Cat 317: He is an NPC, He is a Player

Chapter 317: He Is an NPC, He Is a Player

The consciousness value meter Jiang Yan designed ranges from 1 to 100; the higher the number, the greater the strength of one’s consciousness, which determines what level of intensive training can be undertaken.

Yan Jiyun focused on observing the readings for Qi Feng and several guild leaders.

Among this group of NPCs, their consciousness values were never lower than those of the players. Yan Jiyun, being one of the outstanding examples, had no need to use the wristband for testing.

Qi Feng’s consciousness value was 99. For someone whose mind had never undergone development, this was incredibly high.

He passed the wristband to Yan Jiyun. “Try it on? I’d like to see your result too.”

Yan Jiyun casually slipped it onto his wrist, and the device immediately sounded an alert, the small screen flashing an ERROR message.

Qi Feng hurriedly took the wristband back, feeling his pride wounded—his consciousness strength was still less than that of his own cat.

Aware of this odd sense of pride, Yan Jiyun smiled, lips pressed together. “No need to compare yourself with me. Your consciousness hasn’t experienced deep development; we’re different.”

With his reassurance, Qi Feng felt much better. It also reminded him that he still didn’t really know what species Yan Jiyun belonged to. Were they from the same planet, or were they truly different kinds of beings?—No, they were both human; if they weren’t, things would be much more complicated.

Qi Feng accepted gracefully. “Teach me, then.”

Yan Jiyun suddenly recalled how seriously Qi Feng had once taught him to use the litter box and burst out laughing. “Alright, alright.”

Qi Feng was confused. “What’s so funny?”

Yan Jiyun leaned to his ear and quietly recounted the story of being taught to use the litter box.

Qi Feng pressed his lips together and stayed silent, awkward about the memory—how was he to know, back then, that what he’d adopted wasn’t just a cat, but a human being.

Lan Mo, still burning with curiosity after seeing the two speak in whispers, asked, “What are you two talking about?”

Qi Feng found someone to redirect his emotions onto. “Nothing. Go ask a teacher how to develop your consciousness potential.”

Lan Mo, still in shock about Xiao Yan being the same as Caramel, protested, “Can’t Xiao Yan teach me? He can turn into both a person and a cat, and we know each other well.”

Qi Feng, uncharacteristically short, replied, “Why do you talk so much? He doesn’t have time for you.”

Yan Jiyun laughed openly then, so much so that the players around, busy exploring their consciousness strength, began to look puzzled. Was it possible Qi Feng’s own consciousness potential was actually very weak?

The NPCs quickly collected all players’ consciousness strength data and divided them into groups accordingly.

In fact, the information they gathered went further: players were also classified by their in-game “special skills,” and different NPCs were appointed to lead different teams.

There were one hundred players, and about thirty NPC partners of Yan Jiyun’s. Dividing up the work, each NPC would train three to four players.

Yan Jiyun kept hold of the players he knew best and those with the highest consciousness scores. He would oversee their guidance personally.

For the first time, he appeared as a teacher, wielding a pointer.

Sister Jixiang, lucky enough to be assigned to his team, joked, “Brother Xiao Yan, why are you holding a pointer? Are you going to hit us if we don’t perform?”

Yan Jiyun replied, “Not at all. It’s just for show—looks more authoritative.”

Sister Jixiang extended her right hand. “Okay, carry on then, I have no issue.”

Yan Jiyun felt that perhaps standing alone wasn’t intimidating enough, so, before everyone’s eyes, he transformed back into a cat and leaped onto Qi Feng’s shoulder, standing there in striking majesty, impossible to rival.

His emerald eyes swept the assembled crowd. “If in two days’ time you can freely shift into a cat or other animals, or change your appearance at will, you’ll have reached the entry level. Next, I’ll show you how to use consciousness—”

The students were speechless: ……

Well, now that he’d become a cat, who could look their teacher straight in the eye? Could they really learn properly like this? Of course, if there was one upside, it was that Teacher Yan, given the limitations of his size, had to forgo the pointer; he didn’t quite suit the majestic pose with it anymore.

Qi Feng was perfectly happy for Yan Jiyun to strut on his shoulder.

