DSMC Chapter 176.2

Xu Xian was still sitting in his seat. “Feng-ge, can’t you save him one more time for the sake of the fact that Ming-ge saved you back then?”

Qi Feng glanced at him. “I already said it. If the little card had been sent to me, then it would be something I’d have to weigh for myself. But the little card was sent to you, so it’s your own responsibility. Please don’t lump the two together.”

Yan Jiyun greatly admired Qi Feng’s decisive attitude. What he said was right, and what he did was right too. Put more coldly and ruthlessly, whoever Su Qiuming sent the little card to was the person responsible for it. What did it have to do with Qi Feng?

“Save him one more time”—didn’t that imply that Qi Feng had already saved Su Qiuming more than once?

Xu Xian was truly selfish to a frightening degree. Even Qi Yunchu hadn’t dared to use force to keep Qi Feng there; he could only watch helplessly as Qi Feng said he was leaving and then leave. Xu Xian, on the other hand, was impressive — he actually wanted to force them to stay.

Qi Feng didn’t want to waste another word on Xu Xian. He picked up the backpack weighing nearly fifteen pounds and walked straight out without looking back.

Xu Xian couldn’t stop Qi Feng’s path, but the people from the Peak Fire Guild blocked Qi Feng as he tried to leave.

Xu Xian put on the expression of a helpless good guy. “Feng-ge, I had no other choice. I could only ask you this way.”

The area was surrounded by people. Qi Feng picked up a chair from the ground and smashed it into the café’s glass window. Lan Mo and the others outside heard the noise, and his teammates immediately smashed through the window and rushed inside.

Qi Feng stood where he was and glanced at Xu Xian. “Why do you insist on dragging me in?”

Yan Jiyun guessed that the little card might be hiding some special rule. Otherwise, why would both Qi Yun Chu and Xu Xian choose Qi Feng?

Xu Xian’s self-moved expression from earlier vanished, revealing his true colors.

Bing-jie said, “Boss, don’t waste your breath talking to him. Let’s get out of here.”

The reason Qi Feng had only given Xu Xian five minutes to talk was to prevent the other party from making a move against him. He hadn’t expected that he would still fail to avoid it. The newcomer players from back then had now become veteran players, and their schemes had multiplied like a sieve full of holes.

“Did you give Qi Yunchu’s little card to him?” Qi Feng asked Xu Xian.

“I don’t mind telling you. I did. Su Qiuming suddenly sent me ten cards from inside the instance. I gave them to people from several major guilds, all of whom were his acquaintances. Whoever received a card would be pulled into the instance when the time was up and forced to clear it alongside Ming-ge. But Boss, your vigilance is the strongest. You actually didn’t fall for it. You didn’t even touch the card.” Xu Xian said regretfully.

This was also Qi Feng’s first time seeing the little card. If Qi Yunchu had malicious intentions toward him, he would already have been pulled in by now. If Xu Xian hadn’t suddenly appeared, he might even have misunderstood Qi Yunchu. Sure enough, Xu Xian still had that same impatient temperament. He hadn’t changed at all.

Lan Mo, Shi Yan, and Bing-jie were some distance away from Qi Feng and Yan Jiyun. Xu Xian’s target was Qi Feng, and he had already prepared a plan specifically aimed at them.

Yan Jiyun wanted to help Qi Feng, but there was nothing he could do while staying inside the backpack. If he ran out, he would expose himself and increase Qi Feng’s burden, turning himself into a liability instead.

Qi Feng kicked away a Fenghuo Guild player who tried to pin him down. Two more people immediately rushed over. Qi Feng was extremely skilled, and one player after another failed to take him down. Xu Xian had also made thorough preparations. He had brought at least fifty people, if not a hundred. He intended to use sheer numbers to wear Qi Feng down.

Yan Jiyun was almost shaken sick inside the backpack. Someone even grabbed hold of the backpack, so he immediately extended his sharp claws and mercilessly raked three deep scratches across the person’s hand.

The person suddenly cried out in pain and released the backpack, but they assumed there was a weapon inside and did not suspect that there was a living creature.

