DSMC Chapter 188

Why had his Sanity value gone down?

The Sanity level should correspond to the player’s mind stability. If his sanity value had decreased, it meant he had just acted somewhat irrationally — his concern had gotten the better of him.

Yan Jiyun wasn’t afraid of Qi Feng’s copy. After thinking it over, perhaps what he was actually afraid of was the fake Qi Feng hiding the real Qi Feng somewhere.

The pattern behind the appearance of the copies was still unclear, and that was a major problem.

As the guild leader of the de facto number 1 guild, Qi Yunchu had known Qi Feng for longer than Yan Jiyun had. There was no way he hadn’t noticed the fake Qi Feng, right? He had already been here for several days, so he must have known about the copies.

When Yan Jiyun first entered, he had also seen Qi Yunchu’s copy. Why had that copy run away at the time?

But that wasn’t important right now. Fake Qi Feng was here deceiving Qi Yunchu’s trust, while the real Qi Feng’s whereabouts were still unknown.

Before entering, the system had warned him that Qi Feng was on the verge of death. Yet after he entered the game, it stopped giving him any updates about Qi Feng’s condition. It didn’t even show him a health bar. What a useless game system.

Qi Yunchu had found a fairly well-hidden employee break room. So far, Yan Jiyun hadn’t heard anyone else nearby.

Aside from the player Fake Qi Feng had just dealt with, the other 28 people were still nowhere to be found.

Wait a minute.

Did he count as one of those 29 players too?

If he had been included in the count, wouldn’t the player count immediately increase when he appeared? But he didn’t need to complete the main quest. He had simply come over from another instance to rescue the main account player. If he appeared without increasing the player count, wouldn’t that mean he could appear under a different identity?

From the conversation between Qi Yunchu and Fake Qi Feng, it could be confirmed that Xiao Hei was considered to have entered the game together with Qi Feng rather than being a newly added player. From this, Yan Jiyun deduced that the current player count, plus himself, was actually 30 people rather than 29.

Could the master-pet panel actually be the real system bug?

Yan Jiyun’s mood suddenly brightened.

It seemed that this time, the instance really was treating him only as Qi Feng’s sub-account and hadn’t given him player status. That meant whatever he did inside the instance wouldn’t actually affect the other players, and the other players might not even pay attention to him.

Fake Qi Feng was still asking Qi Yunchu about the other players. Qi Yunchu gave a few deliberately vague answers. He wasn’t stupid — of course he could tell that the other party was probing him. What was even stranger was that he had actually heard Su Qiuming’s name come directly from Qi Feng’s mouth. After Qi Feng and Su Qiuming had fallen out, Qi Feng had never mentioned Su Qiuming in front of them.

Right.

The main reason Qi Feng had entered this instance in the first place was Su Qiuming. So where was Su Qiuming himself now?

Qi Yunchu probed Fake Qi Feng in return. “When I ran over here, I happened to have an attack. If I remember correctly, Su Qiuming seemed to have gone to Building D. I think he wanted to meet up with you. He seemed to have something he wanted to tell you.”

Fake Qi Feng couldn’t determine whether Qi Yunchu was telling the truth. “Building D should be pretty dangerous.”

“Yeah. I’m really worried about him. The further we get, the more dangerous it becomes!” Qi Yunchu pretended to sigh, voicing his concern.

Yan Jiyun continued observing Fake Qi Feng from his hiding place.

It seemed this Fake Qi Feng wanted to exploit the relationships between Qi Feng and the other players to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

If the copies achieved final victory, the instance should end as well.

Fake Qi Feng made an excuse to head toward Building D. He might not have realized that Qi Yunchu could have deliberately given him false information, but Yan Jiyun had noticed.

Qi Yunchu was certainly no naive fool. He was guarding himself against Fake Qi Feng too.

Holding Xiao Hei, Qi Yunchu noticed that Fake Qi Feng hadn’t left immediately. Instead, he remained where he was.

Fake Qi Feng reached behind his waist and pulled out a dagger. He gave a sinister smile. “Qi Yunchu.”

Qi Yunchu really was sick. He had been resting just now and hadn’t relaxed his vigilance toward Fake Qi Feng, but he also knew that he was no match for the other man’s physical ability.

He immediately activated an invisibility prop.

Xiao Hei jumped out of his arms and slipped past Fake Qi Feng. Fake Qi Feng wasn’t the real Qi Feng after all, so he didn’t react at all to Xiao Hei running outside. He didn’t even bother to stop it.

Invisible Qi Yunchu was in an extremely dangerous situation. The employee break room was narrow, and there was no other exit. He could only get past Fake Qi Feng, who was standing near the door.

