Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Bai Fuling stared at the string of crooked handwriting, his gaze lingering on it for a moment.

He had a certain premonition that if he chose to accept and consume the [heart] offered by Liao Zhiqiu, his own attributes would likely undergo some kind of aberration.

Based on previous gaming experience, his character might genuinely transform into a different race due to attribute stacking and mutation—or his body would undergo some subtle transformation.

But Bai Fuling had no desire to change his race. To be honest, being human suited him just fine.

Because as a human, he could shout "I'm not human anymore!" and then do all sorts of un-human things. But if he weren't human, that whole comedic bit would be lost.

The player was a die-hard comedy fan (not!)!

—Well, actually, it was too early to make that decision. It was like choosing a class after the beginner phase; you shouldn't just grab the first option you see.

Bai Fuling didn't want to trigger attribute aberrations or lock himself into certain values right now. His goal was to become a versatile pro (?)

...Speaking of which, why did the plot suddenly present such an option? Was it because he had raised Liao Zhiqiu's delusion meter too high?

Bai Fuling's gaze fell on the plum blossom paw print in the character registry, where the displayed number had already reached 80%.

Well, that value was already quite high. Looks like the other guy didn't see him as human at all, geez!

But he knew from gaming experience that not all stats were better when maxed out, especially these special attributes.

He'd been raising the values to save time and effort, quickly boosting favorability to facilitate accepting quests and subsequent tracking. Looking back now, it seemed he might have overdone it a bit.

...How on earth did he manage to trigger something that looks like a mutation value? He'd have to stop for now. Bai Fuling thought silently to himself. He'd better not get tangled up with something weird. He always felt there was something beneath the surface in this game.

What if getting tangled up with weird stuff delayed him from his quests! He couldn't spend every day outwitting unknown creatures and attributes.

If he wanted to uncover the real secrets, he couldn't just blindly raise the values. Bai Fuling continued thinking.

Just as he had first guessed, if he remained perceived as non-human in the other's eyes, then the favorability would definitely have an upper limit.

This game surely didn't allow for... *that* kind of relationship, or it'd get banned for sure!

To truly 100% an NPC's storyline, he needed to try to break through, to break the existing pattern first before establishing a new one. Only by removing that superficial layer of favorability could he cultivate genuine affection.

Or rather, to uncover every last secret hidden within an NPC, he shouldn't just grind one point. He needed to change his approach.

Since the plum blossom paw print was already at 80%, and before it got locked at 100%, perhaps he should switch up his interaction method.

In any case, after comprehensive consideration, he couldn't accept this dubious item gifted by the NPC this time.

Bai Fuling raised his hand and pressed [Refuse].

On the screen, Bai Fuling made his pixel character reach out, touching the wooden box not to accept it, but to push it away, saying, "No, I don't want it."

Liao Zhiqiu seemed a bit surprised. A small question mark popped up above his head. "What's wrong?"

Bai Fuling said, "I don't want it."

"..." The question mark above Liao Zhiqiu's head transformed into a small tangle of black lines. He then asked, "Why, little cat? This is clearly your favorite food."

"I don't like it," Bai Fuling replied.

"Do you think it's not fresh enough, or there isn't enough?"

"I don't like this," Bai Fuling continued to spin and shake his head in denial.

He glanced at the character registry and saw that the values for both the pink heart and the plum blossom paw print had dropped slightly—indeed, values inflated by a delusion rose quickly and fell just as fast.

Because such emotions weren't genuine; they were merely a preference for a race. More accurately, it was a struggle over the NPC's own internal perception.

Liao Zhiqiu stared at Bai Fuling for a moment. After a brief pause for thought, he pulled out a pair of transparent disposable gloves from his bag, grabbed the cold heart from the box, and cradled it in his palms.

Liao Zhiqiu, still very patient, held it out with both hands, his voice calm and low. "Come on, little cat. Come, I'll feed you."

Bai Fuling didn't make his pixel character move. He just stood there, repeating his earlier words. "I don't want it. I don't like it."

"Maybe the cats you've met liked this food, but this isn't what I want to eat."

"I have a name," Bai Fuling said. "You should call me Fresh Cabbage, not little cat."

"Compared to this lump of raw meat of unknown origin, I prefer cooked food," Bai Fuling said, pulling a hamburger from his backpack. "Like fast food."

As he spoke, Bai Fuling continued to observe the values on the character registry.

He noticed that every time he said something more aligned with being human, the other's favorability and the plum blossom paw print value dropped a bit, no longer floating at an inflated level.

Good, everything was just as the player had guessed. The rhythm was completely under the player's control!

However, that unknown purple value had actually increased. It rose from 39% to 41%. Although the increase was small, rising amidst a sea of falling numbers was inherently conspicuous.

