Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 235 – Cat Dad Messes the Game Again

"We've decided. Let's stop fighting. We'll retreat and farm resources from this server."

Vermilion's subordinates unanimously voted for the deal as the chunk of Cookie's breast meat was enough for all guild members. Although the threat of the Phoenix Curse seemed intimidating, they were confident that they could defeat the phoenixes.

"Good, munya. I'll send my guy to deliver you the feathers first. As for the meat, I'll drop them off at the center of the map at the 55th-minute mark. As for your bird, I'll release him after that, munya."

"Alright. We have a deal!"

The deal was settled. Vermilion and Xiaomao agreed to a truce, and Xiaomao would return the prisoner and extra meat for Hwarang Guild's surrender.

.

Cookie was in despair after he witnessed the deal. He sobbed, disappointed in Vermilion and his subordinates for leaving him here to be tortured.

Graa (Do I even have a choice?)

Cookie was sad. In front of him was a predator that wanted nothing more but his meat. Meanwhile, waiting for him at home was a backstabber that secretly desired his meat. Regardless of choices, he would end up as a livestock.

Graa… (Life is not Yatta anymore.)

Xiaomao had expected this kind of answer. He waved the sacred water potion in front of Cookie.

"What if I say my dungeon has a lake that is filled with this water, munya?"

Cookie stopped complaining. He glared at the cat, who swiftly extracted the thighs, drums, and breast meat. Cookie didn't feel any pain because of Xiaomao's mysterious fire spit, but it still annoyed him.

Graaa! (I will not live as livestock no matter what!)

"After I finish extracting your meat, I will not hurt you anymore. But I might need your feathers from time to time, and you can be free in my dungeon, munya. How about it?"

Graa? (You're not eating me anymore after this?)

"How much chicken meat do you think I actually need, munya? Have you counted how many times I restored your flesh and blood?"

"…"

Cookie didn't bother counting the times Xiaomao extracted his meat, but he could roughly estimate that the cat already cut him a hundred at the very least, judging from the game notification messages he received.

Noticing that Cookie stopped talking, Xiaomao steered the conversation at his own pace.

"Look. I don't necessarily need you or anything, but it pains me to see a glorious young phoenix like you in the hands of humans, munya. Look at me and the people around you and compare to your master, munya!"

Cookie realized that he was in Xiaomao's territory. He looked around and found many level-700 mermen, staring at him with round intimidating fish eyes.

GRAA?! (L-Level 700?! All of them?!)

Xiaomao continued, "I don't know why you become that human's familiar, but your relationship is one-sided. You are practically his slave until he dies, munya. But look at us. None of us are bound by silly contracts, munya."

Cookie narrowed his eyes and examined everybody. Indeed, the mermen didn't wear any slave choker or bore a slave brand on their bodies. On the other hand, Cookie's heart was branded with seal magic, which tied his life to Vermilion's.

Graa? (They're not your slaves?)

"Just subordinates, munya. After this farce is over, they are free to return home, munya!"

The mermen nodded. They were mercenaries, hired by Undine and Nymph. They simply came here to help their neighbor fighting in a guild war for food and fun.

"Also, isn't it shameful for a great phoenix like you to work for a weak-ass human, munya?"

Being reminded of his strength, Cookie thought of Vermilion's strength and level.

Graa… (Now that you mention it, that asshole is freaking weak!)

"And you're a slave to that guy… a great phoenix like you."

Graa! (That's right. I'm a great phoenix! I shouldn't be serving a weaker existence like that fool!)

"Exactly, munya! He doesn't deserve you!"

GRAA! (He doesn't deserve me!)

"You are a proud phoenix! You serve no human, munya!"

GRAA! (I'm a proud phoenix. I serve no human!)

"Now, sign here and drop your blood on the paper, and you will no longer serve that human, munya!"

GRAA! (Of course! I will not serve that human! And… sign? Drop my blood?)

Confused, Cookie went with the flow and took a pen from Xiaomao. He drew a bird face and dropped his blood on a scroll paper that Xiaomao brought up.

"Good! Now, sit there and wait for the match to end. It won't take long, munya."

"…"

Cookie scratched his head with his featherless wing. He watched how Xiaomao chopped off his thighs and restored them to normal.

Graa? (How long until the match ends?)

Xiaomao pointed at the clock in the sky.

In a guild war match, both sides had 60 minutes to defeat their opponent. In case the time was over, the one with the least damaged castle would win. However, if no castle was touched during the match, both sides would lose.

But there was an exception. After 15 minutes, both sides had the choice to forfeit the match and surrender to save their valuable time.

Earlier, Xiaomao asked Vermilion to surrender at the 59th minute, which was one minute before the time runs out so that he could use the remaining time to get as many resources from this world.

Cookie had no idea about that. Being clueless and gullible, he stared at the clock and waited for the time to run out, ignoring what Xiaomao did to his body since he started to get used to it.

GRAA! (I'm a proud phoenix! I don't serve humans!)

.

.

The match between Hwarang Guild and MUNYA Guild soon got the attention of non-Xiaomao fans because of the strange development.

Vermilion's men suddenly stopped marching toward Xiaomao's castle and focused on building factories and quarries. The same applied to Xiaomao's forces. Lucky, Peter, and Andrew constructed a dozen quarries and hired NPCs to extract the rare ores.

No one showed signs of a fight. They simply minded their own businesses, mining and collecting resources from the map.

The chat was wild as usual. Countless emojis and reactions mocked the game company and the two guilds.

"They're all farming WTF?"

"Maybe, they're collecting SP for a big battle in the late game?"

No one knew that both Xiaomao and Vermilion had a deal.

