Cat 299: A Fierce Cat at Home

Chapter 299: A Fierce Cat at Home

At this moment, the two small animals lying before Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng were actually two cats—one white, one orange.

The game had treated them rather kindly. Compared to the other players, who had been assigned brown bears, adult pandas, or even snakes and rats as their “small animals,” theirs seemed positively normal. Yan Jiyun had nothing to complain about.

Looking across the field of creatures—so many of which belonged only in a zoo—his own animals appeared delicate and unremarkable. This filled Yan Jiyun with immense relief.

Their task should be easy to complete.

Aside from relief, Yan Jiyun began to ponder the mission for the third round. With his usual luck, it was hard to believe his assignment could be this simple, as if someone had been guiding him all along to this third round, to the place where the final grand prize awaited.

He scanned the animal cards assigned to other players. The stronger the player, the tougher and more formidable their assigned animal. The task was possible, but it would certainly be harder for those who got real beasts than for a player assigned genuinely gentle animals. Take Su Qiuming: in previous challenge runs, he and his teammates would surely have made it to the top three, but now his target was a savage wolf, and completing ten tasks in a short time was all but impossible.

Yan Jiyun observed the situation around him; no one else seemed to grasp it as profoundly. He now keenly needed to accomplish all ten tasks—he wanted to claim first place.

“Can you help me win first place?” Yan Jiyun asked Qi Feng. In his current form, taking first was nearly impossible alone.

Qi Feng answered in all sincerity, “I can.”

Yan Jiyun, seeing his seriousness, decided to be forthright. “The reason I want first place is to figure something out.”

Qi Feng speculated, “You want to understand why you turned into a human?”

Yan Jiyun replied, “Not just that. There are many details. Do you think this round of the Pinnacle Tournament is harder or easier compared to the previous ones?”

Qi Feng was quick to conclude, “Not hard. In fact, it’s simpler than any Pinnacle Tournament I’ve attended.”

Yan Jiyun scratched his chin with a paw. “Doesn’t that seem odd to you? Why would the game suddenly become so easy?”

Qi Feng said confidently, “That’s why you want to come in first.” He, too, had his own theories about the game’s sudden simplicity.

The two seized a rare moment when no other players were around to exchange key information.

Yan Jiyun said, “Right, there’s no way the game would lower its difficulty without cause.” He suspected the entire Pinnacle Tournament was somehow designed around him.

Qi Feng replied, “I understand. You want to know why you, as a cat, could enter the game, and how we can leave it—which is exactly what we’ve been pursuing.”

Their objectives were perfectly aligned.

That made things simple.

Qi Feng grabbed the two cats, cowed into obedience by Yan Jiyun’s intimidating presence, and went to find their teammates. At this moment, only close cooperation would quickly propel Yan Jiyun into first place. They could all see that, and surely so could the other players: instead of each trying to complete their own tasks, a team could focus on helping one member finish, which would make the upcoming dungeon runs far more advantageous with the earned rewards.

When the others saw Qi Feng, they noted he carried his own cat on his shoulder and held one white and one orange tabby in his hands. In contrast to the other team members’ “small animals,” his were astoundingly ordinary.

Lan Mobi and others envied him bitterly. Lan himself had been assigned a white male peacock perpetually fanning its extravagant tail—beautiful as a bridal train, but much too large to handle with ease. For a moment, everyone coveted the two simple little cats Qi Feng held.

Qi Feng outlined his plan, “We have to win first place, so next, I’ll need everyone’s help to complete these tasks.”

He had two cats to manage, and one more helping hand would make things easier.

Shi Yan offered, “Brother Feng, let me carry one for you. I’ve got a hamster, so maybe our tasks could overlap.”

So it was arranged. The others had been assigned rather substantial “small animals,” difficult enough on their own—there was no surplus energy for more.

Qi Feng didn’t mind; truthfully, he could complete it all himself.

Yan Jiyun had been assigned the orange cat—a fat cat, too heavy to walk. Qi Feng handed his white cat to Shi Yan.

The third round of the game resembled the fetch-and-deliver quests in the newbie villages of MMO games: scattered throughout the town were task sites for players, as well as places to submit completed quests.

Their task bar indicated precisely where to turn in each completed assignment; as long as the NPC judged the task finished, it would be accepted.

When it came to feline care routines, no one knew the procedures better than Qi Feng. Together with Shi Yan, they took care of both cats and the hamster’s assignments.

While they worked in the pet bathing area, Yan Jiyun crouched nearby to supervise, only slightly bored. After the hamster’s fur was blown dry, it was placed back in its cage. Agile by nature, the hamster tried to wriggle out while Shi Yan was distracted. With nothing else to do, Yan Jiyun kept an eye on it. As it wriggled halfway out, he pinned its little head down with a paw.

Yan Jiyun had thought to call for Qi Feng or Shi Yan but then decided he could handle this himself. He alternated between paws, pressing the hamster down. It squeaked and struggled, but could not escape the cat’s claws, eventually playing dead. Only then did Yan Jiyun let it go.

By the time Shi Yan and Qi Feng returned from bathing the cats, the hamster shivered in terror in the furthest corner of the cage, as far from Yan Jiyun as possible.

