Cat 189: Four Black Cats

Chapter 189: Four Black Cats

Yan Jiyun waited anxiously outside, desperate to rescue Qi Feng, but at the moment he didn’t even know how Qi Feng had gotten inside the machine. He’d assumed replicants were the main feature of this instance—never expecting there would be “games within games.” Did entering different shops trigger different tasks?

How had Qi Feng gotten in there?

Yan Jiyun patted the irate NPC nearby. “Hey, friend, are you still playing?”

The NPC, out of tokens, should have left.

Unexpectedly, the NPC refused to leave: “Play? Of course I’m playing! I swear, if I don’t beat that damn NPC today, I’m not leaving. Just wait—I’ll be back after I buy more tokens!”

Yan Jiyun hadn’t counted on meeting such a stubborn NPC. How could he shoo him away?

Quickly, he snagged some tokens from the distracted NPC at the neighboring machine and dropped three coins into a game cabinet.

According to the instructions, this shooting game had three rounds. Defeating the final BOSS landed you on the high score leaderboard.

The furious NPC stormed off toward the counter to get more tokens, so Yan Jiyun swiftly started a single-player game.

Qi Feng didn’t appear in round one. Yan cleared out some indistinct-faced NPCs—clearly data constructs, not real human players.

He advanced through the round at a leisurely pace, observing the NPCs inside, and was soon onto the second round. There, he saw a face in sharp focus—a man he’d never seen before, pallid, clutching an injured arm and cowering behind cover when Yan Jiyun’s gun swung his way. Had Yan fired, the man’s other arm wouldn’t have been spared.

Yan Jiyun was certain: this man was a player.

So this arcade machine didn’t just contain Qi Feng but other players, too. If another player wound up in here—trying the game for fun—a careless shot could actually strike someone inside.

He didn’t know how accurate the NPCs were, but any player tough enough to reach a top-tier instance should have pretty good aim.

Yan Jiyun didn’t know which player was hiding but had no intention of slaughtering every player—just clearing out the data NPCs.

He noted the hiding man’s striking features—a beauty mark at the corner of his eye, mid-length hair. If he’d encountered someone like that before, he wouldn’t have forgotten.

Recalling Chu Mo and Wen Ye’s conversation—Qi Feng had chased Su Qiuming inside. Could this man be the notorious Su Qiuming?

His own shooting had been taught by Qi Feng, so he breezed into the third round. Still, he didn’t immediately spot Qi Feng, but knew he must be hidden somewhere.

He carefully cleared the blurry-faced NPC enemies nearby—hesitating to move, since doing nothing would cause the game to issue a warning.

Two minutes in and he still had no idea how to rescue Qi Feng from inside the game. How had Qi Feng been pulled in? Was there some special in-game maneuver required?

Before he could figure it out, the irritable NPC returned with a massive pile of tokens. Seeing Yan Jiyun occupying the seat, with all the other cabinets full, he impatiently began to harangue him.

“Hey, don’t you know how to aim? That big guy is right next to you! Shoot right, man!”

“Do you even know how to play? Let me try.”

“There’s that NPC nobody can hit—take him out, quick!”

After a while, Yan Jiyun managed to spot Qi Feng—but he wasn’t about to take advice from the useless NPC. He needed to find a way to get Qi Feng out—maybe clearing a path would let him exit the game?

The NPC’s nagging continued.

Yan Jiyun snapped, suddenly furious—shouting at the NPC with gun in hand: “Why are you yapping? This is my game; what does my aim have to do with you? Are you nuts? Fuck off, you’re ruining my aim!”

The NPC, already short-tempered, snapped back: “I was here first! What’s wrong with giving you pointers? You’re so touchy; I can’t even speak?”

Yan Jiyun: “Bullshit pointers—more like looking down on me.”

NPC: “I’m not looking down on you. You’re about to die, just accept some advice. Don’t be so petty.”

Yan Jiyun: “It’s because you won’t shut up that I lost! I’ll knock your teeth out if you keep it up!”

Insulted, the NPC fumed: “Fuck you! You think you can threaten me? Don’t you know who’s boss around here?”

Yan Jiyun, shouting back: “I don’t care who’s boss—you’re interfering with my game, you garbage!”

