Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Bai Fuling remembered parting ways with Liao Zhiqiu just that afternoon, having agreed to meet the next morning. He never imagined they'd cross paths again in the sewers at night.

...Following the mysterious tentacle monster not only unlocked a new map but also triggered new plotlines, so that thing really is a treasure beacon! Bai Fuling thought to himself. It seems the black tentacle is a rather abstract-looking little lucky star.

Abstract because the mysterious tentacle monster had no actual form; it was completely a chaotic tangle of black lines.

He meant "abstract" in the purely literal sense, with no ill intent—in fact, Bai Fuling quite liked tentacle elements.

No particular reason, just because he liked anything with a soft, squishy texture, such as: stress-relief squeeze toys, plush pillows, slime, and soft tentacles. He liked all of these.

Bai Fuling's bed was piled with several octopus dolls, which were very comfortable to hug.

His thoughts drifted for a few seconds before Bai Fuling quickly refocused his attention on the plot at hand. Before he could say anything, Liao Zhiqiu spoke first.

"...What are you doing here?" Liao Zhiqiu gripped the iron bars of the cage with both hands, leaning forward, his gaze fixed on Bai Fuling. "...There's blood. What happened?"

Wow, princess, you stole my line! Bai Fuling widened his eyes. He hadn't expected the NPC to ask the player first.

Probably just meeting small talk; most NPCs wouldn't care what the player replied. Of course, focusing the dialogue on the story NPC was better for triggering events.

So Bai Fuling said, "Aren't you here? I came—well, to find you."

"...Find me? How did you follow me here?"

The truth was he hadn't been looking at all; it was a complete coincidence. But Bai Fuling naturally wouldn't tell the truth. When you're gaming, you've gotta roll with it.

Precisely grasping Liao Zhiqiu's fondness for animals, Bai Fuling answered immediately: "I tracked you by sniffing the scent you left in the air."

That's reasonable! And very animal-like!

Just as he expected, upon hearing this, the dark-circle pixel character in front of him sprouted a small pink plus sign above his head.

Bai Fuling happily watched the little pink symbol above the other's head, then, back on track, he spoke again, turning the earlier question back on Liao Zhiqiu: "What are you doing here, what happened?"

"Something happened. But I'm not injured." Liao Zhiqiu was concise, his gaze still fixed on Bai Fuling.

He saw that the black-haired youth opposite him had a smear of blood on half his cheek, the ends of his fishbone braid near his ear were dotted with dark stains, and his bright yellow raincoat cloak was even more splattered with bloodstains—just like the first time he had seen him on the lawn. How did the kitten get himself into this state again?

Those dark eyes looked over, appearing utterly innocent.

Liao Zhiqiu of course wouldn't blame the little animal for getting himself injured again, especially since it seemed he had ended up like this on his account.

Just as he had always done when facing small animals before, he spoke softly with a patient, calm expression: "Come here. Come closer for a second."

Liao Zhiqiu, half-kneeling in the iron cage, beckoned with a wave.

Bai Fuling had no objection to this; of course, the player would act according to the NPC's prompts. He took a few steps forward, approaching the cage, ready to trigger the next story event.

The next step is to examine the cage lock, right? Locks in RPG games usually involve puzzles, requiring the player to use their brain to piece together patterns or find password hints in the surrounding environment.

Bai Fuling reached out his hand, intending to have his character touch the lock on the cage. But Liao Zhiqiu grabbed his wrist first, shaking it gently up and down as if holding a cat's paw: "Alright, don't be afraid. Let me take a look."

Liao Zhiqiu turned the small knife in his hand, pointing the tip toward his clothes. With practiced movements, he cut his outer garment and tore off a strip of cloth. He said, "Where's the wound? Stop the bleeding first. No bandages, so this will have to do for now."

Oh! I forgot again that clothes don't automatically clean themselves as the body recovers! Bai Fuling realized. This must be triggering a random medical encounter. It's just that there's no hospital in the sewers, so the NPC is acting as the doctor.

"It's fine—I don't need it, I'm already healed." Bai Fuling selected a smiley face, skipping the medical treatment segment.

He had eaten nearly ten burgers in a row, perfectly restoring his health bar; the blood loss debuff had long been eliminated.

Bai Fuling tugged at his yellow raincoat: "It's just that the clothes got stained red. I'll wash them later—ahem, I mean, I'll groom my fur later."

"..." Liao Zhiqiu tilted his head, studying him, probably judging that Bai Fuling was conscious and indeed fine, so he put down the makeshift bandage and small knife.

Bai Fuling's gaze shifted to that small knife.

He remembered the previous dagger had a tracker; this time, the dark-circle pixel NPC's small knife wouldn't have one too, would it? Let's not attract any more monsters.

Anyway, let's take it first and check the item description.

Bai Fuling reached out to touch the small knife in the cage. Liao Zhiqiu pressed down on the knife, his expression serious: "No. You can't play with this."

"I'm not playing, I just want to look at it—is this knife of yours safe?" Bai Fuling said directly. "That last dagger of yours had a tracker implanted in it."