10 minutes passed, and both sides did nothing but farming. The live-stream spectators got bored and switched to other matches.

20 minutes later, they were still at it. This attracted the attention of commentators, hosts, and streamers from various channels. They began speculating what both guilds were doing.

Then, the official channel replayed the scene when Xiaomao abducted the phoenix. Afterward, Vermilion and Xiaomao voice-chatted and negotiated a deal. Their voices were recorded and broadcast.

The spectators were flabbergasted. This kind of development never happened before. Moreover, nobody had realized that the players could farm resources on the map and carry them over to their game worlds later!

This incident shocked the gamers once again. Many disqualified guilds moaned and regretted that they didn't notice this glitch or loophole earlier. Meanwhile, the remaining guilds in the tournament were overjoyed by this discovery.

A few minutes later, other guilds, which were in the middle of combat, caught wind of this exploit. Some of them accidentally discovered that they could store the ores from the tournament map in their inventory and transfer them into their warehouses in their original game world.

Gamers were quick to adapt. They mimicked Xiaomao and Vermilion right away.

At the 40th-minute mark, all guild war matches ended up in a stalemate. Nobody wanted to fight anymore as they were busy searching and farming resources on the map for physical ores instead of SP.

.

.

Pangu Universe Incorporate, China Headquarters

Dong Junya's room was in a mess. The moderator director thrashed everything in his room and broke the company's windows in anger.

"DAMMIT! CAN'T YOU PLAY THE GAME NORMALLY FOR ONCE?!"

Every time Xiaomao abused a loophole, Pan Mei always lashed his anger at him. Just now, Dong Junya got another threat from the son of Pangu, telling him that he might get fired if Xiaomao continued to damage the event and ruin their reputation any further.

It vexed Dong Junya as well. He regretted that he didn't ban and kill Xiaomao when Wang Mang suggested.

He thought of the missing employees in his department. He saw the log files that they entered the game with their game accounts and stupidly met their demise at Cernun Island.

Thinking of the islands and Xiaomao's home base, Dong Junya suddenly had an inspiration.

'Since Xiaomao is not home, his dungeon should be unprotected. Well, some immortals lurk in there, but they are no match for Solomon and Asgard's main forces. I should program some quests and lure them into attacking Xiaomao's base at this time!'

Dong Junya called Pan Mei and requested permission right away.

"Do it!"

Surprisingly, Pan Mei agreed. Delighted, Dong Junya rushed out of the half-destroyed office and entered the developer department office to see the newest director of the developer team.

"Your Excellency Solomon. Lord Pan Mei asked me to deliver a message. He wants you to create quests in World Three."

Solomon was an elderly man, who seemed to be over 100 years old. The wrinkles on his face, sunken eyes, withered skin, and boney arms didn't look like something that an almighty demon god of Netherworld would have. He had a long white beard that reached his groin, and his curly white hair still looked healthy and smooth.

Despite his feeble appearance, Solomon carried weird air around him. None of the human employees dared to look at the old man as if they were afraid of something.

When Dong Junya looked into Solomon's eyes, he felt like he gazed into an abyss that humans shouldn't have seen. He immediately averted his eyes and looked elsewhere.

The old man solemnly stared at Dong Junya.

"Xiaomao is causing a lot of trouble for you, I assume."

"Yes, Your Excellency. We can't handle him anymore. We hope that you could provide assistance as you promised."

"Hmm."

Solomon deeply exhaled and crossed his arms behind his back. He closed his eyes, but his eyelids twitched as if the eyeballs had a party inside.

A few seconds later, Solomon opened his eyes.

"Done."

"Eh?" Dong Junya was taken aback.

"Go see your whatever computer. It's done."

"Y-Yes, Your Excellency!"

Dong Junya rushed back to his office. He didn't bother looking back behind him as he was afraid of offending a real deity on earth.

Meanwhile, Solomon ignored Dong Junya and turned around. His movements sent a chill to all employees' spines.

"Now, it's your turn. Close your eyes and welcome anything that enters your body. I'll bless you with the power of gods to protect your world from Chaos Demon Gods and Mu-Nyang!"

All employees tightly shut their eyes in fear.

After everybody closed their eyes, Solomon snapped his fingers. Instantly, all employees in the room sank into the floor and vanished even though the building was solid.

The next moment, shadowy liquid emerge from the places where they had disappeared. Black slimes grew and shapeshifted into the people that sank into the ground earlier.

RUMBLE

Shrill voices of countless ghosts entered the slimes. They merged and gave birth to a new existence.

"Open your eyes, my demons."

The new employees turned to Solomon. All of them knelt and bowed to their king.

"You're now HUMANS of this world. Your first job is to adapt to this world's society and rules. Wait for my instructions and live like the humans that you replace. If you have any inconvenience with your human family, friends, or enemies whatsoever, you're authorized to replace them with your friends from the Netherworld."

The slime people nodded. They expressionlessly stood up and returned to their seats, resuming work.

Solomon lazily exhaled and gazed through the building's windows. Outside, a certain female orange cat and a bicolor cat had been sitting on top of the opposite building, staring at him.

Solomon calmly faced Mu-Nyang and Mir. He muttered.

"Hello again, Chaos Seraphim Progenitor and Cathulhu Goddess. How long has it been since we last met?"

The cats narrowed their eyes. They turned around and faded into nothingness.

Noticing the two deities had withdrawn, Solomon slightly shook his head.

"Your mistake, master. You shouldn't have abandoned this disciple of yours and raised Mao Miaomiao as your successor. Look what the separation of karma has done to you. You're so weak now that I can easily kill you."