DSMC Chapter 44.1

Thank you Anonymous for the ko-fi donation :3c enjoy today’s bonus chapter!

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“Ahhh, damn! My darling baby is so cool, he’s so handsome! This is Cat Cub’s highlight moment!”

“Why do I feel like Meowmeow looks more like a game boss? Bad and dangerous, but still so cute.”

“Cat Cub has no natural enemies in this instance. Whether hiding or seeking, he’s totally at ease. The opponents don’t even have time to look for items in the scene. It feels like this round is about to end.”

“Doesn’t anyone wonder why Kitty Baby is so desperate to find people this time?”

“That’s easy. The earlier he finds everyone, the sooner the game ends. Nobody wants to stay in the scene longer than necessary.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple. I noticed Cat Cub doesn’t stay in human form very long. Last round, he turned back into a cat soon after the game started, but this time, he’s been human for almost five minutes and still hasn’t changed back.”

“I agree with upstairs.” 

“Ah… nobody’s going to talk about the instance content? Like the castle’s secrets or something…”

The first floor was the kitchen, dining room, and storage room; the second floor had guest rooms; the third floor held the master bedroom and the children’s room; the fourth should be the study or conservatory.

When Yan Jiyun was in cat form, his footsteps were very light. Even now, walking in his human form, they were just as light.

The sound of heavy breathing came from not far away. He could roughly estimate the distance.

All the players hiding among the dolls in the children’s room had already been found by him, and this heavy breather had exposed his location as well.

Yan Jiyun followed the direction of the breathing sound, approaching step by step.

The target wasn’t on the third floor, but on the second.

Yan Jiyun descended from the third floor. The person was in the first room on the left. He pushed open the door and entered. Inside was a studio, not the expected guest room.

The studio’s walls were covered with paintings, from childish oil paintings by children, rice field landscapes by adults, and many realistic portrait sketches. An easel stood neatly in the center, unused for now.

The player with the heavy breathing was hiding inside this studio.

In fact, he didn’t have to search much. As soon as he entered, he spotted the man. The player’s breathing was so loud, probably due to some respiratory issue, maybe pharyngitis, or just from smoking and drinking too much. He probably snored too.

Yan Jiyun suddenly thought of his shit-shoveling officer. They occasionally shared a bed, and his human never snored, always sleeping quietly.

He yanked the canvas aside and saw the player tightly wrapped in a layer of white cloth.

The Team B member stared at Yan Jiyun in shock, clearly terrified. He couldn’t even utter a word for a long while.

He hadn’t heard Player No. 29’s footsteps at all!

Yan Jiyun tore off another sheet of canvas covering him and patted his arm lightly. “Found you.”

Now only one Team B member remained. In his mind, the game’s kill sound effect played automatically: [Quadra Kill!]

Was the next one going to be a Penta Kill? A full team wipe?

Wouldn’t that make Team B the fastest group to ever get found in the game’s history?

Record-breaking, even…

The last hiding member of Team B went pale, frozen in place, too afraid to move.

After catching Team B’s fourth player, Yan Jiyun didn’t leave immediately. He watched the man vanish right before his eyes.

He wondered… if the players chose to switch sides to join his team, could his group choose to refuse them?

Unfortunately, none of these players gave him the chance to experiment. How little they must think of his three-person team.

He then heard faint footsteps running down toward the basement. Now, he wasn’t in a hurry.

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 1 minute]

Perfect. Four players taken down within three minutes, one left.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t allow that player to come back up from the basement to find items. What if he counterattacked later? That possibility had to be eliminated at the root.

So, he headed straight for the basement. The entrance door had a lock. The other player had rushed in without hiding his tracks. Though, hiding was pointless against Yan Jiyun anyway.

Yan Jiyun crept down lightly, found the basement entrance, hooked the padlock the Team B member had left there, snapped it shut, and hid the key right back where it was placed earlier.

He was still in danger himself. Qiu Xi knew he was Qi Feng’s cat. From now on, he could search for items, but he wouldn’t meet with Qiu Xi or Gu Wenzhu again. He’d avoid them as much as possible.

There were still 55 minutes left, plenty of time for them to dig up every inch of the villa grounds.

Locking that guy up was the wisest decision. Perfect.

The Team B player: “…”

It was the same man who’d provocatively met Yan Jiyun’s eyes before the match began. He’d thought hiding in the basement was foolproof. He never expected his opponent not only knew where he was but even locked the door behind him!

The basement was dark, damp, and reeked of moldy pickles. The stench was dizzying.

Why had he arrogantly run in here in the first place?

When the experience card’s time ran out, Yan Jiyun turned back into a cat.

He stretched his two front paws forward, arching into a long lazy stretch, then walked into the sunroom where the light was brightest.

Though there was no sunlight outside the villa, a very comfortable chair sat there. He could rest for a bit.

