"Meow"
He called out twice and found that his voice had indeed turned into a cat's meow.
This was quite a novel experience. From the moment he realized he was a cat, Gu Zhan couldn’t figure out how to use his four legs.
A small black cat, even among cats, suddenly fell to the side of the road.
A car passed by, splashing water onto the black cat's face, making its already unkempt fur look even more ragged and messy.
The black cat seemed startled, moving its newly acquired limbs with difficulty as it tried to inch its way to the roadside.
At that moment, an orange cat emerged from a trash can, saw the scene, and mocked it with a "meow."
"Meow," how silly.
Gu Zhan: "…"
He struggled to control his limbs and walked toward the roadside.
Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, he heard a rush of wind behind him; a car whizzed past, splashing muddy water all over him.
The little cat jumped back, but it was too late.
The mud splattered all over him, which felt quite unpleasant, making every hair damp and sticky.
Instinctively, Gu Zhan shook his fur, trying to shake off the water.
Just then, someone from behind grabbed his body, easily lifting him up and changing direction.
The cat let out a shrill cry, but the man chuckled, "You poor little thing."
With limited visibility, Gu Zhan couldn’t see the man’s face; he could only feel that it was a man… From the moment this man appeared, the surroundings changed. The houses rapidly receded, quickly compressing into a small blur.
However, in the cat's world, there was no room for irrelevant details; from his perspective, he could only feel a warm embrace wrapping around him.
Gu Zhan looked up, straining to see the unfamiliar chin… Above it were a pair of familiar eyes.
The man smiled at him, and the malice in his gaze felt all too familiar.
It was that hint of malice that transformed the entire warm and harmonious scene into something eerie.
Gu Zhan felt like he was caught in a trap.
It was him.
That feeling surged up again; it had always been him.
"Meow!"
The little black cat's fur bristled in an instant, attempting to escape from his embrace but was pressed down by a large hand.
That hand was so big it could almost cover the entire black cat.
The man gently petted the black cat's head a couple of times, enjoying its bristled fur, and said with a smile, "Little kitty, you can't run away."
— Got you.
— Now, it’s time for the plot.
The man carried the little black cat across the street, stopping in front of an inconspicuous small house.
The door swung open, and a familiar voice called out, "You’re back."
It was Xu Xingzhi.
Or rather, a younger version of Xu Xingzhi.
The man exchanged a few words with Xu Xingzhi and took Gu Zhan into the room.
Then he took him to the bathroom.
With a "swoosh," the faucet turned on.
"You're so dirty, little thing; let's wash you a bit."
In the sticky rain, the unpleasant sound of dripping water made the little cat's fur bristle, and with a pitiful cry, it tried to escape.
But it was caught by its hind leg and pressed into the corner.
"Meow!"
"Meow!!!"
Not long after, Xu Xingzhi's voice came from outside: "What are you doing?"
The man replied, "Helping the little cat take a bath; it’s too dirty."
Xu Xingzhi said, "Take it slow; a newly arrived pet can be quite nervous, so don't scare it."
"I understand," the man said, gradually slowing his actions.
In fact, he had only washed the cat's four paws. The cat was too stubborn, refusing to let him touch anywhere other than its limbs, especially the belly… just a little reach would reveal its sharp teeth.
Forget it, forget it, this little cat had quite a temper.
The man closed the bathroom door and turned to find a towel.
Finally, he brought the wet little cat out of the bathroom.
Gu Zhan: "…"
Although this was just a plot, the cat was still Gu Zhan himself.
The man seemed to have something else to do. After roughly drying the little cat, he tossed him into the room and left alone.
Gu Zhan finally had a chance to act independently and started bouncing around the room.
This cat's body was truly hard to control. After much effort, he managed to jump onto the table but fell down because he couldn’t grab the edge.
As he fell, he accidentally brushed against a cup on the edge of the table, and with a loud crash, the glass shattered everywhere.
"Meow!" Gu Zhan was startled, and there was a commotion outside the door.
This wouldn't affect the plot, would it?
Instinctively, Gu Zhan found a narrow place to hide. Before long, the door was pushed open, and the man who had taken him home entered.
"Mimi?"
The man began searching the room aimlessly.
Gu Zhan, hiding under the cabinet, felt disdain—who are you calling Mimi?
The cat's meow from under the cabinet soon caught the man's attention, and he crouched down to make eye contact with the cat.
However, maybe due to the poor eyesight of felines, Gu Zhan couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, only making out a pair of familiar yet strange eyes in the blur.
Time began to lose meaning from that day on; a cat wouldn’t know when the sun rose and set.
Days passed, and Gu Zhan vaguely realized that the little cat was living a carefree life in this house.