Yan Jiyun suddenly felt that something was strange.

As the leader of a major guild, Qi Yunchu couldn’t possibly have been foolish enough to force Qi Feng into the game to save Su Qiuming. So why had he acted like some naive heroine from a romance novel that day and forced Qi Feng to save someone?

Was there some hidden circumstance behind it?

A group of players who had been in the game for more than three years, compared with someone like him who had only been here for three months, might be hiding countless things he didn’t know.

If they really intended to oppose the system, there must be many more secrets he was unaware of.

Since Qi Feng hadn’t said a single harsh word to Qi Yunchu that day, that meant Qi Yunchu must have been communicating some kind of information to Qi Feng, but couldn’t say it openly.

Perhaps he hadn’t actually wanted Qi Feng to enter the game to save someone at all?

Fortunately, Yan Jiyun wasn’t impulsive. Otherwise, at this moment he might actually have been quite happy to watch Qi Yunchu get killed by Fake Qi Feng.

He understood even more clearly now that Qi Yunchu couldn’t die.

The major guilds possessed important player data, and if he died, it would affect the entire player structure.

The game had never wanted the players to unite. No wonder it had dragged all the guild leaders into this instance — the system wanted to destroy the balance that currently existed in Central Zone.

Yan Jiyun realized that this Top-Level instance wasn’t simply an ordinary instance.

The system was eliminating and purging players who posed a threat to it.

Was he also one of the people the system wanted to eliminate?

If so, he absolutely couldn’t let the game have its way.

Anyone who fell within Qi Feng’s plans was someone he could save.

The most important thing right now was that Qi Yunchu might not be able to escape. He was doing his best to suppress his breathing, but he really was sick. Yan Jiyun could hear him struggling to keep his breathing quiet, and he knew where Qi Yunchu was hiding.

But Fake Qi Feng had inherited not only Qi Feng’s memories and thoughts, but also his combat ability. Even if Yan Jiyun transformed back into human form, he couldn’t beat him.

How was he supposed to lure Fake Qi Feng away?

Xiao Hei had left the break room, but it hadn’t gone very far. It crouched nearby, watching Yan Jiyun from a short distance away.

Yan Jiyun suddenly had an idea.

He called out loudly into the empty corridor. 

“Meow!”

“Meow!”

“Meow!”

Fake Qi Feng wanted to quietly kill Qi Yunchu just as he had intended to do earlier, which meant he didn’t want his actions to be discovered by other players or their copies.

At the moment, Yan Jiyun could use his loud meowing to attract other players or copies over.

Of course, doing so would inevitably reveal that he was Qi Feng’s cat.

He looked toward Xiao Hei, which was staring at him, and gave it a meaningful look.

The Xiao Hei that couldn’t beat him was actually waiting for another chance to fight Yan Jiyun and win back its dignity. It had inherited Yan Jiyun’s refusal to admit defeat.

Although Xiao Hei wasn’t under Yan Jiyun’s control, after being defeated by him, Yan Jiyun had effectively become its boss.

And when the boss told it to do something, it did it.

Thus, on the first floor of Building B, two black cats crouched outside the door and yowled at the top of their lungs.

Fake Qi Feng had already raised his dagger and was preparing to kill Qi Yunchu. He hadn’t expected his plan to be disrupted by such an inconspicuous cat.

“Meow!”

“Meow!”

“Meow!”

Yan Jiyun stayed outside without going in.

Fake Qi Feng cursed inwardly. ‘Damn black cat. So fucking noisy. It ruined my plan!’

He didn’t want to miss the opportunity to kill Qi Yunchu.

Yan Jiyun heard footsteps approaching from this direction, but Fake Qi Feng still didn’t immediately leave. He was determined to kill Qi Yunchu.

But Qi Yunchu might be sick, yet he wasn’t a novice player.

The instant Fake Qi Feng’s attention was drawn away by the cat’s meowing, Qi Yunchu had already moved toward the doorway. The distance between him and Fake Qi Feng was actually only about the length of an arm.

The cat’s meowing continued.

To Fake Qi Feng, the sounds were like demonic music, just noise and interference!

His eyes and facial expression began to twist. ‘Damn black cat. Why had it chosen this exact moment to come looking for its owner?’ 

Don’t meow at him. He wasn’t its owner.

Yan Jiyun continued his sonic assault.

Fake Qi Feng slashed his dagger toward the spot where Qi Yunchu had been standing. As expected, he struck nothing. Qi Yunchu was already standing at the doorway and had escaped through it.

Fake Qi Feng heard the movement and immediately chased after him.

