Cat 266: Every Precaution in Vain

Chapter 266 Every Precaution in Vain

These buildings weren’t built to last.

When Yan Jiyun heard the faint noise overhead, his body reacted before his mind could catch up. Just as the unstable roof above began to collapse, he managed to leap safely away.

Now the roof had come down, and the entire building looked ready to follow. Knowing he only had a short while left in his human form, Yan Jiyun called out across the gap, “I’m fine! Get the car out of this alley now—I’ll find another way around and meet you on the west side before the flames reach it!”

Ninth Master relaxed at the sound of his voice; just moments before, he’d nearly driven the car straight through the debris.

“All right, just be careful! Do you still remember the map?” He didn’t want to leave, but there was no other choice.

“I remember! Get moving!” Yan Jiyun shouted back, then added, “And don’t you dare leave my friend behind.”

Ninth Master grumbled under his breath, “If you burn yourself up, I’ll come back and find you—and burn along with you.”

Yan Jiyun retorted, “I won’t die! Haven’t I told you before? I have nine lives—trust me!”

Actually, he’d said it once to Qi Feng, and once to Ninth Master.

Ninth Master remembered those words and called back, “Not a single life less!”

“Hurry and go, don’t drag this out!” Yan Jiyun urged.

Rather than feeling tense, Ninth Master found himself smiling genuinely for the first time.

All this while, Qiu Xi had been silent. Now he said, “Boss Qi, you have a really good relationship with Brother Yun.”

Perhaps because Yan Jiyun was team leader, Qiu Xi addressed him respectfully as “brother.”

When he was with Qiu Xi, Ninth Master was always reserved, taciturn: “Mm.”

He swiftly backed the car up, entirely focused and moving at speed.

The main road ahead was completely blocked off. Yan Jiyun couldn’t get through, and neither could Ninth Master. They had no choice but to act separately.

After speaking those last words, Yan Jiyun’s experience card finally ran out. From this point, he could only proceed as a cat, human form exhausted, forced to tackle the dangers alone.

Clang!

He dashed westward, but another low building ahead collapsed as the fire claimed it. As the supporting beams below burned away, the upper floors tumbled, one after another.

The surrounding temperature was rising, and Yan Jiyun wondered if it was his imagination—the ground felt almost scalding beneath his feet, like the heated floors of a northern house.

He needed to move—any delay and his fur would be singed clean off, leaving him a bald, shivering cat.

Yan Jiyun remembered the map: on the west side was the Lin family estate, where the smoke was thinner. He slipped through the back window of an unburned shop, then circled around to the front and out to the street.

Ninth Master’s car couldn’t cross the main roads, but Yan Jiyun’s small size and agility let him leap and dart past dangers, his superhuman hearing sharpening his survival chances.

All his focus was on getting out alive.

He wasn’t the only one fleeing—the main street was packed with players running for their lives. At this moment, players and NPCs were easy to distinguish.

“Move, quick! This street’s about to go up next!”

“How is it possible for the buildings to burn so fast? Where are we supposed to run?”

“Didn’t they say we had eight days? Damn it, why are there only two hours left in this instance?!”

Yan Jiyun raced on, avoiding main roads and instead weaving through buildings that had not yet collapsed, taking every shortcut possible.

Shortcuts were fast—but also perilous.

He’d just set a paw on a chair to leap through a window when the leg snapped; he toppled sideways, and the floor beneath him suddenly gave way. Scrambling, he hooked his claws onto a piece of blue floral fabric at the base of a flowerpot and, kicking hard, barely reached the windowsill.

That was close!

It had been a heart-pounding scare, but he didn’t pause—he leapt from one windowsill to the next across the alley.

[Be Human] live chat stream:

“Ahhhhh! That cat nearly gave me a heart attack! How can it be so thrilling?”

“No wonder life seemed so slow and easy before, it was just waiting for our little cat to show us the real danger.”

“Holy crap, the first-person perspective is way more exciting than any rollercoaster!”

“Am I the only one thinking about what the cat said? He told both Qi Feng and Ninth Master he had nine lives. Was he comforting Ninth Master, or hinting at his real identity?”

“Huh? How do you all remember that? I’m so scatterbrained—I can’t recall how many times he’s said that.”

“So, is the cat and Qi Feng a mutual thing?”

“You all are reading too much into it. Why not just hope the cat makes it out of Jiangnan safely—it’s almost completely burnt down.”

Indeed, now only the western edge of Jiangnan Town remained untouched—they still had one narrow path left. But even so, many players had already perished in the fire, perhaps never realizing the true nature of this instance. After all, this was uncharted territory.

The new instance was baffling: players didn’t need to fight for items or NPCs, only to solve the mystery. It wasn’t exactly difficult, nor was it truly easy, but the real challenge started after you learned the truth.

Yan Jiyun saw another player, also moving through buildings. Yan made it out first, but the other was trapped, crushed inside, and as the flames caught him, he let out a terrible scream. No matter how peaceful the town looked, it was still a cruel game. The instance had never intended to let them escape easily.

