Cat 207: Disliked

Chapter 207 Disliked

The two of them hid behind the wall, observing the situation outside.

Yan Jiyun could see it clearly—they weren’t actually hidden behind a wall, but rather inside a cubical, like those used for storing toys.

He poked Qi Feng’s shoulder. “These giants are much smaller than they seemed when we watched them from inside the glass dome.”

They could no longer see the glass dome; after coming through the gap, all they saw was one large cubicle—the very place they found themselves in now.

Qi Feng said, “I guess that glass dome had a magnification function. From inside, we saw them as giants, but once we came out, everything returned to its normal state. The giants aren’t as huge as we’d imagined. By the way, after we left the glass sphere, the quest updated.”

Yan Jiyun whispered in his ear. “There’s a new quest?”

Qi Feng nodded. “Yes. Find the Christmas present.”

Yan Jiyun said, “So that’s the final task.”

Qi Feng replied, “It is.”

The main questline of this level was now nearly complete. As long as they finished this last task, they should be able to get out. But that last quest was particularly tricky—before the giants, they seemed as puny as ants.

Yan Jiyun muttered, “I wonder how the others are doing.”

Neither of them knew whether they could complete the task in a short amount of time. It wasn’t that they doubted themselves, but their time was limited, and they still had no idea what this place was. They needed time to search. Fewer people meant a slower search; more people would make it go much faster.

Qi Feng said, “If they can manage to defeat the replicants, maybe they can help us with this problem.”

Yan Jiyun responded, “And what if they don’t make it in time? We’ve seen there’s more than one wave of replicants. When we gathered everyone to deal with the replicants, those copies would unite to deal with us too. If Qi Yunchu’s group is unlucky and runs into the replicants, they might not make it.”

Qi Feng turned to him. “Hmm, then we’ll have to rely on ourselves. Do you have any defensive items left?”

Compared with cooperating with other players, they should first evaluate their own combat strength.

None of them stood a chance against the giants before them—their offensive weapons were surely as good as useless now.

Yan Jiyun had barely used any of his items so far. Since entering this level, he’d deliberately avoided relying on what the dungeon provided—first, to reduce such dependence, and second, because his own situation was rather special. He had brought few offensive items this time; the rest were medicines and defensive equipment, which should all come in handy.

He answered truthfully, “Yes, I do. Let’s discuss what we should do. At the moment, I haven’t the slightest clue.”

Looking around, they recognized everything here, but everything had been magnified dozens of times. Even just picking out a Christmas gift would require them to physically move it.

Qi Feng said, “No rush. Let’s observe the environment for now.”

Yan Jiyun glanced left and right. Their current position was neither high nor low, so they couldn’t see what was above, and had no idea what was below either.

He pointed up and down. “Should we go up or down?”

Qi Feng replied, “For now, it makes no difference. I want to know which giant we’re supposed to target.”

They could see three giants, each a different type.

Yan Jiyun recalled the owner of the giant eye that peered into the glass dome. “I remember—the one looking at the toys was a young man.”

Qi Feng nodded. “But look, there isn’t a young man here. What does that tell us?”

With this reminder, Yan Jiyun said, “I almost forgot. This could be a gift shop, and those looking in might just be customers.”

Though the items here all appeared gigantic compared to their bodies, a glance across the opposite side revealed a neatly arranged giant shelf of products.

This was a gift shop. Aside from Christmas snow globes, other glass spheres abounded. Each was designed differently—on the opposite side, there was a Santa Claus train-shaped music box snow globe, a snowflake globe, a carousel music box adored by little girls, and so on—countless varieties.

The Christmas music they’d heard intermittently while in the mall didn’t actually come from this shop, but from another snow globe on the same shelf they occupied. The music box played Christmas tunes whenever its switch was flipped.

The two of them patiently hid for a little while longer, and soon had a rough idea of their surroundings.

Qi Feng said, “Yes, we’ve been inside one of the snow globes in this shop all along. Every time the lights come on, it could be a shopper coming to pick out a gift. The three giants might just be customers here to select presents.”

