DSMC Chapter 46.1

T/L: I actually forgot this cute trivia: Hide and Seek in Chinese is 躲猫猫 (duǒ māomāo). 躲 = hide; 猫猫 = cat (childish/cutesy version). No wonder Yan Jiyun is a total pro at this game~ 

Also kinda related: the “yun” in Yan Jiyun’s name also means cloud like the rest of this instance’s settings. This made like it’s kinda tailor-made for him lol

Team C suddenly lost one of their members.

Player No. 12 was just unlucky. He had been hiding behind a door, planning to switch rooms and continue searching later, but the 10 minute mark came, and the room he chose happened to be occupied by a woman. This female NPC appeared wrapped only in a towel. From her perspective, the player was a creep who had suddenly materialized in her room. She screamed, and two NPC security guards rushed upstairs and dragged the unfortunate No. 12 away.

The player tried to resist, but the guards’ grip was like iron clamps. He couldn’t break free. They tossed him out the door, and no one knew what lay beyond it. The system only displayed a notification of elimination, offering no hints about what happened to those who were eliminated.

[Player No. 12 of Team C has been eliminated from this round.]

[Players, please try not to do anything that would make NPCs suspicious~]

Now, Team C had only four members left.

Currently, none of the players knew where those eliminated — whether by props or NPCs — had gone. Only three rounds had passed so far, and with the time spent on the stage, about four hours total had elapsed. With 24 hours in this instance, that meant 20 hours remained. Perhaps, it meant 20 more hours of “hide and seek.”

Yan Jiyun now felt the game’s difficulty had increased, which suited him perfectly. He liked a challenge.

If they wanted to eliminate Team C, they didn’t necessarily have to use props. There were now more ways, like luring Team C’s players into doing something that would make NPCs seriously suspicious. That would eliminate them too, and save some common props.

After their second round, they’d discovered that common props could be taken out of a scene. However, both common and high-level props from other scenes were greyed out and unusable in this one.

That meant the first three rounds were simply for gathering props. They couldn’t use props from other scenes here, but later there might be a large, overarching round where all props could be used freely. How that would play out, no one knew yet.

Yan Jiyun could only speculate so much. He didn’t know how many high-level props other groups had collected, since the scenes each group entered weren’t necessarily the same. And the purpose of the team points system remained unclear. His concerns would have to wait until this scene was over.

For now, the most important thing was that the room he was hiding in had an NPC. He also didn’t yet know whether this NPC could provide him with a prop.

The gentlemanly NPC seemed utterly unconcerned about the commotion next door. He answered a call from the front desk.

The voice sounded like that of a man in his thirties or forties, sounding deep and steady.

“Then send it up right away, I need it urgently.”

The other end didn’t specify what was being sent, but Yan Jiyun wasn’t in a rush. The NPC would soon receive whatever he’d requested.

What could he need so urgently?

A minute later, someone knocked at the door. “Sir, here are the shower gel and shampoo you asked me to buy.”

Toiletries? So this gentleman NPC was clearly someone of means.

Yan Jiyun had seen the bathroom before. The hotel provided only cheap, generic toiletries.

From his voice, the gentleman NPC didn’t sound like a traveler, more like a businessman.

A well-dressed businessman staying in such a place… he must be here for some kind of business deal.

If that was the case, he wasn’t a local.

From under the bed, Yan Jiyun could see that the toiletries the bellboy brought were far higher-end than the hotel’s, the packaging alone outclassing the cheap bathroom supplies.

So far, three NPCs had appeared: the gentlemanly guest, the female guest next door, and the bellboy.

The bellboy didn’t seem like a story-driven character. His role was probably just to serve the other NPCs.

After receiving his toiletries, the gentleman NPC paid for them along with a tip, then asked the bellboy a few questions.

“Is there anything interesting around town? Any places worth visiting?”

The bellboy, likely used to being asked that, became even more enthusiastic after receiving a tip. He began to describe the local attractions and foods.

“Oh, there are plenty! The most beautiful Yunjiang Riverbank¹云江江畔 yunjiang jiangban. Cloudriver Riverbank. It’s kinda a silly name, for one — take a walk along the banks and you can feel the gentle breeze. And then there’s our most famous attraction, Siyun Castle. It’s now open as a tourist spot. In May, the gardens are full of roses, absolutely gorgeous. Of course, we also have Xiaoyun Street, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. It’s an old, famous street. Out-of-towners love taking pictures there. A film crew was even shooting there not long ago!” 

Huh?

Xiaoyun Street, Siyun Castle, Yunxiao Hotel are all connected?

From that short exchange, Yan Jiyun realized the scene they were in had been drawn from a small town, and after the third round, the final stage might take place across that entire town.

This dungeon had a team-based mode; winning a round earned points, and players could even switch factions mid-game. That suggested the final showdown would also be in teams. The specific rules were still unclear, but at least he now had a rough outline of the game.

The bellboy went on and on about the town’s charm, and Yan Jiyun quietly took mental notes. But just as the bellboy was about to start talking about food, the gentleman NPC interrupted him, and the bellboy tactfully took his leave.

The NPC then opened his suitcase, took out pajamas, and went into the bathroom to shower.

