DSMC Chapter 81.1

T/L: So uh… I forgor that “wolf pup” is much more commonly used rather than “wolf cub”. So the mission name will use “wolf cub”, but everything else will use “wolf pup”.

“I’m anxious too! Why isn’t Kitty Baby looking at the chat?!”

“You’re overthinking it. There’s no way he can see any mission-related comments. The system would’ve blocked our warnings long ago.”

“Doesn’t that make it even more exciting? Saving an injured little wolf in the rain… just imagining it is thrilling!”

“You guys have way too little faith in Mimi. Think about his previous three instances, think about the three side quests he just completed, think about his wild plays! It’s dangerous, sure, but I believe he’ll turn danger into safety. My Dear Mimi, fly bravely!!! Mommy will always follow you!”

“What kind of task is rescuing an injured wolf pup? Can any big shots explain? Kitty Baby has been to the tiger zone and the leopard zone. Logically speaking, the wolf zone should be fine, right? No matter what, it shouldn’t be as dangerous as tigers or leopards. The death rate should be lower. I don’t think wolves are that scary.”

“Didn’t we just say it? The alpha wolf is the strongest one in the pack, the boldest fighter, the bravest warrior among the wolves. Just saying that makes me want to raise a wolf myself.”

“But there isn’t necessarily only one alpha, right? Aren’t alpha wolves usually a pair? I haven’t seen this instance before, though. Looking forward to Kitty Baby’s performance.”

“Anyway, I’m not optimistic. This player probably won’t make it through.”

“I’ve watched [Destiny] for so long, but how come I’ve never seen other players with transformation cards? Can anyone tell me how this streamer got his?”

After entering the Easy-level instance, the number of viewers and the volume of comments in Yan Jiyun’s livestream began to multiply. There were both positive and negative comments.

Yan Jiyun barely looked at the chat at all. All his focus was on clearing the instance. After each run, the tipping points he received were the most honest reflection of the audience. The braver, harder, and more thrilling the performance, the more tips he earned. He had long understood the taste of livestream viewers.

The zoo’s broadcast had already begun urging visitors to leave, and the sky was turning gloomy.

The battery on the little electric scooter held out just fine as Yan Jiyun reached the wolf zone. It had taken him nearly five minutes to get there from the dormitory area. Such a coincidence!

There weren’t many visitors around the wolf zone. He barely encountered any tourists on the way.

Wolves looked similar to dogs, and they weren’t particularly popular animals in zoos. If a player were assigned to transform into a wolf, that would be pretty miserable.

The task issued by the supervisor didn’t include details, only that the injured wolf pup was hiding.

As soon as Yan Jiyun saw the fenced-off wolf zone, he knew the zoo wasn’t keeping Arctic wolves. Normally, zoos built simulated polar environments for Arctic wolves, and in those conditions their activity range was small. If a wolf pup went missing, it would be easier to find.

But when he saw the vast simulated wilderness: grasslands, mountains, and forests. Instantly, he knew things weren’t that simple.

No wonder the system had been so kind as to give him three hours of rest. Turns out it wanted him to be chased to death by gray wolves in this dangerous place.

How was a single human supposed to survive in a wolf pack? Three to five wolves would be enough to surround and kill him.

He checked his prop inventory and found nothing usable, as if he were being targeted by the system. That must’ve been the purpose of the system update. Even if players gathered information, what then? Once players entered the instance, the system updated the main and side storylines. All the effort before entering the instance was wasted. Be it time spent, points spent, they’re all for nothing. He had to swallow the loss and couldn’t even get angry.

The system gave him a one-hour time limit. If the mission were relatively simple, the limit would usually be within half an hour. Now it was one hour, but that didn’t mean it was generous. On the contrary, it was short. He didn’t know where the injured wolf pup was, and it was about to rain. Once it started raining, visibility would be obstructed, making the search even harder.

While Yan Jiyun was still hesitating about where to start, raindrops began to fall from the sky.