The NPC couldn’t stand the insult and threw a punch. Yan Jiyun was ready, sidestepping to let the blow whiff.

The whole point was to provoke and distract him, to buy Qi Feng time in-game.

Yan Jiyun didn’t know for sure if Qi Feng could escape, but he had to try; at least now he understood the trap Qi Feng was in.

He speculated that a player’s final fate might be to become one of the NPCs inside the arcade, with their real-world spot taken by a replica.

“Replacement” was the key word—if the system got any more twisted, would it let replicants escape and take over the real world, supplanting players? Hopefully not; if the world were overrun by NPCs, the game would be a sham, deceiving its livestream audience.

Pure speculation, granted.

Yan Jiyun kept provoking the fired-up NPC, who—simple-minded and brash—forgot all about gaming and got into an outright scuffle.

The NPC was bulkier, with stretched sweatshirt sleeves bulging over muscular arms. Onlookers whispered that skinny Yan Jiyun stood no chance.

Yan Jiyun had no intention of actually fighting—he was just stalling for time.

He had already cleared some obstacles for Qi Feng in-game; now it was up to Qi Feng’s own legs.

Yan Jiyun could easily handle the burly guy, but Qi Feng only had about a minute to escape.

Inside the game, Qi Feng seemed to sense help from outside. Realizing he didn’t need to dodge bullets, he sprinted for an exit!

Meanwhile, Yan Jiyun and the NPC circled the arcade. The beefy guy was strong, but clumsy; Yan Jiyun outmaneuvered him, and the commotion began to bother other NPCs.

The little black cat, thinking it was all a game, leapt from machine to machine, bouncing around like a mischievous villain.

The arcade filled with disgruntled complaints—players called for staff to catch the unruly cat, but being an NPC itself, little black couldn’t be caught and the chase only added chaos.

Yan Jiyun was still being chased by the musclebound NPC, but the path was blocked by the staff and the cat-chasers. Dodging, Yan Jiyun darted to Qi Feng’s machine and slammed the pause button in the last three seconds.

The screen paused—only the game, not its world. Inside, Qi Feng could still act.

He’d thought of this trick after seeing a staffer pause a machine in back for repairs. If you needed outside help to give players extra time, this was it—otherwise, someone might simply get shot to death or run until they collapsed with no chance to escape.

Still, chaos wouldn’t last. Soon enough, little black would find a hideout, and the staff would settle for keeping it away from the games. The brawl between Yan Jiyun and the NPC would become the new focus.

He continued to circle the arcade, stalling as long as he could. As long as the machine didn’t restart, Qi Feng had time.

How Qi Feng got trapped in there could only be answered when he got out.

Yan Jiyun stopped at the game cabinet again. With the shouting duo separated by staff, nobody else could use the game. The staff brought the surly NPC over, holding Yan Jiyun as well to prevent any more trouble.

The more Yan Jiyun thought about it, the stranger this all seemed—outside the mall, only scattered NPC and player body parts littered a brutal scene, but inside the arcade, there were clean NPCs, and the only carnage happened inside the screen.

Was this an alternate scene in the copy? What did this have to do with Christmas? Where was the rumored Christmas mutant monster?

The staff sought to mediate; the agitated man, having been the first to irritate Yan Jiyun, cooled down, realizing he’d started the issue.

Yan Jiyun stalled for even more time: “Alright, we can settle this. But you hit me in the face—it still hurts. You owe me one thousand in medical costs, or I’ll call the police. There are cameras and you kept hitting me—I guarantee you’ll be detained for a few days.”

There was no way out for his opponent, whose face turned purple with anger—it was, after all, his fault.

NPC: “You provoked me first!”

Yan Jiyun pushed his luck: “What do you mean, I provoked you? You hit me and you think you’re right?”

The NPC refused: “A thousand? No way! You’re not even hurt!”

Yan Jiyun enjoyed this: “Fine. Staff, call the police. I won’t settle, let the cops handle it.”

The employees didn’t want the hassle and quietly urged the NPC to calm down. Intimidated, he relented.

NPC: “I’ll give you five hundred, that’s it.”

