DSMC Chapter 198

Yan Jiyun was touched that Qi Feng was thinking about his safety at a time like this. However, he himself was crouching right in front of Qi Feng. There was no way he could take him to find another Yan Jiyun.

Qi Feng was speaking to Caramel. What did that have to do with Yan Jiyun? Besides, most of the time, he couldn’t understand what humans were saying anyway.

The break between rounds was brief. Even cats eventually finished eating their canned food.

Yan Jiyun was usually quite restrained when eating canned food. Once he was full, he would stop, rather than force himself to stuff more into his stomach.

All nine cats had inherited this good habit of his. Every single one of them stopped after eating only two-thirds of a can, including Yan Jiyun himself.

After eating, the black cats each found a place to groom themselves. The battle-loving faction, led by Xiao Huang and Xiao Lv, had already run off to play. They would only come back when Yan Jiyun went looking for them. With Teacher Qu’s help, the five newly joined cats had put on their own special collars and received new names.

Apart from Yan Jiyun, all the other cats now had names of their own.

The simplest approach was to call them by numbers. There were simply too many of them, and they couldn’t come up with enough names all at once.

Yan Jiyun was the original, and Teacher Qu had given him the title of boss. Xiao Heihei was now No. 2, while Xiao Bai, Xiao Huang, and Xiao Lv were No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5. The chatterbox cat was No. 6, and the remaining four were Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Xiao Lv and Xiao Huang had taken Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10 with them to play. That left Xiao Heihei, Xiao Bai, and the little chatterbox.

Each of the three had their own distinct traits. Xiao Heihei had its claws trimmed, Xiao Bai was timid, and the little chatterbox had probably been so foul-mouthed that the others disliked it.

At this point, the players could no longer afford to relax. They had spotted copies wandering around nearby, and they needed to come up with a strategy for dealing with them.

Qi Feng asked everyone to report how many copies remained, excluding the newly appearing batch.

Everyone recounted the weapons they had taken from “City of Sin.”

Every person had brought out weapons: pistols, rifles, submachine guns, and grenades. They had everything. Their ammunition also seemed sufficient for now. One bullet per copy was no problem. The issue was that not every player had Qi Feng’s shooting accuracy.

There were still more than ten hours until the game ended, and the copies were appearing more and more frequently. They would have to conserve their ammunition.

Qi Yunchu and Qi Feng began working out how to deal with what lay ahead, essentially arranging their forces.

“There are currently 29 players left. There are eight of us, and we still have one or two copies among us. If we count the maximum, that makes fifteen. We don’t know what’s going on with the other 21 players either. We can’t just kill people indiscriminately.” This was Qi Yunchu’s assessment.

Qi Feng agreed with him. “Then we can find an opportunity to lure them out.”

Qi Yunchu: “How do we arrange that? We can’t do it. Those guys couldn’t even tell me apart from my copy. It would be even harder with people we don’t know.”

Yin Zi couldn’t help nodding. “That’s true. We didn’t even realize when one of our own companions had been replaced.”

Qi Feng: “Then for now, let’s first make sure everyone here is the real person. Come over and touch my cat’s sacred paw. Once you have its scent on you, no one will be able to fool you.”

Yan Jiyun lowered his head and looked at his pitch-black toebeans. He liked the idea of a “sacred paw,” but he didn’t like having a bunch of people touch it. The things he disliked most were people touching his paws and his belly. They weren’t close, were they?

Qi Feng squeezed Yan Jiyun’s paw, but Yan Jiyun smacked his hand away.

Qi Feng wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest. “Then just touch his neck.”

Yan Jiyun stood up and stretched. He wasn’t going to let random people touch him. No one was allowed.

The first person who wanted to touch him was Qi Yunchu, but before he could reach Yan Jiyun’s neck, Yan Jiyun jumped down to the floor.

Xiao Bai curled up in a corner, becoming an invisible cat. It really was timid.

No. 6 was genuinely talkative. It really disliked wearing a collar around its neck. It kept meowing loudly in front of Teacher Qu No. 1 and twisting its neck, trying to paw off the collar bearing its name.

The entire pet food shop was filled with No. 6’s howling. It meowed at everyone who passed by. It had even instinctively learned to flop down in front of Chu Mo. When Chu Mo remained unmoved, it switched targets. Apart from Xu Xian, it rubbed its head against everyone else.

Finally, No. 6 jumped in front of Qi Feng, blinking its big, innocent eyes at him. It even used an exaggeratedly sweet, high-pitched voice, waiting for Qi Feng to help remove its collar.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t bear to watch.

Why was there such a strange kind of copy? He wasn’t a chatterbox. He seriously suspected that the system had generated this one randomly, without strictly copying his personality when creating the copy cat. This one must have come out of the factory defective.

Yan Jiyun was just about to jump onto the table and shove No. 6, who was acting coyly toward Qi Feng, out of the way when he suddenly remembered a scene that had flashed through his mind in “City of Sin.” His head had hurt at the time, and he had almost forgotten to investigate the matter.

