DSMC Chapter 156.1

T/N: guys… apparently I’ve been subconsciously meowing when I translate YJY meowing…………

I was working at a library and the next desk looked over at me TT A TT she thought there was an actual cat around but then she found me meowing at my laptop…………………

My dignity is gone!!!!!!!

This was the first time since entering the game that Yan Jiyun had suffered such a crushing defeat as a cat. His adorable charm simply didn’t work on this boy — let’s call him Class Monitor No. 4.

Qi Feng nimbly dodged the two cans hurled at them.

The force behind the cans thrown by Class Monitor No. 4 was tremendous, carving two deep gouges into the wall behind them. He had been aiming straight for their vital points.

Thankfully, Qi Feng had rejected his request outright. Otherwise, if Yan Jiyun had ended up in Class Monitor No. 4’s hands, would he have survived? Of course not. He would have been strangled to death on the spot.

Just how many Yan Weilans were there in this instance?

‘No, that wasn’t the right way to think about it.’ Yan Jiyun thought.

Piecing together everything he had learned, Yan Jiyun came to a realization: the different Class Monitors probably represented Teacher Qu’s emotions.

In Chinese belief, humans had seven basic emotions. So which one did this personality embody — joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, love, disgust, or fear?

The Yan triplets were named after colors, and colors could symbolize emotions.

So that was it! He understood now.

If blue represented melancholy and sadness, then Yan Weilan was a personality formed from Teacher Qu’s melancholy and sorrow. No wonder the child seemed clever and capable, yet always carried an air of sadness around him.

Following that line of reasoning, Yan Weicheng (orange) would represent happiness and warmth, while Yan Weiqing (blue-green/cyan) embodied another emotional personality.

Whether it was joy, anger, or disgust, they were all fragments of Teacher Qu’s personality. As long as they identified the correct emotional direction behind each one, they might be able to resolve whatever situation they were facing.

He didn’t know which of the seven emotions this personality represented, or even what his name was. Judging by how furious he was, was he the embodiment of “anger”?

Yan Jiyun couldn’t speak right now. If only he and Qi Feng could share the same communication channel. Then he could convey whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, their Intimacy level wasn’t high enough yet.

He opened his inventory, and found only the few items he had purchased.

Hm? His pet inventory was glowing?

Earlier, he’d only paid attention to the normal prop section and hadn’t noticed that the rather questionable master-pet prop inventory below had actually been unlocked for him.

Inside were the three items he’d earned in Crazy Zoo. They’d been gathering dust in a corner all this time. He hadn’t expected them to carry over into instances.

Tuna ×1

 Sardines ×1

 Beef Patty ×1

Yan Jiyun knew these things were useless otherwise. They could only be used to increase Intimacy between him and Qi Feng’s master-pet accounts.

After this instance, he had truly realized the importance of teammates. And the person he worked best with was undoubtedly Qi Feng. Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi still ranked a little lower. Maybe that was the hidden value of the master-pet account system.

There was no point dwelling on it now. First, they had to get out of this instance alive.

A 1v3 instance was terrifying enough already, and who knew what other emotional personalities of Teacher Qu they’d encounter afterward? Besides emotions, who knew what other bizarre personalities he might have split into?

Yan Jiyun tapped all three items.

The items dissolved into tiny white motes that drifted toward Qi Feng like a burst of white fireworks before vanishing in an instant.

The items even came with firework effects.

As soon as the visual effect faded, Yan Jiyun saw three consecutive notifications.

At the same time, Qi Feng’s body stiffened ever so slightly. He had just been dodging the cans Class Monitor No. 4 kept throwing. Each can weighed 160 grams, and one moment of carelessness and his head could easily have been split open.

Then the sudden system notifications nearly distracted him enough to get hit.

[Master-Pet Notification]: Your pet has used Tuna ×1. Congratulations! The Intimacy between you and your pet has increased by 2 points.

[Master-Pet Notification]: Your pet has used Sardines ×1. Congratulations! The Intimacy between you and your pet has increased by 2 points.

[Master-Pet Notification]: Your pet has used Beef Patty ×1. Congratulations! The Intimacy between you and your pet has increased by 2 points.

Qi Feng was utterly stunned. He was barely managing to keep the shock from showing on his face.

What did Caramel just do???

Why does it have props that increase Intimacy???

It even knows how to operate the system interface???

Or… did the system do it for him???

Yan Jiyun glanced at the Intimacy notification in the lower-left corner and sighed.

His intimacy with Qi Feng had increased by 6 points. Adding the pitiful single point they’d earned during the Peak Competition, they now had a grand total of… 7 points. Nothing special seemed to have changed. Was the system lagging?

While Qi Feng and Yan Jiyun were both distracted by other matters during their confrontation with Class Monitor No. 4, the boy became even unhappier.

Then, at that very moment, the entire school transformed into a vast ocean.

Only the distant streetlights floated in the darkness, like lonely lighthouses rising from the sea.

Suddenly, a gigantic wave crashed toward the dormitory building!

Qi Feng darted back to the doorway, grabbed the washbasin he’d just set down, and barely managed to shield both himself and Yan Jiyun, who was hiding behind his head, from the wall of seawater slamming toward them.

In the midst of his rage, Class Monitor No. 4 suddenly lost his footing. He was swept away by the wave. “Ahhh! Sa—”

Splash!

He fell straight into the sea.

Qi Feng charged through the water, but he was too late. Even if he hadn’t been distracted, he couldn’t have caught him.

Yan Jiyun froze. Weren’t these waves caused by Class Monitor No. 4? Then why did he get swept away himself?

Would Class Monitor No. 4 die if he fell into the sea?

Qi Feng was wondering the same thing.

Watching the sea during the day could calm a person’s heart.

