Six pairs of cat eyes were glued to the computer screen. The more exciting the gameplay, the harder they swung their tails.
In the blink of an eye, Ares and the 5 other supercats had been busy battling for more than 18 hours straight. Sparks of excitement continued shooting out of their bloodshot eyes. Despite their physical exhaustion, they remained br.i.m.m.i.n.g with determination and perseverance to complete their mission
"It"s coming! It"s time for us to fight Andariel!" Gaia raked his fingers through his fur and could not believe how far they had progressed.
The male ragdoll, Caesar, offered a word of caution, "Be careful. Let"s use a town portal scroll first."
On the screen was a fully equipped female mage wandering about the dimly lit monastery. The character was surrounded by a sea of shadows that could turn into monsters at any moment. Other than that, blood trails, dead bodies, and skeleton also littered the monastery grounds. This sight alone sent s.h.i.+vers down the cats" spine.
After 18 hours of non-stop fighting, Ares and gang had finally reached the first boss in Diablo 2.
Catherine and Diana were completely indifferent to Diablo 2"s gameplay. They grew sick of it from just watching the guys play for less than half an hour. In their eyes, Diablo 2 could not hold a candle to the thought-proving plot of Downtown Abbey.
Amongst the six cats, only Ares and Fūjin had the privilege to enjoy the full gaming experience. The other 4 cats could only huddle around the screen and watched with envy.
Actually, Zhao Yao was also hiding in the dark, observing their behavior from afar.
"Hmph, I guess it"s natural for them to fall in love with these computer games after achieving human-like intelligence. They would never be able to resist the temptation from a cla.s.sic like Diablo 2."
Memories of his time playing Diablo 2 flooded Zhao Yao"s mind as he watched the cats played the game. He could not help but reminisce the good old times when he observed the cat destroying the monsters, collecting the equipment and preparing for the ultimate fight against the boss.
During its heydays, Diablo 2 had throngs of fans flooding to it the moment they had their free time. The inexplicable exhilaration you derived from killing a monster or from picking up an armor left the gamers hungry for more, feeding their desire and addiction for the game. It seemed like the six cats standing in front of him had also fallen for it.
"However …" Zhao Yao corked his head and observed Catherine and Diana dying from boredom. He thought, "Maybe I need another kind of computer game to attract the female cat"s attention." Naturally, Zhao Yao realized that supercats had plenty of opportunities to play computer games in other places. However, he already had a plan to address this problem …
Following an ear-splitting scream, the boss for the first stage, Andariel, finally collapsed to the ground. Dozens of s.h.i.+ny treasures were scattered all over his dead body. Ares excitedly clicked on the mouse to collect them all.
"Meowhahaha, there are so many golden armors!"
"Let"s pick them up and see what we got!"
"Yay! Leveled up! We can add some points to our abilities!"
At this moment, the holy light descended from the heavens and cast its holy glow on the laptop. Immediately, Ares and Fūjin had lost control over the laptop.
"Excellent. You have completed your mission. As promised, I will arrange for your departure from this world in an hour"s time. This would allow …"
"Who wants to leave this place?" Ares roared with anger shooting out of his bloodshot eyes. He exclaimed, "Return us the laptop. We only just defeated the boss and have not even picked up the weapon and armor he left behind!"
Ares continued, "We can talk about leaving this place some other time! Just return us the laptop now!"
Likewise, Gaia collapsed to the floor and began kowtowing to Zhao Yao. Gaia pleaded, "G.o.d, please give us a few more laptops!"
With the curl of his lips, Zhao Yao acquiesced to their requests. Nine laptops and nine portable generators began to slowly descend from the sky with a mysterious glow emanating from them. These were the items Zhao Yao bought online while he was busy settling the stray cats" home. Zhao Yao bought them to create his perfect supercat haven.
Excitement poured out of their eyes as they watched the nine laptops slowly descend from the sky. They instantly switched on their individual laptops and waited excitedly for Diablo 2 to load up.
Ares and Fūjin which had shared the original laptop glanced at each other with a creepy smile.
Ares sauntered to the laptop in front of him and remarked, "Fūjin, everyone now has a laptop to themselves. You no longer have to share with me and can finally play on your own."
Fūjin pranced forward and pressed his paw against the cover of their original laptop and sn.i.g.g.e.red, "Boss, let me use this old laptop. You should be using the brand new one instead."
Ares sensed something fishy and squinted his eyes into a line before asking, "Fūjin, are you trying to take this wizard account from me and claim it as your own?"