Yan Jiyun pondered, “That’s odd. If the main quest is to pick out a gift, we’ve never really known who the protagonist is. I guess the first players who entered probably went the wrong way from the start. Generally, there should be a main character driving the plot, but this level has none.”

Qi Feng replied, “In the beginning, everyone thought finding Christmas gifts in the mall was the answer, and they did discover some items.”

“That makes sense. One way or another, we’re here now.” Yan Jiyun stared at the snow globes on the opposite shelf. “Do you think it’s possible that each of those globes could be a dungeon world of its own?”

Qi Feng considered this. “It’s not impossible.”

Yan Jiyun had a new thought. “If one of those snow globes fell and broke, would the other players and their replicants emerge? My guess is the replicants only exist inside the globes and can’t get out.”

Qi Feng quickly caught on to his train of thought. “I get it—you want to smash the globes?”

Yan Jiyun said, “But doing that would defeat the purpose of searching for a Christmas gift.”

Qi Feng replied, “But look—every item here is a Christmas present. With no narrative line, there’s no protagonist. If we really need a gift recipient, who would it be? I think he’s right here in the shop. See the giant with the feather duster? He’s probably the store owner.”

Yan Jiyun saw him too. The other two giants were a young woman, just over twenty, and a boy of seven or eight. But these two didn’t look like they’d be receiving gifts—the store owner somehow seemed less likely. In fact, none of them wanted to give a present to any of the giants.

Yan Jiyun shook his head. “It wouldn’t matter who we gave it to. None of them look like the main character.”

Qi Feng said, “Agreed about smashing the snow globes, but how would we do it?”

Yan Jiyun glanced at the globes filling the shelf and shook his head. “At the moment, I can’t think of a way.”

Qi Feng, however, smiled. “But I have an idea.”

Yan Jiyun’s eyes lit up. “Let’s hear it.”

Qi Feng continued, “This shelf holds the snow globes, but on the other side are other items. See where that little boy is squatting?”

Yan Jiyun observed, “He’s looking at toys.”

Qi Feng said, “Look at which toy he’s interested in.”

Yan Jiyun realized, “A remote-controlled plane. You want to use it—”

Qi Feng nodded. “Yes. Now our target is clear.”

Yan Jiyun raised another concern, “But there’s a problem—the remote-controlled airplane is bigger than both of us. Could we even operate it?”

Qi Feng said, “Don’t worry. Let’s go down and take a look first.”

Yan Jiyun admitted, “To be honest, I don’t know how to fly a plane.”

Qi Feng replied, “I do. I’ll handle it.”

Yan Jiyun looked at Qi Feng in admiration, giving him a thumbs-up. “You’re amazing. Is there anything you can’t do?”

Qi Feng cleared his throat, a little embarrassed by the praise. “It’s nothing—you’re great too.”

Their mutual flattery over, the two began to plan their descent from the shelf.

Yan Jiyun crept to the edge of his compartment and looked to both sides. “There’s a decorative rope on the right. We can climb down using that.”

Qi Feng spotted it as well.

With a cluster of cats following, the two slowly made their way toward the thick rope.

If they’d been the size of the giants, the distance would have been trivial, but as they were now, they had all shrunk dramatically.

They and the nine cats carefully and slowly made their way from one compartment to the next, until they reached the rope.

For cats, a thick hemp rope was not a problem—it was easy to grip and less likely to cause a fall; after all, they could even scale water pipes, so a rope like this posed no difficulty.

Qi Feng, confident in his experience, leaped onto the rope first and began climbing down inch by inch, as if rock climbing.

He cautioned Yan Jiyun. “Watch your footing, even on a thick rope you could slip.”

Yan Jiyun replied, “Don’t worry. I won’t die from a fall, I have nine lives.”

Qi Feng retorted, “Do you think you’re Caramel? Don’t be cheeky.”

