DSMC Chapter 19.2

They were a little depressed that they hadn’t drawn the waiter identity card. Otherwise, they could have stood to the side and watched the activity unfold, instead of having to deal with sudden brushes with death at any given moment.

But soon, they no longer had time to hesitate.

The players looked as if they’d sat randomly, but in truth, all the seats had been arranged beforehand by the restaurant. Horizontally, there were about ten seats per row; vertically, five rows. A total of fifty seats, no more, no less. Since Yan Jiyun had entered in a non-human identity, there was one less person sitting.

On either side of each row, two waiters kept their eyes fixed on the customers putting on their wristbands.

Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Jiang, both players, stalled and didn’t want to wear them. They were quickly noticed.

“Please put on your wristbands. Otherwise, our event cannot begin. We ask that you abide by the rules,” the waiters intoned.

Stared down by two burly, expressionless waiters, the couple was forced by pressure to put them on.

And it wasn’t just them. Soon everyone noticed that, during the event preparations, the number of waiters in the restaurant had doubled. And each one looked fierce and menacing. On the first day, the players didn’t dare step out of line. If they wanted to find the viral restaurant’s secret, they had to follow the rules of the event first.

Once Deputy Manager Liang confirmed that all players had put on the wristbands, he announced:

“Next, I shall announce the rules of the Midnight Meal.”

“Tonight, our restaurant will present five set meals. Each set meal has a different function, and each is obtained in a different way. They cannot be bought with cash or transfers. They can only be gained through rules set by our boss.”

Ms. Zhou, the woman who hated the black cat, asked impatiently: “And in what way? Hurry up, don’t waste time.” Her eyes were full of excitement.

Deputy Manager Liang smiled. “In just a moment, our first set meal will be presented.”

Two beautiful waitresses wheeled forward an exquisite dish covered with a silver cloche. Nobody knew what was inside.

But Yan Jiyun knew right away. Inside, there was nothing. A bluff? Or did it conceal some secret unknown to the players? He was facing this kind of decryption, search-type instance for the first time, and it really wasn’t easy.

Deputy Manager Liang lifted the silver cloche. Sure enough, it wasn’t food at all, but a placard with five words written on it:

“Tonight’s first set meal is called ‘The Maiden of the Castle.’ There are three slots available to taste this delicacy.”

A short, stocky man immediately raised his hand. “That name already sounds interesting. I want to try it.”

From his corner, Yan Jiyun could clearly see the man’s expression — he licked his lips, his eyes flashing with a lecherous gleam that made people feel uncomfortable.

Two or three other men also raised their hands.

Deputy Manager Liang said, “Don’t rush to raise your hands just yet. Allow me to explain the function of this set meal first. After tasting, it will grant you an overwhelming, body-shaking pleasure. Now, those who want to experience this delicacy, please raise your hands.”

The short, stocky man was the first to stand. Then others followed. Out of fifty people, six stood up: four men, two women. None of the ten players moved.

Deputy Manager Liang asked, “Anyone else for the three slots?” He glanced around, then began to count down, “Five, four, three, two, one. Enrollment for the first set meal has ended. For fairness’ sake, we’ll play a little game.”

The waitresses lifted the red cloth off a round object at the side. Everyone saw it: a “lucky” spinning wheel.

Except, the words on it were anything but lucky.

The wheel had four colors — red, yellow, blue, and green — divided into sixteen slots, four per color. But the slots weren’t the same size. From largest to smallest: blue, red, yellow, green. The green slice was tiny, barely a tenth the size of blue. Hitting it would take astronomical luck.

Blue: Russian Roulette

Red: Truth or Dare

Yellow: Rock–Paper–Scissors

Green: Drawing Lots

Every option looked dangerous. Only the green lots seemed relatively safe.

Deputy Manager Liang: “The rules are simple. The first customer who raised his hand will throw a dart. Whatever it lands on, our eight guests will play that game.”

A man dressed like a corporate elite protested, “We’re customers. Isn’t the customer supposed to be God? Why should we play some childish game just to try a dish?”

Deputy Manager Liang’s smile didn’t falter. “Sir, please allow me to explain. All fifty customers here tonight were handpicked by our boss. What you taste here is unique in the world, impossible to eat elsewhere. The opportunity is rare. Of course, if you don’t wish to participate, you may choose to withdraw.”

The man snorted. “Then I withdrew. Kindly let me leave the restaurant.”

Deputy Manager Liang’s perfect smile never wavered. “I’m terribly sorry. Without our boss’s permission, you may not leave. Sir, let me ask you again, are you certain you wish to withdraw?”

