Cat 144: The Best Cat in the World

Chapter 144: The Best Cat in the World

So this was the game’s punishment—deduction of in-game time.

If he left this instance again, would his play time keep getting docked? Did that mean as long as he stayed here he wouldn’t lose more time? Yan Jiyun was, honestly, at a loss for words.

With the penalty in play, his remaining time differed from the other players’—he’d have to finish the game four hours ahead of everyone else. Of course, if other players also broke school rules, they’d have time deducted as well, though he didn’t seem to be a special case—just more severely punished than most.

No wonder the cheaters caught during yesterday’s exam had such ugly expressions; they must have had game time deducted too.

Qi Feng had already completed three main quests—had he suffered any deductions?

It was fine being back in Copy A; he could finish things here, then find Copy B’s Teacher Qu and take everyone to Copy B.

Qi Feng reminded Ban Mo, “The rules here might be different from Copy B. Skipping classes can get your play time deducted. I spent the morning gathering clues, and lost two hours, so I’m behind you.”

Well, the can opener’s also had his time cut. Yan Jiyun felt an unspoken bond—truly, they were in the same boat.

Ban Mo said, “Amazing they thought of this rule, the game designers really keep us on our toes.”

Qi Feng, with the fluffy head nudging his chin, pinched the back of Yan Jiyun’s neck. “Since you’re here, let’s finish this instance’s quests together, then find a way into Mingya High’s copy. Let’s call this Copy A and the other one Copy B.”

Ban Mo whispered, “Okay. Honestly, Caramel could just take us to Mingya High since he’s a cat.” He pointed at Yan Jiyun’s eyes. “Black cats are magical.”

Qi Feng shot him a cool glance. “Nonsense. Caramel is just a cat.”

Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng, united: Exactly! Nonsense.

Aside from the deduction, his quest list had now filled with Main Quests 1–3; 1 and 3 were grayed out as “completed” (by others), while Quest 2 was marked as his achievement. Sure enough, reviewing Quest 2’s details, he saw why he had been credited for it.

As he was pondering how to trigger the next quest, Quest 4’s prompt popped up in his quest log.

Qi Feng immediately shared the quest info with him and Ban Mo, and both immediately received the new main quest.

For the first time ever, Yan Jiyun got to reap rewards without labor, and though his feelings were mixed, pleasure won out—the gloom over lost play time vanished in an instant.

Now he understood why everyone wanted to be carried by a pro. He liked it too!

Cooperation really was quicker than solo play.

Yan Jiyun didn’t forget about Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi, who’d entered the game with him—he believed Gu Wenzhu would lead Qiu Xi to clues too.

He glanced at the main quest Qi Feng had shared:

【Main Quest 4: The Next One.】

【Quest Details: Please identify the next victim-to-be.】

The next one?

Copy A’s first quest had been to identify Jiang Shiwen’s killer, and since Qi Feng had completed it, he must have found the perpetrator. Who was it?

Ban Mo happened to ask this too.

Qi Feng said, “It was Cheng Su.”

Yan Jiyun: How could it be her?

He remembered Cheng Su even comforting Jiang Shiwen’s friends. Though, thinking back, he’d suspected her before entering Copy B. Who’d have guessed she was the killer?

Qi Feng explained, “Jiang Shiwen liked Han Ruibai; Cheng Su also liked Han Ruibai. Cheng Su found out that day, called Jiang Shiwen up to the rooftop to warn her away from him. During the confrontation, Jiang Shiwen said some harsh things to her, and in anger, Cheng Su pushed her off the roof.”

So Teacher Qu #2 had just been passing by at the time.

What exactly had Jiang Shiwen said to make Cheng Su push her?

Ban Mo asked, “What about Main Quest 2?”

Main Quest 2: Find the competition roster.

That one was simple—Yan Jiyun had already done it.

Of course, it wasn’t this year’s roster, but an older one with over twenty students. Qi Feng had already figured out the storyline: once the list was found, process of elimination would identify the “Mermaid.”

After they retrieved the roster, Yang Pingping died by drowning, just as he had in Copy B, and he too was on the training class list.

Main Quest 3: Yang Pingping’s Secret.

Qi Feng, having finished this task, clearly had found Yang Pingping’s secret.

