Chapter 3: Players

The cat with a human face, after vomiting out a finger, lazily stretched its body and cutely meowed,

"Meow~"

The sound was pleasant and gentle, its form comically endearing. If one could ignore that pale, stiff facial skin, it might even qualify to participate in a Pokémon Beauty Contest.

With his vast experiences of encountering countless cats, Li Ang squatted halfway down, squeezing out a slight smile.

No matter how illogical the current situation was, standing still was probably the worst option.

Hesitation would lead to defeat.

"Mimi, be good..."

Li Ang slowly reached out towards the bizarre cat, pretending to want to pet and rub the creature. Under the moonlight, one could vaguely see a wooden chopstick hidden in his sleeve.

The cat with a human face completely ignored Li Ang's gesture of goodwill, just self-absorbedly licking its paws.

Little by little, Li Ang's palm neared, about to touch the cat's furry forehead; at the same time, he tilted his forearm slightly, allowing the wooden chopstick in his sleeve to slide down smoothly.

The cat with a human face squinted its eyes, using its freshly licked paw to scratch its ear in a grooming motion, oblivious to the impending danger.

From an angle utterly invisible to the bizarre cat, Li Ang's thumb firmly caught the sliding chopstick. At this distance, should the creature make any sudden movement, Li Ang could immediately grip the chopstick and thrust it into its eye socket the next second.

The cat with a human face kept its head lowered, maintaining its grooming posture, simply meowing indifferently.

"Meow~"

Click, click, click.

Suddenly, Li Ang felt his limbs become as heavy as if filled with lead, his joints as if cement had been injected between them, making it difficult to move. Attempting to shift his limbs, he could only hear the grating sound of clicks and clacks.

In just one breath's time, Li Ang had completely lost the ability to control his limbs, resembling a statue, frozen in the squatting position with his hand stretched out.

"Huff, puff, huff, puff..."

The black cat emitted rapid breaths, the old woman's skin on its face wrinkling in pain, adding an extra layer of horror in the dead silence.

After a while, the black cat got its breathing under control and staggered towards Li Ang.

Li Ang watched with wide eyes as the black cat slowly approached, leaped onto his knee, and began leisurely licking his chin with its pink tongue, equipped with barbs.

Once, twice, the frequency of the black cat's licks increased; the barbs on its tongue scraped across the skin leaving bloody traces, bringing a chilling pain.

Goosebumps instantly covered his body, and Li Ang realized that Zhang Cuilian had not passed out and died due to acute complications from diabetes,

but just like him, had been immobilized by this bizarre cat, watching helplessly as her face was eaten away and fingers and toes were gnawed off…

A chill engulfed his heart like a tide, as if plunging into an ice cave.

Li Ang clenched his teeth, tensing all the muscles in his body with all his might, yet only managing to slightly move his stiff and numb eyes, nose, mouth, and tongue.

As if satisfied with the taste of blood, the cat with a human face contentedly licked its tongue, and after a brief inspection, suddenly opened its mouth wide, biting towards Li Ang's chin.

Hiss.

The cat's fangs pierced the skin, blood dripping down profusely, flowing along Li Ang's neck.

It could no longer suppress its intense desire for flesh; it needed to tear, gnaw, chew, swallow… to consume all those bipedal beasts that had lorded over it in the past…

The bizarre cat indulged in drinking Li Ang's blood, its limbs shifting, unintentionally unfastening the buttons of the handmade small vest it was wearing.

The pale yellow pet vest fell to the ground,

Unlike the sleek fur on its body, the hair covered by the vest was short, sparse, and disorderly, like untended weeds.

Beneath the chaotic fur, a series of grotesque and hideous scars spread wildly, bruises, needle holes, knife marks, cigarette burn scars…

It was the precious legacy left by the seemingly kind-hearted old lady, the black cat's former owner.

As if recalling some unpleasant memory, the man-faced cat's tearing and gnawing became even more violent,

For this master-killing "pet," only by returning all the brutality to humans could it alleviate its resentful and chaotic emotions.

Li Ang tried hard to move his eyeballs and could only see a mass of shadow under his chin and feel the intense pain in his lower jaw.

"....."

He took a deep breath, opened his clenched teeth, stuck out his tongue, and viciously bit down!

The tip of his tongue was ruthlessly crushed by the sharp incisors, blood gushed out, the intense flavor of iron filled his mouth, reaching his brain.

The oppressive feeling of being tightly bound around his body instantly eased, Li Ang grabbed the chopstick, and without hesitation, stabbed directly down.

Chit!

The pointed end of the chopsticks pierced straight through the strange cat's fluffy fur and soft skin, gliding down along the right side of the atlas, until more than half of the chopstick was submerged in the body of the man-faced cat.

The strange cat, as if struck by thunder, kept its mouth half-open as it was still biting, its almond-colored pupils dimming instantly.

Li Ang stomped on the ground fiercely, lunging forward, while holding the chopsticks, he hurled the black cat against the wall with great force.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

One punch after another rained down on the strange cat's body like a sudden gale,

Frontal bone, occipital bone, parietal bone, sphenoid bone, ribs, wing bone, scapula, hip bone.....

Li Ang silently crushed all the bones of the man-faced cat...

Drip, drip, the crimson blood dripped from Li Ang's withdrawn fists onto the ground.

"Huff...."

He slowly exhaled, tossing the "cat pancake" of only fur, shattered bones, and mushy flesh and blood onto the ground.

The dense fog cleared, the moon appeared bright, and the sounds of Bug Buzz and birds came from afar.

The ghost wall had disappeared.

[Detection: Player BC95***1568 has been eliminated by a non-player, BC95***1568 player status is now voided, qualification transfer procedure initiating.]

[Qualification transfer procedure completed, initial username: Li Ang]

[User level: lv1]

[Current XP: 0/100]

[Equipped: None]

[Items: None]

[Judging the user as a novice player, novice guidance procedure initiating.]

[All the fantasy works created in human history—mythologies, epics, legends, animations, comics, movies, games... are projections of other worlds on Earth.]

[In this vast universe, we coexist, compete, permeate, and interfere with countless other civilizations.]

[And you are the Lucky One who has emerged from the masses, able to touch the supernatural, to become supernatural.]

[You can stand in the limelight, announcing the arrival of a new era, or you can hide in the shadows, coldly observing others' struggles for survival]

[Liberate your thoughts, embrace your destiny, this is an absolutely real game, this is, Earth's Killing Field.]