DSMC Chapter 88.1

Sorry for the late update, I’m uploading them all at once today!

[Want to Be Human] Livestream channel:

“Hahahahaha, isn’t the big white tiger kind of dumb? Even Xixi knows to hide in a tree, but it’s the only one charging straight ahead.”

“Kitty Baby is so sneaky, leaving its teammate outside. What if the big white tiger can’t beat the gorilla and the brown bear?”

“Based on a normal white tiger’s size and combat power, dealing with one brown bear should be fine, right? Didn’t you hear the myna talking to them just now? Those two are definitely players.”

“Good thing Kitty Baby immediately went around to the back. The three of them were all focused on the big white tiger and didn’t see the kitten.”

“He is really smart. But it still hasn’t turned back into a human, so how is it going to deliver the sample to the lab? Does it even know where the lab area is?”

“Not only does the kitten want to know where the lab area is, I do too. I’ve watched this instance so many times and never paid attention to the NPC activity zones.”

“Then what’s the most badass ending you’ve seen? Are there any especially strong players in this instance?”

“Of course. Even though they didn’t directly turn into humans like the black cat to pretend to be NPCs and gain trust, some still cleared it successfully. After all, the instance was designed from the start for players to go the animal-route quests. The most impressive one I saw led his teammates to destroy the entire zoo. Anyway, that’s also a possible ending.”

“I remember different endings give different points, right?”

“Probably, but I haven’t really seen players trigger many different endings. It’s always just barely clearing. Team cooperation is rare; most players just do tasks step by step. Turning into animals itself is already a hurdle, so the mission difficulty isn’t too outrageous. And I remember for the ‘riot incident’ task, as long as players survive, they get points. It’s pretty simple.”

“Don’t you have to do the main mission?”

“Yeah, but the main mission starts the first night. So far only this cat player has been seen, and it’s progressing pretty fast. Most players don’t find the main mission until the second night.”

“When I watch other players I just call them dumb. When I watch Mimi play, I basically stop thinking, otherwise I’d look too stupid.”

Yan Jiyun didn’t care whether the audience in the livestream was stupid or smart. After sneaking into the medical bay from outside, he suddenly felt his scalp prickle.

When he came during the day, this place was fairly lively, filled by doctors, nurses, and zookeepers going in and out, and the cries of small animals resisting examinations. But now, it was deathly quiet. When he brought the little wolf to Dr. Peng for treatment around four or five in the afternoon, it hadn’t felt like this at all.

He needed to find the laboratory area. It should be on the first floor.

Yan Jiyun glanced at the remaining time on his transformation card: 2 minutes. The task would end in 3 minutes.

That was really troublesome.

Several veterinary offices were closed, only one was open, but there was no one inside.

Yan Jiyun remembered that when Dr. Peng appeared before him covered in blood in the afternoon, he seemed to have come out from a back room. Yan Jiyun had never had time to explore the layout of the animal medical area before; now he could look around.

The door to this vet’s duty office was ajar. There was no one inside, and the door leading to the back was wide open. Behind it was a corridor.

Yan Jiyun didn’t immediately run into the corridor. Instead, he searched the office first and saw sticky notes on the doctor’s desk next to the computer:

“Go to B1 lab area to get reports,”

“Observe Xiao Shiyi¹little eleven’s physical condition,”

“Ward rounds,”

and some other work items.

The clearest one was the first one. 

Yan Jiyun remembered that the pet hospital he’d been to before had consultation rooms, labs, dispensaries, X-ray rooms, isolation rooms, and infusion rooms. This place should be similar, and the zoo’s equipment would be even more complete. He had also seen on the building’s fire-escape map that there was a newborn care area.

So he should go to the laboratory now. The elephant’s sample needed to be refrigerated there.

Dr. Peng had been in too much of a hurry to tell him who would do the testing, but preserving it first was definitely right. Labs always had refrigerated storage boxes for samples.

He could use the convenience of his cat form to find the lab first. It should be on B1 if he followed the stairs down the corridor.

Outside was an area arranged like a garden. Going down a bit, he saw a two-story building labeled “Laboratory Area.” The entrances on the first and second floors were tightly shut. There was an outside staircase leading to B1, and Yan Jiyun ran straight down.

He saw light on B1.

It was a semi-underground floor with different functions; during the day, sunlight could reach it.

He ran toward the light and still didn’t see any staff.

No. He did see someone. A doctor in a white coat and glasses came out of a room. He seemed very sleepy and yawned lightly, not noticing Yan Jiyun hiding in the corner.

The room the doctor exited was Laboratory Room 1. The lab door was automatic. Before it closed and while the doctor hadn’t looked back, Yan Jiyun slipped inside through the gap.

[“Dr. Peng’s Request” mission countdown: 1m 30s]

[Human Form Time Card remaining time: 30s]

There was no one inside the lab.

The benches were full of instruments, very neatly arranged, with no sign of recent use.

He had just found the refrigerated cabinet for samples when the transformation card ran out, and he immediately reverted to human form.

Holding the sample in his mouth all this time had tired his jaw. He removed the cloth wrapping and quickly placed it on a shelf in the refrigerator.

Dr. Peng had already labeled it, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. He could tell him where it was later if he met him again.

