DSMC Chapter 87.2

Once again, he marveled at how big the Bengal white tiger’s nerve was. If an enemy had been squatting where he was, the Bengal white tiger’s neck would have been bitten through long ago.

The Bengal white tiger’s head was big to begin with. Now, startled by Yan Jiyun, its big head jerked back slightly, the thick flesh trembling.

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 05s]

Yan Jiyun no longer needed to think about whether to turn back into a human. He directly renewed the card for five minutes.

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 11m 00s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 5m 00s] 

Yan Jiyun didn’t need to care what would happen to the Bengal white tiger player. Holding the sample in his mouth, he ran straight past the Bengal white tiger, not afraid of him at all.

And the Bengal white tiger player didn’t know that his identity had long been exposed to this little black cat. He felt it was rather strange. Why wasn’t the little cat afraid of tigers? He was clearly so close.

Aren’t tigers supposed to be imposing?

Yan Jiyun had wrapped the sample, and the Bengal white tiger player didn’t know what he was holding in his mouth. It was better to stay as far away as possible from this silly player. He really didn’t look very smart.

Seeing that Yan Jiyun looked quite similar to itself, Xixi activated its trash-talking function again: “Bad cat, bad cat, idiot!”

Did it know it would get beaten for talking like that?

Sure enough, the Bengal white tiger player chased after them from behind. He looked at the macaw following the little black cat, feeling this combination was quite strange.

A cat and a bird weren’t afraid of someone as huge as him. Tigers were so majestic, so domineering, so why did the two of them show no fear at all?

No, they must be scared. Otherwise, why would they be running?

Eh? How did the little black cat and the macaw slip away in a flash?

The Bengal white tiger player still hadn’t adapted to his own changes. His hearing was too good, yet he didn’t know how to distinguish which information was useful. His sense of smell was too sensitive. He always wanted to cover his nose.

Even so, he still caught up to the macaw. That gaudy set of feathers was especially eye-catching even in the dark forest.

Thus, the Bengal white tiger player kept chasing Yan Jiyun, neither too near nor too far, trailing behind.

Yan Jiyun knew it was probably because of Xixi, or maybe the Bengal white tiger player had already mastered feline skills. But no matter what, he wanted to beat the Bengal white tiger player up. Wasn’t this obstructing him from completing his mission?

Forget it. The Bengal white tiger player probably hadn’t found any mission at all and was just bored and wanted to follow him. No one would imagine that a player would turn back into a cat and move around in the zoo.

The Bengal white tiger player indeed couldn’t imagine what kind of combination a black cat and a parrot was. In all his life, he had never seen a cat and a bird that could get along and play together.

Yan Jiyun guessed correctly — the Bengal white tiger player truly had no mission to do. After getting off work, he wanted to find the keeper on duty that day, but after wandering around for a long time, it turned into him causing trouble everywhere. He curiously went to watch the wild boars and ended up being chased by them, then curiously touched the cub of some large animal and got chased again. He just wanted to do a mission, that was all.

Now, apart from the title of number one on the popularity ranking above his head, he hadn’t taken on a single other mission. Wandering around aimlessly, he thought he might as well follow a little black cat, since the cat-and-parrot combination was quite unique.

Yan Jiyun continued to bury his head and rush forward. The mission time limit seemed to be just within the range a player could complete. Perhaps because there was a white tiger escorting him from behind, no other small animals came close. The dawn of victory was right ahead.

Going forward, he could no longer travel through the woods. It was all modern buildings. Various snack stalls and souvenir shops opened by the zoo, as well as some small games for children to play, and some food shops.

The zoo was large. If one toured it on foot, it would take at least a whole morning or afternoon. If one took the park’s sightseeing vehicle, it would only take about one to two hours. So it was perfectly normal for the zoo to have restaurants and all kinds of shops.

But at this time, all the shops were already closed, leaving only the streetlights along both sides of the road.

Compared to the bamboo forest and woods without any lighting, this place was clearly much more modern.

When Yan Jiyun had followed Uncle Man from the tiger zone to the hospital before, he had taken the park vehicle. Now that he was walking over by himself, it was quite far. It didn’t look like much distance, yet he still hadn’t reached it after running for so long.

This visitor rest area finally let him see the exact distance from here to the infirmary.

1.5 kilometers left!

He couldn’t keep running continuously and could only run in bursts, stopping from time to time. Between completing the mission and staying alive, he chose staying alive first.

If Yan Jiyun kept running, he would die of dehydration. He decided to look around for a place to drink water.

As a delicate house cat, he could only drink bottled mineral water. If there was truly no other choice, drinks would do, but he absolutely couldn’t drink tap water. First, he didn’t know whether anything had been added to the tap water; second, his stomach was delicate. After drinking it, he might have to send himself straight to the vet. Which, come to think of it, wasn’t wrong either, since he was on his way there anyway.

Better forget it. Let’s not casually test his fragile stomach.

This small street area had convenience stores, vending machines, and beverage refrigerators inside the restaurants.

The convenience store had its shutter pulled down and couldn’t be entered. The glass doors of the restaurants were locked. That left only the outdoor vending machines.

Yan Jiyun stood in front of the vending machine, looking at the drinks and water inside. Even though he really wanted to choose various sodas and the rice crackers and other snacks beside them, in the end he could only set his sights on the mineral water.

So thirsty.

There was no description on the vending machine of how to purchase anything.

At this moment, the Bengal white tiger player saw a cat standing in front of the vending machine staring at the food and water inside, and he was surprised.

The macaw even chattered, “Water, water, water!”

So they wanted to drink water.

But not many animals were this clever. Could the parrot be a player?

