DSMC Chapter 95.1

The corridors on Basement Level 3 were intricate and full of crossroads, nothing like the simple layout Yan Jiyun had first seen.

He ran ahead, searching for the Room 319 that Dr. Zhou had mentioned. But as he ran and scanned the room numbers, he couldn’t find it anywhere.

Every row was numbered 1 through 8. He started to suspect that Dr. Zhou had been messing with him. There simply was no number 9.

Then it suddenly clicked. Dr. Zhou had deliberately told him to run first. With him drawing all the attention, no one would focus on Dr. Zhou.

Right now, he was basically acting as bait, luring the enemies away for Dr. Zhou. Damn, that crafty NPC!

Of course, if they had run together, Dr. Peng’s people would have targeted Dr. Zhou directly. No matter how much Yan Jiyun tried to draw aggro, it wouldn’t have helped. He was just a demoted junior supervisor. One wrong move and he’d be caught and thrown out of the zoo.

And since the instance’s location was the zoo, given the system’s usual behavior, once he left the zoo grounds it would likely count as a death ending.

This instance had cost him countless brain cells and so much stamina. He felt like he’d lost nearly a pound in a day.

The intern chasing behind him was panting and cursing. “Damn it, Jiang You, how are you so good at running?!”

Yan Jiyun thought to himself, ‘Of course I am! I’ve got experience, duh!’

No, he couldn’t keep running like this. Room 319 had to have some special marker.

He sped up, turned sharply at a corner to shake off the two people behind him, disappearing from their line of sight. Then he quickly activated the invisibility cloak. If he didn’t use it now, he might not get another chance.

The cloak was indeed powerful. Once activated, the two NPCs immediately lost sight of him.

“Where’d he go? How did he just disappear?”

“Did he slip into one of the rooms?”

“Maybe. We need to find him. He’s one of Director Peng’s key targets.”

They twisted door handles one by one, but every room was locked. Still, they stubbornly continued searching.

By then, Yan Jiyun had already put some distance between them. Using the premium invisibility cloak felt amazing. But this happiness only lasted 15 minutes, followed by a 30 minute cooldown.

Fifteen minutes was more than enough to accomplish a lot.

The layout of Basement Level 3 was complicated. Although everything was arranged in neat rectangular blocks, one careless step could still send you in the wrong direction.

Horizontally it was 1–8. Vertically it was 1–8. There was no such thing as 319. Since each row only had eight rooms, where exactly was the ninth?

Taking it literally, maybe it meant the ninth room in the second row of Basement Level 3. He tried searching that way, but found nothing.

Maybe Dr. Zhou had already found the entrance while he was still wandering downstairs. If that were the case, it would be incredibly awkward.

Yan Jiyun kept searching. Five minutes passed, and he still hadn’t found Room 319.

He stopped in front of Room 316 and stared at the number for a while. There was no 9, so could the 6 be turned into one?

Instead of trying the handle immediately, he reached out and touched the numbers on the plaque.

Sure enough, the “6” in 316 could rotate up and down. He flipped it upside down into a 9. The moment he did, the lock on the door clicked open automatically.

He glanced around. The two pursuers hadn’t caught up. He slipped inside.

There was indeed a staircase leading down to Basement Level 2.

Perhaps because it was an underground structure, with no sunlight year-round and poor ventilation, the air inside was chilly and damp.

Yan Jiyun quickly ran down to Basement Level 2.

When he had come down earlier from above, there had been stairs. But now that he thought about it, there really hadn’t been any entrance into Level Two.

Dr. Peng also seemed to be searching for the entrance to Basement Level 2.

Within a few steps, Yan Jiyun reached it.

The layout of Level 2 was completely different from Level 3.

The décor and structure resembled a hospital. It wasn’t as complicated as downstairs. At a glance, everything here looked much cleaner and more straightforward.

Dr. Zhou had told him to bring “them” away.

But who were “they¹this is plural they”?

Humans or animals?

Were “they” human or animal?

There were still NPCs on duty here. Yan Jiyun saw white lab coats moving back and forth, and quite a few of them. They were probably all researchers collaborating with Dr. Zhou.

He guessed these were the very people Dr. Peng was eager to uncover.

How did these people usually get in here?

Was there another hidden passage from outside?

What kind of special research were they conducting?

Since Vice Director He didn’t seem to know about this project, then the zoo director — who was currently hospitalized after a stroke — was probably the highest authority behind it.

Dr. Zhou hadn’t actually told him any crucial details. The system’s tasks were also vague. 

Who would have thought this instance had a true main storyline?

So was the zoo’s crisis directly tied to this hidden main quest?

The current issue was resolving the zoo’s biggest crisis.

If something happened to the animals, the zoo couldn’t continue operating.

If this experiment were exposed, the zoo might be shut down for rectification. If the impact were severe enough, it could even be closed by the real regulatory authorities… or maybe even sold off or handed to new leadership.

Did the “unusual animals” refer to the black panther, the tiger, the lion, the alpha wolf, the macaw, and the other exceptionally intelligent animals he had encountered?

[Main Mission 1: Identify all the unusual animals.] is completed. 

[Main Mission 2: Discover their true identities.] clearly related to the experiment. But again, who were “they”?

[Main Mission 3: Rescue all the unusual animals.] does this meant transferring the black panther, tiger, lion, and the others out of the zoo. But what was the relationship between “they” and these animals?