Outside the break room was a long corridor with three directions: the mall, the restrooms, and the emergency stairwell.

Seeing Qi Yunchu already out and running toward the mall, Yan Jiyun called Xiao Hei and ran after him.

Fake Qi Feng stood at the junction with a ferocious expression. He was about to chase toward the mall when several people suddenly ran out from the direction of Building C.

He chose to slip into the emergency stairwell, disappearing from their sight in an instant.

Yan Jiyun had originally intended to use Fake Qi Feng to locate the real Qi Feng. But judging from Fake Qi Feng’s current movements, he might not actually know where the real Qi Feng was.

Otherwise, why wouldn’t he simply kill Qi Feng?

Killing the real Qi Feng and replacing him would be a much more direct way to achieve victory.

So there was a possibility that he didn’t know where the real Qi Feng was hiding.

After helping Qi Yunchu escape from the break room, Yan Jiyun didn’t follow him.

The reason was simple. First, he had no way to communicate with Qi Yunchu through cat language. Second, someone was coming. From Qi Yunchu’s perspective, he was simply a cat that had entered the instance alongside Qi Feng. Although the cat had just saved him, it was still better to guard against others.

The newcomers were two players.

Both of them had varying amounts of blood on their bodies and looked somewhat battered. Yan Jiyun had seen them at the meeting that day, and he even knew one of them.

It was actually Chu Mo.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t figure out how they had gotten inside. Was Chu Mo also among the people covered by the little cards Xu Xian had distributed?

He didn’t know where to go next, so he simply found a shoe box in a sports shoe store and crawled inside.

Xiao Hei followed his example and crawled into the pile of shoe boxes as well. It seemed to have discovered something fun and kept jumping up and down across the stacked boxes until someone came along, at which point it obediently crouched down just like Yan Jiyun.

The person who had come with Chu Mo was probably his teammate and the guild leader of their guild, Wen Ye. Chu Mo was the vice guild leader. Their guild seemed to be called “Nobody Knows”.

Tsk. There was always something strange about the names of these guilds.

Chu Mo walked around the area, apparently looking for something.

As his teammate, Wen Ye couldn’t quite understand. “What are you looking for?”

Chu Mo looked through a pile of hanging clothes. “Didn’t you hear the cat meowing just now too?”

Wen Ye nodded. “I did hear it, but what does that have to do with finding people?”

Chu Mo said, “Do you remember the Peak Competition I entered before? I told you I ran into Qi Feng there.”

Wen Ye replied, “Yeah, I remember.”

“I also told you that we encountered a black cat in the game.”

“Finding a cat in a game is perfectly normal.”

Chu Mo shook his head. “Not this time. That cat was only affectionate toward Qi Feng. And I just heard a cat meowing. We’ve been in this instance for days, and we’ve never heard a cat or seen any cat-like creatures. There aren’t even any monsters that turn into cats.”

“So you followed the sound here?”

“I’m betting that cat belongs to Qi Feng and is looking for its owner.”

Yan Jiyun, crouched inside the shoebox, nodded. He’d bet correctly. Hurry up and help find Qi Feng!

No wonder he’d chosen Chu Mo as a potential partner. The guy was smart.

Wen Ye said, “But we still haven’t seen Qi Feng.”

“Qi Feng’s copy is too strong. If we want to leave this instance, we have to find him.”

Wen Ye said, “Do you remember the last time we saw him? He was on the fourth floor of Building D. I think he followed Su Qiuming into an arcade.”

“Seriously? Aren’t he and Su Qiuming on bad terms? He’s actually going to save him?”

“Whether he is or not, we have to find the real person. Otherwise, we won’t even know how we died.”

Although the two were speaking quietly, Yan Jiyun heard every word.

By finding the right person, they meant locating the real players rather than the copies created by some unknown entity. The biggest problem was that the copies were difficult to distinguish from the originals.

Yan Jiyun knew these two were real players, but he still wouldn’t go with them. He had to find Qi Feng. In this instance, Qi Feng was the only person he could truly trust. Still, he’d been fairly lucky so far. He’d encountered Qi Yunchu, Chu Mo, and Wen Ye.

Unfortunately, none of them had the information he needed.

To avoid confusion later, Yan Jiyun glanced at Xiao Hei and signaled for it to rub against the two men.

The copied Xiao Hei had a distinctive scent. Since Qi Yunchu had held it earlier, Yan Jiyun could use that scent to identify the real one. No matter how many copies of Qi Yunchu he encountered from now on, anyone who lacked Xiao Hei’s scent would be fake.

