DSMC Chapter 91.2

Yan Jiyun didn’t linger for even a second. He put on the white coat and ran in the opposite direction from Dr. Peng.

The white coat carried Dr. Peng’s scent. Not only that, because the two had previously argued, it also had the smell of smoke from Dr. Zhou on it. Now the coat carried two mixed scents. The gray wolves controlled by Dr. Zhou would definitely follow the scent of this coat, which could at least temporarily divert their attention.

Yan Jiyun darted through the woods. He now had a different understanding of this map and knew where he could go and where he couldn’t.

He absolutely must not go near the lotus pond. There were pythons there.

He had just been wondering why the animals could get out of their cages at night. He guessed it might have been secretly done by Dr. Zhou’s group. As for how they did it, it didn’t matter anymore. In any case, they were a group conducting experiments on animals.

But why conduct experiments on animals? Yan Jiyun still hadn’t figured that out.

Although gray wolves run faster than humans, they still had to match the pace of the humans, which slowed them down somewhat. This time was enough for Yan Jiyun to lure them toward the Tiger Zone. He was more familiar with the Tiger Zone and the black panther’s territory. There were traces of tigers’ lives everywhere. The gray wolves might not dare to enter, and then only Dr. Zhou and the others would be left to search on their own.

Yan Jiyun gritted his teeth and rushed into the Tiger Zone. At his current speed, he would easily be caught later. After running about two kilometers away from Dr. Peng’s direction, he threw away the white coat. This was just within the wolves’ scent range. By the time the gray wolves and Dr. Zhou’s group caught up here, the distance between Dr. Peng and him should be more than two kilometers.

Zzzzzz~

Zzzzzz~

Zzzzzz~

He didn’t know what the sound was.

Yan Jiyun heard the sound of machines spraying mist, somewhat like a sprinkler watering the grass.

He hadn’t expected the zoo to install such technology. But what was this hissing sound for?

He covered his nose and avoided the mist spraying from somewhere. There must be some special substance in it. Just one whiff made him feel extremely uncomfortable, and he immediately held his breath.

He saw a squirrel in the distance that had been sprayed by the mist collapse directly onto the ground.

Got it. It was something used to spray and knock out violent animals.

If he came into contact with this sprayed mist, he might also pass out. It seemed the other side had really gone all out to capture Dr. Peng.

Why hadn’t they stopped him earlier when Dr. Peng was drawing blood, but only started chasing now? That was very strange.

Perhaps before this, they hadn’t expected Dr. Peng — an “animal insulator” — to successfully draw blood from large animals. Maybe only their blood samples had reference value and could determine who was responsible. That was why they were worried now.

He still didn’t know who Dr. Peng intended to send the data to.

No time to worry about that. He had to run first!

He could hear the footsteps behind him getting closer and closer.

What had just been sprayed didn’t seem to be water but mist. Yan Jiyun covered his nose with his sleeve. There was a component of anesthetic in it.

He had to leave this place immediately!

Only now did he realize he had chosen the wrong direction. He shouldn’t have run toward the tiger zone. The larger the animals housed there, the stronger the concentration of the anesthetic!

Who installed all this?

There must be a higher-up backing Dr. Zhou. A mere veterinarian wouldn’t have the authority to order the installation of this kind of equipment.

The Tiger Zone was huge, and the dosage was strong. No matter where Yan Jiyun ran, he could hear the hissing sound. It was installed everywhere, even up in the trees.

He hadn’t noticed it during the day. It had been concealed too well.

He decided to run toward the Leopard Zone. Earlier, he hadn’t had time to check on Orange and the others. He didn’t know whether the black panther had been taken down by a tranquilizer gun. What should he do?

There was a fence separating the tiger and leopard zones in this direction. Only further down was there no boundary line. He couldn’t keep going straight.

Hearing the sounds outside getting closer and closer, Yan Jiyun’s heart began to panic. Wolves were more terrifying than any other animal.

He felt dizzy. He must have inhaled some of the anesthetic.

Dr. Zhou was truly cunning, turning the anesthetic into a mist. As long as one breathed, it would be inhaled into the lungs. He could already feel his legs trembling.

If he guessed correctly, the more he ran, the dizzier he would become.

Damn NPC!! So damn crafty, actually coming up with a method like this to deal with animals.

Even so, Yan Jiyun used what strength he had left to run toward a direction without mist.

A light set of footsteps entered his range. He saw two big glowing orbs appear in the darkness. Great, it was the black panther!

It was fine!

Without another word, Yan Jiyun ran toward the black panther. “That’s great, you’re okay!”

He buried the blood samples he had brought out in a place only he knew. The gray wolves probably wouldn’t sniff them out. They were focused on finding people, not blood samples. He even rubbed against the black panther, getting its scent on himself.

