DSMC Chapter 54.1

[Want to Be Human] livestream channel:

“Hahaha, I’m dying!! I just came back from the other team’s player stream, and the kitten single-handedly pissed off every player from the other groups.”

“No helping it, Mimi is too strong. Being too strong makes people jealous.”

“Baby, what are we gonna do now? Everyone’s got their eyes on you. It’s all your fault! You’re just too good.”

Yan Jiyun’s performance this round really had aggro maxed out. Of course, that’s under the premise that the other players don’t know he lost his number tag. If they knew, they’d probably cheer with joy, and everyone would enthusiastically “help” him search for it.

This secret must be kept tightly sealed.

Meanwhile, the very player about to be targeted by the others was being taken away by Tang Shi and Liang Yu because he’d knocked over Uncle Ming’s box.

He was pleased with the Revival Stone he collected and with a very useful piece of info: there were four or maybe ten Revival Stones in total. He guessed it was probably ten. With so few stones in play, teammates and high-level items were extremely precious.

As expected, the game would never let players enjoy “pie falling from the sky¹something good with no strings attached.”

After leaving Uncle Ming’s house, Yan Jiyun noticed that the direction toward Little Cloud Street’s busy area had streetlights, while the opposite way was pitch-black, except for a faint flicker of light in the darkness.

Liang Yu followed the black cat’s gaze. Standing on a flat-cut wooden stump, he said, “That should be Siyun Castle, right?”

Tang Shi: “Yeah. I delivered something there at night once. It felt pretty creepy, perfect for a horror film.”

As they were talking, several motorcycles sped past them, each carrying two or three people, both guys and girls.

The young people waved their hats, shouting “Wooooo!” loud enough to wake all the dogs nearby. They looked like some extremely punchable punks.

The motorcycles’ headlights cut sharply through the dim road, and Yan Jiyun squinted against the glare.

One of the young men shouted, “I don’t believe there are ghosts in Siyun Castle!”

“Hahaha, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“Who’s scared of who!”

Hot-blooded young men never admit defeat.

Liang Yu suddenly leaned toward Tang Shi and whispered, “Siyun Castle doesn’t really have ghosts, right? I heard black cats can see dirty things. He kept staring in that direction just now.”

Yan Jiyun: …

‘Thank you very much, Liang Yu!’

‘It’s the middle of the night, can you not say the word “ghost”? I’m more scared of ghost stories than you are!’

Tang Shi didn’t believe a word of it. “Trying to scare me? I grew up in Qingyun Town.”

Liang Yu deflated. He miscalculated.

Just then, as the last motorcycle — with one guy and one girl — passed in front of them, Tang Shi suddenly slapped Liang Yu. “Quick, let’s follow them!”

Liang Yu was confused. “Why would we follow them? They’re on bikes, we’re on legs, and we don’t even know where they’re going.”

Tang Shi sounded urgent. “I saw my backpack. That last girl was carrying it. The keychain hanging on it—that was a birthday gift from Chen Xiaoyu.”

It held memories for him, too.

Liang Yu curled his lip. “You’re saying that keychain was a gift from Chen Xiaoyu?”

Tang Shi: “What’s the problem?”

Liang Yu told him directly, “That keychain was a freebie I got when I bought something. Xiaoyu said she liked it and took it.”

Tang Shi’s excited expression froze. His face went pale as he stared at Liang Yu wordlessly. Before today he might not have believed him, but after hearing Chen Xiaoyu comments about him earlier, he knew Liang Yu wasn’t lying. He remembered when she gave him the keychain — she’d said she didn’t have much money but picked that one carefully because the doll on it resembled him.

How could that woman lie so well?

Liang Yu cleared his throat. “Forget it. Are you still chasing those young people? I think their bikes were headed toward the castle.”

Before Liang Yu could continue, Tang Shi took a long, deep breath. “Let’s go. Oreo’s tag is still in the bag, and my backpack is pretty important too.”

Liang Yu, unable to resist poking him again. “And the keychain isn’t important anymore?”

Tang Shi: “Get lost.”

Yan Jiyun: “…”

Tang Shi was really too miserably deceived by Chen Xiaoyu. In the real world he’s basically the ultimate backup guy²aka. “Spare wheel”!

Liang Yu changed the subject. “Do you know the people with them?”

Tang Shi: “Yeah. One of them was my high school classmate. His family is well-off. His dad owns a factory. He didn’t get into college, so after graduating he probably just stayed home waiting to inherit the business.”

Liang Yu: “So basically he’s just coasting. His dad must be doing pretty well to let his son start slacking right after high school.”

Tang Shi thought about Liang Yu’s own wealthy background, yet Liang Yu didn’t have that obnoxious nouveau-riche vibe his classmate had.

He said, “Pretty much. Let’s check if they’re going to damage anything inside the castle. If they do, I’ll call the police.”

