Stepping out for a trip, Li Ao not only picked up his dad bringing back an uncle but also received a huge pile of gifts.
The accompanying Delphi ministers had started frantically shopping the moment they entered the gates of Star 92. At first, the robots were puzzled by their behavior. After all, given their simple and unadorned appearance, they didn’t seem like the type to be so enthusiastic about shopping. It wasn’t until they returned to Delphi and the robots saw the room packed to the brim that they realized all those things were gifts for the little kitten.
Snacks for the little kitten, clothes and shoes, cat beds and toys—everything piled up into a wall.
The short-legged kitten held the robot in his left paw and the little dog in his right, his round eyes sparkling brightly. “These are all for Li Ao?”
“Yes, Highness.” Brenna, who had also stuffed quite a few gifts in, squatted down and said, “They’re all for you.”
It was Li Ao’s first time unwrapping such exquisitely packaged gift boxes. His four little paws didn’t know where to put themselves as he circled the gifts, chattering nonstop about how pretty the wrapping paper was, wanting to store it in his cat bed or stick it on the mecha—but he was firmly refused by the robot.
No need for any paper cutter either. The little kitten flashed his snow-white claws, and a few swipes opened a package. Inside were mostly toys, from mice to cockroaches—anything the little kitten might like, everyone had bought for him.
Brenna had been squatting nearby at first, watching the little kitten with a beaming smile. After watching for a long time, the exaggerated grin on her face gradually faded a bit, and her brown eyes opened wide. Once the feigned flamboyance was shed, her smile was faint yet genuinely gentle.
She just watched the little kitten like that.
“This one’s from the big-bearded uncle.” He clearly couldn’t remember their names—his foreign languages were a total mess—but he could still tell them apart. The little kitten mumbled on, sometimes saying he wanted to grow more tomatoes to give everyone, sometimes saying he had to say thank you.
But clearly, what he had done for Delphi was enough for him to deserve far more than this.
“Wow—” He unwrapped a small package and held up the little floral headscarf inside, standing up with his round face raised high, his blue eyes shining with unabashed delight. “Bunana, is this from you?”
It was truly strange—how exactly did he tell them apart?
“This one has your scent!” The little kitten held the headscarf up lovingly, scrutinizing the patterns on it. “Bunana likes the smell of chocolate!”
Right, chocolate. Tomato-filled chocolates, all kinds of chocolates—ever since the little kitten came to Delphi, she always carried some on her. Others might think it was just to feed the little kitten—which was true, of course—but they didn’t know she liked them herself too.
“Thank you so much.” He carefully folded the little headscarf. “Grandma will love this.”
This cub was truly miraculous; he even knew the headscarf was for his grandma.
Clearly, everything he had done was enough to save countless lives, such immense grace should entitle him to enjoy all returns as a matter of course, yet he never had such thoughts.
He would still get shy over little things, get happy sharing a piece of chocolate with a friend, get excited and paddle his paws wildly over a bit of praise. He seemed too small, so small that he didn’t understand what his own worth truly meant, nor that the entire interstellar realm had already undergone massive changes because of his existence.
Brenna hugged her knees with both arms, half her face buried in her elbow bend, wonder in her brown eyes. “Highness, how are you so good?”
Li Ao carefully put the headscarf back into the packaging bag. Hearing Brenna say this, his little face turned deadly serious. “You’re good too. Everyone’s good.”
Li Ao was just small; he wasn’t dumb. “You helped me farm, gave me gifts, even gifts for Grandma… so many good things.” He unwrapped another one, beaming happily as he waved at Xun. “This is for you.”
It was a dog leash made of extremely fine special crystal material, shimmering so brightly even the little kitten couldn’t look directly at it.
“Bunana’s good too.” His two little paws were busy as could be. He looped the leash around the little monster’s collar on its head for a try, then put it away. “Delphi’s all good.”
He was too adorable. Brenna really couldn’t hold back and very rudely patted his head.
“Alright, Highness.” Brenna placed both hands on her thighs and stood up, beaming. “Shall I bake you a little cake?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He deserved it all; it was only right.
The commotion in the castle didn’t die down until the moon climbed high into the treetops. Ryan sat on the veranda of the courtyard, his slender white legs dangling slightly off the ground.
“Is it over there?” Ryan had attended the welcome banquet too, but since the little kitten hadn’t come, he had withdrawn halfway.