“Everyone, be careful. There are sharp weapons in Qi Feng’s backpack.”

Having been upgraded into Qi Feng’s secret weapon, Yan Jiyun felt his blood surge with excitement. ‘Good! One comes, I take one down. Two come, I take down both!’

Yet Qi Feng was now surrounded by dozens of players. Lan Mo and Bing-jie were also unable to move an inch. Outside of the game, they could not use items from the system, so all they could rely on was the martial arts and fighting skills they had trained in their daily lives. Even if they could defeat these people, they would be completely exhausted afterward.

Qi Feng calmly made a decision. He took off the backpack from his back and threw it toward Lan Mo.

“Lan Mo!”

Lan Mo was closest to Qi Feng, and he knew what was inside the backpack. At that moment, all he could think was that Boss really, truly loved his cat.

Of course, the other three people, including Yan Jiyun, understood Qi Feng’s intention at this moment as well.

He was giving up resistance.

Xu Xian said, “Boss, we can discuss everything properly now, can’t we?”

Qi Feng said, “Fine. Give me the card and let my friends leave.”

Xu Xian waved his hand, signaling the players surrounding Lan Mo and the other two to back off. “Fine. Keeping them here would only get in the way.”

Lan Mo hugged the backpack tightly. “Boss, you’ve never been to a Top-level instance. You can’t go in!”

Qi Feng’s expression remained calm. “Don’t worry about me. You guys go back.”

None of them had ever entered a Top-level instance. Who knew what would happen?

At this moment, Yan Jiyun desperately wanted to jump out of the backpack. ‘Fucking idiot Xu Xian. He actually forced Qi Feng to this point.’

The fact that Xu Xian could force someone who had once taken him through instances and saved him to go to his death showed just how vicious and ruthless he was.

Xu Xian forcefully slapped the card toward Qi Feng.

There was no way Qi Feng didn’t know that Xu Xian was scheming against him. The moment Xu Xian’s hand moved toward the little button on the card, Qi Feng swiftly grabbed his wrist.

Yan Jiyun vaguely heard Qi Feng say to them, “Don’t worry. I’ll come back alive. There are also guild leaders from other guilds accompanying me.”

Immediately afterward, under the horrified expression on Xu Xian’s face, an entire beam of light shot out from the little card and enveloped both Qi Feng and Xu Xian.

“Qi Feng, you fucking let—”

Before Xu Xian could finish speaking, he had already disappeared from everyone’s sight, proving the saying that those who do evil will eventually suffer for it themselves.

Yan Jiyun frowned.

Qi Feng hadn’t panicked at all when things reached a critical point. Xu Xian had set a trap for him, so Qi Feng simply took Xu Xian along with him. Xu Xian must have regretted it so much by now that his guts were turning green. Who could have expected that a single card could forcibly drag two people into the instance?

Yan Jiyun had a feeling that Qi Feng had done it deliberately.

The sudden disappearance of the Fenghuo Guild’s leader left everyone momentarily bewildered.

Bing-jie and Shi Yan reacted extremely quickly. They grabbed Lan Mo and left through the broken glass window.

Qi Feng had entered voluntarily, so all they could do was wait outside for him to come back out. The unfortunate part was that they didn’t even know which instance Qi Feng had entered.

Normally, they would prepare in advance before entering an instance. This time, however, they had been ambushed by a despicable person, and Qi Feng’s life or death was unknown.

Lan Mo was still furious. “Xu Xian is such a despicable bastard! Boss shouldn’t have saved him in the instance back then. He only wanted Boss dead!”

Bing-jie  said, “There’s no point cursing him. Qi Feng took him away, so he can’t hear you.”

Shi Yan said, “Boss isn’t stupid. Xu Xian thought his dirty trick had worked, but now that he’s been dragged inside too, he gets to suffer the consequences.”

Bing-jie was much calmer than Lan Mo. “Now isn’t the time to talk about this. Qi Yunchu was also dragged into the instance. Let’s ask the other guilds what exactly kind of instance they entered.”

Yan Jiyun also didn’t know whether every player who received one of those cards had entered an instance. He thought Bing-jie’s decision made perfect sense.

