Chapter 136: Chapter 136 – Aura of Cats
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Just before they parted ways after supper, Dong Chengling touched Ren Suo’s head again. He could have dodged if he wanted to, but he was no longer bothered by it.
“See you tomorrow,” said Dong Chengling.
After they parted ways in front of the teachers’ dormitories, Ren Suo walked towards the entrance and saw a black cat in front of the door, looking at him. The black cat had a red ribbon and a yellow bell tied around its neck, obvious that it belonged to one of the teachers there.
When Ren Suo and the black cat’s eyes met, they knew each other’s thoughts immediately.
Ren s...o...b..ought the black cat to the store and bought a pack of spicy dried anchovies and a bottle of milk. He tore open the packaging and fed the black cat the spicy dried anchovies one by one. When the black cat opened its mouth in protest of the spice, Ren Suo fed it the cold milk.
It was miraculous in nature for a cat to like eating spicy dried anchovies. Who knew if its owner was from Shu Zhou?
When the black cat was full from the anchovies and milk, Ren Suo patted its head and said, “I live in 402. If anyone goes in when I’m not in, remember to tell me, okay?”
The black cat nodded and stepped on the packaging of the spicy dried anchovies with its paw and meowed as if to say, “I swear in the name of the spicy dried anchovies.”
“I shall entrust the task to you then, Black Bell,” said Ren Suo.
Ren Suo patted the black cat’s head again as he began to understand why the others liked to pat his head.
The super-evolution that Ren Suo chose was “Mimic Creature: Cat”. It equipped him with pa.s.sive abilities like napping, night vision, and agility, but the ability which benefited him the most was actually “Aura of Cats”, despite its brief description.
The aura was very powerful, not only allowing him to make friends with any cat, but more importantly, it seemed like he had become a feline expert overnight. He was able to understand what the cat wanted to say from its eyes and body language.
The most complicated look he had ever come across and understood was during his second year in high school. His mathematics subject teacher had looked suddenly at Ren Suo, who was the mathematics cla.s.s representative then, and Ren Suo knew what his teacher wanted. He went to the teacher’s office and brought the test papers from the previous week on the teacher’s table back to the cla.s.sroom.
After that incident, Ren s...o...b..came his teacher’s favorite “runner”, as evident from him being the mathematics cla.s.s representative for three full years. But the reason why he understood that his teacher was thinking that “I forgot to bring the test papers to cla.s.s” at that time was simply because he remembered what date it was that day.
And now, when Ren Suo exchanged eye contact with the black cat, he was able to tell what it was thinking, that “I want to eat spicy fish while drinking frozen milk”.
Alas, if Ren Suo could also use that ability to see the thoughts of other people, he would always be able to win in future games of Dou Dizhu.
At the same time, Ren Suo was able to get the cats to work through his thoughts, provided that the cat could understand what he was saying.
When he reached home, even without turning on the lights, he could clearly make out the details of the room with just the dim moonlight s.h.i.+ning in through the windows.
With night vision, the sensitivity of his retina to light had increased sharply, and he could even see faint reflections of light.
After Ren Suo took a shower and was combing his hair, he felt a fascinating sense of softness when he touched his hair with his hands.
There were actually no changes to his hair, but it always made people feel blissful when they touched it.
The “Aura of Cats” made Ren Suo smell like a cat. Although his appearance did not change, other people would begin to think of him as a cat when they made contact with him.
That was also the reason why Dong Chengling and the others had touched his head so intimately – they subconsciously disregarded Ren Suo’s true ident.i.ty and touched his head, the part of his body with the most hair, as if immersed in the enjoyable feeling of patting a cat.
Ren Suo opened a can of iced cola and gulped down half of it. He sat on the couch, feeling as if his mind was as clear and alert as when he was equipped with “Unlimited Energy”.
That was due to Nap, a brilliant natural ability of cats. As creatures which required a lot of sleep, cats could easily sleep more than 16 hours a day. However, unlike humans who would sleep for 16 consecutive hours, cats would sleep and awake in intervals, which meant that they were able to fall asleep quickly and also wake up instantly.
