DSMC Chapter 80.1

[Animal Level Description]

[Ordinary Popular Animal]

Unlock condition: Popularity value 30,000

[Additional notes: Each player will unlock different levels upon reaching certain popularity thresholds; players’ popularity ranking will affect the total score of the final instance; the top three players will receive corresponding zoo advertising slots for promotion. Please work hard, everyone.]

[Want to be Human] Livestream channel:

“First time hearing that the zoo instance even has animal levels.”

“Same here. Kitty Baby is amazing!”

“Buying into the cat cub stocks wasn’t a loss! Looks like all the spoilers earlier are basically useless now.”

“Honestly, I’m still a bit concerned about what someone mentioned earlier about Xixi dying. What exactly happens that leads to its death?”

“Does anyone know about animal levels? Other players also completed side quests, so why did nothing happen for them, but when the kitty makes a move it’s instantly different?”

“Because the Kitty Baby is basically playing on a completely different level from the other players. Other players approach tasks from the animals’ perspective, doing tasks related to animals within the same zone, but Kitty Baby’s tasks are all related to humans, so naturally it’s different. Plus, he completes tasks much faster than others. He basically clears his entire route in one go, so the system directly recognizes that route. Honestly speaking, the way the Kitty Baby cub plays has directly raised the instance’s difficulty by one level.”

“Hahaha, I want to know what animal levels actually are!”

Yan Jiyun discovered that, aside from animal levels, several new entries had been added to his character information.

[Player: Yan Jiyun]

[Assigned Species: Black Panther]

[Animal Level: Beginner Popular Animal]

[Habitat Zone: Leopard Zone]

[Portrayed Role: Jiang You]

[Position: Zookeeper]

[Staff Level: Senior Zookeeper]

[Unlocked Animal Types for Care: Tigers, Leopards, Aviary Birds]

Senior zookeeper?

He had been promoted in just half a day?

This time, aside from changes to animal level and staff level, the system also released level-related information.

Yan Jiyun guessed that the one who triggered the player level unlock might actually be him.

He would study it later. Right now, he first had to deal with the birds filling the sky.

Xixi hopped proudly back and forth on Yan Jiyun’s shoulder.

The three human traffickers were escorted back in handcuffs by the two officers who hadn’t yet left the zoo. The little boy who had also been splattered with sludge found his parents as well. This time, Yan Jiyun had made a name for himself. Someone remembered that he was a zookeeper from the tiger zone.

The visitors were also extremely gossipy, surrounding the hero in tight circles.

Yan Jiyun wanted to leave, but Xixi clearly loved being filmed by phones, constantly changing poses and striking stances on his shoulder. If it were a peacock, it would have already fanned its tail several times by now.

So strange… after he finished tasks before, the NPCs always acted indifferent, as if nothing had happened at all. Why was there follow-up this time, even interviews?

A visitor acting as a reporter asked Yan Jiyun, “When did you realize those three people were human traffickers?”

Yan Jiyun organized his words, explaining it in a way that wouldn’t sound abrupt. As long as he spoke from the perspective of a zookeeper, it was easy to justify.

“It was like this— I took Xixi out for a physical exam today. At first I didn’t think much of it. Later, Xixi wanted to play a bit longer, so I kept taking it around, which delayed us a little. After letting it out, I was preparing to take it back, and on the return trip I ran into three strange people carrying a child. I felt something was off, so I tried to keep them there. Actually, Xixi was the biggest contributor this time. Without it drawing attention by bringing in all the birds, I wouldn’t have been able to handle the three of them by myself. After all, they’re all burly men. I’m just a very weak person. It was all thanks to the birds and the visitors.”

The visitors compared the three tall, sturdy traffickers with the relatively slim Yan Jiyun and felt that what he said made sense.

His explanation greatly satisfied the onlookers. He didn’t claim credit but instead gave all the credit to Xixi the macaw and the visitors, so everyone left contentedly.

After that, he said to Xixi, “Call all your brothers and sisters back.”

This huge flock of birds was not only noisy, but also pooping everywhere as they flew. If he didn’t call them back soon, visitors would start filing complaints against him as a zookeeper.

Still, it was the first time the visitors had seen hundreds of birds flying around with parrots chattering away, which amused them greatly.

After flying around the flock once, Xixi made them all go back. Any bird that didn’t want to return got kicked by it. Xixi was ferocious as hell. Fortunately, this fierce macaw was afraid of cats.

Maybe it was the legendary case of one thing restraining another?

After being used by Xixi, the birds were chased back to their own areas, and many zookeepers responsible for those zones were nearly furious.

They hadn’t expected a single macaw to become a tyrant in the zoo.

To avoid drawing hatred from the aviary keepers, Yan Jiyun decided to send Xixi back to its exhibit.

The two hurried along and finally entered the parrot exhibit. This time, nothing else happened on the way.

As everyone knows, parrots are known as kings of destruction, and among parrots, Xixi was the king of kings. When the keepers responsible for this exhibit saw that Yan Jiyun had brought it back, they all let out a sigh of relief.

One female zookeeper said, “Where did Xixi go wreak havoc this time?”

Another male zookeeper asked, “Didn’t Xixi go to Dr. Peng for a checkup?”

Neither of the two keepers paid much attention to Yan Jiyun. After taking Xixi, they brought it into the exhibit and let it stay with its companions.

Yan Jiyun said to it, “Come find me to play again when you have time, Xixi.”