The three of them returned to the most luxurious hotel in Central Zone, where they encountered Ji Xiang coming out from inside.

Seeing their grave expressions, Ji Xiang asked, “Did Qi Feng go in?”

Lan Mo nodded miserably. “Yes. Xu Xian set Boss up and dragged him into a Top-level instance.”

Ji Xiang cursed furiously. “I knew Xu Xian was no good! What a despicable bastard!” 

Then she changed the subject. “Just now, in the conference room, Zhuo Yue and several guild leaders suddenly disappeared. They should have entered that instance that calls for reinforcements too.”

Xu Xian had been telling the truth. The little cards really had been sent to the guild leaders of the various guilds.

Lan Mo asked Ji Xiang, “Jie, does anyone from your guild enter this instance?”

Ji Xiang said, “I don’t know. Our guild doesn’t have anyone who has entered the Top-level difficulty yet.”

Yan Jiyun was also somewhat anxious. He was genuinely worried about Qi Feng.

Just how difficult were the Top-level instances?

Wait!

He suddenly noticed a little red dot in the master-pet system bar. His compulsive need to check every red notification meant that there was no way he could ignore it.

The effect of the favorability he had built up with Qi Feng in the previous instance had finally appeared. There were three unread new messages in the master-pet system’s notification bar.

[Your master has entered the top-level instance “Sweet Christmas”.]

[Your master has received a mission and is struggling to complete it.]

[Your master is fighting the mutated Santa Claus.]

Yan Jiyun: “……”

So this was what the function unlocked by increasing the master-pet Intimacy was for?

Yan Jiyun suddenly remembered. Was this also the function that had allowed Qi Feng to know which instances he had entered as a cat before? And as his master, Qi Feng didn’t even need to increase the favorability to see it.

This shitty game really knew how to play its cards!

So, everything he had done in the game…. wouldn’t Qi Feng know about all of it clearly?

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!! 

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down!

Yan Jiyun told himself to stay calm and absolutely not develop any thoughts about destroying the system. That kind of idea was, for now, temporarily not advisable!

Fuck! Who could have imagined that this was how the notifications worked? This was basically no different from raising a pet in the game!

He couldn’t keep thinking about how many embarrassing updates about him Qi Feng might receive, or he was going to turn from a black cat into a red cat from shame alone.

At this moment, seeing the updates the system sent about Qi Feng, he couldn’t help feeling somewhat nervous.

What did the mutated Santa Claus look like? He didn’t really celebrate Western holidays, and all he remembered was that Santa Claus was usually portrayed as a kind and amiable figure at Christmas.

At least, knowing that Qi Feng was still alive was a good thing. In the master-pet status bar, Qi Feng was currently marked as “In Instance.”

Now that Yan Jiyun knew he could keep track of Qi Feng’s updates, his worry hadn’t lessened at all. That was a Top-level instance, not like any of the high-level instances they had entered before. The difficulty was undoubtedly immense.

He also knew that worrying wouldn’t help. All he could do now was wait for Qi Feng to come out of the instance. In the meantime, he would stay with Lan Mo and the others and see whether they could find out the details of [Sweet Christmas] from the other guilds, or perhaps learn what exactly the Top-level instance was like.

Gu Wenzhu had previously explained to him that instances of different difficulty tiers were completely different in terms of difficulty. The Hard-level instance was already sparsely populated, while those who could enter the Top-level instance were the cream of the crop. If a guild had more than three Top-level players, it was enough for them to boast about and prove their guild’s strength.

Just as Yan Jiyun was thinking about the Top-level instance, another notification suddenly popped up.

[Oh my! Your master is amazing! He defeated the mutated Santa Claus!]

Yan Jiyun: “……”

His master was currently clearing an extremely dangerous instance, and this shitty system couldn’t possibly use such a cheerful tone to announce his updates, could it?

Ah, no! He didn’t have a master. He had almost been confused by this shitty system.

This arc is finished! Because I took several hiatus already, I’ll upload the next chapter tomorrow as usual. See you there!