Yan Jiyun refused to budge, eking out more time: “Not a cent less. A thousand means a thousand.”

The NPC nearly exploded with anger. How had this spiraled so far?

At last he roared, “Fine, take it! Damn you!”

Yan Jiyun shamelessly insisted: “Cash—no transfers.”

Cursing the whole time, the NPC changed his tokens at the counter and handed over a thick wad of bills.

Yan Jiyun flicked the stack of crisp notes. “Alright, we’re clear. You’re a decent guy, want to be friends?”

Ignoring him, the NPC stormed off, leaving him a pile of game tokens.

Just as Yan Jiyun prepared to relax, the always-silent system appeared.

[Replicants will enter the instance in three minutes.]

Yan Jiyun: ???

So more replicants were coming?

Not a total surprise. The game didn’t just copy one—would it spawn multiple at regular intervals? If every replica had the power of its original, how could any player survive?

No wonder only 29 players remained after so many were dragged in; the rest had been slain by their own doubles.

Yan Jiyun checked his human transformation card. To maintain control, he’d been using one at a time—not stacking. He had just over two minutes left.

Since he was now in human form, would the new copy be human too, or feline?

If it was feline, he could still deal with it by force. If human—he couldn’t be sure of controlling it. Two more of himself would be catastrophic for everyone.

He looked at the paused game machine. Despite earning Qi Feng plenty of time, he hadn’t emerged.

Maybe escaping worked like passing an instance: survive enemy fire, find an exit point.

But maybe pausing the game delayed his escape as well.

Checking his window of time, Yan Jiyun bent down and restarted the machine.

Qi Feng’s figure flashed on the screen—but still he didn’t come out.

Across the top, “GAME OVER” flashed, signaling the player’s loss—Qi Feng’s victory.

But still no sign of Qi Feng.

Seriously, not enough time?

Right then, little black brushed up against his leg.

Yan Jiyun checked again for the countdown for the incoming replicas.

[Replicant arrival countdown: 1:55.]

[Human transformation card time remaining: 1:20.]

He glanced down at little black. “Stay here.”

He loaded more tokens into the machine, to keep the game running, and placed little black right in front of the screen.

Still, he didn’t know how Qi Feng had been dragged into the game. Maybe it was a special mission—complete it to leave.

As he pondered, little black jumped at the screen—and vanished inside.

What the—so that’s how it worked?

Barely waiting for its tail to disappear, Yan Jiyun blurted, “Bring your person out with you!”

[Replicant arrival countdown: 1:20.]

[Human transformation card time remaining: 0:55.]

He looked around—no staff were watching, since, as a nonstandard player, he was practically invisible. Nobody cared.

He grabbed a “Machine Under Repair” placard from a broken cabinet and propped it on the active game.

The rest was up to Qi Feng!

With less than half a minute, he darted into a nearby bubble-tea shop, shifting back to cat form with seconds to spare. Twenty-five seconds later, the countdown ended.

He had no idea how many replicants would appear. Time to go into hunter mode.

Little black reappeared not far away.

He had no clue how many would turn up, or how strong they’d be. All unknowns.

From what he’d observed of the fake Qi Feng, their power shouldn’t be diminished.

He spotted a black cat poking its head out of a nearby corridor.

No hesitation—he sprang forward, sank his teeth into its skull!

The cat yelped, writhing and struggling to escape, but it was sluggish, still clumsy from “birth.” It soon realized it was no match for this fierce boss.

Cat No. 2 finally submitted to Yan Jiyun’s dominance: “Miao-ao~” It had lost to the big boss—damn, it couldn’t win!

Yan Jiyun let go, spat out a mouthful of fur, and gave its head a cuff.

Before he could catch his breath, two more shadows approached, moving with an imposing aura.

Yan Jiyun couldn’t help but curse.

What the hell—two more?

Damn system, making so many copies of him!

Seeing their hostile approach, he couldn’t use the same tactics as before. Crouching low, he braced himself for a fight.

He’d never gotten into so many catfights since becoming a cat. Well, when trouble comes, a cat fights—just a question of who’s got more skill.

Four black cats lined up in the middle of the corridor, growling and staring each other down.

The “Wannabe Human” livestream room exploded!