The man flung his napkin aside. “Of course. I won’t play your idiotic game!”

Deputy Manager Liang nodded. “I understand.”

He gave a signal to the waiter beside the man. The next instant, the man clutched his throat. His body convulsed, one hand strangling his own neck, the other flailing for help. Before anyone could react, he had already collapsed to the floor.

The nearest girl screamed. “Ahhh!”

Deputy Manager Liang looked around calmly. “Does anyone have further questions about the rules?”

The players were horrified. Anyone who disobeyed would die.

Yan Jiyun and the other players quickly realized. The man had been killed by the wristband. It contained a deadly mechanism.

Hidden away, Yan Jiyun rejoiced once again that he was a cat. Neither players nor NPCs had discovered his true identity.

Watching the scene, he crept even deeper into the shadows. This restaurant was terrifying.

No one else dared to defy the rules. Deputy Manager Liang was very pleased with their obedience.

The wristband was the rule. Those who broke it died.

At last, the game truly began.

The short, stocky man — the first to raise his hand — was trembling as he accepted the dart from the waitress. He threw. Unlucky, his dart landed on blue.

Russian Roulette.

Six players would have to fight for three slots at the table. Life or death.

Though no players went up, they were even more nervous than the NPC customers about to face the gun. None of them wanted to end up as corpses in the hands of NPCs. Was there a way to escape this fate?

Yan Jiyun covered his eyes. The first set meal had already claimed five lives. The waiters worked swiftly, carrying the bodies away.

On the floor, still alive, there were forty left besides Yan Jiyun.

Four more dishes remained. But how many slots each?

He was certain no one else would risk competing again, unless they had a death wish.

The three who won the first set meal were led upstairs by waiters.

Up to the second floor? The third? Higher still? Nobody knew.

But the players’ eyes were all fixed above. The Midnight Meal would last three days. They knew now where they had to explore.

The activity continued.

The second dish, “Dreams Fulfilled.” Slots: 2. No players competed. Both went to NPCs.

The third dish, “Alice in Wonderland.” Slots: 2. Again, no players.

The fourth dish, “Overnight Riches.” Slots: 1.

Just as Yan Jiyun thought no player would participate tonight, he saw Wen Nanxing, seated closest to him, raise his hand.

“I’ll take ‘Overnight Riches,’” Wen Nanxing said. “I like it. The meaning is wonderful.”

The other players thought Wen Nanxing was brave. He was the first to step forward against the set meals.

The ones competing with Wen Nanxing were a middle-aged couple. Their faces looked haggard, as if they hadn’t slept for several nights. But the one who raised his hand was the husband, while the wife only stood up with him.

The woman was clearly more nervous than Wen Nanxing, constantly twisting the hem of her worn-out clothes. Standing beside the well-dressed Wen Nanxing, the couple looked completely out of place. Or more precisely, jarringly out of place.

Wen Nanxing even had the urge to give up the competition. In real life he was a popular idol with no shortage of income. If this so-called “overnight riches” set meal really could make someone rich overnight, he would rather give the chance to someone with difficulties at home.

But since he had raised his hand, he couldn’t withdraw from the dish competition.

The other players also felt that there was nothing wrong with not competing with the couple.

Yan Jiyun, watching from the side, thought it rather strange. Most of the guests in the restaurant were well-dressed and polished. Even those who hadn’t dressed up specially didn’t wear clothes so old they were fraying at the seams. Yet he could still smell perfume clinging faintly to the man’s body. His own pooper scooper sometimes liked to be vain, spraying on perfume before going out with friends, and would change clothes after coming home so the smell wouldn’t make him uncomfortable. From his shallow understanding of perfume, the man definitely wasn’t using some cheap brand. So why dress up as poor people? Did they already know in advance that today there would be a set meal called “Overnight Richers”? 

Could it really make someone rich overnight?

As a cat, Yan Jiyun didn’t have a single cent to his name. If it could make him rich overnight, he wanted this dish too. Just how exactly could one get rich overnight?

Pulling back from his pointless daydream, Yan Jiyun noticed the other players hadn’t seen through the couple’s disguise. Maybe they were trying to win sympathy with this tactic.

Still, Yan Jiyun hadn’t expected Wen Nanxing to be bold enough to step out first.

One slot, two competitors.

Since Wen Nanxing raised his hand first, he gained the right to throw the dart.

The red label: Truth or Dare.

Wen Nanxing and the man disguised as poor stood at a table with only a shark toy placed before them.

Assistant Manager Liang said: “Rock–paper–scissors decides who presses first.”

After the match, Wen Nanxing went second.