Watching it at night inspired nothing but fear.

The daytime ocean and the nighttime ocean were two completely different things.

Towering waves rolled endlessly one after another.

Qi Feng instinctively pulled Yan Jiyun closer into his arms. They had nowhere left to run.

Yan Jiyun remained relatively calm. For the moment, they were trapped in a spot where the seawater hadn’t yet reached. Aside from Qi Feng’s soaked pant legs, the rest of his clothes were still dry.

Now they needed to think carefully about how to escape this dead end.

They both knew they were inside Teacher Qu’s nightmare, and now Class Monitor No. 4 had fallen into the sea.

A bold idea suddenly struck Yan Jiyun. Whenever he dreamed, he often experienced the sensation of falling from a great height. But the moment he actually hit the ground, he would either wake up, or fall into another dream. People often experienced chains of dreams when they were exhausted or under tremendous stress, resulting in poor sleep quality.

After Class Monitor No. 4 fell, the sea itself seemed to lose all order.

If they wanted to escape Teacher Qu’s nightmare, they first had to defeat it. Was the furious, Angry Bird-like Class Monitor No. 4 the enemy they needed to defeat, or the person they needed to save?

His last words had been “Sa—”; was he trying to say “Save me?” Or something else entirely?

Damn it. Why couldn’t Class Monitor No. 4 ever finish a sentence?

Since they had no other way to break the nightmare, the only option was—

Yan Jiyun meowed twice toward the direction where Class Monitor No. 4 had fallen, signaling Qi Feng.

Qi Feng had already achieved the equivalent of Level 8 Cat Language proficiency. The moment Yan Jiyun meowed toward a certain direction, Qi Feng understood exactly what he meant.

Looking down at him, Qi Feng asked, “You want to jump down?”

Yan Jiyun blinked and twisted his body, confirming his intention.

Qi Feng murmured, half asking Yan Jiyun and half talking to himself, “Is there something down there? …But we don’t have any other choice. We can only jump.”

Another enormous wave rose into a towering wall of water, about to swallow the entire building. 

With no other option, they could only jump into the sea.

Qi Feng waded through the water once more and placed Yan Jiyun on the platform before climbing up himself. After sitting securely on the concrete railing, he pulled Yan Jiyun tightly into his arms. Taking a deep breath, he pushed off with both legs and leaped into the endless sea below!

Yan Jiyun buried his little black head in Qi Feng’s chest, too afraid to look down. The deafening roar of the waves only made it even more terrifying.

After the man and cat plunged into the sea, they didn’t feel the water envelop them. Instead, their bodies simply continued falling, with no idea where they would eventually land.

Qi Feng held Yan Jiyun tightly the entire time, terrified that if he let go for even a second, his cat would disappear who knew where.

[Want to be Human] Livestream channel:

“Damn! They just jumped straight into the ocean? What kind of plot development is this?!”

“I heard there’s a Level 5 instance here, so I came to check it out! Huh? Why does this storyline look different from the one I watched before? Weren’t all the players supposed to clear it together? How did it become a solo mission?”

“Holy fuck, Kitty Baby’s difficulty mode really isn’t exaggerated. There are basically two kinds of difficult instances in Destiny now: Kitty Baby’s difficulty, and everyone else’s.”

“What I’m wondering is, why didn’t they save Class Monitor No. 4? I remember that as long as you fulfilled his request and pulled him down from the railing, you’d get the clue to the nightmare.”

“Don’t overthink it. Kitty Baby has never taken the normal route. Class Monitor No. 4’s request was to let him hold the cat. If I were a Level 5 streamer, I wouldn’t hand my own cat over to some random NPC either.”

“But fulfilling an NPC’s wish is the fastest way to clear the stage. You can leave the nightmare immediately. Besides, it’s just a cat. Why not hand it over?”

“Buddy, do you even know whose stream you’re watching? Kitty Baby is the player! Think a little and you’ll realize the streamer isn’t an ordinary cat! You seriously want his owner to hand him over to a wolf’s mouth so he can die even faster?”

“Isn’t watching game streams all about seeing players die? What’s the big deal?”

“I just don’t want people cursing Kitty Baby to die in his own stream. If you want to watch other players die, the exit’s over there.”

Yan Jiyun had no idea about the arguments raging in chat.

After he and Qi Feng jumped from the rooftop, opening his eyes again revealed an entirely different place.

Their mission was called “Journey Through Teacher Qu’s Dream.” They were obviously meant to explore the dream. Breaking the phrase apart, it became “free” and “swim.”¹so, the Chinese phrase for the mission is 畅游曲老师的梦境; with 畅游 = “enjoying the journey”; 曲老师的 = Qu-laoshi’s; and  梦境 = dream. Each individual character for the first part has different meaning, with 畅 meaning “free/unimpeded/at ease” and 游 meaning “swim” It was practically hinting that they had to swim. Only by diving into the sea could they truly enter Teacher Qu’s dream.

Their new main mission was “Find the real Teacher Qu.” There was no way Class Monitor No. 4’s request could have completed that objective immediately. By accidentally refusing his request, he and Qi Feng had instead unlocked the true dream exploration.

The split personalities all existed within Teacher Qu’s consciousness. So, could it be that only the original personality dreamed? Inside the nightmare, were they seeing the original personality, or one of the alters?

The system hadn’t announced that they had found the original personality, which meant those had all been alters.

If the original personality was asleep… could he still control the body’s consciousness?

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  so, the Chinese phrase for the mission is 畅游曲老师的梦境; with 畅游 = “enjoying the journey”; 曲老师的 = Qu-laoshi’s; and  梦境 = dream. Each individual character for the first part has different meaning, with 畅 meaning “free/unimpeded/at ease” and 游 meaning “swim”