Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chen Ji had no idea a crumpled foil wrapper would attract something so eagerly. System Cat, it seemed, had an extraordinary switch flipped, directing him here and there along the way. Even before reaching the mountaintop, the bamboo basket was already brimming with various mushrooms.

Chen Ji wondered, "How do you find them so precisely?"

It was one thing to spot the leaf piles visibly bulging, but System Cat could pinpoint mushrooms hidden under tree trunks or just beginning to sprout with uncanny accuracy.

System Cat fell into a noticeable silence for a moment before confidently declaring, "It’s the full-range scan!"

Chen Ji asked, "Didn’t you say that thing drains your energy badly?"

System Cat replied arrogantly, "It’s just a three-kilometer radius, no big deal!"

Chen Ji: "...? So, are there any plant dyes like madder, sappanwood, mulberry, or indigo within those three kilometers?"

"Umm... I can’t tell you that. The system would penalize me for giving the host an unfair advantage," System Cat said, sounding troubled. Suddenly, it exclaimed, "Hey, hey, Chen Ji, over there! Mushrooms, mushrooms!"

Chen Ji turned in the direction of the giant arrow in his mind, only to see a patch of sparse weeds with no trace of mushrooms. Habitually, he stepped forward with his sickle, cut away a handful of weeds, and was about to dig into the soil when System Cat drawled in a peculiar tone, "Oh, my mistake."

The next moment, a system prompt chimed: "Congratulations, Host Chen Ji, for completing the task: [Repair Mountain Lord Temple · Basic Colors] (1/3). Recorded as [Madder]. The task item has been stored in the system backpack. Please keep up the good work."

Chen Ji: "..."

System Cat: "This has nothing to do with me!"

Chen Ji couldn’t help but chuckle. When the young man smiled, even the corners of his eyes and brows radiated gentleness. He replied, "Got it. I’m the one who cut the grass. What does it have to do with the system?"

"Exactly, exactly! That’s right!"

The two wordlessly formed a united front.

Spring was naturally the season when the mountains were most abundant. Someone like Chen Ji, who thought three steps ahead, wouldn’t simply bring just a bamboo basket. When he came across another cluster of top-quality mushrooms, Chen Ji swiftly pulled a magic pouch from his windbreaker pocket and swiftly filled it with mushrooms, carefully poking a few small holes at the bottom to allow spores to disperse along the way.

As he packed, Chen Ji found it amusing and remarked casually, "I should start a livestream and get a sponsorship for this magic pouch. Then I could do a seamless product placement."

System Cat: "Placement? Placement of what?... Would that be allowed?"

Chen Ji: "...? Do you only hear what you want to hear?"

"..." System Cat caught on: "Ugh, you’ve corrupted me!"

Chen Ji flashed a cold, ruthless capitalist smirk: "When I have some free time in a couple of days, I’ll start a livestream and have you do some suggestive content. A kitten doing suggestive stuff would definitely attract a lot of viewers, right? Then you could earn your own Cat Sticks and even support me."

System Cat bristled: "Chen Ji, are you even human?!"

Chen Ji shot back instantly: "No."

As they bickered, they continued climbing toward the summit. Chen Ji’s innate sense of direction finally kicked in, and he no longer needed System Cat’s directions to know which way to go.

Before System Cat could ask, Chen Ji had already walked over. His slender fingers cupped a flower bud, examining it carefully. He said to System Cat, "Come out for a second."

System Cat materialized out of thin air. Chen Ji plucked the wildflower and held it to its mouth: "Taste it."

Thinking it was something delicious, System Cat chomped down, then immediately spat it out: "Yuck! So bitter! Chen Ji, you scoundrel, you did that on purpose?!"

Just as it finished complaining, it noticed Chen Ji staring at it intently, as if expecting something. System Cat instinctively said, "What are you looking at? It’s bitter, but it’s not poisonous!"

Chen Ji nodded seriously, crouched down, and began digging with his sickle. He dug a hole around the wildflower.

After digging about thirty centimeters deep, Chen Ji carefully excavated toward the wildflower’s roots. After a while, he abandoned the sickle and used his hands to dig instead. Soon, the root was exposed. Chen Ji gently scraped away the soil around it with his fingers. System Cat watched in astonishment: "...What are you doing?"

Chen Ji was usually quite fastidious, so the idea of him digging with his hands was something System Cat would never have imagined before.

"Shh..." Chen Ji had no time to respond.