Xixi said, “Bye-bye!” It seemed tired from playing. After saying goodbye to Yan Jiyun, it stood on the perch and started dozing off.

Such a cute little thing. After he turned back into a human, he would definitely raise a parrot. It seemed pretty fun.

But the zookeepers here didn’t seem to have much of a good impression of Yan Jiyun. He didn’t stay long before leaving and didn’t even have time to look for whether there were any parrots that were actually players.

As a player, there was no need to get on good terms with zookeepers. Otherwise, it was easy for them to spot inconsistencies. When that happened, he wouldn’t even know how he died.

While Yan Jiyun was musing, players in all the exhibits were itching to curse the player who had triggered the animal levels.

They had been steadily accumulating popularity points just fine, and then suddenly a level system appeared. It’s fine if it appeared. But originally it wasn’t tied to instance points, and now it even took up a portion of the weighting.

Everyone began to panic. One player who had turned into a macaw was so anxious that it started shedding feathers.

While the other players were panicking and unable to move around freely, Yan Jiyun received another task from his supervisor over the walkie-talkie.

Although he was a senior zookeeper, he was still a newbie here. It seemed to have nothing to do with his staff level. He was still the one being managed.

“Jiang You, come to my office after lunch.”

The supervisor’s tone sounded fairly calm.

Yan Jiyun wondered whether he should go or not.

The tone didn’t sound like trouble.

But he was starving. Even if the sky fell, it couldn’t stop him from eating lunch first!

Since an NPC had prompted him to eat, there was naturally a staff cafeteria. Yan Jiyun had already memorized the cafeteria’s location while studying the map.

The staff cafeteria was near the east gate, close to the amusement park, monkey mountain, and the elephant and fox zones.

Yan Jiyun rode the small electric scooter toward the cafeteria.

He knew there were many things he couldn’t eat, but rice, fish, and shrimp were fine, as long as they weren’t too salty.

The amusement park was lively, with children and parents running around everywhere. Rides like the carousel, Ferris wheel, and little train were all designed specifically for kids. Yan Jiyun had no interest in them.

The staff cafeteria was only dozens of meters away from the amusement park, housed in a separate building. Staff had their own dining area, and visitors could also eat there if they were hungry, just not at staff prices.

Yan Jiyun was visiting for the first time. When he saw staff in uniform, he followed along. However others served their food, he did the same.

The staff cafeteria food was quite plentiful: braised pork, preserved-vegetable pork belly, steamed pork with rice flour, roast chicken, roast duck, and so on.

In the end, amid the abundant food, Yan Jiyun chose steamed sea bass and boiled shrimp, with a bit of rice.

He was good-looking, and a female zookeeper boldly sat down across from him and even took the initiative to chat.

“You’re eating so little.. Will you be full?”

Yan Jiyun deliberately stared at the glistening braised pork on her plate and said, “I used to be a 90 kg fat guy. The doctor said I can’t eat casually.”

The young woman didn’t seem to catch the implication in his words and instead sighed, “That’s so pitiful. But now that you’ve slimmed down, could you share some weight-loss tips?”

Yan Jiyun felt that there was something odd about her scent. There wasn’t the slightest interest in weight loss visible in her eyes. He continued deliberately, “The secret is calorie deficit and working out. Do that both and you’ll naturally lose weight¹this is correct, but suuuuuper simplified, especially if you are born female… The hormones could seriously make it so much harder.. But I’m different from you. When I started out, I had half my stomach cut out before I slimmed down. I used to really love braised pork, and I could eat a huge basin in one go. Anyway, I just kept eating until I couldn’t even move my legs and could only lie in bed. Now I can’t eat it anymore, sigh~”

The young woman immediately felt that the braised pork on her plate was no longer appetizing. She forced a smile and moved her chopsticks toward the tofu.

Yan Jiyun didn’t know what this NPC’s purpose was, so he noted her down for the time being.

After enjoying a satisfying lunch, he had no choice but to face the leader’s summons.

From the voice, he could tell that the leader should be the person who had recruited him.

Yan Jiyun rode his little electric scooter back to the administrative office again and found the leader drinking tea. He was still sitting in his seat, clearly having been waiting for Yan Jiyun to arrive.

The middle-aged supervisor, of average build, sat behind the desk with a stern face as he looked at Yan Jiyun and spoke insincerely, “Xiao Jiang, you’ve done good work. The vice director even wanted to personally thank you for helping her find her daughter, but she has more important matters to attend to right now, so she told me to make sure I take good care of you. You also caught three human traffickers, which put our zoo on the trending searches. Tickets for the next week are completely sold out. Our zoo has clear rewards and punishments, and the promotion path is very transparent. These are rewards you deserve.”

The supervisor pushed a key toward Yan Jiyun.

Yan Jiyun said modestly, “Thank you, Supervisor. Actually, I didn’t do much. Mainly it was because you gave me a few pointers during the interview.”

Hearing this, the supervisor’s mood improved a little, and his face wasn’t so tight anymore. He said a bit more, “I didn’t really say much, it’s that you understood it well. This is a single room dormitory as a reward for you. New employees usually live in double rooms. You did a good job, so the vice director specifically asked me to arrange this for you. I saw how hard you worked this morning, so have a good rest. There’s new work in the afternoon.”

Yan Jiyun asked, “Supervisor, what new work will I have this afternoon?”

The supervisor said, “You’ll know when the time comes. You have three hours of lunch break now.”

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  this is correct, but suuuuuper simplified, especially if you are born female… The hormones could seriously make it so much harder.