That classmate had bullied him plenty in school.

Yan Jiyun: ‘As expected, Tang Shi’s character hasn’t collapsed. He’s still the model good youth.’

Though he also wanted to check out the castle, calling the police seemed unnecessary. In a game, calling the cops would just waste manpower.

But the young punks had motorcycles and they only had two legs. They could never catch up, and walking there would take forever, especially while carrying a twelve-pound cat.

Tang Shi went back to borrow Uncle Ming’s old bicycle and told Liang Yu, “Come on, hop on. Dage will take you for a ride.”

Liang Yu didn’t want to sit sidesaddle on the back. “How about I ride?”

Tang Shi: “You can ride a bike?”

Liang Yu offered confidently, “I can try.”

He grabbed the bike, long legs swinging over, feet on the pedals. And before he even got a full meter, the whole bike tilted sideways.

Liang Yu frowned tightly. Why was a bicycle nothing like a motorcycle?

Yan Jiyun: ‘…isn’t this the legendary “try and you die.”’

Tang Shi, who’d been holding a straight face, now laughed till his stomach hurt. “Hahaha! Young Master Liang, don’t tell me you actually don’t know how to ride a bicycle?”

Liang Yu gave up trying. He admitted it. He really couldn’t.

In the end, Liang Yu was still sitting on the back seat with his legs clamped, while Yan Jiyun got the bicycle’s black basket as his throne. He lifted half his body to enjoy the night breeze, his fur blending perfectly with the darkness, and his two big eyes becoming the brightest bulbs along the way.

If he could leave the dungeon and return to reality, he’d make his poop-shoveling officer take him on a bike ride too. This slow-paced cruising felt quite comfortable. With a little breeze blowing, it was so pleasant.

Probably only Liang Yu, sitting with clamped legs, felt socially dead.

Siyun Castle wasn’t too far from Xiaoyun Street. The road was paved the whole way and very smooth; they just had to go up a slope. Riding a bike took about ten minutes.

The castle was halfway up the mountain. Standing at the gate and looking down, they could see the lights of Qingyun Town. It was quite a good spot for night scenery.

Looking up from the street below, only faint lights could be seen, but once they reached the top, they found that all the roads around the castle had streetlights, and were very bright.

This was completely different from what he saw when playing the second round.

Back then, everything inside and outside the castle was in a state of decay, but now it was full of life. The contrast was huge.

In the first three games, each scene started in a ruined, abandoned state, like a place long forgotten.area

But ever since NPCs were introduced in the third round, the scenes seemed to come alive.

Could it be that time inside the scene had quietly changed before NPCs were added? The map they used should have been the appearance of Qingyun Town twenty years later, but once NPCs were added, it directly connected to the fourth round, and all players entered the version from twenty years ago.

There was a time discrepancy.

Yan Jiyun remembered that when he was in the Yunxiao Hotel scene, it looked gray and gloomy outside, yet an NPC said it was raining and that was why the cat ran into the hotel.

Before entering the full-area scene, they were separated from the outside by an invisible barrier. Once they entered the full-area scene, all players were transported to the version from twenty years ago.

Of course, this “twenty years ago” was his deduction after seeing Tang Shi and Liang Yu’s older-model phones.

Yan Jiyun was very puzzled. What had happened that turned a once lively and thriving Qingyun Town into a lifeless, deserted place? What exactly had occurred here?

Maybe he was overthinking; this wasn’t a plot exploration instance. 

The five motorcycles that carried around a dozen young people were all parked outside the castle. They hadn’t entered through the main gate, they probably climbed over a wall somewhere.

Yan Jiyun thought Tang Shi and Liang Yu would climb the wall too.

However, Tang Shi unexpectedly walked straight to the main gate, took off the chain hanging on it, and pushed the metal gate open.

Yan Jiyun: “…”

This castle’s security is very casual, huh?

He had seen the withered rose garden in the previous round, but now there wasn’t a trace of decay. Everywhere he looked was full of roses; even at night he could smell their sweet fragrance. No wonder so many people were attracted to come here.

The rose garden was large. They walked for quite a while to reach the main entrance of the castle’s main house, where there was another metal gate.

Last round he had entered through this gate too, but back then it was rusted and creaked when pushed.

The one before him now was brand new, the paint looking freshly applied.

Yan Jiyun certainly didn’t forget that there were players in the castle.

Now there was also an NPC here. Who knew what would happen.

Qiu Xi exchanged for a character called Butler Cao, right?

But now the problem was: the castle had no owner anymore, so how could there be a butler?

Yan Jiyun remembered that the castle was inherited by the original owner’s nephew, but the nephew didn’t live here. Why would he hire a butler?

Wouldn’t that conflict with having the village chief help manage the place?

• 1
  something good with no strings attached
• 2
  aka. “Spare wheel”