DSMC Chapter 86.2

Yan Jiyun needed to cross the eight-meter-wide road, then rush across a bridge on the other side to continue toward the animal infirmary.

On both sides of the bridge was a huge artificial lake. There were no other bridges in front or behind the lake, only this one path to cross.

After six o’clock, the rules were lifted and players were no longer restricted; they could attack zookeepers.

The wolf player would definitely think Yan Jiyun was on the alpha wolves’ side. If he rashly ran out, the vicious wolf player would surely attack him—there was no doubt about that. Because he had stopped the wolf player from attacking the cub. To many numb players, killing an NPC didn’t seem like a big deal at all. In their eyes, NPCs were only divided into those they could beat and those they couldn’t.

All this information was what Yan Jiyun had heard while staying with the caretaker for several days, and some he had heard himself while wandering around Central City, listening to many players’ conversations. The higher the instance level, the more numb the players became. Showing sympathy for NPCs would get one laughed at. However, after the livestream system was activated, viewers didn’t like watching players abuse NPCs; they only wanted to see players get abused by NPC villain bosses. So players rarely attacked ordinary NPCs, because there was no need and no benefit.

Yan Jiyun didn’t know what type the wolf player was, but he had to stay vigilant. What if he was emotionally unstable and wanted to vent on NPCs? Then wouldn’t Yan Jiyun be doomed? After all, in front of the wolf player, he was just a zookeeper NPC.

There wasn’t much time left. He had to think of a way quickly.

The wolf player split the wolves into two groups, separating the alpha wolf couple and defeating them one by one, aiming to dismantle their ability to fight together.

Yan Jiyun knew the alpha wolf couple cooperated very well; together, their combat power was greater than one plus one. But once separated, their fighting strength would definitely drop.

Now everything was moving according to the wolf player’s rhythm. If the wolf player won, then the wolf area would become his domain alone.

But Yan Jiyun couldn’t help right now. He could only hide behind and worry anxiously.

He glanced at his experience card. Even if he didn’t want to use it, he had to. Before using it, he hid the backpack he was carrying, then tied the tube of blood in his hand with a strip of cloth, so that he could carry it in his mouth while crossing the road ahead.

As long as he didn’t get close to the fighting wolf packs, it should be fine.

A wolf pack fight wouldn’t be resolved in a short time. It was possible that even after he finished his task, they still wouldn’t be done fighting.

After hiding all his tools, Yan Jiyun turned back into a cat. With the elephant blood wrapped in a small piece of gauze in his mouth, he slipped into the bushes, staring closely at the situation of the wolves fighting ahead. He needed to go around from behind the wolf player’s side.

As a human, his target was too big. As a cat, he was completely inconspicuous. If he slipped past quickly, the wolf player wouldn’t care about a small black kitten. Most importantly, his fur was black, and it was dark now. His opponent might not even notice him.

He was now waiting for a moment when he could cross the road!

The wolf player was targeted by a wolf from the alpha’s side. The fierce gray wolf knocked him to the ground. He didn’t dodge in time and got hit, becoming entangled with the gray wolf. All of the wolf player’s attention was on fighting the gray wolf. It had to be said that he was even more wolf-like than wolves themselves, vicious and ruthless enough.

Yan Jiyun immediately darted onto the road from behind the wolf pack. There were many wolves, almost fighting chaotically. But now it was dark, and the zoo’s streetlights were off. As long as the gray wolves didn’t notice him and didn’t get distracted during the fight, he could rush across.

Two wolves fell in front of him, so he leaped a big step to the left!

Two more wolves bared their teeth in front of him, but didn’t start fighting. He hopped to the right again!

It seemed some wolves had seen him!

Yan Jiyun fixed his route and footing and dashed toward the bridge on the opposite side.

He jumped over one wolf after another blocking his way, focusing all his attention on this.

Normally, eight meters only required two kicks of his legs to fly across. Now, he had to dodge left and right!

Only the last two meters remained before reaching the bridge, but now seven or eight gray wolves were blocking the entrance.

Taking advantage of their distracted attention, Yan Jiyun jumped straight up from where he was, and with a narrow escape, landed on the other side. By the time the gray wolves reacted that something black had flown past their eyes, Yan Jiyun was already running across the bridge with the sample in his mouth.

Phew!

He had finally passed this hurdle without disaster.

However, he hadn’t even had time to be happy when he saw other animals fighting ahead!

It was two huge crocodiles, each about four meters long. With one snap of their jaws, they could eat four or five little cats as big as Yan Jiyun!

Crocodiles are ambush-type aquatic predators, but Yan Jiyun didn’t dare to rush forward recklessly either, afraid that instead of attacking their own kind, they might suddenly leap up, open their mouths, and swallow him whole. That would be far too terrifying.

He had to wait for an opportunity again.

The two crocodiles were fighting, but unlike the gray wolves, they weren’t fierce enough to rush forward and bite right away. These two just stared at each other, motionless.

Yan Jiyun looked around. He lightly jumped onto the bridge railing. Crocodiles have good eyesight and hearing, so he didn’t dare make random noises.

He really wanted to cry for help. Why did he keep running into large, terrifying creatures?

He truly hoped this wouldn’t happen every night. He would go crazy.

Yan Jiyun had a terrible headache. Crocodiles can run faster than humans, their attack power is strong, they’re not afraid of cats at all, their eyesight and hearing are excellent, and their running speed isn’t slow either.