Yan Jiyun’s teaching method was simple: first, he demonstrated what he could do; then, he guided them to concentrate on a single task.

Most didn’t realize that their consciousness could be used in-game simply because their focus was so scattered. If that attention could be 100% fixed on a single task, results would be twice as good for half the effort.

The first step Yan Jiyun taught was meditation.

Each guild leader, Qi Feng included, sat cross-legged in meditation.

“Meditation isn’t daydreaming. Imagine the form you want to take—whether it’s an animal or creating a weapon to hold in your hand. This will be greatly helpful when we confront the system. Draw your consciousness inward—do you see a small point of light? If you see it, follow that light, walk with it, and you’ll see your potential. Then imagine yourself doing something, and move your mind toward it…”

Qi Feng was the quickest to grasp the use of consciousness. In his hand, he’d already formed a sharp dagger, his favorite weapon. Once he got the hang of it, he expanded his consciousness further, and made the weapon float in the air.

Under the guidance of NPC teachers with various personalities, progress among the players varied—some, like Qi Feng, advanced rapidly, gradually unlocking their own potential and touching a new plane of existence.

On the first day, all the players felt utterly exhausted. Yet, to their surprise, they found their bodies needed neither food nor water.

Yan Jiyun explained that these perks came with understanding the truth behind the game.

Nine days remained.

By the third day, nearly all the players had begun to understand how to tap their consciousness potential; it was as if they’d started practicing cultivation in another world and immediately achieved the “fasting” phase.

Yan Jiyun told them, this is the world of the game.

The stronger their awareness, the easier it became to break dungeons, to trigger bugs in the system.

Three days later, Qi Feng had mastered the use of consciousness. Yan Jiyun could now form a dungeon out of his own mind—he could even construct a shield through will alone, like a barrier in cultivation novels.

But there remained a crucial issue, one neither Yan Jiyun nor his allies had yet brought up.

Who exactly was their real enemy? How powerful were they?

Where did they come from? How could they be defeated?

These were the questions that weighed on every player’s mind.

After three days of the ten-day crash course, Yan Jiyun called a meeting with Teacher Qu and other leaders.

Nearly twenty people gathered, sitting in a circle.

This had become their routine; when tired, they fell asleep on the spot, each skilled now at conjuring up a little quilt for themselves.

Consciousness was a marvelously useful thing. Yan Jiyun told them to treat this as a fully immersive virtual game: they could generate data as needed.

Qi Yunchu materialized a cup of tea with her mind, finally voicing the question everyone had nursed for days: “Are we fighting aliens?”

NPC spokesman Teacher Qu answered, “To earthlings, yes, they are aliens.”

A dawning understanding swept the group—the suspicion had been there all along.

They had been pulled into the game by an inexplicable force; Earth had never even developed a full-immersion game, so whoever had entrapped them couldn’t be from Earth. Their enemies must be extraterrestrial.

Yet humanity was barely at the stage of exploring the possibility of aliens. The public knew nothing of other worlds, let alone their technology.

Su Qiuming, who had kept a low profile but had been quietly practicing his skills, now said, “So, what plans do we have for them? If we’re to strike, we at least need to know their weaknesses—and what are ours?”

Yan Jiyun, in cat form, lay comfortably in Qi Feng’s arms. Ever since their relationship was made public, he now hopped about on Qi Feng at will.

Not that he hadn’t done so before, but now he was brazen about it.

He looked at Su Qiuming, blinking innocently. “All we want is to leave the game and free ourselves from its control. Fighting aliens is beyond your reach right now.”

Sister Jixiang said indignantly, “So we just sit around and wait for death? Those damned aliens locked us all up in here.”

Qi Feng glanced at Su Qiuming. “You eat an elephant one bite at a time. If you can’t get out of the cage, no point talking about fighting the one with the key.”

Yan Jiyun said, “Our plan is to escape the game.”

Chu Mo said, “I support this. So how do we destroy the game world?”

Teacher Qu said, “Everyone’s progress these last few days has been even better than we expected. After discussing with the boss, we’ve decided to share our plan ahead of time. We call it the Devouring Plan.”

