DSMC Chapter 54.2

Maybe the information he saw wasn’t the latest.

Yan Jiyun felt that appearing together with two NPCs in front of players was too conspicuous, likely exposing his identity.

So while Tang Shi was pushing the door and not holding him tightly, he slipped out of his arms and jumped to the floor.

Tang Shi quietly called, “Oreo, where are you going?”

Yan Jiyun stuck half his body out from under the table so the two could see he had crawled under it.

Liang Yu said, “He might be unfamiliar with this place and wants to hide. Oreo is smart, so he won’t run off. Just now at Uncle Ming’s place he only bumped into a box. Once we find the number tag, he’ll definitely follow us. Didn’t you notice he already sees us as his owners? He’s been super obedient the whole time.”

Yan Jiyun: …

Can this NPC see things straight? He is THE master in this relationship! 

He just couldn’t openly appear in this scene right now. The players inside were surely frightened by all the commotion those young people had caused and were hiding.

Their team’s Qiu Xi was also here somewhere, and Yan Jiyun had no idea where he was hiding.

If he stayed here alone, he wouldn’t be able to escape. There was no vehicle to get back to town and walking along the road would make him an easy target. Qiu Xi was smart, so he wouldn’t attempt something he couldn’t finish.

Yan Jiyun heard the young people had climbed from the back door up to the second floor and were exploring inside.

Tang Shi and Liang Yu came in openly. After entering the castle’s main house, they turned on the lights.

Yan Jiyun: …

Never expected them to think like normal humans. Only players and a bunch of chuuni NPCs would wander around without turning on lights

But turning the lights on meant he lost part of his camouflage.

Tang Shi asked, “Is it okay if we turn on the lights? Will this attract the manager?”

Liang Yu nodded, even offering a terrible idea: “Then we should turn them off. I think we can hide and scare those people, then take the backpack while they’re startled.”

Tang Shi was still a young man; Liang Yu’s suggestion instantly awakened his mischievous side. “Makes sense. Scare them so they won’t dare come again. Should we hide now?”

Liang Yu nodded. “Turn off the lights first. Otherwise they’ll see us and we can’t scare them.”

Tang Shi immediately switched off the lights. “Agree.” 

Yan Jiyun hid under the table, thoughtfully wiping his face with his forearm. It felt like Liang Yu could sense exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t even need to project thoughts at him, while Tang Shi still needed mental transmission.

Why did actively sending thoughts to Liang Yu only give himself a headache, but without doing anything Liang Yu could understand him perfectly? The system once said their bond level wasn’t high enough and constantly nagged him to give Liang Yu gifts. But he hadn’t given him anything!

Could the effect be from the earlier gift, the “Book of Magical Mind Reading”? 

He’d have to buy Liang Yu more gifts later, keep raising their bond, and try out different gift effects.

After turning off the lights, Tang Shi and Liang Yu went to pull the circuit breaker, then headed upstairs with practiced familiarity. They could already hear the noisy voices of the young “ghost busters.”

Yan Jiyun quietly followed the two. They were going to look for the number tag, so he’d go look for Qiu Xi and first use a five-minute Human Form Time Card to explain Gu Wenzhu’s situation to him.

He still hadn’t found Qiu Xi when he heard voices coming from a room on the second floor — players discussing something big. In their conversation he caught words like “Team F,” “No.  29,” and “plan.”

He gave up searching for Qiu Xi and followed the voices instead. They were in the art studio on the second floor.

The studio door wasn’t fully closed. Yan Jiyun quietly pushed it open a crack. The slight creak was dismissed by the players — who were in the middle of a heated discussion — as nothing more than the wind.

Only after they resumed talking did Yan Jiyun slip inside. From the voices alone he could pinpoint exactly where each person was standing.

A cat’s paw pads were perfect for moving silently. His black fur blended seamlessly into the dark. Only his eyes risked giving him away if they reflected light, but since the studio was pitch-black, the players didn’t notice him sneaking in moments later.

They continued discussing their plan.

Someone from an unknown team asked, “How much do you know about Number 29? I remember your Team B fought them for a whole hour before coming out. Must’ve been a fierce match.”

Team B Player No. 4’s voice trembled. “Technically yes, but… we still lost in the end.”

Although he was the last one eliminated, the experience had been miserable. It was like handing themselves over for free — not even a single common prop gained!

Player No. 10 from Team B didn’t dare speak. He had been the first one eliminated by Number 29 in that match and had the least right to say anything!

They had asked No. 4 how he managed to hide for a whole hour without being found, but No. 4 always dodged the question. After leaving the castle scene he looked utterly miserable, like he’d been mentally tortured by No. 29. He was probably the most pitiful person in their group.

The players discussing their plan sat in different spots around the room. This was to prevent surprise attacks on their number tags. Because even though no one had been eliminated in the castle yet, none of them were from the same group, so they couldn’t relax.