Bai Fuling couldn't help but take a few more glances.

The text below the purple triangle also underwent a slight change. Those crooked ink stains squirmed, shifting subtly.

"＊Why not be a cute little cat and stay forever? 🙁 ＊"

"...What's wrong with you?" Liao Zhiqiu, still holding the heart of some unknown animal, looked over with his dark-circled eyes, as if looking at something very strange, or something that was becoming strange. "Why refuse? How could you not like this?"

He no longer addressed Bai Fuling as 'little cat'.

"Normal people don't like offal," Bai Fuling replied. He pulled out a flower he had just picked up from his backpack. "As a gift—this would be more appropriate."

He extended the small flower forward, sticking it into the heart Liao Zhiqiu was holding. The heavy, cold, dark-colored heart now sported a small yellow flower quite abruptly.

Liao Zhiqiu's eyebrows furrowed. He looked down at the heart and the small yellow flower in his hands, his expression caught in some indescribable state of wavering.

Bai Fuling saw a tangle of black lines appear above the other's head. Then Liao Zhiqiu said, "...This isn't right. I know, little cats all like to eat this. You don't like it. This isn't right."

"Why do you think all cats like this?" Bai Fuling asked. "That's not what the textbooks say."

Textbooks don't say little cats like to eat offal!

Ellipsis and black lines appeared above Liao Zhiqiu's head again. He leaned back slightly, putting a little distance between himself and Bai Fuling.

"You don't seem like a little cat anymore," Liao Zhiqiu's voice became much more distant.

"Is that so," Bai Fuling turned to Liao Zhiqiu. "Is it that I don't seem like a little cat, or that I don't seem like the 'cat' in your impression?"

"The cat you believe in, and a real cat—are they the same?" Bai Fuling pressed further. "You've read books. You know what the textbooks say about cats. Why do you still cling to your own ideas? Is it simple confusion, or is there something you don't want to accept?"

Bai Fuling input this series of questions into the dialogue box, attempting to understand all the secrets in one go.

However, it was like throwing a stone into the sea—there was no response whatsoever.

The dark-circle pixel character stood there motionless, staring at him.

Huh, did asking too many questions at once crash the NPC system? This really broke the NPC!

Bai Fuling instinctively wanted to click refresh, only to realize there was no refresh button on the game screen.

Damn, this game doesn’t even let you refresh when it freezes. Do I have to just wait it out or force quit? Man, players have it so rough.

After some random tapping, Bai Fuling managed to open the character compendium again.

The values inside the character compendium kept changing, frame by frame, only gradually stabilizing in the end.

○ Pink Heart (5%): Liao Zhiqiu thinks, how can you be a hateful person?

○ Plum Blossom Paw Print (10%): Liao Zhiqiu wishes you were a kitten.

○ Purple Triangle (43%): *** (Hidden)

"*Why why why can’t you be a cute little kitten and stay forever and ever? :(*"

This string of slanted text looked as if it had been soaked in ink or scribbled by a child. It wasn’t aligned with the system text and even overlapped with the text above, looking super weird.

Bai Fuling stared at the increasingly distorted text, thought for a second, and chose to take a screenshot.

Yeah, this is totally a bug! The text formatting is all messed up. Anyway, screenshot first—I can report the issue to customer support later.

If a player finds a bug, the game developers should give some compensation or rewards!

Bai Fuling’s attention shifted to how to contact customer support and squeeze some rewards out of them, briefly ignoring what was happening on the game screen. That is, until he noticed a new dialogue box pop up.

"Today is the kitten’s birthday," Liao Zhiqiu said slowly. "We have to celebrate for the kitten."

"You should be the kitten." Liao Zhiqiu raised the heart in his hand again, moving closer to Bai Fuling. "You have to eat the birthday gift."

The dialogue box popped up out of nowhere. Bai Fuling hadn’t closed the character compendium he’d just opened, so the dialogue box floated on top of it, causing the dense text to overlap again, just like a bug.

Bai Fuling felt dizzy looking at it. Ugh, the most annoying text overlap bug! How is anyone supposed to play like this?!

If they don’t compensate me with 8888 yuan, I’m going to lie on the floor and throw a tantrum. Anyway, I must report this to customer support later.

"The burger is the kitten." At this moment, Bai Fuling typed randomly into the dialogue box. "Let the burger eat the birthday gift."

He made a chicken patty and lettuce appear from the burger in his hand, then used the two burger buns to sandwich the heart in the other’s hand.

Fine! If something *has* to play the kitten and eat this thing, then let Mr. Burger do it!

Author’s Note:

Player: Why do I insist on being human? Because it’s fun to not act human. Who can understand my humor?