DSMC Chapter 85.1

The huge body blocked all the light in front of Yan Jiyun. He closed his eyes and waited to be sentenced, even preparing in his heart to silently recite his farewell to his poop-shoveling officer.

Since he couldn’t outrun the lion, then he would just wait to be destroyed by it.

However, just as he was in despair, he heard a loud thump. The pain he had imagined did not come. He only felt a gust of wind howl past.

Yan Jiyun immediately opened his eyes. The enormous Caesar had not pounced on him, but had been knocked into the bushes beside him.

Caesar had been knocked into the nearby shrubs by a black panther, flattening a patch of greenery around them.

Yan Jiyun thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. It was the black panther!

The black panther had come to save him!

Great!

But then he worried about another problem. A panther simply could not defeat a strong adult lion. If it were a group attack, it might be possible to drive the lion back, but a single panther almost had no chance of defeating the opponent.

Yan Jiyun was very moved that the black panther would step in to help, but watching from the side made him anxious too. Although the lion had been knocked down by the panther’s sneak attack, it quickly stood up and counterattacked. What if the black panther couldn’t beat the lion?

He couldn’t help either and could only worry anxiously from the side. The only way was to continue seeking help from other felines.

“Meow~”

“Meow~”

“Meow~”

His voice sounded especially clear in the empty, quiet zoo and could spread far. With the hearing of felines, hearing his cry for help was effortless, no difficulty at all.

The black panther and the lion were entangled in a fight. However, the black panther, which had just had the upper hand, was now at a disadvantage. It smartly chose not to clash head-on with Caesar and tried its best to divert the lion’s attention away from Yan Jiyun. Naturally, it wanted to take the cub away, but the lion was in a rage. It growled at the black panther and made it clear that if the panther took away the prey it had its eye on, it would rush up and bite the panther to death.

Yan Jiyun was already trying hard to move his feet. Being stared at by two ferocious beasts made his legs tremble. Neither was easy to deal with. Of course, if he had to choose, it would be the black panther. At least the panther treated him like its own kind, far better than the lion. No, there was no comparison at all.

Sigh, one wanted to maul him, the other wanted to privately keep him. Both strange yet reasonable.

Yan Jiyun didn’t want the black panther to be injured by Caesar. He slowly moved aside, keeping as much distance from them as possible!

After hearing Yan Jiyun cry for help again, Caesar became even angrier and took the initiative to pounce on the black panther. The panther was a tough one too. Facing a lion stronger than itself, it showed no fear at all, using its agility to circle and contend with Caesar.

While Yan Jiyun continued worrying about the black panther, he heard running sounds coming from the forest. A familiar tiger appeared in his sight.

It was the South China tiger, Orange!

Yan Jiyun was extremely excited when he saw it and was about to step forward to greet it, but then realized he was not in human zookeeper form right now and stopped.

The South China tiger just watched from a distance, putting great pressure on both the lion and the black panther. They both worried that the suddenly appearing tiger might launch a sneak attack from behind.

At this moment, the lion once again used its size advantage to pin the black panther down.

The black panther was in danger!

Yan Jiyun anxiously looked toward Orange: “Meow~” Hurry and help, don’t just stand there.

The South China tiger seemed to understand Yan Jiyun’s meaning, but it only moved closer and did not join the fight between the panther and the lion. It too was an animal with a high level of intelligence.

Now the lion felt enormous pressure. A panther in front and a tiger behind. Both felines have similar skills, differing mainly in size.

No matter how fierce Caesar was, its instincts rang alarm bells. It felt that the tiger and the panther would definitely join forces to deal with it.

When Orange took one step forward, Caesar retreated one step.

It had to be said that momentum and the number of teammates were very useful. The lion kept retreating.

Yan Jiyun heard that Orange was not alone. Behind it were three more tigers, it was the sisters Jinzhu, Yinzhu, and Yuzhu, who had cooperated with Yan Jiyun before!

They had also heard Yan Jiyun’s cries. The Zhu sisters were the most familiar with his calls for help, and now they had all arrived.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t quite describe how he felt. This was probably the joy of being a zookeeper. Having big cats protect him at critical moments. All those times waving the cat teaser until his arm almost broke hadn’t been in vain; his hard work hadn’t gone to waste!

The lion was very smart. It knew how to assess the current combat strength. Four tigers plus one black panther, which it might not be able to defeat, so it slowly retreated in the direction it had come from.

Orange pressed forward. The Zhu sisters followed closely behind it, also making aggressive postures. No one was here to play around.

The lion leaped into the forest and ran away. The black panther and the four tigers did not intend to chase after it.

Yan Jiyun, who had already jumped onto a small tree and was squatting there, did not relax just because the lion had left. He realized that the black panther and the tigers were actually not on good terms either.

Although they had cooperated once for Yan Jiyun’s sake, panthers and tigers were still species that conflicted with each other. If they met in the wild, they could fight over prey, and here they would likewise fight over who the black cat belonged to.

The lion’s departure did not make the black panther lower its guard. Orange still stood in the leading position, while Jinzhu, Yinzhu, and Yuzhu turned to deal with the black panther together.

Yan Jiyun: “……”

Although his cries had resolved his crisis, he had not expected to see a follow-up involving panther vs tigers.

Both the black panther and Orange’s group had contributed to saving him. For him now, both sides were important. Favoring either would be inappropriate and might even further provoke dissatisfaction from the other side. That was not the outcome he wanted.

The tigers had the advantage in both numbers and size. The black panther definitely couldn’t beat them. If a fight really broke out, it would be a bitter battle, and in the end the one that died would be the black panther.