Similarly, Nap allowed Ren Suo to fall asleep quickly, but Ren Suo already had the ability “Lure of Sweet Dreams”, so Nap was not fully necessary for him.
What was more important, however, was that Nap gave Ren Suo the “body clock” of a cat.
Cats required 16 hours of sleep every day for 2 to 3 hours at a time, as long as they had sufficient rest;
And at present Ren Suo needed 42 hours of sleep in a week for about 8 hours each time, as long as he had sufficient rest.
The greatest benefit of Nap would then be extending “one day” into “one week”– that way, as long as Ren Suo slept for two days and two nights, he would be able to play games for the next 5 days without any more sleep!
Compared to “Unlimited Energy”, Nap was much more sustainable.
Ren Suo looked at the time – it was 23:46.
It was about time.
As Ren Suo prepared to wait slowly, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Ren Suo opened the door to see an unexpected guest.
“Li Dan… Brother Dan?” said Ren Suo.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” asked Li Dan as he walked right past Ren Suo and into the room. Ren Suo was about to raise his hand to stop him but quickly let his hand down again.
“Please, come in,” said Ren Suo.
Ren Suo offered Li Dan a bottle of yogurt, then sat down and asked, “It’s already so late, why didn’t you call me first… What’s the matter?”
“It’s about something personal,” replied Li Dan.
It was almost a month since Ren Suo last saw Li Dan, and his eye circles had become darker and his face was thin, looking like a leopard cat who did not have much time left to live.
“I hope you can make me sleep,” said Li Dan straightforwardly. He added, “Ren Suo, if you want a reward, feel free to tell me.”
Ren Suo was a little surprised. He replied, “It’s fine, it does not cost any money anyway… But is it very urgent?”
A hint of agony flashed across Li Dan’s face. He said, “I do not want to hear those voices for any longer… Falling asleep is the only way I can take a break from the unending agony…”
Curious, Ren Suo asked, “What happened?”
Li Dan glanced at Ren Suo, the coldness in his eyes making a chill run down Ren Suo’s spine.
But Li Dan quickly calmed down and said, “Sorry, that’s confidential.”
“No, no, I should be sorry,” replied Ren Suo. He asked, “Are you going to sleep here?”
Li Dan replied, “My car is downstairs. I will feel more comfortable sleeping in my car.”
Ren Suo said, “In that case, you may go down first. I’ll come down after I change.”
Li Dan nodded and stood up to leave. But just as he was about to close the door, he suddenly turned around and said, “Ren Suo, if you see anything on the road that attracted your attention but appears not to belong to anyone, do not, do not pick it up.”
“As Pract.i.tioners, we are stronger than ordinary people, so we notice more things than them. We may notice something that ordinary people do not…”
“It may be fortunate for us, but it may also be a misfortune. Ren Suo, those who seized the opportunities along the way may have succeeded, but a larger number of them failed; on the other hand, those who did not make use of the opportunities and did not take risks would at least be able to survive.”
Ren Suo was a little surprised by what Li Dan said. He initially asked with a smile why Li Dan was so serious, but when he saw his red eyes, Ren Suo replied solemnly, “I will remember that.”
After Li Dan left, Ren Suo tried to calm his palpitating heart as he quickly turned on the Small World game console and equipped himself with the “Lure of Sweet Dreams”. He then headed downstairs to find Li Dan’s car which was parked by the road.
Ren Suo very naturally sat on the front pa.s.senger seat and said, “I will leave on my own after you fall asleep.”
Li Dan remained silent for a moment as he sat in the driver’s seat before saying, “Please begin.”
The “Lure of Sweet Dreams” worked its charm again, and very quickly, Li Dan fell asleep.
But afterwards, it was time for Ren Suo to get down to work.
“A key has been found.”
“The key is in a state of sleep. Starting to retrieve the key.”
“The key has already been formed fully. 403 seconds required to retrieve the key, do not remove physical contact. 402, 401, 400…”
Ren Suo had already retrieved a key from Li Dan once previously. It had been some time since he last saw him, and… a second key had emerged!