The black panther watched his entire operation, utterly confused: “……”

Yan Jiyun’s head was spinning more and more. After covering the soil, he said to the black panther, “Let’s quickly find a place to hide!”

Just before losing consciousness, he used a 20 minute time card.

The next second, his eyelids could no longer stay open, and he instantly lost consciousness.

The black panther picked up the cub that had suddenly fallen asleep in front of it and left the tiger zone.

It also disliked the hissing sounds. Every time those sounds appeared, it would fall asleep, then see a group of two-legged creatures who would tie it up.

The cub couldn’t be taken away by them.

The footsteps drew closer and closer. When the wolf player arrived with the doctor, Yan Jiyun was already gone. Only a white coat hung on a low tree branch.

Dr. Zhou hooked the white coat into his hand. “Tsk, they got away.”

He held the coat in front of the gray wolf beside him. “Smell it. Keep searching.”

The gray wolf sniffed the coat Dr. Zhou handed over and continued searching the area. Then, somewhere nearby, it found Dr. Peng’s white coat.

While the gray wolf led Dr. Zhou and the others in search of Dr. Peng, Yan Jiyun woke up not long after. The moment he lost consciousness, he had seen the black panther. To make sure the black panther would carry him away, he had used the 20 minute time card. Now that he was awake, the card’s duration had not yet expired.

He had been covering his nose, and the time he inhaled the mist was short, so he woke up quickly. It seemed the dosage of the anesthetic mist wasn’t very large.

Animals didn’t have that awareness. Under normal breathing, once they inhaled it, they would easily faint. 

From fainting to waking up, less than ten minutes had probably passed for Yan Jiyun.

He surveyed his surroundings. All he could smell was the black panther’s scent. No need to guess, this was the black panther’s territory. And it wasn’t the cave he had been brought to in the morning. This wasn’t a cave at all, but a space about ten square meters wide, more like a room.

He climbed up from a moldy-smelling bed. His body swayed slightly, vision a bit unfocused, but his mind could still function.

After sitting for a while, he felt better. If he had inhaled a few more minutes, he might have needed much longer to recover.

He could guess why the black panther had brought him here. It must have suffered from this anesthetic before. Only spaces meant for human living wouldn’t have those spray nozzles installed.

The black panther was already black and resistant toward humans, so it must have been harder to catch. He remembered Dr. Peng saying the black panther was rarely seen. It seemed that was because it knew how to avoid the anesthetic mist.

The powder Uncle Man had used earlier probably came from the same source.

The anesthetic could be controlled. If the animals’ riot became unmanageable, they could use this to knock them out and then send them back to their respective exhibition areas.

Based on the information he had gathered, Yan Jiyun guessed Dr. Zhou’s experimental process likely went like this:

First, plant the A-type plant mentioned by Dr. Peng throughout the zoo’s various areas.

Then mix experimental drugs into the animals’ drinking water and food.

After the drug accumulates inside the animals, when night falls, the A-type plant releases its scent. The animals inhale the scent, which reacts with the drug in their bodies, triggering violent behavior.

The animals riot for an entire night. If the experimenters obtain the desired data, they release anesthetic mist to calm all the animals, then send them back to their respective areas before dawn, thus completing one round of experimental testing.

So, all the animals in the zoo were Dr. Zhou’s experimental subjects.

Yan Jiyun now also understood what the row of rooms on the basement level were for. They must store a large number of items related to the experiments.

Dr. Zhou was likely only responsible for conducting the experiments; someone higher up stood above him.

Who was Dr. Peng reporting to?

The two were probably from different factions.

Among the NPCs he currently knew were the director and the deputy director. His supervisor had directly assigned him to Dr. Peng, and there was also the matter of the deputy director’s daughter being taken away by her ex-husband. He guessed Dr. Peng belonged to the deputy director’s faction.

From the fact that Dr. Peng had little contact with the black panther — and that the black panther had been brought here by the director — it could be inferred that the black panther had always been under Dr. Zhou’s care. Otherwise, it wouldn’t know the locations of the spray devices so well or know how dangerous they were. From this, it followed that Dr. Zhou belonged to the director’s faction.

So no matter whom he helped, there was no true villain. This instance was a struggle between factions.

To put it plainly, this was workplace competition. Whoever won would gain control of the zoo.

However, this was only Yan Jiyun’s current conclusion. He still needed further verification.

He glanced at the mission progress.

Dr. Peng Request (2) mission — In progress.

Dr. Zhou’s Pursuit mission — In progress.

Dr. Peng was still running; it wasn’t over yet.

While analyzing the zoo’s situation, Yan Jiyun heard rustling sounds nearby.

Then a myna bird landed at the window and squawked, “Here, here! That damn parrot has been chasing me nonstop!”

Yan Jiyun looked at its raised tail and swatted it with a paw.

Myna: “……”

A beat later, it began screaming in delayed agony.