Yan Jiyun suddenly felt like he was some kind of femme fatale.

How strange.

He glanced at his Human Form Time Card. He had just snatched another life back from the brink of death, but in fact, the remaining time on the card wasn’t even five minutes yet. He had only 30 seconds left before he would turn back into a human.

What to do?

Should he use the cat teaser again to divert their attention?

However, what surprised him was that the black panther and Orange’s group weren’t especially violent. After hearing his cries, they had even run over to save him.

Weren’t they affected?

He remembered that Dr. Peng had just told him that larger animals were affected more severely, while small animals were hardly affected at all.

Yan Jiyun mentally noted down the current states of the black panther and Orange. They looked more or less the same as when he had seen them in the morning, with no major differences.

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 3s]

2 seconds—

1 second—

With four large animals standing here like stabilizing pillars, not even a mosquito dared to come near. Knowing they weren’t players, Yan Jiyun openly changed from a cat back into a human and jumped down from the small tree.

[Want to be Human] livesteram channel: 

“Ahhh, I was scared to death! The whole thing just now was so tense. I didn’t even dare to open the chat, afraid the kitten would get bitten to death by that lion!”

“Damn, I was watching 1st person POV. I was so scared I cried, my tears just wouldn’t stop. I’m really too weak… I never felt this way watching other players. This time, seeing it from the Kitty Baby’s perspective… capital-letter TERROR.”

“Shake hands with the brother upstair. When the lion rushed over, my mind went completely blank. I cried too, but I cried the moment the black panther suddenly appeared. Tears of excitement!”

“Then you didn’t cry as long as I did. I started crying when the kitten fell from the tree. My heart hurt so bad, I was afraid his legs were injured or something. Now seeing him turn back into a human and looking fine, I’m relieved, really relieved.”

“This was seriously the scariest moment across so many instances. My heart was in chaos, so much so I even forgot about the plot.”

“+1. Luckily Kitty Baby resolved the crisis at the last moment. Otherwise, Dr. Peng might really have died tonight during the animal riot, bitten to death by Caesar.”

“Could it be that because Dr. Peng wasn’t rescued by players before, the route changed? Actually, if players follow the vet line, they can save him. Dr. Peng is really easy to get along with. Just let small animals show him a bit of affection and be willing to approach him, and he’ll be very happy. Players don’t even need to help him to automatically gain his approval and help.”

“But who would’ve thought to take the veterinarian route? After all, in ninety percent of instances, doctors are usually crazy serial killers.”

“No matter what Dr. Peng is like, I just want to know how our universal-heartthrob Mimi is going to resolve the conflict between the black panther and Orange’s group. Both sides are precious.”

The black panther and Orange had already seen Yan Jiyun turn from cat to human and back again in the morning. Only the three Zhu sisters had huge question marks written all over their faces.

Yan Jiyun was also thinking about how to resolve the current situation.

At present, one thing was certain: neither the black panther nor Orange would hurt him. Of course, that didn’t mean they would obey his commands. He hadn’t done that kind of training with them.

The black panther had been bitten during its fight with the lion just now. Yan Jiyun intended to take it to Dr. Peng for treatment. But… Orange had played a crucial role in driving the lion away. In his life, Yan Jiyun had never imagined that after entering the animal world, he would still have to make a difficult choice among big cats.

This was really too troublesome.

Both were smart and hard-to-handle big-shot cats. Choosing either one wouldn’t be good.

Yan Jiyun first reached out to Orange and scratched under its chin, squatting in front of it as he said, “Thanks, Orange. If you hadn’t come in time, the black panther and I would’ve been done for here. But I’m going to take the black panther to see the vet now. If you want to come along, you can.”

The moment Orange heard the word “vet,” its ears instantly perked up, its alertness skyrocketing. It glanced at the black panther hidden in the darkness, then turned around and left in another direction without looking back.

Seeing this, Jinzhu, Yinzhu, and Yuzhu also followed their big brother and turned away. But before leaving, each of them rubbed their backs against Yan Jiyun to leave their scent.

Yan Jiyun looked at the thick layer of fur left on his body.

Sure enough, all felines were doomed to shed.

After the tigers quickly disappeared from sight, Yan Jiyun turned to look at the black panther, which was still staring at him with two glowing headlights for eyes.

“Let’s go. We’ll find Dr. Peng,” Yan Jiyun said. Seeing that the panther didn’t move, he added, “You’re not afraid of the vet too, are you?”

When Dr. Peng had left, he had told Yan Jiyun that he would hide in the staff’s lounge, but what Yan Jiyun worried about was whether he might have seen other animals along the way and stopped to run somewhere else.

Still, he would look for him first. As long as he wasn’t too far, Yan Jiyun should be able to find him.

The black panther sniffed Yan Jiyun, and only after confirming that he carried the scent of a cub did it feel reassured enough to follow him. However, it wasn’t clingy. It kept a certain distance from Yan Jiyun, probably unable to understand why a cub like itself could turn into a two-legged creature.

Yan Jiyun had just been chased to his limit by a lion and could still feel the aftereffects in his body. This was another huge crisis he had faced since his second instance. There might be even greater dangers ahead. He would have to adapt well.

The zoo was large. If all the thousands upon thousands of animals inside had escaped, one could imagine how chaotic the place was now.

Yan Jiyun quickened his pace. The black panther followed quietly at a not-too-far, not-too-close distance behind him.

Before long, he found the staff’s lounge that Dr. Peng had mentioned.