DSMC Chapter 167.2

Both ghosts continued fighting fiercely, but it was obvious that Female Ghost No. 1 was stronger. Before long, Female Ghost No. 2 was suppressed by her.

At this point, Yan Jiyun’s mission had only eight seconds left.

He quietly squeezed himself behind the desks and chairs, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.

He could actually turn back into a cat, but considering that they would return to the original filming scene after leaving this space, he couldn’t recklessly transform back. 

Female Ghost No. 2 became increasingly transparent under Female Ghost No. 1’s attacks. Female Ghost No. 1 moved forward again, preparing to severely injure her.

Just then, Qu Wanqiao suddenly let out a groan.

He struggled to sit up from the floor, and the moment he saw what was happening in front of him, he nearly fainted again.

Female Ghost No. 1 changed her target and rushed toward Qu Wanqiao!

Yan Jiyun thought that Qu Wanqiao really had a death wish. Why had he chosen this exact moment to wake up? Wasn’t he practically putting a target on himself?

Qu Wanqiao’s younger sister, Female Ghost No. 2, had already been beaten into an extremely weakened state. Female Ghost No. 1’s long, sharp nails were about to stab toward him.

Yan Jiyun once again pulled out the Cross Number Tag and held it in front of Qu Wanqiao.

Ding.

Female Ghost No. 1’s fingers were burned again.She glared at Yan Jiyun with extreme hatred.

[Congratulations, player, on completing New Main Mission 4. The point reward will be issued after the game ends.]

The moment the mission ended, the chill and darkness vanished. The two blue-faced female ghosts also disappeared.

Sounds from the outside world poured into their ears like a tide.

Yan Jiyun and Qu Wanqiao were still hiding under the desk, with the camera still pointed directly at them.

Yan Jiyun let out a breath.

Director Jiang held a megaphone and shouted at Qu Wanqiao, “Cut! Qu Wanqiao, what are you spacing out for? Say your lines.”

After experiencing the sudden terrifying incident, Qu Wanqiao’s face was pale and he was still somewhat dazed. He glanced at Yan Jiyun, who was drenched in cold sweat, and said to Director Jiang, “Director Jiang, I’m feeling a little unwell. I can’t get into character. Can I take a short break?”

Director Jiang glanced at his watch. “Fine. Everyone take a break. We’ll rest for half an hour.”

This movie was a suspense horror film, with almost the entire plot revolving around Mingya High School. It was also a story about young protagonists venturing into the school at night, so everything happened after dark. All the scenes were therefore filmed at night, while the actors rested during the day.

Likewise, if the players wanted to find clues and clear the instance quickly, they could only make use of the nighttime. The NPCs had to rest during the day and might not work, unless the rules of Teacher Qu’s consciousness world operated outside normal logic.

If they only worked at night, then this “male lead” role of his had quite a lot of scenes. There was no way he could stay up filming with them every night.

Leaving aside whether his currently sick body could handle it, his experience card couldn’t support him for that long either.

But if he didn’t follow the script, the missions might not trigger.

Was there another way to solve this problem? Should they speed up the filming schedule? But the NPCs should all have their own timelines. Which scenes they filmed on the first night and which scenes they filmed on the second night had all been arranged in advance.

How could they speed things up?

A hand reached out in front of Yan Jiyun.

He looked up and saw Qi Feng’s slightly worried expression. “Not getting up?”

Yan Jiyun habitually placed his paw — no, his hand — into Qi Feng’s and prepared to use his strength to stand.

Perhaps he’d expended too much energy just now. His back was still sticky with sweat, and he’d been exposed to the cold air. Suddenly, his head felt heavy, and his leg wobbled, causing him to fall straight toward Qi Feng.

Qi Feng caught him with both hands. “Your legs went numb from crouching for too long?”

Yan Jiyun hadn’t expected Qi Feng to come up with an excuse for him. He froze for a second before realizing what he meant. “Ah, yes.”

t was such a perfect excuse that there was absolutely nothing to criticize.

Qi Feng helped him over to sit down.

Nearby, the gossip-loving NPCs immediately began discussing the little scandal between him and Qi Feng with great dedication. In particular, that male supporting actor, Si Hao, started buzzing in his ear again with more gossip.

Si Hao: “Where the hell did Director Jiang find that Yan Jiyun? Not only did he latch onto Director Jiang, now he’s latched onto Qi Feng too. He’s pretty good at clinging to powerful people.”