Both moved quickly, thinking clearly, neither getting bitten by the shark’s big mouth for a while.

In the end, the man lost.

The waiter in charge of the game asked him, “Truth or Dare?”

The man answered firmly, “Truth.”

The waiter asked quickly, “Please answer within three seconds: have you kept any secrets from your wife?”

The man froze: “I haven’t.”

The waiter’s dark eyes stared at him and said, “You’re lying. You didn’t tell the truth. You own several properties collecting rent, yet you pretend to be poor in front of your wife.”

The next second, the bracelet on the man’s right wrist sparked with a sharp buzz. He collapsed onto the table foaming at the mouth, dying instantly.

Another guest dead in the restaurant — tonight’s second shocking scene!

The woman who had come with him was dumbstruck. She could only scream, not knowing whether to defend her husband or to ask about those “several houses.”

Assistant Manager Liang sighed with regret: “What a pity. Your husband could’ve just answered honestly. A few houses aren’t worth deceiving someone over.”

The woman slumped onto the floor crying.

Wen Nanxing won the fourth set meal slot. He obtained the right to enjoy “Overnight Riches.” 

He prepared to leave with the waiter He Xiaobi. To others, He Xiaobi was now “Yan Jiyun”. Yan Jiyun wasn’t very interested in the fifth dish, so he decided to follow Wen Nanxing and He Xiaobi instead. He chose them because they had entered the instance together; he wasn’t familiar with the other players. At the very least, Wen Nanxing had given him a name. A cat with a name following after him sounded reasonable.

A stray cat forced by life to follow a human, playing out the scene.

As for He Xiaobi, he was there to confuse the other players.

The waiter He Xiaobi led Wen Nanxing out of the game area. At the stairway to the second floor, He Xiaobi put a blindfold on him and guided him upstairs.

Yan Jiyun had been upstairs once before and knew the place well. He trailed behind them, not too near nor too far.

Instead of going to Boss Lin’s office where Yan Jiyun had been before, He Xiaobi led Wen Nanxing in the opposite direction. After a turn, they came to a mirror. But the mirror was actually mounted on a door. Pushing it open revealed a long staircase leading who-knows-where.

The design was so clever that from the other side no one could tell there was hidden space here.

Just as he thought, the restaurant definitely had more than two floors.

He Xiaobi and Wen Nanxing disappeared behind the mirror door. Yan Jiyun saw He Xiaobi press a switch. He memorized its position; if he jumped he could reach it. When his poop scooper wasn’t home, he often jumped up to switch off the lights himself.

Ready…

Footsteps approached. Familiar footsteps.

Yan Jiyun turned his head and saw Boss Lin standing behind him.

Hadn’t he just been downstairs watching Deputy Manager Liang host the game? Why was he here?

Before him was only the mirror door, which he couldn’t open. Ahead was another door, also locked. No way through.

Boss Lin bent down and said to him, “Little kitty, there’s nothing tasty here.”

Yan Jiyun pretended he was unguarded against Lin Xie. After all, Boss Lin had once fed him dried fish. Yan Jiyun then rubbed his fur against Boss Lin’s calf.

His fur was already dirty anyway; a little rubbing would only make it cleaner, so he didn’t mind.

But to Boss Lin, that action meant something else. “I didn’t give you fish in vain, giving me a rub already. Since you’ve come this far, I’ll take you out for a midnight snack.”

[Player Yan Jiyun has triggered the side mission: Taste a delicious set meal from “Midnight Diner.”]

[Player Yan Jiyun gains +5 Favorability with Lin Xie.]

Yan Jiyun: “…”

So he had been squatting outside for nearly an hour… for what? 

While lamenting that Lin Xie’s favorability wasn’t as generous as Li Muyang’s, Yan Jiyun heard someone else approaching from behind.

Lin Xie reacted quickly. He scooped up the black cat from the ground and slipped into the mirror door.

Lying on Lin Xie’s shoulder, Yan Jiyun puzzled: why was Lin Xie hiding from those people?

[“Want to Be Human” livestream channel] 

“Kitty baby got Lin Xie’s favorability just by rubbing on him, it’s too good at this!”

“Damn, Lin Xie get out here and take a beating! I want a cat lying on my shoulder too! Too unfair, it’s so cute!”

“With Lin Xie around, who needs Lao Si? Aren’t NPCs better than players?”

“Let me hold it too! The way the little cub clings with both paws on Lin Xie’s shoulder is adorable, and those perked-up ears make it even cuter!”

“Help, there wasn’t even a hug scene in the first instance! Biting my finger in jealousy. I really want to squish this little kitty-cat!”