At last, the system prompt arrived.

[Congratulations, you have completed the side mission “Dr. Peng’s Request.” Points will be awarded after the instance is completed.]

Yan Jiyun slowly let out a breath. The nerve-wracking task was finally done.

However, just as his hand touched the lab door handle, he heard footsteps outside. Two people, both heading this way.

“Wait for me a second, I’ll go to Lab Room 1 to get a report.”

“Dr. Zhou seems to still be in the lab.”

“Ah, I’m kind of afraid of him scolding me. Do you think I should go get it? If I don’t, I won’t have enough data for tomorrow’s meeting.”

“You should go. Dr. Zhou won’t eat you.”

“How do you know he won’t eat me, he—”

The colleague cut him off. “Just go get the data.”

Yan Jiyun didn’t care how scared they were. He searched the lab but couldn’t find a good hiding spot. Turning back into a cat was possible, but then he’d have to wait another five minutes to become human again. In an important area like this, a lot could happen in five minutes.

He scanned the room and saw a cabinet behind the door. He opened it, and found white coats and glasses inside.

Imitating the doctor who had just left, he put on a white coat and donned a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

The young man knocked. Getting no response, he pushed the door open.

Yan Jiyun stood at the bench farthest from the door. The man shrank back slightly and said, “Dr. Zhou, I came to get the blood test report for tomorrow. I won’t disturb you.”

Yan Jiyun only pushed up his glasses. He made no extra movements and said nothing.

The man was just there to get the report and didn’t linger, probably because “Dr. Zhou” had an intimidating aura. After getting the report, he left.

“Goodbye, Dr. Zhou.”

Only after their footsteps faded did Yan Jiyun quickly take off the coat and glasses and put them back in the cabinet.

He looked around the lab once more, found nothing special, and swiftly left Laboratory Room 1.

To avoid being discovered by NPCs sneaking in, he immediately used another card after going out. If no one were around, he could slip away, but now staff were on duty, so he couldn’t move recklessly.

He quietly followed behind the two NPCs, staying in the shadows.

After walking for a while, the young man suddenly asked his colleague, “By the way, have you ever seen Dr. Zhou change his hairstyle?”

“No. He’s always dressed pretty casually.”

“Maybe I was mistaken, but the Dr. Zhou I saw in the lab just now seemed to have permed hair.”

“You’re probably too tired. I saw Dr. Zhou this afternoon. He couldn’t have had time to do experiments and get a perm within a few hours.”

The young man scratched his head. “Okay, then I must’ve been mistaken.”

At that moment, a voice came from the side: “Talking about me behind my back?”

The young man and his colleague: “…Dr. Zhou?”

Yan Jiyun stood under the shadow of a tree and saw Dr. Zhou, the NPC who had been yawning earlier.

Dr. Zhou’s presence was on a completely different level from that young man’s. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, he looked somewhat like a sven scum²I think this is a popular archetype in CN. It’s a character that appears intellectual and gentle, but is actually black-hearted, and his gaze was extremely sharp.

The young man said, “Eh? Dr. Zhou, weren’t you just in the lab?”

Dr. Zhou replied, “I just went upstairs to get a cup of coffee.”

The young man said, “I thought I saw wrong… there was someone with curly hair in the lab just now, and I thought it was you.”

Dr. Zhou smiled. “It might have been Dr. Peng doing tests in there.”

Yan Jiyun’s heart nearly skipped a beat. 

“…So that’s who he thought it was. That’s fine.”

Dr. Peng really did seem to have permed hair, while Yan Jiyun’s was naturally curly. Thank goodness Dr. Peng’s curls saved his life.

However, what exactly was Dr. Zhou’s identity? Was he also a veterinarian? Those two young men called him “teacher,” so could he be a university professor as well?

Yan Jiyun remembered that there were two offices in front of Dr. Peng’s. One of them had a nameplate that read Zhou Yiqun. That should be this NPC.

So that confirmed it: Dr. Zhou was also a veterinarian at the zoo. He probably had a decent amount of plot importance, but whether he was good or bad was still unknown.

If he used to be a university professor and now came to work at a zoo as a veterinarian instead of doing research, that didn’t seem reasonable.

An NPC with both a name and a surname wouldn’t have such a simple background.

Yan Jiyun had now thoroughly learned one principle: any named NPC who posed a threat to players’ missions or had an important function was very likely related to the main storyline.

Dr. Peng had triggered the zoo’s first crisis, so could Dr. Zhou also be connected to the crisis event?

After exchanging a few words with the two young men, Dr. Zhou didn’t return to Laboratory Room 1, but went straight back to his own office.

The area behind this could only be exited through the doctors’ offices. Yan Jiyun didn’t care whether he’d be discovered anymore and directly dashed back into the office that had just been open. The three people who hadn’t fully started moving yet seemed to see a black shadow slip past them.

The young man joked, “Animals are bold enough to come into the vets’ territory now?”

Zhou Yiqun said, “Which exhibit has a completely black animal? That looked like a black cat to me.”

Yan Jiyun: “……”

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  little eleven
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  I think this is a popular archetype in CN. It’s a character that appears intellectual and gentle, but is actually black-hearted