There were still 50 minutes plus left in the game, plenty of time to find items. He’d rest for ten minutes first, testing how the system judged “passive play.”

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“Too cruel, hahaha! Is this the classic cat-playing-with-mouse scene?”

“Hahaha, I can just picture him batting that guy around with his paw. Yep, that’s totally what’s happening.”

“Why’d Cat Cub lock him in there? Because he wants to nap in the scene and skip work?”

“But the system has anti-passive-play rules; our Kitty Baby won’t be able to sleep for long.”

“Then does locking someone in the basement count as passive play?”

“Probably not. That poor mouse is still trying everything to escape. If anything, Cat Cub might get flagged for being passive. He’s resting at such a critical moment! Why isn’t he still looking for items?”

Yan Jiyun sprawled lazily across the chair by the floor-to-ceiling window of the music room on the fourth floor, his tail swaying idly. The main reason he chose to rest here was that he didn’t want to run into Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu.

Gu Wenzhu’s leg probably wouldn’t hold up for long, and the two of them would need a break sooner or later. Once they stopped to rest, he could head out and search for items again.

Right now, Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu were moving as one, sticking together as they searched. They hadn’t crossed paths with Yan Jiyun yet.

Following the method he’d shared with them, they had actually found one high-level prop and one common prop within ten minutes of the game starting. Their trust in Yan Jiyun shot up several degrees. He had followed their plan perfectly, taking out Team B’s players first and knocking them out of the match before the item drop even happened.

This teammate was simply heaven-sent: powerful, kind, and clearing the obstacles ahead for them.

Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu were highly motivated when it came to searching for items, it was something they could handle on their own.

Though Gu Wenzhu’s legs were weak, he was exceptionally meticulous. He checked every possible corner and container where items could be hidden, missing nothing. Qiu Xi followed his directions, climbing and reaching everywhere he could. The two of them searched in a carpet-sweeping pattern.

They still couldn’t quite understand how Team A had lost to their Team F in the previous round, even though Team A had the advantage in numbers.

After thinking about it, the only explanation was — Team A didn’t have Yan Jiyun.

As for Team B’s remaining player, No. 4, he was still struggling in the basement.

Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu had been waiting for the system to announce the capture of the last player, but it never came.

During a break, Qiu Xi asked Gu Wenzhu with sign language, “Why hasn’t Yan Jiyun caught the last guy yet? Couldn’t find him?”

Gu Wenzhu had already guessed his plan. “No. I think he’s deliberately not catching him. Think about it. Common props can be used within the scene, but I tested it last round. While high-level props can’t be used on players, and we still don’t know how high-level props are supposed to work. My guess is that he wants us to collect as many props as possible to prepare for later rounds.”

Twenty-four hours didn’t sound long, but counted by the second, a lot could happen in each one.

Qiu Xi nodded. He’d been thinking too simply, assuming that winning a round meant victory. But both Yan Jiyun and Gu Wenzhu were thinking further ahead. While earning points, they also needed more props. This round might have caught the other side off guard, but the next might not. They needed to use this chance to gather as many high-level props as possible.

Since the common props they’d used in the previous round were consumed, they didn’t know whether common props, like high-level ones, would stay in their temporary inventory after leaving the instance.

This round was the perfect chance to test everything.

Qiu Xi thought, ‘I just don’t get what he’s doing.’

It was fine to let Gu Wenzhu handle strategy, but he truly couldn’t figure out what Yan Jiyun was up to. Normally, wouldn’t teammates regroup and discuss their next move?

The kid was very strong, but he never played by the book.

Gu Wenzhu didn’t think badly of Yan Jiyun. He said to Qiu Xi, “Since he’s in charge of catching players, we’ll focus on finding and testing props, and discovering the hidden rules the instance doesn’t tell us.”

Qiu Xi thought his two teammates were perfect: handsome, kind, one brave, one meticulous, and both clever. Maybe his luck wasn’t so bad this time.

Meanwhile, Yan Jiyun lay comfortably on his chair, gazing down at the decaying scenery below.

Time ticked by, but he didn’t feel like he was wasting it. He needed to understand how the system judged “passive play ” —only then could he know how long he could stay hidden without being penalized.

Ten minutes later, Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu had found two more common props, one defensive and one offensive.

It was a pleasant surprise, though they had no target to use them on for now. They’d keep them in case the props carried over — if they did, this instance would save them a lot of resources later.

But if anyone was truly pitiful this round, it wasn’t the Team B members who’d been eliminated in under five minutes — it was No. 4, the one trapped in the basement, waiting endlessly for a final blow that never came.

Beyond the physical discomfort of being locked up, he had to endure the constant sting of system notifications about Team F’s progress. The mental torment was far worse.

[Team F Player No. 16 has collected the High-Level Prop XXX]

[Team F Player No. 9 has collected the High-Level Prop XXX]

Why not just end him quickly instead!