There were still quite a number of players here, many seemingly unaware of their “paper person” properties, trying to push through the fire directly.

“I used a fire-proof item, why—ah!”

“My skin’s on fire, help! It hurts so much!”

“Are we all made of paper? Why do we burn up just like that?”

Even without checking the live player count, Yan Jiyun knew the numbers were dropping fast.

Maybe he could warn them.

He recalled, in Mr. Qu’s instance, that even as a cat he’d managed to speak to Mr. Qu, who understood him and told him he could use human voice in the instance.

At that time, he’d simply spoken out loud, but since then he hadn’t tried speaking human language in cat form again. As a human, he was paper; as a cat, he was a paper cut-out. But surely he could speak as a person here too.

Ahead were more players searching for an exit. As he passed them, Yan Jiyun leapt into an unburned house and tried to focus on his throat, abandoning the idea of mimicking a meow and just speaking.

“Meow.”

“Meow~”

“Meeowww.”

He tried three times—still just cat sounds. Was he doing it wrong?

During the Qu instance, he’d spoken like a human—there was no difference at all.

“Wait, was that a cat?”

“No idea—let’s follow it. The cats probably know every corner of Jiangnan. They know more ways to escape than we do.”

A few clever ones picked up on his meows and were smart enough to follow.

Yan Jiyun didn’t dwell on speaking as a human—he took the lead, running ahead and letting them follow as he headed west.

One sharp woman matched his thinking.

“That black cat keeps heading west—no fire that way.”

“Then that’s where we should run too!”

“This newb instance is ridiculous! Promised eight days, now barely two hours left—damn!”

“Stop complaining! Keep up with the black cat. He’s fast—if we lose him, we’re finished.”

With them in tow, Yan Jiyun sped up. He wasn’t just escaping; he needed to reunite with Ninth Master. Saving other players was incidental—meeting up with Ninth Master was the priority.

Even though paper people could move silently, there was still friction with the ground, especially for vehicles. While he couldn’t hear Ninth Master’s car at a distance, if he got close enough, he might just catch its sound.

He slipped through a barbershop to a narrow street, where he picked up the squeal of brakes.

On Jiangnan Town’s west side, there were many channels and rivers, which explained why the fire was slower to spread and the temperatures higher here in the heat.

Had Gu Wenzhu and He Yuanle also made it out with Ouyang Pei? Were they too heading west?

If they’d taken a different route, there’d be no way to regroup. From the moment he left the Cheng residence, Yan Jiyun had known he couldn’t meet them again in the tunnels.

Although, Ouyang Pei had the ability to shrink the ground beneath her feet—she ought to be able to get them out quickly and safely.

The players behind him had figured out the right direction; no longer waiting for them, Yan Jiyun vanished ahead, leaping onto the rim of a lotus flower urn, waiting for Ninth Master’s car to appear.

He just hoped Ninth Master wouldn’t drive too fast—if he missed this rendezvous, it’d be difficult to meet up again later.

At last, he glimpsed the old car coming toward him.

There he sat, poised on the urn, with a white-washed wall behind him. With his fur color, he ought to be easy to spot.

As the car approached, he even lifted a paw.

But the car roared straight past without stopping.

Ninth Master—

“Meow!”

Fuming, Yan Jiyun jumped from the urn and took off in hot pursuit.

“Meow!”

Stop for me!

Not a trace of teamwork—after all his careful signaling!

Yan Jiyun sprinted after the old sedan, while several of the players running behind yelled after it. “You dropped your cat!”

Finally, the car screeched to a stop, and Ninth Master pushed open the door. Yan Jiyun caught up at last.

His first instinct wasn’t to complain or seek comfort—he simply leapt up and gave Ninth Master’s face a hard smack with both paws.

Ninth Master’s cool composure slipped. “Caramel, how did you—”

He quickly scooped the panting cat into his arms, all the while wrestling with an idea that had been growing in his mind. Even as he berated himself for his wild thoughts, excitement wormed its way in.

Ninth Master clutched Caramel tightly, whispering in his ear, “Caramel, how did you end up here?” Was it really just coincidence? But how could that be?

Yan Jiyun, breathless from running, rolled his eyes dramatically. In his sulks, he thought: Who’s Yan Jiyun? Never heard of him!

From inside the car, Qiu Xi interrupted Ninth Master’s turbulent thoughts. “Caramel?”

Ninth Master’s mind raced. Qiu Xi had never had legs—he’d never met Caramel. “How do you recognize him? I don’t recall you ever meeting Caramel.”

Qiu Xi answered as if it were obvious: “Isn’t Caramel the cat that belongs to you and Brother Yun?”

Ninth Master cupped Caramel’s forelegs, forcing eye contact. After that wild run, Caramel was panting, his belly rising and falling.

And yet, Ninth Master also remembered—Yan Jiyun had hardly seen Caramel before!

Expression complicated, Ninth Master asked, “So you’re my and Yan Jiyun’s cat?”

Yan Jiyun: “……”

Of all the things he’d prepared for, he hadn’t anticipated Qiu Xi. If he’d known, he wouldn’t have bothered to save him.