As soon as he spoke, Chen Ji felt his fingers touch soft soil again. Estimating it was about right, he stood up, grasped the wildflower’s stem, and pulled firmly toward the hole. A large, potato-like tuber emerged. He leaned down to smell it, catching a familiar pungent scent, and nodded in satisfaction.

Since he smelled it, System Cat did too. It said disgustedly, "What is that? Smells like chicken droppings."

Chen Ji laughed angrily at its remark. He rubbed System Cat’s head with his soil-covered hand: "Please, use your all-knowing brain to search it up. This is gastrodia elata, wild ones, extremely expensive. It’ll smell amazing when we make soup with it."

System Cat was captivated by the words "smell amazing," its eyes shining: "Really? Really?!"

"Really." Chen Ji rubbed System Cat’s broad back again, using the "genuine hide" to clean his hand quite effectively. He placed the gastrodia elata into a separate bag, then washed his hands with the bottled water he brought. He slung the little cat onto his shoulder—wiping his hands on its belly again in the process.

System Cat remained oblivious to its role as a genuine hide hand towel, its eyes glazed over as it sneakily browsed online to see how delicious this thing really was. Chen Ji didn’t mind and continued searching through the forest.

He had known before heading up the mountain that the harvest would be plentiful, so he’d brought two extra bags. Now, both magic pouches and the bamboo basket were full. He still had three bags on him, but carrying them by hand was too cumbersome. He was looking for bamboo.

He remembered there was bamboo on the mountain. He could split a suitable bamboo stalk down the middle, cut it to the right length, and use it as a carrying pole. If there was too much to carry, he could even make a simple raft out of bamboo to drag along.

After searching around, he concluded there was none in this area. There had to be some on the back mountain, and since he was heading there anyway, it wasn’t a big deal.

Without realizing it, Chen Ji had wandered beyond System Cat’s "cheat area." His own stamina was dwindling, but he knew he couldn’t rest now—if he stopped for lunch and a break here, he’d be making his way back after dark after climbing to the back mountain.

No matter how capable Chen Ji felt, he didn’t dare hike wilderness trails in the dark. Who knows how he might end up dead.

After walking a while longer, Chen Ji emerged from the forest. He shielded his eyes from the glaring sunlight. The warm rays quickly dispelled the damp chill on his body. He squinted contentedly. This was a flat terrace with only low shrubs and grass. He remembered there should be a water source here—finally, a chance to wash up thoroughly.

Since System Cat was essentially a system and not a real cat, getting its fur wet and letting the mountain wind dry it wouldn’t give it a cold!

Chen Ji worked efficiently. After finding the stream, he located a clear spot nearby, took out his self-heating meal, and brought System Cat to the stream. He scooped some water, added a water purification tablet, then washed his face and hands. Once clean, and despite System Cat’s protests, he dragged it over and wiped it down thoroughly with a towel. Then he carried the clean little cat back to eat.

Only when he sat down did Chen Ji realize how exhausted he was. His back ached, his shoulders hurt, his legs were unbearably sore—his whole body felt like it had been run over by a truck repeatedly. Every part seemed to have its own complaints. Even opening his mouth felt like a chore, and he picked at his food.

System Cat’s eyes glinted slyly. "Chen Ji, are you tired?"

Chen Ji shot it a sidelong glance.

System Cat cleared its throat twice. "Ta-da—! System-specialized energy restorative, only a hundred points! A hundred points for cutting-edge tech you can take home!"

This "hundred points" wasn’t referring to RMB but to the contribution points Chen Ji earned from tasks. As everyone knew, Chen Ji hardly ever did tasks; the hundred points in his account were just the system’s newbie starting funds.

Chen Ji said without hesitation, "Not buying."

System Cat’s smug expression instantly fell. "Huh? Really not?! It’s so cheap! One sip and your stamina is full! It’s only this cheap because you’re still in the beginner protection period! Normally it costs ten thousand!"

Chen Ji gave System Cat the cold shoulder. System Cat sidled up to Chen Ji’s knee pitifully, placing its paws on his leg and rubbing its head against his arm. "Buy it! Buy it! Otherwise, my performance this month will be zero again! Other systems will look down on me, boo hoo~! Che~en Ji~!"

It drew out his name with dramatic flair. Chen Ji remained unmoved. "What, do you systems compete with each other?"