Just then, he ran into a familiar face — the braised-pork lady from lunch at the cafeteria. She was holding an empty feed bucket. When she saw Yan Jiyun, a flash of excitement crossed her eyes.

She stepped forward and said, “Hey handsome, what are you doing here? I remember you’re not responsible for the wolf zone, right?”

Yan Jiyun took a small step back when he saw her. Ever since noon, he’d felt that this zookeeper NPC, named Jiang Meiying, was strange. First she proactively struck up a conversation with him, and now she was again taking the initiative to ask what he was doing. What made him trust her even less was the constant earthy, muddy smell clinging to her.

It was normal for zookeepers to have animal smells on them, but most of the time they paid attention to that. The smell on her was extremely strong. Something felt very off.

Yan Jiyun replied calmly, “My supervisor told me to come find the wolf pup. I guess that makes it my responsibility now?”

Jiang Meiying smiled gently. “Then you should be from Team Leader Liu’s group.”

Yan Jiyun saw that she seemed quite familiar with the zoo’s management, but he didn’t want too much contact with her. “It’s about to rain. I need to find the injured wolf pup as soon as possible, so I won’t chat with you.”

Jiang Meiying was different from Uncle Man. She was more enthusiastic. “You’re looking for a wolf pup? I actually know a few places where they like to hide. You’re new and not familiar with the terrain here. Let me take you to look.”

Yan Jiyun hesitated for a moment before replying, “Then… thank you.”

Jiang Meiying carried the feed bucket and led Yan Jiyun inside through the door to the wolf zone.

Before stepping in, Yan Jiyun asked, “Do we need any protective measures?”

Jiang Meiying said, “No need! We’re all zookeepers. I’ve rotated through the wolf zone before and know their habits. When wolves see humans wearing this color of clothing, they know we won’t hurt them.”

Yan Jiyun glanced at his uniform. He remembered that wolves, like dogs, were colorblind and couldn’t distinguish colors¹T/L: This is wrong. Wolves and dogs are not completely colorblind. They have dichromatic vision, meaning their eyes have two types of cone photoreceptor cells for color perception, which are sensitive to blue and yellow light. So, they can see shades in that color spectrum. What colors they can’t see are red and green (they see them as grey or brown). In comparison, humans have three cones. So, wolves should be able to see the color of Yan Jiyun’s blue uniform!. What Jiang Meiying said sounded strange, making him even more wary of her.

A zookeeper should understand the habits of the animals they cared for. What Jiang Meiying said sounded amateurish. 

Without showing it, he said, “It’s about to rain. Should we bring raincoats?”

By now, Yan Jiyun no longer wanted Jiang Meiying to lead him to the injured wolf pup. Even the most gentle-looking NPC wasn’t necessarily a good person.

Jiang Meiying didn’t expect Yan Jiyun to make that request. She turned and went inside, returning with two raincoats.

Good-naturedly, she asked, “Do you need anything else?”

Yan Jiyun said, “Do you have a flashlight?”

Jiang Meiying was about to turn back inside again. Just as Yan Jiyun was preparing to slip into the wolf zone himself, she turned back and said, “Anything besides a flashlight? Why don’t you come in and pick for yourself? Take whatever you want.”

Yan Jiyun: “……”

Between going in himself and being able to choose tools, he chose the latter.

It seemed that every zone had a temporary zookeeper rest area. Yan Jiyun had never had a reason to enter before and hadn’t known what it was like inside. After Jiang Meiying brought him in, he saw that besides a resting area, there were also tools for handling emergencies in the wolf zone, such as ropes, heavy anti-bite suits, bite-resistant sleeves, and more.

Very nice.

Yan Jiyun packed everything he could carry into a large red-blue-white bag, choosing lighter items so he could drop the bag while running and keep the tools on his body. He also specifically took a long stick for self-defense.

Jiang Meiying asked, “Why are you taking a long stick?”

