Dog Walking

There was no immediate danger in the attic.

If the enemy came looking, they would have to break down the door first, giving them a chance to escape through the window.

While watching the battle, Gaoxin quickly repeated everything he had discussed with Silver Hand.

Everyone was deeply moved after hearing it.

"I might not be a cat anymore, and I don't know whether the organizers will recognize it. But anyway, the Cat Collar is around my neck. Big Beard will definitely drag out every mouse just to find me and this collar."

"He might even let other mice escape temporarily, as long as they aren't me. He probably saw Silver Hand give me the collar."

"So staying with me will be very dangerous."

Meimei nodded. She understood that instantly.

Then, with a strange expression, she said, "You actually managed to think of all that in such an emergency? Could this be a backup plan you came up with long ago?"

"When the bald man snatched the Dog Collar, you didn't care at all. You had already thought of using the Mouse Collar then."

"And the reason you didn't let me follow you was because you knew I'd be in danger... So you're actually a good person."

At the end, Meimei smiled.

Gaoxin shot her a sideways glance. "Do good people deserve to be falsely accused and end up in this hellhole?"

Meimei froze. "You were falsely accused?"

Gaoxin nodded. "I really am a good person. At the very least, I've never done anything bad. But now, I want to survive even more."

"If you hadn't found the attic key, I wouldn't have let you follow me. Following us would only make it easier for all three of us to die."

Meimei understood. Without a place like the attic—a nearly safe room that could hide several people and allow them to relocate at any time—there would be no point in the three of them staying together. They would only be a burden.

"That guy really is insane. He gave you the Cat Collar and went off to take on three people alone..."

The three of them stood in the attic, admiring Silver Hand's fierce battle.

The plan had deviated slightly. Perhaps those two hated Silver Hand too much, or perhaps they wanted to join forces and kill him quickly, eliminating one threat before going after Big Beard.

In any case, Silver Hand had not gotten the chance to fight one-on-one. He was facing the attacks of two brothers.

He was truly powerful. Even against two opponents, he could retaliate blow for blow and trade blood for blood, leaving the other two seriously wounded as well.

Gaoxin said solemnly, "Old Cat basically has two ways to play. The first is to accept protection money from the mice, then drag things out amid the three dogs' hunt until the game ends and take 2,100."

"The second is the method I taught him: abandon his cat identity first, eliminate the strong enemies one by one, then become a cat again at the end and kill everyone."

Meimei felt fortunate. "Luckily, he's crazy enough to actually want to defeat everyone. He agreed to your method and chose to kill those three."

Gaoxin said, "He was definitely going to choose the second option, because he rejected the first."

"He even said, 'The rewards are the same, so why wouldn't I choose to kill people?'"

"If he weren't so arrogant, so brutal, and so intent on provoking everyone and challenging himself, he would have accepted our first plan long ago. So he was bound to choose the ending where he killed everyone."

The two of them suddenly understood. Indeed, if he hadn't been the sort of person who would accept the second plan, he should have accepted the first one earlier...

"And you still claim you didn't calculate all this in advance? When he broke his word earlier, you already knew he was frighteningly greedy. You knew he would choose the approach that let him defeat everyone, and this was your backup plan." Meimei smiled.

Gaoxin shook his head. "What good would it do even if I had thought of it beforehand? I didn't want to face a situation like this. I only hoped the cat would accept the first option..."

"I said it before: we're just ordinary people. There are too many things in this world where you fight desperately to the end and still fail. Someone else might destroy all your efforts with nothing more than a thought or a sentence..."

"Actually, even after he accepted the plan, he still developed murderous intent toward me. I almost died."

Meimei asked curiously, "Why did he still want to kill you after accepting it?"

Gaoxin said helplessly, "Accepting the plan didn't mean accepting me as a person, much less every detail I mentioned."

"He hated the weak. He hated even more having to follow a plan given to him by someone weak."

"So he could have killed me, then found another mouse, handed him the Cat Collar, and helped him hide. The plan would still have worked... That person might even have thanked him profusely."