What exactly had happened? Was it a game bug, or had he discovered a way to establish a connection between the original and its copies?

Could he use his mind to remotely control his other copies?

Right, there was another very important stat in this instance game: the Sanity Value. It was extremely important, a stat that players paid close attention to. At the same time, it was easy for them to overlook one thing: could they also make use of this value? Or rather, could they use the mechanics of this stat as a means of counterattacking, turning mental contamination against the copies?

Yan Jiyun didn’t think that his mental abilities had undergone some kind of breakthrough. Although he hadn’t followed the main mission, the instance itself was designed to use the players’ minds to wear them down. Perhaps because he had so few distracting thoughts in this game, he had instead been able to focus more purely on his mental abilities.

His Sanity Value had stabilized at 95 and hadn’t dropped any further. He needed to find a particularly stable place where no one would disturb him and try to repeat what he had just done from Xiao Heihei’s perspective.

In the end, he still jumped onto Qi Feng’s shoulder. This was the safest place.

Qi Feng suddenly felt his shoulder grow heavier. When he looked, he saw that his Caramel had jumped onto it. He immediately let go of No. 6, whom he had been stroking until it was thoroughly comfortable, and let it go play by itself.

No. 6 was talkative, but whenever it saw Yan Jiyun, it became less talkative. It ran over to Su Qiuming and continued showing off its high-pitched, coquettish voice.

Yan Jiyun wondered whether he could act that sweet and coy too.

Let him think. What had been happening when he possessed Xiao Heihei for those three seconds?

At the time, Qi Feng had almost been attacked by the fake Qi Feng. Yan Jiyun had been extremely anxious outside, wishing he could become Xiao Heihei himself. Then he had transformed into Xiao Heihei and rushed forward, slashing at the fake Qi Feng’s eyes with his claws. However, because he had previously trimmed Xiao Heihei’s claws, the damage he inflicted on the fake Qi Feng hadn’t actually been very great. Still, it had served as a warning to Qi Feng and bought him enough time to counterattack.

If it really was possible to control others with one’s mind in this instance, what conditions would be necessary?

A high Sanity Value? Or did this ability only activate under certain specific conditions? For example, when he was especially anxious?

There was still time to try it now.

The matter of the copies wasn’t easy to resolve. Qi Yunchu, Su Qiuming, the others, and Qi Feng hadn’t managed to come up with a foolproof strategy. The only thing they could currently guarantee was that their identities would no longer be mistaken.

i Feng plucked a few tufts of loose fur from Xiao Heihei and distributed them to everyone.

“Let the cat fur serve as proof. Anyone who can produce cat fur is one of us. But this will only be valid for this round. After the next batch of copies appears, we’ll come back here, hand in our cat fur, and I’ll distribute new fur to everyone to make sure none of our people have been replaced.”

Distributing cat fur was actually a pretty good idea. Only they knew about it. The copies outside might never guess that cat fur was one of the methods they used to verify identities.

And the one verifying their identities wasn’t Qi Feng, but Qi Feng’s cat.

Who could have imagined that in the end, they would have to rely on a cat? From now on, whenever they encountered stray cats outside, they would have to show a little more respect for this species.

Yan Jiyun continued crouching on Qi Feng’s shoulder. Suddenly, he stared unblinkingly at No. 6, who had once again transformed into a high-pitched, coquettish chatterbox.

He concentrated as hard as he could, staring at it, staring at it, staring at it—

No. 6 turned its head, and its gaze met Yan Jiyun’s eyes. It seemed to become dazed for a moment.

Yan Jiyun was suddenly startled. He discovered that he had actually turned into a voice so sickeningly sweet and coy that it gave people goosebumps.

“Meow~ Ao?”

That wasn’t a sound he could make. What the hell was that?

Wait. Wasn’t the one crouching motionlessly across from him none other than himself?

Had his mind successfully invaded No. 6’s mind?

He moved his limbs, then imitated Xiao Liu by pitching his voice high and meowing twice. The sensation was truly strange.

However, although he knew that the copies looked exactly like him, physical sensations couldn’t lie. A copy was still a copy, completely different from his original self. Xiao Liu’s body wasn’t nearly as agile as his own.

When his attention slipped for a moment, his field of vision changed again. His consciousness had returned to his own body. He moved his arms and legs, finding nothing wrong with them.

He had experienced something different while inside Xiao Liu’s body.

Why could he invade Xiao Liu’s mind and control its body?

Although he could only control the other body for a very short time, this ability would be extremely useful when fighting the copies.

He tried invading another player’s mind, using Chu Mo as his target, but it had absolutely no effect.

Could it be that he could only invade the bodies of his own copies?

So that’s how it was!

The game had set a huge trap for the players, but at the same time, it had given them a great advantage. As long as they could control their own copies, they could win this instance.

This should be a new discovery for them. What they needed to verify now was how much mental contamination the original person needed to have in order to accomplish this.

