DSMC Chapter 75.1

What does the requirement of “not afraid of death” even mean?

Is being a zookeeper really that dangerous?

Under normal zoo hiring requirements, it should be liking animals, being hardworking, and following the park’s work arrangements, right?

How could a zoo write a job requirement like this?

Is this implying that the animals in the zoo are all not to be messed with?

At the entrance, Yan Jiyun saw the zoo map and learned the layout of the zoo. Aside from the tiger zone, the leopard zone, and the venomous reptile zone — which could be considered relatively fierce — most of the other large animals were fairly gentle, not to mention the small animals, which posed little threat to humans¹T/N: uh… big herbivores are not to be messed with actually! Large carnivores only pounce on you if they’re very hungry (and judged that hunting you is worth the energy cost because hunting is very exhausting) or you are actively a threat to their life. Big herbivores… hunt you for fun 🙂 lol not really, but they do not have such energy cost so they have lower threshold of judging on what constitutes being “a threat”. The most famous example is a hippopotamus..

That meant the system still had hidden rules that hadn’t been disclosed, requiring players to search them out on their own.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Yan Jiyun tidied his clothes. After turning human today, he had obtained a set of gray workwear, very similar in style to what the zookeepers wore.

The Human Form Time Card always adapted to local conditions; wherever he transformed, it gave him clothing similar to nearby NPCs. Truly lazy to an astonishing degree.

Following the directions, Yan Jiyun headed up to the second floor of the administrative building.

As soon as he reached the second floor, he ran into several NPCs competing for job positions.

One interviewee seemed particularly excited. He took a phone call, unable to suppress his joy. It seemed he had received an offer from a company he liked, and he was so happy that he didn’t even plan to continue with the remaining interviews, turning to leave right away.

Yan Jiyun deliberately bumped into the other person’s right shoulder. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to.” He immediately helped pick up the résumé.

The NPC happened to finish the call and took back the résumé Yan Jiyun handed him. “Oh, it’s fine.”

After the NPC left, Yan Jiyun took out the résumé he had just hidden behind his back, acquiring it effortlessly.

These NPCs seemed to be arranged in advance. He guessed another batch of interview NPCs would come tomorrow.

Yan Jiyun knew very well this could be a trap set by the game, but he had no choice except to jump in.

Facing the glass window, he adjusted his clothes to make himself look more energetic.

An NPC walked out of the office, and someone inside called, “Next.”

Yan Jiyun quickly skimmed through the résumé in his hand, memorizing the main points so he could respond to anything.

The interviewer was a middle-aged man who looked fairly amiable.

Yan Jiyun handed over the résumé. The interviewer examined it carefully and didn’t even need Yan Jiyun to introduce himself before going straight to the questions.

The interviewer asked, “I’ve looked at your résumé. It fits our hiring requirements very well. May I ask if you’ve read our recruitment requirements?”

Yan Jiyun, now playing the role of an applicant, remained fairly calm. “I’ve read them.”

The interviewer nodded. “Alright. To be a keeper at our zoo, you need to be bold yet careful. Most importantly, you must not be afraid of death. We deal with all kinds of animals. They’re not as easy to communicate with as humans.”

Yan Jiyun emphasized, “I’m fine with that.”

Interviewer: “Very good. Can you start work today? We have a five-day trial period. New hires may be rotated between positions, and your pay will be calculated based on the trial-period daily wage.”

Yan Jiyun: “No problem. I can start anytime.”

The interviewer set the résumé down. “You can go report to Human Resources. At 9 AM later, you’ll start following our zookeepers to familiarize yourself with the position.”

Yan Jiyun: “…”

This interview was way too smooth; it was definitely arranged by the system.

Wasn’t this deliberately luring people into a pit? This zookeeper job might be no different from a suicide mission, but for the sake of finding clues, he had no other choice.

Still, when reporting to HR, he could also swing by the accounting office to check the zoo’s books.

Hopefully this move wasn’t the wrong move.

After Yan Jiyun finished reporting to Human Resources, the system refreshed the popularity leaderboard again.

He had originally been ranked first, but during this period he hadn’t been grinding popularity, and his rank had been squeezed down to 35th. 

The recruitment process was simple and fast, and Yan Jiyun was immediately able to begin his work. 

For now, he hadn’t been assigned to any specific exhibit. According to their explanation, there was a five-day trial period first. This number happened to correspond exactly to the instance duration.

Clearly, the game allowed players to impersonate zookeepers. It was just unclear what dangers might be involved. The advantage was that he could use this opportunity to identify players disguised as animals.

Next to the HR department was the finance office. The door was ajar and unlocked. Inside were four desks. Some desks had teacups on them, and one cup of tea was still steaming, indicating someone had been there just moments ago, but now there was no one inside.

No one around made things easier.

Yan Jiyun slipped in but didn’t lock the finance office door. If anyone came, he’d be able to hear it and prepare in advance, so there was no need to worry for the moment.

The items on the accountant’s desk and the cashier’s desk were different. The cashier only handled cash flow and reimbursements, with various reimbursement forms laid out. The accountant’s work was more complex, filled with all kinds of tax documents.

He accurately located the accountant’s desk and turned on the computer. It was password-protected.

He searched around the desk calendar and saw a string of numbers. Yan Jiyun tried entering the numbers into the password field.

It actually unlocked successfully.

Simple, like playing an offline basic escape room game.

