DSMC Chapter 34.2

Lin Xie and Jiang Yan sprinted across the walkway between the half-collapsed Buildings B and C. Lao Fang’s men stormed after them. Along the way, Lin Xie and Jiang Yan clashed.

Jiang Yan glared sharply at him. “Lin Xie, give me the case!”

Lin Xie barked back, “Don’t get involved. Go back!”

In the heat of their struggle, Lin Xie shoved Jiang Yan aside with a kick and bolted toward the third floor. But the staircase down had been destroyed. He had no choice but to run upward.

Lao Fang and his men weren’t amateurs. They charged after him. Jiang Yan yelled, “Go back and protect Father! I’ll handle Lin Xie!”

But Lao Fang sneered, “Third Young Master, the boss might not know, but I do. You and Lin Xie are working together. Hand over the Red Field Poppy.”

Jiang Yan instantly realized the danger. Without another word, he bolted.

Zhao Renfu might be sly and arrogant, but Lao Fang had survived under him for years. His mind was even deeper, his patience sharper. If he dared voice such words, it meant he intended to erase both Jiang Yan and Lin Xie. He’d endured years in the shadows, there was no way he’d pass up such an easy prize.

Yan Jiyun chased them into the collapsing walkway. But as the crowd thundered over it, the bridge gave way.

He leapt just as it fell—

And barely, just barely, caught the far wall with his claws. His body dangled in the air, death yawning beneath him.

[Want to be Human] livestream channel:

“Baby! No! Don’t fall! I can’t watch you die here, please climb up!”

“Little Kitty is going all out to save his master!”

“Shit shit shit, this first-person POV is killing me. I feel like I’m hanging on air and about to fall!”

“My heart can’t take it. I can’t bear to watch this. Climb, Little Guy, climb! I’m dying of nerves!”

“Don’t you dare mess up now, Meowmeow! This is a brand-new plot! We need to see the ending!”

Clawing upward with desperate strength, Yan Jiyun pushed off a steel bar with his hind legs and hauled himself up. His whole body trembled as he collapsed onto the ledge, limbs limp, too shaken to move again.

He had never in his life, neither as a man nor a cat, experienced such a terrifying, thrilling escape. He had nearly lost his life.

Too close. Too terrifying.

And what could he even do if he went up there now? Nothing.

He heard gunfire rattled above. It must be a gunfight. 

Yan Jiyun shrank back. His own survival came first. He has no armor, no usable items. Charging in would be suicide. His strength couldn’t sway the battle anyway.

He needed to breathe, to calm down.

Considering the tense gunfight, he could only survey his surroundings. Today’s explosion shattered all the glass. One wrong step and he could plunge to his death. The risk was everywhere.

Then, silence above. No more gunfire, only tense footsteps. A silent stand-off.

Lao Fang, too, wanted to keep the Red Field Poppy for himself. He’d long known about Zhao Renfu’s troubles with his three sons, none of whom obeyed him. Zhao Renfu was blind to it.

Now, only two lab zones separated the factions. Whoever stepped into the hallway first would be riddled with bullets.

Testing the waters, Jiang Yan tossed a tin can down the corridor.

A shot rang out immediately.

Yan Jiyun heard it too. Both sides were locked in a battle of attrition. For him, rushing in would be suicide.

Jiang Yan pressed his back against the wall and asked Lin Xie, “How many bullets do you have left?”

Lin Xie, hair and clothes disheveled, shrugged off the waiter’s coat. He displayed the bulletproof vest stuffed with ammo and grenades he had stolen from Jiang Yan’s office.

“All here. Enough to hold out a while.”

Jiang Yan glanced at his own nearly empty gun. “You came better prepared.”

For once, Lin Xie didn’t throw him a cold look. “I’m not like you, charging in without a plan.”

Jiang Yan, close at his side, pointed at the case lying near Lin Xie’s feet. “If I’d been fully geared up, would I have been able to get this thing out?”

Lin Xie didn’t comment, neither agreeing nor denying. What Jiang Yan said was true, but he had indeed acted recklessly.