Xiao Hei now took its cues from Yan Jiyun. It had probably been copied and tamed by Yan Jiyun before the system even had a chance to properly train it, so it was simply acting on instinct.

Xiao Hei jumped out of the shoebox and headed straight for Chu Mo and Wen Ye, rubbing against their legs.

Chu Mo excitedly slapped Wen Ye on the arm. “See? I told you Qi Feng’s cat came in with us!”

Wen Ye was equally surprised. “How did it get in here?”

Chu Mo bent down and picked up the black cat. “No idea, but here it is. It’s pretty heavy, too. It seems quite a bit bigger than when I last saw it.”

“It’s so friendly. Should we take it with us?”

“Maybe it can lead us to Qi Feng.”

Yan Jiyun certainly hoped Xiao Hei could lead him to Qi Feng, but clearly, the game wasn’t going to give him that kind of cheat. Xiao Hei had originally been created to deal with him, so there was no way the system would let him exploit it like that. Still, even if it couldn’t help him cheat, Xiao Hei had become a pretty useful tool cat. At least for now, it still had plenty of uses.

He hadn’t gotten any precise information about Qi Feng from Chu Mo, but at least he knew Qi Feng had just followed Su Qiuming.

Had Su Qiuming managed to push Qi Feng into another desperate situation?

Surely Qi Feng wouldn’t fall into the same trap twice. That wasn’t the owner Yan Jiyun knew.

Su Qiuming had been among the first batch of players to enter this instance. Following him to gather information didn’t seem like a bad idea.

In any case, Yan Jiyun didn’t dare draw any firm conclusions yet. The information he had was too fragmented.

Wen Ye and Chu Mo had appeared, but Qi Yunchu hadn’t shown himself or acknowledged either of them. Perhaps he’d been deceived too many times in this instance and no longer dared to trust anyone at face value.

But that had nothing to do with Yan Jiyun for the moment. He ran off in the direction from which Chu Mo and Wen Ye had come.

When Xiao Hei heard Yan Jiyun emerge from the shoebox, it suddenly jumped out of Chu Mo’s arms and chased after him.

Chu Mo and Wen Ye exchanged glances.

“Does it know where Qi Feng is? Come on, let’s follow it!”

Yan Jiyun: “…”

Damn it. Why is it following him? He wanted to search for Qi Feng alone.

Xiao Hei’s hearing and stamina were about the same as Yan Jiyun’s, and it was fast. It quickly caught up with him.

Yan Jiyun didn’t want to reveal himself, so he darted around corners and dodged out of sight. Even when Chu Mo and Wen Ye caught up, they didn’t notice that there was another black cat nearby.

His current destination was the arcade on the fourth floor of Building D.

He was in Building B. To get to Building D, he first had to cross the connecting bridge on the second floor into Building C, then continue from Building C to Building D.

Yan Jiyun had never been to Building D before. He raced along, scanning the signs hanging overhead, and moved so quickly that Chu Mo and Wen Ye soon fell behind him and Xiao Hei.

After sprinting for three minutes, Yan Jiyun finally reached Building D.

Compared with the overwhelming stench of blood in Buildings B and C, Building D seemed relatively clean. Then again, it was also much larger, and the place was filled with Christmas cheer. Every shop entrance had a decorated Christmas tree, and grinning Santa Claus figures stood everywhere, their smiles unnervingly strange.

Yan Jiyun spotted the sign for a large cinema in Building D. It was on the fifth floor, which meant the arcade was directly below it, on the fourth.

He’d finally found the arcade.

Even the stuffed toys won through prize draws or by completing games had been given Santa hats.

Yan Jiyun stood at the arcade entrance and peered inside.

Xiao Hei rushed in faster than he did.

What kind of arcade was this? Did it eat people? Why had Qi Feng gone inside?

Yan Jiyun found a secluded corner and transformed back into a human. He took a deep breath before following Xiao Hei into the arcade.

As soon as he entered, he saw several shooting-game machines lined up in front of him. Standing at them were NPC players.

These NPC players were gripping guns and firing away, rat-tat-tat, at the characters appearing in their games.

Another NPC had just lost a round and was furious. “Fuck! How did I die again? That NPC is way too good at dodging! I can’t hit him at all! Did they deliberately crank up the evasion stat in this game?”

Following the NPC’s voice, Yan Jiyun looked at the screen.

The character in camouflage was rendered so vividly that even the scars on his face were clearly visible. A bullet swept toward the man as he ran.

Yan Jiyun nearly forgot to blink.

Holy fucking shit! Wasn’t that the very Qi Feng he’d been desperately searching for?

What the hell was wrong with this instance?!