In the days before the short-legged cat was born, Alpha-13 had never stepped out of the nurturing facility’s gates, nor had it ever come here. But it knew that this building had a clearance protocol excluding robots from passage right from the initial construction.
An azure permission page appeared before its eyes, accompanied by an electronic voice:
[Please state your name.]
The kitten nervously flattened its ears and poked at the robot. “It’s asking what your name is?”
Alpha-13 paused slightly before hesitantly uttering the builder’s name: “Yi Xiangjin.”
After the robot said this name, the electronic synthesized voice shifted to a female tone: “Incorrect answer, please try again~”
This voice differed from Grandma’s, but it was equally elderly and gentle, carrying a hint of teasing. It made Li Ao relax unconsciously, his ears perking up again. His little paw poked the robot. “You got it wrong. You’re not Yi Xiangjin.”
Alpha-13 knew that, of course. Hearing the builder’s voice after a century caused its CPU to stutter. After a moment, it said, “Alpha-13.”
This was the designation imprinted on it since manufacturing.
For some reason, after saying it, it grew nervous—even picking up the struggling short-legged cat into its arms, as if borrowing courage while awaiting judgment.
It felt like the password lock’s program deliberated forever, but it was merely a second before she said, “Answer not accepted.”
The robot froze.
As expected, it was a machine humans had excluded, denied the right to enter the human living area. It had no emotions, yet a frustrated data stream surged wildly deep in its program. Perhaps because failing to enter meant one less way home for the short-legged cat… or some other reason.
It emitted a mechanized voice: “Can’t get in, we—”
Li Ao cut it off. “You’re such a dumb machine!”
The short-legged cat wore a ‘you’re a total idiot’ expression. It was one thing for it to usually mangle Li Ao’s name into AL0731, but how could it not even know its own name?
The kitten thought it was dumb and answered for it, yowling a string of nonsense at the permission page: “It’s called Alpha, it’s called dumb machine, it’s called—uh—it’s called white coat, cold and icy, hits kittens, pulls cat whiskers, bad machine.”
What the hell was this stinky little cat yowling? Alpha-13 irritably pinched the kitten’s mouth, but the little monster below parroted the words in a weird voice, mimicking nonstop.
The robot scooped one up in each hand and fumed as it turned to leave—only for the female voice to chime in with a hint of amusement: “Answer accepted.”
Alpha-13’s sliding steps halted.
This permission level must contain a mental remnant left by the builder. She actually passed this mess of shouting?
“Then, please proceed to the next test.”
Li Ao felt triumphant, wriggling his head free from the mechanical arm and raising it proudly. “Then you say it.”
“Please place the sand of the great desert into the inspection area.” With the words, a bowl-shaped device popped out from the gate.
Sand of the great desert? The sand outside?
Alpha-13 was still dazed when Li Ao shot a disdainful look at the lazy, slacking idiot robot. He leaped from its arms, dashed to the sandy ground, scooped a pawful of sand, and paddled back on his short little legs. He clambered onto Xun’s head. “Xun, lift me up. I’ll put the sand in.”
He knew his own limits—his legs were too short to reach even if he jumped.
“Li Ao!” The black-furred chestnut ball got the order. Once the kitten was steady, it sprang high.
Cat paws weren’t the steadiest—in midair, most of the sand scattered, but some landed in the bowl.
The black-furred chestnut ball touched down, and the kitten hopped off its head. The two little ones pressed together, sitting side by side as they awaited verification.
“Inspection passed. Increasing difficulty~” The laughter in the female voice grew more pronounced. “Please place a flower into the inspection area.”
A flower?
The kitten’s ahoge sprang up wildly. He suddenly flicked his tail. “Little Flower Beauty, can you give me a flower?”
The Strangling Vine’s branches rustled in the wind, emitting a horrifying, ghost-like cackle. But contrary to the terror, it parted its jagged maw and spat out a flower for the kitten.
“Thanks!” Li Ao snatched the flower and teamed up again with the eager-to-jump black-furred chestnut ball, delivering it into the inspection device.
“Inspection passed.”
Li Ao beamed at another success, grabbing Xun’s paw with both of his as he bounced. “Xun, we’re awesome!”
“Li Ao!” The black-furred chestnut ball agreed.