He explained, “It wasn’t hard. I found what he was hiding in his dorm.”

Ban Mo asked, “Was it the recorder? I searched his dorm in the other copy and found the recorder, but someone took it from me.”

“If someone could overpower you, it must have been an NPC,” Qi Feng deduced. “What I found here wasn’t a recorder; it was a sheet of music.”

Ban Mo scratched his head. “You’re amazing, Feng-ge. And before I came, someone finished Task 1 over there. They must have listened to the recorder and found a key clue.”

Key clue in Copy B: recorder. In Copy A: sheet music. Both related to story, same function—how could such parallel clues exist in a merged copy? Was it a system bug?

If it was a glitch, they shouldn’t have been put in together.

Ban Mo wanted to clarify, “Feng-ge, you said there’s another main quest line?”

Yan Jiyun listened as Qi Feng explained his take: “The two instances merged, but not completely—they’re now interconnected through several key points. That linking point is also the one we need most to clear the main quest properly. This should be a level-5 instance, not just level-4.”

Ban Mo: “But if you can figure it out, it must still be within the players’ reach.”

Qi Feng: “Either way, let’s finish this questline first. The rest will unravel naturally.”

Yan Jiyun pressed his ear to Qi Feng’s chest; the steady, calm voice soothed the anxiety of balancing two main quests. With Qi Feng, nothing felt insurmountable.

Maybe that was the difference between veterans and newbies—or perhaps just Qi Feng’s particular reliability. Even old pro Ban Mo could be scatterbrained—Qi Feng just had that dependability.

Now he needed to communicate the information about Teacher Qu’s paintings in Copy B to Qi Feng. That would flesh out their reasoning further.

But first, best to finish the storyline here in Copy A.

Without confusion or anxiety, Yan Jiyun’s eyes visibly brightened.

【Be Human】 Live Stream Chat:

“The kitten looks so much more spirited now! Before, in the Mingya High copy, he was so tense and down—he seemed on the verge of tears.”

“How do you get all that from the look in his eyes?”

“Because I’ve watched every minute since Copy One! I know his moods: when he’s thinking hard, he knits his brows, pupils go vertical; when down, he’s icy to everyone. Surprise, happiness—his eyes get bigger. Ask how I know? Twenty-four-seven emotional monitoring. Too cute, can’t help it.”

“Me too! And I’m about to memorize his nose markings!”

“Still, what’s the use? Does anyone know him better than his true owner? The Level 5 bigshot really is the real owner—I want to steal the kitten! With NPCs he’s always on guard, but with his owner he snuggles, hugs, just so, so enviable.”

The Mermaid instance was currently in the daytime.

NPCs were everywhere. First, Qi Feng took Ban Mo to meet his partners in this copy: Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu.

He wasn’t playing solo, which helped with progress.

Ban Mo and Qiu Xi already knew each other, and seeing a familiar face reminded Ban Mo why he followed Qi Feng through instance after instance—even if he seemed outwardly cold, Qi Feng was truly kind.

Yan Jiyun never thought he’d meet Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu this way again; the two were surreptitiously watching the school discipline director, ready to run. If caught, it wasn’t just a time deduction—they’d be locked up in the director’s office for hours and forced to duel wits.

Qiu Xi was delighted to see Ban Mo and activated a voice card: “Mo-ge!”

Ban Mo jumped at the strange voice. “Huh? How can you talk?”

Qiu Xi grinned, “Used points to trade for a language card.”

“Smart!” Ban Mo clapped him on the shoulder. “Didn’t expect to reunite with you here.”

After greetings, the four shared information.

Yan Jiyun, meanwhile, had hidden inside Ban Mo’s backpack. Qi Feng kept it in front of his chest, and tactfully, Yan Jiyun kept his head down, just listening to their progress so far. Unsurprisingly, it was a school revenge copy. Here, Jiang Shiwen’s death started things off, but the core team had quickly identified the true thread.

Yan Jiyun breathed a sigh of relief. His can opener really was reliable.

They’d need to work together from here.

Qi Feng assigned Ban Mo to pair with Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi, choosing to proceed alone with the cat. Ban Mo understood his intent.

In the blink of an eye the trio headed for the main teaching block.

On the way, Ban Mo told Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu, “I met Yan Jiyun in the other instance. You guys teamed up with him, right?”