In fact, based on the position he’d been in earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to grab the crate. He really had taken a gamble. Luckily, it paid off.

Jiang Yan was on their side, and once Lin Xie had the crate in hand, he immediately passed it to him. What he didn’t expect was that Jiang Yan would follow him out as well.

They had no reinforcements now, and neither did Lao Fang’s side.

The two groups were at a standoff.

Jiang Yan said, “Didn’t think Lao Fang, who’s followed Zhao Renfu for almost twenty years, would betray him.”

Lin Xie replied, “A man who can kill and burn without blinking, you think he cares about something as laughable as friendship? You’re giving them too much credit.”

Jiang Yan shot him a look. “Can’t you drop the sharp tongue for once?”

Lin Xie shrugged. “Don’t like it, don’t listen.”

Unable to win the argument, Jiang Yan switched topics. “So how do we get out?”

Lin Xie’s voice was decisive. “I’ll draw them off. You stay here.”

“No way,” Jiang Yan said. “I’ll go.”

“Are you wearing a bulletproof vest? Step out there now and you’re dead. Just wait. I counted just now, they’ve got five people, each fired fewer than three rounds, so they’ve got at least fifteen bullets left. And Lao Fang is a cautious bastard. You can bet that’s not all they’ve got.”

“Then what? Even with what’s left, they can still pin us down.”

“I’ve still got two smoke grenades and two hand grenades,” Lin Xie said. “We’ll need to plan carefully how to use them.”

Jiang Yan mapped out the routes in his head and said, “We can toss the smoke grenades first, then throw the hand grenades. When the blast hits and they’re down, we both charge for the stairwell.”

Lin Xie shook his head. “No. They’re behind walls. We won’t necessarily hit them all. And we don’t know if the lower stairwell’s intact after the earlier explosions. If we keep going up, we’ll still have to eat their gunfire first. The best option now is to wait till they press closer, once they do, we strike.”

Lin Xie’s reasoning was solid. Jiang Yan didn’t argue. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”

While the two story characters planned how to dodge the villains’ pursuit, Yan Jiyun finally calmed down.

The last dungeon had its share of thrills, but compared to this one, that was child’s play. He was working hard to steel his nerves.

He’d overheard Lin Xie and that undercover man earlier. So the police were supposed to show up. But in the game, the cops usually only appeared at the very end, just to mop up the mess.

Players could only rely on themselves; the dungeon would never provide outside help.

Building C’s first floor was the production room. The upper floors should have similar layouts. He could hear footsteps above. It’s good enough to gauge Lao Fang and the mercenaries’ positions.

He needed a new angle. If brute force was out, then brains had to do.

Lin Xie and Jiang Yan definitely had fewer weapons and fewer people than Lao Fang’s side. What mattered was finding a way to help them escape, not charging in head-on.

Lao Fang and his men were directly overhead, their firefight locked right here. By that logic, Lin Xie and Jiang Yan must be hiding in the forward room, trapped under their gunfire.

If Lao Fang and his crew got pinned down, wouldn’t that give Lin Xie and Jiang Yan the chance to break out?

But Yan Jiyun couldn’t approach Lao Fang, and even if he turned human he had no weapons. He only had armor, which might even hinder him.

So instead of following up to the fourth floor, he darted across the third, racing ahead to check the stairways. If he couldn’t save them directly, he could at least scout a safe path for their escape.

There were staircases on both sides of the building. At the stairwell, he found the one leading up to the fourth floor intact, but the one going down was broken. Between the third and first floor there was no staircase at all. Getting down would mean inching along bare rebar.

With pursuers at their backs, Lin Xie and Jiang Yan would never make it.

The gunfight paused briefly, then fifteen minutes later flared up again.

Two more exchanges followed. From below, Yan Jiyun couldn’t see how badly they were faring.

He guessed Lin Xie and Jiang Yan were burning through their enemies’ ammo, while Lao Fang’s side tried to bleed them dry too. Two against many, the odds were bleak.

He trusted their combat ability, but against hot weapons? That was another story.

What to do? Lin Xie and Jiang Yan couldn’t die here.

