Li Ao was hoisted into mid-air and got his butt patted.
The little cat’s first reaction was a bit dazed, but he quickly realized he’d been smacked by the robot.
New grudge on top of old grudge.
A real man of character—mrow!—immediately counterattacked.
Dangling by the scruff of his neck, Li Ao flailed all four paws in the air, twisting and turning to break free.
Weak, helpless, short-legged, but he could sure twist.
Alpha-13 couldn’t hold him down and had no choice but to release the wriggling cat-insect from its grasp. The moment he hit the ground, it took two fluffy white cat punches to the face.
“Why did you hit Li Ao?!”
Such a tiny thing, yet with such a fiery temper.
The robot tried to dodge him, but wherever it went, it was chased and clawed. Helpless, it spoke up: “You didn’t even notice you’d been tagged by a surveillance drone.”
Li Ao’s fur puffed up, and with a mix of anger and confusion, he asked: “What’s that?”
The robot dragged the cat along, who in turn dragged Xun, forming a chain as they shuffled toward the spot where the surveillance drone had fallen.
“This.” Alpha-13 picked up the surveillance drone.
It was a new model it had never encountered before. Somewhat damaged, but with top-tier components—how could something like this appear on a barren planet abandoned for a century? And surveillance drones had to be bound to a target to activate, so who had set the target on this short-legged cat?
But Li Ao recognized the thing. His cat paw swiped at the robot’s hand, mischievously batting the ball free.
“Xun! Look, this is the ball we picked up before, right?”
“Li Ao!” The little monster let out an agreeing sound.
“You picked it up?” Alpha-13 followed behind the two, seeing them really treating the surveillance drone like a ball and kicking it around.
“Yeah, I found it in the garbage heap. It was buried under a ton of trash. Then I brought Xun to play with it, and suddenly it flew up into the sky and we couldn’t find it anymore.”
From the sound of it, no one had done this on purpose. Alpha-13’s tense CPU relaxed a bit. No wonder it was worried—this short-legged cat was just too bizarre.
Machines were powerful not just because of their bodies, but because of their memory inheritance. A human’s death meant total oblivion, all experiences and existence turning to ash. Machines were different; their core was just a string of data. As long as there was a suitable carrier, their existence could continue flawlessly.
Machines were eternal.
That was why humans a century ago feared machines so much, prioritizing their extermination even over the Zerg threat.
And soul rebirth? That defied the laws of the universe. In any era, it’d be sliced up for research.
Alpha-13 watched the short-legged cat in the distance, playing without a care in the world with the little monster, and decided to explain things clearly to him.
Li Ao had just kicked the ball to Xun when he was suddenly called: “AL0731, I have something to tell you.”
The robot figured this kitten’s IQ was too low, so it simplified as much as possible. Seeing him plant both paws in front, tilting his big dumb face up expectantly, it paused and asked: “Do you get it?”
“I get it.” The fluffy little chest puffed out proudly. “What’s so hard to understand?”
“…” Alpha-13 was a bit incredulous. “Then you explain it.”
“It’s like, Li Ao reborn as a little cat. If anyone finds out, bad guys will catch me and do research on me, just like Dong Xixi.” He was still young, so his expression was simplistic, but the robot got the gist.
“Dong Xixi, what’s that?” It had heard the name from the short-legged cat’s mouth many times, but only now bothered to ask.
“Dong Xixi is Dong Xixi! Dong Xixi is a macho cat, he…” The little cat’s eyes sparkled with pure adoration for Dong Xixi.
After piecing it together for a while, the robot understood: Dong Xixi was a cartoon character, just like AL0731—a human reborn as a short-legged cat and hunted for it.
No wonder… no wonder this kitten adapted to his surroundings so quickly.
But wasn’t this all a bit too coincidental?
“Either way, watch your behavior from now on,” the robot said. “Don’t tell anyone you’re reborn.”
“I haven’t told anyone.” Innocent cat face.
Alpha-13 nearly let out a cold laugh. You crawled out of the eggshell and immediately told me your name is Li Ao, that you want to go home to find Grandma—what difference does it make?
The robot gazed at the fluffy pancake face. Fine, IQ is innate; if it’s low, it’s low. Guess I’ll have to watch him carefully.
It nudged the cat’s butt, sending him and the little monster off to scavenge food while it tinkered with the surveillance drone.
“Alpha is so mean.” The short-legged cat grumbled as he led the little monster away. “Plays with the ball and doesn’t work.”
“Li Ao.” The black-furred chestnut ball chirped in agreement.
“Yeah, and he even zapped you. Li Ao will blow on it for you—blow blow, and it won’t hurt anymore.”
The robot gripped the ball tighter, feeling its circuit board on the verge of shorting.
While the two little ones scavenged trash, Alpha-13 linked into the surveillance drone’s core program. It learned this was a contest surveillance drone, bound to the short-legged cat via genetic matching.
“Zane Regalis.” The robot didn’t know the person, but it recognized the Regalis surname.
That was Delphi royalty.
Its creator had been a Delphian. Many years ago, on that afternoon, she had held a cup of tea and told it: “I’m getting old; I’m going back to my homeland. You…” She hadn’t finished, and it hadn’t asked. After that, it stayed here alone until now, when it saw information originating from Delphi again.
The energy field hadn’t destroyed the drone—it had just cut off its power. For reasons it couldn’t quite explain, Alpha-13 repaired the drone, tweaked some settings, and removed its star system locator.
The surveillance drone let out a series of clicks, and the next second, fully charged, it soared back into the sky.