The gray wolves’ battle was dynamic, but the two crocodiles’ “fight” was just opening their mouths at each other without even moving.

Could you two please go fight in the water?!

Yan Jiyun watched as his task time kept getting shorter.

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 15m 40s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 3m 40s]

He still had to leave here before turning back into human form.

He continued to observe the surroundings. Jumping down from the bridge to hide wouldn’t let him escape the crocodiles’ attack range. If they suddenly turned their heads and bit him, that would be the worst-case scenario.

Was there any way to make the crocodiles quickly leave the land and return to the water?

No way. Right now he only had a single blood sample on him.

Yan Jiyun noticed the crocodiles were still staring at their companion. He didn’t dare relax his guard, afraid they might suddenly change their target and route of attack.

And just then, some unknown bird suddenly fell into the water with a splash.

Hearing the water, both crocodiles turned and slipped into the water from either side of the bridge. That was their food!

Sure enough, even though these two crocodiles were frenzied and fighting, their hearing and reaction speed were still perfectly fine. If he had really charged over just now, he would definitely have become their meal. Fortunately, he had thought it through and not acted impulsively.

But wasn’t this exactly the effect that [Destiny] wanted? One careless move, and what awaited the player was death.

It seemed patience and carefulness were also necessary conditions for clearing the instance.

Eating is instinct for animals, and most fights with their own kind happen because of food.

The moment they turned and entered the water, Yan Jiyun immediately jumped down from the bridge and dashed toward the bushes on the opposite side.

There weren’t many bushes here; bamboo was the main vegetation, and grass about twenty to thirty centimeters tall grew on the ground. Yan Jiyun walked among the grass.

The bamboo grove was full of flying birds and animals running on the ground, every one of them extremely excited. He didn’t care much about small animals fighting, as long as he didn’t run into something unbeatable like crocodiles again!

He ran through the forest for two minutes, hearing several birds calling, and some even chased him trying to peck his fur, but Yan Jiyun still swatted one with a paw each time!

Two more flew over. Yan Jiyun raised his paw to swat, but one nameless bird was suddenly kicked down by a big claw, chirping as it crashed into a bamboo stalk.

After seeing the color of the bird that had rescued him, Yan Jiyun withdrew the paw he was about to swing, feeling very pleased.

“Bad cat, bad cat!”

From the sound of it, it was definitely Xixi.

This kid had slept all afternoon. Was it energetic now?

Yan Jiyun patted its wing with his paw, then continued running forward. Xixi realized that after turning back into a cat, the bad cat didn’t have a place it could land on, so it could only follow by flying.

Yan Jiyun thought he should teach it properly how to address him next time. Who taught it to call him “Bad cat, bad cat” anyway?

Had it met another cat before?

Yan Jiyun discovered that Xixi’s combat power wasn’t bad either. Whenever a bird came to grab him, it kicked it once. The way out of the bamboo grove went quite smoothly.

Yan Jiyun passed the artificial lake without danger and ran out of the huge bamboo forest. During this time, Xixi even guided him away from snakes coiled on the bamboo.

Having a teammate who could fly and communicate really doubled the efficiency.

After leaving the bamboo forest, he faced the next difficulty. There was a pavilion ahead, and below it was a pond full of lotus flowers. Judging from how well the lotus were growing, Yan Jiyun guessed the instance time was probably around August.

However, this was not the time to admire the beautiful lotus pond. Two pythons were coiled around the pavilion’s pillars, and there were many bird feathers on the ground. Their bellies were bulging. At a glance, they had eaten quite a lot!

Seeing these disgusting things, Yan Jiyun’s heart went cold.

Xixi also didn’t dare move recklessly when it saw the giant snakes; it was so scared its feathers almost stood on end. However, snakes can’t fly. They were just coiled on the pillars waiting for prey. It could fly past from elsewhere, and the snakes couldn’t chase it.

Its problem was easy to solve. As long as it flew high, ground animals could do nothing to it. But Yan Jiyun couldn’t, he was a land animal.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but mention the system’s countdown function. This thing was clearly meant to test players’ mentality.

His experience card time was irreversible. Using five minutes and another five minutes meant thirty minutes of the day were already gone. There were still four and a half days to endure.

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 14m 07s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 2m 07s]

Yan Jiyun shifted his attention back to how to get past the pavilion.

This instance was too difficult for a cat. Whether going left, right, or through the middle, he would inevitably become food for the giant pythons.

Got it.

The pavilion was built over the lotus pond for viewing the flowers.

At this moment, the lotus leaves in the pond overlapped layer upon layer, a stretch of lush green. Water droplets on the leaves shimmered silver under the moonlight.

Yan Jiyun had no mood to appreciate the scenery. He jumped onto the railing by the pond and measured the width of the lotus pond. As an ornamental pond, it wasn’t built very wide.

If he sped up, could he directly run across on the lotus leaves?

He had to try no matter what. If he accidentally fell into the water, he would swim across. He absolutely would not go through the pavilion to deliver a midnight snack to the giant pythons.

This method was worth trying.

By now, Xixi had already flown to a willow tree on the other side to wait for him.

Standing on the railing, Yan Jiyun took a deep breath. He fixed his gaze on the nearest patch of lotus leaves. As long as he maintained high-speed jumping and sprinting, he wouldn’t fall in!

He pushed off with his hind legs and leapt toward the first lotus leaf at top speed!

Second—third—fourth—!