"We will begin our new training regime today. We"ll wake at 5 am to practise for two hours. This will ensure that we can still leave for work at 7 am. At 8 am, once we"ve settled down, we"ll do readings together and have a sharing session on what we"ve learnt."
"Readings?" Matcha repeated incredulously.
"I"ve taken the liberty of consolidating articles on PUBG strategies. They"re written by the best players in the world. I"ve named this collection the Chicken Dinner Recipes."
With that, Elizabeth whipped out her phone and sent her carefully curated folder to everyone.
Matcha flipped through the pages at top speed, hardly reading any of it. He was alarmed by the sheer volume of content.
"When did you put this together?" he asked.
"While you guys were sleeping," she replied simply, "Anyway, back to our schedule. While we work in the afternoons, you should also reflect on your performance the night before. I expect a 100-word self-evaluation from each of you."
She took a breath before continuing. "We"ll be home around 7 pm. The first thing we"ll do is hold a stand-up meeting. We"ll share our self-evaluations and give each other pointers on how to improve."
"At 8 pm, we"ll split into two-cat teams to run a training simulation. The losing team will have to lick clean the winning team"s fur."
Rice Cake"s face contorted with disgust.
"We begin actual matches at 9 pm. We"ll end the day by watching replays of top players. That would be at 1 am."
"Erm," Roly Poly piped in nervously, raising his paw, "Don"t we have to wake at 5 am? If we start watching the replays at 1 am, I don"t think we"ll be getting much sleep…"
Elizabeth slammed the table angrily.
"Then sleep when you"re in the customers" arms! Don"t you understand that we don"t have time left? The PUBG stream scene is becoming saturated. If we don"t raise our standards now, we"ll never be signed to any of the platforms and we"ll never make it big!"
Roly Poly nodded, but the displeasure was plain on his face. Rice Cake and Matcha had no objections. They were night owls anyway, so the late nights were not a problem. They were just a little uncomfortable by how intense the schedule was.
Zhao Yao was observing the meeting from his usual seat with an amused smile. Most of his attention was expended on the extradimensional belly, where the Sphynx was exercising his hairless b.u.t.t off.
It was clear that the triple gravitational pull was no longer an impediment for him. He was darting around the cage like a shadow, so swiftly that he left gusts of wind in his wake.
"Not bad," Zhao Yao nodded, pleased with the progress.
He made his way to the cat.
"How"s it going?" he started, "Have you gotten used to the extra three times of pressure?"
"Yeah," the Sphynx said casually, "It"s nothing. Give me more."
Zhao Yao grinned. This was going exactly as planned. He increased the additional weight from three to four times.
The Sphynx"s knees buckled slightly from the extra weight, but he straightened in a moment. He moved about slowly at first, then easily when he got used to it. After a few minutes, he could even start jumping.
"You"re a determined one, aren"t you?" Zhao Yao commented.
Back at the cafe, a group of college girls started squealing when they noticed Elizabeth and gang.
"Aww, that"s the cutest thing I"ve ever seen!"
"Lizzie, are you guys holding a little meeting?"
Coco Sun, who was wearing a traditional hanfu today, scooped Elizabeth into her arms and buried her face in her thick fur.
The rest of the girls reached out for the other cats, all smiling from ear to ear.
"That"s all for today," Elizabeth told her teammates telepathically, "Let"s work."
Roly Poly let out a long sigh, "Finally."
Matcha yawned, a look of boredom settled on his face.
As the cats started relaxing from Elizabeth"s tedious briefing, Zhao Yao tensed.
"Elizabeth, cover me," he said, then promptly disappeared into the extradimensional belly.
Something had happened.
There was an update to the Book.
Dust Ball had suddenly leveled up. Twice.
Her original Level 6 was now at Level 8 (0 / 50,000), surpa.s.sing Matcha. She had become the supercat with the highest level.
"What"s going on? Two levels at once?" Zhao Yao wondered urgently, "Jesus Christ, it must be the Royal Catmint."
He headed straight for the catmint"s secret location.
Sure enough, Dust Ball was there, the bag of Royal Catmint dangling from her mouth.
"Zhao...Zhao Yao?" she uttered.
She was too shocked by his sudden appearance to conceal the crime she had committed.
Zhao Yao s.n.a.t.c.hed the bag from her.
It had been emptied.
"Huh, so it is the catmint. I thought it could level up the consumer once, not twice," he wondered aloud.
Something clicked into place in his mind.
"It must be the Light of Creation," he said, looking up.
The Light was to the extradimensional belly what the sun was to the earth. It illuminated the s.p.a.ce and helped the plants and vegetables planted in it to flourish. Anything grown here was imbued with special properties. That was why they could be used to make legendary cat food, which came with 100 experience points upon consumption.
"Even the Royal Catmint was fortified after being under the Light of Creation," Zhao Yao sighed, shaking the empty bag.
The remaining flakes were rustled against the plastic quietly.
"Wait, there"s a bit more."
Zhao Yao barged into the cafe and fed the remnants to Matcha and the other cats.
It might be a minute amount, but it still tasted excellent. Delicious as it might be, it did not bring about any level-ups or increases in experience points.
He returned to the belly, thoroughly disappointed.
Dust Ball curled into a literal ball when she spotted Zhao Yao.
"Dust Ball, didn"t I ask you to guard the catmint? How could you end up eating it yourself?" he scolded.
She replied quietly, "You won"t believe this, but the bag was already opened when I was here."
"Come on, get up," Zhao Yao said through gritted teeth, "Go clean the cafe. I want it to be spotless!"
Dust Ball heaved a sigh of relief and scurried out of sight. She thought she had escaped Zhao Yao"s wrath, but he followed up with another punishment.
"For the next year, you"re responsible for cleaning the cafe. And yes, that includes clearing everyone"s p.o.o.p. Understand?"
"Yes, I understand," she complied, her face scrunched up.
Toilet duty was going to be disgusting, but it was a fair deal. Anything would been worth a taste of that Royal Catmint.
"It was just…perfect," she sighed dreamily.
Zhao Yao was not happy with Rice Cake, but he took comfort in the fact that the catmint did not go to waste. She had leveled up twice after all.
He took a seat and unlocked two new branches on her skill tree, his eyes lighting up as he read through their descriptions.
He picked s.p.a.ce Expansion as her level 7 skill and Dimension Doorway for level 8.
s.p.a.ce Expansion was a dynamic skill. It would grow with Dust Ball"s level. To be specific, it would expand the area within the belly to be her level multiplied by 100 square meters.
That meant that at level 7, the s.p.a.ce would hit 700 square meters and now, at level 8, it would be 800.
Dimension Doorway, as its name suggested, allowed Zhao Yao to place three doorways to the belly anywhere in the real world.
The skills were both insanely useful and that made Zhao Yao ridiculously happy.
He could now enlarge the cats" living s.p.a.ce continuously. That would be crucial for his mission to develop the Cat Nation. It would also mean that he could adopt more supercats.
The doorways transformed the extradimensional belly into a supercat transit. He could put one in the cafe and another in his house, rendering the dozens of kilometers between the two locations to nothing.
Apart from travel, the doorways would be useful in combat as well.
Zhao Yao could not help but wonder what the other cats" level 8 skills would bring.