Si Hao’s assistant: “Exactly. Who knows what Director Jiang is thinking? It was perfectly fine as a romance movie, but he just had to change it into a dual-male-lead film. Those supporting actors in the second, third, and fourth male roles were all waiting for a chance to play the female lead.”

Si Hao: “Hey, do you think Yan Jiyun has slept with both Qi Feng and Director Jiang?”

Sitting on the little stool that Lan Mo had given him, Yan Jiyun couldn’t help complaining inwardly. ‘Not only have I slept with Qi Feng, I have climbed all over him too, heh.’

Si Hao’s assistant: “Possible.”

Qi Hao: “Qi Feng looks pretty strong. I wonder if he’s any good in bed.”

Si Hao’s assistant: “Hao-ge, don’t tell me you’re thinking about going after him?”

Si Hao was having a grand old time talking, completely oblivious to the fact that the person he was talking about had an increasingly dark expression.

Yan Jiyun suddenly stood up.

In full view of everyone, he walked straight toward Si Hao and punched him squarely in the nose, the nose he’d just had hyaluronic acid injected into and carefully sculpted.

“Shut up. With a mouth that filthy, don’t you know how to wash it?”

His temper really couldn’t tolerate Si Hao’s foul mouth anymore.

Si Hao could say whatever he wanted about anyone else, but he’d even dragged his pooper scooper into it. Listening to him made Yan Jiyun’s head hurt.

Si Hao was knocked straight to the ground by Yan Jiyun’s punch. He was completely stunned, only coming to his senses after a while. “Ahhh! Yan Jiyun, you actually hit me!”

Yan Jiyun couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. He simply returned to his seat and sat down.

Si Hao wanted to charge over, but he didn’t quite dare. His assistant quickly grabbed him, saving him from losing even more face. His face flushed red as he shouted without much confidence, “Just you wait!”

Yan Jiyun couldn’t even be bothered to roll his eyes at him.

Qi Feng handed him a bottle of water. “Why are you so angry?”

He knew Yan Jiyun had excellent hearing and had probably heard what Si Hao was saying.

Yan Jiyun covered up the truth. “His mouth is filthy. He kept insulting me.”

Perhaps because his cold had gotten worse, his voice was somewhat low and slightly nasal. Combined with his highschool student appearance, it was completely at odds with how aggressive he’d just been. His tone almost sounded like he was acting spoiled.

Qi Feng felt that he looked somewhat like someone he knew, but for the moment, he couldn’t figure out who. He said quietly, “You didn’t have to beat him up in front of everyone. You could’ve waited for an opportunity to hit him privately. You could’ve hit him even harder then.”

Yan Jiyun lowered his voice too. “It’s fine. He’s an NPC.”

Sitting behind the two of them, Lan Mo: “……” 

Was there something wrong with Qi Feng? Why was he so gentle with Yan Jiyun? He’d never been this gentle with him!

During the break, Yan Jiyun told Qi Feng about completing Main Mission 4 and his theory that they could speed up the script.

In fact, all the other players had also been dragged into the terrifying space where the female ghost went berserk. Quite a few players hadn’t reappeared even after those five minutes.

But both of their teams had made it out completely intact.

Still, the others hadn’t obtained as much information as Yan Jiyun, because he’d also brought Qu Wanqiao into the mission space and managed to escape with the help of Female Ghost No. 2.

Qi Feng seriously considered the relationship between Female Ghost No. 2 and Qu Wanqiao that Yan Jiyun had mentioned.

Yan Jiyun didn’t immediately go ask Qu Wanqiao either. After thinking for a while, the two of them began studying the script. The key information should be hidden in the script!

Everyone began dividing up the work and searching for important information in the script.

What had happened between the male and female leads? What had happened between the second male lead and the female lead? Which plot points were connected to events from the past? They needed to figure all of this out, it was extremely important.

At Director Jiang’s filming speed, they really would have to spend four days and three nights here.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t wait that long.

He was sick, and he didn’t have many Human Form Time Cards left. He needed to leave the instance as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, hard work paid off.

After getting his teammates to search through the script, they really did find several scenes that hinted at the female student’s death by jumping from the building at Mingya High School.

They needed to lure the female ghost out before they could uncover the truth.