The moment they heard there was a plan, everyone perked up.

Qi Yunchu asked, “What does it involve?”

Yan Jiyun replied, “It’s the result of our joint efforts—the optimal approach we’ve developed.”

Chu Mo prompted, “Please elaborate.”

Teacher Qu waved a hand, conjuring a large screen before everyone, bearing the words “Devouring Plan.”

“According to our partial statistics, ‘Destiny’ has five levels of dungeons, a total of at least three thousand dungeons—this doesn’t include those periodically added or removed. Of these, about 1,500 are active beginner dungeons, around 1,000 are entry-level, another 1,000 middle-tier, 800 high-level, and 500 top-tier dungeons.”

It was a staggering number!

Sister Jixiang blurted out, “That many? No wonder we can never clear them all; if we keep this up, every player will die off eventually.”

Teacher Qu said, “Don’t worry. Based on our investigation, dungeons divide into ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ ones. Hot dungeons are those with the most viewers and generate the most revenue; cold dungeons are those seldom played and barely touched by players.”

Yu Zhe commented, “No wonder we always run into familiar faces in the dungeons, it’s because the system keeps tossing us into the ones with the most attention?”

Teacher Qu replied, “Precisely.”

By now, Sister Jixiang was getting excited. “Does the Devouring Plan mean we break the dungeons? Just clearing a dungeon is enough to nearly kill us.”

Teacher Qu flashed his signature gentle smile. “Miss Jixiang, don’t worry. Now you can access your own consciousness, and since most dungeons are run by NPCs like us, the new plan is for players and NPCs to work together to destroy the dungeons.”

Qi Yunchu said, “But you just said there are three thousand dungeons—even halving that leaves 1,500, and with different levels of difficulty, destroying them all would be near impossible.”

Teacher Qu brought up the first page of his PPT. “Manpower is limited; of course, we can’t destroy them all. Now comes the core of our plan—the details.”

Teacher Qu began to present the Devouring Plan, and the guild leaders below started taking notes. This wasn’t the final version, but at least it gave everyone something to rely on.

Qi Feng scratched Yan Jiyun’s neck. “It’s not hard to destroy a dungeon, is it?”

Yan Jiyun replied, “No. As long as you know how, and aren’t caught by the system.”

Qi Feng lowered his voice, “What about the traitor you mentioned—is he still here?”

Yan Jiyun said, “Within controllable limits. We have people watching.”

Qi Feng glanced around at the assembled NPCs and players. “Is it a player, or an NPC?”

Yan Jiyun teased, “You guess. Get it right, and I’ll give you a reward.”

Qi Feng realized Yan Jiyun knew how to tempt him. “Deal.”

Teacher Qu saw the two muttering and deliberately called out to Yan Jiyun, “Boss, any problems with the top-tier dungeons?”

Caught slacking, Yan Jiyun nodded vigorously. “No problem, no problem.”

Teacher Qu shot a look at Qi Feng—a cat, really, what does he need with romance? Eating canned food every day isn’t good enough? Now he’s distracted from the mission.

For the next seven days, the NPCs continued to train the players.

Day by day, results began to show.

At last, the tenth day arrived.

After ten days together, the hundred players and NPCs had completed their intensive training. They’d learned to work in sync, building not just cooperation, but rapport. Now it was time to test their results.

Everyone gathered at the dungeon’s exit, ready to part.

This time, only Qi Feng felt unhappy—because Yan Jiyun would be the one seeing him off.

The guild leaders led their members out of the dungeon; only Qi Feng lingered, reluctantly bidding farewell to Yan Jiyun.

Yan Jiyun conjured a black cat without his own consciousness and handed it to him. “See you in three days.”

Qi Feng carried the cat, turning back every few steps. “I’m going now.”

In the end, Lan Mo had to drag him out of the dungeon.

After all the players had left, Yan Jiyun let his smile fade.

Lin Xie stood behind him and asked, “Why didn’t you tell Qi Feng and the others? If this fails, none of us will survive.”

Yan Jiyun answered indifferently, “No need. Let’s go—time for pre-battle preparations.”

He is an NPC. He is a player.