According to the game’s rules, everyone here should have turned into animals from the exhibition areas. The black cat definitely wasn’t within an exhibition area. From this, it could be inferred that the parrot was more likely to be a player.

The parrot was following the little black cat carrying something in its mouth… was it doing an escort mission, protecting the little black cat as it delivered something?

The Bengal white tiger player’s eyes lit up. He seemed to have found a way to get a mission. So the little black cat was a mission NPC!

No matter what, he had to get involved. A parrot player couldn’t possibly beat him, a big white tiger, right?

The Bengal white tiger player was ecstatic inside: “Heaven is helping me!”

He charged toward Yan Jiyun and the macaw with an air of fearlessness.

Yan Jiyun wasn’t afraid of the Bengal white tiger. The macaw thought this cat was relatively large and didn’t react much either.

The Bengal white tiger player slapped the “dispense” button. With two thuds, a bottle of water automatically dropped out. He even took the initiative to bite a big hole in the bottle, letting the mineral water flow out, enticing Yan Jiyun.

Yan Jiyun: “……”

What was he trying to do?

Was he trying to curry favor with him?

He seemed to have overestimated the Bengal white tiger player’s intelligence.

If it were another player, he wouldn’t dare drink this saliva-contaminated water. But thinking of the white tiger’s previous “achievements” of secretly practicing walking and jumping through hoops, missing the hoop and falling flat on the ground… Yan Jiyun reluctantly stepped on the bottle and squeezed water out to drink. Xixi also stuck its head over to drink.

After the cat and bird had drunk their fill, the Bengal white tiger player, following the principle of not wasting water, squeezed out the remaining water and drank it himself.

Yan Jiyun picked up the sample that had fallen on the ground again and continued running toward the medical bay. The Bengal white tiger player joined his group, and they went from moving low-key to appearing openly on the road.

Yan Jiyun, considering that the big white tiger had helped him get water, reluctantly allowed it to follow along. The main reason was that with the white tiger following them, it also served as protection. Some small animals that wanted to come out and beat up the cat and bird could only watch from afar and didn’t dare approach.

However, because of being high-profile, this strange combination might be noticed by players hidden among them.

The Bengal white tiger player hadn’t guessed that he was a player, but other players might. He guessed that the Bengal white tiger player thought Xixi was the player, after all, it talked quite a lot.

Yan Jiyun found a “disguise” he could wear. He could let Xixi pretend to be the player. After all, it learned to mimic speech very quickly, and it should come in handy at critical moments. But all of this would have to wait. Right now, he had to deliver the sample to the lab first. There wasn’t much time left.

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 7m 00s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 1m 00s]

With the Bengal white tiger still here, Yan Jiyun definitely wouldn’t be able to reach the lab within one minute and find a place to hide and turn back into a human, so he’ll extend the card by another five minutes.

They ran forward for another minute. They were almost there!

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 6m 00s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 5m 00s]

The Bengal white tiger player didn’t know where the little black cat was going, but he truly did his duty to protect it. He also didn’t know what it was holding in its mouth, but he guessed it must be something important, possibly something a key NPC had entrusted it with.

That being the case, the little black cat must be an animal with very high intelligence in this instance.

Only about 700 meters left!

From far away, Yan Jiyun could see the particularly bright large incandescent lamp in front of the infirmary.

Finally, he wouldn’t have to run until his throat felt like it was smoking anymore.

However, now he faced a new problem.

He needed to deliver the sample to the lab in human form. The big white tiger was a player, he definitely couldn’t turn into a human in front of him. He had to find a way to separate from him, or divert his attention by other means, then find a hidden place to turn back into human form.

“Roar!”

The big white tiger scared off a group of large antelopes occupying the road ahead. In the food chain, these antelopes were prey for tigers, but unfortunately the big white tiger wasn’t a real tiger. Looking at those antelopes full of meat, he felt not the slightest urge to pounce and bite them to death.

With the big white tiger clearing the way, Yan Jiyun’s path forward wasn’t blocked. Of course, even without the big white tiger, the antelopes couldn’t have blocked him. He could have gone around from the side. But now, it indeed greatly shortened the time needed to complete his mission.

With green lights all the way, he smoothly arrived at the entrance of the medical bay. 

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 3m 22s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 2m 22s]

Three minutes left. He didn’t know if it would be enough, and he also didn’t know which room the laboratory was in.

Forget it—  rush in first and talk later!

But before he could rush to the door, he saw several ferocious animals wandering outside the infirmary: a black gorilla, a brown bear, and a myna standing on the brown bear’s shoulder.

Yan Jiyun heard the myna speaking fluent Mandarin with a local accent: “Damn, a tiger’s here! Why is there a tiger on the infirmary side? Can we beat it?”

The gorilla lightly pounded its chest, indicating that it couldn’t.

Yan Jiyun and Xixi didn’t rush forward again, but the always-valiant Bengal white tiger didn’t consider so much. It charged straight in front of the three animals, just as before. Head-on, no hesitation!

But when the Bengal white tiger reacted, it found that its teammates were gone, and it was immediately confused: “……”

Where were the little black cat and the macaw?

Seeing the annoying gorilla, Xixi didn’t continue flying forward at all. Following its instinct to avoid danger and seek benefit, it directly found a tree to hide in.

Yan Jiyun immediately hid under a nearby statue. From there, he could slip into the shed full of bicycles and electric scooters, then go along the corner of the wall on one side of the shed and circle around to the side door to enter the infirmary.

He lowered his body and slowly inched forward, silently saying to the big white tiger in his heart: ‘Big white tiger, thanks for your hard work!’