Fūjin instantly lowered his head in shame with his ears pressed against his face. He did not dare to defy his leader which he had served for such a long time. However, he began quivering with indignance when memories of that character swarmed into his head. He retorted, "Boss, I have put in my heart and soul into this account as well. I can"t just let you take it away from me!"
Moments later, Fūjin was seen using the brand new laptop with his head covered in bruises. A thought sprang into his head, "Hmph, he could have just told me politely. Why does he always have to resort to violence? I"ll just give you this account but I"ll create and train an even stronger character!" With this thought lingering in his head, he had already gotten to his battle position: his hind legs resting on the mouse pad and front paws handling the keyboard.
Zhao Yao burst into laughter and shook his head at this ridiculous scene. He secretly crept behind Ares and attached a collar to his neck.
He wasn"t just blindly watching the supercats play for the past 18 hours. Actually, he had been casting and sealing an illusion into a collar - the one Ares was currently wearing.,
The illusion sealed within it was very simple and straightforward. There were only two effects. Firstly, neither cats nor humans could detect the existence of the collar. Secondly, it would make Ares forget about the existence of his right hind leg.
Hence, when Ares cast his deflective field and tried to encapsulate his entire body within it, he would always forget about his right hind leg. This provided an opening for Zhao Yao"s illusion to penetrate even when Ares had used his power.
After settling all the issues within the extradimensional belly, Zhao Yao finally left the place with a satisfied smile plastered on his face.
Next, he cast an illusion on Matcha, Dust Ball and himself as they made their way towards the dugout. Once they were there, Zhao Yao carefully attached the collar to Dust Ball"s neck.
Zhao Yao instructed Dust Ball, "Dust Ball, focus your thoughts into this collar and unleash the power to its full potential." Zhao Yao had given this much consideration before he decided to hand control over to Dust Ball. After all, Matcha had the tendency to get a little playful from time to time, leaving Dust Ball as the best option.
Another factor which Zhao Yao had considered was to preserve the mysterious aura shrouding Matcha"s existence. This aura could be intensified by lessening the number of times Matcha visited the dugout.
It was a herculean task for Zhao Yao to create a mysterious and powerful image for Matcha. He did not want his efforts to go to waste if they found out Matcha"s true nature from their daily encounters.
Dust Ball grew rather curious towards the collar and took a few sniffs at it. As the obedient cat, she complied with Zhao Yao"s instructions and implanted her consciousness into it.
Immediately, the illusion within the collar was activated and an invisible sound wave swept across the dugout. With the dugout as the epicenter, a sphere of radius 100 meters was encapsulated within the illusion.
"The area that has been encapsulated within the illusion would be our base"s core position."
Under the effects of the illusion, the appearance of the area surrounding the dugout had changed considerably. Whenever any cats or humans came near to the dugout, all they would see was layers upon layers of rocks and gravels. Even if they reached their hands out to touch it, they would only feel the jagged edges of the solid rocks and would never detect the presence of the dugout.
If the intruder decided to ignore his sense of sight and touch and continued down the path, he would enter the region that was engulfed by the illusion which would rob him of his five senses.
This layer of defense was enough to deter more than 99% of all intruders. It would also hide its existence from the eyes of all pa.s.sersby.
If any supercats wished to leave this core location, they would have to seek Dust Ball"s permission before she could deactivate the illusion and allowed them to leave.
Currently, Zhao Yao had no plans of allowing supercats and humans from the outside world to come into contact with the cat nation that he had established. Or maybe it had to wait until Zhao Yao grew stronger.
The final layer of defense was a beautiful place. It was a scenic forest accompanied by blue skies and a magnificent waterfall which looked like a scene taken directly from an art masterpiece.
Zhao Yao had even incorporated the theme of day and night within it, changing the scenery every 12 hours.
Other than that, the person trapped in the illusion could even see cl.u.s.ters of snow mountains and a borderless sea in the far horizons. However, they would never make it there as the illusion prevented them from doing so.
All in all, the area of illusion could be divided into three sectors: the outer rock area, the area where they are robbed of their 5 senses and the scenic central area. It was the most convoluted illusion Zhao Yao had ever created. Hence, he instantly fell asleep the moment he sealed the illusion within the collar.
Matcha and Dust Ball stared dumbfoundedly at the magnificent scene staring right at them. The beautiful mountain ranges and the spectacular surroundings left them in awe.
With a gleeful smile on his face, Zhao Yao explained, "Ordinary cats can only play outside the sphere of illusion. Only supercats could enter this place."
Meanwhile, Aunty w.a.n.g had been tasked to take care of the ordinary cats roaming along the boundary of the hideout, further adding a layer of defense.