I Am a Cat (14)

Zhao Ming suddenly spoke up from the side, "Quit standing around. Let's find a safe spot first—they're fighting."

By now, more and more hosts had arrived at the scene.

But only a few bold ones had actually started fighting.

Most, like Little Wei, stayed back, watching the chaos unfold. It wasn’t that they weren’t tempted by the mission rewards—they just didn’t want to die in agony.

Li Xunle wasn’t holding back.

Her silver spear sliced through the biting wind, the blood of her victims splattering onto the ruined earth. A thick, metallic stench spread through the cold air, nauseating to anyone who caught a whiff.

Drops of blood stained Li Xunle’s fair, unblemished face.

For Little Wei, this was the first time she had seen this side of A-Si—as if human lives meant nothing in her hands.

Just then, the staff, holding a tablet, spoke up, "Little Wei, I have a theory."

"What?" Little Wei turned to the staff.

"Maybe… Li Xunle altered history?" The staff tugged at its hair, sounding uncertain.

"If that’s the case, then it all makes sense," Zhao Ming chimed in after a moment of thought.

"Changing history is no small matter. And given the current situation, we’re living in the altered timeline. We have no idea what Li Xunle went through—and she’s terrifyingly strong."

None of the hosts who made it into the top thousand were pushovers.

Even someone like Little Wei, who mostly kept to herself, had to rely on her system’s cheats just to get into this world.

"I’d say she’s pretty average," Little Wei remarked, failing to see any outstanding qualities in Li Xunle.

She still preferred Xiao Wei.

Zhao Ming: "…"

"By the way, wasn’t this the girl you wanted to protect? Shouldn’t you be doing something instead of just watching?" Zhao Ming couldn’t help but add.

Little Wei scoffed. "This is why I don’t like being friends with people like you. But it seems she doesn’t need my help anyway."

Li Xunle’s spear was colder than an ice staff—Little Wei wasn’t about to jump into that bloodbath.

"Honestly, there’s no need to kill Li Jiewei. There’s such a thing as a win-win. We don’t have to follow the system’s mission blindly." Zhao Ming patted Little Wei’s shoulder.

"What are you getting at?" Little Wei was genuinely confused now.

"Li Jiewei only did one thing that changed history. I don’t know what exactly she altered, but it must’ve been significant—otherwise, this mission wouldn’t exist."

Zhao Ming stroked his chin.

Little Wei thought Zhao Ming was spouting nonsense. Great job, now shut up.

"If we go back and prevent the major fallout, downplay the whole thing—maybe even make it so nothing changed at all—then the mission should be easy to complete."

Little Wei thought Zhao Ming was joking.

Go back in time?

Yeah, right.

But the staff turned to Little Wei.

"His idea isn’t bad."

"And how do we time-travel?" Little Wei felt like these two were talking nonsense. Even if they could, what if they ended up in the altered timeline? That’d be pointless.

"Well… you’d need to get your hands on the artifact Li Jiewei used to change history in the first place."

"That’s stealing." Little Wei was disgusted.

She despised that kind of underhanded tactic.

"Completing a mission isn’t stealing," Zhao Ming chuckled.

Little Wei knew she shouldn’t be friends with Zhao Ming. This guy had no shame—none at all.

Ugh.

"Even if we get the artifact, there’s no guarantee it’ll work," Little Wei argued.

"We’d still need to study it. Worst case, we resort to hypnosis." With that, Zhao Ming flipped open his palm, revealing a pocket watch.

"You know hypnosis?" Little Wei was baffled.

If he had this, why did he struggle so much in the last world?

"It’s a special item. Bought it from the system shop after the last mission. Figured it’d come in handy." Zhao Ming lowered his gaze.

Truthfully, he’d already pieced it together—Little Wei was the last cat demon in this world.

Otherwise, the heavens wouldn’t target a mere "cat," and Little Wei wouldn’t be protecting Li Jiewei. If the mission was to kill Li Jiewei, why would there be a host assigned to protect her? Unless… they had some unspoken connection.

Then again, if the system companies were just messing around for fun, there might actually be a bunch of hosts assigned to protect Li Jiewei.

But all signs pointed to Little Wei being the cat demon.

Zhao Ming knew that capturing her would mean an easy victory—first place, no contest.

But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Though, this time, Zhao Ming was mistaken. Earlier, the staff and the others had learned that there were actually hosts tasked with awakening Li Jiewei’s latent potential.

"Hypnosis… that’s just evil."

Zhao Ming snapped out of his thoughts to Little Wei’s muttered complaint.

Zhao Ming: "…"

Evil wasn’t the point right now.

What they needed was to stop Li Xunle’s rampage.

"If she keeps killing like this, even if we find a way to fix history, the system companies will suffer massive losses," Zhao Ming said. "Some hosts get erased if they fail their missions."

Zhao Ming wasn’t exactly a saint, but he didn’t want to see that happen.

"So you’re saying I should go stop her?" Little Wei thought Zhao Ming’s suggestion was insane.

"Exactly. She’s emotional right now—calm her down, bring her here, and we’ll find a safe spot to hypnotize her."

Little Wei felt like they were shady criminals, luring in some naive girl with hypnosis.

Damn it.

She shouldn’t be thinking like this. What a mess.

"Staff." Little Wei glanced at the weapon beside her.

The staff pressed its lips together and tossed its tablet back into storage.

"What weapon do you need?" it asked.

Given that A-Si’s fragmented weapon was long-range, and its own form was too short to block effectively…

"A sword."

The moment Little Wei gave the order, the staff transformed into a gleaming gold-and-silver longsword, hovering before her.

BANG—

Little Wei’s sword energy clashed violently against Li Xunle’s spear, a metallic taste rising in her throat.

Too much. Way too much.

But she swallowed the blood back down.

"Li Xunle."

She called out to the figure before her.

"Stop this. The Li Dynasty is already gone. Everyone else is just watching."

Li Xunle’s icy gaze met Little Wei’s gentle eyes, her lips curling into a mocking smirk.

"You think you can stop me?"

Little Wei: ?

Screw this. Divorce. Right now. Immediately.

This was unbearable.

Li Xunle leveled her spear, expression cold.

"Everyone says I was wrong—even my pet thinks so?"

Little Wei: "…"

She hated being called a pet.