He remembered Yan Jiyun had both entered with Qiu Xi.

Gu Wenzhu: “How was he over there?”

Ban Mo: “He’s fine. We worked together to find clues.”

Qiu Xi and Gu Wenzhu were reassured. “Glad to hear it.”

Yan Jiyun sighed. If he suddenly reverted back to human form here, would it seem strange? He wasn’t sure how he’d explain it, but it hardly mattered; this copy could justify anything, rules be damned.

Up next: systematically tackle everyone on the list—focusing on those who appeared in both copy’s rosters.

Meanwhile, Qi Feng led Yan Jiyun back to the music building, his real interest the Teacher Qu NPC.

Yan Jiyun would have liked to laze around, letting Qi Feng handle the main quest, but he didn’t want his accumulated clues to go to waste.

Qi Feng clearly wanted to look for information related to Teacher Qu, and since Yan Jiyun had once been cared for by him, leading Qi Feng to Qu’s home should pose no problem.

Crawling from the backpack, Yan Jiyun hopped to the floor. Qi Feng, startled, thought he was about to bolt, but Yan Jiyun threw him a look—”Follow me!”—then bounded away.

Qi Feng instantly got it. Not only did he not see scatter in his cat, he knew Caramel was unique—smarter than any feline.

Yan Jiyun led Qi Feng to Teacher Qu’s faculty apartment. Since he couldn’t reveal he could read numbers, he simply took Qi Feng up the stairs. Man and cat quickly crept up, halting at Teacher Qu’s door.

At this hour, all the teachers were away—prime time to search for clues.

Yan Jiyun pawed at the door, and Qi Feng, knowing his cat’s nature, figured there was something valuable inside. Without hesitation, he used a wire to pick the lock.

As soon as the door opened, Yan Jiyun dove in.

Qi Feng slipped in after, closing the door and following the cat to the refrigerator.

He reflexively asked, “Hungry?”

Of course, Yan Jiyun wasn’t after food, but as an animal, eating was relatable—and a solid pretext for bringing Qi Feng to snoop.

Qi Feng opened the fridge. On the top shelf sat a row of cat food tins: “…”

Yan Jiyun remembered Teacher Qu kept beef in the fridge, but hadn’t imagined actual cat food.

Qi Feng took out a salmon can and sighed—no wonder Teacher Qu clung so hard to Caramel; if the cat lived here before, no wonder he could find food so easily.

He hadn’t felt hungry until now—he’d already eaten lunch—but seeing the can made his mouth water; it’d been so long since he’d had a meat tin.

He watched Qi Feng holding the can, but refusing to open it; impatient, he tugged at the hem of the boy’s school pants. “Myao?” I wanna eat, hurry!

Qi Feng answered calmly, “Hold on, let me check the expiry and ingredients.”

After ensuring there was nothing harmful, he ran the hot water on the can to warm it, then opened and plated it.

As Yan Jiyun dug in, Qi Feng packed the rest of the fridge’s stock into his backpack.

Who knew when they’d get more, better to hoard for Caramel.

【Who’s Seen My Cat】 Live Stream Chat:

“My dude, what are you doing? You’re a questing machine, not a cat-sitting machine! Why waste time reading cat food labels and grabbing cat food? Is this a new meta?”

“No, this isn’t the Feng-ge I’ve watched for three years! Are you stocking up to throw cans at the NPCs for crowd control?”

“Hahahaha, I’ve seen a new side of Feng-ge. So the black cat really is his, huh?”

“Obviously. He said so himself when fighting with Teacher Qu—it’s his cat.”

“Is Feng-ge going to lose his edge for gaming because of the cat? His relentless grinding kept me glued to his channel, but now a cat is messing with his kill speed.”

“You’re weird. Feng-ge’s been single for years, what’s wrong with a man keeping a cat?”

“True…but it’s kinda odd—adds a weird new cuteness to the stream.”

“It’s just a cat—in the game for a few days. It won’t steal much of his time or attention.”

“But this cat isn’t normal—”

“Doesn’t matter. Look, Feng-ge’s searching Qu’s apartment for clues.”

Most viewers in Feng-ge’s chat weren’t interested in low-level player streams, so they didn’t know Yan Jiyun was also a bona fide player; those coming over from his stream kept silent about it, or got drowned out by Feng-ge’s fans and returned home.