The two of them were startled. Right—the person named "Gaoxin" wasn't very important to the plan.

What if he killed the person who proposed the method, then told the same thing to another mouse? If they had to put it plainly, Silver Hand simply hadn't had time to switch to someone else.

This was what inexplicable killing intent meant: Oh, you're smart, and you've made a good point, but I'm still going to slaughter you because I have the ability to.

Some malice was just that simple.

"Then how did you convince him?" Meimei asked curiously.

Gaoxin's eyes burned fiercely. "I merely asked him whether he was afraid he wouldn't be able to beat me in the end..."

Meimei nodded. "I see. With how arrogant he is, how could he withstand your provocation?"

"Provocation?" Gaoxin asked, puzzled. He did not even know what the word meant.

Meimei's mouth twitched. Then she laughed. "You don't understand it?"

"It means using words to provoke someone, stirring up a certain emotion and hurting their pride, thereby making them choose what you want."

Gaoxin indicated that he had learned something. "So that's called provocation. Actually, I was mostly furious at the time and just mocked him before I died. I didn't expect him to fall for it."

As they spoke, screams suddenly came from downstairs.

"Ughhhh!"

On the second floor, it seemed Big Beard had found another mouse.

"Another one dead," Sule murmured.

Meimei shook her head. "He won't kill them. Listen—the scream is lasting a long time. He probably broke their arms and legs..."

Sure enough, everything happened just as Gaoxin had predicted. Big Beard was still a dog... Dog Catches Rat did not kill people.

After quite some time—at least ten minutes—another scream came from the third floor.

Clearly, Big Beard had slowed down considerably in his search for the mice. It was unclear whether that was because of his ability or because the easy-to-find mice had already been caught by Silver Hand, leaving only those hidden in extremely concealed places.

The screams of the mouse Big Beard had just found and the previous one alternated, forming a duet.

Everyone listened carefully, feeling that the sounds were getting closer.

They could easily imagine two mouse players having their limbs broken and being dragged along by Big Beard.

He would drag them to another room, search for the next one, and repeat the process endlessly.

"Tsk, falling into a dog's hands feels even worse," Sule clicked his tongue.

Meimei said quietly, "We can tell Big Beard's location from the sound. He's near the stairs."

The three of them gathered by the window, preparing to escape.

Once he reached the stairs, the fourth floor would contain only the attic. When Big Beard saw the locked door, he would know that someone was hiding inside.

"Huh? Why is he going down?"

Meimei's eyes lit up. The screams were growing more distant. Big Beard had reached the stairs, yet he was going down, and he was moving quickly.

Sule was delighted. "Maybe he heard something happening downstairs?"

"Or perhaps he realized that carrying two burdens would expose his location, so he wants to throw the mice he caught into the first-floor hall."

Sure enough, the sounds traveled all the way to the first floor, then stopped there.

It seemed the mice who had been found had been thrown into the hall after having their limbs broken. They could no longer locate Big Beard by following the screams.

Sule worriedly asked, "He wouldn't climb in through the window, would he?"

"Silver Hand is still fighting, which means Big Beard is free to move around. What do we do?"

Meimei pointed at the Cat Collar around Gaoxin's neck. "Gaoxin, why don't we take this off you now?"

"If Big Beard comes up, we'll throw it into the courtyard and let them fight over it."

"I refuse to believe that won't get several of them killed."

Gaoxin pondered. "The more likely outcome is that we'd simply give it to Big Beard."

"Those two brothers and Silver Hand are fighting fiercely right now. If the Cat Collar suddenly appeared, the three of them might restrain one another and none of them would be able to take it."

"Then Big Beard, who has recovered his strength, would easily become the cat. After that, he would kill every mouse he saw. The people who had already been caught would all die too."

"Don't you understand? The Cat Collar's greatest use here is preventing Dog Catches Rat from killing people. Even if you're caught, you'll only have your limbs broken."

"And as long as I'm not caught, you won't die."