But before the kitten could revel too long, the female voice continued: “Please place the snow of the white day into the inspection area.”
Li Ao froze, tail drooping. “What’s snow of the white day? Snowflakes?”
“Li Ao?” If he didn’t know, how could Xun?
“Snowflakes… gotta wait till the sky turns red?”
During sky red, temperatures plummeted, frosting the land—and bringing snow.
Alpha-13 snapped back to reality, hoisting the cat to shake off his sand. “Snow of the white day isn’t the sky red kind.”
“Ah? Not? Then where?”
The robot eyed the waiting bowl for a long moment before patting the kitten’s head. “Mountain peak.”
Aurilion’s entire planet was desertified; only spots with scant black soil hosted an ice peak.
“Only that mountain’s summit holds snowflakes in the daytime.” The robot wasn’t dumb—it boasted superhuman computation and logic. It grasped the builder’s intent: she wanted it to venture out, into the wider world.
Want in? Then take the test.
Its program even flashed her imagined expression as she said it. She’d left the challenge without foreseeing a short-legged cat breezing through the prior ones. This one, though… trickier.
“Then we go find the snow mountain?” Oblivious to the hardship, the kitten looked up optimistically. Dong Xixi’s tales brimmed with adventures; mimicking them, he met challenges with zeal.
“Not that easy.” No entry for now—the robot scooped up the kitten and little monster, heading back to the nurturing facility. “That snow mountain’s far off. Go out, and you won’t return before nightfall. You’ll freeze.”
Plus, desert traversal meant more Zerg. The little monster suppressed Xenoids, but…
Sky red made Li Ao shudder, hugging his tail. “Then what?”
“Only I go,” the robot said.
Alpha-13’s calculations checked out—until the snag. The short-legged cat blocked it. “We go with you.”
“You can’t. Road’s long. No night return.”
“But… this is Li Ao’s thing. Can’t trouble you like this.”
A soft yet bullheaded kitten; the robot had seen him feud with flowerpot soil and knew his stubborn streak. Once set, he followed through.
“I wanna go home.” The kitten’s face turned solemn.
Finding a home meant cracking the neighboring building. If he couldn’t find a home, the robot wouldn’t go on its excursion. Since the night was too risky, he couldn’t let the robot run out solo. He might be unlettered, but he was logical and felt a sense of responsibility.
“Can’t let one machine go alone.” He shook his head.
Alpha-13 stilled, then couldn’t resist petting his soft fur.
This cub was frail—legs short and crooked.
He seldom cried, yet bruised easily.
But tough, too.
Optimism the robot found unbelievable amid his wretched upbringing. How’d he turn out this way?
“Not your thing.” Even sans kitten, knowing of the builder’s test would’ve spurred it.
But the stubborn cat ignored reason. Robot insistence be damned—he shouldered his pack, tugged the little dog, ready to roll.
“We go together!” Tail-grabbed, he griped.
“Why?” Alpha-13 puzzled. “Food hunts, snow collection—I promise care. Why risk?”
Past nanny fails, but it’d strive to raise the cub now.
Yet the short-legged cat?
Fluffy face scrunched, dark brows furrowed seriously. “Dangerous! We’re friends—friends share danger!”
Friends, he said.
Novel concept.
An worldly-naive dumb kitten calling a robot friend.
Alpha-13 found the fearless ignorance amusing… and him, so cute.
How could there be such a cub? The robot couldn’t figure it out, but going on an adventure together sounded pretty good too.
“Alright then, we’ll go together.” Alpha-13 let go of the cat’s tail.
Inertia sent the little cat stumbling forward. He climbed back to his feet, raising his white fists unhappily and banging on the robot twice with thuds. “Don’t pull Li Ao’s tail anymore!”
Xun followed suit, taking it even further as he bared his recently grown sharp fangs and gnawed wildly on the robot’s body.
[Dare to bully Li Ao, I’ll bite]
Alpha-13 let the short-legged cat and little monster cling to its body, scratching and clawing wildly, as it dragged them off to pack supplies for tomorrow’s trip.
They weren’t heading out today. It would be very cold by sunset, so they needed to prepare traveling rations for the fragile yet gluttonous cubs.
Meanwhile, the Star Network was filled with wails.
[Where’s my big cat? Why hasn’t my cat come out today?]
