The stray Little Black Cat road the woods, only ever coming out at night.
Occasionally, it would see the colorful neon lights of the distant city and the Pet Beasts flying in the sky through gaps in the trees.
It would always stop in its tracks, unable to resist gazing at the lights and the Pet Beasts in the sky.
Sotis, it thought, ’Maybe Master will co back tomorrow.’
But as ti went on, its mory of its master began to fade, and its body grew weaker.
Its world was very small, and there was so much it didn’t understand. Its master hadn’t taught it so many things.
The unknown brought fear. To it, the outside world seed both beautiful and dangerous.
If not for the need to survive, it would never have dared to venture into that world.
Its master had gone out into that world and never returned.
It was afraid that if it left, it would never find its way ho again, and it wouldn’t be there when its master ca back.
Suddenly, a bowl of freeze-dried food appeared before it.
It sniffed lightly. It was the freeze-dried food it often ate, a familiar scent.
A sense of relief and happiness washed over it.
"eeoow—"
It let out a long cry, wanting to thank the white cat in the woods.
But it waited for a mont and heard no reply. The white cat must have already left.
The stray black cat lowered its head. Starving, it had no habit of chewing its food slowly. It opened its mouth and devoured it as fast as it could.
With a series of GULPS, it swallowed all the food.
Nearly half a year of foraging in the wild had honed its rapid biting and tearing Skills.
It could tear a whole bowl of food to pieces and swallow it within seconds.
Its stomach had also developed a long-term storage capacity, allowing it to hold food for two weeks, digesting it slowly to ensure its survival.
This slow digestion had its downsides. A Pet Beast in its Juvenile Stage needed to eat a lot and digest quickly to grow properly.
For it to be this way was a complete waste of its potential for Evolution.
But from the Little Black Cat’s perspective, survival was the top priority. A scientifically sound diet had to co second.
Besides, the one who could have taught it these things hadn’t co back for a very long ti.
As it walked, it felt its steps occasionally slowing down.
Sotis, even when it turned into a shadow to move, it wasn’t as smooth as before.
Occasionally, its Mana would even cut out.
’Maybe I can’t go on much longer.’
Just like those Spirit Beasts it had seen before. They would be walking, and then they’d suddenly collapse on the ground and never get up again.
’When is Master coming back?’
The wait had been so long that it had lost its concept of ti.
It only knew that a long ti had passed. Even the concepts of days, weeks, and months had blurred. It asured ti by the hunger in its belly, not by the passing of day and night.
The thought of its master would flash through its mind from ti to ti, but today, even his image had beco hazy.
In a daze, it relied on Muscle mory to return ho.
「A short while later.」
The Little Black Cat returned to its hiding place in the forest. As a shadow, it slid unthinkingly and without obstruction into a world of night where the stone forest was no more.
’This is?’
The stray Little Black Cat’s eyes widened. It felt the aura of the Array in this place, which seed to carry a vibrant scent of life.
This place was different. It had changed. There were lush, vibrant trees similar to the ones outside, teeming with life and flourishing.
With an excited heart, it used its Perception on everything in this small world.
This feeling, this aura from the Array... it was undoubtedly the work of its master, the one whose face was starting to blur in its mory.
’It’s him!’
’He must have co back!’
The stray Little Black Cat’s heart ward, and it dashed off, following the familiar scent.
In just three seconds, it reached the center of the Array, where the dilapidated little wooden cabin from its mories stood.
It impatiently rushed through the "door" of its ho, only to stop dead in its tracks.
The wooden table, the furniture, the ancient books on the shelves—they were all exactly as it rembered.
The only difference was that the floor was spotless, without a speck of dust.
It was a brand-new wooden cabin, yet it was a perfect replica of the original.
The Little Black Cat couldn’t make sense of these details. The place just felt both strange and familiar.
There were traces of its life everywhere, and traces of human life too. It was no longer the dead, empty shell it had been for the past six months.
It couldn’t help but let out a long cry, owing and owing for its master.
’Master must have co back!’
’Otherwise, how could the Array have been refurbished?’
’How could that dying stone forest have turned into living green trees?’
But when its calls faded, the one who answered was not its master, but the voice of the Night Demon Cat.
"ow—"
The other cat explained apologetically that it had moved the Little Black Cat’s ho without asking.
Its old dwelling was on the verge of collapse, and fearing sothing might happen, it took the opportunity to move everything to a new place while the Little Black Cat was out foraging.
"Please rest assured, the location of the new Array and the new ho is exactly the sa as your old one..." the Night Demon Cat said covertly, cloaked in the darkness of night.
It didn’t show itself. This was mainly Gu Ming’s plan. Suddenly moving a Pet Beast’s ho would certainly cause resentnt.