But if they didn’t film the scenes, the events surrounding the girl’s death wouldn’t be triggered, and the female ghost wouldn’t voluntarily appear in front of them.

Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng both wanted to get the ghosts to appear.

Whether they fought them or managed to communicate with them, as long as they could obtain information quickly, that was the best outcome.

Qi Feng asked Director Jiang whether they could film several of the scenes they’d just found ahead of schedule.

Director Jiang refused. He said the sets needed to be prepared and that he’d already scheduled those scenes for the following night.

Yan Jiyun had expected this result long ago.

Gu Wenzhu asked, “Then what do we do? Do we really have to wait until tomorrow night? Why don’t we try filming those scenes ourselves? They’re all scenes between the male and female leads. You two can do them.”

Gu Wenzhu had actually given them a very good direction.

Yan Jiyun thought it made sense. “Let’s do that. We’ll move the timeline forward ourselves. Now that it’s been changed into a dual-male-lead film, what’s the difference how we shoot it?”

Qi Feng nodded, though he felt that Yan Jiyun seemed a little out of sorts.

After they finished discussing the scenes they would film themselves, the half-hour break Director Jiang had given them was already over.

Qu Wanqiao still wasn’t in particularly good condition. He was supposed to continue filming the scene from earlier with Yan Jiyun.

The actress playing the female ghost hadn’t appeared yet. She was sitting off to the side getting her makeup done.

Yan Jiyun felt uneasy just looking at her.

Fortunately, the actress had a somewhat fuller face, and her makeup wasn’t bluish-gray like it had been during the actual ghost scene. But seeing her in the middle of the night was still pretty frightening.

Although Qu Wanqiao had been shaken by what happened, he was still fairly professional. They got through this scene in one take.

Yan Jiyun thought he was finally free.

But then Director Jiang suddenly said to them, “I just heard Qi Feng’s suggestion. Too many things have happened tonight, so we could use something more exciting. Why don’t we film the romance scenes first? The set is already prepared. Everyone, move to the next filming location.”

Yan Jiyun looked at Qi Feng and Qu Wanqiao, then turned back to Director Jiang. “What romance scenes? Didn’t we change it into a dual-male-lead film?”

Hadn’t this set been prepared a little too quickly? Where did a horror movie with two male leads even get a romance scene?

Director Jiang beckoned to him. “Come here. I’ll explain while we walk. Looks like you still haven’t understood the essence of a dual-male-lead movie.”

Yan Jiyun recalled the dual-male-lead movies he’d watched. “Aren’t dual-male-lead movies usually about one being the villain and one being the hero, fighting each other while secretly loving each other?”

Director Jiang said, “Fighting and loving each other. You understand the fighting part, but you don’t understand what it means to love each other.”

Yan Jiyun: “……” 

Why did a dual-male-lead drama have to involve romance? Didn’t the audience only care about all that intense fighting between them?

Director Jiang really did explain to Yan Jiyun as they walked how he was supposed to fall in love with Qi Feng. “You’re playing Qi Feng’s childhood best friend. The two of you have always had a very unusual relationship. But during high school, the two of you fell out over a girl. You were always stealing his girlfriends, constantly finding fault with him, and deliberately going against him in everything. Even this time, when everyone came here to explore the school, you secretly followed them. However, what happened this time is also a great opportunity for the two of you to get to know each other again. That’s your romance storyline. Of course, it’s just a romantic subplot woven into the main story. There isn’t much of it, and it’s very subtle.”

Yan Jiyun didn’t quite understand. “Why does the relationship between two brothers have to be subtle? Anyone can put an arm around their friend’s shoulder.”

Director Jiang stared at him. “The ‘brotherly affection’ I’m talking about isn’t the brotherly affection you’re thinking of. It’s romantic love. Got it?”

Yan Jiyun heard Qi Feng quietly laugh behind him. He turned around. “I don’t get it. Do you?”

Qi Feng suppressed his laughter and coughed lightly. “It’s written in the script.”

Director Jiang was very satisfied with their current state. “Good. Let’s start with a kissing scene between you two. You’ll understand immediately.”

Yan Jiyun: “……”

A—A kissing scene?

What the hell did that have to do with a horror movie?

No, wait.

Why the hell was he supposed to film a kissing scene with Qi Feng?!

Damn it all to hellllllllllllll!!!!!