Cat 295: “Hostage”

Chapter 295: “Hostage”

[Want to Be Human] Live Streaming Room:

“Caramel baby, hahaha, will the master go mad when he hears this?”

“No way, the kitten really does everything possible to seduce his master. I remember he didn’t have much interaction with Su Qiuming during the Christmas instance, but now, seeing Su Qiuming, it’s actually quite interesting.”

“But ladies, don’t forget, Qi Feng and Su Qiuming aren’t exactly on good terms. Didn’t Su Qiuming betray Qi Feng back then? And if Su Qiuming turns out to be interesting, isn’t that a slap in Qi Feng’s face?”

“I just think this little segment is fun. No need to get so worked up about it.”

“I only ship the kitten and his master, nothing else.”

“I don’t ship anyone. I just love the kitten. I want to get whacked in the face by his big fluffy tail! Kitten, can you look at me?”

Yan Jiyun was entirely unaware of the shipping frenzy in the streaming chat. Right now, he was just sitting obediently on Su Qiuming’s wooden horse, watching as Su Qiuming and Qi Feng joined forces to attack another all-purple-haired team.

The purple-haired team stood in perfect formation before Qi Feng’s and Su Qiuming’s respective teams.

At first, they too sought to pick on the weaker ones, never expecting the other two teams would cooperate.

This purple-haired team was made up of fairly well-known players from a guild. If Qi Feng remembered correctly, the guild was called ‘Purple Qi Rising’—all new members would dye their hair purple as a sign of allegiance. This, however, often kept other players at bay. Unexpectedly, a fair number of younger players were drawn to this purple organization, and sometimes they even looked down on jet-black-haired players, thinking their tastes too bland.

The man at the head of the purple-haired group had fair skin and a faint, practiced smile at the corner of his lips, as if he were deliberately maintaining a certain persona.

Yan Jiyun overheard the dark-purple-haired man asking his companion, “Does my smile look devilishly charming?”

His purple-banged companion tossed his unruly purple fringe back at a 45-degree angle and replied, “President, you’re too cool like this! No wonder you’re the guild master. We just can’t do this devilish grin!”

The deep-purple-haired man nodded. “Mm, the way you flick your hair is very much in the spirit of our guild. Keep it up.”

Yan Jiyun, having heard all this, was speechless: “……”

Clearly, this game wasn’t picky about its players. Even seasoned members of the ‘Zang Ai Clan’ have found their way here. Can’t you all take gaming a bit more seriously?

After encouraging his own team, the deep-purple-haired man leveled his sword at Su Qiuming: “I know you’re the president of the Fire Beacon Guild, and I now challenge you on behalf of the Purple Qi Rising Guild!”

Yan Jiyun could only think how bloody juvenile he was. Even the foreign kid beside him could barely stand it, rubbing his arms in discomfort.

“Where’d this overgrown edgelord come from, Brother Ming? Can I go up there and beat him back to where he came from? That purple hair is a real eyesore,” the foreign kid said.

The purple-banged man snorted at him: “You just don’t understand the true meaning of hair dye, little buddy. Don’t learn to exclude others at such a young age. With that mindset, you’d never be accepted into our guild.”

Ahuo chimed in: “I think they look like a bunch of cultists.”

Yan Jiyun wholeheartedly agreed. Indeed, ‘cultists’ described them far better than any other label.

Pre-battle banter was hardly necessary. Qi Feng greatly disliked any sort of dawdling—time was running out. He quietly signaled Qiu Xi, who could reuse his personal skill, to launch a surprise attack on the purple-banged player.

Focused only on trading barbs with the foreign kid, the purple-banged man thought it was him who struck first, so he immediately retaliated.

“Damn, how despicable—trying to sneak attack us! Prepare to taste the wrath of our ‘All Nations Pay Homage’!”

Just hearing that skill name, anyone could tell it was a group attack. And shouting out skill names like that was as juvenile as it got.

With their skill unleashed, Yan Jiyun found himself within its range as well. He couldn’t evade it—all he felt was his blood boiling, his whole body burning up.

“Why am I so hot?”

“It feels like I’m being chewed by ten thousand ants!”

Yan Jiyun’s body was itching all over. He scratched at his fur with his paws, as if he were having an allergic reaction—a thoroughly miserable sensation. To make matters worse, the purple-banged man actually laughed at their plight.

Unable to stand it, Yan Jiyun let out two loud wails.

Qi Feng, keeping a constant eye on them, saw that while Su Qiuming said nothing, at least he was still bodily in control.

Lest Su Qiuming collapse too quickly for him to save Yan Jiyun, Qi Feng called out, “Su Qiuming, you alright? My cat isn’t dropping down with you.”

Su Qiuming was clearly in pain—sweat beading on his brow, gritting his teeth at the purple-banged man. “Not dead yet,” he replied.

Qi Feng, satisfied with his nod, said, “Good. Then I won’t come over to grab Caramel. Make sure you hold onto him.”

The purple-banged man remarked, “Group skills can only be used once, but this worked well enough, hahaha. Looks like this round, we’re gonn—” win.

He never finished. His whole body suddenly went stiff. No longer controlling his wooden horse, he toppled over.

Qiu Xi, as ever, remained humble and behind the scenes. The skill he’d used took effect: his personal ability was called ‘Talks Too Much’—the more the enemy talks, the greater the stacking poison. If, during the skill’s duration, the target spoke more than twenty words, they’d be paralyzed completely. The purple-banged man succumbed to his own verbosity.

The itching faded from Yan Jiyun. He hated that helpless sensation—why had his experience card lost its effect so suddenly?