Although Qi Feng had asked everyone to report their respective Sanity Values, it was possible that someone had lied about their numbers to gain everyone’s trust. He couldn’t stake everything on the others. He would have to find an opportunity when Qi Feng was alone to tell him about this discovery.

Qi Feng had the Sanity Value among all the players. He had previously reported it as 85, while Yang-ge had the lowest, at only 65.

According to their test results over the past few days, symptoms of mental instability would appear once the value dropped below 60. Unexpectedly, Yang-ge, who seemed to be the most cheerful, was actually the most mentally unstable.

Yan Jiyun thought about it for a moment. He felt that Yang-ge should stay with Xiao Bai.

He looked toward Xiao Bai and tried his best to transmit his thoughts to it. To his surprise, Xiao Bai actually walked toward Yang-ge.

Xiao Bai was timid. It wanted to approach Yang-ge but hesitated, hovering awkwardly beside him. Still, it managed to draw some of Yang-ge’s fading attention back.

Yang-ge knew that these black cats were extremely useful, so he patiently asked it, “Is there something you need?”

Xiao Bai wasn’t as good at expressing itself as the chatterbox cat Xiao Liu. It was timid, and expressing itself was precisely what it was worst at.

This was a test Yan Jiyun was conducting on Sanity Values. His own Sanity Value could recover; he just didn’t know whether Yang-ge’s could recover as well. If that were the case, things would be much easier going forward, and players with low Sanity Values would no longer have to suffer. Of course, that was assuming they had a fondness for cats.

Yan Jiyun was currently staying with Qi Feng. Chu Mo knew he was a newcomer, so his sudden appearance here would certainly arouse suspicion. He would avoid showing himself whenever possible. The most important thing in this instance was to keep his little secret hidden from the other players. However, he needed to find an opportunity to turn back into a human. He didn’t have a copy of his own, so he could only pretend that he had eliminated his copy before making an appearance.

Qi Feng and the others finally came up with a solution to their current predicament.

There were eight of them in total, so they split into four groups. They would try not to separate and return here to exchange cat fur before the system’s next notification announcing the appearance of copies.

Chu Mo and Wen Ye remained together. They had always worked well as a team, so there was no need to separate them.

Yin Zi was injured, while Yang-ge had a low mental contamination value. They would temporarily stay at their makeshift base, “Black Cat Café.”

Su Qiuming and Xu Xian formed a group. They were from the same guild.

Qi Feng and Qi Yunchu formed another group.

Oh, no. There were actually three people in their group. Yan Jiyun was going along with them too.

The timid Xiao Bai and the chatterbox Xiao Liu were left at the makeshift base. However, they were free to move around. The only person who could control them was Yan Jiyun.

Was carrying around cat fur really a reliable method?

What if one of them was still a copy?

Yan Jiyun had kept another precaution in mind. The cats that had gone out were also his informants. As long as he controlled them properly, Xiao Huang, Xiao Lv, and No. 7, 8, 9, 10 would all be excellent assistants.

They prepared to head out.

Splitting into four groups didn’t mean they would deliberately separate. Rather, if they were forced apart, each person’s first priority would be to stay with their assigned teammate.

They had spent the past few hours moving around Buildings C and D. Next, they would head to Buildings A and B.

This time, they took the escalator directly down to the first floor.

They weren’t in a hurry to look for copies. The main quest was more important than the copies. Only by completing the main quest could they truly leave the game.

Qi Yunchu asked Qi Feng, “Do you have any ideas about the main mission? What exactly is the Christmas present?”

Yan Jiyun perked up his ears to listen.

Were they finally getting back to the main mission?

Qi Feng calmly asked, “What do you think it is?”

Chu Mo crossed his arms over his chest and said, “It should be that thing, right?”

Qi Yunchu nodded. “That’s what I think too.”

Qi Feng said, “Looks like we’ve reached a consensus.”

Su Qiuming asked, “Should we search separately or together?”

Yan Jiyun was completely confused. Had he missed something? What exactly was that thing? Could these humans stop speaking in riddles?

Xu Xian voiced Yan Jiyun’s confusion. “What are you talking about? What are we looking for?”

Su Qiuming gave him an eye-roll. “The Christmas present.”

Xu Xian asked, “What exactly is the Christmas present?”

For the sake of secrecy, none of them told Xu Xian the truth outright.

Su Qiuming said, “Your big brother will take you to find it.”

Yan Jiyun stopped worrying about it. He was right there in Qi Feng’s arms. As long as he stuck close to Qi Feng, what was there to worry about? Surely he wouldn’t fail to find it.

He glanced at the instance’s countdown timer and realized that, without him noticing, only 15 hours remained.

Suddenly, they felt a series of loud thuds reverberating throughout the entire building.

Yan Jiyun immediately tightened his hold around Qi Feng’s neck and turned his head to look at the others’ reactions.

They all seemed accustomed to it, and even appeared to be looking forward to it.

Oh, he remembered now. It was the monster mentioned in the master-pet notification panel!