Chapter 2: Heading Out for Food

AL0731—that was the serial number of that experimental egg.

Alpha-13 knew it well, having watched it for a full century.

That was the egg of the Blue Morpho Butterfly. If it hadn’t died, it should have hatched into a caterpillar, but for some reason, what emerged was a catbug instead.

According to its programming, it should report the anomaly to the researchers for judgment, then decide whether to terminate the experimental subject based on their conclusion.

However, there were no longer any personnel left on this planet to make judgments, so Alpha-13 could only execute the basic nanny robot directives: care for the hatched experimental body and wait for new commands to take over.

The oblivious Li Ao devoured the meat with gusto, chomping down on a steak nearly as big as himself until he was stuffed and collapsed, unable to stand.

There was no such thing as food a cat couldn’t finish—only a cat not trying hard enough! He let out a few satisfied burps, then clambered back up and took a few more bites.

Such a big appetite, so gluttonous. Alpha-13 made a note.

Only when his stomach was pressing up against his throat and he truly couldn’t eat another bite did Li Ao finally stop. His little belly was puffed up like a balloon, and with his short legs, it looked like it was almost dragging on the ground.

He licked the meat juices from the corners of his mouth, then stood up on his hind legs like a person, hugging his belly with both paws and rubbing it.

The robot came over to clean up the leftovers the moment Li Ao got up.

It was so nice.

Gratitude welled up in Li Ao’s heart. It handed him towels, cooked for him, and even did the dishes—such a good machine.

The robot, which was merely obsessive about cleanliness, inexplicably earned the label of “good machine.” As it washed the dishes, it took stock of the base’s supplies. The place had been abandoned for a century, and the humans had taken almost everything worth taking. The only meat steaks left had just had one polished off by this kitten.

Soon, there would be nothing left here for him to eat.

After rubbing his belly for a bit, Li Ao felt better. His round almond-shaped eyes swiveled around, and he picked up a napkin, tiptoeing over to the robot’s side. “You’ve got some dirt here.”

The little cat looked up, standing on tiptoes to wipe the meat juices off it. “Thanks for cooking for me. Let me clean you up.”

His own paws weren’t clean, leaving an oily paw print on its shell. Feeling a bit guilty, he glanced up slyly and saw it hadn’t noticed, so he quickly scrubbed it off with the napkin.

One meal repaid with a single wipe—Li Ao felt like he was clearly taking advantage of the robot, so he said earnestly, “I can wipe down a section of the floor for you too, or fold clothes twice.” The robot wasn’t wearing clothes… He thought for a moment. “Then how about I catch five cockroaches for you or take out the trash once.”

He was a fair and square good little cat.

Alpha-13 gave him a calm look and said in its mechanical voice, “No need.” Even standing upright on its hind legs, he was less than 30 centimeters tall—standing next to it was just in the way.

Unaware that it found his short legs a nuisance, Li Ao happily thought the machine was so nice. He wiped his paws haphazardly, tossed the dirty napkin in the trash, then pattered back over and squatted beside the robot.

Alpha-13 had no idea what he wanted and was about to go around him when he suddenly hugged its body.

“My name is Li Ao.”

Alpha-13 hadn’t come into contact with any other lifeform in a century. Now, staring at the grubby short-legged cat clinging to it, it didn’t react for a long time.

The short-legged cat lifted his little head and repeated, “My name is Li Ao!” Seeing the robot still not respond, he gave it big watery blue eyes. “Li Ao told you my name, so you should tell me yours too.”

The mechanical arm grabbed the scruff of his neck and lifted him aside. The base wheels rolled silently backward a few steps, putting distance between them, as it said, “My serial number is Alpha-13.”

Li Ao had never properly gone to school, only learning to read a few characters by parroting his grandma parrot. He’d certainly never encountered any foreign languages. Hearing the robot’s translated speech now, he found it novel. “Alpha? Such a weird name. Why does it have to have numbers too?”

“Alpha is my model, 13 is my sequence number.”

The little cat with a small head was utterly confused and hadn’t even processed it when he saw the robot starting to leave. Li Ao hurriedly scrambled after it on all fours, but his old brain clearly couldn’t keep up with his new body. Still unfamiliar with being a cat, he face-planted again.

“Thud.”

Alpha-13 heard the sound and turned back, seeing he’d fallen hard but wasn’t crying. Instead, he rolled over and came running toward it again.

“Why are you following me?”

“Because you’re nice! You cooked for the cat!”

There were no lies in the machine’s world. It stated the fact in its flat electronic tone: “You are the experimental egg. I am the nanny robot. Taking care of you is simply hardcoded into my instruction set.”

Li Ao couldn’t comprehend it, nor did he know how he’d died and come back to life as a cat. He couldn’t find his grandma or his home. The robot before him was the first living thing he’d seen upon opening his eyes—like a frail, helpless sprout finding a tree to cling to, he instinctively wanted to follow it.

“So this is a deal, right?” He thought he’d figured it out. “You’re a White Coat, using me for experiments, so you’re taking care of me.”

Of course not, but that understanding worked well enough. After all, the purpose of incubating these eggs was indeed for scientific research.

“You can think of it that way,” it said in its inorganic tone.

Hearing this, Li Ao went from uneasy to cheerful. He’d sell scraps for money, buy flowers with the money, give the flowers to grandma, and grandma would take care of him—grandma called it a deal.

Dong Xixi had made a deal with the White Coats too, coming back to life as a cat after dying.