They were only sitting together now because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

And none of the six players realized that the “target” they wanted to eliminate was currently crouched right under their noses, listening openly to their grand and touching strategy.

Yan Jiyun was indeed curious about what they planned to do to him. He hid behind a pile of boxes containing plastic mannequins.

Siyun Castle was open for tours, but visitors had to first buy a Rose Garden ticket and then purchase an additional ticket to enter the castle.

The interior remained exactly the same as when the Siyun couple left; nothing had been moved. So the plastic human figures in the studio were positioned in their original arrangement.

Team B Player No. 4 didn’t have much interaction with Team F and still hadn’t proposed a workable strategy even after talking for a long time.

Other groups began offering their own ideas.

Someone mentioned a key point: “Do you even know where No. 29 is right now?”

Everyone: “……”

Even players within the same area didn’t necessarily know who else was present.

A player said, “It was completely quiet here when No. 29 eliminated Player No. 1. Not a sound. There are six of us gathered here, so No. 29 is definitely not in this area.”

No. 29, currently hiding behind a mannequin: “……”

Player No. 4 said, “If we can’t find him here, then he must be in another area. In that case, we can switch areas to search.”

The other players fell silent. Blindly switching areas wasn’t a good idea. Other areas had players too. Who knew if they might be lying in ambush?

Each group had a team chat channel, but they couldn’t use it. They could only find teammates if they happened to be in the same area. In another area, they couldn’t know if their groupmates also wanted to eliminate No. 29. Leaving their familiar area could easily lead to being targeted by another group.

So when No. 4 made the suggestion, opinions instantly split.

A player said, “I think there’s no need to switch areas. We stay here in the castle. If No. 29 comes, we gang up and take him out.”

In the end, the majority wins.

Yan Jiyun listened as they continued discussing how to ambush him. But they were just a band of misfits, hardly capable of actual teamwork. Who knew if one of them might suddenly stab the others in the back?

He had an idea. If the system wanted to play with human psychology, he could use that same psychology to make their plan fall apart.

Just then, the young NPCs outside suddenly began screaming and running chaotically, shouting that there was a ghost in the castle.

Yan Jiyun immediately knew it was Tang Shi and Liang Yu’s doing. As expected of the two NPCs he picked. Say one word about scaring people and they instantly scared them half to death.

The NPCs were running everywhere looking for hiding places. Two of them — one man, one woman — panicked and barged straight into the studio without checking inside.

“Holy shit, th-there really is a ghost! Hurry, find somewhere to hide!”

“Who the hell said earlier there were no ghosts?”

“How was I supposed to know we’d actually run into something?!”

“Shut up and hide! I swear I saw something over two meters tall!”

Yan Jiyun could already guess how Tang Shi and Liang Yu scared them, probably using shadows, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder at a corner to look like a tall creature.

Excellent.

The players were terrified.

Yan Jiyun heard the two Team B players whisper to each other.

No. 10: “No one said there’d be ghosts in the castle…”

No. 4: “I don’t know. Castles usually come with supernatural stories, right? Maybe there are ghosts. Maybe they only appear after midnight. Those NPCs must be here to explore. People like that always run into ghosts.”

No. 10: “Maybe we should switch areas… I’m actually scared of ghosts. Actually no—I’ve never even seen one before!”

No. 4: “Neither have I. You think I don’t hide under my blanket watching horror movies?”

No. 10: “……”

The players all hid in different spots. Six people occupied four hiding areas, each crouching behind a table or object.

The two NPCs were trembling.

The female NPC suddenly said, “See if you can turn on the light. Ghosts only appear in the dark.”

Male NPC: “Babe, you’re so smart.”

Female NPC: “Cut the crap. Find the switch.”

The switch was right next to the male NPC’s hand. The hiding players nearly jumped.

Holy shit. If they turned on the lights, they’d all be exposed!

The male NPC pressed the switch quickly— click.

Nothing happened.

The players froze, then realized the lights didn’t turn on.

After the last round, they had been conditioned to fear NPCs. They panicked before thinking.

But Yan Jiyun let out a sigh of relief. Tang Shi and Liang Yu had cut the power earlier.

The darkness worked perfectly in his favor. Praise again to Tang Shi and Liang Yu.

From his hiding spot, Yan Jiyun could see everyone. The players were spaced two or three meters apart. The two NPCs stood in place, prepared to run if the “ghost” attacked.

If “ghosts” could ambush, so could he. Since the players were crouching to hide from the NPCs, he didn’t even need to use a human-form card to rip their number tags.

The six players had no idea that behind them, a pair of eerie green eyes was fixed on their number tags, calculating which one could be ripped off quickest.

After studying the arrangement for a few seconds, Yan Jiyun silently crept toward the player closest to the door. His pawsteps were silent.

The target player, tense and focused on the panicked NPCs, didn’t notice the shadow approaching his number tag.

Closer… closer…

The shadow raised a paw, sharp claws glinting faintly, ready to hook under the lifted edge of the player’s number tag.