Not only did the man who took him in spoil him, but even Xu Xingzhi treated him with great affection.
The little cat was quite the little tyrant at home, enjoying a good time for quite a while.
But just as Xu Xingzhi had said, it wasn’t long before his son got into trouble.
The accident happened right in front of their house. The little cat squeezed out through the window, witnessing a person lying on the ground and a crowd of onlookers nearby.
Someone whispered, "That guy was always a bad egg; he was never a good person since childhood."
“If only they were a little kinder, they wouldn’t have hit someone in the middle of the night and just left him here…”
“If a kind passerby had helped and taken him to the hospital, maybe he wouldn’t have died.”
Countless people gathered around the dead person, whispering among themselves.
The kitten didn’t understand the rules of the human world; it only heard a few keywords.
“Kind person,” “bad guy,” “wouldn’t die”...
The kitten simply connected these words together and came to a conclusion.
If there were no bad people in the world, terrible things wouldn’t happen.
Its caretaker wouldn’t die.
With the kitten’s simple mind coming up with such good ideas, once it figured all this out, Gu Zhan’s body became uncontrollable...
With a death at home, Xu Xingzhi had no time to pay attention to the kitten his son had brought back. One morning, the cat escaped from the room.
...
Gu Zhan’s world quickly returned to darkness. He stood still for a moment, suddenly sensing something ahead that was slightly trembling.
The trembling was rhythmic, tightening and loosening... accompanied by an indistinct purring sound.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Gu Zhan could see that what was lying in front of him was a huge black cat.
It was curled up, its mouth hidden under its paws, with only its ears sticking out.
The breathing and purring sounds came from it.
Perhaps sensing Gu Zhan’s movements, the black cat lifted its head, its pair of emerald green eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
Each eye was as large as Gu Zhan's head.
Instead of the expected meow, the black cat spoke in a voice even colder than Gu Zhan had imagined: “This is the origin of it all.”
Gu Zhan looked at the mountain-like black cat before him, noticing that many things seemed to be flashing above its head.
They were those tags.
Looking directly into the black cat’s eyes made Gu Zhan feel dizzy.
But he had no mood to explain what was right or wrong to the black cat; he just looked at the tags above its head, thinking about how to put them back.
The town clearly seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Removing the tags should restore this place after a period of chaos.
Just then, the black cat suddenly spoke, “I know what you’re thinking. These matters have nothing to do with you. If you don’t interfere with these trivialities, I can send you away.”
“Send away?” Gu Zhan asked, “Just me alone?”
The black cat fell silent, knowing what Gu Zhan wanted, but it was reluctant to let go of so many at once.
Gu Zhan continued, “Moreover, the person who raised you doesn’t seem to be dead.”
“What?”
—
【Why did the screen disappear】
【Clearly separated from teammates, but the personal livestream hasn’t started】
【Couldn’t have died immediately, right?!】
In the livestream, comments flowed through one after another, and the audience's interest continued to rise.
Viewers were discussing where Gu Zhan had gone.
Meanwhile, in front of the camera, Yu Yezhou was anxiously waiting.
He circled around the deep black pit several times, finally clenching his fist, gritting his teeth, and turning to leave.
No, he couldn’t waste time here.
He needed to find Xu Yu and think of another way.
After Xu Yu left, he had left them a marker. Yu Yezhou quickly followed the markers to find Xu Yu.
Xu Yu was leaning against a corner of a room, closely watching the inside.
When Yu Yezhou approached, it startled him.
Xu Yu frowned, “What are you doing here?”
Yu Yezhou recounted what had just happened, and Xu Yu’s frown deepened: “How could you let him go down?”
Yu Yezhou rubbed his head in frustration, “I don’t know; that black hole... seemed off. I couldn’t think clearly standing beside it.”
“Forget it.” Xu Yu gave up on blaming Yu Yezhou. He pointed to the room ahead and said, “They moved Yang Lin in here.”
Yu Yezhou leaned in to look, but saw that the room had no furnishings, only stack after stack of large boxes. Inside the boxes, many things were scattered on the floor, all seemingly little dolls like themselves.
Yu Yezhou frowned, “Are these... the townspeople? Where exactly are we?”
The surface world... the inner world... it seemed like neither.
Xu Yu said, “The logic of the instance is chaotic; there’s no need to think about where we are, but those people surely represent the townspeople. However, after having their tags removed, they can no longer be considered complete humans.”
As he spoke, he shook his head and muttered, “Damn, it seems like I’ve been affected too.”
Then, the two fell silent.
After a brief silence, Yu Yezhou wiped his face, forcing himself to regain his composure. “Let’s go; maybe we can figure out a way to rescue Yang Lin first.”
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