DSMC Chapter 51.2

Just as he was sighing, the crowd suddenly scattered for some unknown reason. With so many people, things got messy fast. He had been sitting securely on Liang Yu’s shoulders, but in the chaos someone’s elbow knocked him off. He almost slipped and got trampled by panicked NPCs.

He darted with the flow of feet toward the sides of the street. It was too crowded. Even though he knew where Tang Shi and Liang Yu were, he couldn’t reach them.

He broke free of the crowd and jumped onto the counter of a closed street stall. But then a terrifying figure appeared two meters ahead.

It was none other than No. 1 

No. 1 was still brooding over the fact that the cat had been rescued earlier.

He held up a fresh, uncooked Pacific saury, trying to lure the black cat. “Kitty, we meet again. I’ve got a fish here. Want some?”

Yan Jiyun wasn’t stupid. Before No. 1 closed the two-step distance, he twisted around, leapt off the stall, and bolted into a dark alley.

No. 1 was terrifying. Obviously he ran.

Yan Jiyun knew No. 1 didn’t recognize him as Player No. 29. The guy just had some weird fixation on cats, or more precisely, on the audience reward points for interacting with them.

No. 1 had just lost his NPC and couldn’t exchange for another one yet. He was in a bad mood.

Some people liked to take their frustration out on those weaker than themselves, whether people or animals. Yan Jiyun didn’t want to be crushed under No. 1’s foot. If No. 1 caught him, he’d be lucky to survive half-crippled. Right now, No. 1 was even scarier than an NPC.

Yan Jiyun darted into the dark alley at random and immediately regretted it. It was a dead end. And it was in the opposite direction from the inn where Tang Shi and Liang Yu were staying. He’d be safe in an NPC’s arms, but wandering alone right now was dangerous.

In a normal small town there shouldn’t be dead ends everywhere, but that was the system’s design.

The dead end was probably the back kitchen of a restaurant. Beyond it were a few lit houses, and he tried leaping over the wall toward them, but hit an invisible barrier.

Damn it. Qingyun Town’s playable area was just as limited as before. Only fixed zones were accessible. Players couldn’t run everywhere.

No. 1’s footsteps drew closer. Yan Jiyun scanned the alley. There was no way out. If he turned back, he’d run straight into him. There was a pile of garbage bags near the back kitchen, and he could only squirm into the gaps between them.

Every time he fled a player he always ended up hiding in some gross place like a trash can or garbage pile. His luck was honestly rotten. He wished the gods of fortune would cut him a break just once.

He really didn’t want to crawl into a pile of garbage.

No. 1 was getting closer and closer to Yan Jiyun’s hiding spot. He could even hear the guy cursing nonstop, spewing all sorts of vulgar trash. His manners were rock-bottom.

Players in this game came from all kinds of social backgrounds. Those who were downtrodden in real life often exposed their true nature in the game. They loved watching players who had better lives than they did suffer even more miserably here. The worse others fared, the happier they became. Sometimes they even wished those people dead, and some might try to kill them outright.

“Kitty, be smart and come out on your own. Don’t make me catch you.”

“NPC kitty sure knows how to hide. I really should drag you out and play with you.”

“Brothers, just wait. I’ll catch this black cat and have fun with all of you!”

“Thanks for the hundred-point tip!.”

“Damn it, where the hell is this cat hiding!”

He started searching every corner, kicking every cracked bucket and trash bin he saw. Now he was standing right in front of the pile of garbage bags where Yan Jiyun was hiding. He hadn’t found the black cat anywhere else.

“Brothers, don’t you think the cat might be right here?” No. 1 said, and kicked a big garbage bag aside. The plastic tore, spilling out kitchen scraps and releasing a pungent stench.

Yan Jiyun’s sense of smell was far stronger than a human’s. The back kitchen area already smelled horrible; now it was an even worse assault. He almost passed out from the stink.

He quietly shifted from one garbage bag to another, picking the right angle to make a run for it.

No. 1 wouldn’t be dumb enough to use a prop on a cat inside the game.

Under the system’s guidance, everyone knew that props worked only on players, not NPCs. Since No. 1 believed he was just an in-game cat, he definitely wouldn’t use props on him. As long as he ran fast enough, No. 1 wouldn’t be able to catch him.

He had to find a way to eliminate No. 1.

Yan Jiyun had wanted to lie low for a while, but he could spare someone else only if they were willing to spare him. And they weren’t.

This was a life-and-death game.

No. 1 was just about to kick the last two garbage bags aside when the black cat burst out between them, his eyes glowing green in the darkness of the alley.

Yan Jiyun bolted toward the mouth of the alley. In front of him stood a dilapidated building across the wall.

The invisible barrier blocked vertical movement, but the houses along the horizontal axis were within the playable area. He could pick the most advantageous spot to ambush from.

Instead of the busy, well-lit street outside the inn, he ran toward the darker, more complicated abandoned building.

No. 1 had no idea the cat was deliberately luring him into the next building. His thoughts were simple: he’d just lost the NPC he exchanged for, he was furious, and he wanted points from the audience. Chasing a stray cat should be easy. He never expected this one to be so good at running.

As expected, Yan Jiyun heard No. 1 continue chasing after him. He slowed down on purpose, waited for No. 1 to see him, then slipped through a cracked door into the dangerous building.