“Pretty much.” A maidservant brought over a plate of puff pastries and poured a small cup of juice. “They say Highness Leo fell fast asleep from exhaustion.”
“Is that so…” Ryan picked up the cup, his tone very soft. “He’s still young after all; it’s normal to be tired after such a long trip.”
He was really quite awkward. He clearly wanted to go see the kitten but feared being disliked, wanted to get close but didn’t dare approach.
Marilyn watched his white eyelashes, unsure how to console him. She sighed inwardly and was just about to say it was late when she heard rustling at the courtyard gate.
Ryan heard it too. He looked up and spotted a golden-white little kitten.
He clutched a bouquet of lilies, his steps tottering unsteadily.
“Highness?” Marilyn was astonished to see Ryan change form on the spot and run toward the little kitten.
The little white lion had never run this fast before. He dashed right up to the little kitten, panting. “How did you come?”
The bouquet was too big; the little kitten struggled to free half his face. Seeing who it was, he sighed in relief and shoved the flowers over. “Here, hold this first.”
The little lion couldn’t walk on two legs like a cat and clumsily hugged the flowers to his chest.
The not-so-short journey had exhausted the little kitten. He plopped his butt down to sit on the ground, leaning against something.
Ryan looked closely and only then noticed the little black coal ball that had been following by his side.
“I came to give you flowers.” The little kitten looked like he thought himself pretty silly.
The little lion’s heart burst with joy, his ear tips tinged faintly red. He looked down at the huge bouquet in his arms, almost big enough to bury him, his tail swishing unconsciously behind him.
But his first reaction was to run inside to get money.
Li Ao watched in bewilderment as the flowers were set aside and the little lion suddenly turned and ran off. Not long after, he came panting back, carefully pinching a single bill in his jet-black paw pads and offering it to Li Ao.
The little kitten blinked in confusion. “This is for me?”
“…Money for the flowers.” Ryan’s ears were red as he mumbled softly.
“This is a gift, not for sale.” The little kitten came back to his senses and placed his paw on the little lion’s, pushing the bill back. “It’s not a transaction.”
The little lion stood there stunned. Only after reacting did he belatedly lower his head in annoyance. “I didn’t mean that…”
The maidservant watched the big and small kitten cubs—one bewildered, one embarrassed—their faces full of helplessness.
Ryan’s ears grew even redder. He wanted to say something but couldn’t utter a word, so he could only clutch the bouquet tightly and hang his head.
The little kitten clearly wasn’t good at handling this either. He stood up. “Then I’ll be going.”
The maidservant finally couldn’t hold back and spoke with a smile. “Highness Leo, have some pastries before you go?”
They definitely looked good.
Li Ao not only ate but also packed some to go. With the little lunchbox in his mouth, he trotted back with his big tail held high.
Marilyn saw him all the way to the door. When she returned, she said to the little lion still staring dazedly at the flowers in the yard, “Highness Ryan, you need to be more honest with the little kitten.”
That little guy had a very simple personality—if you’re good to me, I’ll be good to you. No twists or turns, just straightforward like that. “Be direct about your feelings; don’t keep them bottled up.”
But in his sixteen years of life, Ryan had never actively voiced anything. His body no longer ached, but that night, with his heart full of thoughts, he barely slept as usual. He rose at dawn and silently stared at the bouquet of lilies for a long time. It wasn’t until the sun was high that he finally mustered the courage to go find the kitten, only to be told he had already gone out.
Of course Li Ao had gone out—he was heading to Aiai’ang’ang today for skiing!
Aiai’ang’ang had mountains to begin with, but they were mostly buried under windswept sands, hard to see in full. And now, that A-Rank Xenoid the little kitten called Little Blue dwelled in the shadows of the cliffs.
Though Xun had ordered it not to casually freeze the ground, every breath it exhaled still inevitably altered the planet’s climate structure. The most obvious change was the snow mountain that had nurtured the little kitten—its originally thin and fragile ice shell had quietly thickened at the base, spreading out like roots of frost, slowly extending into the distance.
Among the many gifts Li Ao received, there were several very prescient ski suits.
Bright colors, tailored fits, custom-made for the short-legged kitten.
The Machine specially selected a bright blue set with reflective strips that could wrap the little cat’s paws tightly. Li Ao could only poke out his fluffy face, standing carefully and excitedly atop the snowboard.
