DSMC Chapter 77.1

[Mission Details: Uncle Man believes his job has been taken by a newly appointed zookeeper, that his status in the zoo is no longer secure, and wants the new zookeeper to die in the jaws of the tigers. Please escape the tiger zone as soon as possible. If caught by Uncle Man or bitten to death by the tigers, you will be eliminated immediately.]

Yan Jiyun realized that in this instance, what was dangerous wasn’t only the animals, but also the NPCs.

Now he understood why, when a zookeeper appeared, the black panther would take him and hide. It’s because the zookeepers did not have good intentions at all. They could have malicious intent toward the animals, or toward the players.

At this moment, after the task was triggered, the environment around him changed. More precisely, the environment itself hadn’t changed; it was just that the surrounding visitor noises and some of the tigers were isolated.

Yan Jiyun took a few steps back. He had thought Uncle Man was just a relatively low-key NPC. He hadn’t expected him to have such an important role in the instance. No wonder only he had the qualifications to bring in newcomers, while the other zookeepers could only mutter a few sour complaints.

The reason for Uncle Man’s anger was very clear: Yan Jiyun could amuse the tigers, almost completely drawing their attention away, to the point that no tigers were willing to listen to Uncle Man’s commands. He remembered Uncle Man saying that he had been at the zoo for a very long time. Judging from his age, he should be a veteran employee here.

Yan Jiyun guessed that Uncle Man might have treated the zoo as his home and the tigers as his private property, and Yan Jiyun’s appearance had crossed Uncle Man’s bottom line.

After the side mission appeared, even the Bengal white tiger player was gone. Now only the four tigers that had inhaled the white powder and Uncle Man, who was covering his mouth and nose, were left.

This was a space exclusively for Yan Jiyun to complete the side mission!

Uncle Man casually pulled an electric baton out of his pocket.

“Young man, if you want to blame someone, blame your bad luck. The tiger zone has always been under my management. They’re all my children. How could I possibly let them change owners? Only I can manage them, only I can feed them. Who do you think you are, playing with a cat teaser! Thinking yourself so clever? You dare compete with me?

Yan Jiyun didn’t say a word and just ran. He didn’t care who he was supposed to be. This NPC’s thinking was abnormal!

There was nothing wrong with treating the tigers as his children, but wanting the tigers to kill other zookeepers was wrong.

“The children I raised don’t cling to me, but cling to you instead. I’m not willing to accept that. They should belong to me!”

“Kids, rush up and bite him to death. Daddy will keep feeding you lots of delicious meat afterward. Ah… no, we’re starting the meal right now.”

After finishing his inner monologue, Uncle Man ran toward Yan Jiyun, who had already darted into the woods.

“Go after him! Catch that person and I’ll give you extra food!”

The tiger zone, like the leopard zone, had its surroundings arranged to imitate a wilderness environment, with very rich enrichment facilities.

Yan Jiyun ran forward for his life. Tigers weren’t as fast as leopards, but their endurance was better. Whether he was in human form or cat form, it was impossible for him to outrun tigers.

At Uncle Man’s command, the four tigers under his control ran toward Yan Jiyun’s direction. Uncle Man followed behind them. Being older, he didn’t run very fast.

At this point, Yan Jiyun could only choose to run. Climbing a tree wasn’t realistic. Tigers could climb trees too, even trees that are twenty meters tall. What’s more, those tigers were being controlled by Uncle Man, so they would definitely be even better at climbing than usual.

How could he shake off their pursuit?

Ten minutes sounded short, but tigers weren’t humans, and there was also a despicable human chasing behind them.

If the tigers bit him to death, his game journey would end immediately. If Uncle Man caught him, the result would be the same. The other party even had an electric baton, just a few more strikes to his head and he’d be done, unable to even leave the instance!

Run! He had to run! Even if his legs broke, he had to keep running!

Yan Jiyun felt the footsteps behind him becoming denser, the tigers getting closer and closer.

Was there any place he could hide? Just one hole big enough to hide a small cat.

While fleeing for his life, he quickly scanned his surroundings for any place he could hide.

No, no, none at all!

Nothing but trees and enrichment facilities, with balls hanging everywhere. These were all toys prepared for the tigers.

Where were the caves? Why were there no caves?

The facilities in the leopard zone were more suitable for small-bodied felines like them. At critical moments, they could hide, but here in the tiger area there wasn’t even a simulated cave.

What should he do?

Not to mention a cave, he couldn’t even find a burrow. He only saw a ditch filled with water, and further ahead was a fence, probably used to prevent tigers from running into neighboring areas.

Wasn’t the neighboring area the leopard zone?

If he jumped into the leopard zone, wouldn’t he be safe?

Not necessarily. He had just offended the black panther. Would running over there just mean serving himself up to other leopards?

Yan Jiyun truly experienced the situation of a leopard ahead and tigers behind—no matter where he ran, it was a dead end.