Sule understood. Gaoxin was now the "lifeline" of all the mice. If he was caught, everyone would die.

If he was not caught, then even if everyone else was wiped out, there was still a chance.

Meimei sighed. "I see. I understand now."

Sule pondered. "But what about you, Brother Xin Ku? How long can you keep hiding? There's still more than an hour left."

"Why don't we hide the collar somewhere? Yes, that would keep you safe too. If he catches any of us, he won't kill us because we don't have the Cat Collar. He'll keep searching."

"Then no matter who gets caught, the worst outcome would be broken limbs."

Gaoxin laughed. "Then why not throw it outside the walls?"

Sule's eyes lit up. "Ah, right! We can throw it outside the walls! Once a player enters, they can't leave again before time runs out."

Gaoxin shook his head. "What good would that do? The number of mice is limited. Nine have already been killed, and one suffocated in the hall's stairwell."

"That means there are only ten mice left."

"Big Beard has already caught two. Excluding the three of us, there are five hiding in various places."

"If he catches all of us and discovers that none of us has the Cat Collar, what do you think will happen?"

Sule stared blankly. Beside him, Meimei said faintly, "That would be worse than death. He'd torture us and force us to reveal where the Cat Collar was."

Who knew what methods the Radiation Users had? There was no way they could endure more than an hour.

Even if they could endure it, what would be the point? They would prevent the others from earning points, and those people would still kill them all in the end out of spite.

Gaoxin said indifferently, "For us, this game cannot be without a cat. With a cat, there's still room for negotiation. Without one, the rest is dead time—a game of torturing the mice out of resentment."

"Once they learn that the collar was thrown outside the walls, every Radiation User will think, 'Those damn mice made me lose my Redemption Vouchers.' At that point, the four of them might even join forces."

Sule scratched his head and stared at Gaoxin. "I understand. Where the Cat Collar is doesn't matter. What matters is ensuring that at least one mouse isn't caught."

"As long as one isn't caught, the other mice won't die."

"Brother Xin Ku, I'm counting on you. Make sure you hide well."

"When the critical moment comes, I'll buy you time!"

Meimei nodded beside him as well. "Everything we do is for the purpose of covering you. Cover your neck. When we have to run later, I'll pretend to have the Cat Collar and draw Big Beard after me."

Gaoxin nodded, took off his shirt, and wrapped it around his neck.

After discussing things briefly, they each stood in front of a window.

This time, however, they were not facing forward. They stood at the mansion's left side, right side, and rear respectively.

Everyone gripped the ropes tightly, fully focused...

Suddenly, Meimei cried out, "Ah! He's climbing up from my side!"

It turned out the bearded white man was not stupid either.

He had actually seen them lowering themselves from the attic earlier to deliver the collar and knew that the attic connected to all sides.

When he had dragged the two howling mice to the stairs earlier and seen the attic door, he had not rashly smashed it open.

Instead, he had deliberately taken the howling mice downstairs to the hall, then secretly climbed up from the direction of a window.

He climbed the building with his bare hands, moving incredibly fast.

If the three of them had not cautiously stood by the windows and kept watching below without letting their guard down, they would probably have suffered badly.

"Scatter!"

Gaoxin threw out his rope and was the first to climb over the window.

Big Beard was right outside Meimei's window, so she naturally could not climb down that way. She hurriedly ran toward another window.

But that clearly cost her time.

Seeing this, Sule did not jump out the window immediately. Instead, he rushed over, picked up a heavy chest, and hurled it through the window Big Beard was climbing from.

"You mangy mutt! I'll smash you to death!"

Sule kept picking up nearby objects and throwing them at Big Beard with all his strength, buying Meimei time.

However, it did not delay him for long. Big Beard tanked the flying debris, climbing with one hand while swinging a huge axe upward with the other.

"Holy crap!"

The flying axe was incredibly heavy. It let out a terrifying whistle as it shot upward.

"Bang!"

Sule leaned backward and dropped onto his butt, barely dodging it.