Someone was going to take Li Ao skiing, but this little guy was awfully stubborn. He clung to the snowboard with his claws and refused to let go, insisting on skiing by himself.
The coach was stumped too. He had only ever taught humans—how was he supposed to teach a cat?! The programming was different, and so was the center of gravity. After a long lecture, the little guy finally managed to paw a few centimeters of tiny trenches into the snow.
That was bad enough, but he looked so serious while doing it. All four paws gripping the snowboard, head bowed as he muttered under his breath, “Dong Xixi can do it, so Li Ao can too.” His ears twitched inside the furry hat, and his tail swayed unsteadily like a little stick trying to help him balance. His body inched forward bit by bit—that was hardly skiing. Calling it wriggling would be generous.
The bright blue kitty caterpillar was wriggling on the snow like a pupa, while black threads churned in the lower half of Zane’s body.
“How is it?” Isiris stood with arms crossed, watching Zane in the inspection pod as he asked the medical corps chief.
Kuren’s expression was somewhat grave. “The DNA sequence of these black threads is almost identical to the Doom Virus.”
Before this, humans hadn’t been able to see these threads at all. They’d only learned from the little cat’s mouth that different threads wrapped around humans—and even Zerg.
“Most threads on Xenoids are gray, while those on humans are red. The reactions seem to differ from individual to individual for each color.” There were too few samples, so Kuren wasn’t sure exactly how many types there were, but one thing he could confirm: “In the late stages of Doom disease, the dementia and aggression humans exhibit are just like those of Xenoids—they’re being controlled.”
By the late stage, these extremely fine threads grew so densely that to the naked eye, they almost formed a membrane.
“Once a contaminated Xenoid mutates and sprouts this flesh membrane, it’s fully contaminated and turns into a Xenoid Variant.”
In truth, by that point—whether human or Xenoid—they were already dead. What kept their bodies moving was nothing more than the threads wrapped around their flesh.
“Rather than calling them a virus, they’re more like parasites… They’re so powerful they have almost no weaknesses… with only one exception…”
“Li Ao.”
Isiris reached his hand into the inspection pod. The threads immediately sensed the approach and surged forward to parasitize.
“Bro!”
Zane abruptly propped himself up, his voice laced with a hint of uncontrolled panic. He instinctively reached out to stop him, only to erupt into violent coughing from his weakened state.
The moment Isiris’s hand entered the pod, the black threads coiled inside seemed to detect the scent of flesh and blood. They roiled like boiling water.
“Bro, pull it out quick—” Zane’s voice was nearly shattered, carrying a fear he’d never shown before. “I can control them, but I’m not sure… if you get too close, they might…”
He didn’t dare imagine what would happen if his brother got contaminated too. It would be a catastrophe—the end of all humanity.
But that hand remained steady as a mountain, plunging into the twisted black mist without the slightest hesitation.
The threads, which should have wrapped around him in an instant, abruptly froze just shy of Isiris’s skin. One by one, they curled back and retreated.
“As expected.” Isiris’s hypothesis was confirmed. He withdrew his hand, his voice calm. “Because of the Crystal of Delphi, they can’t parasitize Delphians.”
Zane’s pupils contracted sharply. “Then…” Then how had he transferred these things from the Xenoids? “Do I have some special ability? Or did the Crystal of Delphi stop working because my legs got bitten off?”
Zane’s Crystal of Delphi had been implanted in his ankle. With his legs severed, the guess wasn’t unreasonable.
“What’s this?” Researcher Shelby had arrived by their side at some point. He pointed to a shadow on the inspection device, interrupting everyone’s speculation.
Something square had appeared in Zane’s lower body at some point.
Enveloped in the black mist, it was only faintly visible under the ray scan.
Kuren donned a pair of special inspection glasses and peered closely. “It looks… like a stone tablet?”
They couldn’t make out what it was, but a sudden shared realization dawned in their hearts. Kuren’s hands trembled slightly as he removed his glasses. “A-Aliya’s prophecy.”
The Light of the Empire—Aliya Regalis—had left three spoken prophecies for her homeland. She foretold that destiny would grant the Regalis family a cub who would lead Delphi to true glory.
Legend had it there was a stone tablet recording her prophecies. Finding it had been one of the purposes of Isiris’s previous expedition.
There, perhaps, lay clues to the little cat’s origins.
—