The fence was very high. Yan Jiyun wasn’t sure whether he could get down after climbing up. If he couldn’t get down, that was still death.

When he was still in cat form, the system had warned him that he couldn’t cross zones. That is, he couldn’t change posts, or there would be corresponding punishments.

There were many trees, but none were very tall, and they couldn’t provide concealment. If he turned into a cat, the tigers could still track him by scent.

Too hard!

This instance was really too hard!

The current situation was that no matter whether he was human or turned into a cat, he no longer had the advantage he had in the beginner instance.

The other players had successfully turned into animals in the zoo. Only he was still a cat, and even his original Human Form Time Card had turned into a “cat” form.

Right now, he could directly switch to cat form.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t think about that much anymore. He realized that his stamina was actually very limited. If he kept running, he would really start panting heavily. Human form was actually just a system illusion, his internal structure was still that of a cat, and cats didn’t have sweat glands. If he kept running, he would die from overheating due to the inability to dissipate heat.

He felt like he was about to give out. Just as he was about to be caught by the tigers chasing from behind, he finally saw an artificial rockery!

Uncle Man must have used the tigers before to get rid of zookeepers who posed a threat to him. He followed behind with full confidence and didn’t catch up.

Yan Jiyun wasn’t afraid of the tigers seeing his true form, but being seen by Uncle Man was not an option. Taking advantage of the fact that Uncle Man hadn’t arrived yet, he immediately used the time card. As he approached the rockery, he directly turned into a cat and drilled inside!

The four tigers had been just a hair’s breadth away from pouncing on Yan Jiyun. However, at the moment they leaped, the human disappeared. Due to inertia, they crashed one after another into the rockery. Yan Jiyun could hear the heavy bodies colliding with stone with loud bangs. Just listening made it feel like those controlled tigers would be in quite some pain.

However, felines had strong pain tolerance. Just a collision like that wouldn’t injure them.

Their bodies were too large; they simply couldn’t squeeze into the rockery to continue the pursuit.

Soon after, the tigers realized the human scent had changed. The human was gone.

The rockery was probably built by the zoo for the tigers to view scenery. There was a platform on top, but no passage left underneath for tigers to pass through. Only small tigers could get through. After turning back into a cat, Yan Jiyun could slip right in.

However, his crisis wasn’t over. The tigers knew he had turned into a cat and crawled inside. Uncle Man didn’t know, but that didn’t mean Uncle Man wouldn’t come in and drive him out. A person who could kill humans would also kill a cat.

Yan Jiyun was panting heavily from exhaustion, his chest rising and falling. Uncle Man’s footsteps were approaching. He was still caught in a dilemma.

Uncle Man used some unknown white powder to control the tigers. How long did the control last? If the powder’s effect wore off, would the tigers continue to follow Uncle Man’s commands?

But how could the control effect on the tigers be removed?

Before he ran, he had seen the changes in the controlled tigers. He didn’t know the principle behind the control. Their eyes suddenly turned red, and their temperaments became extremely violent, like a bull seeing a red cloth.

In the real world, people could see “things” if they ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, but they wouldn’t be controlled. The second instance he had entered was about researching “Field Poppy,” making people experience hallucinations and become obsessed with them, but it didn’t reach the level of being able to control people.

What exactly was the powder Uncle Man used made from?

He could understand certain poisons making tigers irritable, but control would be more difficult. Perhaps it was related to Uncle Man frequently staying with the tigers — that is, training them. Drugging the tigers and then training them to understand the zookeeper’s commands wasn’t impossible, and that was the most reasonable explanation, just like animal performances, using conditioned reflex training.

Yan Jiyun found a particularly small crevice inside the rockery and squeezed into it. After getting inside, he discovered the space was quite spacious, enough to hide three cats of his size. As long as he didn’t make eye contact with the people outside, he wouldn’t be discovered.

But the danger was still not over. The four tigers outside kept staring at him, continuing to circle around the rockery.

He listened carefully to their movements. Their footsteps didn’t seem as restless as before.

However, Uncle Man had already walked to the vicinity of the rockery.

His tone was still filled with viciousness. “Where’s Jiang You? Where is he? Why aren’t you continuing to chase him?”

The tigers continued circling the rockery. They couldn’t speak, and could only use their actions to tell Uncle Man that the person he was looking for was inside this rockery.

Uncle Man understood what they meant. “He’s inside the rockery?” Then he immediately denied it. “Impossible. I watched this rockery being installed back then. A person simply can’t crawl into it.”

He swung a thick, long whip and lashed it against the rockery, stone fragments scattering all over the ground. He shouted harshly, “Go find him! If you can’t find him, I’ll skin you tonight and use your hides as foot mats!”

Who would have thought Uncle Man was set up like this? At first he seemed like an honest middle-aged man, but inside he hid so much brutality.

What Yan Jiyun could be even more certain of was that once Uncle Man caught him, he would definitely kill him. There would be no other way out.