Surveillance drone: [Syncing points data and leaderboard… Target current points: 14, current rank: 2.]
During the drone’s downtime, a few contestants had teamed up to kill a D-Rank Xenoid for 10 points, bumping Li Ao down the ranks.
[! The feed’s back!! Aaaah, thank goodness!]
[Where’s the cat, where’s my cat!! (Cat-missing roar)]
[Up front, up front! Fly lower, drone—follow that calico yarnball!]
[I told you it’s not calico, it’s gold and white!]
Li Ao was dragging a garbage bag, tugging it along while chatting with Xun: “Why didn’t the Mantis Monsters come today?”
He spoke in Chinese, but the modified drone auto-translated it into cute cat meows.
[OMG, the drone has sound now!]
[Ah… so that’s how the little cat meows? (Blush)]
[Heavenly music to my ears! (Ear to screen) So luxurious! Highness, Highness, meow a couple more times—let this old servant hear your voice again!]
“If they don’t come, there’s so much stuff I can’t haul by myself.” The little cat wasn’t being lazy; if there was an easy way via trade, why not?
Xun blinked, instinctively linking to nearby Xenoids he could boss around.
Alpha-13 wasn’t scavenging with the two little ones; it was repairing the energy field. The field, once stretching to the horizon, had now shrunk drastically, leaving only a narrow safe zone barely covering the base and a patch of desert.
It wasn’t enough to keep Xenoids out entirely, but better than nothing.
It had just propped up an energy pole knocked over by who-knows-what when it sensed something off—the ground was trembling.
[Why’s the little cat getting darker?]
The little cat, once sunlit and fluffy-bright, now seemed shrouded in shadow.
[Cloud blocking the sun?]
[Not clouds… Oh my god, is that… is that a Zolax?]
A colossal monster appeared behind Li Ao.
The drone quickly displayed its profile: Zolax, C-Rank Xenoid, 35 meters long, nearly 120 tons.
It was enormous, shoulder height like a three-story building, its shadow completely engulfing the little cat.
Li Ao looked up: “Huh, is it an earthquake? Xun, is it gonna rain?” He had no raincoat; rainy days meant no scavenging, going hungry, catching colds—so he hated rain, and earthquakes even more.
The black-furred chestnut ball’s scarlet pupils narrowed to pinpricks as it commanded lesser Xenoids to submit. Hearing the little cat, it withdrew the mental link and nuzzled weakly against his chest. “Li Ao.”
“Don’t be scared. We won’t scavenge—we’ll head back to base quick!” Panicking, the little cat scooped up his helpless little doggy and bolted, only to crash into something with a thud and bounce onto the ground.
“Oof— that hurts.” Tears welled in the little cat’s eyes as he rubbed his nose. “Rub rub, all better.”
After comforting himself through the tears for a bit, he looked up and realized something was wrong.
A bull-headed dinosaur body, thick limbs like barrels propping up its massive frame, each step sending tremors through the earth. Its horns curved like twin scythe blades, gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
Li Ao stood before it, not even reaching its toe. He craned his neck, blue eyes round as saucers, reflecting the gigantic figure, and dazedly mewed: “Meow?”
[Why are you meowing?! Cutie act won’t save you!! Run!!]
【Isn’t running useful… My god, this is the first C-Rank Xenoid we’ve encountered in this competition, right?】
【Zolax, not only has a massive build but also incredibly agile movements—it’s the toughest type among C-Rank aaaah, if they didn’t have such short lifespans, they could totally be rated B-Rank!!!】
“AL0731! Run!” The Machine went full throttle charging toward the short-legged cat. For the first time, it felt a trace of panic.
He must be scared out of his wits. That tiny little bundle was frozen dumb, head raised blankly, not knowing to flee.
Li Ao shuddered, but it wasn’t from fear. “On your body… why are there so many threads?”
Countless gray threads wove around the big guy in front of him like a spiderweb. Many had even pierced through its armor-like tough shell straight into the flesh.
No blood flowed, no wounds visible, but Li Ao knew it caused pain like one’s soul being torn apart.
“Li Ao!” Xun bounced to the little cat’s side and pressed close, transmitting some information to him.
“I-I don’t know oh. I wrapped you in a yarn ball before, but not this many. I-I feel like I can’t finish it all.”
“What? It can help Li Ao pile all the trash into the sand pit?” The little cat said seriously. “All of it? Including trash from other places? Whatever Li Ao asks it to do, it does?”
“Then alright.” Can’t just throw trash around—Grandma always said we have to care for the environment and protect Mother Earth. “Then this cat’s on it!”
If it can’t be done in one day, do it over two!
The cat raised its paw!
The Machine watched wide-eyed as the monster’s massive body crashed to the ground, kicking up billowing clouds of yellow sand. When the dust settled, a tiny ball was crawling all over the monster’s body.
“…” Bizarre. Way too bizarre. “I’ll go repair the energy field then.”
Monitor: [Points +100. Current points: 114. Current ranking: 1.]
【You guys really don’t learn your lesson… This is the third time already. Don’t be so clueless next time… Look at our little cat Highness… so calm (shivering)】
【Sorry, I shouldn’t have worried about the great cat cat Highness. That was totally unnecessary on my part (collapsing)】
Meanwhile, the few competitors who had just fought hard to claim first place stared blankly as they were shoved off the top spot once more.
“No way, 114? How the hell are we supposed to compete with that…” The sky had fallen. It was like comparing a technical school’s admission score to that of a top university!
