Lion Head was adamant that she was right.
"I"m telling you," she stated, "Zhao Yao must have moved us to a new home! Look at how much bigger this place is! There"s so much light now. And look at that glowing door! How is it possible that we"re still in the s.p.a.ce place?"
Uncle Egg was displeased. "Why must he make so many changes? Weren"t we perfectly fine before?"
A group of supercats had gathered to discuss the transformations made to their home. While they complained and whined, Zhao Yao had connected the pocket socket from his home to the power strips in the belly.
In that moment, the Cat Nation officially received electricity.
He then grabbed a modem and a bunch of cables and set up internet access in the belly.
After he explained his actions to the supercats, their doubt and suspicions immediately morphed into unadulterated excitement.
"I"ll never lose connection in the middle of a match again!"
"The automatic toilets will never have to be charged again!"
"My phone will never run out of battery!"
Zhao Yao plugged each laptop to a socket in the power strips, granting them endless electricity. He then announced the wifi pa.s.sword to the eager supercats.
Those familiar with the internet scrambled to go online instantly. The majority of the cats, however, had never touched the internet before. They wore curious expressions as they started exploring new features.
Zhao Yao grinned. "They"re just curious now, but they"ll be addicted in a couple weeks."
He had successfully checked off the fourth task, earning 800 x 2 experience points. This brought his Book to Level 6 (4,562 / 20,000).
A fifth task had appeared as well.
Mission: Welcome more supercats
Objective: There"s electricity, internet, great food, and a fantastic s.p.a.ce. Your Cat Nation is now ready to accommodate more residents. Raise your supercat population to 50.
Reward: 1,600 experience points
Punishment: None
Zhao Yao licked his lips eagerly. "It"s really 1,600 points!"
He was thrilled that the reward points were doubling with each task, but this one worried him a little. It would not be easy to care for 50 supercats at once. He was not even sure how he could get his hands on so many.
"Each task brings me to closer to developing the perfect Cat Nation," he thought.
He felt that he was at least halfway there. The cats" living s.p.a.ce was now ma.s.sive. The Light of Creation illuminated the once dank belly with loads of natural light. Even the food was great. The pairing of Michelin-starred cat rice and the Light"s special powers had boosted the well-being of each resident. Every cat here was in the pink of health and had a thick, glossy coat of fur to show for it.
The belly also offered them opportunities to pursue their interests and hobbies. Dust Ball"s little catmint plantation had been flouris.h.i.+ng. The Sphynx had access to his own special training area. Most of the cats were absorbed by the plethora of online games available.
Zhao Yao could not help the amused smile that spread across his lips.
"Perhaps one day, there would be hundreds of supercats living here. This would be pretty interesting."
As he savored this thought, the spirit of a cat gradually floated up to him.
It was Nekomata.
He had been diligently following Zhao Yao since the day the Cat King Compet.i.tion ended. Every day, he would traverse back and forth from this house, to the cafe, and to Xiao Yu"s house. This had been going on for close to two weeks.
He spent all his time closely watching and observing Zhao Yao"s every move. He bore witness to his attempts at figuring out the Dimension Doorways. He had even followed Zhao Yao through the portal and ended up on the other side.
His eyes widened as he took in the new surroundings.
"Unbelievable. He has ama.s.sed an extraordinarily large number of cats for a person his age," Nekomata thought.
He let out a low whistle. "Is this fancy mansion just for them?"
His eventually turned his attention from the physical s.p.a.ce to the number of cats that took up residence in it. Including the ones in the cafe, it seemed like Zhao Yao had more than 20 supercats.
"This fella could just be the most powerful apostle I"ve ever seen. He also owns the largest supercat organization I"ve ever encountered. This deserves further observation," Nekomata pondered.
He narrowed his eyes as he remained deep in thought.
"It makes no sense for Xiao Yu and Ho Hao Cang to continue being on their own. They should just join Zhao Yao."
"I doubt he can stay in charge forever after all."
Having come to a conclusion he was happy with, Nekomata darted swiftly out of the portal. His industrious observations revealed that Zhao Yao had the ability to control who can go through the doorways. He had no wish to be stuck inside because of a newly placed restriction.
He shot up the stairs, heading straight for the roof.
He took out his handphone.
At the same time, deep in the heart of the city, Xiao Yu was walking along the football field of her new junior high school. She had just begun her first year there.
She was nudging a pebble with her foot with each step she took, only half-listening to the scrawny girl next to her.
"Xiao Yu, what should we do?" the girl asked, her voice tinged with panic, "Do we really give them our money?"
"Of course not. I barely have enough pocket money for lunch. I"m not giving any of it away," Xiao Yu replied coolly.
"But…but how do we refuse? We"re at the very bottom of the social hierarchy right now. We"re only in sixth grade! We can"t handle the real middle-schoolers. Why must our city be the only one that sends sixth-graders to middle school? We"re supposed to be ruling primary school right now."
Xiao Yu pursed her lips. "I"m still not giving them money. If they want it, they"ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands."
Her phone vibrated in her pocket as she spoke. She reached for it and found a message from Noodle.
"Huh?" she murmured, scanning through it.
Her eyes grew wider and wider as she made her way through the text. They were practically s.h.i.+mmering with delight when she reached the end.
In contrast, the girl next to her continued to lament over whether they should hand over the protection fees to their seniors.
After spending the rest of the day organizing and furnis.h.i.+ng the newly expanded extradimensional belly, Zhao Yao made his way home.
He was tired, but he could not stop thinking about how he could grow the Cat Nation"s population. Capturing more supercats was not a problem for him. The issue here was ensuring that they all lived in harmony.
"If I introduced too many new cats at one go, the rest of them will flip. I have to take this slow."
His thoughts were disrupted by an uproar of meowing, followed by the violent striking of keyboards.
"Matcha! Why are you hiding in the gra.s.s?! Attack now!" Elizabeth commanded.
She then turned her attention to Rice Cake. "You! Come back here right now! Who gave you permission to charge headfirst?"
"Roly Poly…" Elizabeth"s words were cut short by a loud smattering of gunshots.
The two opponents standing on a hill across from her collapsed to the ground.
She turned around to look at Roly Poly, whom had a smug smile spread lazily across his face. Her mouth hung open in shock.
"All taken care of. Small matter. Mango, zoom out," he said.
Mango was currently holding onto a magnifying gla.s.s with his teeth. He moved it away from the center of the computer screen.
Roly Poly tossed him a piece of dried fish, which he happily let go of the magnifier to lap up.
The fat cat had been trying to train Mango to do tricks for ages. While the usual "sit", "left paw", "right paw" commands never quite worked out, he found out that Mango could serve a highly useful and specific function at PUBG.
Rice Cake looked at Mango in awe. "Is this a new cheat?"
"I wouldn"t call it a cheat. It"s just an eight-time magnifying gla.s.s. Come, let"s play."