While the battle dragged on, Yan Jiyun raced up and down: from third floor to fourth, then higher still. Building C had only four stories and the rooftop lay above. He’d hoped to find them another level to retreat to, but there was nothing. Just an open roof, with no cover.

[Time until the instance ends: 55 minutes, 07 seconds]

The clock was merciless.

Circling the roof, he suddenly heard the boom of a hand grenade below. The building shuddered, and he staggered on his paws. That meant they really were running low on bullets. Lin Xie and Jiang Yan wouldn’t waste grenades unless absolutely forced.

They must be planning to relocate now. With no ammo left, staying put was suicide.

If they pulled up to the roof ahead of their pursuers, it might give them an edge.

When the gunfire below fell silent, Yan Jiyun rushed down. He caught the sound of hurried footsteps. It must be Lin Xie and Jiang Yan, moving fast.

He waited at the fourth-floor stairwell exit.

Sure enough, the two burst toward him. Both were startled to see him there.

“Blake, get out of here!”

Yan Jiyun glanced at them, then tilted his head upward, padding up a few steps toward the roof before looking back at them again.

Lin Xie said, “Go. Follow it.”

Jiang Yan frowned. “It’s just a cat.”

“It’s smarter than you think,” Lin Xie replied.

Jiang Yan didn’t argue further. “Fine. They’re on our heels. We have to move!” He knew Blake was special.

The grenade had probably injured two of the mercenaries. Whether they were dead was uncertain.

Earning their trust, Yan Jiyun led the way up to the rooftop.

The roof had plenty of cover: sheets and linens hung out to dry, partitioning off areas. Big enough for Lin Xie and Jiang Yan to run Lao Fang’s remaining three men in circles.

The cat had already scoped it earlier. Three sets of footsteps were close behind. It was Lao Fang and his men, moving fast.

Lin Xie stashed the crate behind a water tank, then he and Jiang Yan coordinated: together they wrapped one mercenary in a sheet, and Jiang Yan smashed an elbow into his skull. The man cried out, drawing Lao Fang and the other two’s gunfire.

Yan Jiyun crouched low in a corner. Against trained mercenaries, he was no fighter. Best not to get in the way.

The gunfire swept savagely across the rooftop. One round grazed Lin Xie’s left arm!

He grunted, brow furrowing in pain. Jiang Yan hadn’t noticed, too busy dodging fire.

But Yan Jiyun saw it, making fur bristled. The wound wasn’t life-threatening yet, but just looking at it made his paws ache.

Lao Fang tossed aside his empty pistol. Spotting Lin Xie, he charged with his fists. Lin Xie countered.

“Second Young Master, been hiding your skills all this time, have you?”

“Less talk,” Lin Xie spat.

“Then it’s you or me today.”

They traded blows.

Lao Fang wasn’t as old as his appearance. His moves were vicious. Sliding on a brass knuckle, he targeted Lin Xie’s wound with ruthless precision. Lin Xie, though skilled, was bleeding badly—his strength ebbing fast. His lips were pale.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yan faced a hulking brawler, broader and stronger, fighting like a madman.

Both fights were brutal, no easy wins.

Yan Jiyun’s eyes flicked to the timer.

[Time until the instance ends: 31 minutes, 30 seconds]

Just over half an hour left!

At that moment, Lao Fang shoved Lin Xie toward the rooftop edge. Still strong, he aimed to end it quick by tossing him over. Lin Xie fought desperately.

“Time to go where you belong, Second Young Master.”

Jiang Yan had just knocked out his own opponent, slamming him twice more for good measure. Without pause, he grabbed a broken stick and smashed it against Lao Fang’s head. The mercenary staggered, and Jiang Yan grappled with him.

Lin Xie, dizzy from blood loss, slipped. His legs slid under the railing. He only managed to grab the bar with one hand.

His right arm was numb, strength draining. He could feel himself slipping away—

Jiang Yan’s eyes went wide, blood freezing in his veins. He shouted, “Lin Xie—!”

And in that split second, a figure lunged to the railing. A pale hand seized Lin Xie’s wrist, holding him fast against the void.