Upon hearing this, Liao Zhiqiu's expression faltered slightly. He processed it for a few seconds, and his face changed somewhat: "...That dagger had a tracker? So the trouble you encountered before was because of that dagger? You—"

He paused, as if suddenly remembering something, and asked, "Back then, why did you give me a flower?"

"As an exchange gift." Bai Fuling replied. "I thought you'd like it."

Hearing this, Liao Zhiqiu suddenly understood Bai Fuling's past behavior.

So that's how it was. In the initial alley, the reason Bai Fuling suddenly turned to attack him wasn't due to a cat's random hissing temper but to take away the troublesome dagger. Leaving the rose was also a simple act of repayment and exchange from an animal's perspective.

This is the cat's gratitude!

—All because he had helped him up on the lawn back then and given him a few bird eggs?

Remembering this, Liao Zhiqiu felt a pang of guilt for the past, blaming himself for not sincerely offering the bird eggs at the time. He had originally just wanted Bai Fuling to hold the bird's nest for him during the fight.

"...I'm sorry." Liao Zhiqiu said softly.

Bai Fuling: "Oh, it's nothing, it's not your fault."

He thought Liao Zhiqiu was talking about the dagger incident, so he answered accordingly.

How could he blame the NPC for the tracker? It's all for the sake of the plot!

Bai Fuling wouldn't take his anger out on an innocent NPC. A rational player doesn't blame the characters, only curses whatever dogwater plot the developers set up ().

Liao Zhiqiu said sincerely: "Next time, I'll bring you more cat sticks, lots of them."

Bai Fuling: "Okay, but I only want one flavor."

Of course, the player wouldn't refuse gifts from an NPC, especially since cat sticks boost both favorability and health bars—they're a universal supplement!

However, different flavors might take up more inventory slots, so Bai Fuling tried to set a limit; one flavor was enough. This made him seem quite dedicated.

"So, how did you end up here?" Circling back, Bai Fuling returned to the initial topic. He clicked on the lock, trying to find a way to open it.

No matter how many times he clicked, only one line popped up on the screen:

"This is a heavy, large lock."

Damn, this isn't what I expected! Bai Fuling grumbled inwardly. Normally, shouldn't there be some puzzle hints?

So he looked at Liao Zhiqiu, trying to get the method to open it from the NPC.

Does he really have to shout "Princess, open the door, please!"?

"On the way back, I didn't fight those people," Liao Zhiqiu said calmly. "Grandfather didn't want me to attend the kitten's birthday party, so he locked me up here."

Bai Fuling: Huh?

What is with this grandpa? He's actually this extreme!

Locking someone in a jail cell, a closet, a basement—I get that. But how could anyone lock someone in a sewer? What if the city floods and he just gets swept away???

Bai Fuling's imagination ran wild for a moment, but remembering this was a game, he didn't sweat it.

"My people are outside, but they can't find this place," Liao Zhiqiu glanced at Bai Fuling. "You're the first, and the only one, to find me."

So, if I just get him out of here, that should do it, right? Bai Fuling tilted his head, grasping the key point in Liao Zhiqiu's words.

He was a player, an expert at picking up quest conditions from dialogue.

He understood: Liao Zhiqiu's guards have a limited range of activity, and the sewer is beyond that range. So, I need to bring him back to the main area.

Or at least drag the cage to the exit and then summon help.

As for why I don't go up now to find people and come back down—it's because I'd get lost.

What if I wander around and can't find the target again? I'm actually kinda bad with directions, especially since the game's background is so realistic, not some simple grid of paths.

In short, I still need to find a way to take Liao Zhiqiu with me.

Classic, it really is a traditional RPG game—after rescuing the "princess," the next step is escorting the "princess" back to the city. Bai Fuling knew the drill.

He stood up and made his character grab the bars of the iron cage.

Liao Zhiqiu: "...What are you doing?"

"I'm going to get you out of here." Bai Fuling controlled his character to drag the iron cage. The cage weighed a ton.

When he made his character grab it, the slowdown debuff icon in the status bar lit up like a Christmas tree.

"*Heavy Load*: Movement speed decreased."

This time, it was even slower than when carrying the Grey Wolf, so slow that my hand ached from holding the button, and I had only moved a tiny distance.

Wow!! At this rate, I'll be dragging this all night!!

Bai Fuling initially considered setting up auto-walk to let the character drag it slowly. But then he thought: No, at this speed, it might not even reach the destination by morning.

That would delay my check-in at school before eight o'clock.

So I need a second solution! Just like how I used flexible methods to handle the Grey Wolf's existence by working around a bug.

Bai Fuling stopped dragging and turned to look at Liao Zhiqiu inside the iron cage.

Trying to equip it as a back item—the cage was too big, I couldn't possibly carry it. Such an exaggerated glitch definitely wouldn't pass the system's checks. So the previous method wouldn't work; I needed a different one.

What other methods could there be...?

Bai Fuling stood still, deep in thought for three seconds.

Three seconds later, Bai Fuling blinked and said, "Hey, Liao Zhiqiu. Can you... be my pet follower?"

Liao Zhiqiu: ?

The game had all sorts of pet followers—it was the most flexible system there was! At this moment, as long as I activated the default follow mode for pets, all the troubles would surely be resolved!