Yan Jiyun only said, “Oh.” He nearly let something slip but wisely stayed quiet and focused on climbing.

As they descended, they watched carefully for any sign that a giant might come their way.

Their globe had been placed on the fifth shelf; given their size, each shelf was about three meters high—around fifteen meters above ground. A fall from that height was no joke.

They climbed steadily down.

Qi Feng was a bit faster and had already reached the second shelf.

Yan Jiyun, slightly afraid of heights, was still on the third, but he was trying hard.

Suddenly, a muffled sound came from the shelf above—their former compartment was leaking water, dripping steadily out.

The shop attendant, footsteps heavy, started to walk rapidly in their direction!

Qi Feng shouted up, “Jiyun, jump behind the snow globe on the third shelf and hide!”

Yan Jiyun’s legs still wrapped around the rope, his hands gripped so hard they were numb and red.

He wanted to move, but there was a small gap between this stretch of rope and the third shelf.

The giant moved quickly. Qi Feng had already reached the first shelf and hidden himself, but Yan Jiyun was still stuck. Qi Feng tried to pull the rope toward the shelf, but it was far too thick and heavy for them; all he could do was make it tremble slightly.

Yan Jiyun called down, “Hide yourself, you don’t need to help me.”

Gritting his teeth, he shifted his grip, swinging behind the rope to shield himself from view.

Qi Feng warned him, “It’s not safe. The giant could find you.”

Yan Jiyun responded, “I have a way.”

The giant was now only one stride away.

Yan Jiyun edged downward in the rope’s shadow, exactly where the giant’s gaze would not fall.

The shop owner came to the shelf and picked up the snow globe where they’d hidden. “Why is it leaking? It was fine just now—did someone break it while I was in the restroom?”

He surveyed the only two customers in the store. Standing closest to the globe was the young woman; the little boy remained crouched by the planes, with no chance to meddle.

The manager checked under the globe and found a hole in the base. He walked over to the young woman, “Excuse me, did you touch this snow globe just now?”

The girl replied, “No.”

He didn’t believe her. “That’s impossible. This globe’s broken, and you’ve been standing here the whole time. Didn’t you damage it?”

The girl met him coldly, “Please, don’t make baseless accusations. I haven’t even looked at the globe, much less touched it. Feel free to check the security footage.”

Chastened, the manager took the globe to the front desk to review the footage and realized the girl was telling the truth, even offering her an apology.

But that didn’t matter now.

Yan Jiyun finally managed to jump off the rope and land safely, joining Qi Feng.

He wondered aloud, “Wasn’t all the water in the drain gone when we came out?”

Qi Feng replied, “Maybe, but there was no water on the platform when we left. The water must have drained somewhere else—this could be the result of someone else breaking out and causing the overflow.”

Yan Jiyun looked up and caught sight of Chu Mo waving at them from the platform’s edge. “You called it.”

Chu Mo and Wen Ye nimbly jumped down and joined them.

A few minutes later, all four stood in front of two airplanes.

They briefed each other on how they’d escaped from their respective globes.

Chu Mo and Wen Ye’s group had gone another route and indeed run into a legion of replicants. The five of them were scattered, and soon they couldn’t tell who was genuine and who was a copy, so they split up for safety. They too had gone underground, but found no drain until they heard the explosion on the other side, followed by the sound of water—they then located a drain and used a bomb to blow their way out.

Yan Jiyun checked the cat hair tokens in their hands and confirmed they were truly themselves.

Qi Feng explained the current situation and their plan to use the toy airplane to destroy the globes and see if other players were inside.

Chu Mo and Wen Ye had no objections.

Yan Jiyun, full of ambition, was eager to take the co-pilot seat. He’d never flown before, and was a little excited!

But just as he was about to climb in, Qi Feng grabbed him.

Yan Jiyun asked, “Why are you stopping me?”

Qi Feng dragged him away from the plane. “Can you fly it? If not, wait here.”

Yan Jiyun: “…” I’ve… I’ve been rejected.