To mitigate that resentnt, the first step was to avoid direct eye contact that might provoke it. The second was to offer a sincere apology, explain their intentions, and point out the risks.
Since the cat was still eating and still wanted to live, it clearly had a will to survive and understood the need to avoid danger.
As long as it was afraid of dying, it would understand what Gu Ming and the others had done, even if it was impolite.
Of course, whether it would actually accept it was another matter entirely.
The stray Little Black Cat froze. It was as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over its feverish brain, chilling it to the core and snapping its tiny, nut-sized mind back to clarity.
’So it wasn’t my master who ca back.’
’It was just the kindness of a friend.’
A trace of disappointnt flickered across the Little Black Cat’s face.
It had known for a while that its ho was about to be gone.
It had been standing guard there all this ti, already prepared to be buried along with it.
Now it had been moved to a new place that looked exactly the sa as the old one.
It thought it would be resentful, but instead, it felt a warmth deep inside.
It was the Power of being cared for. Although the other cat hadn’t shown itself, the Power of love in its voice had reached its heart.
This caused an indescribable emotion to well up inside the little cat, which had stood watch over this place for half a year without receiving any love in return.
"ow ow—"
’Thank you!’
’I’ll keep watch here and wait for Master to co back.’
It continued to ow, chatting a bit with the Night Demon Cat and asking to see it.
Before long, the other cat suddenly spoke in their feline language:
"I found your master’s belongings, and a video of him from before he passed away."
The Little Black Cat’s fur stood on end instantly. It turned and bolted out the door, through the woods, and across the alternating lines of light and shadow of the Array, erging into the outside world.
There, it saw the white Night Demon Cat hiding behind a tree trunk, with only its head poking out. It was holding a phone in its mouth.
A video was playing on the screen. It was sothing Yuan Ge had obtained by contacting an old classmate, who then found a relative of the old school janitor and got the footage of him before his death.
「In the video.」
The old school janitor was lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen tube.
He was surrounded by Beastmasters in white coats, with several Healing Pet Beasts attending to him.
Healing Pet Beasts were very powerful, capable of making necrotic flesh grow back.
But against a depleted life span, even doctors were helpless. When one’s ti was up, any Life Force injected by a Pet Beast’s Healing Skills would turn into the Power of Death, an irreversible process.
There were Miraculous Elixirs in the world that could extend one’s life, but they were astronomically expensive, far beyond the reach of an ordinary person.
The old man waved his hand, signaling them to stop the treatnt.
"The little ones I took in... release them back into the wild," he said with a trembling voice. "Let them live a life of freedom."
The Little Black Cat didn’t understand complicated things.
It stared at the screen, watching the old man’s words of concern, and tears instantly welled up in its eyes. A whimper it couldn’t hold back escaped its throat.
From a distance, Gu Ming watched quietly, not wanting to disturb the mont.
He suddenly understood: ’In this little cat’s heart, the old school janitor was its only "parent".’
’I’m afraid I’m not fated to form a contract with it.’
’It’s for the best. You can’t force a bond.’
Gu Ming smiled and shook his head, suppressing the urge to form a contract that had been sparked by the system’s "Chaos Creatures" tag.
The Little Black Cat stared blankly at the screen as a long-buried mory suddenly surfaced.
Once, a group of people had barged into its ho and taken away its brothers and sisters.
It had fled into the forest in a panic and only dared to return ho after hiding for a long ti. It found the house ransacked. Everything edible was gone, leaving only so unwanted old books and dicine-compounding tools.
It had always thought that bad people had stolen its companions, and it had hated humans for a long ti.
But now, watching the old man in the video, it suddenly understood—those people were the ones its master had entrusted them to.
Its hatred and wariness toward humans slowly lted away like ice and snow, leaving only a heart full of confusion:
’Master is gone. Where should I go?’
The Little Black Cat pawed at the dirt, whimpering. The thought of death even began to cross its mind.
Perhaps this wooden cabin would be the best grave for it, a place where it could be buried with its past.
Just then, the old man in the video closed his eyes.
A relative beside him leaned down and asked for his final wish.
The old man’s lips moved slightly, his voice as faint as the wind:
"I hope... everyone can live long and healthy lives."
Finally, the electrocardiogram on the machine went flat, and cries of grief filled the hospital room.
The stray Little Black Cat’s Divine Soul trembled. It lifted its head, tears shimring in its eyes, and looked at the old man in the video, who had closed his eyes and fallen into his final, peaceful sleep.
’He wants to live on...?’
Its master’s wish, his final will, was conveyed to its heart through the video.
The death wish that had just ford in its mind was suppressed once more.
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