Yan Jiyun decided to think boldly.

What if “they” corresponded directly to specific animals?

That would be… thrilling.

A player turning from human into an animal didn’t surprise him at all. Because he knew they were all players role-playing within an instance. But this instance’s plot was different. Could there really be some method to swap human and animal consciousness?

If it were a real scientific breakthrough and brought back to the modern world, it would shock the globe.

Now he didn’t blame Dr. Peng for being so desperate to obtain Dr. Zhou’s research results. Once the paper was published, fame and success would follow. His name would resound worldwide.

[Invisibility Cloak Expiration Countdown: 3m 9s]

The invisibility cloak didn’t have much time left. He had to quickly find out what exactly this experimental area was doing!

He quickly followed an elderly man with graying hair who was walking inside with three or four young doctors. In the old man’s eyes, he saw the excitement of a mad scientist, but that excitement quickly turned into sorrow when someone ran over and handed him a message.

The young researcher said, “Professor, Tata was killed by the people outside.”

The old professor’s breathing faltered. Stunned, he said, “Tata was killed? Is he still breathing? What exactly happened?”

Bitterness appeared on the young researcher’s face as well: “Not only did they kill Tata, they also locked up Orange and the others. Now only the black panther hasn’t been captured.”

The old professor swayed slightly. “Oh my God, how could this happen? How did they discover our secret? Quickly take people and bring them away. We can’t let them continue staying in the zoo.”

The young researcher added even more weight to the already heavy news: “Professor, the passage we used to get in has also been blocked. It’s full of people outside. Our people can’t get out. As soon as they show themselves, they’ll be taken away by Vice Director He’s men. Senior Brother Zhou has already been locked up. I just calculated, our supplies will only last one more day.”

The elderly professor couldn’t withstand the blow. With a thud, he fainted.

Yan Jiyun: “…”

This young researcher really didn’t know how to read the room, ah. He scared the old man into fainting.

The professor’s collapse threw the scene into chaos. This was a favorable turn of events for Yan Jiyun. He had gained new information: everyone was trapped here and couldn’t get out, which meant no one had publicly revealed their identities while conducting experiments here. Just as Dr. Peng had initially mentioned, this was an illegal experiment.

He didn’t understand. There were so many people in the experimental area. Why hadn’t they transferred “them” in advance?

Dr. Zhou didn’t look particularly crazy. There was no madness or excitement in his eyes. What significance did the illegal experiment hold for him?

He slipped through the crowd, intending to quickly scan all the rooms here.

Two people in blue isolation suits pushed a cart with a human-shaped figure past him.

After settling the professor, the young researcher instructed the two, “Number 6 can’t be transported out for now. Put him in the freezer first.”

The two NPCs in isolation suits pushed the cart in another direction.

Wasn’t Tata a gorilla? But this was a human-shaped corpse.

Tata = human?

Were these people “them”?

Then did the other animals correspond to someone here as well?

[Invisibility Cloak Expiration Countdown: 2m 39s]

Yan Jiyun quickened his pace to find “people” like Tata. Perhaps because he had interacted with the black panther and the others, he was somewhat unwilling to refer to them as experimental subjects.

The first few rooms ahead were offices. Further on, he saw those “people.” In each room lay a patient connected to a ventilator.

And there weren’t just five or six such rooms. Further ahead, they were all like this!

He counted carefully. There were a total of twenty rooms he could see.

Finding “them” among twenty rooms was too difficult, wasn’t it?

His invisibility cloak was about to expire. If he continued investigating, he risked being discovered. He needed to find a place to hide first.

Outside each room, simple patient information was written, numbered from 1 to 20. Only gender and age were listed, but there were no names. So which number was Tata?

Yan Jiyun still had to find the corresponding patient records. For now, he would call them patients. Better than calling them experimental subjects.

[Invisibility Cloak Expiration Countdown: 19s]

The personnel here were far denser than on Dr. Peng’s Basement Level 3. 

Once he reappeared, he would definitely be captured. Either taken for experiments or locked up. He didn’t want to experience either.

When no NPC was looking, he casually pushed open the nearest and most convenient patient room.

The young researcher from earlier suddenly walked in this direction and asked the person beside him, “How is Number 5? Any movement?”

“Nothing so far. The heart rate and breathing are very stable.”

“What about Numbers 3, 9, and 12?”

“They’re all fairly stable as well. Nothing unusual. Doctor Fang, should we take them all and…” The person beside him trailed off.

“Let’s observe the situation first. We’ll talk after Dr. Zhou returns.”

“But didn’t you just say Dr. Zhou was locked up?”

“I believe he has a way to get out.”

Yan Jiyun thought to himself, If you know he has a way to come back, why did you still provoke that old professor? Is there something else going on here?

In the final seconds before the prop expired, he clearly saw the patient information at the head of the bed, where the oxygen mask was fastened.

He looked over the man lying there. He was quite handsome.

[Number 5]

[Name: Cheng Yun]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 30]

[Date of Admission: May 01, 20X3]

[Cause of Coma: Car accident, head injury resulting in unconsciousness]

[Responsible Doctor: Zhou Yiqun]

[Current Condition: Good]

As Yan Jiyun’s finger touched the information panel, a system notification popped up.

[Does the player confirm this patient as having a special patient identity?]

[Yes] [No] [Not Sure Yet]

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  this is plural they