Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 112 – Cat Dad is Popular (2)

Balancing real life and game life was easy for disciplined adults, but difficult for inexperienced teenagers. The key was self-control.

Wei Zhi fell into the category of teenagers as she had never played an immersive game before. After she had touched Pangu Online 2, the girl started skipping morning jogging.

It was Monday morning, and it was time for her to go to school, yet she was still playing the game.

Wei Huang noticed that his daughter skipped the morning exercises. He came to her room and found that his daughter was still in the game capsule.

As forcefully unplugging the cables might lead to brain injuries, Wei Huang couldn’t wake her up. He turned to her computer on her desk instead.

Switching on the desktop computer, Wei Huang visited the game homepage and logged in with his account. Although Wei Huang didn’t have any character in the game, he could still send messages to other players on the friend list by using the website.

He typed in the chat box.

“It’s morning. Are you skipping school again?”

The incident on their school bus affected her mental health. A psychiatrist advised Wei Huang to distract her from the incident by giving her a hobby.

As Wei Huang got his hands on a free NFT character and a game capsule, he gave the capsule to Wei Zhi and introduced the game to Wei Zhi.

It was a bad decision. Wei Zhi had been shutting herself in her room to play the game since. She stopped working out, reviewing lessons, or contacting her friends.

Wei Huang sighed and waited for his daughter’s reply. Fortunately, Wei Zhi quickly answered in the chat box, “Yes. No point going to school today.”

“Aren’t today’s classes for the SAT? Will you be fine without studying?”

“I have an athletic scholarship. I’ll be fine in college.”_.

Wei Huang sighed. He regretted gifting her the game capsule and the game character.

‘I should have sold it in the black market. This should have fetched me 500k RMB.’

The father glanced at Wei Zhi’s game character level. Within a day, she reached level 60. But for an unknown reason, her character’s name was gold.

As Wei Huang didn’t know about the game, he ignored it and closed the computer. The father went to the kitchen, cooked a simple breakfast, and left the dish on the kitchen table for his daughter. Once Wei Huang was done, he went to work.

.

Xiaomao purchased all wet cat food from Qin Yun’s store and brought them to the house along with the cartons of canned soda. He also bought a box of catnip powder and brought it to his room.

As soon as Xiaomao entered the room, Mu-Nyang, Mir, Nyanko, and Mama Cat jumped out of the bed and swarmed him.

Munya? (Is that my tribute, peasant?)

Mew? (What’s that smell?)

Nya? (Papa, can I have that?)

Meo! (Me, want!)

Xiaomao guided the cats to the kitchen and showed them the wet food in their bowls. He also poured a pinch of catnip onto the floor.

The cats disregarded the food and went after the catnip. They sniffed and rolled on the floor, enjoying the stimulation and the smell.

Noticing how hammered his cats were, Xiaomao took several pictures with his phone and recorded a long clip of their reactions. He spent the rest of the morning playing with his cats to stabilize his mind and synchronization rate.

.

In the afternoon, Xiaomao got back to the game. When the game menu showed up, the first information he got was his current synchronization rate.

6.35%

It went up after Xiaomao stopped playing the game to rest. The progress was slow, but he wouldn’t get injured during the evolution.

When Xiaomao’s character appeared in the game, the system notification spammed him with messages.

DING

<Your location has been exposed to the world for one minute.>

<Player Jian Yong wants to become your friend. Will you accept?>

<You have unclaimed bounty rewards at Xuan City. Visit Xuan Town’s mayor to claim the rewards.>

<Player Liu Bei wants to become your friend. Will you accept?>

<Level-1 Guild, Bounty Hunter, has invited you to join their guild. Will you accept?>

<Fang Meirong wants to become your friend. Will you accept?>

<Ma Xingjuan wants to become your friend. Will you accept?>

<Level-3 Guild, Miaomiao Family, has invited you to join their guild. Will you accept?>

<Level-1 Guild, Shu Han, has invited you to join their guild. Will you accept?>

<Level-1 Guild…>

Friend requests and guild invitations flooded the game screen. Annoyed, Xiaomao rejected all guild invitations and blacklisted them. Then, he checked the friend requests.

Players in the game could see the location of their friends through their friend list. The friend menu showed everybody’s level, class, and general location.

Xiaomao could hide his detail with a setting. Although it might be rude to Halal and others, he opened the friend setting menu and change his setting to private.

Now, no friend on his friend list could find out about his location. Only the beacon and the global announcement could find him.

Xiaomao turned toward a certain guild’s invitation next. He remembered the level-3 guild’s name as it belonged to a mysterious group of extremely strong people who had connections to invaders from the second world. As Xiaomao had no information about them except that their guild members were hostile to Earth, he chose to reject their offer and blacklist them.

After which, Xiaomao looked at the friend requests. He rejected and blacklisted Jian Yong, Liu Bei, and the people that he didn’t know. Because the list was long, Xiaomao spent the first 10 minutes rejecting friend requests and guild invitations.

While Xiaomao was being absentminded, the corner of his eyes noticed a peculiar in-game name.

<Player Battlefield Warlord wants to become your friend. Will you accept?>

“…”

Xiaomao’s tentacle stopped swiping the system screen. He paused for a moment and pressed the ACCEPT button.

He knew that nickname. It belonged to the famous Oni Valkyrie, who dominated future Guild Wars and events in his previous life. Her guild, Valkyrie, was one of the top 10 guilds in the world, and their guild members were a part of Earth’s defense force.

After accepting the friend request, Xiaomao opened Battlefield Warlord’s status menu, checking her level, class, and location. Surprisingly, she was a level-60 Oni Warlord, and her present location was Yeet City.

Xiaomao sent a message to the girl, trying to confirm if it was the woman that he knew.

“Hello?”

Seconds later, the oni replied.

‘Hahaha! Xiaomao, are you skipping school, too?’

“Who are you?”

‘This is Wei Zhi. I know you’re Xiaomao from the 1-E class, right?’

Bingo. It was Wei Zhi.

Xiaomao was relieved that he added the right person. He snickered.

“How did you get your hands on the UR NFT? Isn’t a UR character and the game capsule expensive?”

‘My dad won the lottery. Anyway, what’s your level? I can’t see your detail in my friend menu.’

“Over 100.”

‘Wow! You’re strong! Where are you right now? Why does the server keep announcing your location?’

“There’s a set of circumstances going on.”

‘What’s the problem?’

“Anyway, I’m busy. Talk to you later, munya!”

Xiaomao closed the chat box. He didn’t want to reveal too much about his items and his trouble as it might hinder Wei Zhi’s growth. For now, he minded his own businesses.

The catopus checked the ship’s location and the crews. Upon looking around, he found the three new members, whom Shepherd had brought to the ship. One of them was a fisherman dwarf. The other two were handsome middle-aged humans in ragged clothes.

Xiaomao looked at their names.

Peter S. Fisher, Level 50

James Greatman, Level 50

John Preacher, Level 50

Xiaomao tilted his head. He had a feeling that something didn’t feel right about this group. He turned to the other crew and found Andrew, who was hammering something on the deck.

Andrew, the Manly, Level 27

‘Since when have Andrew gotten a title? But why are their names so familiar? Where have I heard of them before?’

Xiaomao kept tilting his head from side to side as he couldn’t remember where he had heard them.

While Xiaomao was confused, Magdalene had a wry smile on her face as she knew what Shepherd had done to the three new recruits.

<Magdalene gives up on Shepherd’s silly ambition.>