Yan Jiyun replied, “Just in case. I’m not familiar with the wolf pup. If it charges at me to bite, I can block it.”

Jiang Meiying paused. “That works, though I don’t think it’ll be necessary.”

Yan Jiyun quickly finished packing, not wanting to waste time. “Let’s go.”

Jiang Meiying said, “Actually, the wolf zone isn’t as big as you imagine. It’s easy to find them. I know the spots they like to stay at.”

Yan Jiyun replied, “I’m just a cautious person.”

Jiang Meiying smiled. Yan Jiyun felt that her smile looked a bit stiff.

After Yan Jiyun finished packing and slung everything over his shoulder, they finally opened the gate to the wolf zone and went in.

At the same time, the rain in the sky began to intensify.

Yan Jiyun was glad he’d gotten raincoats. At least he wouldn’t get soaked and catch a cold. Getting sick would be fatal for him. Players weren’t meant to fall ill in a game.

At this moment, the livestream chat started getting nervous again, and the viewers who held goodwill toward Yan Jiyun began frantically spamming comments once more.

[Want to be Human] livestream channel:

“Holy shit, what kind of insane shit luck is this for Kitty Baby? He ran into Jiang Meiying! This girl is nowhere near as gentle and kind as she looks. She’s notorious for luring new caretakers, pretending to be kind and helpful, and in the end all those caretakers die in her hands. When she sidled up during lunch I already felt something was off. I didn’t expect her to be waiting for our Baby here!”

“Who the hell is Jiang Meiying? Why haven’t I seen her before?”

“Jiang Meiying is a player killer. I told you this streamer might not make it through tonight. Forget whether he’ll run into the alpha wolf. He might not even clear the first stage. The streamer’s pretty unlucky too. Normally this task is done by players who’ve turned into wolves, but for some reason it got assigned to him this time, and he even ran into the ‘most poisonous-looking’ Jiang Meiying.”

“I saw her when the Kitty Baby was eating lunch. She seemed pretty nice, nothing strange. How exactly is she poisonous? She doesn’t even have a weapon on her.”

“No spoilers for you. Just keep watching. Suddenly this feels so exciting. I wonder if Kitty Baby has noticed something’s off about her.”

“I suddenly really want to know who the wolf-zone player is. It was clearly his task, but another player did it. Wouldn’t that make him furious?”

“Isn’t that kind of interesting? Anyway, the wolf zone already has the worst traffic. The players there must be at the very bottom in popularity, and the roles they get are always useless low-level wolf roles. When there’s trouble, they’re the ones sent in; when there’s good food, they never get it first. Super miserable.”

“Sounds really tragic. And now Kitty Baby even did his task for him… Seems even more tragic, hahaha!”

After Yan Jiyun followed Jiang Meiying into the wolf zone, he didn’t encounter any wolves there. She looked like she was helping him, but he still couldn’t let his guard down.

The rain was getting heavier, and the visible distance became shorter and shorter.

Yan Jiyun listened carefully to the sounds around him, afraid there might be wolves lying in ambush, ready to launch a sudden attack.

Jiang Meiying led him beneath a fake rockery and pointed at it. “Let’s check whether there’s a wolf pup there.”

The rain blurred Yan Jiyun’s vision. The rockery ahead was quite tall. Would an injured wolf pup really be inside?

He maintained a skeptical attitude, but still had to go take a look, knowing there’s a tiger on the mountain, yet still heading straight for it.

Anyway, this wasn’t the first time the game had screwed him over.

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  T/L: This is wrong. Wolves and dogs are not completely colorblind. They have dichromatic vision, meaning their eyes have two types of cone photoreceptor cells for color perception, which are sensitive to blue and yellow light. So, they can see shades in that color spectrum. What colors they can’t see are red and green (they see them as grey or brown). In comparison, humans have three cones. So, wolves should be able to see the color of Yan Jiyun’s blue uniform!