Faceless was seated on the ground in the extradimensional belly, sandwiched between the three dimension doorways. From here, he could see what was on the other side of the doors. One of them led to the auction grounds that he had been in just moment before. The other opened into his mansion. The final one led to what looked like Jiangmen City.
"Is this how he teleports between places that are thousands of kilometers apart?" he wondered, eyes darting from one doorway to another.
He had not wrapped his head around exactly how the portals worked, but he understood what they could do.
"There"s no way the authorities would try anything with this guy until they figure out how his powers work."
He let out a heavy sigh.
His chances of being rescued by the government were slim to none. They would not risk hundreds of their men to save one person, much less someone like him. No one was coming to save him, no matter what atrocities the Headless Horseman might do to him next.
Faceless allowed himself one final sigh. There was no use in wallowing in self-pity. The smart thing to do was to put aside the rage and hatred that was blistering within him and focus on survival.
"He had chosen to bring me here instead of killing me. This must mean that I must be of some use to him. If I worked hard and proved to him that I am valuable, he might continue to let me live."
Faceless repeated this mantra in his head as a way of comforting himself while he waited for the Horseman to appear. Unfortunately, his captor never showed up. The only visitor he had was a fat cat that sauntered towards him with the haughtiest look.
This was the cat that Zhao Yao had taken in for interrogation from Ürümqi. He was a part of the gang now. Ares and the other supercats had even given him a new name. He was now known as Sun Xiao Tian.
The fat cat cast his beady eyes at Faceless. He whipped out his smartphone and started typing on it. He used the text-to-audio function to communicate with the man, "Are you new here?"
Faceless"s instinctive response was to smack the cat with all his might, but he recalled his newfound mantra. He had to put all anger aside, keep his head low, and survive.
"Yes, I am. May I know who I am speaking to?" he asked politely.
"You can call me Mister Sun," the cat narrowed his eyes at the man, "New guy, come with me. From today, you are in charge of maintaining the cleanliness here, got it?"
Faceless could not help the furrow in his brow.
"May I know what you are referring to when you talk about maintaining the cleanliness?" he probed, failing to conceal the annoyance in his voice.
"I"m talking about the toilets."
Sun Xiao Tian pointed at the kitty toilets in the distance with one sharp claw.
"Clean every toilet in there at least once a day. Make sure you empty the cat litter daily too, understand?"
When Zhao Yao returned to the extradimensional belly half an hour later, he found Faceless toiling over the toilets.
His eyes widened in surprise.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Faceless looked at him earnestly as he replied, "I"m cleaning the toilets. Aren"t all newcomers supposed to do that?"
Zhao Yao was rendered speechless momentarily.
Faceless took his silence as an opening for his next words, which he had put together carefully, "I would like to be a.s.sistance to you. I am deeply apologetic for taking your supercats. That was entirely my fault and I am terribly sorry. I would like to offer you compensation for all the trouble I have caused. I have at least two hundred million US dollars in my private accounts. I also have properties in other countries…"
Zhao Yao"s eyes lit up.
This did not escape Faceless"s notice. He could hardly contain the hope that was quickly swelling in his chest. He tilted his head towards the unconscious supercats behind him, "And these cats…"
"Are mine," Zhao Yao interjected.
"Yes, yes, yes. Of course," Faceless nodded compliantly, even though losing these cats felt like having his front teeth kicked in by a horse, "I can help you deal with these cats. The Mao Gang might be no more, but I still have my connections. You are not intending to keep all of them, are you?"
Zhao Yao narrowed his eyes at him as he spoke, "I. Do. Not. Sell. My. Cats."
"Of course. I understand," Faceless added quickly, "But you must need an extra pair of hands to help you with the cats. I can be that person. I"ll take care of them for you."
Zhao Yao did not respond to his proposition. Instead, he said, "You still have one of my supercats."
Faceless"s heart sank, but he made sure that his facial expression remained neutral.
"Yes, of course. That cat is in an apartment in Ürümqi. I"ll take you to him right now."
The next few hours were highly profitable for Zhao Yao bur very much the opposite for Faceless. They traveled out of Jiangmen City in order to transfer owners.h.i.+p of some of the latter"s possessions to the former, starting with Faceless"s last cat.
When they entered the apartment, the supercat was lounging on the couch, playing a game on an Xbox. The controller was perched on his bulging tummy. The cat did not even steal a glance at the two men when they appeared.
He only started whining when Zhao Yao unceremoniously tossed him into the extradimensional belly, but turned it down after the Xbox was brought in as well.
The final stop of the day was the bank, where Faceless transferred the aforementioned two hundred million dollars into Zhao Yao"s account.
Zhao Yao could not stop grinning like a fool from the moment they left.
He was not even interested in the remaining overseas properties anymore. Two billion dollars, coupled with the recurring profit from the cat cafe, would guarantee that he was going to live very, very comfortably for the rest of his days.
Now that the money was secured, Zhao Yao could focus his energies on dealing with Faceless and the hundreds of new cats in the belly. Also, he had to think about how to maximize the substantial amount of experience points he had earned.
By shutting down the auction and the Mao Gang, he had completed three missions in one go. His Book was currently at Level 6 (26,902 / 20,000). This meant that he had enough to reach Level 7 and integrate the Sphynx Cat"s powers as his own.
In the end, Zhao Yao decided not to do so. Sphynx Cat was still growing steadily stronger as he trained, albeit at a slower rate than before. This was not the right time to level up. He was not in desperate need of such tremendous power anyway. It would be best to leave things as they were and allow the cat to continue training.
All in all, the payoff was fantastic. The number of experience points he raked in was pretty impressive. He could level up his Book when the time was right. The dimension doorways had proven to be invaluable and quite unbeatable. He did not even have to touch any of the four revival cards he had carefully acc.u.mulated over time.
Zhao Yao was in an excellent position right now.
The supercats had been accruing experience points on their own as well, either through the Michelin-starred cat rice or by completing their own quests:
Matcha Level 7 (4,400 / 20,000)
Elizabeth Level 6 (3,900 / 10,000)
Dust Ball Level 8 (5,755 / 50,000)
Ares Level 6 (4,800 / 10,000)
Lucifer Level 6 (2,600 / 10,000)
Sphynx Cat Level 5 (2,300 / 5,000)
Even after reserving 20,000 points for upgrading the Book when the time was right, Zhao Yao still had an extra 6,902 experience points to use. He was not sure what to do about them. He could use them to level up Ares, Elizabeth, or maybe Sphynx Cat.
"Hmm, I"d better deal with Faceless and the supercats from the auction before thinking about which cats to level up," Zhao Yao decided.
"I am exhausted. I"ll be the happiest man on earth when all this is done and I can surf the web in peace."
Zhao Yao had never been a big fan of tying up loose ends. Unfortunately, this was real life, not the movies, which meant that there was always plenty of cleaning up to do after an epic battle.
His body twisted into a blur of colors as he swallowed himself into the extradimensional belly.
He could choose to dedicate one of the dimension doorways as a permanent entrance to the belly, but he realized they were far too useful in combat to be squandered like that. So, using suck-me-in would still be the most viable method of getting in there.
The moment he arrived in the belly, he was greeted with a cacophony of meows and cries.
The hundreds of supercats that were saved from the auction had woken up for a while. The Cat Nation, which once seemed like a vast paradise, now looked fairly cramped.