He remembered that Team C didn’t have any illumination props. The player who had found the most props, their No. 19, had been eliminated back at the inn. There had been no chance to meet again. No. 1 probably didn’t have many useful props left.

As long as No. 1 lacked a light source, Yan Jiyun could use the terrain to grab the man’s number tag. He still had a 90-minute Human Form Time Card. Spending five minutes eliminating a player was perfectly doable.

Players eliminated in this round could only use resurrection props. Only players eliminated in the first three rounds could be restored with points. Resurrection props were obviously more important than point exchanges.

No team would use a resurrection prop lightly. They’d save it for their most important member.

Once again, Yan Jiyun felt the cruelty of the game. Most of the players here were strangers. Whoever found a resurrection prop owned it. No one would willingly give it up.

And knowing how nasty the game was, there would definitely be a limit to the number of resurrection props.

No one knew what using common props in this round would even do. If elimination could only be achieved by stealing number tags, then ordinary props were likely just for support anyway.

Yan Jiyun deliberately flicked his tail so No. 1 could spot him. No. 1 never imagined that a stray cat could be clever. He chased after him eagerly.

Inside and outside were two different worlds. The street outside was noisy and crowded, but the building inside was eerily silent. Every footstep echoed sharply.

Yan Jiyun knew his eyes glowed like tiny lights in the dark, so he stayed low as much as possible.

But the important thing was finding a chance to transform back into human form and snatch No. 1’s number tag.

He scanned the area and didn’t see a good hiding place for a human. So he didn’t use the experience card yet.

The game had just begun. He wasn’t in a hurry. He could be patient.

No. 1 was so fixated on catching him he definitely wouldn’t give up easily. The cat’s evasiveness would only provoke his competitive drive.

No. 1 tried using food to lure the cat. “Kitty, I brought fish. You really don’t want it?”

He wasn’t stupid. He set the Pacific saury under a window where the streetlight shone in.

Having just eaten two skewers, Yan Jiyun didn’t see any issue. Unfortunately for No. 1, he wasn’t dealing with an actual cat but another player.

This was a tug-of-war now. Yan Jiyun wouldn’t rashly transform to grab No. 1’s tag. The guy still had decent stamina and awareness. He’d act only once No. 1 relaxed.

Yan Jiyun was hiding between an old sofa and a little coffee table. From that spot, he could escape in three directions. If discovered, he could dash straight upstairs.

The rickety stairs wouldn’t trouble a cat his size. But No. 1 might hesitate.

No. 1 stood in the shadow beside the window, motionless, waiting for the cat to walk right into his trap. No stray cat would ignore fresh fish.

He’d seen an NPC holding the cat earlier, and he assumed the cat panicked and slipped away when the crowd surged.

This time, no matter what, he wanted to catch this black cat and earn points. The audience didn’t have his patience, so he had to speed things up.

Still, the game had just started. He had time.

When it came to patience, Yan Jiyun believed no one could beat him. But game time was limited. He’d need to strike eventually.

So he waited, waited for No. 1 to show a flaw, waited for him to lose patience with a simple black cat.

Following the rule “If the enemy doesn’t move, I won’t move,” Yan Jiyun remained silent. He could judge direction by sound alone. Even the slightest noise from No. 1 would reach his ears.

Time ticked by.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

No. 1 was losing patience. He kept checking his chat overlay, getting irritated, his feet shifting. The movements were small, but Yan Jiyun heard every bit of it.

After fifteen minutes, the cat still hadn’t gone for the fish. No. 1 grabbed a wooden chair and sat down.

Three minutes later, his eyes had adjusted. With the weak light leaking in from outside, he could make out most of the room.

He started walking around, searching room by room.

Yan Jiyun prepared his Human Form Time Card. No. 1 was impatient, agitated, rummaging more roughly each minute.

The number tag was stuck to the upper right arm. He had to be positioned on the guy’s right side to snatch it quickly.

But he still remained cautious. He didn’t know if touching the tag was enough to steal it, or if he had to tear it clean off. If he failed on the first try, his cover would be blown, and his two NPCs weren’t here to help.

The tag was square-shaped and stuck tightly to the right arm no matter what a player wore. That made removing it quickly tricky.

Yan Jiyun checked his prop inventory. He had some common props, but nothing that could freeze someone in place. He’d have to rely on terrain.

No. 1 walked out of one of the rooms.

Yan Jiyun quietly moved under a chair near the doorway, testing whether he could reach the tag quickly from there.

He had to try.

If he failed, he could always run back to the inn.

No. 1, having found nothing in the two downstairs rooms, decided to check the kitchen next. Yan Jiyun slipped behind him, diving behind a wine cabinet beside the kitchen door. It was a perfect hiding spot.

No. 1 started feeling it was odd. The chat audience hadn’t given him any hints about the cat’s location. Weren’t they supposed to be into cats? Why weren’t they telling him where it went? It was just an NPC.

Lost in relaxed thought, he walked casually out of the kitchen. But the moment he stepped through the doorway, something brushed the tag on his right arm. Before he could even lift his hand, he heard the sound of the tag ripping off.

The next second, the system broadcast the first elimination announcement in the full-zone scenario.

[Team F Player No. 29 successfully stole Team C Player No. 1’s number tag. Team C Player No. 1 is  eliminated.]

[Congratulations to Team F Player 29 for eliminating one player. The player receives 2,000 points, the team receives 1,000 points.]