No, this dependency on the experience card was wrong. To let yourself rely on it meant you’d start to depend on the game itself, start wanting to stay. Better to die a natural feline death than be tormented to death within the game.

Thanks to the skill’s effects, his mind had spun chaotically for a couple of seconds. Once he came to, the Purple Qi Rising players were already skirmishing with Qi Feng and Su Qiuming’s teams. In the end, they suffered for having fewer players and for attacking too directly—between Qi Feng and Su Qiuming, both schemers to their core, the enemy was easily dispatched!

Despite their loud bluster, the purple-haired squad lost quickly—proving that neither Qi Feng nor Su Qiuming was anyone to trifle with.

Now, a new problem emerged for Qi Feng and Su Qiuming.

In the last fight, Su Qiuming’s team had lost two members, while Qi Feng’s people were all still seated safely atop their wooden horses.

The foreign kid counted the opposing team’s remaining members and began reporting to Su Qiuming: “This isn’t right. Didn’t they barely put up a fight? We lost two, but their team’s intact.”

Ahuo said, “You’re right. They still have eleven people. But, you know, Brother Feng has a nickname you don’t know, kid.”

The foreign kid: “What kind of nickname is worth mentioning? He’s an old player, been around for over three years, but never dared join the high-tier arena.”

Ahuo: “It’s not that he doesn’t dare.”

The foreign kid: “So what’s this amazing nickname?”

Yan Jiyun pricked up his ears—he wanted to know as well. Hurry up, Ahuo!

Ahuo, as if hearing Yan Jiyun’s silent plea, explained: “He’s called the Guardian. Any teammate who follows his commands has a very high chance of survival.”

The foreign kid: “No way.” Lowering his voice, he asked, “Then why didn’t you stick with the Guardian?”

Ahuo, earnest as always, replied, “Because the Guardian is too strong. If you rely on him too much, you’ll die if you ever have to go it alone.”

The foreign kid tutted. “Guess you’ve got a point.” Actually, Ahuo’s logic wasn’t wrong.

Guardian?

Yan Jiyun’s eyes immediately lit up, his neck stretching upward until the top of his head nudged Su Qiuming’s chin.

Su Qiuming complained, “Kitten, sit down. You’re getting fur all over my chin.”

Yan Jiyun thought to himself that this man totally didn’t appreciate a cat’s fur. If it were the Guardian Qi Feng, he’d be rubbing his chin on Yan Jiyun’s head already—it felt wonderful. This guy just didn’t know what he was missing. Well, he’d regret it soon enough.

But now wasn’t the time for that. As soon as Yan Jiyun finished grumbling, he found himself turned into Su Qiuming’s “hostage.”

Su Qiuming showed no restraint toward Qi Feng: “Qi Feng, if you still want your cat, how about conceding right now? I have more people. You can’t win.”

Qi Feng: “How do you know I can’t?”

Su Qiuming pressed, “Because all your teammates can only cower under your wing. They’ll never grow.”

Yan Jiyun almost wanted to spin around and spit on Su Qiuming. Qi Feng’s teammates all had their own survival skills—they didn’t need him protecting them every day.

Qi Feng: “You’re overthinking it. My teammates are stronger than I am.”

Su Qiuming looked to the “Yan Jiyun” curled up in the corner: “You mean Yan Jiyun? He’s interesting, I grant you, but he’s still just a newcomer—and still needs your protection.”

Yan Jiyun snorted to himself, nostrils flaring. Why did Su Qiuming’s words just infuriate him every time? If this guy turned into a cat, Yan Jiyun would have taught him a lesson by now.

The “Yan Jiyun” in question dared not speak up. He couldn’t guess why a guild leader like Su Qiuming would deliberately single him out.

Seeing Yan Jiyun go silent, Su Qiuming only felt more convinced. “See? He can’t even refute me.”

Both Yan Jiyun himself and the “Yan Jiyun” persona wished Su Qiuming would stop looking at him. If this went on, his cover would be blown, and all his time squatting here would have been for nothing.

It was at this moment Qi Feng stepped in to back up “Yan Jiyun,” his voice gentle: “Jiyun, stay by my side later. Let Su Qiuming see what kind of teammates I pick.”

The “Yan Jiyun” who suddenly had no way out wore a bitter expression. Was he being sent to his death? Had his identity as an infiltrator been exposed?

He risked another glance at Qi Feng, who was already assigning tasks to his squad.

Everyone braced themselves.

The showdown between the two teams was imminent.

Yan Jiyun could only anxiously watch the time ticking down in the game’s upper-right corner. With two minutes left, whichever team had more members would claim higher points and win—a rule announced by the little girl.

Just then, Yan Jiyun lay atop Su Qiuming’s wooden horse. Although Su Qiuming claimed him as a “hostage,” he hadn’t mistreated the cat—he hadn’t, for example, thrown him into a black hole to ensure his death. Instead, he carried Yan Jiyun straight toward Qi Feng himself, the distance shrinking rapidly between all three.

“Today, it’s do or die,” Su Qiuming declared. “Brother, one last round—let’s go!”

Skills began to fly chaotically between the two sides. The “Yan Jiyun” persona was itching to take Qi Feng out amidst the chaos. By now he knew the captain was the team’s pillar—take him down, and they’d lose. A loss would mean success for his undercover mission, after all.

Suddenly, his wooden horse was rammed from behind by Qi Feng. The horse jolted forward, sending him charging unhesitatingly toward Su Qiuming.

Su Qiuming’s horse veered aside, narrowly missing, and Su Qiuming lashed out with a kick. Seeing an opening, Yan Jiyun extended his claws—he was going to scratch the face off this fake!