Back in 【Be Human】 Stream Chat:

“Whatever you do, don’t go to the Level 5 streamer’s channel and expose the kitten’s true identity—wait until they figure it out!”

“Exactly, scare them good! They totally downplayed the kitten and missed how it led Feng-ge right to Qu’s apartment. Hmph! Without our kitten, Feng-ge wouldn’t have found it so quickly. Grr!”

“Don’t let the other stream rile you up—the kitten and Feng-ge are really close.”

Yan Jiyun, oblivious to the viewer drama, ate his fill and padded over to find Qi Feng in Teacher Qu’s bedroom.

He entered to see Qi Feng already at Qu’s safe, sheet music in hand.

Qi Feng said, “Caramel, this is the score written by the kid who died in the training camp. We need to find which of the twenty NPCs knows this song, or which one was close to him—maybe that’s our killer.”

Yan Jiyun perched on Qi Feng’s arm to look; the title was “Mermaid.”

Strange—why was there a piece named “Mermaid”? Was it related to the current Mermaid instance?

Checking the Mermaid copy’s main quest again—the aim was to find the best singer, protect their voice, and send them to the national competition.

Presently, the main line followed the mystery of an old incident; the “Mermaid” should be among both the old and new rosters, and while finding the culprit, they’d need to identify the intended Merlin, lest an avenger kill the wrong person.

The “Mermaid” sheet pointed both to the avenger and the mermaid herself.

Qi Feng had similar thoughts. The roster he’d found earlier was in another teacher’s office, not the new one.

Yan Jiyun, when checking lists, had seen both—the art-exam class and the other. He almost missed out, thinking it was only for players. He’d underestimated how crucial it was to merge himself into the role.

Returning to Qu’s study, he found last night’s list was now missing.

What a lousy game—even clues disappeared?

That made it impossible to hand off the info to Qi Feng.

Fortunately, he had a good memory; he’d memorized the twenty-some names, and besides the players, the rest were all NPCs. By process of elimination, anyone present in both the old “training list” and the current classes—like Han Ruibai and three other NPCs—was a focus.

Yang Pingping was also a member, though in a different class and now, in both copies, already dead. He could filter out all but the remaining NPCs to track the culprit.

Finding another copy of the “Mermaid” music was big; bigger still, Qi Feng now had two days’ worth of cat food for Caramel—safety for the kitten, and a reason to stick by Qi Feng.

Qi Feng thought the cat was just marking territory, not helping him find the roster; he also searched the study, but found nothing useful.

He wanted to search more thoroughly, but then Yan Jiyun heard familiar footsteps downstairs—the sound of dress shoes on tile!

Teacher Qu was coming toward the apartment block.

He heard the shoes on the first-floor ceramic tiles. The elevator doors opened.

Yan Jiyun dashed to the lounge, clawing at the door: Hurry, let’s go!

Qi Feng understood right away; this wasn’t their home, and if they were caught trespassing, explanations wouldn’t suffice.

In an instant, he opened the door, and Yan Jiyun raced into the stairwell.

Just as they both made their escape, a long leg in a dress shoe stepped out from the elevator.

The click of leather echoed through the quiet hallway.

Teacher Qu walked as if measuring each step, heading directly for the apartment. But just as Yan Jiyun thought he’d turn the handle, Qu paused, hesitating at the door.

Qi Feng took a deep breath and hugged Yan Jiyun tight, pressing back against the wall to stay hidden.

Yan Jiyun stilled, not daring to move. At this angle, they should be safe from view.

They were close—if Qi Feng shifted, the sound of his shoes might alert Teacher Qu; there was no guarantee an NPC’s hearing was dull.

Yan Jiyun’s heart hammered; this was more thrilling than searching for clues alone. Luckily, Qi Feng didn’t waste time worrying and just trusted him.

Listening to Qi Feng’s heartbeat, Yan Jiyun felt a strange sense of security even amid the tension.

This time, he wasn’t alone in hunting for clues.

After the apartment door shut, Qi Feng quickly left the block with Yan Jiyun.

As they hurried away, Qi Feng praised, “Caramel, you’re the best cat in the world.”

Yan Jiyun lifted his chin in proud agreement: Of course.