System Cat nodded frantically. It had already become a laughingstock in the system circle for failing to persuade Chen Ji to do tasks for half a year. It gestured with its paws. "Just buy it! I wouldn’t cheat you—this stuff really works! It’ll cost ten thousand later! You can just think of it as buying an emergency supply~!"

Chen Ji paused. "Then in a couple of days, you’re doing suggestive livestreams."

System Cat: "...Gah?!"

It stared at Chen Ji's well-defined jawline, utterly dumbfounded, its mind torn between cursing and trying to butter him up again.

Suddenly, Chen Ji scooped it up abruptly, gripping a sickle in his other hand, and stared warily toward the stream. On the opposite bank, the bushes rustled, and out popped an oversized cat head.

Probably.

It was feline, after all, white, with a distinct "king" pattern on its forehead.

A massive white tiger emerged from the vegetation, moving with a leisurely pace, its azure-blue eyes fixed unwaveringly on Chen Ji.

The feeling of being targeted by a large carnivore was no less terrifying than being locked onto by the weasel earlier—both brought that same feeling of impending doom.

System Cat: "Holy crap!"

"Shut up." Chen Ji instantly calmed down. Freaking out wouldn't help; he needed to think of another way.

Watching the tiger's agile form, Chen Ji was certain he couldn’t outrun this thing. Tigers could climb trees too, so that wouldn’t work either, and fighting back was pretty much out of the question.

As the tiger drew closer, Chen Ji gulped, his palms slick with cold sweat. His mind raced for an escape plan—he'd never heard of wild tigers in his hometown?!

He remembered watching *African World* and learning that animals often observe an unspoken rule near water sources, rarely attacking others there… but that was Africa, not here.

Chen Ji checked out the tiger, unable to tell if it was full or not. *Think, brain, think!*

Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind. If physical methods were futile, he’d try a metaphysical approach. He recalled his grandfather’s notes mentioning that in dangerous situations, certain techniques could reduce or conceal one’s presence, potentially making threats overlook him entirely.

Cold sweat was soaking through his shirt, but his hands remained steady. How was that setup again? Metal, wood, water, fire, earth?

Metal—the sickle. Wood—the bamboo basket. Water—the mineral water. Earth—right there on the ground. Fire… Chen Ji’s eyes landed on the alcohol blocks for the grill. He took a slow step back, keeping his gaze locked on the tiger, hoping to keep it wary and prevent a rash attack—if it had any intention to attack.

The bamboo basket was at his feet. Chen Ji leaned slightly, reached in, and pulled out an alcohol block. He lit it with a lighter, placed it on a tin foil tray—one block could burn for ten minutes, and he had five or six more. He slid the basket forward, then slowly ground his foot into the earth, loosening some soil. The mineral water was already nearby. Chen Ji bent down gradually and set the sickle on the ground.

He never took his eyes off the tiger—who knew if this metaphysical trick would work?! What if it didn’t? He couldn’t abandon his only weapon; he had to be ready to snatch the sickle and fight back at a moment’s notice. If the tiger attacked, as long as it didn’t instantly snap his neck, Chen Ji was confident he could at least inflict a few bloody wounds.

The next moment, the tiger’s gaze clearly wavered, then it stopped looking at Chen Ji, turning instead to drink from the stream. Chen Ji let out a huge sigh of relief. No intention to attack—good.

*Just drink your water and move along.*

Chen Ji didn't try to attract the tiger’s attention. Whether it was truly influenced by the metaphysical trick or simply uninterested in him, he wasn't about to provoke it. His curiosity wasn’t strong enough to risk his life.

But… since he couldn’t look away, Chen Ji openly admired the tiger.

It was a white tiger! Sure, zoos had them, but nothing compared to seeing one in the wild!

System Cat whispered, "Can I talk now?"

Chen Ji: "Get a picture! A selfie with it!"

System Cat: "??? And then what? Use it as evidence in your death certificate?"

Chen Ji: "Just take the damn shot!"

As the two bickered, the tiger lifted its head and began moving toward Chen Ji from the water’s edge. Both instantly fell silent. Torn between trusting metaphysics and trusting science, Chen Ji decided to trust himself. Just as he was about to grab the sickle and run, the tiger suddenly leaped, clearing the stream in a single bound and landing right beside him.

As the saying goes, clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger. A gust of powerful wind hit Chen Ji, leaving him momentarily stunned. The next second, the tiger brushed past his pant leg and kept going.

Over there was…

—Haidilao self-heating hotpot, spicy crispy pork flavor.