[“Want to Be Human” Livestream Chatroom:]

“Hahahahaha, I thought the game would give Cat Cub some super-fierce animal, so he could go on a rampage, but in the end, it’s the hamster getting slaughtered! Poor thing—falling into Cat Cub’s claws is just tragic.”

“Cats are natural enemies of mice! Watching Cat Cub bully the hamster is just the cutest thing ever, hahahaha.”

“Is the next task taking the animals to get vaccinated?”

“Vaccinations are pretty standard. I remember hearing there’s a neutering task—so, I have a crucial question: has Cat Cub been neutered?”

“Oh my god, I don’t know why the word ‘neutered’ just cracks me up!”

“Same here, I just want to laugh. If Cat Cub gets neutered, wouldn’t he just rip his owner to shreds?”

“If he really has been neutered, this ship is even more fun to sail!”

“Help, this chat is full of weirdos!”

Neutering was never on Qi Feng’s list of options. Firstly, it would take too long; secondly, he feared Yan Jiyun wouldn’t be able to resist beating him up.

When Caramel was about eight months old, he’d once thought of getting him neutered. It was said unneutered cats had shorter lifespans. But what stopped him? The fact that his cat had never exhibited mating behaviors; absent such instincts, there was no need.

In just half an hour, they completed nine out of ten tasks. Only one remained.

Their task-completion speed was rocket-fast, already ahead of 99.9% of the on-site competitors.

All the simple assignments had already been scooped up and finished; only the tougher ones remained among the last eleven.

Shi Yan remarked, “My remaining task is pretty straightforward—learning about the natural enemies of small animals.”

Qi Feng said, “Three cats and a mouse—if you turn it in, it should be considered complete.”

Shi Yan eyed him, “You’re up to something, aren’t you?”

Qi Feng replied, “I need to be first.”

Shi Yan nodded, “Understood. I’ll turn mine in right after you. By the way, where’s Yan Jiyun? We’re in the third round already—why hasn’t he shown up?”

It wasn’t just him; the rest of the team was curious, too.

Qi Feng, with no need for a script, lied smoothly, “He and I are working on something. He should be elsewhere for now, but once the game ends he’ll reappear.”

Yan Jiyun: “……” He makes it sound so plausible—the worst part is the team believes him.

Deceiving others is hard; his owner sighed.

The final task Qi Feng chose was sunbathing.

It wasn’t as simple as it sounded—getting two uncooperative cats to bask in sunlight without coercion would be tough.

“They already resisted bathing—why would they agree to sunbathe?” Shi Yan added, “And we can’t force them: no tying them down or dosing them with medicine.”

Qi Feng glanced at Yan Jiyun. “No worries. Caramel should be able to keep them under control.”

Indeed, with Caramel’s current size, simply standing beside the other two cats made him seem imposing and authoritative.

Previously, without a point of comparison, Caramel’s size hadn’t stood out, but beside these two cats—one weighing nine pounds, the other eight—he emanated an undeniable presence.

In the sunlit small park Qi Feng chose in the temporary town, several players were already trying to coax their animals into sunbathing, but most of their creatures were overly rambunctious, creating chaos everywhere.

There were empty benches throughout; Qi Feng and Shi Yan set the cats and hamster on one.

The white and orange cats, both common domestic breeds, were afraid of the black cat and obediently stayed still, basking in the sun.

Once again, Yan Jiyun acted as supervisor. If either cat so much as stirred, he extended a paw or let out a few hisses to scare them back into place.

Shi Yan said sincerely, “Caramel’s got such presence.”

His hamster looked about ready to faint from fright.

Qi Feng replied with pride, “That’s just his way.”

Yan Jiyun: “…” He was just doing his duty, nothing more.

The sunbathing task, with Caramel’s aid, became almost effortless.

Ding—a small mission accomplished. All that remained was to turn the quest in to the NPC.

Qi Feng was in no mood to delay even a second. Nothing mattered more than taking first place. They raced to the final quest-submission NPC with the three cats in tow.

The NPC for final mission submission was a wandering type: at different times he’d appear in different spots.

Five minutes earlier, he was at the plush animal stand; now, who knew where.

Yan Jiyun, however, wasn’t worried. He whispered to Qi Feng, “Not here—go a bit farther, to the beef stall ahead.”

With Shi Yan trailing just a little behind, Yan Jiyun felt safe enough to speak.

Qi Feng quickened his pace at once.

Finally, they saw the boy, basket in hand, arguing with the beef vendor in front of the stall.

Hand on hip, the youth hardly looked rich; he snapped angrily, “How can you short-weight me? Are you running a business or not?!”

The butcher just shrugged, utterly shameless. “You can buy or not, my scale’s fine. You asked for two taels, this is all you get. There’s no extra.”

Yan Jiyun leapt down from Qi Feng’s arms and hopped onto the meat table, swiping the butcher across the face with a paw.

Qi Feng swiftly snatched up the cat and followed up with a punch to the butcher. “How could you cheat customers? Even my cat can’t stand it!”

Shi Yan: “…” Is your cat just naturally aggressive? Does it have to attack everyone on sight?

The butcher, equally furious and afraid, could only make amends and weigh out the right portion.

Beaming, the youth said, “Are you here to turn in your quest?”

Qi Feng replied, “Yes.”

But the boy bent down, lifting the black cat with joy. “Thanks for bringing my cat back.”

Qi Feng: “???” Did you grab the wrong cat? That’s mine!