Perhaps this was just another trap. The game wouldn’t possibly let players uncover the truth so quickly.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

Yan Jiyun quickly accessed the accountant’s desktop. All the folders were on the desktop, with all work files visible at a glance.

The folders were divided into tax filings, expense budgets, salary statistics, ticket sales statistics, and so on.

He first opened the “Expense Budget” folder. Inside was only a monthly budget table, tallying the entire zoo’s estimated expenses for the next month. Good heavens, the amount of meat consumed by the animals each day alone was no small sum, and that was only part of the expenses. There were also various maintenance costs and labor costs. Over a year, it would probably add up to several hundred million. Raising so many animals really wasn’t easy.

This was an expense budget that looked perfectly normal, nothing special about it.

Next was the ticket sales statistics. On weekdays, daily revenue was over 100k yuan, nearly covering the zoo’s daily operating costs. On weekends and holidays, it was even higher. Again, nothing unusual.

Next came the employee salary statistics.

Yan Jiyun originally thought there wouldn’t be anything special about the salaries, but when he saw the zookeeper salary column, he nearly froze.

The zookeepers’ salaries were actually this high?

He had been in a hurry earlier to secure the zookeeper identity and hadn’t asked about salary, but now that he looked at it, it was even higher than that of the veterinarians.

In the real world, a zookeeper’s salary shouldn’t exceed five figures, yet here the zookeepers’ pay was extraordinarily high. Was it because the job was dangerous, or for some other reason?

This was information worth noting.

Yan Jiyun continued searching but found no other abnormal information. The zoo’s income and expenditures were normal, so that meant the zoo wasn’t facing an economic crisis?

He had just closed one document when he heard someone walking toward this place from outside.

Yan Jiyun immediately put on a very harmless look and pretended to be waiting by the door.

The person who arrived was a middle-aged man wearing a white lab coat. In a zoo, those who wore white lab coats were either researchers or veterinarians.

Appearing here at this time felt a bit off, didn’t it?

Yan Jiyun lowered his head, putting on a nervous and uneasy expression, and deliberately revealed the newly obtained work badge. After seeing his badge, the other party subtly relaxed his tense shoulders.

Yan Jiyun wasn’t sure whether this person was a player or an NPC that would trigger a mission, but it was clear from his face that his expression wasn’t quite right.

The other party seemed to want to extract some information from him, but just then several people came out from next door and asked what was going on. Yan Jiyun said he was a new employee here to get a salary card; finance said the previous batch of new employees’ salary cards hadn’t been processed yet and couldn’t be issued for now. Yan Jiyun then found an excuse to leave.

As for the man in the white lab coat, Yan Jiyun chose to avoid him for the time being. Before confirming whether the other party was a player, it was best to minimize contact.

Yan Jiyun found the zookeepers’ office. The supervisor assigned him to an old employee and had that person show him the ropes.

The old employee looked at Yan Jiyun’s delicate skin and tender flesh and sighed. There didn’t seem to be much happiness on his face, nor did he seem enthusiastic. Yan Jiyun also heard other zookeepers, holding large water jugs while drinking tea, chatting quietly.

“How long do you think this newbie can last?”

“Place your bets, place your bets. I bet he won’t survive tonight.”

“I bet he can live three days.”

“I bet he’ll run away before clocking out without even taking his pay. Being a zookeeper is exhausting.”

“Heh, exhaustion is secondary. I think it’s fear of death.”

“If you’re afraid of death, how did you take this job? Why aren’t you dead?”

“I’m just tough like that.” 

Hearing his colleagues discussing how long he would live, completely indifferent to this newly hired rookie, even mocking him.

The NPC assigned to guide Yan Jiyun didn’t join the betting and instead said to him, “Change into your work clothes. I’ll take you out for a look around now. Today you’ll temporarily be responsible for work in the tiger zone with me. We’ll see how things go tomorrow and arrange other tasks then.”

Yan Jiyun: “Okay.”

He had just come from the direction of the tiger zone, and now he was heading back again.

This zookeeper didn’t look simple. Often, the low-key ones were the ones who handled big matters.

He said, “You can call me Uncle Man.”

Yan Jiyun now had his own work badge. His current name was “Jiang You,” the name on the résumé, which he was now borrowing.

As a newbie, Yan Jiyun felt it was necessary to ask when he didn’t understand something. “Uncle Man, why is this job particularly dangerous? I don’t quite understand.”

Uncle Man said, “Of course it’s dangerous. If you’re not familiar with the animals, they’ll display aggressive behavior toward you. One careless mistake and you could easily lose your life.”

Yan Jiyun wasn’t ashamed to ask questions. He wasn’t really Jiang You anyway and had no experience, so he might as well ask as much as he could. “Then what should I usually pay attention to?”

Uncle Man didn’t look enthusiastic, but at least he was willing to talk. “When you get to the tiger zone, don’t provoke their boss.”

Yan Jiyun: “How can I tell which one is the boss?”

Perhaps thinking Yan Jiyun talked too much, Uncle Man glanced at him and said, “You’ll know once we get there.”

Yan Jiyun chose to shut up before the other party became more impatient.

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  T/N: uh… big herbivores are not to be messed with actually! Large carnivores only pounce on you if they’re very hungry (and judged that hunting you is worth the energy cost because hunting is very exhausting) or you are actively a threat to their life. Big herbivores… hunt you for fun 🙂 lol not really, but they do not have such energy cost so they have lower threshold of judging on what constitutes being “a threat”. The most famous example is a hippopotamus.