The team of four did not advance into the top ten at the end of the round.
However, it was still the most groundbreaking one for them yet. Roly Poly had managed to take out a total of three opponents. It was a new record.
Elizabeth, Matcha, and Rice Cake huddled around his screen when the match was over.
"Wow, your aiming has become so much better! I want Mango to hold a magnifier for me too!" Rice Cake said enviously.
Roly Poly shook his own head sagely while petting Mango"s head. "You can"t just ask him to help you. It"s not that simple. Cats are pretty much impossible to train. They don"t like following instructions and they get bored quickly. You need to put in a whole lot of love and patience to attain the kind of chemistry that Mango and I share."
Matcha was no longer listening. He had cornered Lightning and smacked him on the back of his head.
"You"re my magnifier. Whenever I play a match, you have to stand by with a magnifying gla.s.s. When I ask you to zoom in, you put that magnifier in the middle of my screen, understand?"
Electric currents ran through Lightning"s body in response, driving each of his hairs to stand on its end.
"Why should I?" he retorted angrily.
Matcha turned his head and called out, "Zhao Yao! Lightning tried to -,"
The Pallas" Cat fell to the ground immediately to ask for mercy.
"Okay, okay. I"ll do it," he said unhappily.
He cursed Matcha under his breath.
"Tried to do what?" Zhao Yao called from the sofa.
Matcha chuckled, "Nothing. I just wanted to call you. You love calling us for no reason too, right?"
He then turned to Lightning. "Sit."
"Left paw."
"Right paw."
"Play dead."
Lightning executed each command perfectly, albeit unwillingly. Matcha patted his head as an indication that he did a good job. He then shot a thumbs up to his teammates.
"Training complete."
Elizabeth and Rice Cake looked at Matcha in awe. In contrast, Roly Poly threw him the dirtiest look he could muster.
"Well," he cleared his throat, "The magnifying gla.s.s is just an aid. It is only possible to reach my current standard with skill. I"m sure you can see how much better I am at controlling my character now."
The cats waited for him to continue.
"And the reason for that is I"ve bought an in-game accelerator," he said smugly.
Rice Cake"s mouth fell open. "You? You bought an accelerator? But you"re super stingy."
Elizabeth and Matcha looked at Roly Poly curiously, waiting for his reply. Zhao Yao had bought PUBG for them. They would never spend their own money on the game or an accelerator.
Roly Poly shrugged casually, as if the money was not an issue to him. "It"s just a bit of money. If you want, I can get it for you too."
Their eyes lit up, practically emitting sparkles. They nodded vehemently.
Purchasing three sets of accelerators came at a cost, but it also granted Roly Poly the position of team leader. All of a sudden, his decision was the final decision. He commanded each of them in the next few rounds.
"Let"s jump to a more secluded location!"
"We"ll lie in ambush here. If you see an enemy, run!"
"Give me the 98k! I"ll throttle them!"
The four cats embodied the flight in "fight or flight". They tried their best to remain hidden and undetected, choosing to run instead of attack when confronted.
Somehow, in the last round, they managed to inch their way into third place.
They had never been so close to winning before.
Elizabeth was ecstatic.
"You"re the best, Roly Poly! We"re actually third!"
She was looking at him with admiration, as was Rice Cake. Roly Poly was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with so much pride he felt like he would explode.
He thought, "It"s time for change! There will be a new order among the supercats in this household!"
Matcha was glaring at him from a distance. Jealousy was etched in every corner of his face. He tried to focus on the laptop.
Lightning could not help but gloat. He was still upset about being blackmailed into holding that stupid magnifier.
"Are you mad?" he asked gleefully.
"Mind your own business," Matcha retorted, smacking his paw squarely on the top of Lightning"s head.
The contact involuntarily activated his power, resulting in both of them expanding into b.a.l.l.s of fur.
Roly Poly could not help but relish in Matcha"s misery.
"Hehe. This is the power of intelligence and wealth. I used to have only the former, but now I have the best of both worlds," he thought to himself happily.
He called out to Dust Ball as she strolled past him. "Hey, do you want more catmint?"
She cast him a glance, then gave a swish of her tail, indicating that she was listening.
"I can get more catmint and catmint seeds for you online. I can even get better quality ones," he said earnestly.
"Are you paying for it?" she asked.
"Yes," Roly Poly smiled, "As long as you join my alliance. I"ll even invest in your catmint business. I"ll give you a monthly fee."
"I"ll think about it," she said.
He could tell that she was just pretending to consider his proposition.
He chuckled to himself. "Elizabeth, Rice Cake, and Dust Ball are but the beginning! I will buy my way into the heart of every cat here!"
He unlocked his phone and opened one app after another.
"I have to start paying my loans next month. Oh well, I"ll just borrow the amount from another app. As long as I keep finding new providers to borrow from to pay off my loan, I will have an endless source of money! I"m a genius!"
"What are you giggling about over there?"
Zhao Yao"s voice alarmed him. He retreated into himself out of fright, hairs standing on their ends.
"We had a good round," he answered awkwardly, "I"m just really happy."
Zhao Yao threw him a suspicious look, but did not press further. Instead, he headed back to his room for training.
He morphed the deflective fields into invisible swords. They danced around him in the air, then started vibrating.
He had fas.h.i.+oned the orbs of power in the shape of swords so that they were more deadly. The lethal high-frequency vibrations of Lin Chen"s sword proved to him that there was more than one way to achieving that goal.
"I wonder how much more powerful mine would be if they could vibrate at high frequencies too," he pondered, "But how do I even make them vibrate rapidly enough to cause serious damage?"
While he practised creating vibrations, he racked his brain for ideas on how to do so perfectly.
"I don"t think I can reach the speed I want on my own, but I might be able to do so if I used another cat"s power."
"Maybe Uncle Egg"s electric currents? Or Rice Cake"s earthquake-level vibrations?"
Zhao Yao scratched the bottom of his chin. He knew he was on to something, but he would need to experiment a little to find the right formula.