Deals were great things—he liked deals!

The short-legged kitten hooked a claw onto the mechanical arm, shaking it solemnly a few times as he promised, “Pinky promise, one hundred years no take-backs! Fair and square! Deal!”

Alpha-13 watched his grubby claw touch it again uncleanly. The program, which had been tolerating him since he hatched from the egg, finally couldn’t hold out any longer. It picked up the cat and headed to the bathroom.

“Alpha, where are we going?” Li Ao’s paws dangled off the ground as he panicked a little and hugged the mechanical arm tighter.

“Bath time.” The machine’s voice was a bit cold.

*

This was a kitten with no sense of wariness. In the brief washing process, Alpha-13 had pretty much pieced together his background.

Six years old, male, living with his grandma, address: Kitten Street XXX on Earth. The robot searched its database but found no matching planet—which made sense, since it hadn’t updated its data in a century.

This cat whose legs were less than 5 cm long had no clue at all. He even treated it like a friend, optimistically interpreting the situation on his own as he asked, “Alpha, when the deal is done, can I go home?”

The robot should have replied per protocol: I’m not sure how you ended up on this planet, but there are no people here, and no spaceship to take you home.

But for some reason, seeing him all fluffy and clinging to its mechanical arm, it said something against its directives: “Yes, you can. Once you grow up and gain the ability to go home, you can leave this planet then.”

Li Ao perked up at the news, happily rolling around on the machine’s body with his tail raised. “Thanks, Alpha.” As if afraid the robot would go back on its word, he painted a picture for it: “Come visit my house then! My grandma’s cooking is super tasty—we can eat together!”

The machine that ate electricity instead of pie gave the ravenous little Li cat the news at breakfast the next day: “The base’s meat will only last you two days.”

By the appetite of a young kitten, it should have lasted a week. But this tiny short-legged cat ate way too much.

The frail and helpless but voracious little Li cat shoveled another huge mouthful into his rice bowl like a bulldozer, mumbling with his mouth full, “Wha’ we do ’bout tha?”

Alpha-13 analyzed it for a while before concluding he was asking what to do.

“You need to go outside to find food.” The outside was full of dangers—this cub’s chances of coming back alive were near zero—but if he didn’t go, starvation was inevitable anyway.

Meow meant nothing; meow just gripped the dry rice tighter.

The robot watched helplessly as he scarfed down a whole basin of meat like a starving ghost, then chugged a basin of water. He wiped his mouth with his paw and said, “Oh, got it. I’ll go out and find food.”

Not a shred of the spoiled fussiness a kitten should have—he had zero complaints about having to forage for himself.

“Life serial AL0731, here is your water and food.” Alpha-13 handed a small pack to the kitten. “There is no night here, but there will be sky-red. When the sky turns blood-dark, the temperature will plummet to minus two hundred degrees—you must return to the base before sky-red. Also, do not go beyond the desert area. There will be Xenoids.”

The info dump was too much; Li Ao didn’t even think to ask what Xenoids were. He just remembered not to go past the desert. “Got it. I’ll come back early.”

He looked far too calm and accepting. The electronic eyes scanned repeatedly, but couldn’t detect a trace of fear or resentment on his face.

Li Ao slung the pack onto his back, stood up straight, and hugged the robot’s body one more time. “Thanks, Alpha. And I am Li Ao, not some 0731.”

“…” The machine’s program stuttered for a rare second. As it tried to say something more, the kitten had already set off without a backward glance.

No one knew what kind of journey this little cat would embark on, nor what from his past had given him such courage.

He left just like that, clean and decisive. The robot watched as that small Ground-hugging Supercar disappeared from sight, lingering in place for a long time without moving.

Was Li Ao afraid?

Of course not.

Any adult would be shocked out of their wits after going through these things, let alone a six-year-old child.

But he only allowed himself to be afraid for a little while.

After a short moment, he lifted his paws and continued walking forward along the desert.

Because the robot had spoken the truth—if he didn’t go out to find food, he’d starve to death. And if he starved, he couldn’t go home. He had to work hard to stay alive; what was the use of being afraid? Besides, no problem—he was very good at scavenging trash.

Li Ao straightened the small bundle on his back and looked up at the scene before him: blue skies, white clouds, two suns hanging overhead, endless sand dunes stretching to the horizon. Occasionally a hot gust swept by, and he hurriedly dug all four paws into the ground to keep from being blown away.

In the six years he’d spent as a human, he hadn’t even left the landfill on Kitten Street. Now he’d turned into a cat and was seeing an alien planet! He kept his eyes wide open, straining to take it all in—not just to remember the way, but to etch the scenery into his memory. Two suns! When I get home, I’ll tell Grandma what an alien planet looks like!

He pumped himself up.

Li Ao really had a talent for scavenging trash. In this boundless desert, he just sniffed the air and knew which direction might yield results.

“Can this be eaten?” He found a clean spot and set down the biscuit he’d just dug up, inspecting it closely.

It was a biscuit, right? Not expired? He prodded it with his paw, his furry face full of suspicion.

He wasn’t sure if it was edible, so he planned to bring it back for the robot to check. He untied the small bundle on his back, stowed the biscuit inside, and was just about to burrow back into the trash heap when he heard some noise.

The sky seemed to have darkened.

A mass of black, unidentified matter appeared in the air, its scarlet vertical pupils locking straight onto Li Ao’s eyes.