? The last time was during the [Midnight Diner] instance.” 

“To the guy who said Qi Feng couldn’t be woken up, you just got proven wrong.”

“Holy crap. Wasn’t this supposed to be a solo mission? Looks like the game just contradicted itself.”

After Yan Jiyun’s relentless stomping, jumping, and nonstop meowing, Qi Feng suddenly coughed, then he woke up!

He took a huge gasp of air.

“Caramel?”

Yan Jiyun meowed again, motioning toward Lan Mo. His meows had only awakened Qi Feng, but Lan Mo hadn’t reacted at all.

Qi Feng gently patted Yan Jiyun’s head reassuringly. Just as he was about to get out of bed to wake the others, his shoes — still on his feet because he had never taken them off while sleeping — splashed into water the moment they touched the floor.

“What’s going on?”

A second later, the game notification arrived.

“A solo mission?” Qi Feng glanced at Caramel, who had climbed onto his shoulder. “I guess it really is a solo mission. Caramel doesn’t count as a person.”

Yan Jiyun gave an indignant meow. ‘I am a person!’

Qi Feng wasn’t afraid of the water. He waded straight across to Lan Mo’s bed and shook him hard. But strangely, no matter how much he shouted or shook him, Lan Mo didn’t respond at all.

“Caramel, let’s check next door and see Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi.”

Yan Jiyun tightened his grip on Qi Feng’s hair. ‘Exactly what I was thinking.’

Once Qi Feng received the mission, his progress synchronized with Yan Jiyun’s.

After stepping outside, he went next door to Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi’s room. Their small bodies lacked enough strength to push the door open.

He called for them outside for quite a while. Just like Lan Mo, neither of them could be awakened.

“If nobody can be woken up, then we should deal with the source of the seawater first.”

Yan Jiyun: “Meow.” Agreed.

Qi Feng thought the kitten was simply afraid of the water, so he comforted him again. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll find a way to keep you from falling into the water.”

He ran back to the dormitory and found one of his roommates’ washbasins on the balcony. It was just the right size for a four-month-old Yan Jiyun.

Yan Jiyun: “…”

Wonderful, his boat was ready.

Once Qi Feng solved the problem Yan Jiyun was most worried about — falling into the water — they officially began the mission.

First, he had to locate the source of the sobbing. The water had already flooded this floor; he couldn’t tell whether it was tears or seawater from the dream.

Yan Jiyun stayed perched on Qi Feng’s shoulder. There wasn’t enough water yet for him to get down. It only covered the floor in a shallow layer and hadn’t even submerged Qi Feng’s shoes.

He couldn’t determine where the water was coming from, but he knew exactly where the quiet sobbing originated.

Yan Jiyun looked toward the stairwell, and Qi Feng immediately understood.

When they reached the stairs, they saw water cascading down from above, rushing down the staircase without any sign of slowing.

The crying and the water came from the same direction.

Qi Feng slowly climbed the flooded stairs. Yan Jiyun wondered whether those shoes were waterproof. Qi Feng waded through the water with surprising ease.

The sobbing continued.

They climbed another floor and found nobody. The water was still coming from above, so they had no choice but to continue.

Finally, they reached the rooftop, where the crying became much clearer.

Hearing sounds like this in the middle of the night was genuinely terrifying.

The rooftop door stood open, seemingly left open specifically for them.

A child stood atop the concrete guardrail.

“Wuu… wuu… wuu…”

“Mom… I’m scared. Please don’t throw me into the water. I don’t want to learn how to swim.”

“I don’t want to go down… Please… I really don’t… I’m scared.”

The child stood with his back to them. From behind, he looked exactly like Yan Weilan.

Unable to speak, Yan Jiyun could only let Qi Feng ask, “Why are you standing here crying?”

His tone was rather stiff. The child paused for a moment, then he burst into tears again.

‘This kid probably responds better to kindness than bluntness,’ Yan Jiyun thought.

Without any hesitation, he called out, “Meow~”

The child turned around and stopped crying. Yan Jiyun finally saw his face — it was identical to Yan Weilan’s, but Yan Jiyun knew this wasn’t Yan Weicheng nor Yan Weiqing.

The child’s eyes revealed fear. He also shrank his neck, very much unlike Yan Weilan, who was full of confidence. 

The child sniffled, his nose red. “Why are you allowed to keep a cat?”

Qi Feng: “Because I’m an adult.”

The child: “But you look the same age as me.”

Qi Feng suddenly remembered that he was also a little kid at the moment. That explanation wasn’t exactly convincing.

Qi Feng: “I mean… my mental age is older than yours.”

Yan Jiyun thought, ‘Nice recovery, human.’

“My mom says keeping cats is a waste of time,” the child said. “She won’t even let me stop and talk to stray kittens after school.”

Qi Feng: “Then you must be having a really tough time.” 

Yan Jiyun: “…”

‘Seriously? Is that how you talk to children? Shouldn’t you be showering him with warmth and compassion?’

The child asked, “Can I pet your cat? He looks really cute.”

Qi Feng refused without hesitation. “No.”

The child: “…”

Yan Jiyun was very satisfied with that answer. Could just anyone pet his human’s cat? Obviously not.

Realizing he had answered a little too quickly, Qi Feng added, “Unless you have canned food.”

“I do.” The child stood up from the platform. Two cans suddenly appeared out of nowhere in his previously empty hands.

The instant he finished speaking, his expression twisted into something ferocious. The two cans shot through the air straight toward Qi Feng and Yan Jiyun.

“But why do you get to have a cat?! Go die!”