Yan Jiyun knew this was the perfect opportunity to search for props.

Perhaps because he was staying alone, the gentleman NPC hadn’t bothered closing his suitcase.

As soon as the bathroom door shut, Yan Jiyun crawled out from under the sheets and approached the vintage suitcase. The NPC’s personal belongings were still neatly packed inside.

But strangely, the left side of the suitcase contained clothes, and the right side a camera. Nothing that looked like a businessman’s props, not even a contract or company seal.

What did catch his eye, though, was a notebook.

To make it easier to read, Yan Jiyun hopped into the suitcase. It was perfectly sized like a cat’s litter box. He used his paw to open the notebook.

Click.

The bathroom door suddenly opened. Yan Jiyun’s ears twitched; he jumped out of the suitcase and darted back under the bed. He hadn’t even gotten a look at the first word of the notebook, much less closed it.

The NPC seemed to have forgotten his underwear and came back out, but when he reached for his clothes, he noticed that the notebook on top of his luggage was open.

“I don’t remember opening this notebook earlier. Did I? Am I misremembering?” he murmured to himself.

Yan Jiyun hid in silence, not daring to make a sound.

The NPC closed the notebook and, still puzzled, went back into the bathroom.

Only when the sound of running water resumed did Yan Jiyun come out again to investigate.

The notebook had been placed back exactly where it was, and Yan Jiyun reminded himself to be more careful. He could open it, but he must remember to close it afterward.

He jumped back into the suitcase and opened the notebook once more. It wasn’t very thick, and the NPC’s handwriting was neat and orderly.

But what was recorded weren’t notes, just a string of disconnected words and phrases:

“Castle,” “Love,” “Friendship,” “Xiaoyun Street,” “Disappearance,” “Dancer,” and so on.

Could he be a novelist? No, that didn’t seem right — an author would usually carry manuscript paper.

Aside from the notebook, the suitcase also held a camera. Maybe he was a writer out gathering inspiration?

This hotel seemed to have some age to it, and the story’s timeline probably wasn’t very modern either, most likely a period before laptops became common. Everything had to be recorded by hand.

Thinking about the old houses and tailor shops along Xiaoyun Street, that all fit together. There were all parts of a coherent setting. Combine it all, and it’s a small, likely historic town. 

Yan Jiyun wondered what that story might be. Would the players have to uncover it during the instance? But this was a competitive game instance, not a puzzle-solving one. He shouldn’t be making things harder for himself.

He caught himself going off track. He was here to find props.

The gentleman NPC was still taking his time in the shower, even humming some pop tune that was a little off-key. Yan Jiyun couldn’t tell what it was. He only really liked listening to Good Luck Comes, so he wasn’t familiar with much else.

After skimming through the notebook, he closed it with his paw. The floor under the bed was filthy, and when his paw pressed against the notebook cover, he left a clear paw print on it.

Yan Jiyun: “…”

That was a bit too obvious as evidence. He tried wiping it off with his paw pad, but it only made it worse.

Forget it. Pretend he didn’t see it.

As long as the NPC didn’t see him, the “NPC discovery” mechanism wouldn’t trigger.

He poked around the NPC’s other belongings. There were a camera, a pen, a small knife, a lighter, but none of them counted as props.

Not even the knife? It looked so useful.

So, were props not the personal belongings of NPCs?

That made things tricky. Surely it wasn’t something… intimate?

He searched around the room again but found nothing else particularly personal belonging to the gentleman NPC.

Wait, he heard a faint tick-tock, the soft mechanical sound of a winding watch.

But there was no watch on the table.

Then the sound of running water stopped, and the NPC’s humming ceased. A moment later, he stepped out of the bathroom.

Yan Jiyun ducked back under the bed. Tilting his head slightly, he saw the man holding his dirty clothes in one hand, and in the other — his personal items: a pocket watch and a belt.

The gentleman NPC put the dirty clothes in the laundry basket and placed the pocket watch and belt on the room’s only desk.

Yan Jiyun calculated the distance between himself and the desk. If he wanted to touch the watch, he’d have to wait until the man turned off the lights and went to bed, only after he was sound asleep. But his eyes glowed faintly in the dark, which could easily expose him.

To avoid unnecessary risk, he decided to wait.

They only had an hour for this round. If the NPC didn’t sleep the whole time, he’d have to come up with another plan.

There was no movement from Team C either. They’d just lost a key member, so they were probably lying low, maybe regrouping to discuss their strategy.

Yan Jiyun could only act alone. He planned to save his remaining human form for a critical moment and stay in cat form for now. Though Gu Wenzhu couldn’t move, Qiu Xi still could.

Hopefully, fifteen minutes later, both Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu would still be safe, and maybe even clever enough to find better hiding spots.

After a few minutes, the gentleman NPC lay down on the bed. The balcony door, which had been open earlier, was now closed. He had turned on the air conditioning.

Nice and cool, sure, but it also blocked Yan Jiyun’s exit.

He hadn’t expected that move. The room door had a round knob his paws couldn’t turn.

Was this hotel scene chosen specifically to mess with him?

He needed another plan.

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  云江江畔 yunjiang jiangban. Cloudriver Riverbank. It’s kinda a silly name