The enormous axe smashed straight through the roof and brought down the rafters!

Half the attic roof collapsed, burying Sule beneath it.

Meimei turned and saw the collapse, with the concrete wall pressing down on Sule. Her face filled with panic.

"I'm fine! Go on and protect the collar!" Sule shouted. He had already prepared himself to be caught, and he deliberately added a couple of false words to cover for Gaoxin.

Meimei hummed in response and climbed down the rope from the window on the other side.

At the same time, Big Beard had jumped up. He only had time to see Meimei descending.

"Still trying to run?"

The bearded white man ignored Sule completely, casually picked up his axe, and strode after her.

Like a charging bull, he smashed through the window and part of the wall, jumping straight from the building!

Meimei was terrified. She was still climbing down the rope!

"Ah!" The window exploded, and the rope came loose. Meimei crashed heavily onto the ground, while broken bricks and timber rained down beside her.

"Thud!"

Ignoring the pain, she rolled and crawled to her feet, only to see Big Beard crash down in front of her. With one hand, he lifted her frail body into the air.

"Huh? Where's the Cat Collar?" Big Beard was furious. He had been tricked. There was no Cat Collar on this woman.

Meimei stammered. Experiencing this sense of proximity to a natural enemy, she could not even form a coherent sentence.

Theoretically, he would not kill her, but being held in his hand still filled her with uncontrollable fear.

With a crack, Big Beard crushed her left shoulder.

The intense pain made Meimei scream.

Next, both her legs were kicked until the bones snapped. Her face twisted horribly.

At the same time, she understood why the mice who had been caught kept screaming without pause... It hurt! It hurt so much!

Big Beard carried the sobbing Meimei and quickly moved to the back of the mansion.

That was the direction Gaoxin had descended from, and he had just landed as well.

In fact, he had been incredibly fast this time, practically risking his life. Unfortunately, Big Beard was even faster.

At the critical moment, Gaoxin covered the clothing around his neck and shouted, "Let go of that woman! The collar is with me!"

Then he turned and ran.

Big Beard was furious, but after chasing for just two steps, he suddenly froze.

Then, to everyone's surprise, he abandoned his pursuit of Gaoxin, slung the giant axe over his back, and started climbing toward the attic again.

He was incredibly strong. Carrying Meimei with one hand and climbing with the other, he still moved quickly.

Although Meimei was howling, she realized from the situation that this guy hadn't carefully examined what the collar around Sule's neck actually was.

Gaoxin had kept the collar around his neck hidden, so Big Beard didn't believe him. He thought it was another attempt to distract him.

Catch the cat first. As long as I become the cat, it won't matter even if the mouse runs. One long-range throw of the axe will kill him.

"Run! He's climbing up again!" Meimei shrieked, warning Sule.

Because of that warning, Big Beard directly threw her down and climbed even faster with both hands.

At the same time, Sule heard the noise in the attic. He was bracing both hands against the floor, every vein bulging and every muscle taut.

"Ugh—ahhh!"

He knew that Big Beard had mistaken the collar's location for being on him. That meant he couldn't let himself be caught so easily. He had to buy Gaoxin more time.

"Get up!"

The boy was truly very strong. With the concrete wall pressing down on him, he forced himself upright and pushed it away.

Freed from the pressure, Sule hurriedly climbed down through a window on the other side.

When Big Beard came up, he saw an empty attic, and his face immediately darkened.

But when he rushed to the window on the other side, he couldn't see any sign of Sule—only a swaying rope.

Big Beard's expression turned grim. His ears twitched, and he knew Sule was on the third floor. He immediately flipped over and leaped down.

As he passed the third floor, he reached out in midair, grabbed the window ledge, and swung himself inside.

By then, thanks to the three of them working together to lead him on a merry chase, Gaoxin had gained a rare stretch of ample free time.

At that moment, his gaze was resolute. In a corner, he quickly stripped off all his clothes, leaving himself wearing only a pair of briefs again.

P.S.: Sorry.